Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Week #3 - Marketing - Laura Bowen
Greetings everyone!
   This week I had a chance to go through all of the units in the marketing section. It took less time this week because I was able to figure out the flow of the units.  The first unit over social media introduced three types, Facebook, Blog, and Twitter. While I’m familiar with Facebook I have no idea how Blog or Twitter works.  This unit did not expand on the benefits or drawbacks of each type.  I would imagine that each type of social media would work better with various target groups? The technology section, for setting up a business page on Facebook, didn’t explain the most fundamental part of getting started. Without more information, I don’t think I would be using this unit on social media marketing in the classroom, other than telling students to be careful about what they put out there about themselves!  
  From my own experience, I think Facebook is a great tool to advertise a small business but it is limiting.  It is also time consuming, requiring a lot of updates and comments. One of the sections provided a Pdf list of global web-sites to advertise on - but they were mostly for hand-crafted products. One area they did not touch on was local sources for advertising, including free community newspapers or magazines.  With these medias you can often get free advertising just by holding an event or hosting local artist exhibits.  Other ideas I can think of are using emails,  Instagram, get involved with community organizations (networking), and strategic partnerships.
 On the positive side,  I enjoyed learning about the various technologies including the photo cropping, table set-ups, and brochure designing.  The information was very basic but it served as a good review because I forget how to use these tools if I don’t use then frequently.  Overall, I found this section lacking in information that was applicable.  In addition, as I was working on my reflection, I found it very frustrating to go back and review the information because even though I had already completed the unit, I still had to do everything over again to get to the information I was looking for.

.

1 comment:

  1. I also found the section elementary. It did, however, motivate me to take a second look at both Twitter and Instagram as a marketing outlet. I found the lesson very choppey and that may be my internet speed. I would love to hear from others who may have experienced the same issues. (videos not syncing with the story line and delayed loading of slides)

    As they say, any training is better than no training. With that said, I did find some nuggets embedded in the lesson that I will use. I am hoping the Webex conference will run smoother than the Hangout session last week. Hopefully we will all be able to connect.

    ReplyDelete