Week 13 Part A

Advertising on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets has always fascinated me. It is almost as if they know exactly what I am looking for, or something I have talked about. I find the ads on Instagram especially to be spot on to the things I am interested in purchasing. I notice they are always pushing products that will give you a direct link to their Instagram page. Once you "save" or click on their Instagram profile it seems more and more similar ads start to pop up. For example, if I am interested in a skin care product for acne all of the sudden there are several ads on my timeline showing me these new innovative acne products that are apparently the best out there. Or they will show me ads showing me a face wash, or a make up brush, or really anything relative to the one image I saved to look at later on.

The imagery used is usually effective, and I have talked to my friends about this as well. I have noticed more and more often my friends are buying products that popped up on their social media pages and I am guilty of this as well. I have many items saved that I will then look up reviews elsewhere and potentially end up making that purchase. I would never know these brands or these items if they did not show up on my feed. They tend to show videos with "real people" using the product, or they show pretty imagery to make the product more attractive to the viewer. 

The ads that annoy me are the ones that come up daily that I scroll by with absolutely no interest. You would think over time those ads would go away and they would curate new ones for my page. I have gotten to the point a few times where I have removed the ad myself and they then ask you why to which I say "I see this too often" they immediately reply with "you will never see this ad again." That has always been accurate, they never showcase the ad after I manually request them not to.

I feel that advertising done on social media is much more effective today than the ads in newspapers and magazines. From what I can remember, ads in magazines are typically luxury brands that no one necessarily reading the magazine can afford. I would see the same ads in magazines that I saw on billboards and although they always look pretty and professional it was unrealistic for most of the people looking at them to afford anything they were trying to sell. Social media ads are targeting the right people and they are prices that are affordable most of the time. Not many people in this generation are picking up a newspaper and looking through them when they can easily find any information they want on their cell phone. 

Week 12

 There are many amazing tools out there for businesses but it is important to keep in mind the ones that will be best for the particular business you have. I do not think every business needs to have all social media outlets because it can then get a bit confusing and overwhelming.

For my photography business, I think LinkedIn is a great outlet to connect with people in my area as well as look out for collaborations and those wanting to assist in photo shoots. I would love to be able to connect with locals who I could use as models for a shoot as well as find people who may want to work on a project together and they may have equipment that I do not own but would be a great contribution for a shoot. LinkedIn is also a great way to get a photography job and have people see my work and reach out to me. I could potentially get paid a lot of money for a job just by networking and connecting with the right people in my area.

When it comes to growing my business and receiving the right feedback, I feel that a website like Yelp could be useful for me. I feel that this is something I could incorporate after I have had more interaction with people or have done actual shoots for people. This is not the first social media outlet I would use but would gradually incorporate it over time. I would want people to be able to refer me to others or have new clients find me on there and read my reviews to see if I would be a good match for them.

Lastly, I feel another great source for me would be to join a Meetup group. These groups are specifically designed to meet with people who share the same interests as you and you can find other people in that industry to connect with. I feel that Meetup would have a ton of photographers in the area that I could learn from as well as collaborate with.

Week 11 Post 1

 Hi Everyone!

I have recently been introduced to the world of Twitter and I am still trying to navigate through it. My brother and my dad are obsessed with Twitter and always seem to find the best insights just by following the right people. They have been using it a lot lately to share articles discussing politics and new information regarding the pandemic. My brother and dad are always sending me articles and most of the time I could not access them because I did not have an account so I recently decided it was time to start.

When my husband and I were in New York my brother had mentioned how he found out about this secret standup comedy show that was happening in the city the following night. My husband loves standup comedy and we could not believe some of the comedians that were going to be playing that night and for only twenty bucks. This is when I really saw how cool Twitter was because you were getting information instantly that could happen at any time. We were able to attend this amazing comedy show with comedians that can cost 200 dollars or more to see and we were in this intimate setting of about 30 people. It was one the highlights of our trip, all thanks to Twitter. 

While I find Twitter to be a bit confusing still, I am starting to understand it more and learning how to follow the right people and navigate through it. There is so much information on Twitter that it can become overwhelming; thankfully I have my brother to give me the best tips!

LinkedIn is a website that I personally feel is fantastic for networking and one of the best to get to know people in your area or your industry. It is a great way to not only find a job, but to find other opportunities as well. For example, I love my current job and do not have any desire to leave but I use LinkedIn to find other opportunities that may come up involved in marketing, photoshoots, fashion, etc. I think it is a great way to expand your social circle and potentially find some amazing people to work with.

I have had a lot of people reach out to me on LinkedIn over the years with some of it being useful and then other times not as much. Either way, I see it as an awesome way to connect or reconnect with people that you may have not spoken to in a while. I like the way LinkedIn is organized by telling you who went to the same high school or college as you as well as the people who work at the same company as you or ones that are similar. They ask you for your interests as well as a tool to help you find what you are looking for. Overall, I think LinkedIn is definitely the best for all of those reasons.