Today there are new guidelines that all people must be aware of these are the social media guidelines. It is very important to pay attention to these to prevent anything bad from happening. For example employees must pay special attention to these to prevent losing their job, the same goes for the occasional blogger like myself. After some research I have found that many companies have specific rules that must be followed. The three companies I will talk about today are Ford, IBM and Intel.
There are many similarities and differences in these guidelines. Firstly each company states that the person creating any social information about their company must state who they are by including their full name. This is a good rule because if anything negative is written it will be easier to get in contact with the assailant. These companies also want their bloggers to be honest and not slander their company or their competition. Once again a great rule to create an even playing field for their businesses. These guidelines also want the authors to realize that what they are writing will most likely be online forever, the CNN rule applies here and anything you say online you should be able to articulate live on the news channel and feel comfortable doing it.
Now the slight differences that these guidelines provide. IBM states that they do not want their bloggers to use their logos or trademarks in any aspect. The other two guidelines do not include these which I think is a mistake. If someone stumbling the Internet sees something relative to the company it may make them think it’s official. IBM and Ford both touch on the subject of not writing about clients or employees while Intel this part out. This is a mistake because some people will really write anything on the web. Overall keeping a specific list of guidelines about social media is something that every company should practice.
If you would like please check out these three company guidelines on social media.
Intel IBM Ford
Google Analytics
We were introduced to a lot of new technology one of these being Google Analytics which we used to track user data on our blogs. This site keeps track of a lot of data and reports it in graphs and charts which are very easy to follow. Google Analytics has been keeping track of my website the whole semester. Over the semester I had 53 visitors to my site, with over 441 page views which means each person visiting is checking out 8 of my pages.
SEO
Overall my SEO was able to drive more traffic to my website which accounted for 63% of my visits. Which in total if calculated brought 34 different unique visitors to my website. I believe my success lies within my on page optimization. While my PPC campaign did not do as well, it was unable to bring any traffic to my site. The reason being I think my key words where not relevant enough and for some I think they were too relevant, being many different sites were bidding on them. SEO help can be found here.
Memories
My favorite part of MKTG 470 has been learning the of HTML code. This is something that I now have a sincere interest in. Even though we only spent a small amount of time on this topic it is something that I am very interested in. I never knew how websites were created and understanding a small part of it has made me curious what other codes I can learn. To learn more click here.
Outcome
All the information in this class was relative to the internet and all the ways it can be used to promote websites and companies. I must say before I began MKTG 470 I did not know what to expect. After reaching the end of the semester I have learned that this class is worth its weight in gold, everything we studied is what drives most companies and websites. I have learned a lot of priceless information on how to optimize websites and possibly create a competitive advantage for a company one day. Please check out my professors website or MKTG 470 for more information.
Thanks for a great semester
Optimizing a page with in website is not an easy task. It is hard to work your way up the search engine ladder to a relevant spot where potential viewers can find you. The site that I was trying to optimize was http://bberk456.com/jmu with the key words Love JMU. The task given was to see how close to the top of the SERP was possible. My tactics on my page to optimize it were fairly simple. For example I made sure that the key words Love JMU were located on my page three times. Although it is important not to overdo it because the spyders will realize what is going on and not recognize your page.
Offsite I was able to use Google AdWords where I was able to place bids on certain keywords such as Love JMU, I believe this in particular helped me a lot. During the beginning of the semester I was unable to find my site when I searched on Google but currently it is located on the 5th page in the search results.
After doing some research with helpful tools online I was able to see if my page was optimized and whether or not I had improved any over the course of the semester. Using http://marketing.grader.com/?s=wsg I was able to see my marketing score which was 49 out of 100. It is a number which combines optimization with analytics and ability to convert traffic. Another site that gives useful information on was http://www.webpagefx.com/seo-tools/crawlerfx/ which was able to give me a score on how effective my key word Love Jmu was working. I scored a 28 out of 100. Overall my scores were not too impressive and I believe if my bid was higher on AdWords I may have had a higher scores or if my site was linked on other pages more often. These sites are very useful for anyone who is looking to do some free research on their own websites.
The Google Webmaster tool that Google offers is a great asset for any website. This is a free tool which offers priceless information. I will begin by explaining about what exactly Google Webmaster does, firstly it incorporates everything you would need to manage and keep track of your webpage. It has various tools which are linked with Google AdWords which really gives you an idea of how often your site is being looked it. It provides many charts which map out exactly how many clicks you have had on your site, your impressions, your click through rate and which keywords are bringing in the most traffic. This is an invaluable tool for anyone with a website because it keeps up to date data about visitors. If you are unfamiliar with Google and its many tools please take a look at this short video.
This site does a lot more than just keep track of visitors to your site, it also is able to look through your page and see if there are any errors. Such as malware errors, Google goes in and scans your site and can provide information on whether or not your site is being hacked or not operating correctly. Google Webmaster also can see if there is anything wrong with your links that may prevent spiders from crawling through them. Google is able to keep up great maintenance on sites and really offer a helping hand to the site owner. The ability for Google to see if the spiders are crawling on your site could be the difference between someone clicking on your site or choosing another one, because you may not be ranked as high.
Overall Google Webmasters is a great tool for any small to large site that is looking for a little extra information about traffic, keyword relevance and any errors on their site. I highly recommend this to anyone, it is able to paint a strong picture about how well my site is running and if people are actually viewing it. Please click here to set up your account today.
Last week I had the privilege of being in the audience while Deb Van Horn spoke in my Marketing 470 class. She was able to give a lot of insightful information on the many uses of social media. I personally was able to learn a lot of new information from her presentation that previously I had not known.
Mrs. Van Horn who is the VP of support services at Rockingham Group was able to show not just me but my entire class how Facebook can be an invaluable tool when it comes to marketing. Facebook as she stated many times is free of charge, she also told our class about the different analytics that take place behind the scenes. If you would like to get started please follow this link Facebook Advertising It was very interesting to me because I had never heard of this before. She stated that it is very easy to track who is following, liking and posting on your page. Facebook is able to give you information about the user, which provides for a lot of priceless information to see who is viewing your page.
Not only did Mrs. Van Horn talk about Facebook but she also touched on Google AdWords and once again how important of a tool it is. Sure it is not free like Facebook but with the correct knowledge of how to use Google AdWords it can really help a company. That is not all it can do, she said that if you really are able to master the program there are many jobs out there just waiting for a person with the skills to promote their company through Google. Please check out Google AdWords if you have a chance and set up an account. If you have any trouble setting up an account please visit Google AdWords help for any questions or concerns.
Overall I was able to learn a lot from Mrs. Van Horn and would like to extend an personal thank you to her, for not only taking the time to come speak to our class but teaching me such valuable knowledge.
THANK YOU FROM 
Today I would like to tell all my blog followers about a wonderful website which I am a huge fan of. This website is stumbleupon.com. This site allows users to create a log in name and check off interests they have from a long spectrum of categories. After one chooses everything they are interested in ranging from sports, arts, cooking, movies, and gadgets the stumble upon process begins.
This site is able to take the user on a roller coaster ride from one website to another. For example when the user beings to stumble the website brings you to different web pages based on your interests. When I first started using this website I was able to learn a lot of information about different topics such as science, art, sports, hunting and everything else that I am interested in.
I recommend this website to anyone who has some spare time and is looking for an opportunity to broaden their knowledge in many different categories. Getting started is very simple and I promise that this website will not bore you at any point. It’s very easy to use I was even able to teach my mother in just a few minutes how to navigate this site and work with it to its full potential. Also it can be very educational for children they even have a setting just for kids just incase they stumble onto something inappropriate. One of the best parts of stumble upon that I find is the great photography and optical illusions that pop up every once in a while. For example Photography. There is even an app for your phone so there will always be a time for you to stumble around the web.
I would like to tell you all about Google Analytics a great asset for any website. This is a tool that is able to track almost all activity on your page. I recommend Google Analytics for a small trafficked website all the way up to a large corporation’s site. The best part is that this is FREE and available to anyone with a Gmail account. Please read these reviewswhere quickregister.net spoke on Google Analytics. As mentioned before all you need is a Gmail account to beinif you do not haev a Gmail account click here to create one.
All the abilities that come with analytics are incredible. For example this tool is able to tell the website owner how many people in total have visited the site. Not only does it keep track of visitors but Google Analytics is able to do much more in depth analyzing and really paint a picture for the people in charge of a website. For example this program keeps track of the location in which the visitors to your site are from, what operating system they currently are using and their service provider. Google Analytics can also tell the difference between a visitor from a computer and a mobile device. In addition to the assets previously mentioned Analytics also keeps track of average time spent on the site and average pages visited during a visitors stay on your site.
The tools that Google are offering here should not be passed up by anyone who is in charge of a website. With all the information Google provides it allows for the website owner to find out who is visiting their site, to possibly create a target market. Since Google tells you whether or not people are returning, the site operator can decide if they need to spiff up the site or not. When all is said and done Google Analytics is a very valuable tool for anyone searching for valuable information about visitors. For anyone interested in setting up an account check out Google Analytics.
I looked through a bunch of themes on WordPress and the Dirty Blue theme stuck out to me. Blue is my favorite color and I figured it would represent me well. It is a very simple theme that creates a relaxing vibe when people enter my website. The reason that I like it the most is simply because of the color. It reminds me of water and makes my website flow. Adding a color to my website gives it personality and allows people who visit it to remember that bberk456.com is the blue relaxing website.
Incase people are wondering there are around 1500 other themes to choose from, but I had to limit my time browsing them to prevent wasting time. For anyone that is looking to personalize their website using WordPress is the way to go, there is defiantly a theme that exists for everyone looking to give their site some personality. This website speaks about the importance of themes in wordpress I suggest checking it out.
Not much changed on my website after installing this new theme except that my creative favicon is no longer visible. Which is upsetting to me because I made it the outline of New Jersey with the background being the American Flag. Although it will be missed, it did not go along too well with this theme so maybe it is for the best. The author of the Dirty Blue theme is cscott5288. Overall I am very happy with the new theme choice and hope that the visitors to my site enjoy it as much as I do. If you have any interest in creating your own blog go to WordPress.com
After spending a good amount of time on twitter I was able to see that it is really a useful tool. If I did not take this class I would never had made a Twitter account. For the simple reason that I thought Facebook was enough in regards to social media.
If we put all the business talk on the backburner for a second, I found it interesting that with your Twitter account you could follow almost anyone you wanted to. Having the ability to read about the daily activities of some of your favorite movie stars, artists and sports players has been a real treat for me. When I started my account I was required to follow 10 people and I began by following Bob Vila one of my favorite home improvers. My second person I began to follow was Ted Nugent one my favorite outdoors men and performers.
I have a taken part in a few other social media sites and figured twitter was just another website to sign into. After surfing around my class mate’s twitters and other pages I have learned a lot. To be honest for me not to learn about this technology would be a shame, this site is a great way to get in contact with a large audience. Not only can famous people reach a large audience but small to large companies have the opportunity to spread the word on a lot of topics. Not only can a business stay up to date with customers but they can advertise special promotions to bring in a lot of business. Twitter is a great asset to any company that wants to advertise and keep a strong customer base in the now. To get started visit Twitter.com.
Welcome to my blog. I am currently enrolled in Strategic Internet Marketing (mktg 470) taught byDr. Theresa B. Clarke at James Madison University. As one of the course requirements, all students will be completing some of the assignments as blog posts. This is my first official blog post for Dr. Clarke’s course in the JMU Department of Marketing.
