FINAL

 – Dec 11 Showcasing what you have learned. ESSAY: Discuss the impact the class has had on your business and your overall view of social media.

I have always been a social type of person with tons of technical content to offer, but always fell short in my abilities to express it (or at least until know). I, like many, had understood that sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn were powerful tools and incredibly entertaining for most, but for whatever reason it never seemed to resonate with me. I couldn't see how posting to these places equaled success. What I actually discovered this semester is that these sites are not a means to an end (e.g. write this and drive traffic) but a support component that helps facilitate the conversation, a pathway if you will. So for all intents and purposes, I needed to dig beneath the layers of what’s popular on Facebook to see its core—a serious business model. So in an essence, what has changed for me is my perspective on exactly how these tools work and their social impact in the business community around me.

Here are two key points to my argument:

                1). My Facebook Business page needs to be targeted toward a very particular audience. It needs to be crafted like an interdepartmental memo between heads of departments. The focus has to be geared toward business growth, specifically social media strategies—an area of business expertise most know little about.  For example “If we collaborate together the benefits will eventually drive revenue”. I call it the direct pull method. Like minded companies will become interested while unlike ones will not.

                2). Building a Business Facebook and Twitter following has its start-up problems. I prefer not  taking years to jump start this component of my operations when I need momentum now. To do this I will personally contact the people I want to work with and ask them to like & subscribe. In return I will provide valuable beginner social media tips that are related to the home improvement industry. My hopes are to stay ahead of the curve, remain relevant, and hopefully needed! To support this statement I have filled notebooks full of ideas, spent 60+ hours on YouTube, and burned through text books to answer this question.

In retrospect, the purpose for taking this class is to shift my dependency off of review based companies like Angie’s List, Thumbtack, or Yelp and begin to drive my own traffic. The challenge with these sites is that a single negative review can disrupt your business for weeks or even months for any reason. There is no mediation for disputes thus making the customer always right. Home owners can even go so far as to use it (poor reviews) as leverage to receive free additional work.

Today, what I have discovered is that the next step is to go beyond just posting on Facebook or Twitter with words but to develop me, Eric Bateman, in a video format by providing short relevant clips that accurately promote my brand. The theme of my technical story will be filled with humor, personality, and words of encouragement. Google Blogger was the first fun and exciting tool I ran with in this class, and thanks to many the most commented on—thank you! But something really unexpected happened, the blog began to take on a life of its own and took off according to Google Analytics. This was very encouraging to me because it’s almost like living the dream when others are waiting to hear what you have to say next.

My understanding of the term Business social media has greatly evolved over the course of this semester. For one, the process of creating new content requires both computer application skills and  artistic creativity (which are generally opposing parts of my brain). In my opinion, business social media has so many layers of depth that there is just no way of telling just how far it will go. The bottom line—it’s a lot of work. In my  estimation, it will take at least six months of (daily) implementation to set it up the way I want it.

As a final side note, if a new student came to me for direction (in this social media certification program) I would suggest the following classes in this order:

Jill Ringer CSIT 105 part A &B

Brian Cushing BUS 132 Marketing; 3.0

Claudia Faulk CSIT 155 Social Media for Business; 3.0

Kathy VanPelt CSIT 137

BUS 132 Advertising and Promotion; 3.0

CSIT 120 Fundamentals of CIS; 3.0

Don Davis CSIT 146 E-Commerce and Web Presence; 3.0