| Trailer Show @ EY Centre 2019|

For over 50 years now, my Grandfather has been running his own RV dealership. He is a dedicated man who is all about the family business. I am so proud to be his granddaughter and for all the opportunities Vos Trailers has given our family. A family owned and operated business in the heart of Stittsville, Ontario, my grandfather has gone above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction.

Each employee plays a distinct part in the business and contributes more to the business than asked for. Without the extraordinary team at Vos Trailers, we would not be as successful as we are today.

This year at the Ottawa RV Expo at the EY Centre in Ottawa, we were awarded best booth 2019.

My uncle Gord is one of the coolest yet hardworking individuals I know. He is the general manager of the service department and the back shop.

My mom is the part store manager and a member of the board of directors for the Ontario Recreational Vehicle Dealers Association.

I love being a part of something that’s only growing bigger.. and that’s what we are!

| Instagram hair influencer reflection |

We decided to become social media experts about hair influencers on Instagram. To dive deeper and get a real personal connection from our audience, we created a mock-interview video, pretending to interview a hair influencer from Instagram. In order to create our video, we had to research information about the platform, about hair influencers and about the specific hair influencer we chose to focus on.

First, we researched about Instagram, even though it’s a platform we use frequently every single day. We already knew it was a mobile, desktop and internet-based picture-sharing app where users can share pictures/videos either publicly, or privately. Businesses or people can use Instagram to promote and engage with customer and friends. Not only does it help build your brand, but you display more trust and credibility.

Secondly, we dug into the research of Instagram’s target audience and the different demographics. During our research, we found some target audience demographics from 2017 statistics  https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/ – instagram

• Age & gender demographics:

1. 59% of 18–29 year olds use Instagram
2. 33% of 30–49 year olds use Instagram
3. 18% of 50–64 year olds use Instagram
4. 8% of people 65+ use Instagram
5. 26% of men use Instagram
6. 38% of women use Instagram

• Location demographics:

1. 39% of adults living in urban areas use Instagram
2. 31% of adults living in rural areas use Instagram
3. 28% of adults living in suburban areas use Instagram

Third, we figured out how hair influencers use Instagram for marketing. In order to become an influencer on a social media platform like Instagram, you need to pick how you want to brand yourself. In this case, we were interested in those who brand themselves with their hair. Once you have selected how you want to brand yourself, you use the following 3 steps to continue your journey as an Instagram hair influencer.

1. Activity
2. Quality
3. Engagement

Finally, we gathered information about the marketing challenges it faces. There are a few challenges hair influencers face when it comes to Instagram. To begin, brands/companies who use Instagram and want to hire influencers there is difficulty in recruiting influencers. Marketers often waste lots of time trying to find their influencers manually by the number of their followers, when they really should be looking for people with the highest drive in engagement. In order for your business to grow, your influencer must understand the importance of their criteria and the effects they will have on your brand. Once a brand or company get their influencer, there is sometimes challenges activating the influencers. Getting your influencers started with your campaign can be a real challenge. You can avoid this by taking precautions like creating the posting schedule and guiding their content creation. A final major challenge faced is measuring ROI. A crucial part of marketing is measuring the success of your campaign. It is unrealistic for a social media manager to spend countless amounts of hours measuring stats manually, therefore it is important to have access to a measuring tool.

In conclusion to our research, we created a video to share with you about hair influencers on social media. This is where we had the most fun role-playing an interviewer and an Instagram hair influencer. Click on the link below to watch our video for our Social Media Marketing 2018 class.

We hope you enjoy the watch! 🙂

Marketing Media News 101: with Kate & Amanda

– Amanda Leighton & Kate Ardidon, AMC Students, MCOM42 Social Media Marketing

| HubSpot certifications reflection |

 

Certification Status

• Hubspot Inbound Certified √
• Hubspot Content Marketing Certified √
• Hubspot Email Marketing Certified √
• Hubspot Inbound Sales Certified √

Development Process

Each week in class, we are given around 3 hours to work on completing certifications. I had scheduled 3 extra hours a week to ensure obtaining a certifications. Typing detailed notes helped me stay organized and pass each certification exam. Once passing the exams, I was able to update my LinkedIn profile with all certifications.

Missed Deadlines

I had planned extra timeslots during the week to make up for failed attempts at the exam. After reviewing my notes and attempting the certification exam again, I was able to pass no problem. As I made changes to my schedule, I updated my new tasks up-to-date in Asana. The more I learned from HubSpot, I decided to stick with that for my Emerging Trends class project and receive more certifications.

Teaching Strategy/Final Project

Here are a few points of things I need to do in order to finish my project and presentation. I’m still unsure how I will do my interactive/teaching part of my presentation to try and make it fun. I found getting these certifications and learning about each subject was fun.

• Put together a presentation and outline for how I’m going to present
• Presentation will include
• Reflecting on my current set skill
• Identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement
• Identifying Industries, job titles and companies
• Identifying proficiencies and skills sets
• Focusing on acquiring above proficiencies/skill sets
• Certifications and LinkedIn profile screenshot
• Kahoot for presentation or some type of interactive game

Final Weeks Plan

In my final weeks, I’ll have to complete and update my plans in Asana. I plan to add all my word documents that includes all my detailed notes into Asana. Since presentations will be approaching quickly, I’m going to start preparing my teaching method presentation on HubSpot.

| If I knew then… |

If you are someone who is shy and afraid to step out of your comfort zone, you’ve picked the right program. If you are someone who is outgoing and always willing to step out of your comfort zone, you’ve picked the right program. No matter who you are and what kind of personality you have, this course will teach you to get along with all sorts of personalities and think outside the box. Advice I would give first year students is to stay organized and pay attention. Organization is key in everyday living and will help destress you in school, the workplace and your everyday life. Paying attention in class is key too, listening to class discussions is where you will find most of your answers so don’t waste your time on your phone or laptop, it isn’t worth your tuition money. Last and importantly, become involved with your school. When we were forced to volunteer in the community for a class, it only made me want to become more involved, meet more people and help make a change.

| An overlook of the blogging world |

Writing publicly online where anyone in the world can read it… how terrifying does that sound (not really though.) At first, I was a little intimidated to be blogging to a global audience given the factor. I am not that confident with my writing skills. I’ve always tried my best when it comes to writing, but I have grammar has never been my strong suit. Luckily, I’ve had a great teacher in college to help me improve my grammar knowledge.

I started enjoying expressing my feelings and thoughts once I started blogging, not even thinking of other people being able to read what I write once I’ve posted. I was surprised with myself and how easy it was to express myself in a different way I was formerly uncomfortable with. I would love to continue blogging in the future to practice my writing skills and as a great way to express anything on my mind. I’ve learned I’m not as bad of a writer as a thought, given the practice of continuously blogging to improve writing publicly. Of course, the only main challenges I’ve faced so far have been grammar issues. I have always struggled a bit to understand when to use what grammar tool. Pearson Writer has been an extreme grammar tool for me to use to help improve my writing and grammar skills. My teacher, Frank, has also been a great help to better my understanding of grammar.

Blogging has actually helped me in ways I did not expect or think it would. Stick around and you might see more posts from me soon about anything that comes to my mind. I am always open to questions and ideas to post about if anyone is willing to comment. Thank you for viewing and reading my Wordpress. Cheers!

| Thought Leader reflection |

For my thought leader project, Casey and I chose Seth Godin. Seth is an American best selling author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker. I’ve learned that Seth is a best selling author with 18 different novels that have been translated in 35 different languages. He has many famous quotes and quotes are something I am very passionate about.

To be honest, I was ill the day we got to choose our thought leaders, therefore, my partner chose for us. I trusted Casey to make a decision for the two of us since we have similar interests in novels. I’m happy about her decisions since it’s someone I am unfamiliar with so I can learn all about him.

You can find Seth Godin active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There are many websites that gives you access to his novels, his blog, biographies and more. Seth has also features in Ted Talks, which I am a fan of as well.

There is still a lot I hope to learn about my thought leader. I would like to know in depth, what it exactly Seth Godin talks about in his novels. Given the factor that Seth has knowledge in a variety of different fields, I am curious to read more about what each novel individually talks about.

Since I am a lover of quotes, I personally would love to check out a personal blog of Seth’s and read about his famous quotes. I would hope they include his personal quotes and what or who has inspired him throughout the years.

 

 

| Consumer profiling reflection |

1) For my consumer behaviour assignment, I chose the generation x to focus my observation on. I chose this target consumer segment since I found it the most interesting to observe while circling Chapters.

 

2) I chose the magazine “Canadian Living” to best define my target consumer based off my observation. I believe this magazine would be of interest to my consumer since it displays articles in relation to food, fashion, health, and family advice. Based off some factors such as my consumer being a female mom of two, who is married wearing a wedding ring, and wearing workout attire, Canadian Living seemed to be the best fit to describe my consumer. (Also seemed as interest to her since she was reading it.)

Demographic:

• 36
• Female
• Married
• Around $30,000 income
• Graduated from post secondary

 

Geographic:

• Kingston, ON, Canada
• Suburban

 

Psychographic:

• Calm, happy, secure
• Interests in family, spending time with the children. (She came in on a Thursday afternoon with her two children.)
• Wants a healthy lifestyle (Wearing Lululemon attire and reading Canadian Living Magazine.)
• Values family time
• Seems fulfilled with family and career life

 

3) The version of self that this magazine aligns best with is ideal self. Since Canadian Living is the number one lifestyle brand for Canadian women, it matched with how my consumer intended on being like. With all the information given in the magazine, my consumer has the option to read about health, home, beauty and more. Observing the way she portrayed herself to be, by looking at the Canadian Living magazines and her interest in fitness/food, it shows she is trying to change something about herself or in her life.

 

1^st Advertisement

The first advertisement that caught my eye since it was the famous Beyonce who was the star of the article. The advertisement is applicable to the magazine since it’s the number one lifestyle brand for Canadian women, using and advertisement directed to women, expressing any colour you are, and using a celebrity (who is also a mother) to encourage purchase.

 

2^nd Advertisement

The second advertisement that caught my eye was another celebrity, Ellen DeGeneres. This advertisement is applicable to the magazine since it’s talking about the new Vitamin Water Zero. It’s supposed to be your daily dose of vitamins that is healthy for you and tastes like juice. In a healthy magazine, it seems like a reasonable advertisement to feature.

 

4) While observing my consumer, she walked slowly passed the home décor while making her way to the back where the children’s section is. She played with her children and read them each a story while letting them colour sitting at a table. While leaving, she browsed the magazines and picked up Canadian Living and peaking through it briefly.

 

5) I believe my consumer was shopping for the social experience with her children and as a recreational shopper. Her main reasoning for attending Chapters was for her children, to read to them and buy them each a book. As for herself, she only browsed quickly at the candles and home décor while passing by and only browsed the magazines that interested her before purchasing her items.

 

| Industry Discussion reflection |

The article I chose that caught my eye was the advertisement for “Love is in the Doritos chip bouquet”. I chose this article simply for my love for Doritos as well as my love for flowers.

This advertisement was to promote the limited-time offer of Doritos ketchup chips. A seasonal promotion seemed like a great idea for an advertisement to help promote their new flavour of chips but to also broaden their target market. Doritos current target market is males around ages 18-34 years of age. To try and market to women, they came up with the answer for “what could women get men on Valentines Day that is equivalent to women receiving a bouquet of roses?” Their answer was Doritos ketchup chip bouquet.

A week prior to Valentines Day, Doritos launched their new promotion all over Doritos channels. Fans were given the opportunity to visit http://www.doritosketchuproses.com and order a bouquet of Doritos ketchup chips in a bouquet for their loved ones to be delivered to them on Valentines Day for FREE.

To launch their new seasonal ketchup chip, Doritos was given $200,000 for advertisements. From the help of social media, they reached 54 million impressions, achieved 4.3 million views on their campaign, and had an increase in brand purchase by 45%.

I found this idea of advertising interesting being a woman and a main target to this campaign. I know my boyfriend would enjoy receiving a Doritos ketchup chip bouquet and would think it’s humorous. Even myself, I would enjoy receiving one for Valentines day. I enjoy the idea of a seasonal advertisement, especially having one targeted to women on Valentines Day, I think that was their best bet by far.

Doritos Ketchup Chip Bouquet 

| From a future writer |

Hi everyone. Today I am going to express my feelings and thoughts towards writing and the challenges I face but hope to overcome. As a graduated hairstylist, I have not spent much time writing or practicing my writing, therefore, I am concerned my writing skills are not up to par.

During my year at Versailles Academy of hair and make up, I have spent almost no time at all practicing my writing. Instead, we practiced our communication and people skills to be able to adapt with different personalities. I would call myself a communicator and presenter over a writer but would eventually like to change that aspect of my life since I do enjoy writing. To me, writing is about expressing yourself which I enjoy doing through dance or journaling, which unfortunately to date has been for my eyes only.

With a great support system from my communications teacher Frank and my peers, having them around to help with corrections when needed is key. Using elements such as Pearson writer and other writing tools, I know I can beat my fear for writing publicly and it will improve not only my writing but my vocabulary as well. This being my first post so far, my expectations are not high with grabbing your attention but I hope to change that starting on my second blog post so stay tuned.