Week 17

     My use of social media has increased over the semester. I used to be consistent with posting but I slacked off, now I am back to posting again. My go to social media was Instagram and sometimes facebook, I had wanted to start a twitter account but didn't think I could do it. With this course I learned to use multiple sites to reach more people and how to use their sites for a business. I am happy I created a twitter account for my business because I got to find other photographers that inspire that I have not known about before.
     I have been putting more work into my posts and try to do update posts on events I am photographing. My posts on instagram have been getting more interaction such as more followers, likes, and comments. Another thing I have been trying to improve on is finding other ways to respond to people who comment on my posts without saying the same thing over and over again.
     My viewpoint on social media has not changed, I always knew it was important to have social media to run a successful business. With the assignments we have been doing it helped me realize how important it is to put effort into each post. It is important to stay active as well. Going in depth with posts can get a connection with your followers because they relate to some of the content and captions posted.
    This course helped me get a better understanding on how to use social media to develop a business. I struggled with having a Facebook page but I learned new tricks to help me manage my page better. Doing the research on my competition/inspiration helped me improve my posts by getting an idea of what pages to tag and what hashtags to put. With the tools provided I can see who is more interested in my content and what they like the most of what  post.
     From this course I did find business services that I want to use for myself. I am motivated to photograph more so I can have more content to post to my social media accounts and get clients.  Doing research on others somewhat similar to my business help me be aware of how to improve, I always see their posts but never paid attention to them as a whole.

Week 16 Post 2

The blogs I commented on are Austin Poynter, Michele Cortes, and Tracey Walz.

Week 16 Post 1

     Before this class I have never had a blog, I enjoyed learning how it works to have one in case I decide to start a blog. The strategies we used throughout the course helped me learn how to be better at managing my social medias. I didn't have a twitter account for my business but I had wanted to make one, the assignment where we had to make one finally got me to do what I have been wanting to do.
    Instagram and Facebook work best for my type of business. I enjoyed learning from looking at how the competition posts regularly and what they posts consist of. I will be using insights more to learn about people who view my posts to see what they like the most from my posts.
     I have to post weekly to show viewers my work, I use the app bettr to schedule my Instagram posts. Once or twice a year I will do ads so people new to social media and others can learn of my work. The ads will also let clients know what photo shoots I will be doing at the time.
     I will schedule posts for the pictures I took this past weekend which include the zoo and rodeo. I will also be taking pictures of my new puppy to post and incorporate my mom's dog into some pictures to show I am going to start doing pet pictures. I have posts scheduled for Monday- Wednesday for 5:30 and when one posts I will schedule for the next week. Next week I am posting black and white pictures of some horses, the next week the zoo, and after that week rodeo pictures.

Week 15 Post 2

       I used the information provided to review the insights. The amount of page followers have gone up at a steady amount. The amount remains constant but gets a few followers every few days, between the 10th and 11th more people followed the page so there was a big increase. The likes were mainly organic likes there were a few times where there were unlikes. Total amount of likes remained constant just raising a small amount. Net followers, there are more organic followers a few unfollows.  How people found the page was by the page, then uncategorized desktop, and last searching for it. Both page previews go up then down and will stay the same before it rises again.
     Page views has two categories one for people that have viewed and the other is top sources. Starting May fifth how many people viewed went up May seventh then down on May eighth then up again. The top sources were Facebook and Google. Facebook started to go down on May seventh then on May 8th went up again on May ninth it went back down. Google went up May seventh and on May eighth went down again.
     Post reach is under 1000 with organic ways, there was once when it went over 1000. Paid post reach went up to almost 3000. Recommendations was up and down a lot but towards the ninth there were twelve recommendations. Reactions were the top thing most used on the page, likes were first then love. Other was the next top thing used, after other came comments and shares.  Men are majority gender for every age group that follows the page and that engage in the posts.

Week 15 Post 1

I think engagements, behavior reports, predictive analysis, and audience demographics should be checked regularly. Engagements and behavior reports are a little similar they both track the audience engagement to my business. They will tell me how many people viewed and interacted with my post, this tells me how many people are and are not interested in my work. Predictive analysis tells you what ads work for your audience, this helpful to know so you can make the right ads for your customers. Audience demographics tell you if your target market is reaching your posts and ads.

Week 14

I did a target area for local within 30 miles, with the age group of 13-65 female. I created an ad for a gender reveal picture, a lot of people are having gender reveals since it is getting warmer. I would have it lead to contact now so it could get people interested to message right away. My call to action says Capture the excitement contact us now.

For this ad I would boost for views and likes, this post could reach people who are fans of the team and football. Companies that need sport photographers could hire me to shoot games.

I have this ad to reach the age group of women 16 to 45 and the location is for 50 miles radius. I added some interests of baby shower and photography, to reach those looking into a photographer for their baby events. This ad would lead to them going to my page to contact me.


I think contact us and getting more likes are ads that are for my business. They would get me more customers and the possibility of being seen by top companies that need photographers for certain games or events. Both ads would promote my business and reach my target audiences.

Week 13 Post 2

I think an Instagram or Facebook ad would be good for my business. From the ads on Instagram I have seen I liked when they had a single image instead of multiple and had the caption that left me wondering. I think I could do ads for summer and certain holidays, such as Easter, St. Patricks, and Valentine's Day. Driving traffic and lead would be a good Facebook ad for my business, it will bring me more clients to schedule photo shoots with. Post likes and engagement ads are another ad that would be good for my business, the more likes I get on my posts the more clients I could have, people would share my posts and reach more people that like my work.

Week 13 Post 1

Clara Bella Seniors did an ad on Facebook and instagram. They had used one photo and the caption included a quote about the upcoming seniors, then they go to a discount they are offering for anyone that shows them the post. Fawn Leach Photography put an instagram ad and had one photo with a caption mentioning the images that she edited and now she could post them and the colors in the photos. Courtney Lively photography posted a picture of a bride with the caption telling us that the bride was going to tell her family she is expecting. Mackenzie Grace Photo did an ad on a couple dancing with the caption saying happy Cinco de Mayo and a bunch of hashtags. Jagat Studio USA did an instagram ad on a photo of a couple and put a caption that stated it was the color version of another photo. These companies had either book now or view instagram profile, they picked the right option for their ad. The photo and caption made me want to click on their profile to see what they were talking about. Their ads are effective because it is going to show up in someones feed that they are interested in their type of work. They do one ad and don't post it multiple times on to the social media they are doing the ad on.

I think social media advertising is more affective for a business than traditional advertising. With social media advertising I can select the area I want, what age group to target, and the gender. With these refinements it is more beneficial to get the target customers you want. Using traditional advertising anyone can see it and it might not reach your target customers.