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Final Mastery Journey Post

It is hard to believe I am finally writing my last Mastery Journey post. In some ways it seems like I began my journey ages ago, but in other ways, it’s as if I had just begun. The primary goal I had for this masters program was to come gain not only book knowledge, but an understanding of how Internet Marketing works so that I might be better prepared to enter the work force in that field. And I fully understand that Internet marketing is always evolving and changing and will require a weekly, if not daily effort to make sure I stay up to date about the latest changes, trends and developments.

As a result of this masters program, I have developed a skill-set that I did not previously have. I’ve learned to build keynote presentations, properly reference all sources, work successfully in a team environment, manage time efficiently, accept constructive feedback, critique my peers, multitask and adhere to deadlines. I have a much deeper understanding of the various parts that are collectively called “Internet Marketing.” I understand the importance of search engine optimization and how to go about optimizing content for myself or clients. I understand and appreciate the value of paid and free advertising. I understand the importance of having a Terms of Use and Privacy Policy on your website and I also know how to construct, deliver and maintain communications with customers while adhering to anti-spam requirements.

I achieved my Google Analytics certification and understand the importance of website analytics. I learned about branding and target markets. I understand the value of knowing demographic and psychographic information about users. I understand the importance of story and how valuable trust, credibility and authority are to the success of Internet marketing efforts.

While I am not touching on every subject, I am thankful for the knowledge and understanding I have gained from each course. I will apply the techniques and information I have learned to help achieve new levels of success personally and professionally. I also plan to audit certain courses in the future in an effort to keep myself familiar with the content and remain up to date. I am thankful for the journey this program offered, but know that my real journey is just beginning. It’s a big wide digital world out there and I’m ready to tackle it.

#mastery journey #IMMS

Mastery Journey

Month 11: Internet and the Law.

My original objectives for this course were to gain a better understanding of copyright issues, to become more familiar with Terms of Use statements, and to learn more about Privacy Policies. I wanted to know more about these topics because I understood that legal issues could arise from each of them.

This course was very thorough in explaining the issues surrounding copyrights. I was a bit surprised to realize copyright law is actually much more in-depth than I’d previously thought. I had a few eye opening moments regarding possible copyright infringement with the playing of songs in public locations or places of business. I will make sure all songs, content and other media on the websites I build or support meet all legal requirements regarding copyrights going forward.

Prior to this course, I’ve seen links to website “Terms of Use” everywhere, but I seldom ever took the time to read through the documents. I learned there is a lot more to these documents than meets the eye and while some people claim these documents are legal and binding contracts, this is not true unless certain conditions have been met. For example, a user must assent to or confirm their understanding of and agreement to the Terms of Use. Good practices for Terms of Use documents include providing clear notice of all terms, requiring counterparties to scroll through to the bottom of the terms and then type in their name in the signature box or click an “I Agree” button or something similar. It is also important for the terms to prohibit any use of the website or commencement of the relevant services prior to the express and active manifestation of assent. It is also important to periodically have counterparties reconfirm their agreement to the terms (Herzfeld, 2013). Clearly, these are great guidelines for any website Terms of Use documents I might create or work on in the future.

During this course we also went into great detail regarding Privacy Policies. I looked at some great examples by reviewing the privacy policies of Apple, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and also Nike. It was interesting to realize how differently certain companies presented the same content, and how the policies themselves varied depending upon the use and content of the website. I feel much more prepared to tackle these types of documents going forward because I understand the different components and the importance of each one.

We also covered the important topics of cybercrimes, jurisdiction, spam and defamation. As a result of this course, I feel that I am prepared to handle the challenges of the Internet and the laws that help govern it. I also understand that I will continuously need to educate myself and keep up to date regarding the latest changes and developments.

Herzfeld, O. (2013, January 22). Are website terms of use enforceable? Forbes.com. Retrieved September 23, 2015 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverherzfeld/2013/01/22/are-website-terms-of-use-enforceable/

#mastery journey #IMMS #ial

Guess what? I made $26,500 last night with a webinar about email marketing I did.

This is a quote from a close friend in Internet Marketing. This reminds me all the time how thankful I am to be in this field and how truly limitless the possibilities are.

#inspiration #Month 10 Week 4

My girls. My biggest inspiration and drive to go back to school and get my Masters degree. Focusing in them, I am reminded to stay focused on my task.

#inspiration #Month 10 Week 3

More inspiration

#inspiration #Month 10 Week 2

Remember that guy who gave up? Neither does no one else.

Unknown

#inspiration #Month 10 Week 1

Mastery Journey - Month 10

#IMMS #mastery journey #mastery timeline #mastery #wao

Mastery Journey Post - Strategic Internet Public Relations

#IMMS #SIPR #mastery journey

Mastery Journey Post - Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The Advanced Search Engine Optimization course was another class that I had been looking forward to taking for a long time. I had been eagerly awaiting this course because I know how important and vital it is to have a thorough understanding of the subject matter. Search engine rankings and paid search play a huge part in how users ultimately arrive at a website. For this reason, it is extremely important to know and understand best practices and strategies for optimization as well as identify and understand any issues or tactics that may damage or decrease search engine ranking.

We began this course by examining the Top 10 SEO Ranking Factors. These factors include incoming links, link anchor text, outgoing links, domain name, Meta title and description, age of the website, HTML text content, website architecture, the relevance of the site to search query, and lastly, the traffic and bounce rates.

Next, we delved into the importance of keyword selection and learned about the different keyword strategies. For our Week 1 Discussion Board, we each chose three different keyword strategies to apply to a website of our choosing and discussed competitive advantages of each strategy selected. Then we moved on to learning about various tools to help with keyword selection and monitoring. We examined Spyfu.com and became familiar with the wealth of information that can be revealed through website and keyword analysis by using that particular tool. We learned about the three different types of searches users perform. These are navigational, informational and transactional and each specific type of search may be optimized in different ways, depending upon the goals and purchase of the website and company.

We learned how to pitch a Paid Search or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign to the CEO or management of a company. We discussed the importance of demonstrating how conversions can help the business and increase revenue. We also learned how to effectively communicate the benefits of running a PPC campaign, projected campaign costs and timelines, and also estimated the return on investment.

After this, we learned about common PPC errors and how to avoid them as well as discovered the importance of properly defining target market segments. We explored top SEO factors and the importance of being able to spy on competition and analyze their past and present SEO strategies, keywords and PPC campaigns in an effort to reduce our own costs and adopt winning and proven strategies as well as avoid losing ones.

We also learned about the importance of a healthy website architecture in establishing favorable search engine rankings. We explored the importance of optimizing content within the site and links without over optimizing which may damage rankings. We delved into links, both internal and external and learned about how each can impact ranking. We discussed link building tactics and link authority. Next up, we learned about local search optimization and how advantageous achieving rank within the local results can be. We also touched on how SEO works with Flash websites and discussed the importance of actively monitoring and tweaking a website’s search plan.

I thoroughly enjoyed the content of this course and thought our instructor, Jake Johnson was very knowledgeable about the topic and also readily available to help and give feedback when needed. I am sure this is a course I will audit again in the future to make sure I stay up to date on the latest strategies and information regarding Search Engine Optimization.

#IMMS #mastery journey #mastery #aseo #ASE

IMMS Mastery Journey - Month 6, Advanced Internet Marketing Strategies

#imms #mastery journey #AIM #AIMS

Mastery Journey - Month 5: New Media Marketing

During this month we learned about many interesting things about New Media Marketing. First we explored the differences between customers, influencers and fans. A customer is someone who buys your product or service but has no real interest in developing a relationship with the company. Influence is so important. In fact, 6.2% of web users are responsible for 80% of influence in social media (Soldsie, 2014). An influencer is usually a company or individual with a large social media following and has the ability to positively or negatively affect a company. A fan is a customer of the company that cares about the brand and the company and feels personally invested in its success.

We identified personas for our fans, customers and influencers before delving into business goals and some specific social media strategies for each of our companies. These goals included micro goals and macro goals and identified whether an influencer outreach or brand ambassador program would be the best fit for our respective companies. We also identified potential influencers or fans for our companies.

Next we explored how to handle negative comments. There are occasions where customers or others might leave negative comments about your company, product or services. It is important to address these comments in the way that acknowledges any complaints or issues in a nonthreatening manner. Ignoring comments or deleting them can lead to even angrier customers or the escalation of a small issue into a giant one

We also delved into researching our target audience and discussed where they might be found. Some companies have customers, fans and influencers that tend to be gravitate toward one social media outlet more than others while other are more evenly spread over the various social media channels. One company might have a target audience that is very active on Facebook and Pinterest while another company might have a target audience who uses Vine and Twitter instead. The important thing is to go to where your respective target market exists in an effort to reach and engage them.

After looking at the various social media outlets and also looking at content marketing, and mobile marketing, we began creating our own influencer outreach or brand ambassador plans and then identified ways in which we could measure the effectiveness of our plans. We also learned about Marketing Return on Investment (ROI.) We looked at what defines marketing success and shared our short-term and long-term goals as well as higher objectives as they relate to each of our companies.

Reference

“15 best ways to find the top influencers on social media.” (2014) Soldsie. Retrieved February 15, 2015 from http://new.soldsie.com/blog/15-best-ways-find-top-influencers-social-media/

#mastery journey #nmm

Web Design and Usability - Month 5

During this course we examined the importance of web design and usability. We looked into the importance of layout, content and how easy it is to move around a webpage or website. We discovered how critical it was to have an intuitive navigation, both on page and within the site itself. We looked at the evolution of certain websites over time and discussed how font size, content, image and navigation placement has changed. We also touched on the importance of using white space to not only help break up the content but actually serve to help move the reader through the content in deliberate ways.

Next we went on to examine the various tasks assigned to websites. What is the main goal of the website? What are we trying to accomplish? And then we dove into usability testing. We as designers and developers might ‘think’ we know how a user should move through and navigate our site, but the results can be different than expectations. Usability testing is very important and needs to be done early on in the design process and then retested again after changes have been made. Even periodic testing down the road is a good idea to make sure the user tasks we want to have performed are being performed regularly and with ease.

From there we dove briefly into mobile design and looked at the differences between mobile websites and desktop websites. We also looked at the differences in search for mobile versus desktop experiences. We also touches on findability, both on page and also within a website and the web itself. How easy is it for a user to find our website? How easy is it for users to find information within our website and is the information as expected? This ties into information scent. Are our text links accurate and leading in terms of the information they are pointing to? Will the customer click on a certain link with the expectation of finding certain information and then actually find that information on the other side of that link?

What about accessibility? Are those with hearing or visual disabilities or those searching in different languages able to find and maneuver effectively and efficiently through our site? What about search engine optimization (SEO)? Has our website been optimized properly? And what about designing for the social world? Are we designing our websites so that information can be shared and promoted through various social media sites?

Lastly but not least, we designed a website plan for our own companies.

#mastery journey

Internet Consumer Behavior and Analysis (Course 4)

During this month, we studied about Internet consumer behavior and analysis. We began by taking a look at the consumer decision-making process and marketing sales funnels. The customer or prospective customer goes through a series of steps in traditional sales funnels from pre-awareness, to awareness, to the intent to purchase to research and familiarity to options and short-list to consideration and finally to purchase. We also learned how the current evolution of social media and mobile web technology is changing this traditional funnel. Today, there is a greater importance placed on research, consumer variables, product or service variables and post conversion satisfaction.

Next we touched on the importance of looking at your target markets psychographics and demographics in developing and implementing marketing strategy. Psychographics include things like consumer buying habits, opinions, values, and beliefs while demographics include metrics like age, sex, education level, geographic location, language, income level, number of people in the household, age of people in the household, and etc.

These demographics and psychographics can be used to help segment consumer targets. Segmentation is important because different marketing strategies can be developed to target different segments depending upon the characteristic of that segment. For example, a campaign for backpacks would be targeted parents differently than it would be to teens. For the parents the add would likely focus on safety and durability and price, while for the teens it would likely be more about appearance and special features like compartments for phones and other media devices.

We also delved into the growing trend of consumer-generated content and how this content can be involved effectively in marketing campaigns. Consumer-generated content comes in the form of articles, images, videos and reviews by customers that are posted and shared via social media networks like blogs, posts, videos, tweets, emails and newsletters. Consumer-generated marketing campaigns using tactics like contests in which customers are asked to produce their own material related to a company’s product or services are highly popular and successful today.

And lastly, but certainly not least, we delved into behavioral targeting. Behavioral targeting is a more recent trend and has raised some concerns over ethical issues, privacy and the length of time information about past consumer behaviors can be track and used for retargeting purposes. We also touched on the context of Internet marketing and the importance of multicultural marketing and mobile web marketing,

It was a great month and I am looking forward to learning more next month!

#mastery journey #CBA

“Check out "Jam Tour Video" http://t.co/xKavarO6r4 #Vimeo I'm so excited to tour w/ @ShawnMendes @LOHANTHONY @taylorcaniff @TheJamTour”

#Inspired #Thankful #RealityDance #JamFest #JamTour #ShawnMendes #Anthony Spears #Taylor Caniff #Aaron Carpenter #dillon rupp #Nolan Thatcher #HadleighPainter #Hadleigh

My two biggest inspirations. My hearts. My daughters.

#inspiration #hadleigh painter #olivia painter #sisters #Painter #Painter sisters

The Importance of Brands, Branding and Storytelling

Digital Storytelling and Branding. (Month 3)

This course was very interesting and something I have been looking forward to learning more about for a long time. We examined what a brand was and what it wasn’t, which I think is interesting because so many times I think people equate a logo as the brand, but that is not it at all. A brand encompasses the whole customer or potential customer experience but when identifying your brand, you must answer three important questions. Who are you? What do you do? And why does it matter? And the last question really seems to be the most important one because if no one cares what you do or who you are, everything else is pretty much a mute point.

We also began to try to develop our own personal brand. Since I am still learning my way through this course, I am not convinced my personal brand is quite right for me just yet. I need more time to learn and discover what other little niches I might like or really excel at. I know I will redo my personal brand statement at some point in the next 9 months and so I am not listing it here yet. I want more time to think about the content of my Brand You statement.

Next we covered the importance of differentiation. What have you done or what can you do to set yourself apart from your competitors or future competitors. I enjoyed our discussion board for this week as we compared Target and Wal-Mart, two very similar companies and yet very different. One is all about low prices and the other is more about the experience and offering slightly higher prices but with more selection and more of an upscale feel.

We also learned about Brand Voice and discovered how to give our brands personality. I enjoyed our live session during this week and our brainstorming about Harley Davidson to help us come up with the personality traits we associated with that particular brand before trying it back to specific things we can do as marketers to help give our customers an immersive brand experience. This includes the look and feel and ease of use of the website to graphics and content used on all of a company’s marketing pieces (online or offline) as well as the ‘brand persona’ that speaks to our customers and potential customers through things like posts and tweets on social media sites.

Next we delved into the importance of storytelling and the narrative and discovered how important that was. We looked at the various types of archetypes and attributed one of the archetypes to our own chosen company. It was a very interesting exercise and reinforced how important it was to tell your story using your brands voice as well.

And lastly, but not least, we examined Starbucks and looked at the customer experience. How are messages being conveyed? How is emotion involved? Are the various customer touch points effective? What do they do right in promoting the Starbucks brand and what are the inconsistencies or weaknesses? It was very insightful to look at the whole brand experience from the customer’s point of view, not just the owner or operator or marketing team helping to manage the brand. I think we always need to stop and recheck ourselves and ask what is our own customer experience? Are we being effective? Do we need to tweak anything?

I have enjoyed this class and look forward to continuing to learn more.

#Brands #branding #storytelling #IMMS #mastery journey

Internet Marketing Fundamentals Review. Week 4.

I have really enjoyed diving into my first official Internet Marketing Course at Full Sail University: Internet Marketing Fundamentals. While I had a pretty good basic knowledge of Internet Marketing Fundamentals, I quickly realized there were a lot of blanks that I still needed to fill in. We explored the differences between Inbound and Outbound Marketing before moving on to looking at Search Engine Marketing using Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising. I was particularly interested by the whole Retargeting idea as it applies to PPC Advertising. I had been exposed to this concept before but I never fully understood it or realized the marketing potential that lied therein.

The metrics behind retargeting particularly fascinates me. I think there currently is a lot of wasted dollars with retargeting because not all marketers who employ this tactic are taking into account that they are retargeting to existing customers in some cases, customers who aren’t likely to be making another purchase because they already converted and made the purchase for the particular ads they are still being served up. I quickly realized that the position from within the sales funnel where and when the retargeting occurs is very important. And I also think there should be some way to track sales and no longer retarget those that have already converted through the same ad or better yet, make some sort of ‘if-then’ equation where ‘if’ they have converted already ‘then’ they are served up this new ad instead which could target secondary conversions on other related products and services.

I was also really interested to discover many of the ways Pay-Per-Click fraud can occur and how it can negatively impact both advertisers and web publishers. The new trends of Splogging, Clickjacking, Ad stacking and iFrame stuffing are concerning and something to definitely keep an eye out for. (Schwartz, 2104). (Spamlaws.com).

This course also reinforced the importance of Online Reputation Management. Your online presence, image or reputation can help you or hurt you. We need to do all that we can to make sure we are presenting and protecting the image and reputation we wish to put out there. And when we do have detractors, we need to politely, professionally and sincerely acknowledge and deal with those people and situations. We also need to remember that negative feedback can lead to improvements and a greater sense of customer satisfaction if we do things right and are receptive. We also need to know when to seek legal help if needed. (Virgillito, 2013).

And last but not least, we explored the importance of website usability and web analytics. It is important to have a website that is not only visually appealing, but rich in content, SEO and is easy to use. Can the user find what they were looking for? Is your website easy to navigate? If your user returns to your site again and again, will they intuitively learn and know where to go to find what they are looking for? Metrics is equally important as it gives us the ability to evaluate the reach and effectiveness of our websites, social media endeavors and campaigns. (Lee, 2014).

I have thoroughly enjoyed this first class and I am looking forward to going into more detail with my upcoming classes.

References:

Lee, K. (2014, April 30). Which stats matter: A definitive guide to tracking social media metrics. Blog.bufferapp.com. Retrieved from http://blog.bufferapp.com/definitive-guide-social-media-metrics-stats

Schwartz, N. (2014, October 3rd). Are bots hijacking your marketing budget? Techcrunch.com. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/03/are-bots-hijacking-your-marketing-budget/

Virgillito, D. (2013, March 27). The Definitive Guide to online reputation management. Kissmetrics.com. Retrieved from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/guide-to-reputation-management/

What is pay per click fraud and how does it work?. (n.d.). SpamLaws.com. Retrieved from http://www.spamlaws.com/how-ppc-fraud-works.html.

#internet marketing #mastery timeline #imf

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