Week 16B: Planning Your Future Strategy & Wrapping up the Class

As we close out this semester to remember I can certainly say I've gained new knowledge form this class! 

To begin with, I wanted to take this class because I do plan on starting a business in the future and I know how important it is to use social media effectively to help your business progress. As surprising as it is to many I'm a Gen Z with no social media. For my personal life, I never saw social media as something that was necessary but rather a big distraction for me. However, throughout my college career, I have been reminded of how essential it is to incorporate it into the marketing mix of your business. I don't think I will ever be into using social media for my personal life I can proudly say that I have changed the way I view it. With so many people nowadays making a living off of social media they still have a brand whether the brand is their face or a product/service. At the end of the day, many people are just looking for a way to promote.

Going into this class I had already done a lot of research in other classes that got into how to use different platforms to develop a business. However, this class really helped me understand the details of a variety of different platforms and gave me hands-on experience on how I would be using it for my own brand specifically. Although I'm still not a hundred percent comfortable using them all specifically Facebook. I would feel comfortable enough doing it for a small business that is just starting out. Like many other things with practice and learning I'm sure that I would be able to use all the platforms I desire effectively.

Overall I don't think my viewpoint on social media has necessarily changed but I do think it has now more become more of a necessity for business than ever before. It can not only be a place where people see your product/service but a place where you find your next customer. Like I've been mentioning I'm not being on social media but even for me when I see a brand is not on social media it makes me question the brand's integrity. Making me think they are a fraud or something of that sort. 

I have a family friend who has a hair salon but they are not on social media. I've told them many times how if they were to become active on social media they could get new clients rather then sticking to their customers who they've been with for twenty years now. If they never take that step it will be to no one's surprise that they continue down the same path of no growth.

Until I start my brand I will continue to research and do trials to see what would be the best fit for me since there are so many options out there. I will also try and get myself more familiar with Facebook because even though it's known to be used with older crowds I myself can not find my way around that site for the life of me!

Lastly, I want to thank you, Professor Faulk, for teaching us so much about how we can use social media to our advantage!