Final Blog Post

This class has been a blast! I really enjoyed utilizing Blogger this semester, and may even continue to do so going forward. I got to create a fictional business to base my assignments on, which was a lot of fun. Bar K is something I would love to pursue in real life (if it weren't so expensive in California!), and so it was really great to be able to come up with a brand image, ads, and social media accounts to reflect what kind of establishment I would want to have. 

Over the course of this class, my support of social media for businesses has gotten even stronger. I have always looked at it as an important part of every business, but after seeing all of the tools that are available and how much impact an online presence can have to a business, I am even more drawn to it. To the untrained eye, social media advertising is just a fun way for businesses to interact with potential clients. While that may be true, there is also so much more below the surface. Using analytics for example, to track views and interactions is vital to having a successful social media marketing plan.

I do have a better understanding of using social media to help develop a business. Even though mine was fictional, I seemed to get a lot of good feedback for the posts I created. I even had an interaction with another Bar K who found me through Facebook. Though they were in a separate state and my business was completely fictional, they felt threatened enough to send me a cease and desist letter as a "learning opportunity". Though this is slightly embarrassing (and resulted in me adjusting my name to Bar K San Diego), it also means I must have been doing something right if a business across the country noticed me and felt threatened. Overall, I really enjoyed creating social media accounts for my business and had a lot of fun doing it.

I will probably continue to use Facebook, Instagram, and even Blogger for myself. If I ever do create a business (maybe Bar K isn't so impossible after all!), I will have a base to build off of thanks to this class. It was really fun to find my voice and try out new things. I also think that because my business is fictional, I had a bit more freedom to experiment without it having negative effects; I feel like if I had a real business, using it as a learning experience for this class could have potentially been dangerous if I did not know what I was doing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class. I took it alongside my E-Commerce course, and was able to use Bar K San Diego as a theme for both classes, which gave me an even deeper understanding on the online presence of a business. I found that I really enjoy social media marketing, and could potentially want to focus on this as a career. I love engaging with people online, and it is really neat to be able to influence them to utilize your business (or at least like your page) by just visuals and words. 

Thank you everyone for a great semester! And great job on all of your projects. A special thank you to Claudia for being a great professor - I usually do not enjoy online classes, but this one definitely changed my opinion about them. Good luck to everyone on their futures, and happy Holidays!