Lisa Haas

The screen shot posted above shows my scheduled facebook posts for this week.  The first post is a review of Mint Condition which gives a great history of the baseball card industry.  The second post discusses the best players to invest in.  The last post is a video of baseball card packs being opened and reviewed.   My audience will be interested in these posts because they are all centered around baseball cards and the hobby of collecting them.  

I chose to like facebook pages that would have viewers that are interested in baseball cards. The sites I liked are: Topps, Beckett Media, Baseball Cards, Baseball Card Exchange, My Topps, Panini America, and Upper Deck. All sites have direct ties to baseball and baseball cards, which means their followers may visit and follow my page as well.

Post reach refers to the number of people that see your content.  Post engagement refers to people interacting with your page by liking, sharing, or commenting on your content.  Knowing the difference is important because each effects your statistics in different ways.  Facebook Insights is helpful for businesses because the owner can see what customers respond to.  Content can be tracked to see who likes and shares specific content.  This information is helpful when trying to market toward a specific group of people, as well as providing insight if you are trying to figure out who your target market should be.   When people like and share content on a facebook business page, that content is seen by people within the "likers" network.  This brings exposure to people that may not have otherwise seen the business page.  The additional exposure could turn into new customers, helping the business.

The business I will be using is "RWHCards".  It is a real business and belongs to my husband.  He started it to sell and trade baseball cards.  He currently uses Instagram, with 414 followers and Twitter with 70 followers.  He began his accounts last Christmas.  I assist with photography, mailing and organization behind the scenes. Our target audience is anyone that enjoys baseball cards! The people contact us most often are males of all ages.  The people interested in the more expensive items tend to be a little older.  The younger set like to offer trades for their desired items. 

For this assignment I chose to compare Subway and Hungry Bear.  They are both sandwich shops and would appeal to very similar audiences.  Subway is clearly a franchise, while Hungry Bear is not.  This difference is obvious from their websites.  Subway looks very commercial and typical of a franchise while Hungry Bear's site looks like an independent designer did it.  It feels fancy, like more care was taken with the design.   I felt the tone of the two sites differed as well.  Hungry Bear felt local and fun and part of the community.  I got the impression that Subway was trying to achieve the same, but I didn't FEEL it like I did with Hungry Bear. The target market for both businesses is people that want fresh food.  Subway's motto has been "Eat Fresh" since I can remember, playing to people that want fresh, more nutritious food than the typical fast food eatery offers.  Both places offer sandwiches but Hungry Bear has a full menu...

I frequently shop online.  The convenience is great for my busy life and I tend to spend less money than if I were to shop in person.  I have a hard time passing up a "deal" even if its something I don't necessarily need.  Shopping online allows me to stay focused on what I do need and avoid the impulse buys! One of my most used sites is http://www.amazon.com .  Who doesn't love amazon?  I use this site for everything from household products and groceries to birthday presents.  Amazon is great for the holidays. The kids in my family create wish lists that we can all use when looking for ideas for gifts.  My niece and nephew don't live locally and I love that I can buy birthday and holiday gifts from amazon and have them shipped directly to their homes(with giftwrap!), quickly-2 days with prime- and less expensive than wrapping and shipping it myself.  Amazon has also proved very helpful for hard to find household items (like non standard li...

The first two sites I visited were Roverp6cars.com and Jamilin.com.  Both of these sites had major problems with regard to aesthetic, ease of use/navigation and focusing on a concept. The first thing I thought when going to Roverp6cars was the main page is way too busy.  Immediately your eye is drawn to everything that is flashing, while at the same time being pulled to look at the scrolling banners. Many different colors are used for the text.  I found it difficult to figure out what is most important to look at.  The navigation bar travels vertically down the side of the page rather than at the top.  The navigation buttons feature pics of rusted cars with type over the pic making the navigation buttons hard to read.  I also noticed the contact information for this company is somewhat buried in the middle of the main page rather than at the very top or bottom.  The page is so busy that I think the contact info would be easy to miss. Roverp6cars co...