In the field of online marketing and social media it’s easy to have expectations, but it is hard to achieve them. The biggest surprise to me was the amount of businesses that either improperly use or don’t use social media to help with their marketing. Used correctly it can be a free and effective way to promote a business’s brand and/or products.
Using social media can help businesses in a few different ways. Whether its a big national company or a small local shop, it can help businesses connect with customers. It can give real time feedback on the latest trends in any market. By not using social media businesses are putting themselves at a distinct disadvantage to the ones that are using it and are active.
Depending on what your market is, social media is a big grey area with many different right and wrong answers. Its up to the companies to figure out the best way to reach their consumers, listen, and make posts based on what they learn.
I attended the Ottawa Senators Foundation Soiree. It isn’t your typical networking event but I feel as though I learned invaluable skills by pushing myself out of my comfort zone.
At the event I was able to meet a few business owners (and Ottawa Senators players) who were talking about how important it is to give back to the community with these charity events. I learned that no matter how big your business is, giving back to the community that has helped you is just as important as any other aspect of the business.
I walked away from this event with more of an open mindset on giving back to the community and helping people in need. My favourite quote from the event is from Mark Stone “The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.” (with further research I found the quote is originally by Helen Keller).
I would definitely attend a similar event in the future because it really showed me the important things in life. People coming together can make a big difference, no matter the cause. They were able to raise $271,835 through the generosity of the people and businesses who attended. I would also recommend an event like this for anybody else out there.
Professional networking can make the most outgoing person a nervous wreck. With a plan in place, it can make the idea of putting yourself out there a little more comfortable. Before I start networking in person I’m going to make sure all of my social media pages are current and up to date. After that is complete I will set out on my in person networking adventure.
Online Networking
When looking over my LinkedIn profile I see that I haven’t been very active in recent months. Before meeting anyone in person I will post and interact more with the people who look at my profile because they have a better sense of who I am and what my skills are. When I meet people in person I want my online personality to match my in person one.
Most of my activity on my Twitter page is me retweeting posts from other people. Before any in person meet ups I will make sure to make my own posts so people get a better picture of who I am and what interests me. I will make my posts positive because I want the people I meet to associate me with positivity rather then negativity.
In Person Networking
This is the challenging part because I will have to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to help myself in developing new relationships. I think the best places for me to network would be through Twitter, Facebook, and at un-conferences. Due to financial reasons I am unable to fly out to expensive conferences, so the cheaper options are best for me.
Using the Twitter and Facebook search bars I will be able to find people and events that are in close proximity to where I’m located. Being close to home makes it more comfortable for me because I am familiar with the area. In turn this will help push me outside of my comfort zone as meeting people face to face is stepping out of my comfort zone in itself. Through the Facebook search bar I have found a few networking events I can attend in the next three months. I will check Facebook every week for any new networking events that interest me.
The key to networking is being yourself. It’s important to have your online personality match up with your in person one. By being yourself both online and in person you are ensuring that the personalities match so the people you are meeting know what to expect.
There are many companies with impressive social media strategies, but the one that sticks out to me is Netflix. On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram they have 55 million, 5.75 million, and 13.2 million followers respectively. That is a massive social media audience for the top subscription based streaming service.
On many of their platforms Netflix splits their content into different regions in order to share the most relevant information with certain target audiences. For example, on Twitter when you search “Netflix”, there are different Netflix twitter pages you can follow based on your region. There is Netflix US, Netflix Canada, and Netflix UK just to name a few. This allows them to post different content based on whats offered in that region. It is the same thing with their Facebook page, but because I’m located in Canada it brings me to their @netflixcanada page.
Netflix is constantly engaging with their audience on their social media pages. They recently released a show called Umbrella Academy and have been retweeting posts from followers who use the hashtag #UmbrellaAcademy. The user tweeting doesn’t have to be famous, the Netflix social media team just has to find it amusing.
When Netflix isn’t engaging with their audience, they are watching and listening. After the Walmart yodelling boy went viral in 2018, Netflix quickly stepped up and dubbed his voice over Archie’s voice from an episode of Riverdale. They even made #yodeldale so their followers would have a hashtag to engage with. The Netflix US Twitter account alone has 754,000 views
Image By: TechRaptor
Epic Games is a game developing company/store which has 2.77 million followers on Twitter, and 550,000 followers on Facebook. I believe that they need to adopt a social media strategy to help with their product and brand awareness.
On Epic Games’ social media pages they have little to no engagement with their audience. Every so often there is a retweet of somebody’s art or a video, but other then that it’s days between posts about different games. If they started engaging more with their audience they would be able to create more of a dialogue about their company and products. Even using more hashtags would help, because it would give their audience something to engage with and have discussions.
By engaging with their audience they would see what their consumers have to say about certain games they have developed. The real-time feedback would help with issues regarding their games or servers. Epic Games should use polls to see what types of games their audience prefers, or what their favourite Epic games. This information would help with their product development and bring awareness to new games they will be releasing.
Different companies will have different answers for what their favourite social media trend listening/monitoring tools are. It all depends on the organizations needs and interests. My two favourite tools are Hootsuite and Sprout Social because they are the two that I’m most familiar with. Twitter Counter was a favourite of mine but has recently shut down.
Hootsuite is a website I’m more familiar with because I had to use it in the Algonquin College Marketing program. It gives me a platform to monitor all of my social media accounts. I can schedule when I want tweets to be sent out or a post to be made on Facebook. Having the ability to monitor all social media accounts from one page is very convenient when you have several different pages to monitor.
Sprout Social is another great tool to use to monitor social media trends relating to your organization. This website gives the opportunity to strengthen the connection with your audience. They give analytics based on different aspects of your social media pages. For example, Instagram can give you information on how your hashtags perform. It will also show how many people have engaged with the hashtag and how many people are using it.
There are many different tools to monitor social media pages but I prefer Hootsuite and Sprout Social because they allow you to monitor all of your pages at the same time. Both pages offer the most convenient ways to monitor and manage your company’s social media pages.
Storytelling is very important when it comes to creating digital content. It gives the audience something to become invested with and something to follow along. Giving the main part of the content at the beginning helps hook the audience in. Following up with more details keeps them interested with the subject. By having digital content tell a story, the content creators keep their audience engaged.
My content will be story driven in order to engage my audience. I will have the main point of my content at the beginning to hook my audience. Then I will add more detail about the main point to further educate my audience about the subject and my thoughts about it. I will end my content with a question for the audience about my content. This will help engage the audience and start a dialogue between creator and reader.
I want to tell stories about personal experiences in my life and how I believe they’ve effected me as a person. By sharing my personal stories I think other people can learn from the decisions I’ve made along my way to where I am now. I also hope to talk about the NHL and give my opinion on what is happening in the league. Through my stories I want to give my audience a platform the voice their opinions on each subject.
As a child I was always trying to keep up with the latest trends. When Yu Gi Oh playing cards were popular I was making several trades a day working towards the good cards. I would do my best to convince the other person that my card was better than theirs (even though it wasn’t) in order to get a a hold of their card (which was usually better). As people’s interests changed, I would change my goals. Trading cards became Beyblades and then Beyblades became sports. I was always staying on top of the latest trends and figuring out how to give people what they wanted in order to get what I wanted.
Eventually I put these skills towards a part-time customer service job. My first job was with Best Buy and I excelled at it. Over my first few weeks I had signed up the more customers for the rewards program than any other employee. I translated my skill of giving the other kids what they wanted in order to get what I wanted into a real life scenario.
These events in my childhood helped give me confidence and lead me towards Marketing as the field I want to pursue. These moments from my childhood shaped who I am today. What moments from your childhood shaped you?
I want my blog to focus on all things hockey. From the latest news in the NHL to talking about new equipment on the market. What sets me apart form my competitors is I play both player and goalie in hockey. I’ve been told that I play both very well. This gives me an advantage because I can see different aspects of the game from the perspective of a player and a goalie. A lot of people out there grew up playing one position and have played it their whole lives. So, they may be experts as a player or goalie (depending on which they grew up playing), but I’m an expert on both.
To make myself stand out lately I’ve been getting more involved in online discussions about hockey. I’ve been making new connections through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. I also recently downloaded a social media app called Vero. Its an app focused on sharing media that you find interesting. Whether its a book you enjoyed or a movie you loved, it can all be shared on this app. I downloaded it early to get a jump on it in order to make myself stand out.
My colleagues would say my best trait is teamwork. Once I’m given a project I’m honed in until its complete. My ability to work in a team environment sets me apart from competitors. I know when to push people and when to step back to let others have their voices heard.
I want to know what you think your best trait is. Comment below and I’ll make sure to take a look at them all!
The National Hockey League isn’t one of the more popular sports leagues in the world, but it is a big deal in Canada. I took some time to do research on NHL fans and found a few interesting statistics. The average age of people who watched hockey in 2016 is 49, which has increased from 33 in 2000 (Notte, 2016). 69% of NHL fans are male (Thompson, 2014) and 68% have attended college (Nesi, 2011). They also have the highest income of all the professional sports fans with one third of them making more than $100,000 (Thompson, 2014).
Since the average age of NHL viewers is 49 years old, I think it would be best to communicate with them over Twitter. 25% of Twitter users are aged 30-49, and 24% of all male internet users use Twitter (Aslam, 2018). With Facebook and Twitter being the top two social networking sites for NHL teams and their fans to interact, it makes the most sense for me to communicate with them on these two sites. There are always conversations on Twitter about the NHL that can be added on to.
In 2016 the NHL asked fans to take a video of their favourite playoff moments and post them with the hashtag #MyPlayoffsMoment. This was a successful campaign because it made fans feel as though they were getting their 15 minutes of fame with every retweet and like. It was also easy for the fans to do because most people have cellphones nowadays. Even now you can go onto the NHL’s website and find all the videos posted by the fans from this campaign.
If you can find any NHL campaigns you like, paste the link in the comments as I would love to take a look!
Do not bury the lead. That’s the most important piece of information I learned this week. Growing up I was always taught to mention everything you’ll be talking about in the first paragraph but it was never referred to as “burying the lead”. Putting it in these words really puts into perspective how important the first paragraph is. It’s the hook that grabs the readers and keeps them reading for the rest of the post. Another important piece of information is to begin with the end in mind. What journey do you want to bring your audience on? It’s important to keep that in mind when you start your post.
As boring as people find grammar and spelling, it’s paramount to every post. People don’t want to read a blog post full of spelling mistakes and comma splices. Make sure everything written is edited by another set of eyes in order to catch the mistakes that may have been missed. You aren’t texting your friend about what your plans are for the weekend, so make sure your spelling and grammar are edited properly.
Since I talked about a few aspects of blogs that I think are important, I want to know what you guys think are the most important parts of a blog post! It can be anything at all so don’t hold back.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 