The ocean that is social media has been all very interesting but Integrative Waves is now dragging our tail. The year is almost at an end and we need some well-deserved vacation. Heading off to relax and consider all that we have learned.
Going to the southern hemisphere to get some sun and to think on the right side of the earth. The 'wa' of Integrative Waves needs a reboot!
Last bit of work before we leave. To review and reflect on what we have learned - to look back so that we can go forward with knowledge and insight.
We started using social media only recently. Now we understand a lot more. We have dipped and dabbled in quite a few coves. Now it is time for a swim!
Integrative Waves began a Facebook Page and found we have been getting increased interaction. We have not posted any real business promotion on it yet. We wanted to get accustomed to using it and posting regularly before the real work began. Now we definitely have a better working knowledge and so can proceed with a more certain step. But a business does have to be creative and interesting to get and hold attention.
Twitter has been extremely interesting and rather fun, LinkedIn and Google+ need more of our attention. Newsletters are being planned and organised, blog topics scheduled.
Will social media and the like be the main way we interact with our clients? No. Integrative Waves is a very much hands-on business and face-to-face works best for us. But the combination will be powerful, the blend potent.
What is the nice thing is that now we have a solid foundation upon which to build and grow. The waves can depend on the sand for support.....
Blogs commented on:
Nate Scharff
Mella Webster
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Scheduling Integrative Waves
Now that Integrative Waves has dabbled our feet in the wide blue ocean that is social media and decided on some waves to catch, it is now time to design a schedule that will allow surfing those waves successfully!
What will we become all aTwitter about and tweet, focus on for Facebook, and become goggle-eyed on Google+? Chit-chatting and blabbing in our blog, note-worthily newsy in our newsletter ....The list goes on.
How much time to do all this? Again reality is a very important factor. What is feasible and sustainable on an on-going weekly schedule? What will be enough to keep the work enjoyable, to obtain results without it becoming drudgery and building feelings of resentment?
Will an hour a day be enough? Or is it better to spend a larger chunk of time twice a week writing and scheduling posts and blogs for the future?
Too many questions without answers at this time! Integrative Waves will just have to go for it, try a schedule out and then modify if it is not manageable or working. We will spend an hour or so a day attending to our online presence.
OK, enough said about the time commitment! Why choose these particular tools? The interaction that is possible and the unlimited potential reach is quite mind-boggling!
Our business lends itself well to Facebook and Google+ - small bits of information combined with photos about health and beauty. Questions are a fun way to involve the viewer. It can also be a way to find out more about what people want to know in this area. There are many ways to be creative and not always have to be the author of the post such as sharing interesting articles regarding skin care or health. Facebook Insights will help us fine-tune our posts as we monitor who likes what.
A weekly blog - some short articles, some longer - will help demonstrate our expertise. This will be a useful reference for clients and potential clients and will keep Integrative Waves more as a presence for them.
A monthly email newsletter, as mentioned in a previous blog, helps reach those people who do not use social media. If someone does not use a computer very much at all or maybe never, this is something that can be printed out and mailed to them. A business must meet clients at the client's comfort level - do not expect the client to adapt. The blog posts can also be printed if needed. The newsletter can also be handed around at events.
Goals for online marketing strategy for the next six months -
1) Increase online audience to social media sites.
2) Increase traffic to website from these sites.
3) Increased online interest translated into potential clientele becoming actual clientele.
After much consideration, the schedule for the first month, January 2014, is:
Twitter - daily tweets.
The topics will be varied - inspirational, health related. There will be a mixture of original tweets, interesting quotes retweeted, and articles shared. Facebook and blog posts are linked to Twitter, reducing the daily workload.
Facebook - twice weekly posts.
- Essential Oil highlight each week with photo of the plant:
- Share a health related article such as "Sitting may be shortening your life". Ask what people are doing to help their health.
- Nutrition spotlight on different seasonal fruits and vegetables. Orange - photo of it and its' nutritional information,
Google + will be gradually introduced with similar scheduling style and similar but not the same posts as Facebook.
Blog scheduled weekly - articles of varying length - midweek day such as Wednesday.
Email Newsletter - monthly.
January's newsletter topics:
LinkedIn will be a work in progress. Small steps forward.....
Google Analytics will be used to monitor our progress and help us adjust as needed.
Well, now that our January is decided, planned and scheduled, Integrative Waves is going surfing.....
What will we become all aTwitter about and tweet, focus on for Facebook, and become goggle-eyed on Google+? Chit-chatting and blabbing in our blog, note-worthily newsy in our newsletter ....The list goes on.
How much time to do all this? Again reality is a very important factor. What is feasible and sustainable on an on-going weekly schedule? What will be enough to keep the work enjoyable, to obtain results without it becoming drudgery and building feelings of resentment?
Will an hour a day be enough? Or is it better to spend a larger chunk of time twice a week writing and scheduling posts and blogs for the future?
Too many questions without answers at this time! Integrative Waves will just have to go for it, try a schedule out and then modify if it is not manageable or working. We will spend an hour or so a day attending to our online presence.
OK, enough said about the time commitment! Why choose these particular tools? The interaction that is possible and the unlimited potential reach is quite mind-boggling!
Our business lends itself well to Facebook and Google+ - small bits of information combined with photos about health and beauty. Questions are a fun way to involve the viewer. It can also be a way to find out more about what people want to know in this area. There are many ways to be creative and not always have to be the author of the post such as sharing interesting articles regarding skin care or health. Facebook Insights will help us fine-tune our posts as we monitor who likes what.
A weekly blog - some short articles, some longer - will help demonstrate our expertise. This will be a useful reference for clients and potential clients and will keep Integrative Waves more as a presence for them.
A monthly email newsletter, as mentioned in a previous blog, helps reach those people who do not use social media. If someone does not use a computer very much at all or maybe never, this is something that can be printed out and mailed to them. A business must meet clients at the client's comfort level - do not expect the client to adapt. The blog posts can also be printed if needed. The newsletter can also be handed around at events.
Goals for online marketing strategy for the next six months -
1) Increase online audience to social media sites.
2) Increase traffic to website from these sites.
3) Increased online interest translated into potential clientele becoming actual clientele.
After much consideration, the schedule for the first month, January 2014, is:
Twitter - daily tweets.
The topics will be varied - inspirational, health related. There will be a mixture of original tweets, interesting quotes retweeted, and articles shared. Facebook and blog posts are linked to Twitter, reducing the daily workload.
Facebook - twice weekly posts.
- Essential Oil highlight each week with photo of the plant:
- Lavender
- Rose Geranium
- Lemon
- Eucalyptus Radiata
- Share a health related article such as "Sitting may be shortening your life". Ask what people are doing to help their health.
- Nutrition spotlight on different seasonal fruits and vegetables. Orange - photo of it and its' nutritional information,
Google + will be gradually introduced with similar scheduling style and similar but not the same posts as Facebook.
Blog scheduled weekly - articles of varying length - midweek day such as Wednesday.
- Week 1 - Battling the Post-Holiday and Winter Blues.
- Week 2 - Lavender Essential Oil.
- Week 3 - Battling Winter Colds and Flu.
- Week 4 - Water and Lymphatic Drainage
Email Newsletter - monthly.
January's newsletter topics:
- Essential Oil of the Month - Lavender
- Monthly Skin Care Product - Regenerating Cream
- Skin Care Tip - Winter skin issues
- Why use? section - Why use sunscreen during winter?
- Seasonal Recipe - Winter Essential Oil Blend
- Special of the Month - Facial Extraordinaire
LinkedIn will be a work in progress. Small steps forward.....
Google Analytics will be used to monitor our progress and help us adjust as needed.
Well, now that our January is decided, planned and scheduled, Integrative Waves is going surfing.....
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Blogs Commented On
The blogs that I have commented on:
- Cameron Sufficool
- Mella Webster
- Manuel Acero
- Becky Beamer
- Jessica Ipina - commented on Sunday.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Integrative Waves Makes Social Decisions
Over the past few months Integrative Waves has examined and sampled some of the social media platforms. Now it is a good time to reassess our goals for integrating social media into our business. Too many businesses start off over-enthusiastically with social media and then 'crash and burn'. Integrative Waves does not want to be one of those casualties! So how to avoid this...
We need to consider two very important issues. What do we enjoy using and what can be realistically maintained in the longer-term. What is a good schedule that will fit in with our everyday business life of hands-on care?
We have enjoyed using Facebook and Twitter, blogging, and trying out an email newsletter. We have only dipped our toes into the waters of Google+. LinkedIn is a work in progress.
The only media that will work on a daily basis for us is Twitter because it is very quick to do. We are still discovering the potential of Twitter but have discovered that it is a very useful tool to find out quickly what is happening in many different areas. It has been helpful for keeping up with new social media and other news.
Facebook (and Google+ once we use it more!) can work twice a week for us. Since we found, via Insights, that questions and content with photos capture the most attention for us, we are becoming more creative with our camera to make our posts on Facebook more visually eye-catching. Integrative Waves wanted to become accustomed to regularly posting before we completely focused on more business oriented posts.We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Facebook since we really am unsure how many people get exposed to our posts. The rules seem to change quite regularly. We also need to revisit scheduling posts which will make life easier.
Even though we are very new to Google+, I believe that it will be very powerful and useful for us. There are things we have not done yet that will aid Integrative Waves such as joining some communities.
A weekly Blog is planned. I have enjoyed writing regularly and feel this suits our business goal of consumer/client education.
A monthly Email Newsletter is planned. This will help reach clients who do not use social media regularly or at all.
LinkedIn is another avenue that will be useful but needs to be expanded.
This is enough to begin with! Remember reality....
Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr have not been investigated except for a cursory perusal and they need to wait. Small steps to avoid the 'crash and burn'.
Now it is time for Integrative Waves to plan an online marketing strategy. Part of that will include designing a content schedule for the next month to become organized and also begin testing this strategy! It might also be time to investigate a social media management platform like Hootsuite.....
We need to consider two very important issues. What do we enjoy using and what can be realistically maintained in the longer-term. What is a good schedule that will fit in with our everyday business life of hands-on care?
We have enjoyed using Facebook and Twitter, blogging, and trying out an email newsletter. We have only dipped our toes into the waters of Google+. LinkedIn is a work in progress.
The only media that will work on a daily basis for us is Twitter because it is very quick to do. We are still discovering the potential of Twitter but have discovered that it is a very useful tool to find out quickly what is happening in many different areas. It has been helpful for keeping up with new social media and other news.
Facebook (and Google+ once we use it more!) can work twice a week for us. Since we found, via Insights, that questions and content with photos capture the most attention for us, we are becoming more creative with our camera to make our posts on Facebook more visually eye-catching. Integrative Waves wanted to become accustomed to regularly posting before we completely focused on more business oriented posts.We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Facebook since we really am unsure how many people get exposed to our posts. The rules seem to change quite regularly. We also need to revisit scheduling posts which will make life easier.
Even though we are very new to Google+, I believe that it will be very powerful and useful for us. There are things we have not done yet that will aid Integrative Waves such as joining some communities.
A weekly Blog is planned. I have enjoyed writing regularly and feel this suits our business goal of consumer/client education.
A monthly Email Newsletter is planned. This will help reach clients who do not use social media regularly or at all.
LinkedIn is another avenue that will be useful but needs to be expanded.
This is enough to begin with! Remember reality....
Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr have not been investigated except for a cursory perusal and they need to wait. Small steps to avoid the 'crash and burn'.
Now it is time for Integrative Waves to plan an online marketing strategy. Part of that will include designing a content schedule for the next month to become organized and also begin testing this strategy! It might also be time to investigate a social media management platform like Hootsuite.....
Sunday, December 1, 2013
More Analytics For Integrative Waves - Insightful Facebook
The work of Integrative Waves is never done.... First it was Google. Now we are assessing Facebook analytics - looking at the Page Insights over the last week.
Integrative Waves has recently entered the hallowed ground of having over 30 Page Likes. (I feel like it is Starbucks and I have my 30 stars for the year (or the month???) Now we are deemed worthy by Facebook and 'allowed' to see our Page Insights.
Thank you, Facebook, for revamping Page Insights recently. It looks very nice - it is easy to read and understand. That is very handy for us Facebook neophytes, especially in the land of Insights. However, reading the comments of other more savvy Facebook users, there are those who are decidedly NOT pleased!
Well, enough small talk! Let's get down to analyzing. (It is actually quite amazing what you can find out, even down to the viewers' demographics such as age group, gender, and country of residence.)
Firstly, there was much more activity on Integrative Waves' page this week! A few things can explain this. One, it was Thanksgiving week - maybe people had more time to peruse Facebook. Secondly, Integrative Waves may be developing an interested audience. Thirdly, there was an assignment to visit each person's business page in our group. Seeing who was liking and commenting, our activity was a mixture of 'all the above'.
We now have 32 page likes from individuals - not many in some business's eyes - but when there is a very 'laid-back' (read 'hesitant') approach to asking for 'likes' from friends and clients, the growth has to happen fairly organically.
Regarding our posts, there are fairly equal amounts of 'likes' and 'comments' but no 'shares'. I guess that is one area that we definitely need to examine further to see what our audience considers 'share' worthy. There is decidedly more reach and engagement recently. We can see what kind of posts get the most likes and engagement. Asking questions and posts with photos appear to get the most involvement. There have been no posts that have really been promotional types such as advertising a skin care product sale, so the reaction to these types of posts is unknown.
Fortunately, there have been no 'unlikes', 'report as spam' or 'hide posts' so that is a good thing. Integrative Waves' posts may not be 'shared' yet but at least we are not annoying anyone too much!
All this is very interesting and useful information. However, Facebook is still holding out! It appears that engagement demographic information is not given until you have 30 people engage with your post.
Oh well, I guess it is 'onward and upward'......
Integrative Waves has recently entered the hallowed ground of having over 30 Page Likes. (I feel like it is Starbucks and I have my 30 stars for the year (or the month???) Now we are deemed worthy by Facebook and 'allowed' to see our Page Insights.
Thank you, Facebook, for revamping Page Insights recently. It looks very nice - it is easy to read and understand. That is very handy for us Facebook neophytes, especially in the land of Insights. However, reading the comments of other more savvy Facebook users, there are those who are decidedly NOT pleased!
Well, enough small talk! Let's get down to analyzing. (It is actually quite amazing what you can find out, even down to the viewers' demographics such as age group, gender, and country of residence.)
Firstly, there was much more activity on Integrative Waves' page this week! A few things can explain this. One, it was Thanksgiving week - maybe people had more time to peruse Facebook. Secondly, Integrative Waves may be developing an interested audience. Thirdly, there was an assignment to visit each person's business page in our group. Seeing who was liking and commenting, our activity was a mixture of 'all the above'.
We now have 32 page likes from individuals - not many in some business's eyes - but when there is a very 'laid-back' (read 'hesitant') approach to asking for 'likes' from friends and clients, the growth has to happen fairly organically.
Regarding our posts, there are fairly equal amounts of 'likes' and 'comments' but no 'shares'. I guess that is one area that we definitely need to examine further to see what our audience considers 'share' worthy. There is decidedly more reach and engagement recently. We can see what kind of posts get the most likes and engagement. Asking questions and posts with photos appear to get the most involvement. There have been no posts that have really been promotional types such as advertising a skin care product sale, so the reaction to these types of posts is unknown.
Fortunately, there have been no 'unlikes', 'report as spam' or 'hide posts' so that is a good thing. Integrative Waves' posts may not be 'shared' yet but at least we are not annoying anyone too much!
All this is very interesting and useful information. However, Facebook is still holding out! It appears that engagement demographic information is not given until you have 30 people engage with your post.
Oh well, I guess it is 'onward and upward'......
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