Finishing Up, but Looking Ahead

This week we went over our final two topics for the semester.  We learned more about link building and Google Analytics.  There were some interesting things to learn, and it helped me remember the importance of looking outside of my business.

Working on the link building assignment was good for me, because I had to consider my interaction with other businesses and organizations.  It was different than just focusing on my business, as I usually do.  Working with other organizations to link to and from our websites can be mutually beneficial.  Rather than thinking competitively, as I usually do in regards to business, it was good to think about how I can work with others and benefit them.  It reminds me of being a good person, and looking around for ways to help others, which always helps me feel better.

Learning more about Google Analytics was very interesting.  It reminded me that, although the class is coming to an end, I still have a business up and running, and there is a lot of room for improvements.  There are so many things I can do to continue optimizing my website and growing my business.  I can grow it as much as I want if I continue to work on it after the class is over.

Overall, this week has been good to think about my business in perspective of my life, rather than just a college class.  I have to determine my long term goals, how my business will interact with others, and what kind of business owner/partner I want to be.

The Impact of Social Media

This week we spent time learning about social media and how it has impacted advertising for businesses.  It has been interesting to reflect on social media and how it has impacted life over the last decade.  I had the opportunity to reflect on my usage of social media, and how I evaluate businesses based on what I see while using it.

The most important thing I learned this week is the importance of social media on people’s opinions.  Considering the previous powerhouses of advertising, and the fact that they’ve lost popularity over time, it is important to consider what they have been replaced with.  People spend a large amount of time on social media, and they communicate with friends who share the things they are interested in.  These things make social media a great place to advertise my business and products. 

As I’ve seen in previous weeks, being considerate of what customers want is critical to be successful.  This is true with social media as well.  What will catch people’s attention, and more importantly, what will make people want to share with others.  Getting your social media posts shared is the goal of a social media campaign.  When people choose to share your posts, their friends that see them are more likely to pay attention and trust your business.  Getting customers to share their recommendations with their friends is an amazing boost to a business and is advertising that doesn’t cost a penny. 

Social media can’t be ignored in today’s culture.  As a business, you have to decide whether or not to be a part of it.  And, if you choose to be a part of it, there needs to be a strategy.  However, if you have a good strategy, a small advertising budget can go a long way; All the way to success!

Optimization and Understanding

Our lessons this week were titled Landing Page Optimization and Website Optimizer, and Basic SEO.  It was an interesting opportunity to review an actual landing page and proposed ad other than our own.  Also, it was good to learn more about how search engines on the internet function and how we can revise our website to benefit from that knowledge.

It was a good activity to evaluate a website other than my own.  I have been very focused on my own site and products, and how I need to improve my ads and landing page.  It feels overwhelming and is always focused on what I don’t know, or haven’t done.  Going through the evaluation of a different site allowed me to focus more on how much I have learned.  It was an opportunity to reflect on how much more I understand now than I did previously.  Also, it was helpful to see what differences there were in my findings from my peers. 

Learning more about how search engines work was a good exercise as well.  It was interesting, and allowed me to make a lot of improvements to my website.  Especially learning about how search engines determine value of a site and prioritize it over others.  It was a good reminder that the more I understand about how something functions, the better I will be at using it to get the best return.  I think that going forward, in whatever path I choose to take, this will be an important lesson for me to remember.

Return on Investment and Optimization

This week I looked at my Return on Investment for the marketing campaign I am running and how to optimize the performance of the campaign.  To do this, I had to look at the feedback I was getting, and I had to evaluate the work I had previously done based on the feedback.  It was a reflective opportunity, which is always beneficial to do in any aspect of life.

It was a little challenging to evaluate my Return on Investment, because I didn’t have much data to go by.  I hadn’t actually spent any money yet, but there was some information available to me about how often my ad was being shown.  Based on this information, I was able to make some adjustments that would focus more on the things that were working, and eliminate the time spent on things that weren’t.  I was able to improve my ad campaign based on doing this evaluation. 

Looking at opportunities to optimize also made me look back at previous decisions I had made, and evaluate them using new information available to me.  Taking this time to look back at decisions I had made previously was a good exercise for me.  I used the information that has been collecting about my performance, and created an entire new ad.  I could see where I had misjudged what people would be looking for, and made some corrections based on the better understanding I now have.

The lesson I want to take-away from these exercises is that reflection is an important part of improvement.  If we don’t take the opportunity to reflect on what we’ve done previously, we may not be as successful in the future.  I am always learning and increasing my understanding, so when I reflect on things I’ve done before, I can use it to become better.  I can recognize my personal growth, and make changes that will keep me going in the right direction.

Relevance and Work

This week was focused on understanding the quality of our work.  We started by reviewing quality information about some of our keywords.  Then, we moved on to installing Google Analytics, which provides information about the performance of our website.  The biggest value I gained this week was about working to improve quality.  It was an opportunity to weigh the cost of evaluating quality with the benefits of knowing it.

Relevance is an importance concept for being successful.  Previously, we focused on keywords in regards to how good they are, in terms of how often they are searched for.  However, using a good keyword isn’t beneficial to me if it isn’t also relevant to me.  Using a keyword that will draw people to my site won’t help me if it isn’t a reflection of what I can offer them.  I might see an increase in traffic, but they won’t translate into customers.  Using good keywords that have relevance to the product I can provide will increase traffic of potential customers, or those who are interested in what I have to offer.

Working through the process of installing Google Analytics was very eye-opening.  It showed the amount of information that will be available to me, regardless of whether or not I actually understand it.  I quickly realized that if I want to benefit from this tool, I have a lot of learning to do.  It made it clear, however, that I have a lot of control over my success, based on the time and energy I put in to learning and working.  It’s overwhelming, but also promising in my potential for success.

Overall, the key concepts I learned this week are to be relevant, and to work as hard as I want to be successful.

Fresh Eyes

This week I had the opportunity to put together an ad for my website.  It was challenging, because I was limited on the number of characters I could use.  I had to spend some time thinking about what I most wanted potential customers to see about my business.  It was a good exercise for me.  Having to keep within limits made me decide what was the most valuable product I had for the target audience of my ad.  This will help me continue to focus on the customer, like I determined I needed to last week.

Another good lesson for me this week was getting feedback from others.  It was interesting to evaluate other’s ads and have them evaluate mine.  I got some great feedback that made me realize that the ad wasn’t being understood the way I intended it to be.  This taught me that getting feedback on these projects in the future, is necessary.  Fresh eyes on something I know so much about, can reflect the customer’s perspective better than my own.

Changing Perspective

This week was focused on marketing and drawing traffic to the website.  Every assignment required me to think from the customer’s, or potential customer’s, perspective.  This was an interesting activity for me to work through, and something that will be important to remember to do in the future.

Being able to understand and consider the customer’s perspective is very important for any successful business.  The better I can learn to think like my customer, the more able I will be to provide what they want, in a format that they want, providing the service they want, and be able to make money doing it.

The really important part of this lesson is how it relates to my relationship with other people outside of my business.  Just like being mindful of a customer’s desires, it is important to be mindful of the desires of my friends and family.  Learning this skill wont’ just help me run a successful business, but will also help me be a better wife, mother, and friend.