Week 5 Part B: Learning about Facebook Data Collecting

Post Reach:

1. Reach on your posts is broken down by Facebook itself into 3 different categories, Organic, Paid, and Viral. This is important because it tracks how many people have viewed and can view your page, in terms of how many people your posts and product can reach using Facebook's built-in algorithm, the same as other social media sites.

2. The tracking that these sites do can help you see how you can improve your posts and page to work better with the algorithm and culture at large, allowing you to build further engagement with more people. 

3. I believe the metrics that your posts bring in and what you can learn from what works and what doesn't better help the business craft a better page and hopefully a better product. Because of the real-time view of your peaks and how that reach affected your engagement, you can get a better view of what the customer is looking for and thus fix your product or page to better meet the customer's interest.

Post Engagement:

1. Engagement in your posts is important because it has multiple positive outcomes. More engagement, leads to further reach and natural growth of the businesses, as well using the metrics shown on these sites you can learn and develop from what people do engage in your sites or products.

2. We can learn how to fix or improve so as to reach higher engagement and further reach.

3. Someone can use Facebook's built-in metrics to see specifically how a promotion has done, what has worked in the past, and what can work even better in the future. We can see what the public interacted with and what they didn't.

Facebook Posts I commented on: 

 

https://www.facebook.com/Purple-Tsunami-Clothing-106775132195823

 

Sources Used:

Druce Rebecca, "Facebook Post Reach Explained", March 24, 2022, https://www.quintly.com/blog/facebook-post-reach-explained

Week 4 Part B: Defining YOUR Target Market

Week 4 Part B: Defining YOUR Target Market

    My target market for my live streaming business is teenagers and College students. Younger folk with like-minded appeal and comedy to that of my own. I wish to promote the business online through clips of longer streams on Tiktok, Twitter, and Instagram and cuts of videos posted on Youtube. The plan is to promote myself to gain the attention of other streamers I watch and would want to collaborate and work with, leading to a growth in audience and hopefully breaking into other spaces like Music and Film. The person I wish to market to specifically is someone in their teenage years to early twenties with time to watch streams, play video games, and has an interest in Anime, Television, Music, and Movies. As well as someone who does or has spent a lot of their time growing up on the internet and is well versed in different cultures and communities online. In most cases, the same market that a specific television show or video game is advertising toward would be the same one I would need to advertise toward and piggyback on to grow. As I've seen in my own time spent online, the best way to get someone to check you out on Twitch or Youtube is to play or talk about a game they are already interested in. Test cases like Game Theory using the "Five Nights at Freddy's" games to grow themselves exponentially early on in their Youtube career, PewDiePie using the "Amnesia" series to grow and now being one of the biggest YouTubers in history. Or even more recent examples like Tyler Blevin's or as he's more commonly known as "Ninja" launchpadding (no pun intended) himself into stardom because of "Fortnite" and "Dream" a massive creator and streamer building himself up using "Minecraft". All of these examples grew because of the interest from the series they hopped on and managed to keep the audience attached to themselves past the relevance of the series they became known for, for the most part. Keeping up with trends is often a losing battle, however, as relevance and interest comes and go at the drop of a hat online today. As interest may start waning, the best course of action however is consistency. As most of the biggest personalities online, keep up a schedule to an almost religious degree of importance due to that being what the algorithm on most sites beckons from you.

Week 4 Part A: Defining Target Markets

Week 4 Part A: Defining Target Markets

    For the assignment, I looked at the two sandwich shops, Subway, and Hungry Bear. Clicking on both websites I witnessed an immediate difference in the design and appeal of what both shops offer. As Subway is an internationally known brand, they need to keep a very broad appeal. If you go to a Subway in downtown San Diego, it's most likely going to taste and look the same in Ontario, Canada. While Hungry Bear is very clearly targeted at Californians and has a very strong family-owned business feel right from the website. Subway has a green, yellow, and white design on each page, with its logo in the top right corner and a simple but effective menu across the top to get you to buy, order, or locate a franchise location. While Hungry Bear has the logo front and center, the bear on the California flag munching on a sandwich is their logo, and a bigger image in the center of the page, with different pictures of delicious-looking sandwiches crossfading from one another behind it. The color scheme of the page reflects the state colors on the flag, the big bright red, green, and white accenting each other all across their website. 

    The big obvious difference between the two is that Hungry Bear clearly wishes to stand out in what they are and what they are offering from the jump. Directly under the logo is a big red button leading to their menu of sandwiches, going further down in information on the location, their socials, and a review board to post about your own experience with reviews from others scrolling by. while Subway keeps itself more open and reserved in a sense of what they offer, finding most of the actual information about the brand near the bottom of the page as well, and focusing on promotions of what services they offer, like catering, new menu options, or take-out. The first thing you notice on screen is the big ad for the ongoing football season, scrolling down leads to more ads and promotions to entice you to order from them.

    The crossover between the two is spare. Mainly people who eat sandwiches, the appeal I believe is if you go to Subway, you'll know what to expect. You eat at one, you've eaten at basically all of them and they know that, so they promote themselves as safe and effective, which is the feeling I get from the website. While Hungry Bear wants you to remember them, looking at their website is very enticing looking at their about section, they say about themselves, "We offer the best subs and sandwiches in San Diego, along with salad and side options." and that statement really does make me want to check them out. "Maybe they DO offer the best subs? I should go find out for myself." And that's exactly what they want you to think about them. 

    The calls to action I noticed are that Subway wants you to buy their product and they market towards that. You order from them because it's simple and they make it incredibly easy and reliable. They are a big corporation and market themselves as such, you know what you're getting into and why you can trust them, so why not order for a football or catering party? While Hungry Bear markets themselves, they're a small mom-and-pop shop from California and darn well proud of it. Only they can make sandwiches they do, "our past customers have loved the food so why wouldn't you?", type of marketing. They want you to buy into them as much as the product they offer and it works very effectively. 

    The aesthetics of Hungry Bear are, "we are who we are, and you'll love us for that.", while Subways is, "You know us and you already love us, why not buy more?" Both are effective in their strategy, as well as, smart in who they target, Hungry Bear is looking for Californians or Tourists, the same ones who visit and want to try In-n-Out for the Californian experience, Subway wants to appeal to everyone and keep the customers they do have satisfied by updating based on what's already appealing about them. Overall, however, I believe I might give the edge to Hungry Bear and their style of approach, as just from the first look at the website, they had my attention and my appetite.

Week 3 Part B: Developing a Brand

 Week 3 Part B: Developing a Brand 

    The brand I'm going to work towards creating in the future is one for myself, I want to work on becoming a streamer, and influencer and get into the fighting game community online. Creating a logo, picking social media, and attaining sponsorships and collaborations online. Using myself as the face of the brand and growing organically through social media, luckily I have a blueprint already, and that is that my mother who became an influencer last year and has been doing great work promoting herself through Instagram and Facebook, allowing her to go on trips to different countries to promote her psychology-based mindfulness brand and therapy sessions.

    My brand is going to be based on me and my personality, as I will use myself as the face of the brand, with a logo of a cute little anime bear with the template of that one Elmo meme where the world is on fire as a background. I will grow using Twitch, Youtube, Tiktok, and other online marketplaces and social media sites to market myself and gain sponsorships with brands after reaching the threshold on sites like Twitch and Youtube for payment.

     To gain brand recognition, I will attempt to post on a regular schedule at least 3 times a week on every social media platform and attempt to promote myself to people I know, like friends and family. Using clips and videos cut from longer livestreams to boost on certain video sites, as well as collaborate with other creators and people in my sphere. Interacting with already established creators and influencers to attempt to bring in those fans, and have them check out my page and products. Going to live events as well and interacting with those in the public to boost, not just the brand but recognition as myself the face of the brand with positive interactions and merchandise.

    Merch will be the last thing on my list to get right. As seen from creators like "VanossGaming" and "Tyler The Creator", the recognition from Vanoss' hoodies or shirts helped identify other fans of his work. As well, Tyler's "OddFuture" clothing brought in tons of money from recognition as not just a staple of "Zumiez" clothing store, but cool and stylish looking clothes as well, learning the lessons from that he even ventured off to create his "Golf Wang" clothes that are still seen worn by younger people and trendy influencers online. using something similar I would attempt to learn from their past work, and history to build a recognition for my clothing, so fans have something to look out for in other people and relate in their interests or bring in more people who already like the clothes to look into my other work.

    In total, through a consistent schedule, a recognizable logo and brand through online use and clothing, as well as constant outreach to other well-known and established creators I will attempt to build myself an online business, marketing myself and my influence in the online sphere to gain recognition and sponsorships so one day I can live comfortably and own a media business to help out other creators attempting to get their start in an online space by travelling all over like my mother does right now, giving seminars and speaking to people in the public to give them ideas in how to achieve their dreams.

Week 3 Part A: Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

The bad: 

https://best-electronics-ca.com/

    The first website I took a look at was Best-electronics-ca.com. This one immediately struck me with problems and that was because of the WALL of text onscreen the entire time from the first click onto the site. There was a big logo in the top corner of the website for the Gaming company Atari as part of their full logo. But the rest of the logo beside the word Atari was in the same font and size as the rest of the page, not standing out at all. There were as well multiple different links scattered all over the page. The wall of text glistens with multiple different colors, highlighted sections, and links, jumbled all together in random order. A Random "click here" button and the top two links on the site to other pages, just lead to other pages filled with even more links. Incredibly overwhelming right from the outset. My first improvement would be to summarize, just cut out all of the unnecessary information of place one link that leads it a summarized version of it. It would help clear up some of the discolored texts. As well, break each link into sections, many of the ones scattered around, are from similar categories, so why not start there. If someone is looking for controllers, add a section of controllers instead of listing them all one by one for example. Just giving the page more negative space would help out significantly, as the page looks incredibly cluttered, maybe even allowing some pictures of the items to go along with the categories would help. Finally, fix the logo, it doesn't stand out at all besides the recognizable "Atari" name, but the words right after that just blend in with the rest of the page.

http://www.roverp6cars.com/

    The second website I looked at was Roverp6cars.com. This one had a different problem from the last one, but still quite similar. That being, I was lost right from the outset. While the last site had a wall of text, this one was a wall of pictures. The dark gray background seems like an afterthought with many of the pictures and text on the website having their own black background with red text. Many of them are not lined up as well. The entire left side is picture links for example break their alignment three times. Many of the underlined text on the screen that one would assume would be links aren't and instead, some of the pictures are. As well, two bars of scrolling text, one is smaller and a bit lower on the page, which advertises their parts and services, while the other is big and the first thing you see on the page that has news headlines. The first improvement I could see is fixing the links on the screen, getting rid of a lot of the pictures as well, and only having significant pictures that are lined up with the text for that service or part would help fix the clunkiness. Using a white background would make the page more inviting as well, and it easier to have the text without the big black blocks right behind them, changing the red text to blue would help make the page more inviting.

The Good:

• http://www.pennyjuice.com/

    The first website that I looked at was Pennyjuice.com. My first note was the bright colors, giving the page an almost pre-school feel when first stumbling upon it. I understand that the drink is targeted specifically at children, The text all over the page, while at times feeling a bit disjointed, did get across all of the necessary information quickly. The website looks very grassroots. While the navigation is simple, one page leads to the next, and the first page has the big "Order now" front and center as the first thing you see in bright red. They have their contact information on the final page, mixed with all the order details, a logo right at the top with a number to get in touch with them, and their social media feed at the bottom. 

http://www.headhunterhairstyling.com/

    The second website I took a look at was Headhunterhairstyling.com. The colors are nice and calm reminiscent of a salon, with a big logo in the corner and the taskbar being easily understandable and clear as to what each selection is. Right in the center of the first page is the big picture of a hairbrush and links to contact them for services. The page overall is very user-friendly and clear as to what goes where. 

In Summary:

    What I've seen as what makes a clear and well-designed website is, clear links and pictures, with cool and inviting colors, and well placed on the page. Keeping the text short and concise, and giving only the necessary information to keep the user experience as seamless as possible. Make sure that the page doesn't look or feel cluttered, and make sure the customer or viewer knows where to find anything and everything without getting lost in links, pictures, or text. Overall, the best websites keep everything clean and make sure you know who they are and what they do. While those with poorly designed sites, overwhelm the viewer, or are unclear in their layout or user experience.

Blog Post Week 2 Part B

 Week 2 Business Research

#1. Wendy’s

• https://www.wendys.com/

• Wendy’s is an internationally known corporation, with multiple locations in the United States and United States territory worldwide.

• At the bottom of their website, they advertise using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, discord, and Oculus.

• Twitter: Wendy’s Twitter is infamous online for its interactions with the public. Gaining great PR by typically bullying other companies or followers, and being “edgy” for the time, nowadays they still tweet nearly daily, with 3.4 million followers, however, their last post was September 1st.

Facebook: Wendy’s Facebook is similar to their Twitter, posting memes and interactions mixed with their promotions, they post on Facebook about once or twice a week often with multiple posts at once. They have over 8 million followers on their Facebook page. Their last post was on August 24th.

Instagram: Wendy’s Instagram is mostly just memes they post often once or twice a week, with over 1 million and the last post being on August 25th.

Discord: I was shocked to find out that Wendy’s had a Discord server, but it does and it has surprisingly a lot. Promotions, chatrooms, meme rooms and community “#Roast day” page, and even a music channel. The only downside is the community is clearly the one keeping the server running as the last time Wendy’s themselves posted anything was January 12th. The community however has posted on it from as recent as this morning with over 41,000 members on the server.

Oculus: As well, similar to being shocked about the Discord, the world that Wendy’s has in Meta’s Horizon Worlds app is actually hilarious. WendyVerse is my new favorite thing coming out of the VR space. Sadly, I don’t have the ability to access this one. But, if anyone out there does, please report back, as this sounds absolutely hilarious.

• Wendy’s was interesting company to look at. They interact with the public quite a bit, from their Twitter, to the Facebook, and eve Discord. They seem to have found a consistent brand of online humor that they use often. As well as branching out to multiple different social medias, they manage to keep themselves relevant and keep a strong community going. Overall, it’s a pretty strong brand, with Twitter being the most consistent platform they post on.

#2. TNL Boba Tea

• https://tnl-boba-tea.hub.biz/

• TNL is a local business with headquarters in Oceanside.

• TNL currently doesn’t have a website. To find their socials I needed to look them up individually. Their Facebook and Instagram are the only socials I could find.

• Facebook:  TNL posts very sparsely throughout the year. The nice part however is that it is often re-posts from customers praising the product and reactions to different visitors. They have 527 followers and their last post was on August 19th.

Instagram: Like their Facebook TNL posts sparsely throughout the year, often updates on the shop and new items. They have 622 followers with their last post being on August 25th.

• TNL doesn’t really post online much. They give updates on the shop and the menu, but that’s about it. Mostly keeping up with their Facebook but not much else. Their online presence could be better, but overall the pictures they do use of the products look amazing.

#3. Spirit Halloween

• https://www.spirithalloween.com/

• Spirit Halloween is an international brand that sells Halloween costumes in stores in the United States and Canada.

• Their website advertises their Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.

• Facebook: Spirit Halloween posts repeatedly throughout the year on Facebook, with more frequency going into the Halloween season, mostly promotions for products or updates on future lineups. They have over 3 million followers on their page, with their last post being September 5th.

Pinterest: Spirit Halloween has many posts on Pinterest of fun little Halloween-based items and toys, with over 66,000 followers. 

Twitter: They post often on Twitter, as recent as yesterday September 4th. Often posting promotions, new costumes, events, and movies happening in the horror film space and retweeting fans sent pictures of costumes. They currently have over 100,000 followers.

YouTube: Their YouTube page is just advertisements showing off costumes and decorations, they only seem to post seasonally, however, around often before Halloween. They currently have over 183,000 subscribers.

Instagram: Their Instagram account is mostly advertisements costumes and decorations, with promotions for fun Halloween-themed events as well. They have over 600,000 followers. Their last post was September 6th.

• Spirit Halloween posts quite often on all platforms (barring YouTube), constant promotions and updates throughout the year and especially during Halloween season. Beyond that, there isn’t much interaction between the public, except for the re-posts of people sending in costumes.

#4. HBO Max

• https://www.hbomax.com/series

• HBO Max is an international streaming service owned by parent company Warner Media corporation.

• At the bottom of the Warner Media page on HBO Max, they have links to their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Facebook: Their Facebook page has almost 330,000 followers. Made up of mostly advertisements for different shows appearing on the streaming service. Many of the comments are responses to the recent downsizing of shows on the service other controversies happening with Warner media. Their last post was August 22nd.

Instagram: Unfortunately the link to their Instagram page leads to a 404 error. Assuming they deleted the page.

Twitter: The link to the Warner Media Twitter page leads to a page that hasn’t been updated since May 12th. But, the HBO Max Twitter itself is linked directly from that page and has most recently been updated on September 2nd. So that was the page I looked at, currently at a little over 1 million followers. They post primarily promotions for popular shows, as well as updates and the upcoming line-up of new content for the month. The same problems with the Facebook page is multiplied exponentially on Twitter however, most of the popular replies are complaints based on the service and current content.

YouTube: The Warner Media YouTube page has promotions and different panel discussions of groups that they wish to shine a light on in their company. Focusing on hearing from diverse voices and important issues like voting. It hasn’t been updated in the last 6 months and currently has over 352,000 subscribers.

LinkedIn: The Warner Media LinkedIn has updates on the company as well as diverse voices like their YouTube, They have as well comments from different employees and over 618,000 followers. Their last post was a little over a week ago.

• HBO Max and parent company Warner Media don’t currently have a positive affiliation with the constant changes going on in the company. Their reactions from the public online reflect that quite a bit. They often only post about new upcoming content, movies, shows, etc. But, the comments are full of people complaining about their favorite shows and movies getting removed, or problems with the company themselves. They post consistently on Twitter, with most of their tweets getting put on other platforms after or at the same time.

#5. In N Out Burger

• https://www.in-n-out.com/

• In N Out is a nationwide burger chain located primarily on the west coast of the United States.

• At the bottom of their website they advertise their Facebook and Instagram

• Facebook: In N Out burger has posts from as recent today September 6th. They post menu updates, questions to interact with the public and different events they sponsor. They currently have nearly 2.8 million followers.

Instagram: Their Instagram is nearly identical to their Facebook, posts on updates, interactions with the public, and more events they wish to spotlight. With over 656,000 followers, their most recent post was today September 6th.

• In N Out doesn’t post to much online surprisingly for such a well-known brand. They stick mostly to Facebook, with their Instagram lagging behind quite a bit. Really, just promotions for the menu or spotlights on certain locations. Not really interacting with the public at all, but still having somewhat of a following on Facebook.