Data Survey Results and Analysis

What To Do

My demographic for the Social Media survey was college students 18 – 25 years old and the results from were a real eye opener to me. From  the survey I learned that the best ways to reach my target market is through Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace. Here is the break down

-   98% have a Facebook and visit it 15 times a week.

-   50% have a YouTube account and watch 12 videos a week.

-   48%have a MySpace but only visit it 2 times a week.

This shows me that if I have a really focus on making my presence on these three social network that I can be seen by my target market almost 30 times a week.  This is very doable if I use Facebook Fan pages, groups, and also a Youtube account.

What Not To Do

I also learned from this survey what not to do. For example 50% of people didn’t know what a RSS feed is and of the remaining 50% only 20% subscribe to one.  RSS feeds can be effective but my target market isn’t using them, so I should again put most of my time and focus on getting a better Facebook and YouTube following.

I also learned that if I were to start contacting my people by email that I should do it between 12 – 7pm. My data results show that 67% of those surveyed check their email between 12 – 7pm with an additional 15% after 7pm. So if I want to be at the top of my target markets inbox when they open it I should send them later in the afternoon.

Lastly I learned that as for right now people are not really using Twitter or Podcasts.

-    87% of those surveyed didn’t have a Twitter account, and had no idea what the purpose of twitter was

-    80% of those surveyed didn’t use podcasts

These are two great ways to really get a strong social media presence but wouldn’t be very effective for this market.

Possibilities for Skewed Results

The results of the survey has been very helpful in showing me on where and how I need to focus my attention for getting a hold of this market through social media, but I can see several  ways that the results could have been misleading

-    People put multiple answers for one question.

-    The layout of the quiz was if you didn’t have an account then you don’t use that site, so many people left the YouTube question blank even though I know these people use YouTube frequently.

-     People didn’t know how to classify a smart phone.

-    Of course the person inputting the data could of mis-added or misplaced some numbers that threw off the whole chart.

Whats Being Said About My Brand Online?

Don’t you  hate it when you know people are talking behind your back but you don’t know what they are saying? Now a days people are a lot more comfortable saying how they really feel online, and figure that no one is really listening to them. With the introduction of Social Media people voice their opinions a lot more, and we now have  the tools to view what people are saying.

Tweet Deck

TweetDeck is a great way to follow all your updates on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace in just one place. The great thing about this program and any program that accesses twitter is that you can search for keywords and get live feeds on what people are saying about that topic. If you have a brand name like Pepsi, Nike, or Taco Bell seeing how people use your name on twitter can be very helpful.

If you are trying to keep up with trends like Solar Power, The World Series, or the latest celebrity death. You can do this very simply by opening up a search column with the trending keywords. If you do this whenever you open tweetdeck it will show you the latest of what people are saying on the subject.

Yahoo Pipes

Similar to TweetDeck, Yahoo Pipes puts the searching power into your hands. It is a lot more complicated but allows you to put in the sites that you are interested in and then put them through a series of filters to get you exactly what you are looking for.

By using these two programs you will be able to get a better grasp on what is being said about you and how you can handle it.

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Find Your Niche

Image via CrunchBase

To Find Your Online Niche

In this growing world of online searching its becoming even more and more important to identify your market online, and how to market to them.

Google lends a big hand in offering tools to help you find your niche for free. Here is a few simple steps to find your niched.

First go to the Google Keyword Tool

• Type in keywords people possibly would type to find you, allow for them to use synonyms

• Make sure you show all the defaults to start and decide which ones are most important.

This should give you a great list of possible keywords, along with how often it is searched and the average cost it would be if someone were to click on that ad.

Then check and see the trends of these keywords you can use Google Insight. With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.

Take the keywords that best apply to you and Google search them to see who pops up and what they are doing to try and get conversions. Are they looking to get people to register for a e-letter, buy a product, or apply for a quote.

After you have found a few competitors sites. Go back to the google keyword tool and click on website content. Place in the URL of your competitor and have it search.  This tool searches to see what the main content and keywords on these competitors sites are. Do this as well with your own site to see what Google thinks of your site and what your trying to say.

With these tools you should be able to see where there’s potential for you to secure your voice in a niche. This is not a perfect or absolute solution, but its a good place for anyone to start, especially beginners.

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Start Your Brand On Facebook

Start Your Brand On 

Image via Wikipedia

Todays recruiters  have figured out that everyone has a Facebook and that they can really get to know what kind of person you are and if they want to hire you or not because of it. This is a great place to start building your brand online and to show possible employers your best side.

What to do

Pictures – Go through and take out or de-tag yourself in any pictures that could be  mistaken for something bad.

Statuses – Create status that are tailored towards employers and recruiters

EX:  Had a great interview with XXX , would love to work for such a great company

Videos –   A very effective method of promoting yourself is to post a video of you introducing yourself.  Here you can explain who you are, what your looking for, and why you’re qualified.

Groups - Delete all your old dumb groups that you didn’t even know you signed up for and then start looking for groups that deal with the type of industry that you are interested in.

Pages/ Discussions – If you have something that you want to get your peers talking about or create yourself a simple page create one through Facebook’s.

Other Quick simple ways to have recruiters find you in a positive way

- Google profiles – You create a profile that shows up in google results when people search your name.

- Linked in –  Post your resume, and connect with other business professionals.

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How To Network Before Graduation

How to Network while in college

As i’ve been in college and been struggling to find a job in this down economy i’ve found that there are so many opportunities to network while in still in college.

Network On Campus

While on attending college get to know everyone around you! Everyone around you has connections to family, golf buddies, band members, etc who have jobs and connections in the field you want. Getting to know your peers and

professors and expressing your passions and dreams will greatly help you in finding that dream job.

Talk To:

- Students

- Professors

Go To:

- Organizations on campus, get involved

- Job Fairs

Network Online

Linkedin – Post resumes and connect with other business professionals

Twitter –  Listen and interact with professionals and experts

Facebook –  Reconnect with friends, create groups, discussions, and

Blog           –  Create your own blog, speak your mind, and become a presence online that people respect and listen too.

Each of these social networks have communities and groups for every industry that you can join and get to know people within that industry.

Tips For Everywhere

These are a few of the things that I have done to help me get to know more people and find jobs

* Take someone to lunch 1x a week. Be it a colleague, old professor, or local business owner, get to know people.

* Always offer your help and contacts to good people! Offer to connect up teachers w/ assistants, connections w/ quality employees etc. This shows that you know how to spot good people. It also re-enforces ur connection with both parties. So don’t refer ur lazy cousin charlie to assist your business teacher.

Get to know and express your personal goals to those around you. We need to help

Ben’s Business Blog

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