Analytics for Social Media

Over the course of applied social media in business, I have discovered a variety of social media tips and tricks.  The area that stood out to me and helped me gain a better understanding of business social media is the analytics portion that’s available on social media platforms.

Each platform discloses a range of analytics that is available at your fingertips. This is a wealth of information on how your page and posts are performing. This provides data on impression clicks, and social actions, it also calculates each post clickthrough rate. You can measure your post success or failure.

If your posts aren’t performing where you want it to be, you can pay a fee to increase visibility. You control the target by setting characteristics on people you want to target. This will assist you targeting the specified audience that you want to target for your product or service.’

Other ways to learn more about your social media performance is monitoring your follower count. By reviewing the percentage that they have increased from month to month.  On LinkedIn, under the “Follower” section of your analytics, it will display your followers’ demographics by the top job function. By understanding your job functions, you can modify your posts to these audiences to gain more engagement with your followers.

Developing A Professional Network

My parent strategy for developing a professional network online is LinkedIn. I use LinkedIn to build my professional network and connect with users. My goal is to build my network out in the industry that I am in, which is the human resources field. Whether that being employees who work at my organization and/or work in that same industry as me. LinkedIn is a great tool to easily connect with users quickly on a global scale.   

Other online networks that I use is Facebook, I would say that this is more of a personal connection than LinkedIn and I tend to limit my followers more on this platform than LinkedIn because I will share more personal posts about myself. I will share and engage more on this platform than any other social media platform.

LinkedIn and Facebook are great platforms to expand your network online, I just feel that each platform is used in a different way. LinkedIn is a resume database for recruiters and Facebook is used for connecting with family and friends.  

To develop my professional network in person is focusing on in person events such as attending job fairs to build out my professional network and work-related events. At my work during my lunch break, I tend to try and network with as many different staff members on site to build out my network.

Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

My goal in the next 6 to 12 months is to focus on attending in person events. Expand my network by continuing to make those in person connections. In the last 2 years we’ve been restricted to only online events, and we have missed out on those face-to-face interactions, that are so crucial to build those deeper connections. I will continue to attend work related events and job fairs to build those in person connections.  

Blog Post #2 – Strong and Weak Organizations

My focus for this assignment is three Fast Food social media pages: Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Dairy Queen. Wendy’s has a social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They tend to have a larger following on Twitter and this account tends to be their main account for posting. When exploring their Twitter posts, they will post and create their own content, also they re-post other users tweets to engage with their audience. 

Some people have called Wendy’s account savage and they are not afraid to roast people and/or organizations. Ultimately, they are getting people talking about them and this creates buzz. 

Taco Bell social media content is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They have a larger following on most platforms than Wendy’s but their posts don’t tend to get as much traction as Wendy’s. Taco Bell posts videos and pictures, where they don’t tend to repost or comment on other people’s or organizations posts. Where Wendy’s does a superb does at this!

This makes them have a strong social media strategy as they are focusing on one platform and creating lots of engagement with their followers.

The organization that needs to adapt to a social media strategy is Dairy Queen. There posts don’t seem to be consistent, they aren’t doing a good job at creating brand awareness. On Twitter they haven’t posted since August, where their competitors in the fast-food industry are posting at least every 3 days. They can adapt a better social media strategy by posting more frequently and perhaps, choosing on platform to gauge more with their audience.

All three organizations do not have a dedicated LinkedIn platform, it looks like only certain fast food locations do. LinkedIn platform is mostly a B2B and not B2C, therefore it doesn’t make sense for those organizations not to have a social media presence on LinkedIn. 

Top Social Media Listening/Monitoring Tools and Best Sources of News

Social media listening and monitoring tools assist organizations by helping them gain a better understanding of the conversation surrounding them. They provide insights on data about your brand and the products and services your business offers, by measuring their brand awareness.

My two favourite social media trend listening/monitoring tools are HubSpot Social Media Management Software (HSMMS) and Hootsuite.

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Both platforms are used to assist organizations overall marketing strategy. HSMMS allows you to keep detailed records of your customer’s journey from start to finish and Hootsuite solely focuses on social media management and marketing.

Personally, I have not used HSMMS but after reading up on the different functions it entails, it is impressive. HSMMS HubSpot’s analytics appear to be more detailed than Hootsuite’s. They are the top-rated customer relationship management tool on most sites. The downside of this platform is that it costs significantly higher than other tools. Either HSMMS or Hootsuite would provide tremendous value to an organization, it is just depending on the companies needs.

The two best sources of news and updates that interest me are Reddit and LinkedIn. These two platforms, I have spent a lot of time on and enjoy reading thru the content. For Reddit, it works off an upvote system, where a post can move towards the top of the site based on how many people approve of the content. This is called an upvote and you can also downvote a post.

For LinkedIn, the homepage features a top list of news stories, these articles tend to lean towards the business industry and this is an industry that I am very passionate about.

Blog #2: Storytelling and Communication Style

The history of storytelling has evolved throughout the years and simply begins from humans’ drawings on walls of caves, which quickly transformed in to written content. Storytelling is a form of communication of which there are different forms, including oral, narrative, music, and dance. These methods have been used for communicating and sharing ideas. 

Storytelling is viewed as an important way of communication. The written content of storytelling is a method that is used to reach millions of people and this is a common form of communication, this can be found on the World Wide Web where individuals can easily access information instantaneously. 

In order for Storytelling to be successful, we must understand the basic communication styles. Firstly, you want to design your content to be clear and concise from beginning to end. Secondly, your grammar, spelling and punctuation must be precise. Thirdly, you must focus on your writing style from passive versus an active voice. Lastly, it is known that the more that you practise the better that you will become.  

To engage your audience, you want to ask your audience a specific question or leave them with an experience of connectivity. You want to portray the information in the correct order, the critical information will be going at the top. This is to ensure that you do not keep them hanging and they understand the message that you are trying to portray right away

Blog #2: Storytelling and Communication Style

The history of storytelling has evolved throughout the years and simply begins from humans’ drawings on walls of caves, which quickly transformed in to written content. Storytelling is a form of communication of which there are different forms, including oral, narrative, music, and dance. These methods have been used for communicating and sharing ideas. 

Storytelling is viewed as an important way of communication. The written content of storytelling is a method that is used to reach millions of people and this is a common form of communication, this can be found on the World Wide Web where individuals can easily access information instantaneously. 

In order for Storytelling to be successful, we must understand the basic communication styles. Firstly, you want to design your content to be clear and concise from beginning to end. Secondly, your grammar, spelling and punctuation must be precise. Thirdly, you must focus on your writing style from passive versus an active voice. Lastly, it is known that the more that you practise the better that you will become.  

To engage your audience, you want to ask your audience a specific question or leave them with an experience of connectivity. You want to portray the information in the correct order, the critical information will be going at the top. This is to ensure that you do not keep them hanging and they understand the message that you are trying to portray right away

COM0014 – Blog #1: Travelling to Mexico

To escape the long Canadian winter months, last year in January 2020, we decided to travel to a sunset paradise and selected to travel to Maya Riviera, Mexico. We travelled to this destination for a miraculous 10 day vacation…

Photo Captured in Mexico

This is my second time travelling to Mexico, but my first time travelling to the beautiful Maya Riviera. We stayed at the Grand Sunset Princess Platinum Suites, a five star resort. This was unlike any of the previous vacations that I have taken. (This was a rather very different experience considering my previous stays abroad were typically in Hostels). This was a very luxurious hotel with over 16 swimming pools with the inclusion of 15 restaurants and bars.

At Grand Sunset Suite, we indulged in A La Cartes, which included three to five course meals.

Here are some snapshots of the meals that we indulged:

PS. Yes, the second photo is an octupus that they cooked right in front of us!!!

With pristine white sand beaches, glittering turquoise waters, and colourful sunsets, Maya Riviera is one of Mexicoès finest holiday destination. In the past, I have travelled to over 40 countries and the intention of this trip was all about relaxation. This included plenty of sun bathing, lounging by the beach and reading many books. We even made some new friends by the beach….

Monkeys in Maya Riviera, Mexico

If you’re still deciding which location to visit in Mexico, I’d highly recommend you stay at the Grand Sunset Princess Platinum Suites. There are plenty of restaurants, daily entertainment and tons of room for you to lounge and enjoy the sun on the beach. If you are feeling a little luxurious you can even upgrade to platinum services. This service includes high quality added amenities and exclusive access to beach areas. This involves plenty of perks and allows you to even get beach chair service of endless beverages!

Have you been to Mexico before? What is your favourite to travel?

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Is Facebook hiding # of likes too?

First Instagram, now Facebook? Yes, the rumors are true. Facebook will follow in Instagram steps by hiding the number of likes on users’ posts. Facebook mentioned that removing the number of likes from users view is an attempt to reduce social pressure among users.

Facebook officially started hiding likes in Australia on Friday, September 27, 2019 and are possibly looking at expanding in to other Countries. Only the post’s author will be able to see how many likes and reactions they have received.

Users can still see that people have reacted to the post along with a few names who have liked it. The number of comments will be displayed and visible as well as shown below.

Facebook’s new hidden like feature

Wait a second, this is a very similar to Instagram’s format.

Instagram’s new like feature

For Facebook and Instagram, the goal is to evaluate the quality of the content posted, rather than view how many likes the user received. This is a step in the right direction for both accounts because this will allow users to stop comparing themselves to one another and possibly eliminate insecurities if their posts don’t get as many likes. Also, this might eliminate users from deleting posts if they don’t get as many likes.

Facebook follows Instagram and removes the # of like feature.. Here’s why http://bit.ly/2VXvY2w

Facebook removes the # of like feature.. http://bit.ly/2VXvY2w #facebookremoveslikes #whyfacebook

Instagram’s Following Activity Tab Disappears

Did you notice that Instagram removed its “following” activity tab last week? I did! Instagram announced that they are going to be removing the “following” activity tab last week and then that same day the tab was removed from the Instagram App.

http://bit.ly/2J99ruD

“You can no longer see your friend’s activity on Instagram! “

The “following” activity tab was implemented to see your followers activity and this would allow you to grow your network. Now, you will notice that the “NEW” version of the heart tab will only show your activity.  

http://bit.ly/2qi1HQh

Vishal Shah, Instagram’s head of product, told BuzzFeed News that, “It wasn’t a feature people used frequently and that the company suspected many users didn’t know it existed. And for those that did, it was often a source of unwelcome surprises.”

Shah continued, “People didn’t always know that their activity is surfacing. So you have a case where it’s not serving the use case you built it for, but it’s also causing people to be surprised when their activity is showing up.”

However, the main reason behind the removal of the tab feature is not to do with discomforting Instagramers around the world, but it has to do with simplicity. They wanted to make the App more simple for users.

What other changes is Instagram making?

In the upcoming years, Instagram users can expect more changes for the platform, including a separate Instagram Direct Message App called Threads.

In addition, Facebook is looking at integrating the messaging services of Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Messaging is the fastest growing method of online communication and businesses are coming up with ideas to grow with this industry.  

Instagram’s activity feed vanishes, here’s why http://bit.ly/2VHbcEi #instagramchange #whyinstagram

Instagram deletes followers activity feed http://bit.ly/2VHbcEi #instagramchange #whyinstagram #followersactivityfeed