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I have generally enjoyed this class. It has gotten me off to a good start in expanding my graphics business into more well-rounded business model that includes marketing consulting. Beamer Consulting & Design will help small businesses drive sales and profit by helping them refine their message, creating strong graphics and website functionality and then making it pay with effective social media marketing activity. This class has introduced me to some of the tools to accomplish this goal.

What would make this class better:

Feedback. I feel like I am working in a vacuum. Although I get occasional feedback from fellow student, more would definitely be better. But the main thing lacking is constructive feedback from the teachers. I could really have benefited from a comment on my blogs, maybe once each week. Even some general comments on the student's blogs would have been helpful.

Optional Reading: It would be good if teachers could include links to relevant reading for the weeks assignments. Sometimes I didn't feel I got enough information on the subject we were talking about.

Student Comments: Make fellow students comments more important. I felt like the teachers were trying to make this happen but a lot of the time the comments were just general "good job" statements of very little value.

This has been a good class and I can tell our teachers are committed to making it a great class. Good luck to all in your future endeavors. I have enjoyed interacting with you all!

Becky

Schedule for Beamer Consulting & Design:

Between now and the new year I will continue to post relevant content on our Facebook page (which will be tweeted) and respond to all comment on the posts.

At the beginning of the year I will to build a LinkedIn profile for Beamer Consulting & Design. Then I will then update my graphic design website beckybeamerdesign.com by adding social media buttons for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. I will also add a "like us" button to the Thank You page (redirect after form send) of my site. After I do this I will post a link to my graphic design site on BCD's Facebook page. When I post a link I need to think of some way to promote my site. Any ideas?

In the new year we will continue the daily Facebook posting, add weekly posts on Pinterest and start a weekly blog post. The blog will be done by Dan, the consulting part of BCD. The blog will have personality but not be too personal. It will be an expression of who Dan and I are and how we think creatively and professionally. By blogging we hope to give our brand a personality that is creative, inspired, resourceful, conscientious, and relaxed. We will do this by linking business philosophies to life philosophies and showing our prospective customers how we can help them connect and engage with their end users. In short, we want the blog to emphasize how running a successful business is like creating a gratifying life and that both are all about creating great relationships.

My next step will be to work on placing an ad on LinkedIn that targets small businesses.

This schedule will keep me busy with my graphics work so I don't plan to add anything else for a while.

Comments on Fellow Student Blogs

http://thedavidcblog.blogspot.com/

http://jessicaipina.blogspot.com/

http://kyledonnellyy.blogspot.com/

http://gnometraveler42.blogspot.com/

The social media we have learned about and used in this class:

Facebook: This is the social media we have spent the majority our time on. It is the most important for our business because it gets relevant content branded with our name out into the world. To make our business successful we need to keep our Facebook content relevant and compelling, and refresh it almost daily.  We also need to respond to other post quickly to encourage dialog with our customer base.  We can also encourage more engagement by combining creative advertising to drive awareness and then showing a more personal, human side when people land on our page.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn would be a great place to expand our business. Since it is a site for business people, we can more efficiently and effectively get our message out to  entrepreneurs and small business owners. There are numerous business related Groups on Linkedin, such as "Small Business Network", which would be a great place to target with our first ad.

Twitter: We see Twitter as a great vehicle to expand our reach and amplify our signal.  We will keep our twitter account connected to our Facebook page to help drive daily action.

Pinterest: Pinterest is visual, so it will be a key focus for the design division of Beamer Consulting  & Design. I will continue to post my design work on Pinterest as well as images from other sources that I find compelling or inspiring.  In a way Pinterest is a catalyst for the creative process at Beamer Consulting & Design

Newsletter: We intend to send out a newsletter for BCD on a quarterly basis.  This seems like the right cadence for the more direct selling aspect of this communication tool.  We will temper the selling aspect of our newsletter by adding a personal touch that allows our potential clients to get to know us.  We may also include some promotional offerings to boost new leads.  Our first newsletter will be an introduction to BCD.

Yelp: When our business gets off it's feet we will asks customers to write Yelp reviews about their experience with Beamer Consulting & Design. As we grow even larger, we may consider contracting with a company like Bazaar Voice, who specialize in syndicating reviews to all relevant channels for our business.

Liking Pages and Insights

I was able to get to everyone in the class' Facebook pages, Like them and interact with a few of their post. I was interacting with my personal Facebook (Becky Beamer) on the first few but then noticed and change to Beamer Consulting and Design.

Defiantly a little more action on my Facebook page this week but only two more likes. It seems that people in the class are confused about how to like a Facebook page or maybe just busy with the holiday. Engagements on my page went up to 22 but only 5 comments and 2 likes. It looks to like people got distracted before finishing their homework. I can see from the Insights how much a little interaction on a post can increase the reach exponentially.

Google analytics

Since Beamer Consulting and Design is in its infancy I think the most important data to look at is the demographics of the people interacting with our Facebook page. When I start to advertise it will be important to see who the ads are reaching and which ads are getting the most action.

When I create a website and a blog for the company I will use Google Analytics to see the demographics of the people visiting them. It will help to find out the profile of the people that are interested in the content of our blog and in turn interested in Beamer CD.

Coupons and Promotions

The coupon I am thinking of using for Beamer Consulting and Design is:

Purchase a custom website and receive three months of free social media marketing consultation (max 10 hour per month). We will help them leverage the strength of their new website with help establishing a blog, targeted advertising and content update schedule. We may also offer special seminars on how to refine their brand position and establish their unique brand voice in social media space.

This will let our customers see how social media marketing can help promote their business and get them relying on BeamerCD to implement it.

Four More Social Media Marketing tools

The four addition social marketing tools I plan to use to market Beamer Consulting & Design are LinkedIn, Pulse, Google+ and Yelp.

LinkedIn would be a great place to expand our business. Since it is a site for business people we could concentrate on marketing to professionals that are in charge of marketing for their jobs. This might take us away from our target audience of entrepreneurs of small companies but could bring us more contacts and customers.

I signed up for Pulse through my personal LinkedIn page. This will give me a good supply of article to read and use on BeamerCD Facebook page.

I also like the idea of Google+ and joining a circle of social media marketers to get insight and keep up with trends in the industry. Social media is such a rapidly change medium, keeping up-to-date is imperative.

Yelp is a great source for customers trying to find business they can trust. I use it all the time for my personal life. When my business gets off it's feet I will asks customers to write Yelp reviews on their experience with Beamer Consulting & Design.

Using Marketing on Social Media without Spending Money

I have been trying this daily since our class started with little success. I think one of my main problems is my audience. I need to attract more of my target customer to my Facebook page. Maybe a few paid ads would help.

Here are some of the posts on my Facebook page:

I have linked my Twitter account to my Facebook account so when I post on Facebook the post is Tweeted.

I would love some suggestions on things I can do differently. THANKS! 

Visit my Facebook page for more examples:

https://www.facebook.com/beamerconsultinganddesign

Blogs on Ads I Commented On

http://nathanherminscharff.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html

http://look-whos-sharing.blogspot.com/

http://www.parydise.blogspot.com/

http://www.alecathja.blogspot.com/

http://jessicaipina.blogspot.com/

Advertising For Beamer Consulting & Design

My business is in the initial phase of getting my name out, so I am looking to attract followers and fans. I plan to advertise on Twitter and Facebook. The Twitter ad I will use is called "Promote My Account" and is designed to promote twitter account and in turn my company. This type of ad works by advertising my Twitter account to people that search for keywords like: consulting, web design, graphic design, social media, branding and marketing. Another reason I like this kind of ad is that I only get charged when I get a new follower. I simply "bid" a certain amount per follower, a dollar amount per day and a total budge for the ad campaign.

Facebook gives me the capability of honing my message to a clearly defined demographic. For example, I will target small business owners between the ages of 35 and 55 who live in the Southern California area who are not social media savvy. I will also run an ad that targets friends of people who have already liked my Facebook page. For my Facebook ad I will pay by Likes. That way if the ad doesn't get any attention I will be able to scrap it and try another approach. Targeting is powerful because it is efficient and ensures I get tangible value for my advertising investment.

Here are examples of ads I might run on Facebook:


Here are ideas for my Facebook ads:

Here is the Twitter ad I set up:

Responses to Newsletter Ideas

http://mindblogglingblog.blogspot.com/

http://deesocialmediajourney.blogspot.com/

 

 

http://so-market-me.blogspot.com/

http://ihadmorefunasakid.blogspot.com/

Newsletter

Beamer Consulting and Design is a new company and right now we are working on building relationships. When we start to send out a newsletter we will send it out quarterly. The things our newsletter will include are:

We will update potential clients on our service offering and highlight a certain service in more detail.  Our first newsletter will be an introduction to BCD. We will also make special promotional offers for certain services.

For example:

Purchase a custom website and receive three months of free social media marketing consultation (max 10 hour per month). We will help them leverage the strength of their new website with help establishing a blog, targeted advertising and content update schedule. We may also offer special seminars on how to refine their brand position and establish their unique brand voice in social media space.

For current clients we will include promotional offers focused on how to get more out of their social media marketing. We know they are already in the game. Now we want to help them continue to grow their business through targeted on-line advertising, email marketing and blogging. These newsletter might include a coupon for 5 hours of Facebook analysis and / or building of a compelling FB page.

Blog Categories

The goal of all blogs coming from Beamer Consulting and Design is to establish trust with our target audience and add value to their lives and businesses. Our social media presence is a place they go to get new ideas and get inspired. If businesses come to associate new ideas and inspiration with Beamer Consulting and Design, then who will they come to when they need help? Our blog will display our inquisitive approach and help potential customers feel comfortable with what we have to offer. Some of the categories we plan to explore on our blog are:
brand development, graphic design trends, websites that really work, creating connection and conversation in social media, marketing that keeps-it-real and just a few random quotes that make you think.

Here are the comments I made on fellow students blogs:

http://deesocialmediajourney.blogspot.com/2013/11/being-personal-on-my-blog.html

http://loricargile.blogspot.com/2013/10/week-9-blogging-for-business.html

http://melcatweb13.blogspot.com/

http://gnometraveler42.blogspot.com/2013/11/just-how-personal-to-be_3.html

How Personal?

I think the blog for Beamer Consulting and Design should have personality but not be personal. It should be an expression of who Dan and I are and how we think creatively and professionally. By blogging I hope to give our brand a personality and paint a picture of Beamer Consulting and Design as a company that is creative, inspired, resourceful, conscientious, and relaxed. We will do this by linking business philosophies to life philosophies. In short, I want the blog to emphasize how running a successful business is like creating a gratifying life and that both are all about creating great relationships.

Finding Tweeters

To find some Tweeters to follow I used the search terms Consulting and Design first and then expanded my search to Graphic Design. I chose 4 companies and am following them on Twitter. The first is Blue Sapphire Design (twitter.com/BlueSapphireDM). I chose them because they focus on graphic design and social media marketing. After looking more closely at their tweets I am not sure they are going to be much help for my business. Their last tweet was August 23 then before that January 17 so it looks like they don't tweet enough.

The second company (person) I started to follow is Kristal Martinez (https://twitter.com/kristal_rose). I chose her because I liked her website and blog. She defiantly tweets more often and I think she will be helpful in finding good content for my Facebook page.

The third company I picked to follow is FÖDA Studio (https://twitter.com/FODA_Studio). I was attracted to them by their Bio Description: "A ‘brand’ is not designed––it's discovered. We develop brands by communicating promises & translating values. Brand Consultant. Graphic Design." I also liked their website.

The last company I am following is Fresh Consulting (https://twitter.com/freshconsulting).  I discovered them last week when I was looking at visual social media examples. They have a lot of great content but may tweet too much, many times a day. It is hard to sift through all their tweets to finds ones that are relevant to my business.

The jury is still out on Twitter for me. I am not a twittering type of person, I don't really like small talk. I will try it for a while and see how I do.

Companies Uses of Visual Social Media

Decibel Consulting & Design

decibelpromo.com

Decibel Consulting & Design uses Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Their Facebook page shows designs they have done for their current clients. Most of the recent posts are about "Throw the Fight" which is a band they are working with.The posts included a music video, which looks like it was not done by Decibel, tee-shirt designs, and a skateboard deck design. They also have a post to help Throw the Fight raise money.

Decibel has done some promotional posts. In one they ask people to call within 24 hours and get 20% off a quote. In another they put out a compilation album users can download for free.

They have also done a more personal post "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" with a photo of a young father and his six month old daughter which has generated the most Likes of all their posts. This is particularly interesting because the subject is not really related to their work, but, perhaps because it is more personal and emotional, it draws more people in.


Fresh Consulting
freshconsulting.com

Fresh Consulting uses Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. On their Google+ and Facebook pages they post cartoons that are especially funny in the context with our media crazed world. They also post cartoons with messages they want to convey to their customers, and informative articles on business and social media. The cartoon approach drew me in and I picked 6 of their articles to read and possibly post links to on my Facebook page. I also noted that Google+ sure is a better looking interface than Facebook!

The Fresh Consulting LinkedIn page explains what they do, but YouTube is where Fresh Consulting excels. They have 15 YouTube videos that promote their company. I watched four and they were well all done and have many "views". There oldest video, Social Media Marketing - Fresh Consulting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3nhzOlvNvs, has over 4,000 views, which confirms the power of visual marketing with video.  I also noticed that their twitter feed has tweets about the same things they put on their Facebook and Google+ pages.

Visual Social Media Platforms

After comparing the 4 most widely used visual social media platforms I have decided that Pinterest is the best platform for my business. I plan to use it for the Design portion of Beamer Consulting & Design. Pinterest will be a good place to display my designs and creative process. My brainstorming sessions have always included gathering inspiration form other designs and images on line, with Pinterest now I have a place to store those images. Aside from my own website, my Pinterest page will give potential clients a place to see my work and the things that I find visually appealing. Pinterest is a great tool for sharing images that inspire me and for mining new content for my ongoing work.

Here is a link to my Pinterest:
pinterest.com/beckysuebeamer/

Scheduled Posts

Our Mission Statement:

We are Beamer Consulting and Design and our mission is to generate a constant flow of new ideas and solutions that help small businesses drive sales and profit through highly effective social media marketing.  We don't have all the answers… but we are deeply engaged in this challenge every day and want to share ideas that inspire us and that we believe will benefit your business and your life.  

At present we are not selling anything, we simply invite you to engage, get inspired and learn with us!

Why content will win clients:
I believe all the links I am sharing on my Facebook contain relevant information to help small businesses be successful. By creating a place to go for current and inspiring content I will turn fans into future clients.

Liked Businesses on My Facebook Page

The seven businesses I "liked" were selected because they will create great opportunities for connecting with my potential clients. All of these sites have quick reads and will provide a daily flow of ideas to help small businesses drive successful social media marketing. By reading these websites myself, I intend to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, so I can continually challenge my clients with new ideas. I know that many small business owners don't have time to stay current on these trends. By doing so myself I will build strong relationships with entrepreneurs and truly add value to what they want to achieve.

www.inc.com/newsletter
This is a link to Inc. Magazine. They send out a great newsletter that has short articles on business.

www.ted.com/talks/
Ted talks are video that run about 20 minutes on just about everything. They alway make me think.

www.smashingmagazine.com
webdesignledger.com
www.webdesignerdepot.com
Smashing Magazine, Web Design Ledger & Web Designer Depot are great resource for designer but can help inform small businesses on good design and how to spot it.

www.entrepreneur.com
Entrepreneur.com is an outstanding resource for entrepreneurs which is my target audience.