Since my hypothetical business is a relocation services specializing in helping the Chinese foreign students and/or visiting scholars to settle down in the SoCal area, my main interest on Twitter would be to follow the real estate news and activities in the SoCal region. Instead of using advanced search, I conducted a regular search on the key word "SoCal real estate" which yielded abundance of relevant search results, among which I chose CA Real Estate@DRE_RealEstate and SD House Hunting@sdhousehunting to follow because I found they both have a sizable numbers of followers and also have been prolific in tweeting, an indication that they are news worthy sources for me to retweet in future.
I also like to follow the twitter accounts where my targeted audience tend to congregate, accounts
such as Chinese news source. From my experience, I know that Chinese speaking people usually visit the online news media that is in Chinese language. The advanced search on twitter neatly provides the functionality of searching for tweets written in a given language, which I set to be "Chinese (中文)" and search for the Chinese words meaning "news". The results fields are populated with numerous tweets and multiple people. I am not interested in the tweets that simply contained the words of "news" in Chinese. Therefore, I chose the results for people that have the word "news" in Chinese as part of their Twitter account names. The two I chose to follow are the FMN 自曲新闻@freemoren and RFAChinese@RFAChinese.
Lastly, I'd like to follow some Twitter accounts that provide information for tourists, having on my mind the thought of retweet those accounts as supplement to my own tweets content. Finding such tourist information accounts was as straightforward as a regular search on the key work "socal tourism". Among the search results, it was quite a breeze in deciding to choose @visitCA and @visitsandiego as the accounts to follow for this particular purpose.
Overall speaking, I found searching on Twitter to locate the relevant accounts to follow was quite easy and often produced the intended results.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Week 7 Get Visual Assignment Part II
The two business that I surveyed for the use of visual social media are www.orbitmoving.com and www.caprelo.com, both of which are engaged in international relocating services that is similar to the services my business offers.
Both of these two businesses have Youtube buttons on their websites that link the visitors to their marketing videos on Youtube.
However, orbitmoving.com has only one video with 6:37 length posted sometime in 2009 that is mainly an unnarrated sequence of their moving services in motions with music playing in the background. The quality of the video is of low resolution and fuzzy images which make it look like a home made video. This is what I suspected about the outcome of a small business' effort and exposure on Youtube, a cheaply made and infrequently followed up introductory video. The is due to the lack of resources in video producing and content generating by small business, as discussed in my previous post about my own business' utilization of Youtube. Orbitmoving.com has no other link to visual social media other than to Youtube.
www.caprelo.com , on the other hand, has a channel on Youtube that comprises of 20 professional grade marketing videos covering various topics related to the relocation services it provides. The videos are of high quality and well directed with professionally looking personalities playing out the story lines. Still, I doubt the effectiveness of using Youtube as marketing venue. One evidence of the lack of effectiveness is the meager number of only 2 subscribers to www.caprelo.com's channel despite the obvious efforts it invested in it. www.caprelo.com additionally has Instagram button on its website which indicates it also utilizes Instagram as a graphic tool to augment its appeals.
To reaffirm my belief in the scarcity of using Youtube as visual marketing tool by relocation services, I did a search on Youtube on keywords "relocation services". The search resulted in 17400 videos, a number that is very small compared to the tremendous amount of videos clips posted on Youtube. By resorting the search results by relevance, the top videos are not even remotely related to relocation services, indicating that not all of the 17400 videos are about relocations services.
Both of these two businesses have Youtube buttons on their websites that link the visitors to their marketing videos on Youtube.
However, orbitmoving.com has only one video with 6:37 length posted sometime in 2009 that is mainly an unnarrated sequence of their moving services in motions with music playing in the background. The quality of the video is of low resolution and fuzzy images which make it look like a home made video. This is what I suspected about the outcome of a small business' effort and exposure on Youtube, a cheaply made and infrequently followed up introductory video. The is due to the lack of resources in video producing and content generating by small business, as discussed in my previous post about my own business' utilization of Youtube. Orbitmoving.com has no other link to visual social media other than to Youtube.
www.caprelo.com , on the other hand, has a channel on Youtube that comprises of 20 professional grade marketing videos covering various topics related to the relocation services it provides. The videos are of high quality and well directed with professionally looking personalities playing out the story lines. Still, I doubt the effectiveness of using Youtube as marketing venue. One evidence of the lack of effectiveness is the meager number of only 2 subscribers to www.caprelo.com's channel despite the obvious efforts it invested in it. www.caprelo.com additionally has Instagram button on its website which indicates it also utilizes Instagram as a graphic tool to augment its appeals.
To reaffirm my belief in the scarcity of using Youtube as visual marketing tool by relocation services, I did a search on Youtube on keywords "relocation services". The search resulted in 17400 videos, a number that is very small compared to the tremendous amount of videos clips posted on Youtube. By resorting the search results by relevance, the top videos are not even remotely related to relocation services, indicating that not all of the 17400 videos are about relocations services.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Week 7 Get Visual Assignment Part I
This is exactly the reason I undertake this course, to learn the new business models and the internet technology that connect people and business in a way that is dynamic, innovative and communicative as compared to the old way I knew. Social media such as Facebook and Youtube is vanguard of the revolutionary change in conducting business, while the new comers such as Pinterest and Instagram bring with them fresh ideas and features of social interactions for web users and business.
By carefully evaluating the four most widely used visual platforms, Youtube, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, as being new to the later two, I found that Pinterest would probably work the best for my relocation service business, SoCal Relocation Services (SRS).
Among the four, Youtube is the most popular platform with the highest numbers of active users. It will be an ideal venue to showcase my services with personal appearance and introductory videos. However, I doubt I would have time and resources to create enough news worthy contents to support a channel on Youtube. It seems to be time consuming and not even worthwhile to create video for every bit of service I would provide to my client. I think it is a better idea to use the embedding feature of Youtube to incorporate personal appearance and introductory videos on my business website and my Facebook business page.
Instagram and Tumblr seem to resemble each other in terms of core contents and functionalities. Both of Instagram and Tumblr are blogging sites with users' capability to post large and high resolution photos, rendering the use of them at the same time by business redundant. It is my feeling that Facebook business page would serve the same purpose as using either Instagram or Tumblr. Furthermore, maintaining multiple social media sites at the same time will be tedious and cumbersome, unless I can find a way to automatically update the content across all the platforms with one input, which I have yet to figure out.
So after eliminating Instagram and Tumblr for the aforementioned reason and relegating the use of Youtube to the secondary role as part of my business website, I focus my exploration on Pinterest, a social media platform that enables its users to aggregate their favorites sites, pages, videos and photos at one central place for later reference. It is a splendid idea, considering how inefficient, unorganized and cumbersome the traditional way of doing it is, which is adding the web sites/pages as favorites in web browsers. By pushing for the presence of my website and making it stick to Pinterest users board, I believe my target audience would have a easy time in seeking out my service in time of need.
By carefully evaluating the four most widely used visual platforms, Youtube, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, as being new to the later two, I found that Pinterest would probably work the best for my relocation service business, SoCal Relocation Services (SRS).
Among the four, Youtube is the most popular platform with the highest numbers of active users. It will be an ideal venue to showcase my services with personal appearance and introductory videos. However, I doubt I would have time and resources to create enough news worthy contents to support a channel on Youtube. It seems to be time consuming and not even worthwhile to create video for every bit of service I would provide to my client. I think it is a better idea to use the embedding feature of Youtube to incorporate personal appearance and introductory videos on my business website and my Facebook business page.
Instagram and Tumblr seem to resemble each other in terms of core contents and functionalities. Both of Instagram and Tumblr are blogging sites with users' capability to post large and high resolution photos, rendering the use of them at the same time by business redundant. It is my feeling that Facebook business page would serve the same purpose as using either Instagram or Tumblr. Furthermore, maintaining multiple social media sites at the same time will be tedious and cumbersome, unless I can find a way to automatically update the content across all the platforms with one input, which I have yet to figure out.
So after eliminating Instagram and Tumblr for the aforementioned reason and relegating the use of Youtube to the secondary role as part of my business website, I focus my exploration on Pinterest, a social media platform that enables its users to aggregate their favorites sites, pages, videos and photos at one central place for later reference. It is a splendid idea, considering how inefficient, unorganized and cumbersome the traditional way of doing it is, which is adding the web sites/pages as favorites in web browsers. By pushing for the presence of my website and making it stick to Pinterest users board, I believe my target audience would have a easy time in seeking out my service in time of need.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Week 6 Part II Elaboration on Facebook Scheduled Posts
I scheduled three posts for my Facebook business page, Socal Relocation Services (SRS), which specializes in helping foreign students/visiting scholars from China to settle down in Southern California.
The first post was an introduction about a series of tips I was going to write on living and studying in Southern California area. My potential business clients are foreign students from China who have newly arrived here and would need help in finding a place to live and in establishing themselves here. By offering information and advice relevant to the problems they face, I believe my Facebook page would attract the right audience.
The second post I scheduled was a picture of the scenic coastline of Torrey Pines State Preserve. This picture would simply serve as an attraction to the eyes of the targeted audience and as a filler between the content heavy posts before and after it.
The third post I scheduled was the first tip out of the series. It is advice regarding finding things to eat. It offers practical advice for Chinese foreign students for whom eating well would be essential task and a paramount challenge due to the difference in way of living and culinary cultures between the U.S. and China.
I scheduled the three posts on three consecutive days and at different hours of the day to just explore when would be a good time to post in regard to getting the most viewer's response.
The first post was an introduction about a series of tips I was going to write on living and studying in Southern California area. My potential business clients are foreign students from China who have newly arrived here and would need help in finding a place to live and in establishing themselves here. By offering information and advice relevant to the problems they face, I believe my Facebook page would attract the right audience.
The second post I scheduled was a picture of the scenic coastline of Torrey Pines State Preserve. This picture would simply serve as an attraction to the eyes of the targeted audience and as a filler between the content heavy posts before and after it.
The third post I scheduled was the first tip out of the series. It is advice regarding finding things to eat. It offers practical advice for Chinese foreign students for whom eating well would be essential task and a paramount challenge due to the difference in way of living and culinary cultures between the U.S. and China.
I scheduled the three posts on three consecutive days and at different hours of the day to just explore when would be a good time to post in regard to getting the most viewer's response.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Week 6 Part I - pages I choose to Like as Socal Relocation Services
My business page on Facebook is Socal Relocation Services. Using Facebook as Socal Relocation Services, I choose the following eight businesses Facebook pages to Like for the purpose of making connections and promoting Socal Relocation Services:
1. Redfin, a real estate broker that specializes in markets such as SoCal region. One of the first thing that newly arrived Chinese students and visiting scholars would have to deal with is finding a place to stay. By incorporating Redfin as part of the network, my business page would be able to offer valuable leads and insights into the house/apartment hunting for my clients.
2. Bank of America, a leading financial institution that has extensive network of branches spanning the U.S. and worldwide. A part of my services is helping the Chinese students and visiting scholars in obtaining bank account, arranging fund transfer from their homeland to here. Bank of America is a premier financial institution that offers world class international banking services, which will fit in my services requirement neatly.
3. IRS, Internal Revenue Services. Paying taxes and filing tax return will be a confusing and daunting task for people coming from China, and if left unattended or mishandled, would cause dire consequences for them too. IRS Facebook page contains up-to-date information which could be shared by my business page as advice to my potential clients.
4.California Association of Realtors contains detailed market analysis and valuable industry expert opinion and insights for California housing market. A lot of business can be gained by introducing the California housing market to my potential clients.
5. My business page also likes Southern California Weather Authority and Visit California for leisure information as complimentary news sources for my potential clients who will assimilate into the SoCal life styles.
6. World Journal is a leading Chinese language newspaper whose content can be shared by my page. University of Southern California has a high percentage of Chinese students and visiting scholars who are affluent as the same time. This is where my potential clients are and my page likes it for the exactly the same reason.
1. Redfin, a real estate broker that specializes in markets such as SoCal region. One of the first thing that newly arrived Chinese students and visiting scholars would have to deal with is finding a place to stay. By incorporating Redfin as part of the network, my business page would be able to offer valuable leads and insights into the house/apartment hunting for my clients.
2. Bank of America, a leading financial institution that has extensive network of branches spanning the U.S. and worldwide. A part of my services is helping the Chinese students and visiting scholars in obtaining bank account, arranging fund transfer from their homeland to here. Bank of America is a premier financial institution that offers world class international banking services, which will fit in my services requirement neatly.
3. IRS, Internal Revenue Services. Paying taxes and filing tax return will be a confusing and daunting task for people coming from China, and if left unattended or mishandled, would cause dire consequences for them too. IRS Facebook page contains up-to-date information which could be shared by my business page as advice to my potential clients.
4.California Association of Realtors contains detailed market analysis and valuable industry expert opinion and insights for California housing market. A lot of business can be gained by introducing the California housing market to my potential clients.
5. My business page also likes Southern California Weather Authority and Visit California for leisure information as complimentary news sources for my potential clients who will assimilate into the SoCal life styles.
6. World Journal is a leading Chinese language newspaper whose content can be shared by my page. University of Southern California has a high percentage of Chinese students and visiting scholars who are affluent as the same time. This is where my potential clients are and my page likes it for the exactly the same reason.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Facebook Insights Terms
Reach is the number of unique people who have seen any content associated with a Page (including any Ads or Sponsored Stories pointing to that Page) in the past seven days.
Engaged Users is the number of unique people who have clicked anywhere on the post of a Page.
Talking About This is the number of unique people who have created a story about a Page in the last seven days.
Virality is the number of unique people who have created a story from a Page Post as a percentage
of the number of unique people who have seen it.
A business Page owner can study these parameters offered by Insights to analyze the effectiveness of the posts and tweak the future posts according to the feedback as to what the audience resonate with the post. First, the Page owner can look at the Reach to see how widely one post has touched the potential audience. By examining the Engaged Users, the Page owner can determine if the post has generates enough interest to the viewer to the degree that the viewer will further explore the post topic. Talking About This provides the feedback as to what viewers tend to respond or comment on. By looking at the Virality, business Page owner can compare the effectiveness of a post accurately across the posts.
After analyzing the parameters under the Insights, the business Page owner can tell what type of posts, i.e. videos, photos, event schedule etc., is effective. He/she can also tell the demographics of the audience by looking into the gender, age, country and language data and see if the post reach the targeted audience. Insights enables the Page owner to get a detailed and complete pictures of the audience and to further enhance the post according to the feedback provided by it.
Engaged Users is the number of unique people who have clicked anywhere on the post of a Page.
Talking About This is the number of unique people who have created a story about a Page in the last seven days.
Virality is the number of unique people who have created a story from a Page Post as a percentage
of the number of unique people who have seen it.
A business Page owner can study these parameters offered by Insights to analyze the effectiveness of the posts and tweak the future posts according to the feedback as to what the audience resonate with the post. First, the Page owner can look at the Reach to see how widely one post has touched the potential audience. By examining the Engaged Users, the Page owner can determine if the post has generates enough interest to the viewer to the degree that the viewer will further explore the post topic. Talking About This provides the feedback as to what viewers tend to respond or comment on. By looking at the Virality, business Page owner can compare the effectiveness of a post accurately across the posts.
After analyzing the parameters under the Insights, the business Page owner can tell what type of posts, i.e. videos, photos, event schedule etc., is effective. He/she can also tell the demographics of the audience by looking into the gender, age, country and language data and see if the post reach the targeted audience. Insights enables the Page owner to get a detailed and complete pictures of the audience and to further enhance the post according to the feedback provided by it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)