Facebook Ad Campaign for Social Media Marketing Project

Our class was to make a Facebook campaign for our final presentation. I decided to create a campaign on gaining page likes for my dog Bailey.

       

Earlier in the course, we were required to make a Facebook page just to get an idea of how to do it. I made one for my dog. When this project came about I thought to myself, "Well, she's a real pet and her page is already set up. So I guess I can advertise her and see what kind of people would be interested in clicking on her." We weren't required to actually put money into the campaign, but it was recommended. I put $20 towards a 3 day campaign (11/18-11/20) to gain likes for Bailey's page. I assumed she would have reached about 6,000 people, accumulated 80 clicks, and accumulated at lease 20 likes.

Here are the results:

Results on graph

Ages of audience 

Ad placement

I was presently surprised on many likes Bailey's page got. She accumulated 739 new page likes and reach a little over 7,000 people! That was much greater than what I projected before the campaign ran. I found it interesting that 80% of the total likes gained were from males between the ages of 13-17. I'd expected to attract mostly females and a little bit of an older age group. Either way, I'd say the campaign was pretty successful. 

Ch. 11

In this chapter, Bolles explains how to start your own business.

So what if you can't find a job that suits you? Maybe you just don't want to work for someone else. Well, why not start a business? "According to some surveys, up to 80% of all workers have toyed with this idea at some point in their lives." Some examples of dreams that people may have are opening their own bake shop, selling jewelry,  or even creating their own website where they can teach people how to "go green." You might not even have any ideas yet, but you just know that you want to be your own boss and are open to suggestions.

By giving 3 case histories, Bolles makes his point on how starting a business can be fairly easy or very difficult. After reading them, he points out what things they all have in common:

a.) The individuals didn't need a ton of money to start up.
b.) The individuals had to do a lot of research in order to be successful.
c.) The individuals all used the Internet as s key tool in helping them expose their product, service, or expertise to the public.
d.) None of the individuals went down the traditional path that most would think to do.

If you are unsure what kind of business to launch, you should follow the 4 steps to see what you might do.

Write: Start with reading Chapter 7 again, which is understand who you truly are. It is a good idea to get out a blank sheet of paper and write down any ideas you may come up with. Then, you can write your resume along with the guidance of Chapter 2 on how to write your resume.

Read: By now, hopefully you have 3 different business ventures thought up. Bolles provides multiple websites to take a peek at regarding "all the virtues and perils running your own business." Websites like Working Solo, Small Business Administration, and A Small Business Expert, just to name a few.

Explore: With your business in mind, "you must find out what skills, knowledge, or experience it takes to make this kind of business idea work, by interviewing several business owners." This is known as List A. Then you need to make a list of skills, knowledge, or experience that you have. This is known as List B. By subtracting List B from A, you get what skills, knowledge, or experience you are missing, which is List C. List C is names of friends or co workers that do have these skills that you lack that might be able to help with your business.

Get Feedback: Are you cut out for creating your own business? You can find out on Working Solo. This is link is a self-examination type questionnaire that you can fill out which "encourages you to ask the hard questions."

Ch. 10

In this chapter, Bolles talks about five different ways to choose or change your career.

1.) The first way to go about changing your path is to go online and look at O*Net Online, which is something Bolles mentioned in a previous chapter. On the home page, you will find multiple links that either have you take a career quiz, find job openings, or see what's offered for driving and work from your home jobs. This can be a useful tool whether you are still unsure about your new career choice or you know exactly what you are looking for. I think it's a great website to take advantage of.

2.) The next way mentions career tests. They can be very useful to some people, and not so useful to others. The tests can only be so broad, so they might not be right for you because you are unique and there is no other person just like you. Bolles words it that taking the test "can only describe the family in which you belong." Apparently that's just not enough when picking a career you love! When taking a test, be open minded and don't try to come up with the end result it might give you. Taking several tests can help as well. You might get "mixed reviews" from each test taken, so Bolles provides testing websites like The Dewey Color System, Dr. John Holland's Self-Directed Search, and The University of Missouri' Career Interests Game. 

The Dewey Color System test

3.) Using your Flower Diagram he suggested to make in Chapter 7. This Chapter tells us how to use it to "breakdown and build it up to define a career for you."

4.) You can change a career in two steps. Bolles mentions that we must consider the job title vs. the field in which it's in. "Title is really a symbol for what you do. Field is where you do it, or what you do it with." He provides a diagram to show how there is 3 ways to change careers. One way that he names "the Difficult Path" is jumping right into that line of work that you want to do. For example, if an Accountant suddenly decides he wants to become a reporter on new medical developments, you have to ease into it. Look into being an accountant at a Hospital for medicine research or see how you can get involved with television that leads to reporting. 

5.) Last but not least, you should look into what the job market needs these days. See what's in demand or what is projected to be rising in demand. Going to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and browse around on the site. It would be best to look at the level of education needed for certain jobs that are growing faster-than-average.  

Guide to career information on the T.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Ch. 9

This Chapter talks about how to handle your handicaps or anything else that is holding you down from a job.

When you go to a job interview, you could think of hundreds of ways that you could get turned down. "I never graduated high school/college. I am too fat, ugly, etc. I am Black, Hispanic, etc. I am too shy. I haven't had enough experience." These are just some of statements that people come up with when walking into an interview. Bolles says that yes, a handicap might keep some employers from hiring you, but not all; we cannot generalize all employers. But we can divide employers into 2 tribes, "employers who are interested in hiring you for what you can do; vs. employers who are bothered by what you can't do." For the ones who seem to focus more on what you can't do, respectfully decline their offer and ask if there are other employers who would be interested in your skills. It's okay if it takes a long time to find a job you'd really love and feel respected by the employer.

Everyone is handicapped in their own way, so it's best to not only focus on what you can't do. 

Bolles suggests to get a piece of paper and write a list (side by side) of skills you have and don't have.  He has a list of 246 skills as verbs list on the next page if you are having trouble getting the list long. Once you're done, he says to pick out 5 skills that you like and write examples of how you've done them recently.

Disabilities and prejudices are 2 very different things. "A disability is something wrong with you. A prejudice is something within the employer." But both are considered handicaps because both can prevent you from being hired. Some examples of prejudices are being out of work too long, age, returning veterans, ex-offenders, former patient, and others.

Hootsuite Certification and Enterprise Training Courseware

During the semester, we were to keep in mind that we (the students) had to pass the Hootsuite Exam in order to pass the course. We were to log into our Hootsuite account and watch the tutorial videos about how to use Hootsuite and why it is a useful tool when managing multiple social media accounts and posts.

One of many videos we were to watch for the exam

Our professor suggested we take the test (even if we didn't know everything) just to get a feel for it. What's nice is you can take it as many times as you'd like until you pass. It took me only twice to get a 97% on it. I didn't even watch all of the tutorial videos! I decided to redo a couple of the questions I didn't get correct until I got 100%, but you really don't need to.

My final score on the exam

Ch. 8

This chapter takes the Flower Diagram that Bolles suggested you to make in the last chapter and completing 5 steps along with evaluating it.

You need to find out what careers or jobs your flower points to. You are to combine your interests with your skills and ask your family and/or friends what jobs come to mind when they see your list. Write down everything they tell you (even if you don't like their ideas).

You need to try on careers before you decide which ones to pursue. Bolles compares this idea to shopping for clothes. A shirt might look nice on a mannequin in a store, but when you try it on for yourself, you might not like how it looks on you. His suggestion is to go on our Linkedin profiles we made and look up people in the field or company we are interested in. Contact those workers and see if they can meet up at Starbucks (or just somewhere to talk). Ask them questions about their job like, "What do you like most about your job?" "What do you like least about it?" and so on. Always ask how much training i required for it. If the job requires a lot of school or a degree, see if there are any exceptions and try to get in contact with those individuals. If that doesn't work, then there are jobs that may be similar to what you're looking for. "Instead of becoming a doctor you can go into paramedical work; instead of becoming a lawyer, you can go into paralegal work; instead of becoming a licensed career counselor, you can become a career coach."

You need to find out what kinds of organizations have such jobs. See what kinds of places are our there. They might different hiring options like part time, temporary, consultants, non-profit, or volunteer jobs available. Then talk with the people who works for that organization to get a good grasp of how that job is, if you find one that interests you.

You need to find names of particular places that interest you. Once you do that, "you should choose places based on your interest in them, and not wait for them to open up a vacancy." The book gives a great example. Lets say you want to be a welder. I think we can all agree that is a very broad job market, but once you start adding specificity to it, you narrow that down dramatically. You narrow your interest down to "I want to work in a place that hires welders, within San Jose area, has fifty or fewer employees, and makes wheels" Zoning in on this specific job hunt, you can see what is out there and go get 'em! If not, you might want to slowly broaden your range again.

You need to learn as much as you can about a place before formally approaching them. This last step is an absolute must if you think you've found your dream job. Find out their corporate culture and how they go about doing things in their business. Find out what they want to achieve and how you can help them meet those goals. See if you know anyone who knows about the company (how they treat their employees, their work ethics, reputation to the community, etc.). Ask friends, family, people in that organization. It helps to look up reviews on the internet or even books.

Ch. 7

This chapter talks about finding out who you are and how you can use that to your advantage in the job market.

There are 7 ways that help us understand why this is important.

1.) Your job title isn't designed to explain that you could have many skills to provide. You must evaluate yourself and realize you have multiple skills. Take those and figure out how to place them in your resume along with collaborating in the job market. In this way, multiple markets can open up to you instead of just 1.

2.) By doing this, you can specifically say, in detail, what you are looking for in a career.

3.) Passion rises in the job hunt. Normally looking for 1 job title sounds more like a duty, but with your specific skill set, you have a vision and you will do anything to get this job.

4.) When you know what company you'd like to work for, you don't have to wait for a job opening. You go forward and approach them through your bridge person (like we talked about before). "More often than you would think, they will create a job for you," Bolles mentions in the book.

5.) "You will stand out because you can accurately describe to employers exactly what is unique about you, and what you bring to the table that the others do not."

6.) If you are considering a career change, there are multiple ways to learn about the new job you seek, or to create your own. For example, if you work retail, but decide you want to work in the food industry, you can google how those jobs can be. An even better idea is to talk to actual people that work in that field.

7.) Bolles words this last reason very well. "Unemployment is an interruption, in most of our lives. And interruptions are opportunities , to pause, to think, and to assess where we really want to go with our lives."

The rest of the chapter has about 20 pages of how you can begin to create your "Flower Diagram," which is a visual of  the 7 sides of you. The middle involves knowing your favorite knowledges or fields of interest, and it branches off from there to the petals. He helps you complete each petal through out the rest of the chapter.