The Journey

My name is Marion Henson. I am pursuing a Masters degree in Internet Marketing at Full Sail University. I enjoy creating/curating content that can be used  to help companies reach their audiences on social media. My focus is on providing an amazing customer experience while sharing the brands story. I am a hardworking motivtaed life learner. 

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Over the course of the month. I learned how to bring together everything that I learned during the past year. I learned the importance of being able to keep current while managing personal and client brands. It is important to understand how to create campaigns using intent marketing strategies. I learned that everything works together and can create an amazing campaign that can reach the intended audience. 

This course was also challenging because it focused on the creation as well as the presentation of the deliverable. It was refreshing to deliver content in this form. Creating Keynotes is great but to create a video really is a fun creative way of delivering information in an engaging way.  It was a challenge at first to learn the software but I become more comfortable and it is something to try to master after graduation. 

After this course and the entire degree, I recommend that companies really take the time to figure out what strategies they are using, create campaigns that are focused to reach their audiences and measure and track their goals to constantly improve. If your improving it means your providing your customer what they need, want, can't live without and think about. A combination of SEO/SEM, Social Media, Content, Email, Direct Marketing, and PPC really does build a strong foundation for any brand.  However, it must all work together harmoniously and a campaign is a must to organize any marketing attempt. 

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   Over the course of the past month, I learned a lot of valuable information. This class really tested me academically and personally. There was a lot of valuable information and insight gained. For one I have an increased respect to anyone practicing, making,  ruling, or rallying for the law. After this course, I understand the importance of clear communication, research, and practice. The company can not just operate without understanding the rights they have and the rights they are entrusted to uphold with the consumers who use their products and services. 

During the course of the month, we examined intellectual property copyright domain names, trademarks, and the First Amendment. There is a ton of research out their regarding all of the beforehand topics. Looking at actual case studied I learned what intellectual property was and how property on a created by a company or on a website can be copyrighted. I also learned about the statute of limitations on copyright and how to effective selected images and music to be used in the designing of a website. It was important to learn the difference between copyright and trademark and research how to obtain either and the processes involved. The First Amendment is important for marketers to understand and use when creating a strategy or content. 

Since many marketers blog, they have to be aware of the rights and how they are protected in certain situations. it is important to understand how you can protect the company to work for and what is or isn't allowed when creating a strategy. The law is definitely tied to creating a strategy for your business overall. You don't want to use practices that or illegal or violate someone else privacy. It also wants to be clear with your audience about your services and how their information will be used when interacting with your company. 

Learning about SPAM and following the guidelines put in place by the CAN-SPAM act is important before deploying a campaign. You have to have an understanding of how often you can send mail and for what reasons. Furthermore, your website must state those purposes for communication and clearly provide a way for the consumer to opt out. I learned the learned the importance of being an avid reader and someone who constantly wants to learn ( Greene, 2012). Marketing and the law around it are always changing and evolving. new cases are being taken before judges daily and they will ultimately determine what was we can interact with the data and content we use and receive from consumers. 

Source Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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                    My Mastery Journey: Web Analytics and Optimization 

As I move towards the end of this chapter in My Mastery Journey I have gained a wealth of knowledge. I am truly grateful for the challenges, failures, and success. This month has been great because I was immediately able to jump into strengthen my google analytics skill set.  Web Analytics is something that is extremely beneficial for any company to utilize effectively.  

  Goal one was immediately being feed with resources and text. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of anything read about that thing, learn as much as possible by applying techniques, creating strategies, synthesizing and improving. Mastery is a journey. This is a constant theme echoed in many of the stories in Mastery Journey by Robert Greene. 

    This course really brought everything I have been learning altogether.  In every way, it was validating. It made me realize my strengths. See weakness and improve.  I was able to see the connection between what I do, what I will achieve and what I am creating. I am h All parts of an Internet Marketing Plan work together in unison to create the perfect delivery to the intended audience. 

After this class, I am able to create reports and analyze data in order to help the business achieve their objectives. Web analytics helps companies gain deeper insights. They can begin to understand how their companies interact with their brand and if their brand is meeting objectives. It also helps your brand understand how to fix issues.

 Through learning and hands-on experience, I am can spot trends and help companies make the best decision for their companies. I am able to look at which channels are the best to reach audiences, who our audience is, what content they engage with the most and so many wonderful things.  

Optimization is important for any part of a plan. In order to level up in business. Create the ROI you want. Meet your business objective you have to have a comprehensive plan that utilizes Analytics helps you to understand what content to deliver to your audience, how, where so you can strengthen the company why. It helps you understand where they are in the purchase funnel. Analyzing data can help you create a strategy to close the deal.  Companies should me and surpass their goals by worker smarter not harder. 

What I learned at the end: I am passionate about Analytics: Web, Social, Commerce all of it. I love every part of SEO and its challenges. I love the way a company can share its story on social media and how email/direct mail connects us still. I see how every part of Marketing-become complete with the ability to understand and engage. 

I learned to read data,  analyze data and see trends and help make decisions to help achieve a company’s goal. How is this accomplished? by setting up segments using filters and making comparisons. Oh and testings and testing. Doing this allows you to spot trends. I also received an Individual Certification in Google Analytics. On this Mastery Journey, I am connected to what I am learning and enjoy growing. 

Source Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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Internet Publication is extremely important. Before, this class I had a limited understanding of all the task and responsibilities associated with public relations online.  While I have had numerous conversations about what companies who make mistakes should do and how to better handle crisis situations I never looked at it as internal pr. This month has taught me a lot about properly planning, creating and executing a plan of action as it related to brand monitoring, press release creation, setting goals and distribution strategies. This class really taught me to put thought and intent into words concisely. How do you want to catch the attention of your audience while sharing awesome news/updates about your company? 

This month I really had time to think about what media press and broadcast channels would be appropriate based on target audience. I learned how to craft a Press release, set goals and ways to measure those goals. Distributing strategies are important to organize where you will release information and what platforms and messaging would be best. This particular skillset is important to learn because it will l help you effectively market your company to the public and build newsworthy information to increase awareness. It is so important to have a plan in place to handle a PR emergency.

How do you deal with a complaint and how your company responds is significantly important? Remaining ethical, transparent and responsive is important to build and maintain trust with your customers/clients. As Greene mentioned in his 2012 book Mastery. It is important to learn as much as you can and gain a deeper understanding of the topics that make your passionate.

Creating a plan of action and being a part of an internal team that helps to carry our press release and communication online is an amazing part of being a digital/internet marketer. I look forward to research, reading and ongoing learning as I master the art of creating a comprehensive internet marketing plan.

Source Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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This past month has been amazing and challenging.  I learned that Search Engine Optimization/ Search  Engine Marketing takes a lot of  research, time, planning and strategy. It is important to stay up to date on everything going on as it related to not only keywords but also content, structure, and even geography. Most important Search Engine Optimization is about the user. How a site is structured, organized, arranged, and maintained helps determine rank. Search Engines want valuable, relevant content available for users as they search and enter keywords. They Engine’s want users to feel connected and in charge of how information is even displayed. SEO and SEM are very important to use together and actually should be done in collaboration. Having a Solid pan in place and setting benchmarks while staying aware of what search engines look for is exciting because it helps you become better at delivering better content and valuable services to users.

This course has challenged me. Many of the tools I have used but using it to apply it to PPC was new. I enjoyed setting up a budget and creating a proposal for PPC.  It is important for me to continue to learn in the classroom as well as outside. This course gave deeper insights into organic, directory and strategies for SEO. Getting Certifications in Google Adwords and google analytics are my next biggest steps to fully gaining Mastery (Greene, 2012) I think that it is important to be able to stay up to date and find news that is important. It is essential to find valuable content and create strategies that are effective. I learned that many aspects of SEO are universal but each site is different. Not everyone creates the same site, codes the same,  the same content, or are in the same niche. SEO expert should always run complete analysis on every aspect of the site.

Sources Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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Advanced Internet Marketing was an amazing class to experience and I learned so much about Media buying and advertisements.  Using the Four Personas and the Aidas model allowed me to create add copy that met the Google AdWords requirements. It allowed me to gain an added skill of applying goals and determining what metrics would be useful when assessing copy and content that would appeal to a target audience. I explored resources about A/B spilt testing and Multivariate testing. Testing has been an interest of mine through this problem. I enjoy finding out what and what doesn’t and applying solutions to bring in results.

Learning how the various metric formulations for setting goals with Advertising campaign will be extremely useful as I am developing in my Mastery journey. It is a resource that I can rely on to set realistic goals and build a campaign for clients that I work with and will work in the future. This information was challenging at first and along the way, I had to reassure myself that this new-found Mastery was in facet Mastery (Greene, 2012). Learning more about obtaining media its and looking for appropriate media sources for placing ads is important to any company that wants to build their audience and grow their sites traffic, After taking this class I am better equipped to create ads, set goals, test and create campaigns that will be effective with audiences. I appreciate the challenges the material gave me, and I am glad that I am beginning to Mastery a new Strategy in Internet Marketing.  

Spurces Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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This course of New Media Marketing focused primarily on Influencer marketing and how to determine the difference between a customer, fan, and Influencer. This course was really great because it aligned greatly with projects that I began working on. The three goals that I set in my Mastery Journey timeline were 1. Learn about Influencer Marketing, 2. Learn how to use content marketing to engage with influencers,  3. Find top Influencer Websites.  All of the above goals were met and provided a starting point for gathering reaching, creating templates and developing a strategy for a brand influencer/brand ambassador program. 

In this course, we learn the importance of incorporating an Influencer program into your overall marketing strategy. We learned the importance of identifying the people online who are our fans and how to convert customers into fans. I think one thing that I learned is that Influencer programs that are an effective strategy when developing socially trustable relationships online. These relationships with influencers help companies reach their intended audience as well as helps build excitement around their causes and campaigns.   Content in any industry especially marketing is key. It is important to speak to your audience. Understanding what your customers what to see, hear, feel experience, and support. Will help you can and hold their attention. They become engaged with the content because it resonates with them. It may move them to feel varied emotions the illicit memories or ideas. This emotional connection through content is similar to the way music connects us through notes, lyrical etc. Content should be relevant to the platform it is posted on but should also speak to your audience on that platform. 

Previous to this course I began putting together a list of the top influencers in various niches. This class allowed me time to focus on a list geared towards my case studies industry. It is important to do research and to understand who your influencers are in order to make a strategy that is relevant and realistic for your client.  Overall, this new research tool will be a working list that will be updated and edited as we make new connections with influencers.  Green would have agreed with the experience of Mastery and Research to become better at what you're passionate about ( Greene, 2012).

Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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Robert Greene spoke about finding one's path in his book Mastery Journey ( Greene, 2012),  On this Journey, I can relate to the stories I have read. The Web Design and Usability course were amazing. I enjoyed learning about webs design and the user interface principles that help make a site user-friendly. Understanding what your user goes through when accessing your site is important and gives your web design time direction in terms of what navigational features will help your companies bottom line.

Having a site that functions well and is appealing is extremely important. There are a lot of websites out there. Some of them are beautifully designed aesthetically but they do not have the user in mind. The best sites are simple, clean and present the information in an organized manner.  A site should never need an explanation to use. It should be considerate of those with disabilities and avoid small fonts or filler information that offers no value to the user. 

Websites have to compete for the spotlight. Findability is extremely important. In order to create a comprehensive plan, I think that working in a team with allowing a company to be found. Teams have to think about not only design and content, but they should make use of keywords, links, and social mentions.  Making sure your site is optimized and that your company content is consistent will help in the long run for ranking.  

The Web Design and usability class was outstanding I learned so much information that I was able to immediately apply in real life. I am interested in learning more about this aspect of Internet Marketing, especially how it relates to SEO. Usability and Findability is a great key to ranking along with some of the strategies I mentioned above. 

In conclusion, a website should always be user-friendly and take into account any disabilities user may have. The site should communicate clearly with an organized navigational bar. The content on each page should relate to the title. Users have to find your content. So using keywords and understanding how your customer searches are important. 

Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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Mastery Reflection: Internet Consumer and Behavioral Analysis

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The Digital Storytelling and Branding course met and exceeded my original objectives. Before starting class I had the following goals. 1. Learn how to identify a brand voice 2. Learn how to use storytelling effectively and 3. Develop my personal brand.  This course taught me how to develop and define a brand voice. The brand exercises were extremely useful and I will use many of the exercises and tools I learned when working with my clients as they define their brand's voice and story. I was able to use various software like keynote and spark video to showcase my case study brand voice and story through images and video.

The tools provided were the Professor were amazing. Understanding how brands can tell their story in a way that resonates with an audience is extremely important.  The resources provided gave deeper insight into the various ways a brand can tell a story. I learned that consistency is key across all platforms. In order to provide a true customer experience brands have to be aware of how their brands are portrayed and see that their employees also portray the brands messaging correctly in the day to day interactions with customers.

I learned that Developing a personal brand will happen and evolve over time. As you become more knowledgeable through interaction with your clients you will begin to see aspects of your personal brand come to life. Even if I believe that my brand voice is defined now it will become even clearer as I work with clients. By the end of this course, I am learning more about myself on a personal and professional level. I realize that my brand will only develop and get stronger as I continue along in the program. As Robert Greene said in his book Mastery “you must see your career path as a journey with twist and turns” (Greene, 2012, p 27)

The knowledge gained in the class is vital to important to the overall success of my Digital Marketing Plan. Without understanding a brands voice or story how can one decide what platforms are tools are necessary to market a brand to an audience. I look forward to applying everything I learned as I work within my company, I know that each article and skill learned will be useful in creating an effective marketing plan for my case study.

Resource

Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. England: Viking Penguin

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Mastery Reflection Assignment

        The three goals I accomplished, on my Mastery Journey Timeline (above picture), for Internet Marketing Foundations are learning the basics of Internet Marketing,  learning and developing a strategy, and learn how to use the internet as a tool. All three goals have been successfully met during the course. I In the course I used resources (online books,  journal,  databases) and tools (video, software, search engines) to learn marketing fundamentals, the  importance  of using  a mix  of marketing strategies and techniques ( i.e. techniques from both  inbound and out brand marketing),  I learned the importance of staying up to date on  what's happening in the industry and on the internet .

     Internet marketing / Digital  Marketing is an innovative field that will require the use of various strategies like affiliate, content, display email, influencer, social media,  web, and viral marketing.  I learned the importance of having a website that has a good user experience. A website should be optimized. The bounce rate should be low,  content visual and not overwhelming.  I believe that content and storytelling will play a large role in the delivery of campaigns and how we ultimately reach audiences. When working with brands  I will use a mix of techniques and strategies.

    Each week I learned that it is important to manage your time effectively, have the right tools in place to measure success and analyze the data from your campaigns.  The most important takeaways  for me are understand how to create  opportunities for customers to engage and take action, have a means of communicating your brand's message/story (website , social channels ,email, e-commerce, digital billboard), listen to how your brand/story is perceived ( social mentions, Reddit, Quora etc)   and have a way to measure and analyze the data from those interactions  (metrics, analytics, statistics from reading research ). I feel that I am on my way to Mastery. I can feel the push to continue to learn and apply what I am learning to create truly amazing campaigns that are successful ( Green, 2012). 

Reference 

Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. London: Penguin Group.

H,  M. (2018) Master Journey Timeline. Powerpoint 

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Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.

—Les Brown

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https://fullsailedu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/mdhester_student_fullsail_edu/Documents/MasteryJourneyTImeline.pptx?web=1

Master Journey Journal

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This quote has inspired me to keep pushing no matter what obstacles present themselves. It is through hard work and dedication that one can gain strength to get through the struggle. 

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My Logo 

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Lisa Nichols inspiring lecture about turning Fear into Fuel. This lecture was motivating and made me realize that you should not allow fear to stop you. You should use it as a tool to motivate you and push you forward.  Yes... Yes!!!!

Credit: Nichols, L. (2016, November 23). How To Turn Your Fear Into Fuel. MindValley. Retrieved from Youtube.com. 

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Connect with me on LinkedIn. 

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