A Rule to Remember: Target Audience

Whether it be designing a website or doing a social media campaign, the first thing that should always be remembered is who is your target audience?

Planning for Social Media

I found this out with a social media project. We set goals for different social media platforms. To be honest, my first impression was that no one really uses Facebook to post anymore. I was starting to feel as though it was being more used as a messenger. In my group of four, I guess the others felt the same way.

Facebook

 

That's the thing, Facebook has the most used users on any social media platform. Even if it does seem relatively dead on our feeds at times.

Most users for our client's demographic was men from the ages of 22-34 that were the most common fan of the page, which makes sense considering our client is a realtor and most buyers are around that age.

For general Facebook demographics they're saying that ages 18-24 are the most active user for their site.

Graph from Testini Real Estate's Facebook

Twitter, Google Plus..

You also have to do some research if your target audience even use other platforms as a ways of finding information or communication. It can be a rough start, but if you follow people with similar interests, it could be beneficial.

Goals

Make sure your goals for the social media platform are obtainable when you think about your demographic. Find out what your target audience uses the most and focus the most on that. Eventually you'll really create a community on one network and hopefully the others will follow.

Twitter 101

I originally opened a twitter account two years ago and my friend said that I should read on twitter 101 for dummies because my tweets were too long.  I did not know what really twitter was, the hash tags and the @ symbols.  So since then I took my account down.  I re-opened a new account a few months after that but I still have not looked at watching a tutorial on how to tweet, etc.  Since then my account have been sitting without any tweets but I'd like to get at it again.  So probably when school is over or during my two weeks christmas break that I'll be able to to that and tweet properly and being able to understand what those hashtags means.

I have to start watching these videos to learn how to tweet properly.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Twitter+Tutorial+for+Beginners&FORM=RESTAB

#Hashtags?

Remember when the # symbol meant pound? Or when it meant number sign? Now a days it’s usually referred as a, “hashtag”.

What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag is usually a short meaning of an event, place, thing, or saying. It’s used in social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so on.

Top Five Weekly Trends

Each week there is a pattern to the some of the most used hashtags across these platforms.

Monday: #MCM (Man Crush Monday)

Where people post of a picture of their current guy crush.

Wednesday: #WCW (Woman Crush Wednesday)

Where people post of a picture of their current woman crush.

Thursday: #TBT (Throwback Thursday)

Where people post a picture of a past event and would like to share what happened.

Friday: #FB/#FBF (Follow Back Friday)

Usually used when you want people to follow you back, but keep in mind people may unfollow you if you do not follow them back. It’s kind of a trade off.

Sunday: #Selfie (Seflie Sunday)

Where people post a picture of themselves.

Why I mention these?

Right now I am currently working with a group to promote Robert Testini’s social media accounts in hope of bringing more traffic to his real estate website. What I found out while working on his instagram account is some popular hashtags.

Popular Hashtags?

#sunset

#skyline

I learned that these got the most likes on his Instagram account, which is one of the goals that my group and I wanted to achieve. It seems to me that people enjoy seeing nature shots around the world.  Anything to do with weather or nature will generally do well.

Before I used to cringe at the word, “hashtag”, but now I’m starting to realize the potential it has to bring in an audience for yourself or clients.

Second Post - yay!

This was my mail out flyer project that I created in my Illustrator class in term 2 that I will be including in my portfolio website.  I used all sorts of tools and different typography with different colour scheme that matches with my coffee logo.  There was a 3-d building poster that came with this but I am still revising it.

The stripe orange/white canopy, I used the pathfinder "minus" tool as I needed to make them even on the edge. I also included some vector images (on right) including the vintage background to give it a rustic style.

My First "Official" Blog

Writing my first BLOG

I’m Belinda.  I am a student taking the New Media Design and Web Development at the downtown campus BCIT.  In my Social Networking class, we were asked to create a Story Telling blog.  So I guess this is my first official blog.  I’m not totally sure yet what topic should I be blogging about but this is a start.  Just writing whatever I can think of right now.  Eventually, I may choose a photography or web/graphic design blog topic.  Currently, I am in the process of building my portfolio site so a “blog” page will be on the menu.  To talk about working on my portfolio, it is actually exciting but at the same time it requires a lot of work organizing and gathering all the contents, then eventually making the site live.  I will be putting six our my previous projects from previous terms. 

Here is a photo that I took last July.  Since school started, I haven’t been taking much photos.

Please like my facebook page.  I have not updated it since July but when I get a chance I will.  Will upload more photos soon!

https://www.facebook.com/belindabuphotography