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.