Google-AdWords 20/20

AdWords is a program that helps potential customers to find you. You have ads that are placed on websites that share similar or relevant content. You set a budget for your Adwords campaign and are only charged when people click on your ads, which leads them to your website, and hopefully to your shopping cart :)


How do I love it?

• I love that your budget is only used when people actually click on your ad
• I like how you can customize your ads
• where you want it to show up
• languages you want
• what devices it'll show up on
• the simplicity to set up your actual ad is great too
• I love that the ad will show up when people are already looking for those related items!
• I like that you can see a report about how your ad is doing so you can update or improve it.

I think that once our business is a little more established that using ad words will be a great way to expand. It'll help our online customer base to expand.

WPR #2

Finger Ink Creations

Finger Ink Creations Facebook

Finger Ink Creations Twitter

Getting PAID! 20/20

Well, apparently Google checkout is gone since November of last year, so that is not a viable option. Although it seems their mobile app, GoogleWallet may still function.

Paypal is a way to make payments online and it's pretty great because they don't have set-up fees and stuff like that. You just can choose your button and copy and paste the html right into your site. It was pretty simple. Also, they show you what kind of percentages they charge for payments made, which is also good to be able to see...as seen below:

SOLUTIONS	PayPal Payments Standard	PayPal Payments Advanced	PayPal Payments Pro
MONTHLY FEE	$0	$5	$30
SETUP FEE	$0	$0	$0
TRANSACTION FEE FOR ONLINE PAYMENTS (based on monthly sales) $0 to $3,000	2.9% + $0.30	2.9% + $0.30	2.9% + $0.30
$3,001+ to $10,000	2.5% + $0.30*	2.5% + $0.30*	2.5% + $0.30*
$10,001 to $100,000	2.2% + $0.30*	2.2% + $0.30*	2.2% + $0.30*
$100,001+	2.2% + $0.30*	2.2% + $0.30*	2.2% + $0.30*

Take Away:

I like how paypal is free for customers to use. They don't have to have an account.

I also like that paypal has been around and because of that I feel like it's a trusted company.

I'm planning on using paypal for my website. It has simple features and doesn't take too much percentage off the top. I also think that it is designed well for easy use for customers. I want our customers to have an easy time.

PIN PIN Pinterest! 20/20

Pinterest is a website that lets you create a database of images/links. It's like your idea journal but online. You can have different boards that are themed. You can have a recipes board, a home decor board, art, clothes, diy ideas, business ideas, and basically anything you want. People can follow you or your boards and you can then find new things in your 'news feed'. It's easy to use and a nice way to organize your inspirations.

What I love:

I love that it's so easy to use. I love that it encourages creativity and sharing ideas.
I think it's cool that pinterest has their own analytics to help you see what pins are popular.
I like that pinterest coaches you on how to make your website 'pinable', with information about picture size and quality and how to boost your pinablity. Since the more you pin the more people will see your product.

Pinterest is definitely a good social media venue for our business. It's a very popular sight with women and crafty, art, and diy people. I think it would be a great way to get our stitch markers seen!

Text and Linkedin 20/20

SMS marketing is using texting to reach your customers. It was fun to read about this now because I just started to get Redbox's text message offers. Basically, with your company you can have a code word texted to a code that will store your customers number in a database and allows them to receive offers or special info.

Linkedin is a professional social network. You build up your professional profile like a resume. You are also able to connect and network with other professionals in your field. Your friends can endorse your skills too


Take aways:

Texting: I think it's great that you can collect people's numbers to text them promos. People text all the time and it can be a very effective way to connect with customer base.

Linkedin: Being able to connect professionally with other professionals is huge. I think it's also neat that your profile is about what you've got to bring to the table, it's your skills and talents, skills which are endorsed by your network!


I think that SMS marketing would be a great way to share holiday promos and deals for our product.
I think Linkedin will be an important tool to have for networking with professionals for deals and help with growth and expansion.

Youtubing and Google ++++ 20/20

Youtube has a ton of information about what is or is not appropriate for youtube. They also have a lot of material to teach you how to build your channel, get followers, and make an impact within a community. You can make whatever kind of videos you want...they can be educational, tutorials, funny, a little web series, promotional, and vlogging. It's a broad spectrum of possibilities.

Things I loved:
In there education section they explain about tools to help your channel connect to people and create a 'sustainable community'. They explain five major things to help accomplish this:
Creation Story, this makes you relatable and draws people in
Creed, what you're about and how people can rally behind your cause
Leadership, have a host, a group with consistent voice, or just an consistent idea
Rituals, have a repeated element, or time of posting
Language, be conversational and develop your own language or slang over time. This will make your community member feel special and included.

Youtube is a GLOBAL stage for you to preform!
Have conversations with fans/audiences. People connect to you because they've seen you, they've heard you.

People love to watch videos, we live in a world were it's a lot harder to keep someones attention if you make them read. I'm guilty of this.

I'm not sure that Youtube will be a big factor in our business at first. But we might put some knitting tutorials up at some point.

Google +++

This is a social network that works to connect the content you put onto the web to you! It helps to keep you connected as author on your other social networks.

Love it:

Google + is a lot like facebook because it's a social profile. I think that the cool thing is the 'circles' and the community aspect of it.
This translates to business better because you want to build a community. I think it seems nicer than just "likes" It's seems to combine the idea of a blog more too.
They have this feature called 'hangouts' too. You can basically select people from your circles and have a group chat/invitation. It seems useful for business discussions with other members of you team as well as connecting with customers for special events or sales.

I'd want to look more into and how it connects other social media for you because that seems like one of the more interesting and helpful aspects before deciding to dedicate time to a new social media network besides facebook.

Instagram 20/20

Instagram is a photo app that allow people to snap a photo and apply cool vintage filter to it. This has made a lot of people more aware of the images they're producing and putting out into the world for people. It's also produced a lot of selfies, food photos, and pictures of pets (I'm guilty on all accounts). Using this app for business, however, is all about showing customers about your brand. Let them see your product in action, let them see what your brand cares about, and how they can be involved.

What I love:

-I love that instagram encourages people to be more creative with their photography
-I love that you can show people about your brand
-I love that it's visual. People love pictures and so do I.
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I think using Instagram for fingerinkcreations, will be a great way to show people our product and our product being used by their products. I think a fun 'campaign' would be to have people who use our stitch makers post picture of them using them and maybe we could give a discount reward or something on their next purchase. I think Instagram will actually be a really effective venue for our company!