CANVA.... What is it?

My husband is an Architectural Draughtsman.  He provides visual representations of buildings for persons involved in the preparation of Construction documents, commercial and residential.  His drawing capabilities include 3D drawings and for the most part, he uses programs that provide this capability.  For the touching up on images, and his work in general, he uses Illustrator, Photoshop, Lumion or Google Sketchup.

Up until earlier in this semester, I had been exposed to the use of the programs listed above and had previously even used some of them and the basic programs whenever I was called to do any visuals for school or otherwise.  I am not a graphic designer and neither is my husband, but for the most part, we have prepared graphic content for ourselves and others in the past, using the technology that we knew about.  In my Digital Marketing class recently, I was exposed to the most amazing and useful tool in the form of a website called CANVA.  I have begun using it and my goodness, I wish I had more use for it!

Canva is a primarily free design tool that can be used either on your phone or your computer.  It provides the user with the opportunity to create their own graphics for all different purposes.  It is pretty easy to manipulate and is used by people of all genres… business persons, companies, teachers, and students (like me).  Even people who just want to create as a hobby, can use this tool!   There is so much I can say about this tool but I think I will let you explore for yourselves….. It might be a lot more fun!

For more information and full access to Canva, see the link below!

https://support.canva.com/getting-started-1/

Do you enjoy using Canva?  Let me know in the comments below.

Ps.  To answer my initial question… What is Canva?   In my opinion… it is the amateur digital designer’s dream come true!!   I have added some images I created especially for this post in less than 10 minutes total... I hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the world of Blogging!

In today’s world, blogs can be used for any given purpose.  They are quite common and are used to document or convey any given content.  Blogs can be of a personal nature wherein people document their life stories or it can be a way for businesses to share expert knowledge with readers.  It can be a forum for sharing specific content or a way to speak about a variety of interests.  In my opinion, blogging is no walk in the park!  Especially if you are blogging for business.

Photo credit:  www.entrepreneurshipsecret.com

Businesses can stand to benefit from blogging.  Forbes has given us a list of ten benefits, out of which I shall highlight four that I believe are quite important (DeMers, 2015):

1.       Supports your other social media initiatives.

2.       Helps to establish your business as an expert in your field.

3.       Increases traffic to your website. 

4.       Shows a more human side of the business. 

On the other hand, businesses may be wary of the blogging activities, the misuse of a blog can contribute to negative effects for a business.  In its article, ‘Entrepreneur’ tells about some of the things that contribute to the downfall of a business’ blog (Messer, 2016):

1.       Not blogging at all or being inconsistent.

2.       Creating content that is unappealing to the readers.

3.       Poor or unattractive headlines.

4.       Lack of visuals in the blog.

Whether you are blogging to share your life story with the world or you are blogging as part of your business strategy, it is plain to see that blogging is a whole world by itself and requires careful and purposeful consideration and approach.  If you are preparing to start a blog it might be wise to do a lot more research into blogging! 

Do you actively blog as part of your personal or business brand strategy?? If so, feel free to share your links in the comments below!

References

DeMers, J. (2015, May 28). The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging on Your Website. Retrieved from Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/05/28/the-top-10-benefits-of-blogging-on-your-website/#1ce55ec71177

Messer, T. (2016, June 27). The 7 Deadly Sins of Business Blogging. Retrieved from Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/277098

Mobile Marketing: Unknown Territory

Badges… Location-based apps… Branded Virtual goods….

These are just some of the terms that I have never before come across in all the years I have been using mobile devices.  The concepts I can grasp, after reading about them, but the terms seem enigmatic to me. 

What is mobile marketing and how do I even use it??  

Getting the answer to those questions may take me into an unknown realm, quite like the one in which my daughter’s unicorns live!

 Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Mobile Marketing is the use of mobile technology for the purpose of the promotion of goods and services (Investopedia, LLC, 2018).  The main channels utilized in mobile marketing are devices which can easily be carried around, that is, mobile devices.  Some of these are tablets, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and netbooks.

Photo by Carly Kewley on Unsplash

Seems quite simple, doesn’t it?

As much as I am the owner of a couple mobile devices, I have mainly used them for social networking and for personal, school and work emails.  Yes of course, I have had some exposure to marketing that takes place whilst I use my devices; I am especially aware of social media ads.  Those are the pesky little things that pop up every time I try to watch a video or anything of the sort.   Most of the times I just do as the prompt in the photo below says: 

Photo by @ID_R_McGregor

But on a more serious note, what really can mobile marketing do for me or for my business?

In the simplest of terms and according to a ForbesBooks’ article, there are several ways businesses can use Mobile Marketing (Forbes Media, LLC, 2018).  Reading through these ways, I am so intrigued and quite excited!  I feel as if I am closer to ‘Unicorn Valley’ than I thought!  Not all the ways are applicable to my business but definitely feel like I can give the following a shot: 

-          Email marketing campaign. 

-          Making payments easier by allowing for mobile payments – eg. Paypal.

-          Developing and maintaining a social media presence.

-          Creating an app that our clients can use to be able to interact with our work before completion.

Now that I have been introduced formally to mobile marketing, I think I will be delving a lot more into it.  As a business (co)owner, I can see many beneficial possibilities that lie ahead.  This Mobile Marketing thing is quite interesting and doesn’t seem so mysterious after all! 

Tell me in the comments below, what are your favourite ways to use mobile marketing.

Disclaimer:  I am not a believer of Unicorns and have no idea where Unicorn Valley is… I think it is just a figment of my daughter’s very wild imagination and I guess, the product of someone’s awesome marketing techniques, which coincidentally, she would have picked up on her mobile device!!

References

Forbes Media, LLC. (2018). 11 Ways to put mobile marketing to use for your business. Retrieved from ForbesBooks: https://forbesbooks.com/11-ways-to-put-mobile-marketing-to-use-for-your-business/

Investopedia, LLC. (2018). Mobile Marketing. Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mobile-marketing.asp

Tweeting for Business ..... The Pros and Cons.

Many of us have heard of Twitter and the act of ‘Tweeting’.  Some of us use it, whilst some may be afraid.  Some may even find it useless!  The fact is, many individuals and businesses use Twitter on a daily basis.  From regular Joe’s, to influencers, to celebrities…. Even the ‘beloved’ POTUS!  So why not explore Twitter and see what it can and cannot do for us or for our businesses.   

Twitter is a website launched in the early 2000’s, which allows for ‘tweets’ or posts that are brief.  Persons or businesses can set up a Twitter account that can be used in conjunction with other forms of social media.  Posts can be done on Twitter at any time, day or night and as many times as possible. 

When I was first introduced to this forum and even up to recently, I really could not see the benefits or even the need for it.  I sincerely thought it was just another way for people to express themselves.  I could not identify how it assists or even relates to businesses.  But, thanks to this Digital Marketing class, I have been exposed to some of the pros and cons, and it now makes so much more sense, especially for business! 

Twitter for businesses has its advantages and disadvantages…. Some of which I shall identify hereunder, in agreement with NI Direct, a business advice channel located in Northern Ireland (NI Direct Government Services, 2018):

Cost:  The initial set up cost for Twitter is zero!! Zilch… nada…

Gathering feedback:  Twitter provides a means to gathering feedback from existing or potential.

Brand identity:  Once a brand identity has been established, Twitter helps a business communicate this identity to its audience. 

Customer Service:  Twitter allows for direct interaction and communication between the business and its customers.  This being a public forum, allows for the wider public to see how well the business handles negative situations. 

Audience:  Twitter gives the business the ability to reach a wider audience.  It also allows the business to focus of a specific audience through the use of hashtags. 

Of course, Twitter is not all peaches and cream.  There are also disadvantages to this forum!  

Some of these are:

Resources:  Using this forum requires time and relevant skills by the person or persons designated to its maintenance.

Negative Publicity:  The same public forum which allows for the business to be shown in a positive light, also allows the general public to view negative feedback from customers.  For this reason, a Twitter account should be handled very delicately and skillfully.

Time:  Because of the fleeting nature of Twitter post, timing is especially important to ensure that the targeted audience does not miss the tweets. 

Spam:  The internet is laden with spammers and spam related links.  Twitter being even more public than other fora, lends to it being more susceptible to spam related content.

Word Limit:         Because Twitter is a microblogging forum, there is a character limit.  Businesses will need to be concise in its communication on that forum.  This, in particular, is the reason why it is a good forum to use to lead to others which may contain more content. 

Using Twitter is no longer an enigmatic task for me, now that I know more about it.  It has actually become a quite attractive tool and once I get my entire marketing plan done for the business which I co-own with my husband, you bet your bottom dollar I will be using it for business!!

Have you thought about using Twitter, either for business or personal?  Do you have a Twitter account?  If you do, hit me up with the link in the comment thread below!  And feel free to follow me using the link below. 

https://twitter.com/nickiwinchie

References

NI Direct Government Services. (2018). Twitter for business. Retrieved from NIBusiness Info: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-twitter-business

Digital Marketing: Time Consuming??

Over the past three weeks my family has dealt with a series of situations and events that have equally drawn from my time, emotions, and physical energy.  We have dealt with the sadness of a niece having a miscarriage and a couple days later, losing her own dad.  One week after, my father-in-law passed away after a short but fierce battle with cancer.  On the day before he was buried, I graduated with my Associates Degree in Business Administration.  Needless to say, amidst experiencing all of these mixed emotions, there was still the need to keep up with my schoolwork for the two courses I am doing this semester.  In the first class, I fell a bit behind with my Lecturer’s permission, but in my Digital Marketing class, I contemplated whether or not I should allow the assignments and activities to wait, and totally decided against it.  In my mind, keeping up with the social media marketing was the biggest challenge on my hands.  Was I wrong?? Did I misunderstand?

According to research conducted by marketing agency, Keo Marketing, TIME poses the greatest challenge to marketers (Kloefkorn, 2016).  For me, this holds true and I am almost sure that it’s the same for most people I know.  This article however, suggests that with the correct strategy, we can overcome the challenge of time.  Do I agree?  You bet I do!  During those past couple hectic weeks, I managed to keep up with my digital marketing through one simple strategy….. checking in on my digital media platforms on specific times each day, for a specific period.  Of course, a digital marketing strategy will be much more comprehensive than what I just stated, but once there is a strategy in place, marketers may find it can become much less of demanding task!

Do you have a strategy that helps you keep up??  Let us know in the comments below!

References

Kloefkorn, S. (2016, February 4). Time Constraints: Content Marketing's Greatest Challenge? Retrieved from KEO Marketing: https://keomarketing.com/blog/2016/02/time-constraints-content-marketings-greatest-challenge/