Week 17 - Final

My use of social media has changed drastically over the course of this semester. I started out not really knowing how to like things as my business on facebook. I used to know how to, but when facebook changed their layout I did not know how to for a while, until now.

I find myself scrolling through all of the pages I liked under my business account to find interesting videos and other related content. I can now like posts as my business instead of just under my personal account as well. In addition to that, I have found that by cross posting my blog articles it seems to draw a little more interest.

I was using facebook pretty much exclusively before I started this class. Now I am using Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + and more. I hope to be able to use all of the tools and techniques that I gained over the course of the semester and apply them to my businesses.

There has been a small but noticeable impact on my business. I am seeing more interaction from customers and it seems like that is helping to increase conversions as well. By keeping an applicable conversation going, it is very easy to keep customers coming back looking for more.

I had a great semester and I learned a lot, all of which I can apply to my business going forward into the future. I really hope that all of my classmates were able to get as much from this course as I did, and I hope that they are all successful in all of their ventures.

Week 16C - Future Strategy

Based upon the variables identified in recent lectures, there are several tools that I will be implementing into my online marketing strategy. Most certainly, using the free tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook Insights can help to determine what strategies are effective and which ones are ineffective. In addition to that, using the paid services such as adwords and other PPC marketing methods would be extremely effective after developing a target demographic and psycho graphic customer base.

I think that by spending a few hours a week on research and development of a marketing strategy for social media, it could be very beneficial to my business. The reason being that I am not an expert yet and I need to do a lot of testing to find the right target market, all while on a limited small business marketing budget.

I chose the google and facebook tools that I did because they seem to be the easiest to narrow down a specific target market with. Since I do not have a huge marketing budget currently, it is imperative to make sure that every dollar spent is being maximized to ensure the most number of conversions.

I plan to continue blogging daily on my sites as well as to keep cross posting my blog articles on all of our social media platforms. I hope that this will continue to increase the number of people who visit the site and find out about us, because nobody can use the service until they find out about it.

Week 16B - Blog Comments

This week, I commented on the following Students Blog's:

Alison Carlo
Hernan Hernandez
Laura McIntire

Week 16A - Semester Review

The social media platforms that best integrate with my business are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. I think that YouTube would also be a great fit, but since I do not have any experience with producing videos, or a budget to hire someone who does, I think that platform will have to wait until next semester. I also plan to start using Google+ after reading the assignment and chapter and seeing how much influence they have.

I have enjoyed using Pinterest the most personally, because it is so easy to use. As soon as I go to the site, it automatically logs me in, and I do not have to re-post my blog articles the old fashioned way. I can simply input the link, it will pull up and images from the page, I then select the image and add some of the content from the post to it.

So far all of the above listed platforms have worked out very well as a daily use platform. I think that YouTube is the only exception for now, which will be used sparingly until I am able to produce videos with applicable content on a more frequent schedule.

Week 15B - Facebook Insights

After navigating to the analytics section of my business Facebook page, and then to the insights page and setting the date range to the last week per the instructions, it is easy and clear to see exactly how my page has improved and where improvements can be made.

While the page views and page likes have increased significantly, the reach, post engagement and videos have actually decreased slightly. I can attribute this to me not posting as many videos this week, and also to not having as many recalls to post.

 It is clear that by tracking the insights and making adjustments by doing A/B testing and other common practices of the like, I can easily increase all of the categories over time.

Week 15A - SEO & Social Media

After reading the chapter and assignment as well as reviewing all of the features that Google Analytics has to offer, there are a lot of different categories that I would be interested in keeping track of.

The first and most important feature for my business, would be the Funnel Analysis, which would allow me to see exactly where customer's are finding the site and coming in from, and to see exactly what the customer is doing on the site. This way, it will be easy to see where the traffic is being lost and where future improvements can be made.

In addition to that, the Audience Demographics feature seems like a very applicable category for my business. That can help me to decide how to allocate my Adwords budget to ensure that I am reaching the best target market for the money that I am spending.

Week 14 - Create Ads

Here are a couple of screenshots of the ads that I created on Facebook:

I feel that these ads would be effective because they encourage the potential customer to ensure that the purchase they are about to make is exactly what they are expecting. A motorcycle is usually a large purchase price, and for a small amount up front, the customer can know that the large amount they are about to spend is worth wile.

An objective is a goal or desired end result that you want to obtain. Conversions would be the most appropriate type of Ad Objective in this business, since the end goal is to get the potential customer to go to the website and purchase a history report. By including a clear call to action like "Learn More", it encourages the customer to check out what we have to offer and can lead to more potential sales.

Week 13B - Ad Formats

Facebook offers several different basic formats for advertising through their site that includes the following categories: Photographs, Videos, Slideshows, Canvas, and Collections. They also offer several different advertising formats for specific objectives which include the following categories: Lead Ads, Dynamic Ads & Link Ads.

Using Banner ads is another great form of advertising that would be potentially beneficial to my business. Twitter also has several different advertising campaigns which include the following categories: Website Visits, Followers, Brand Awareness & Tweet Engagements.

I think that using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for advertising can be very beneficial. I would probably focus the most on Link ads on Facebook/Instagram and focus on Website Visits/Brand Engagement on Twitter. The reason being is because I am more concerned with conversion than I am clicks. I would estimate a budget of around $10 a day to start & advertising being done every day.

I have tried boosting posts before and targeting certain demographics on Facebook in the past. I did receive a lot of clicks, but not a lot of conversions so I discontinued that practice and enrolled in this class with the hopes that I would learn a better strategy.

Week 13A - Research Advertising

Since there were not 5 businesses similar to mine that are currently active on social media, I decided to choose 5 other businesses in other related industries to observe their use of social media. In my opinion, the use of advertising by many of the major motorcycle manufacturers seems to be very effective.

Companies like Harley-Davidson are actively advertising the rides and other events that they sponsor as well as trying to entice new riders who are weary of hopping on a motorcycle by offering the Harley-Davidson Riding Academy. They use lots of different imagery including both video and photographs as well as a clear call to action on each post such as "Learn to Ride".

The impact the traditional advertising has seems to be much less effective than social media advertising. With traditional advertising, there is no way to guarantee that you will be reaching your target market, and thus it makes it very difficult to determine a real ROI and make adjustments to continually improve it. Whereas with Social Media Advertising, it is very simple to target different groups by demographics and other parameters and then see which of those is working most effectively and then adjusting the advertising campaign budget accordingly.

Week 12B - Groups & Coupons

After looking around on Google Plus, I was able to locate a lot of different companies to add to my circles in order to get their latest updates and information. LinkedIn had some of the companies executives as well that I was able to add to my list of contacts.

I attempted to sign up and add a coupon code to Groupon, but they rejected my product because it is an online digital product. I am going to do some more research and see what other companies are out there, like Living Social, that I can attempt to advertise coupon codes through.

Week 12A - Other Tools

I believe that by using LinkedIn, Google Plus, Meetup and Groupon, it could be very beneficial to my business after reading the chapter and assignment. I already have a LinkedIn account and I just setup a Meetup account as well. After signing up I joined several of the local north county groups that cater to motorcycles and business networking. I think that by putting a coupon out on the web through Groupon would also be a great experiment. Since I have never done it before, I hope that the process will not be too difficult to figure out.

The best way to easily integrate these other social media outlets into my everyday business routine would be to cross post the blog articles that I write every day. Another way would be to add coupons and other incentives and hopefully even by sponsoring local events and other related activities.

Week 11B - Comments & ScreenShot

The Student Blogs that I commented on this week are as follows:

Ashley Enders
Jordyn Getz
Laura McIntire

Also, below is a Screenshot of my Email Marketing Assignment that I sent through Constant Contact:

Week 11A - Email Marketing

For this assignment, I really tried to put myself in a potential customer's shoes to see what perspective would be most appropriate for a email newsletter that would be intriguing enough for them to stay subscribed to. The only kind of newsletters that I am subscribed to myself are ones for the latest recalls reported to the government and ones for events that I would not otherwise know about. I think that by providing a weekly newsletter updating all of my customers as to the latest recalls that could potentially affect their vehicles and events that they could potentially be interested in would be a good start.

The best way in my opinion would be to focus on recalls that are specific to customer's vehicles and events that are in their locality. However, this would be very difficult and would require many different emails to be written each week. Instead, my idea is to just supply the list of weekly general recalls related to the industry and weekly events nationally that are coming up. This would be the best way to have to write only 1 email, while still providing potentially relevant content to a wide customer base.

Week 10B - Organized Categories

On my sites I currently have my Blog categorized into three subsections: one category for News, one for Events and a final category for Recalls. I am considering adding a section for Stolen vehicles, so that I can have a specific section for people to post articles related to their possessions (i.e. news articles, police reports, etc...) with the hopes of helping them to potentially recover their belongings.

By posting things like recalls, it helps my potential customers to realize that their safety is a top priority for our company, and that we will make sure to keep them updated as quickly as possible in regards to any new information available. These categories help to organize the business because it allows potential customers to quickly locate the exact kind of information that they are looking for and are interested in without having to dig through the site.

The blogs I commented on this week are as follows: Gina Schwendel, Laura McIntire and Hernan Hernandez.

Week 10A - Personable Posts

In my opinion, by adding a personal story or other relate-able information, it makes for a much more simple interaction with users who have had similar experiences in their lifetime. Users who feel they have been in the same situation as the post author may feel more inclined to comment or share the said post with their friends or family. By tugging on the strings of people's emotions, it can create an easier way to get a response from a post that may have otherwise been skipped over instead of being commented on and shared.

It makes most sense to apply a personal touch to posts that are about current events and other news related articles. These kinds of posts can be mundane in nature and are usually posted by other sites and blogs as well, so to make yours stand out from the others, trying to get a response from a reader who has had a similar personal experience seems like a good way to get more interaction with the post. When posting serious articles that contain pertinent information that needs to be addressed, it is probably a better idea to refrain from the personal touches.

Week 9 - Twitter

• Which search words you used to find your connections? Did you have to play around with more than one key term to start seeing the right results? Who did you end up finding? 

 I ended up using search terms like "VIN Check" and "History Report" at first to see what connections popped up. I was able to find a competitor that I was not even aware of that I added to my list. I did have to play around with the search terms to come up with 5 different relevant connections for me to follow per the assignment's instructions. I ended up finding the NHTSA, CPSC, VIN Car History, Inside Motorcycles, and Powersports Business to follow.

• What lists did you create and why? How does creating a list on Twitter help you stay organized or reach a goal? 

I created one list for compiling all of the motorcycle manufacturer pages and another list for compiling all of the recalls reported to reliable government sources. These lists will help me to stay organized because it will help me to quickly locate the most up to date news and safety issues that I can then relay on to my potential customer base.

• What time would more customers see your tweets. When are they most effective? 

It is hard to know when exactly customers would see more of my tweets, but I would assume that it would be during times when people are either bored at work and shopping for a vehicle. I would also think that people who want to sell their vehicles would also be willing to spend a few dollars to give peace of mind to the buyer and show that the vehicle is as advertised. After a few months of posting I will be able to compile the results and see when the posts are most effective.

Week 8B - Visual Examples

Visual Media works for the type of business that I am in because people are always looking for new information and content that relates to their vehicle(s). In addition, when people are looking to buy or sell their vehicle, the most up to date trends and pricing can be invaluable information that can make the transaction much easier. Many customers are also very keen on knowing about safety recalls as soon as they become available, so that they can be repaired faster and be back on the road safely.

 Unfortunately in my line of work there is not much competition on social media. However, I did see that CarFax is heavily active on social media. After checking their twitter account I found that they too are posting about recalls, but instead of posting specific recalls, they instead are going about it in a more generic fashion. For example, today they had a post with a picture of the state of New York saying that they are in the top 5 states in the country that have vehicles with outstanding unperformed factory recalls.

They post multiple times a day every day of the week and they have over 3,300 follower currently so it seems to be working quite well for them. However, after scrolling through a few days of their posts, it seems like their customer engagement is quite low. I did not see very many shares, likes or comments on their posts, which shows that even though they are active on social media, their customers do not appear to be interacting with them on that platform. Their last post was just about 5 hours ago and their ratio of posts to engagement is very low. I decided to follow CarFax for this assignment.

Week 8A - Visual Platforms

Visual Networks are absolutely right for my business. I post a lot of content on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter currently and without the pictures I feel that the text alone is boring and gives no incentive for potential parties to click on the article or follow the link to the site. With a picture or even better with a video on the other hand, it is easy to see why the conversion rate goes up so drastically because there is something engaging to get the user to interact with the content.

When comparing the 8 different platforms outlined in the lecture and knowing that I already use three of them, there was a choice and some research necessary for me to make my final decision. In the end, I chose Pinterest. My decision was heavily influenced by the article that was required reading for this assignment entitled "5 Reasons to Use Pinterest for Business". I feel that since the rate of people who actually go from Pinterest on to actually purchase a product or service is so high, that it is the best option to start with.

I am hoping to add on a SnapChat Business account as well next, and hopefully a YouTube Business Account as well in the near future. However, for YouTube I want to take a video class first to make sure that my content is professional and well laid out for the end user so that the company does not come off looking bad. Here is the link to the Pinterest page I just setup for the business:

http://www.pinterest.com/cyclevin/

Week 7B - ScreenShot

I think that the posts that I scheduled on Facebook will engage my audience because they are relevant and up to date news articles that give the customer some insight into new things that are happening in the industry. New bike releases, new technology, laws and law enforcement related issues, as well as recalls and other technical information are all good categories that seem to interest my potential customer base.

Week 7A - Business Likes

This week I decided to like all of the major Motorcycle Manufacturers that I know of and sell a lot of history reports for. They include, Harley-Davidson, Indian, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, Ducati and BMW.

The reason that I chose these businesses is because even though they only sell new vehicles, not used ones, and I do not sell new vehicle history reports, is because as soon as the new bikes are sold and ridden off the lot, they become used and I usually will have information available for them at that point.

I can potentially use this feature of Facebook to like and comment on other posts as my business instead of personally. I used to do this but a little while back Facebook changed the way you use Facebook as your business and I did not know how to continue until now.

Week 6B - Reach Vs. Engagement

The Difference between post reach and post engagement is that with post reach it is how any people are seeing your post on a give day or at a give time, while post engagement is how many people are actually commenting on, liking, reacting to, or otherwise responding to your posts.

Knowing the Difference between these two is so important because otherwise you can waste money on advertising. I learned the hard way last summer, I spent some money of Facebook and Instagram advertising, but because I was trying to target too wide of a base, I ended up getting lots of clicks but not a lot of sales as a result.

A business owner can use Facebook Insights in order to better serve their customers, by seeing the particular demographics and psychographics of their business's specific customer base. They can advertise specific products, services or content to their customers that they know will be attractive to them based upon the information provided by Facebook Insights.

Week 6A - Alternate Assignment

I started the Facebook Page for my business back in December of 2010. I really did not use it much until the last year or so when I added a blog to my site and started cross posting the blog articles on all my business social media accounts. Currently we have 305 followers and typically I post on the page about 5 times a week.

The first company I chose to check out is CarFax, they are making very good use of their page and even had a post as recent as 2 hours ago from writing this. They seem to post lots of questions with links to articles with the intent of getting potential customers to engage in a conversation. They are also using video which can be very appealing and draw a lot more attention that just using photos. They are posting multiple times every day and seem to be doing every day of the week. I think their cover photo should show a wrecked car and a fixed one, so that is one thing they could work on and that I may implement on my own page.

The second company I decided to check out is VINCheckPro, they are not making such good use of their page in my opinion. They do not post often, they post links without pictures or engaging text, and they only post about 2 times a month or so. Some of the posts are repeat posts which shows their lack of original content. Their page setup is nice with a good professional looking cover photo and their logo for their profile picture. There are many ways that they could improve their page, probably too many for me to list here, and from a potential customers standpoint that is a big turnoff with potential lost sales being a result.

I could only find two companies with Facebook pages that were active so unfortunately I was unable to do a third.

Week 5B - Target Market

Since motorcyclists range in demographics is wide and far it seems better to me to focus on psychographics for my business. However, there are a few demographics that I can keep in mind. Since people under age 16 can not get driver's licenses in this country, there is a low probability that any under that age will be looking to purchase a motorcycle so that may be where I would draw the line for the age demographic.

As for psychographics, I would definitely want to aim at targeting the people who live the motorcyclist lifestyle. Because there are sever different types of bikers, i.e. sport bike riders, cruiser riders, trike riders, etc... it seems that I would need to create several different platforms in which to try and reach my potential customer base. In the end, I think that more research is needed to really determine my prime target market based on previous sales analytical data.

Week 5A - Set Two

I decided to choose Teri Cafe and Chili's, set two, for my blog post. The first thing that I noticed was that Chili's is more targeted towards a nationwide audience, while Teri Cafe is more geared towards the local San Diego County Market. The Teri Cafe site is very simple and not designed with the obvious capital that was invested in the Chili's site. The Chili's website on the other hand is very well designed with lots of good aesthetics and layout ideas.

I think there is some crossover between the customers, both potential customers will be hungry looking for a good quality meal at a reasonable price. The first thing that sticks out on the Chili's website is the big steak on the front page with a link to find the store closest to you. On the Teri Cafe site, however, the menu is more of the focus as they only have a few locations here in San Diego and are not a nationwide chain like their counterpart.

Week 4B - Frequent Sites

Slickdeals

1. This site is very effective because it shows deals on different products and services based upon forum user ratings.
2. The layout and design of the site makes it very easy to find exactly what you are looking for, or if you are unsure to just browse around.
3. Every time I need something that costs more in a retail setting than online, I check here first. Instead of going to Amazon or other similar online sites first, I come here because it allows me to make sure that I am getting the best deal possible and not wasting any money.
4. A lot of times, to find the real best deals of the day, they will not be on the front page. You have to go to the specific forum you are looking for and kind of sort and dig through it to find the best deals.

Proxibid

1. This site is very effective because it allows me to find vehicles at local public auctions that I can buy, fix up and resell.
2. The way the site is built makes it very easy to search by location and find local public auto auctions and showing me their inventory so that I am not driving all over and only going to the auctions with the inventory that I am personally interested in.
3. I have bought several vehicles at dealer trade in prices and have been able to turn around and sell them at retail prices, so I keep coming back looking for more good prices on vehicles that can quickly be fixed and resold.
4. The site is a little outdated with its design, also the white background makes it difficult on the eyes after time. I would suggest they update to a CMS software like wordpress, start a blog and change the color scheme to help improve user interaction.

The student blogs that I commented on this week are as follows:

Bryce Clark

Hernan Hernandez

James Sharp

Week 4A - Branding

The first site that I chose was the Exmouth View Hotel, immediately upon entering their home page I first noticed that the site was not responsive and therefore is optimized for different viewports. You have to scroll both up and down and left to right on my computer to be able to see all of the links and information on the site. By creating a website that is fully responsive, it would greatly increase the ease with which their site can be used by potential customers with all different types of internet accessible devices.

The second site that I chose was Rover P6 website that sells specialty parts for older MG Vehicles. Upon entering the home page, I was overwhelmed with pictures and text. It seems that if this website were to have a separate page on the site for pictures and other media, that it would really clean up the home page. In addition to that, you have to scroll for a long time to get all the way to the bottom, by putting some of the information onto a separate page on the site as well and linking to it, it would greatly reduce the clutter and help give some structure to the website.

The third site that I chose was the Stone Brewery website, I chose them mostly because I love their beer. They have a really nice site that is optimized for different viewports and fully responsive. They also use flash or JavaScript to animate their home page and encourage user feedback. Their use of branding, aesthetics and design shows that whoever built their website is obviously very experienced. Not only can you easily pinpoint the type of beer that is most desirable to your taste, but then you can also find the closest store that has that beer in stock for you to pick up and try, which is a great idea in my opinion.

The final site that I chose was the Headhunter Salon, they specialize in hair styling for men and women. Their site is a very simple one, that is well laid out and seems to be responsive to different viewport sizes. It was very easy for me to see what services they offer, and the prices for those services, all in one click and on one page. I can also see the different stylists who work there and their areas of expertise which makes is easier for me to make a decision when deciding where myself of my family will be getting our next haircut.

Week 3B - Examples

    CarFax

       www.carfax.com

       Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn

       They are using their Twitter, Google and Facebook accounts heavily, not so much with the other ones

       About 3 hours ago for Twitter, Google and Facebook
       They are using their social media very well, getting people involved and informing them of the latest Car, SUV and Light Truck News

    AutoCheck

    www.autocheck.com

    Autocheck does not have any links to social media on their site that I can see

    The only related social media could find was for AutoCheck’s Parent Company Experian Auto which did not really relevant information for customer’s on their Twitter account, but more industry insider info instead

    Their Twitter account was posted to three days ago

    They are not taking advantage of all the social media platforms available and the ones they are they do not seem to be doing a good job with

    CycleChex

    www.cyclechex.com

    Facebook

    They rarely post to their account but the info they do post is relevant to their customer base

    About 6 months ago, it seems like they do not really have any type of following on social media

   This is the worst example so far, with pretty much no regular posting

   Rig Dig

    www.rigdig.com

    They do not advertise any social media links on their website that I can see

    I was able to find a Twitter account for their company, but it seems they are using it sparingly and the information is dated

    About 3 months ago was their last activity on their Twitter Account as far as I can tell

    When they were posting, they were posting good relevant information and they were posting regularly, but not anymore.

    InstaVIN

    www.instavin.com

    Twitter, Facebook and Google +

    The links to their social media weren’t working except for Google + and that was not used in years.

    I was able to find a Twitter account that also did not appear to have been used in years

    They seemed to have been posting relative information for their customers previously, but are not doing so anymore

At the end of this assignment, it has really opened my eyes to see that my competition is slacking heavily. The only company really trying to maintain any type of social media presence out their steadily is CarFax, and they specialize in a different market. Since they focus on Cars, SUV’s and Light Duty Trucks, and my businesses specialize in Motorcycles, Heavy Duty Trucks, RV’s and Buses, it seems like the time is right for me to really double down and push even harder to grow the social media accounts for my businesses. It looks very unprofessional when a customer tries to reach out to these companies by means other than their websites, when most of them do not even have any active social media accounts to reach out to them at.

If I want to be taken seriously by my customer base, not only do I have to provide relevant and useful information for the customer, but I also have to do so regularly to show them that we are available to be reached by other means than just our website or a telephone call. To be successful at marketing the site through social media, it is important to try and see things from the customer’s perspective and try to post things that they will find interesting and helpful to hopefully get their potential business in the future.

Many different companies offer Generic Vehicle Information, and that is the reason why I have started the niche websites that I have. By focusing on certain specialty markets, it will allow me to provide the best and most relevant information to certain customers without them having to dig through a bunch of irrelevant to them info just to find what they are really looking for.

Blogs I commented on this week:

Ashley Enders

Marcela Valdez

Kristi Pope

Week 3A - Communication

In the past I have experienced trouble communicating with certain companies through traditional means like telephone or email. However, it seems like most of the time when you leave a bad review on social media or the e-commerce sites which sell their products, they seem to respond much more quickly.

I have also experienced lots of good communication with companies on social media, when they advertise their products that work well and are designed properly. Many times myself and other satisfied customers will leave reviews or tell our friends and family about the product by sharing it on social media or via email, telephone, in person or other means.

In my businesses, I always try to address to the customers concerns sincerely and put myself in their shoes. By seeing the situation from their point of view, it allows me to address the issues at hand more appropriately from a customers standpoint instead of from a business owners point of view.

Week 2B - Comments

This week I commented on the following Student's Blogs:

1) Bryce Clark
2) Ashley Enders
3) Hernan Hernandez
4) Marcela Valdez
5) Jessica Young

Week 2 - Overview of Social Media Use

I feel that Facebook is the most geared towards personal use because it is very simple to not only express yourself in the form of photographs and videos, but also by sharing links to other sites easily. You can write as long of a post as you want and the text will show up along with the picture without having to click on the image/link.

Whereas with Instagram and Twitter you have more limitations that I feel are more suited towards business use for advertising and other commercial interests. You can only use a certain number of characters on one and the other only shows a small clip of the text underneath the picture and videos are usually short and not as detailed.

Week 1B - Comments

The Blogs that I commented on are as follows:

Bryce Clark
Hernan Hernandez
Laura McIntire
Jessica Young

Week 1A - Template Choice

Welcome to My Blog

I chose this "Watermark" template for my blog because I really liked the layout compared to some of the other templates that were available. Something simple is what seemed to me to be the best option, so as not to overload the page and clutter it with too much content in one area was a key part of my choice as well.

I hope to be able to continually adjust and customize this template both with the easy editor and HTML as the blog and my skill levels grow over time. When choosing a background image, after looking through the stock photos provided by blogger, I decided to upload my own instead to keep from using something that someone else may have already chosen.