Sarah's CSIT 155 Fall '22 Class Blog

                     For two of my online ads I decided to promote posts that I have already made prior to this exercise. I chose to do this because I've actually seen a lot of start-up businesses doing this to get more traffic on their pages. The formatting seems more casual than creating a whole new ad, and I think this makes a lot of sense for my business since it has a relaxed nature. Both posts are videos/photo montages that briefly describe aspects of the business. The videos aren't so long that a viewer would feel that they wasted their time watching it. When I selected an objective I went for engagement and leads. Even if the videos or my business isn't someone's cup of tea I wanted the goal to be awareness. I think it's important to get your name out there because even if someone may not be interested in my content they may know someone who would be (added bonus if they themselves would enjoy it along with a friend). The other advertisement I went with is t

           The place that I see the most online advertising is on Instagram. I think that Instagram is notorious for listening to my conversations to pull up the most specific ads possible to the point that I've turned off my microphone abilities in Instagram. One advertisement comes to mind that always scared me: A few years back I was having a conversation with my brother (my phone was nearby but Instagram wasn't even open). We were talking about bologna sandwiches (he was telling me that I needed to try a fried bologna sandwich), and he was saying you need some cheddar cheese with mustard on white bread. Five minutes later I open up Instagram for my hourly scroll, and the first thing that shows up on my feed is an advertisement for Oscar Meyer bologna and the ad was of a FRIED BOLOGNA SANDWICH WITH CHEDDAR AND MUSTARD ON WHITE BREAD. I had NEVER felt more seen by an app in my entire life. I started looking around to see if an FBI agent was hiding in the corner. I digress. So

 Blogs I Commented On and Thoughts:  Encinitas Donuts - This is a very different business from mine with a sellable product and a physical location. I thought it was interesting that we had similar findings with LinkedIn and MeetUp. Her search on MeetUp did seem to be a little more fruitful than mine, and I reallly liked the idea of the coffee and donuts collaboration. Instead of meeting up with someone or something that has the exact same product she thought of something that goes well together. This way, people can get the best of both worlds because who doesn't like coffee and donuts. Encinitas Donuts is already on Google and Yelp. These wouldn't work for my business, but they do seem to help with this business. Yelp is a great way to receive direct feedback on the product and establishment.  lil_K0ala Live Streaming - Live Streaming is a business similar to mine with being an online outlet for entertainment rather than selling products. I saw that he had mentioned something

           My first search into the realm of specific online tools has not been fruitful. I went to the website Snacknation to view the list of the top 35 online collaborative tools to see if I could find a good website to connect with other podcasters. Most of the website suggestions involve manager and employee interactions, and I don't intend to have any employees to start this business. It most likely will be a two man band until the podcast picks up off the ground. I did, however, notice that there was a website that is similar to Zoom and Skype called Whereby that is an online video chat website. This website could work well if my partner and I wanted to invite a guest onto the show that lives in another state. We could use this website to meet and record an episode with someone that is all the way across the country. Other than this, I don't believe the collaborative sites suggested are fitting for my business.           The next platform I looked to was LinkedIn. I'

 I commented on Purple Tsunami Clothing, Dark Sided Strength, North County Fam, and lil_k0ala Live Streaming.           I enjoyed reading all of these posts because they gave some great insight into TikTok and Twitter for gaining an audience for businesses. I especially liked the Live Streaming post about Twitter because it gave me some ideas for the PlayGround Podcast. Carlos mentioned how convenient it is to get feedback in real time on Twitter because you can post a poll or questionnaire to get feedback from your audience. I think this could work out very nicely for the podcast because I could post a poll with a few different topics and people could vote on what they want to hear for the newest episode.           A theme I noticed with the folks who chose TikTok for another form of social media for their business was the addition of social influencers. I don't think that I would really be able to collaborate with other creators on TikTok itself, but I could have other podcasters

           When thinking of a good platform to market my business concept, I thought of how podcasts have more recently become a popular outlet for entertainment. With this in mind, I figured it would make sense to use a platform that has gained similar popularity. I was very against TikTok for a long time because of all the talk of our data being used against us and blah blah blah...which is probably true, but that was happening regardless with the FBI agents watching us through our phone cameras.           I've seen multiple TikToks that promote podcasts and get a lot of attention. The "For You" page is really a powerful place. There is a podcast that I've mentioned in another post called This Past Weekend, and I actually discovered the podcast on TikTok. When I did my research into Theo Von's podcast and the social media platforms that he utilizes to promote his podcast I didn't even think to look at his TikTok, but TikTok is where he gets the most involvem

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