What I Learned and How I Intend On Using It

This class really has been great and the knowledge we have been given has been golden. I can't say enough about what I have learned and how much I appreciate it all. I think it was a really big difference for myself as opposed to a lot of other students that are in this class. I wish that they could have experienced what I did and to be able to see the impact it has made on our company from what I have learned in this class is just amazing. I have been able to see in a very short time the immediate effects that Social Media Marketing has on a business of 50 + employees. My excitement for Online Marketing has boiled over and now includes all of our upper management. They are all beginning to send job photos and videos, or ideas for future Facebook and Twitter posts. It has been so much fun and I am sorry to see it end, but I am really excited for our company's future in Social Media Marketing and my future with it in school. We have a great plan with what we are wanting to do and this class made it all totally possible.

There were a bunch of really great assignments during this class, but Facebook has been a great fit for Cockrell Electric, Inc., and now has 342 "Likes" after just over two months. We have taken advantage of the Scheduled Posts option in the Activity Log on Facebook and we think we have come up with a pretty good idea of the best time to post and what types of posts we get our most engagement in on our page. We will continue with our current scheduled posts types and times on Facebook. We have electrical "tips", "jokes", or "trivia" scheduled every other day (mostly in the morning at 8:40am or 8:50am) with job photos always posting on Fridays (sometimes at 9am or sometimes at 11am), with the job postinsgs usually boosted over the weekend. The target market for the boosted post is chosen as being in the Coachella Valley area and within all surrounding towns. It is targeted to the 30 to 65 age demographic, English speaking. Sometimes we will rearrange posts depending on a special occasion, like the end or beginning of a job. Once a month there is an employee photo and bio that will go out. All other posts will be posted "now" by either myself or the owner. These are posts that we find on Cockrell Electrics Facebook newsfeed page or just random stuff we want to post (always electrical though). We also use Facebook to post help wanted ads and pay to Boost these ads. We have filled one of two positions that we posted for through Facebook and are very happy with our new employee. This Facebook plan is working well for us and will continue through the next year. We believe that Facebook will keep our customers current with what is happening at Cockrell Electric and provide an outlet for us to get information out and receive input from our customers. Facebook will also bring customers to our newly redesigned website, in return keeping the engagement up on the website. Hopefully all of this will bring in new customers and keep current ones.

Another Social Media Site that we have been experimenting with through this class has been Twitter. We are not as regular with Twitter has we have been with Facebook, but we are working harder to get more tweets out. Currently I Tweet up to three times a week. They are usually electrical tips, jokes, or trivia, with a few job photos thrown in. I am trying to figure out what type of posts work best for Twitter. It has been slow going, but I am putting more effort in to it and plan on Tweeting more. it has not been a total failure, after only two months we already have 62 followers. It seems like Twitter has been a little more of us connecting to General Contractors and companies that we want to work with as opposed to our customers. I am trying to post Tweets that would interest both of these different types of clientele. The plan is to put out at least 4 Tweets a week and to look into our types of followers on Twitter and what I can do to get them to our Facebook page and Website. We are looking at Twitter to connect us with what is going on in the construction world and connect us with Contractors the we are interested in working with in the future.

We have also been building pages on Google+ and Yelp. Google+ is just beginning to become part of the Cockrell Social Media Regiment. It is very easy to work with and has been slowly picking up Followers. I have only posted a couple of Cockrell Building photos and electrical tips. After the beginning of the year, I would like the design for the Google+ Cockrell page to be a little more like a blog. More updates about what is happening with jobs and daily service calls. Newsflash types of posts regarding Cockrell Electric is what I have in mind for the Google+ page. I will like to begin putting that plan in to action after the first of the year when I can step down out of Human Resources and step up in to the Marketing Director position and begin working full time on our Social Media Marketing plan.

We will begin our first paid online advertising campaign after the New Year with Yelp. They are a great match with what we want. Their Market Demographic is 30 to 50, educated with a bachelors degree and $100,000+ a year income. Yelp offers great plans with fair pricing. You can choose how long you would like the ad to run and geographically where you would like it to run. We like what Yelp is offereing us and we are looking forward to beginning our advertising with them. We will most likely take the "year" advertising deal and all of the options that come with it. One of the really great options is a film crew comes to your office and shoots a short commercial to play in a loop on your Yelp page. That alone is worth the price they are offering to advertise with them. I believe the best part of advertising on Yelp is that when someone is on Yelp and searching for an electrician, they actually need an electrician, instead of us putting a bunch of advertising out there and hoping that someone that sees it at some point needs an electrician.Working with Yelp, we are eliminating the part about us waiting for a customer and instead bring that customer right to us.

All of these plans to continue our Social Media Marketing will be keeping me very busy for months to come. At the end of this class, I will immediately be updating our website and adding links to all of our new Social Media pages. I believe this will bring even more engagement to our website and in return bring in new customers as well as keep the current ones. We will continue everything that we have learned and do everything we can to stay as up to date as possible on all things Online Marketing and what our demographic is currently into. I can't stress enough the difference this class has made to us and our marketing future, and marketing present for that matter.

At the beginning of this class, when you Googled for a local electrician, we were not even on the first page of the results. Now after all of this new online presence for us and all of the new website engagement, we are number three on the list on the first page! And shortly after this happened and we were moved up to number three on the list, for the first time ever someone called for a service call and stated that they had found us on Google! That is the first time ever! We were blown away when we saw it at number three on Google and totally blown away when a customer stated that they found us there and we absolutely knew at that point that we were going to keep moving forward with our Social Media Marketing and that I am going to continue my education in marketing. It's been such a great class and I am so sorry to see it end, but it has been such a great learning experience. Our teachers have given us the information that we need for success in the new Online Marketing world. It is up to us to be succesful.