A Few Facebook Insights Definitions

Before defining "reach" it was important for me to understand another definition: "Impressions" or "The number of times a post from your page is displayed, whether the post is clicked on or not. People may see multiple impressions of the same post. For example, a fan might see a Page update in their News Feed once, and then a second time if their friend shares it".


Reach- Measures the number of people who received impression(s) of a Page post. The reach number may be less than the impressions number since one person can see multiple impressions.

- This is interesting to me because the filtering of Facebook is so complex now. Just because I post something from the Blue Moonies page doesn't necessarily mean that every one of their "fans" will see that post. So checking this statistic will give me an accurate number of how many people have actually seen the post.

"People Talking about This" (PTAT)      vs.         Engaged Users

This one is still a little confusing for me, but I found an article online that seems to explain the difference pretty well... so I will include it below. They use the term "page", but in this case, I think they mean "post".

(The following was taken from http://pagelever.com/understanding-insights-people-talking-engaged-users/)
What is People Talking About This?

People Talking About This (or PTAT) is the number of individual people who have engaged with your Page in a way that it created a “Story” that went out into the Newsfeed.  This includes commenting / liking / sharing a specific post, liking the Page, mentioning the Page in a post, checking in, RSVP’ing to one of your events, photo-tagging the Page and writing a post on your Page’s Wall.   PTAT doesn’t include people using your Page’s name in one of their personal posts without @-mentioning or tagging it (“I love Disney!” vs “I Love Disney!”)  Facebook chose to showcase this number because the Stories generated from PTAT actions drive any type of viral engagements that in turn help increase growth..

Wait…then what is Engaged Users?

Engaged Users is the number of individual people who have engaged with your Page, regardless if the engagement created a Story or not.  This includes everything from PTAT, plus actions like clicking on a post, opening up a link, watching a video, or viewing out your photos.  All of these additional actions do not create a Story in the Newsfeed, so you won’t see a Story of “David Turner watched PageLever’s video”.  The correct term for these actions is Consumptions, but you can also think of them as clicks, especially if you’re trying to explain this to someone who isn’t deeply familiar with Facebook.  The reason the word Consumptions is used is a matter of semantics – you consumed a video, not just clicked on a video.

Engaged Users- Measures the number of users who have clicked anywhere on the post in the past 28 days. They can have clicked anywhere on the post (ie. "Liked" it, Clicked on it to link to your page, clicked on it to link to that article, commented, shared it, watched a video, etc).

People Talking About This (PTAT)- Facebook defines this as, "The number of people who have created a story from your pages post including: sharing, liking, commenting, answering a question, responding to an event, or claiming an offer".

.... So therefore, the number of engaged users will always be larger than the PTAT number. What I take away from this is that Reach is the # of people who have seen your post, PTAT is the # of people who are interacting with your post in a way that spreads the word to others, and Engaged Users are the number of people who have seen your post and interacted with it in some way.

Which leads us to "virality"= PTAT/Reach

Virality- The number of people who have created a story from your post as a percentage of the number of people who have seen it.

Identifying a Target Market for The Blue Moonies

     It is with gratitude and excitement that I announce that the "business" I will be working with for the remainder of this class is my good friends' band, "The Blue Moonies". As a fan of their music and a supporter of their cause, I hope that we can benefit from each other. I think that it's important to believe in whatever it is that you are promoting and I can honestly say that some of the happiest moments of my life the past couple of years have been at their shows. I only hope that my efforts to coordinate their social media and promote their band will be successful and a positive learning experience for all of us!

     It's a little bit different trying to identify a target market for a music group, because as we all know, artists don't make the bulk of their money off of album sales anymore. More important is publicity, recognition, and paying gigs. Therefore, I think that The Blue Moonies' target market should be focused on promoters, production companies, and event planners. However, I think that it's more important that the band establish an image for itself and its fans than try to target promoter directly, because it is the fans and attendees of their concerts that actually bring in revenue. Currently, The Blue Moonies have a strong base of core fans who come to their shows, but these people are somewhat limited to those who know the band personally and who live locally (North County San Diego... specifically Encinitas). These people are what I have learned are their "brand ambassadors"and I think that there is a lot to be gained by engaging these core fans online and tapping into their extended networks.

     I've been thinking a lot about the kind of people who listen to or would enjoy listening to The Blue Moonies' music as well as what kind of niche markets are available to them. The Blue Moonies' music is a mix of reggae, funk, rock, and soul... the kind of music that appeals to a wide age range (with several classic covers) and encourages audience participation. It's the kind of music that makes you smile, get up and move, and boogie. Something somewhat unique about their music is its appropriateness for any age range. Their songs don't include profanities and their shows are often frequented by their music students who range in age from 12-18. That being said, I think that their most lucrative market would come from targeting young adults, ages 21-35 who enjoy live music and frequent festivals, bars, and clubs. Since their music is more classic than trendy, I think that appealing to the "anything goes" lifestyle of their local North County and beach community for following is smarter than trying to directly target radio stations and recording companies.

    So who are these 21-35 year old and what do they do/enjoy? These individuals enjoy local music and have at least some disposable time and income for live events. They are equally men and women, and they are located in the North County San Diego area... specifically Encinitas, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Leucadia, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista, Carlsbad, and Vista. They spend their time frequenting bars, the beach, shows, microbreweries, and outdoor events like street fairs, farmer's markets, artwalks and festivals. Most of them are probably single or not too settled and in a phase of life where socializing and going out is still a frequent activity. Since 21-35 year olds are well within the digital era, these people are probably active or at least familiar with social media. They are likely to have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and Pinterest accounts as well as other various social networking tools. They are used to being able to access music for free and finding information digitally.

     Earlier I mentioned that the true gatekeepers to The Blue Moonies' success lies in the hands of event organizers and promoters who will book the band for events. Therefore, I think that some of their marketing needs to be aimed at local bars, city event planners, concert halls (i.e. The Belly Up Tavern), and any other business that has a cabaret license and host live music. Most of these people/places have private promoters who recruit for them and they spend their time looking for local talent on social media sites and at other live events.

    As I continue to talk with the band, I am sure that our target market will become more clear, but for now, this should give an outline of where to get started. Still, I welcome any input or suggestion so post a comment!

Website Aesthetics and Design

It's interesting to think about website aesthetics and design from the standpoint of a consumer. I know when I am put off by a website either because it doesn't load fast enough or there is just too much clutter, but this assignment really made me think about what it is that draws me into a website. I guess I am a bit of a lazy internet users so I don't go to too many different websites, but when I am information seeking I am always relieved to use a site that is intuitive. 

Apple.com (Positive)

I think that Apple.com has a particularly effective website because it is organized, intuitive, and easy to navigate. It provides a lot of information without being overwhelming, because it anticipates its users needs. The first thing that I noticed about the main webpage is its simplicity. The background is white which I still associate with many apple products and it allows their print which is limited to shades of grey and black to stand out without overshadowing the advertised product. The product that they are promoting at the moment is the ipad Mini and on the front page, it is almost the only thing that shows color. That draws attention to the vibrancy of their product. Another thing that I noticed was that the apple symbol is always present in the top left corner on every page along with its main navigation bar, which stretches across the top of each page. As expected, there is also a search box in the top right corner for those who don’t want to scroll through the site for what they are looking for.

            Apple’s aesthetics speak to a target audience that wants their search for a product to be a similar experience to using an apple product. They want it to organize their goals (to buy an apple product), to have the experience be as easy and intuitive as possible, and to do as little work as possible to achieve what they want. In this case, it means not having to search through a bunch of text or competing images. Apple does this initially by providing their main navigation bar at the top of every screen and then providing images of more specific products directly below. For instance, if I am looking for a Mac, and I click on the Mac icon in the top navigation, it immediately brings me to a page where directly below my mouse are pictures and classifications of the different kinds of Macs offered. If I know what kind of Mac I am looking for, I can navigate to the next level of decision making by clicking there. If not, my eye will naturally wander to the large promotional type of Mac that they show directly below their standard products. Navigating the Apple site makes it easy to learn more about their products and get a feel for what their brand is all about.

Swagelok (Negative)

Swagelok has done a lot of things right on their website, but there are some potential problems that I have identified for users:

1.     1. The scrolling secondary navigation bar, while engaging, is confusing because just as I started trying to read the screen, it would switch! I found my attention drawn to the tiny print below the scrolling part where it gives a dry description of the company, just because the stuff above was so frenetic. This could be improved if placing ones cursor over the scrolling part would cause it to pause or if there were a pause button on it. The problem could also be ameliorated by doing away with the auto scroll all together… the tabs are there. If I am interested I will click on them.

2.   2.  There is simply too much information on the main page. It seems as though they offer at least 3 different ways on the opening page for how to reach their product line (along the top, under quicklinks and tools, in picture advertisements below that, plus a search bar). While this might seem to make the website dummy proof, I felt like I was being spammed from every angle. In the words of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, “Do less!”.

3.   3.   Finally, I found the text to be too small and there to be too much of it in relation to their photos. People don’t want to have to work so hard to learn about a company and their services. Perhaps this is more annoying to me because it seems that the website is more geared towards Business to Business interactions and not to the average consumer, but unless I was being paid by a company to research their and competitor’s products, I wouldn’t read that much about it.

Richsoil.com (Permaculture Articles By Paul Wheaton) (Negative)

          From what I can tell, this website is mainly a blog, but it’s not clear to me what its purpose is immediately by looking at the home screen. All I see is a lot of Times New Roman text in paragraph form with titles that make it difficult to understand what the particular blog post is about without reading further. In addition, I don’t like how the navigation bar is on the left side leaving the header of the page to be filled by an advertisement for advertising through Google. In addition, the different “articles” are the first things to be listed down the side and what is really the “main page” or “permaculture articles” is listed midway down the front page. Although the title “permaculture articles” is at the top left corner, it is in the same boring font as the rest of the content and does not function as a link to the main page. It is unclear to me what the purpose of this website is… I think I would have to already know what I was looking for and be linked directly to the page I needed on the site to find anything. The aesthetics are boring with regard to color and font and the images look like the kinds of stock jpegs that come included in a basic Word package.

            To improve this site, the owner needs to seriously rethink what the focus is of their website. It seems that this Paul Wheaton is a source for recommending “experts” on various permaculture activities, but I want to know who he is. He needs to have a page that says who he is, why he is qualified, what the purpose of his site is, and why it is helpful. I also think that a more simplistic and hierarchical navigation panel would be helpful. More authentic and engaging graphics would be helpful and links to social media would perhaps give consumers a hint as to how to absorb the information. For example, if I knew that I could “follow” Mr. Wheaton and that he would tweet links to articles, then I wouldn’t have to search his site for what I want (and don’t want). It would just come to me.

Toyota.com (Positive)

            My first reaction to the front page of this website is positive because it is engaging without being overwhelming. The brand logo is at the anticipated top left hand corner spot and then reaching out to its right is a toolbar that provides a search for a specific vehicle, help to find a dealer, shopping tools, a search bar, and even an option to view the page in Spanish. Something I also like about the front page is the footer which they call “Shop Assist” so I automatically would know where to go if I am in the market for a new car… a clear call to action. The color scheme is simple and the picture of the woman at a desk ready to assist me feels a lot like the experience I would expect to have if I were to walk into one of their dealerships… very personal. The “Explore” feature slightly further down the page is well organized with inviting pictures and unlike the Swagelok site, there isn’t too much text to burden my browsing. 

Company's that use social media

1. Aztec Brewing Company
www.aztecbrewery.com
Uses: Facebook, Twitter, Google + (Why isn't there a link to our Yelp profile?)

2. Chapman University
www.chapman.edu
Uses: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, iTunes U, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google +

3. Encinitas Surfboards
www.encinitassurfboards.com
Uses: Facebook, Tumblr, Yelp, Twitter, Google +

4. Yoga Six
www.yogasix.com
Uses: Facebook, Twitter, YouTue, Pinterest, LinkedIn

5. The International Positive Psychology Association
www.ippanetwork.org
Uses: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Communicating with Businesses

So I was struggling all of last week to think about a time when I have used social media to try to communicate with a business. I think that it's safe to say that we have all had a point at which it's been difficult to make contact through traditional methods... the perfect example being the DMV. One experience that I would like to share where I had difficulty was when I was trying to figure out how to keep one of my student loans from defaulting because I had no record of statements telling me that my loan was due. I had taken a semester away from school and was apparently supposed to do something called "loan exit counseling", which had never been done. I had a terrible time trying to figure out how to fix the problem because the finance aide office was telling me one thing and the company with whom the loan was through was telling me another. Not to mention the fact that the loan company was based on the east coast so their hours were different and it was difficult to get through to a live person. It took 3 days of being on the phone, keeping records of exactly what had been done with each new agent that I talked to and cross referencing with my school. I'm not sure how this could have been better handled by social media because it was between the two institutions (Chapman and the loan company), but I know that I found myself frustrated by the long wait times, changing agents I talked to, and inauthentic script that I was lead through.

     Now onto my good experience. Over the weekend I noticed that my internet was not working. I immediately dreaded having to go through the process of finding a contact number for AT&T customer service and expected that it would take me a good half an hour to an hour to just get the problem sorted out. Luckily, there was a troubleshooting page that helped to diagnose the problem and when resetting the proxies and then the router didn't work, it offered to allow me to "Live Chat" with an agent. I should mention that the only reason that this worked is because I was able to use my next door neighbor's working internet to communicate while running back to my own apartment to check on things. I'm not sure that it would have worked over my iphone. The representative was obviously a live person and even though I was definitely being taken through a script, they were able to determine that I would need to be sent a new router and answered all of my questions. Even now as I write this, I wonder if their search engines will see that I used the company name and locate this unofficial review. Powerful stuff. I liked the immediacy of the live chat and I also liked that the troubleshooting data was already in front of the agent when we began talking. I still think AT&T is overpriced and wonder if the "self install" of my router is going to require me to have another chat session, but at least the issue is in the process now of being resolved. I can see how feeling heard and responding to problems quickly is important.

Personal vs Professional

So I realize that this is coming in a little late, but I still wanted to make sure that I made the post regarding which social media platforms seem geared more towards professional and personal use. Well obviously LinkedIn is geared more towards professional use, but I think that it is probably more useful for personal rather than corporate use. That is, companies represent themselves on LinkedIn as well as individuals, but from what I have seen, it seems like LinkedIn is more useful for personal networking than for connecting with businesses. Facebook started for more personal use, but is now used by lots of companies. I think that what Zuckerberg calls "the open web" where just about anything online can be "like" or commented on using ones Facebook account is a super powerful tool for businesses. When it comes to Twitter, I think it is most powerful for professional use. Sure, people use it to power blast their opinions and daily whereabouts, but frankly, I find that to be narcissistic. I mean, who cares? Still, I have used Twitter and Tweetdeck for news and like that it brings stuff that I am interested in and subscribe to to me.

      There are many other social media platforms out there, but instead of laboriously working through every one that I can think of, I will say this: I think that that platforms in general facilitate group conversations and discussions. Those platforms that are more based around individual profiles and people seem to be more geared towards personal use. Those that after more based around products, social issues seem more geared towards professional use.

Choosing a Template

     Greetings fellow bloggers! My name is Sarah Kawai and I am taking a class on using social media for business. This will be my first real experience with keeping a blog and hopefully will outline the things that I learn along the way. Our first assignment was to choose a template and explain our rational for our choice, so here goes....

      For now there isn't too much rhyme or reason for my choice of blog template. Since I'm not sure what purpose my blog will serve yet, I am hesitant to make it too stylized or complicated lest I decide to change it again once my vision becomes more clear. Therefore, I just used the "simple" template and chose the teal blue color spectrum because I personally like the color teal and I felt that it gave the blog a clean and easy to read feel. I feel like colors along the blue scale as well as simple font like "Arial"are reminiscent of Facebook's theme which I have always admired. I am holding off on adding any personal pictures besides the one that I am using for my profile, again, because I am not sure what goal I have for this blog yet.

     I am considering using this blog for a trial run of a blog for the Western United States Academic Community of the International Positive Psychology Association that I am helping to get started right now though. If that is the case, I will likely look into using our logo and a color scheme that is reminiscent of the one used by IPPA's (International Positive Psychology Assoc) main site. In that case, I will want to develop a more professional, academic feel for the blog, but how to do that, I am still not sure.

     From our reading I understand that it is important to let your own personality and authenticity come through. As I continue to post and work on this thing, I expect to find ways to incorporate more of my own flair, but in general I like to err on the conservative side when it comes to online stuff. I worry that you can always put things up, but never take them down. What do you think?