Week 16: Finals Week

Throughout this semester, I have learned a great amount on what it means to become a social media expert. While I am still discovering so much, there are many things I can take away that will help me in my career. I have begun using social media on a more consistent basis and figuring out ways of growing this avenue for my business.

I have learned that in order to become successful with social media you must be consistent in many different areas. It is important to post in a consistent time table. It have also found that it is important to post content that is consistent to your company's message. I have found that when I am doing this, our engagement and interaction has grown. Viewers want to know more about our company, rather than just seeing more useless nonsense. I have seen our impact grow throughout this process. I have seen our business Facebook account go from 900 to over 1,000 which is a great jump in our industry. I have also seen our Instagram following go from zero to 180. I have even taken these principles and applied them to my personal Instagram. From the beginning of this class to currently, my Instagram page has grown about 3,000 followers. This shows how effective these methods are in the social media world.

Throughout this process, I have seen my viewpoint on social media shift. At the beginning of this semester my company was not using every form of Social Media. This course has opened my eyes to the successes of varying platforms and how I can use each site differently to benefit my company. For example, we were not using Twitter or Instagram at all before I started this course. Beginning a Twitter account has shown me that this is a great place for us to put company updates and news whereas Instagram is a great place to put more fun and light content.

This course has given me a better understanding of how to successfully use social media to benefit my business. I have discovered the importance of connecting with your customer through posts and through direct interaction. I have recently started taking control of our online reputation through social media and responding to all customer reviews. Through this course I have also discovered effective ways to respond to customer complaints and positive reviews.

I have also discovered different tools, such as email newsletters, that we are further researching use of in our company. Previously, we were creating monthly newsletters that were proven ineffective by not providing SEO value and not being utilized. Through our studies of email newsletters, I was able to find a new platform that may help our company resolve this issue. Through this we can create useful content for our customers to engage with and I am excited to begin using this program.

This course has allowed me to discover what other companies in my industry are doing with social media, which is limited. I have found that our company is one of the leading companies for Social Media in our industry and that we are doing many things right. I have also been able to find areas where we can improve based on what I have seen our competition doing.

Overall, there are so many things I can take away from this course. I am so thankful for the opportunity to grown in my skills and discover new methods of interacting with our guests. I will be taking what I have learned this semester to help our company grow through social media and prove that this is a valid lead source in our industry.