My Personal Learning Assignment

Social Media and Me – TwitterBy Dianne Campbell

IntroductionMy personal learning assignment is about Social Media and Me. (Rum Cake Delight)

I've chosen Twitter as my social media tool to work with my business because it's a good marketing tool.

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass and by July 2006, the site was launched. By 2012, Twitter had gained 500 million registered users. Twitter is one of the ten most-visited websites.

Twitter is a micro blogging servicing network that will allow me to connect with family, friends, existing customers and future potential customers. I can type up to 140 characters in length in one message and it's referred to as tweet.

Twitter allows my tweet to be seen by several people, individual or companies that I follows, those that follow my account and people that follow them as well.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

My BusinessRum Cake Delight was founded many years ago but only officially launched 4 years ago to the public.

I began baking in my early teens and my passion for baking continued to grow over the years. It started from baking delicious rum cake for family and friends for special occasions and soon after friends and family was coming to her for their many baking needs.

Rum Cake Delight grew out of this passion for baking and providing customers with delightful treats.(www.rumcakedelight.com)

My Learning Goals1)I would like to learn more about how to use Twitter effectively and to the best advantage of my business. I would learn to setup an account and attract followers.

2) I would like to understand the benefits my business can gain with the help of Twitter and other social media sites.

3) It would be great to see how many users I could get to follow me once I've learned how to use Twitter and other social media sites after this course.

How to setup a Twitter Account

Select an email address to associate with the Twitter account: example, Twitter@rumcakedelight.com.Snag the user name and confirm my account. Enter my company name, email address, password and sign up for Twitter.

Select the user name and create account. Make sure to confirm your email address. Twitter will then ask me to follow five people/business. I'll search and follow a company that associates with my business.

After selecting the five companies or people I want to follow, Twitter will move me to the next step.

Select the categories that I feel will link to my business.Preview the tweets of the companies I choose to follow and import contacts from my Gmail or Yahoo accounts.

Customize my profile with my business biography and upload a photo from my computer file. Make my first tweet and hit compose. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UiyEina6j4)

The benefits my business can gain with Twitter

I found out that my business can gain a lot from Twitter and other social media sites. Here's an interesting example, I can have my website in the form of a landing page and have a blog linked to it, and this can help drive social media sharing through Twitter, Facebook and others.

With Twitter, I can engage my customers in a whole new way and form a personal bond with them by allowing them to leave feedback about my products and services. This will allow me to satisfy my customers with what I have to offer which can drive traffic and in turn promotes my business.

I can share before and after photos and videos of my products. I can also provide helpful tips on how to preserve a rum cake for up to 12 months.

This will help in creating the bond with my customers and letting them be a part of my business.

The aim of creating a bond with my customers and attracting traffic is to increase sales and getting positive feedback about my company.

Another benefit to using Twitter and other social media is that I can perform a marketing research and have people offering reviews about my business. Also, I can use Twitter to promote a business event.(http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-using-social-media-for-business.html)

(http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/

How many users could I get to follow me?

I'm very curious to see how many users I could get to follow my business, I currently have 37 followers and hope to increase it. During my research, I realized it's not that difficult to get people or company to follow my business.

As long as I'm tweeting on a daily basis and following my customers or other companies with similar interest, the traffic will increase over a period of time.

I’ve found out talking to my followers about their interest and not just about my business helps me to connect in a humanly way with my customers.

Twitter is now one of the ten most-visited websites, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet.

I would love to take advantage of this great free advertising tool and use it to increase business within my business.

By Tweeting helpful baking tips and interesting topics, this will engage my customers and followers and will indeed increase traffic to my website and eventually increase sales.(http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/)

(http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-using-social-media-for-business.html)

ConclusionIn conclusion, I found out that Twitter is a great advertising tool for my small business and it’s one of the most visited websites. Twitter is a micro blogging servicing network which will allow me to connect with family, friends, customers and even potential customers. I can tweet up to 140 characters in one message.

I’ve also learnt how to create a new Twitter account for my business which is not as difficult as I originally thought, the step by step setup was very straight forward. I can customize my profile with my business biography as well as upload photos of my products for my customers to see.

My business can gain a lot from being on Twitter and other social media site such as Facebook, I can link them both together which could drive more traffic to my website and it’s all free which is wonderful for a small business. Another benefit for my business as a Twitter user is that I can keep my followers engaged on a daily basis and get to know them and what they’re interested in.

During my research, I found out that I could use Twitter as a marketing research tool as well by sending out surveys and allows me to gain feedback about my business and how I can further satisfy their needs. I feel with Twitter being so instantaneous and worldwide, I would want to make sure I offer excellent customer service and products to prevent any bad publicity on my business.

I must admit that I’m not a big social media user but with today’s technology, you have to get into the game of using social media to push your business.

Overall, this was a great personal learning experience for me on Twitter and how I can better use it to the benefit of my company.

ReferencesRum Cake Delight. (n.d.). Citing Website. My business. Retrieved February 28, 2014 from www.rumcakedelight.com Happily Organized. (n.d.). Citing Website. How to create a Twitter account for your small business. Retrieved February 25, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UiyEina6j4  Harsh Agrawal. (n.d.). Citing Website. Benefits of using Social media for Business. Retrieved February 28, 2014 from http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-using-social-media-for-business.html  Chris Brogran. (August 20, 2008). Citing Website. 50 Ideas of using Twitter for business. Retrieved March 3, 2014 from http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/  Wekipedia. (n.d.). Citing Website. Twitter. Retrieved March 3, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter