Week 9 - MKTG349 - Performance, Profitability and Growth

Performance of a system is what will determine the success rate of profitability and growth. The platform must be strong fundamentally established to with hold through it all. This can apply to anything you create. can also go into the job aspect. Before accepting any job, it is fair to ask about salary. Never assume that you will be given a fair wage. The employee will try to pay you the lowest it can to save money and if you don’t negotiate you can end up working at a job making $20 per hour where as if you would of negotiated you could have been making $32 per hour. I don’t want this to happen to anyone so we need to put the fear aside and learn how to negotiate the salary wage.

1. From the beginning, the employer knows the highest figure they are willing to pay you but they will try to get you for less to save money. Whereas you are trying to take the most capital you can home.
2. Never be the first one to mention a salary figure. You want the employer to be the first because whoever mentions a salary figure first, usually loses. If asked by the employer what figure you are looking for, the best response would be: “Well, you created this position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I’d be interested in first hearing what that figure is.”
3. It would be ideal to do some research on typical salaries for the field of interest and in the specific company/organization you are applying at. You can gather this typical information in a few days and it can benefit you in the long run. This will give you an advantage in the negotiating process because you now have an idea of what range salary you are working with. The research can be done online or off the internet (books, talking to people, or work agencies).
4. Once you researched what the employer likely has in mind to other you within a range then define an interconnected range for yourself that is relative to the employers range. This way you are more likely to reach the employers highest salary offer. It’s a clever and risky task that will take some work but will be beneficial at the end.
5. In the salary negotiation, fringe benefits must be discussed before closing the negotiating process. A fringe refers to life insurance, health benefits, vacations, retirement programs and so on. So keep in mind in order of importance the fringes you would like to negotiate. Once the negotiating processes is done make sure to get the terms that were agreed upon on paper and have it signed by both parties. This is your letter of agreement. 

Now that you have these tips at your disposal make sure to implement them into your negotiating plan and get the highest salary possible. The more prepared you are with research and a plan getting into salary negotiations; the more comfortable you will be negotiating with the employer and hopefully bring more money into your pocket.

Week 8 - MKTG349 - Getting Traffic Moving

So, now that you know how to start a blog on Blogger and connect it to Google Adwords. We use Google Adwords to view the traffic of a website, or in our case a blog, that is being monitored. When starting off the blog we need to generate traffic in order for us to be capable to look at analytics.

One easy way to generate traffic to start off is by sharing the link on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Make a Pitch: Before posting the link of the blog to social media you need to generate a pitch. The pitch is an explanation of what is being done, and an invitation to take a look at the link.

Post it to Social Media: On social media post the link of the blog or an individual blog post along with a pitch.

Some social media websites to…

·         Facebook

·         LinkedIn

·         Twitter

Promote Your Post: Even though posting on personal profiles in social media is an easy and free way to share your post, not many people will see the post, but websites such as Facebook can help promote the blog for a fee. They will help you generate more traffic.

Make an Ad: A Facebook ad campaign is another way to get more clicks and generate more traffic. With the Facebook ads there is more control on who you want to be exposed to it. You can choose the region, interests, pictures, and age range. A budget will be created by yourself to fit your needs.

There you have it a few ways to get exposure of websites or blog and generate traffic to get a look at analytics.

Week 8 - MKTG347 - Your New Resume

Finding a job nowadays has become extremely difficult and to go out job hunting we need a resume. Now with the technology innovations we have experienced throughout these years with the internet finding out information about others has become relatively easier. Future employers can find out who the applicant is by searching about the individual.  This is easy because of social media; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and so on.

If google is working as the new resume then we need to be careful what we put and don’t put on the internet. In the social media and other websites where we expose ourselves, we must.

●     Edit: requires going to any and all sites that we find ourselves on, and edit what we have on them. What you have on there will leave an imprint how the employer sees you as a candidate for the job. Therefore make sure to leave a worthy impression.

●     Fill-in: any site usually allows you to fill out a personal profile. Make sure to fill out completely and keep updated, particularly on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Plaxo.

●     Expand: increase presence in the Internet using forums, blogs, twitter, and videos.

●     Add: compose an old type resume and post it on the internet where employers can have easy access to it.

Even though resumes isn’t the key way to get an employer to know you as a valid applicant nowadays, we still need to have them to summarize and organize the information about ourselves in one place whether it’s online or off.  After getting it down on paper you can either post it on the internet for anyone to view or send it to different employers and customizing in the way you feel will attract the employer to you.  

Week 7 - MKTG347 -LinkedIn

LinkedIn has been an on growing social media network in the professional world. A place where you can create exposure and online presence for an organizations or better yet for yourself. It is also a tool that can be used to create groups to have group discussions based on any matters. For example, certain college course especially in the business field incorporate LinkedIn with lectures for discussion. Although you can use LinkedIn to create a professional profile for a company or organization, it is more important to first create a strong personal profile exploiting yourself. This will be the foundation and most important part of how to establish a successful LinkedIn presence. With a strong personal profile, creating a presence for a business or organization in LinkedIn will be a much easier task. Think about it like this, a home will only stand as long as the foundation it’s built under allows it too. The stronger the foundation the more likely of success.

Something else that you can utilize LinkedIn as is a resume. That’s why this is more of a social media tool for the professional world. It will be a great tool to get you exposed to top ranked companies and organizations. The connection you generate don’t necessarily have to be for employment. You can use it to make friendships, class discussion, and even advertisement (one of the big ones). Be aware that with LinkedIn there is the option for B2B and B2C social media, and as mentioned advertising options for employment, products, or services. So easy to say that there is much that can be done with LinkedIn, just depends on the approach one wants to take and the goals that need to be meet. An adequate strategy will need to be implemented of course. 
For anyone who doesn't already have a LinkedIn account, I would recommend get on it, it is only to your benefit. Check out www.linkedin.com and get started. As for those already with a LinkedIn profile keep up with it and make a strong professional representation of yourself via LinkedIn. The fact that we are moving toward an era where everything is going digital, should encourage you to have a well developed LinkedIn profile that could possibly even be used as your resume. If you have any questions or concerns about how to use LinkedIn, you can reach out to me or check out www.linkedin.com for more information. 

Week 7 - MKTG349 - Analytics AdWords

In continuation to ecommerce analytics, I will now be talking about AdWords. AdWords is a Google advertising service provided to the public for businesses wanting to post ads on Google and its advertising network. With the program you are allowed to set a budget for the advertising and only pay as people click the ad. With AdWords you get the ease of advertising a site and tracking conversions – namely, this is tracing all things from an ad to a purchase on the site. This program is a valuable tool for online marketers, which will help generate ROI (return on investment). 

To get started and create an account, go to http://www.google.com/adwords. Once the account is active, you will want to connect AdWords with your ecommerce site to be able to track conversions. AdWords will now be able to inform you which specific ad was clicked on and resulted in a purchase, therefore ROI is calculated and we can see the results.

Next we can start an AdWords campaign, starting an account on AdWords is free but in order to get an ad to run capital will be required. Now don’t be discouraged with AdWords you can set a budget and have control of the ad, to create cliental, so you can know your investment is being used efficiently. AdWords has many feature and tools that help to experiment and find different methods to display and approach the campaign. Play with prices and bidding, use different headlines to grad the reader’s attention, and set different keywords and landing pages.

AdWords along with Shopify and other web analytics programs can help make a business become more successful. These tools make is easy to get a competitive advantage and acquire potential revenue with proper online exposure. I suggest taking a look at it even if you don’t plan on working on this particular field of work. It is can be very informative. For more information on AdWords you can visit their website or you can reach out to me. 

Week 9 - MKTG348 - The Power of Smarketing

Finding a job nowadays is no easy task and once you find one, you aren’t guaranteed permanent employment because we are replaceable. One of the best moves to help prevent such a case is to start a business. It is a risky task, which needs to be implemented properly to see real success. And what better way to start a new employment where you are your own boss, now that’s dream of most of us I would say

Starting a business can be different but in some cases it is really easy. Now this all has to do with the right approach.  Having money to invest will help tremendously, but there are other ways that doesn’t require for this luxurious advantage. Thanks to the internet we have access to many free tools that will help use start a business, especially one that runs essentially with the use of the internet as the main tool.

When you have no Idea what business you want to go into. There are four steps to consider if you want to approach this dilemma intelligently:

1. Write: Get out a piece of blank paper, and jot down any ideas. Use your resume as a tool.
2. Read: Read up on all the benefits and risks of running your own business. Look before you leap! The Internet has tons of stuff about this.
3. Explore: You want to interview others who have started the same kind of business, so you must find out what skills, knowledge, or experience it takes to make this kind of business idea work, by interviewing several business owners. Then you need to make a list of the skills, knowledge, or experience that you have. After that compare the two and finding what you are missing to start the business, you must then go out and hire a friend or helper who has those skills you lack in. This can be temporary till you can do it on your own.
4. Feedback: Get feedback from the progress in the business and analyze it to implement new business strategies.

These are just a one simple way to go about starting a business there is more to it, but this is the over view of how you should act on it. I believe starting your own business is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Yes, it can be quite hectic, but at least you are working for yourself and not making money for someone else. All your hard work will be done to install a better future.  How to Start Your Own Business

Week 6 - MKTG347 -Twitter

In the social media world, Twitter is one of the most well-known and used networks. For those that don’t know what exactly Twitter is, it is an online social network service that gives access to users with an account to send or read short messages that are known as “tweets”. Their mission is “To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.” And like Facebook, there is no right or wrong way to utilize Twitter; it can be used for personal or business use. Advertising and customer interactions have risen through Twitter as it helps companies and organizations select their audience.

If using Twitter for business like always take into consideration ROI and making sure to implement proper strategies that will help meet goals set. Some useful ways to use Twitter in the business model is by

• Posting tweets regularly on any and all matters
•  Advertising with Twitter Ads
• Answering tweets or DMs from customers
• Create trends

There are many more things that can be done; this is just to get an idea. Each business model will use Twitter in different ways depending on the goals that are being tried to be met. For example, Nike has a blog and in order to promote it. They use Twitter to get exposure. Every time they post a new post, they go onto Twitter and make a short tweet advertising the blog post. Within the tweet could be a link attached that will redirect the viewer to your blog post. This is a very easy and effective strategy. Although you may not necessarily have the need to use Twitter for business use, it is good to be familiar with it because you never know when it could be of good use. For more details about Twitter and its functions visit www.twitter.com or you can comment below and I will get back to you.