Not Visual

Yes many businesses do much better using visual social media, especially if they have a product that is very dynamic and visual. Visual media would work well with say a restaurant or a martial arts gym because they have very visual products and coming to work creates content for a visual social media platform. The visuals of IT consultation would not generate the kind of content that brings in new customers, you can only have so many pictures of someone sitting at a computer.

Harrison Technology Consulting

Harrison Tech is a good example of the kind of slow content that can come from this sector. It has a Twitter account filled with shared articles that are tips for potential customers. The page has 5 followers and has not posted since December 6th 2016, they donated to Wikipedia. There are no comments on any of their posts and it has been like that since the beginning.

Open Spark Technology Marketing

Open Spark uses Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. The Facebook page follows the shared tech news trend and has not been posted on since October 21, 2016. It has 296 followers but usually gets less than 10 like per comment. Their Twitter page uses the same formula as the Facebook page and has not been posted on since October 21st as well. The page also has 474 followers and also appears to lack likes as well. The Google Plus page has 12 followers but no content.

Christo IT Services

Christo IT Services seems to be a lot different than the first two companies. This company has Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google plus which they keep active. Their Facebook page has 2252 followers but don't net more than a couple likes per post. An interesting thing that they did do was create some of their own tech tips to put in the regular consultant rotation. Their last post was March 15, 2017. On Twitter they have 346 followers but post the same general information as on Facebook with their last post being on March 20, 2017. This page also has very few likes on any of it posts. The best looking and most informative version of this company on social media is on Google Plus. It has written out explanations of services and other company created content. Unfortunately it has 18 followers and had it's last post on January 29, 2016 with no +1's. The YouTube channel consists of two videos from 2011 that combine for 126 views.

All Covered Inc

All Covered has a Twitter and a YouTube that they manage. The Twitter looks vibrant and active boosting 4201 followers with many likes on each post but more importance going to the amount of retweets they receive from each post. I believe that this happens because of a combination of regular shared tech tips and original and frequent content, the last post from this page was on March 20, 2017. Some of that content comes from their fully functioning YouTube page which is filled with everything from testimonials to informational videos about the current computing landscape. They kind of make it work with varying amounts of success ranging from over 5000 views to under 20. Their last video was posted 5 months ago, it has 146 views. 

What's the use of Instagram

I am not 100% sure what the best visual network would be for my consultation business. To me Facebook is one of the easier and more fluid platforms for me to work with. I feel like I have more experience using Facebook, that combined with the 1.4 billion users that can possibly see my page make it important for me to have an active page on the platform. Many of the other platforms seem to use a more specific style of presentation to cover their market share.

I believe it would be harder use a platform whose priority is text so Twitter though it now uses video the character limit creates a limitation to my ability to share complex information. Google Plus is more of a copy of Facebook, so using it would not add anything to my business. Tumblr is an interesting platform because I could use it to show the things I do for businesses and release helpful tips and tricks to help individuals.

To me Pinterest is not the place to go when looking from tech information or assistance. Setting up on Pinterest reminds me of when a truck stop has an electronics section where you buy one of those cassette tapes with the audio cord running out of it. I believe that my business would be kind of out of place on Pinterest. I also believe that putting my business on Snapchat would mean that I would have to constantly create or share content so that my page does not become inactive after my content expires.

I don't think that Instagram was the best selection but I do believe that it is a good place to start. With the use of just pictures I can show what it is that I do as well as how the businesses I work with are doing. I can use Instagram as and easily regulated foundation for me to start expanding into other forms of media.

Scheduled Later

My first post is about the tech talk going on at MiraCosta College, it would appear to be a place potential customers could go to find information about there needs. This is also a place to find young talented professionals that can manage their day to day technological needs. The second is an example of how technology can be observed then exploited by those who have a higher understanding of how to use it. Last is a simple list of things to be aware of, things that can spark ideas of what a patron may want from me. It is also a sort of call to arms for those businesses that are not keeping up with technology.

Likes

Undisputed Downtown
Popular Science
MIT Technology Review
KUSI
TED
Tech San Diego
Constant Contact

In my consultant business I would like to make the capabilities and possibilities of technology at the forefront so that a potential customer knows. I choose Popular Science, MIT Technology Review and Tech San Diego because they display new technologies that could help to advance their businesses. I would also like broadcast things in the local area so that businesses in the local area know whats going on. So for that I decided to use KUSI a local news station and Undisputed Downtown a gym in downtown San Diego where many frequent.

The last two are more interesting, TED is liked because the ideas that are on display can change and open the minds of anyone who sees them. Last is Constant Contact, which is a much larger tech advertising company that I can often use for reference and to give a full expression of what I plan to do. I would be able to use all of these pages to re-purpose content for sharing on my page so that customers frequent my page.

Week 6 Reach v. Engagement

Facebook seems pretty straight forward to those of us that have been using for a while but there are many things that will seem extremely new when trying to set up a proper business page. One of the most striking things is the use of analytics to help you excel. A couple of the metrics that are important to take not of are Post Reach and Post Engagement.

Post reach refers to the amount of people who view the content that you post. Post engagement refers to the amount of people that like, comment or share your content as well as the number of people who click on your posts, links, images or has viewed one of your videos.

It is important to know the difference between post reach and post engagement because, post reach is just a metric of all the people who saw your content. This means that  post reach has no effect on the amount of people that come to your page because they could have simply viewed the content and then moved on without actually visiting the page. Post engagement tell you how many people actually went a step further and interacted with your content or page.

A business can use this information to find what their customer base prefers. Content that has a high level of post engagement inform the business of what is popular or trending in reference to their products or services. Then using what gets their consumer base engaged they can modify the business to better take advantage of what their customers like. Then they can keep an eye on the post reach to let them know how customers and potential customers see their content. Every view is a potential like so finding out what appeals to your non-follower viewer becomes important in growing your consumer base.