MKTG 348 Week 7: "Mobile Devices Upend Google Search"

To most, when searching for a word in Google or any other type of site, we use key words in whatever the search is. For example, if we are looking for a popular clothing store that is known for long skirts, the key word "skirt" or "long skirt" will be at the top of the list. Well, today more than "half of the U.S. searches coming from mobile devices, a search can be a spoken command, or an alert sent, unbidden, to a phone" (Wall Street Journal). It seems that we have come a long way since the first search. Now, it seems that the answers are coming from apps, email boxes, digital calendars, as well as websites. Search engine optimization seems to be what we have been doing all along, but we now have finally come up a name for it.

Google Images

It seems that search engine optimization now is less about stuffing a website with keywords, but more about opening apps to Google computers that feeds details and information. This to me is weird because it is as if they are feeding from our information to learn more about us in order to get to something quicker. This will then help Google become better and probably even more powerful. It seems that everything will ultimately be paid to Google and perhaps it is taking over the world.

Google Images

MKTG 297 Week 6: Google Ad Placement

When wanting maximum performance for your Google Ad, some wonder what is most important to consider when placing the ad. First, the user needs to organize the site's content and make sure it is easy to navigate around. If there is a messy website--it will be harder for users to be able get around and navigate through it. There are some questions when considering this. It may include: what is the user trying to accomplish by visiting my site? What do they do when viewing a particular page? Where is their attention likely to be focused? How can I integrate ads into the area without getting in the users way? How can I keep the page looking clean, uncluttered and inviting? These are all logical answers that you might want to ask yourself before moving on.

Google Images

Then, there is also to consider that you want to show off your content. Placing ads that are close to the content that users are interested in is what really makes sense. Keeping your ads looking like ads is also a reasonable thing to do because if your site is great, but you have a ad that is unappealing then you can forget it. Call them what they are--this means no side tracking with the idea of what the ad is really about. Less can be more, when it comes to the ads. Remember, you do not want to make it look very od or too colorful that might make the ad unappealing to some individuals. Finally, review your site. Take the time to explore your site and make sure that everything is appealing and up-to-date with your ads. Good luck!

Google Images
 

MKTG 348 Week 6: Inbound Methodology

Inbound Methodology is the best way to turn strangers into customers and promoters of your business. this might be confusing to some when they first read this. What exactly is inbound methodology and what does one mean by it--well below is a picture to further explain better what exactly it is.

HubSpot

Inbound marketing has been the most effective way marketing methods have for doing business online. So, this means instead of old methods such as the purchasing of ads, emails lists, and buying leads, inbound marketing focus creatively on the pulls of people towards your different products or services. By doing this, it is alluring individuals in a timely matter with this being fast and easy. The picture above have four actions which include:

• Attract
• Convert
• Close
• Delight

this means that inbound companies must take in order to obtain visitors, leads, customers, and promoters. Along the bottom are tools companies use to do these actions.

Inbound marketing have some major themes which include:

• Content creation and distribution
• Lifecycle Marketing
• Personalization
• Multi-channel
• Integration

Google Images

MKTG 347 Week 6: Personal Branding

Branding yourself--what exactly does this mean? Well, personal branding is "the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvements, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packing"(Google Definition). I think that people can take this in one of two ways; first, that you have the power to improve your overall brand weather it is personal or business. And, two, is that the social media outlet is your key component to help get you to where you want to be. A topic that I have discussed over and over again is LinkedIn. I think that we have the power to create an awareness for our brand and it just takes the right tools and advice to really figure it out. If you didn't know already but LinkedIn has more than 350 million users from more than 200 countries. Business to business marketers rate LinkedIn the top social media for delivering business to business content and most effective for generating leads. Lastly, 40% of LinkedIn members check it daily--this means the possibilities are endless!

Google Images

So, with this being said, what exactly will make you stand out from the crowd? I mean the facts say it all with how many users are out there. Lets start with your profile. Starting with a professional headline, photo, background, contact info, URL, summary, showcase your work, experience, add media, skills and endorsements, recommendations, and additional information and summary elements. I know I threw a lot at you, but we are not trying to sugar coat anything. These are things that are necessary to improve your profile that will help distinctuate you from others. This might even be the end all for a job interview and an employer is choosing between you and the competition. People looking at your profile can say a lot about you. So make sure you stand out from the others and try to improve your LinkedIn with these steps to rock your profile!

Google Images

MKTG 297 Week 5: Google Ad Placement

As I've said before, that Google AdWords is something I think is very important to understand. I have explained what it takes to create an account and the basic keywords that you can include for whatever site you are trying to promote. But, ad placement is something else that is very important. An ad placement is a specific group of ad units where an advertiser can choose to place the ads using placement targeting. This can be done as an entire website or a specific single ad. There are two ways that an advertiser can make the ad placement:

1. Placements automatically created by the system
2. Placements defined by publishers

When placements that are automatically created by the system is each publisher website make available to the advertiser a placement where you can target their ads. Then, this ad may appear anywhere on the website. Placements defined by publishers is when you actually have the ability to define your own placements using customer channels.

Google Images

Steps to make an ad placement include:

• Signing into your account
• My ads tab--go to Custom Channels page
• Click name of channel you would like to target (new custom channel)
• Targeting section, check the box
• Enter details
• Ads appear on
• Ad location
• Description
• Site language
• Finally, save

Ad Placement--Google Images

MKTG 348 Week 5: HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification

Nowadays, there is always competition to be the best when displaying yourself on social media or a resume. I can see the pressure that would be for some people, and there ARE ways that you can stand out from others! Especially in today's society, social media is a large impact on the workforce and when it comes to recruiting. One way that will help and is also free, is becoming certified in HubSpot's inbound certification course. What is it, you might ask? Well, inbound certification is a free course that has marketing training to cover the fundamentals of inbound marketing methodology. You will be learning SEO, blogging, lead nurturing, conversion analysis and more. This all comes together to make a form of modern inbound marketing strategy. Not only is this helpful, but looks great on a resume!

Google Images

This certification will help not only grow yourself, but your business and career in the future. This will help you learn how to create marketing that people understand and love the outcome of it. In my opinion, I think that everyone should try to get certified in this because its helpful and free! I would suggest to marketers, non-marketers, entrepreneurs, and students to try it out for themselves. Once you pass, I strongly suggest to add the certification to your LinkedIn since that is another great way for potential employers to view your achievements and background. Good luck!

Google Images

MKTG 348 Week 4 Buyer Persona

With information that we learned in HubSpot, we were required to make a buyer's persona. A buyer persona is sometimes referred to as marketing personals. This represents basically your ideal customer. This consists of sales, products, and services that you need to decide on the ideal customer that you are trying to attract. Some may ask why do you even need to do a buyer personal but it is very important for your business. This will help you understand your costumers. It will make it easier for you to tailor your content, message, product development, and so on for whatever you are targeting.



Google Images

So, as you can see from the picture above that when writing a buyer persona you want to focus on three things which include:

1. Background
2. Demographics
3. Identifiers

This will really help break it down for you in helping understand your consumer better. Demographics include a range of things from age, gender, income, and area. This will be beneficial to your business in finding information out. When it comes to background you want basic detail about your idea persona. Write down key information and any other relevant activities that you think will be important. It really is easy, I think that people make it harder than it has to be--go out and give it a try for yourself!

Google Images



MKTG 297 Week 4: Google AdWords Study Guide

Like I've said before, Google AdWords, is by far, not the easiest things to pick up on. I think that it requires practice and also studying some information about it. The one thing that might be daunting is when studying Google AdWords to become certified in it. There seems like there is so much to know, and so little time, per say. Well, there are some great sites out there that can help you become and expert on Google AdWords and all that there is to know about it. A little bit about the exam is that it is 120 minutes to complete the exam, you will need a score of 80% or higher to pass, and if you do not pass the exam, then you can take it again after 7 days. This does seem a little scary for some, but if you have the right study materials and focus, I think that anyone will be able to take the exam and pass in no time.

Google Images

Some information that you will obtain after studying for the Google AdWords will be:

• How online advertising and AdWords can help your clients meet their advertising goals
• Google Search Network and Google Display Network campaign creation and management
• How to measure ad performance and optimize campaigns
• Industry best practices and strategies

These are awesome things to learn and will definitely have you stand out from others when it comes to job interviewing. In today's society, social media is key for marketing for organizations and businesses. What better way to obtain all of these key components for yourself when it comes to job hunting and real world experiences. You will have the background and knowledge you need to compete with others in this fierce and competitive work force ahead of us.

Google Image

MKTG 297 Week 3: Google Adwords

When I first started social media classes, I really did not know how much there is to know. The possibilities for social media are endless, and there are so many options out there to help optimize your business or market yourself. One of these possibilities is called Google AdWords. What is Google AdWords you might say? Well let me explain, Google AdWords is an advertising service by Google for businesses wanting to display ads on Google and its advertising network. The AdWords program enables businesses to set a budget for an advertisement and only pay when people click on the ads. The ad service is largely focused on keywords that help narrow the search for individuals. At first, this was a very daunting task for me to do. I never really went too in depth when it came to this type of social media outlets. But, to my surprise, it was easier to register for a Google AdWords account then I thought. Registering might just be the easiest part of the whole process. Once you get familiar with the program and play around in it, it tends to become easier for people.

Google Images

You will want to create a new Gmail address if one already exist because it helps to have one specific email for the Google AdWords. You then go to the website and register yourself, and your  business that you are trying to promote. What is nice about once you familiarize yourself with the program, you can give yourself a set budget for the entire year if you'd like. Once people start clicking on your page, that is when you pay only when people click. Another thing that is cool is that you get to choose the keywords for that specific website. For example, if you have a website for clothing some of the key words you can have are: colorful tops, ripped jeans, cardigans, etc. The better the keywords, the better chance you have of individual's clicking on your site and promoting it.

Google Images

MKTG 347 Week 5: LinkedIn

Everyone knows LinkedIn as a way to connect to people in the business world. That these connections can lead to job hunting opportunities, networking, and recruiting. But there is a lot more to LinkedIn than just connecting with others and hoping to find job opportunities out of it. This is a great marketing tool to market yourself and all of the things that you have accomplished in your personal, academic, and business life. Some people do not realize that LinkedIn has 350 million users from all over the world. Business to business marketers rank LinkedIn the top social media for delivering business to business content and most effective for generating leads. Also, 40% of LinkedIn members check in daily on their social media account. This is a lot! Some people really do not realize what an important tool LinkedIn can be for them and potential business ventures. The following are best practices and tips for developing your brand on LinkedIn that it offers.

Google Images

Making the perfect profile is essential to a great LinkedIn profile! Here are some tips that can get you started on your page. They include:

• A professional headline
• Photo
• Background
• Contact info
• URL
• Summary
• Showcase your work
• Experience
• Add media
• Skills and endorsements
• Recommendations
• Additional information and summary elements

These are just SOME ways to update your LinkedIn and give it a "face-lift" per say. These are some great tips to help endorse yourself better, and also make your profile one of the best out there. Along with joining groups and sharing your thoughts, these are some other ways to help improve your LinkedIn profile.

Google Images

MKTG 347 Week 4: Facebook Pages

Many people often believe that Facebook is a social media page that is for young people who are always on the computer. WRONG--Facebook is changing the face of social media and marketing. Facebook is essential for businesses or organizations to establish social media presence on Facebook. Think of it as a webpage, but something that is within the page where people can easily access you and are familiar with the format. I think that Facebook is a great way to promote or advertise your business or organization. Surprisingly, Facebook has a lot of different ways and options that you can use to promote your site. The possibilities are endless, some things that can help promote yourself are through simple things like posting. Some posts can consist of: text, pictures, videos, etc. If you catch the eye of someone online, they will "like" that specific post and that can generate the post popping up in other individual's Facebook newsfeed. This sounds like some free advertising to me!

Google Images

Some people really have a hard time deciding if Facebook is something that they should or shouldn't do. I think it all really depends with the type of content that you will be posting, and also how much time you will invest in posting on your Facebook page. I personally think that it all depends on how committed you will be for your page. If your the type of person that really despises social media, and is barely on it, then I would say that this is a no go for you. Although there are many benefits for having a Facebook Page, there can also be negatives. If you do not post as often as needed, people may "unfollow" your page, which means less followers for you. You need to keep it consistent and always make sure that your page is up-to-date. You never want to be the boring Facebook page that no one likes! Give it a try--its free and fun to use.

Google Images

MKTG 347 Week 3-- Creating a Facebook Page

In today's society, everyone you know has a type of social media page. I don't care if your young, middle-aged, or older--it seems now-a-days everyone has one! Facebook, seems that it is the most popular one of sorts has expanded its horizons. The possibilities seems endless on what you can do on there. Not only can you share your personal information about your life, people are now promoting their businesses or services that they have. This is turning the way that people do business, and how they market their own businesses. For my past marketing class, I created a service that I promoted on Facebook, by adding another "page" to my personal Facebook Page. To some, this may sound confusing or daunting, but in reality, it is actually an easy process to do. The first step is creating a Facebook page if you do not already have one.

Google Images

Then, you need to create another account, with whatever that business opportunity might be. This is where things can get fun. Once your service or product is created on a Facebook account page, you can then get creative with your profile picture and display whatever it is you have for your business. Mine, for example, is a home design service called Luxe Home Helper. I designed my logo to my liking, and added that as my profile. Then, you can choose a background picture that also fits with the product or service at hand. This is the future of technology and the potential you can have from it. Once you've established "likes" on your page, there are many ways that you can promote your Facebook page to grow even more. This is called boosting--and the possibilities are endless. You can have a target market that can expand in detail with demographics. Go check it out and see for yourself! Social media marketing--the next best thing.

Facebook.com/LuxeHomeHelper

MKTG 348 Week 3--Fundraising

Finding new ways to promote a site is interesting. There are so many social media outlets to help a person get an idea or almost anything out. Technology is the new thing that is taking over in schools and in the real world. We were to find a fundraising website and sum up the article describing fun and new ideas for charity events. Mine was "Ideas for Raising Funds for Charity" which helped give great and different ideas that schools or groups of people can do to help raise money for charities. I posted the link to my personal Facebook page, to see if I would be able to get some hits off the article. The idea with this, is to use the SEO rank checker to see if the website was a popular search through some popular search engines on the internet. This is a great way that people with their own websites can control and check it out for themselves.

Facebook.com

Using this link, it directs you to Rank Checker, which is where you can see if your site was a hit on Google, Bing, and Yahoo! This was interesting because all you need to do is type in the key word (fundraising) and then type in the site where the article is located. As you can see in the below picture, it is an easy read to determine if the three websites ranked your article or not. This is something that you can always use no matter what the article to see what the outcome of that specific thing is. If you are being ranked on either Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, this is great to get data and to see how many individuals are viewing your sties.

SEO Centro  

MKTG 347 Week 2: 25 Skills To Get You Hired!

As a senior in college, it has come to my realization that I am about to graduate and be in the real world! Some of my friends who have had the pleasure of doing this already, never realized how hard it actually is to get a job. The whole point of college is to have a career right off-the-bat after graduation. That is the sad realization that I have today--it doesn't seem that way; only in a perfect world. With thousands of college students graduating at the same time as me, there is fierce competition. So, this means that what you have accomplished and what you went to college for should be displayed properly on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great place to put yourself on the spot. This is where potential employers will be able to look at your profile to find out more about yourself, and some of the accomplishments and/or certifications you have had.

Google Images

So, what are some of the top skills that were popular on LinkedIn for 2015 you ask? The top 5 of the hottest 2015 skills on LinkedIn were:

• Cloud and Distributed Computing
• Statistical Analysis and Data Mining
• Mobile Development
• Network and Information Security
• Middleware and Integration Software

These were interesting to me because they are not the typical things that one sees for skills on here. Also, very suprising that Cloud and Distributed Computing was listed as number 1! We all know that everything is digital and now people are becoming experts for the next thing in technology. Check out the picture below that lists the rest of the top 25 most hottest skills for 2015!

LinkedIn