Lessons Learned-Working as Part of a Team

The dreaded group assignment! There are a lot of us who do not look forward to this part of any class. Lucky for me I had a great team. Shout out to my awesome team Aaron, Danielle and Tanya, I couldn’t have done it without you guys! *tear*

Working with a team is always a challenge. Communication is KEY. As I mentioned before in Go Transit-A Case Study we decided to focus on Danielle’s case study of Go Transit and the Lakeshore West corridor.

For us we chose to communicate three ways:

1. in class-face to face

2. using e-mail and Twitter

3. via Google Docs

In class we would develop and discuss tactics, ideas and other great tidbits of information. E-mail is always great to communicate with others and Twitter was beneficial to us because that’s how we would share if we added something to our Google Doc. For those who have never used Google docs, it’s a free simple way to create documents and share with others using a Google username.

Major lesson learned for me was I can’t always rely on my smart phone! Over the last weekend of our project an important e-mail was sent out-that same weekend my iPhone failed and I wasn’t receiving any e-mails. Me and my forgetful self FAILED to realize that I could go on a small invention-lets call it a laptop and use the internet. #fail #firstworldproblem #blonde lol

I really enjoyed working with my group and I never thought as this assignment as a burden as I do with so many other group assignments (I think that’s the control freak in me!) But this assignment was fun and my team was great to work with! Once again round of applause for Danielle, Aaron and Tanya!

I thought this pic pretty much summed up my team  

Bisous!

Ana

Lessons Learned-My personal view

Hey Everyone! My class is winding down now so I thought I would share some lessons I learned.

Blogging isn’t as easy as it looks!

So I thought registering my blog on WordPress would probably be the hardest part of doing my blog. Wow was I wrong! I found myself watching YouTube tutorials on how to do cool things with my blog. Sometimes, I felt like I was trying to learn how to use the internet all over again.

Take your time and consider your audience.

Why write for someone who isn’t going to read your blog?

 Everyone has a different style of writing. Figure out what works best for you

Personally, I like to write my blog on paper first or at least jot down a few notes on what my blog posting will be about. When talking to people in the class, I figured out that almost everyone had a different method of writing their blog.

Be active in posting

This is something I definitely failed on. I need to work on this! But cut me some slack I was taking three classes this semester!

Blog about something you enjoy

When you love what you do it just comes easy!

Procrastination is not my friend

Time flies by when you’re a busy working student! Sometimes I forgot deadlines were approaching and had to juggle my time to work on my blog with other major assignments. My “works well under pressure” line that I use in all my interviews doesn’t apply here. A good blog post takes time. A better blog post takes planning, time and thought.

I knew WAY less than I thought I did!

Boy was I wrong! My old days of doing HTML coding from when I was a teenager on my MySpace page is LONG GONE lol simple things like formatting and inserting pictures where I wanted them to be were challenging.

Look for a great teacher or mentor

Lucky for me my prof was someone who is REALLY nice! I never felt odd asking questions and he is always accessible. If I didn’t have a prof, like most of you in cyberspace I would reach out to someone on one of the smaller blogs I read and ask some tips on how to make your blog work for you.

Social Media is difficult to measure

Measurement in Social Media is not something that’s easy. The number of followers or likes you have doesn’t always correlate into something beneficial and meaningful. There are so many things to consider when measuring Social Media! Be careful what you choose to measure.

Blogging is FUN! I really had a great time in my class over the last 12 weeks. If you have time check out classes in your area. There is so much to learn!

xoxo Ana

Go Transit-A Case Study

In collaboration with my wonderful class mates Aaron, Danielle and Tanya we’re working on a case study about Go Transit and how they can improve their social media presence. Now, we all know that social media is rapidly expanding. As I’m typing I’m sure someone is creating a new version of some sort of social media! BUT since we don’t have all day, we decided to focus on twitter. Below goes in to more detail on my portion of our project- Measurement, Risks and Assumptions.

 

Tactics: Devoted twitter handle for each train line-We’re focusing on Lakeshore West so our handle will be @LkShWGO. Having a handle will enable the Train Ambassador to give updates to their dedicated line in real time.

Measurement
Go Transit has a lot of negative mentions on twitter in relation to their service; by having a dedicated handle for each line we can have one-on-one interaction with commuters.

1. See how many customers are tweeting meaningful mentions at the dedicated Go line. It doesn’t have to be positive!
2. How long is the average wait time between the initial tweet and interaction. The replies won’t be instantaneous. The time between the tweet and reply should be 5-10 minutes
3.When delays and cancellations are tweeted, see how many followers are responding

 

An Example of a non meaningful interaction-apparently #GoTrain doesn’t monitor their Hashtags!

 

 

 

An example of a negative meaningful tweet-I was actually surprised to find this.

After 3 months of use of the dedicated @LkShWGO handle we expect to see:
1. 20% drop in negative interactions with @GetOnTheGo (Go Transit’s-official Twitter handle) once dedicated handles are up less people will have to communicate with @GetOnTheGo.
2. Complaints of delays and negative customer service drop by 15% at head office. Customers will now be able to interact one-on-one with a Go Transit ambassador and be directed to the correct person.
3. 5% increase in ridership. If people feel like they are more informed they are more likely to take transit.

Risks

• Train ambassadors may forget to update feed or reply to customers
• Train ambassadors could be inundated with tweets
• Cell service may be down. Some areas along the line have low and disrupted cell service

Assumptions

• We can assume that customers will follow account if they take the line frequently
• Some train ambassadors may be reluctant to use the Twitter account
• A large segment of customers may not use Twitter

 

Itching to know more about our case study? Check out Aaron’s Danielle’s and Tanya’s Blogs. If you want to get in contact with Go Transit via social media check them out on Facebook or on Twitter!

xoxo

-Ana

#MacPirate

I’ve been neglecting my blog!!! Sorry everyone the last few weeks have been crazy busy, but now my life is slowing back down to a normal pace.

On Wed Feb 15 The Pirate Group, an ad agency based in Toronto held an event commemorating their donation to McMaster’s Degroote School of Business. This interactive event was hashtaged and tweeters could participate through the twitter back channel.

Unfortunately, thanks to my sisterly duties I was unable to attend. However, I was able to watch most of the feed live via twitter. (Side note: I think I deserve a gold medal in sisterly duties!) Nevertheless, I’m going to answer a few questions on my perspective.

 

1. What was it like to participate or monitor what was going on at the event without being there?

Well to be quite honest it was a little overwhelming. It was easy to follow along but some users were tweeting the same thing-that helped to know important things but it was also a little annoying seeing the same tweet from a different perspective 5 times.
2. Did you feel like you were connected to what was going on? What could have improved the experience?

I did feel like I was connected to what was going on. They used links to tie in what was being done at the event. To improve the experience, I would have had a live feed with twitter updates somewhere on the screen as well. That would have helped to be more engaged.

 

3. What roll did you take on Twitter (resource person, inquirer, observer etc).From your perspective, when it comes to using Twitter at events like this one, what would  you stop, start and continue doing to improve the experience.

I took the roll as the observer. I wouldn’t stop anything, it was a short an effective hashtag and most of the information was useful. I would START a live stream with twitter integrated. I would continue using a small hashtag on the back channel. I wouldn’t STOP any thing. I would CONTINUE everything.

Well i’m off to get ready for work. Have a great day!

Ciao!

-A.

Happy Friday!

Hey Everyone!

Aren’t you glad it’s the wknd? I stumbled across this and I thought I would share. I printed it off and put it on my fridge.

Have a great weekend!

.xO

-A.

The Strategy

This post will tie everything together! Your reading has rewarded you with a strategy.

Let’s put on our imagination hats and pretend I work for the Bay. (Don’t close your eyes and imagine though because you won’t be able to read my post! Lol)

If I were working there after doing all my research these are a few goals that I would have to increase the Bay social media awareness.

1. think of ways to increase the number of Likes on the Facebook page
2. Increase the number of followers on twitter
3. Increase the number of students in the store
4. Create incentives for students to shop at our stores. Have key sales around the time when school starts

5.Create interactive smart phone app with a section specifically for students
These four ideas would increase brand awareness, traffic in store and of course a boost in revenue.

That’s all for now. Until next post!

-xO. A

Research Findings

Hi Everyone,

This post will explore the research that I’ve done throughout this project.

the Bay has 9,652 likes on Facebook, according to Social Bakers 25% of university aged people (18-25) use Facebook. the Bay’s like page is really well laid out and has great information. However there aren’t really any conversation starter posts and its lacking interaction with the public. However, they do manage to post something every day which is great for content. Their page is WAY better than the average like page it has a lot more content that I discussed in other posts.

@thehudsonsbayco has 13,243 followers on Twitter and the Bay follows 1,560. I thought this was pretty lop sided but once I did some digging I realized a few things, most large corporations don’t follow back a large number of their followers they just address the complaints or comments of people who tweet at them. So I thought of something else. I was thinking, how could I measure the effectiveness of the tweets, I found this website Tweet Grader and it measures the influence/reach for a twitter handle. There are several criteria that a handle has to fall under to gain a perfect score of 100. After a little bit of reading I realized why the Bay got a perfect score and it makes complete sense.

I also did an informal survey from my findings I concluded:

• 85% surveyed uses twitter (100% were aware of Twitter) and 100% uses Facebook.
• None of them like the Bay page on Facebook
• 100% have a smart phone and use social media apps on it
• The average university aged student has about $200 per month after they have paid for all their essentials
• 90% shopped where their friends shop.
• 100% know where the nearest Bay store is. This is great because the average Canadian lives within 20 minutes of an HBC brand store.
• 100% have bought something from the Bay in the last year
• 30% are frequent shoppers (Frequent meaning once purchasing visits).

The next post will have a few recommendations to increase the number of university aged followers.

-xO A.

Research!

Hey y’all!

As you are all well aware I’ve decided to focus my social media project on the Bay, but what you don’t know is that I’ve decided to narrow it down and focus on university aged students. This post will explore how I’ve came up with all the data that you will be seeing throughout the day.

Some of the sources I’ve decided to use are:

1. Facebook percentage data

2. Twitter rankings and calculation (this one is very interesting!)

3. HBC’s website

4. comments on Twitter and Facebook

5.Calling family and friends that are university aged (thanks for all your help everyone)

6.Interviewing some people who work at the Bay.

Although I love love love their You Tube videos there just isn’t enough data for me to back up my findings. I may tie in You Tube into something else though. Haven’t decided yet.

Regardless, the next few posts will be pretty interesting. Stay Tuned!

Bisous!!

-A.

 

Blogs I like

In class the other day I mentioned that I read several blogs daily. Below are the ones that I check out!

1 Love T.O. is a mainly arts and entertainment blog with a focus on Toronto. And they have really awesome t-shirts. Shout out to my talented big brothers T-RexXx, Brock and Lo.

Coco & Lowe another great Toronto based blog with travel,entertaining and all kinds of other cool things. I love their daily inspirations.

Lost in the Willderness William Nguyen is an AMAZING photographer and he showcases some of his work on his blog. He is also Toronto based, if you need a photographer for an event I highly highly recommend him.

Karlas Closet Karla Deras has a cool ecletic vintage style that I would love to emulate but simply don’t have the guts to lol.

The Decorista has great design tips, I get a lot of decorating inspiration from her.

The Sartorialist I like this blog because it shows eclectic individual fashion with an international twist.

LaToya Forever My crazy,talented, EXTREMELY funny cousin has over 50,000 YouTube follwers and is a YouTube Guru! she also has a blog where she posts her outfits of the day for her followers. Love you Cuzzo!

That’s all for now! Hope I helped

-A

p.s. My next few blog posts are going to be mainly homework but feel free to check it out if you like! xO

Valentines Day Gift Guide

With Valentines Day being a few short 13 days away, as a lover of love I thought I would post 10 gift suggestions for everyone out there. Secretly, some items are on my wish list! Usually I buy a gift for myself because I love my self the most, but I think I may have to skip it this time around(Yes, I do have some narcissistic tendencies!).

1. Spa day for two- Most of us working people never take a day to relax. Why not do something with your boo that’s relaxing. Most spas have couples packages at a discounted rate. Look around and see what packages fit you the best.

2. A watch- A few of my girls have this on their must have items. As a banker the most important thing to have is a watch, I think that is applicable to most professions. If you have some extra cash you can get one engraved, if you have A LOT of extra cash most higher end retailers offer engraving at no extra cost. Make sure you pre-order.

3. iPad 2- FACETIME! Who doesn’t love it? I have an iPhone 4 and I’m currently looking into getting an iPad 2. Facetime is great for those couples that are always on the go or ones in a long distance relationship and it’s a free feature once you’re in a wi-fi zone. Or if you’re like my mother it’s a way to spy on you and see if your apt is clean.

4. A romantic night out- you don’t always have to celebrate Valentines Day on the actual date. Most of us have busy lives and we may have to work or go to school or whatever the case may be. Just make sure that you take a day out to show how much you love your special someone. Take them somewhere extra special and meaningful and add a little bit of romance and its something they will remember forever.

5. Lingerie- Nope this is not for your man to buy ladies. You buy this little sexy number for yourself , wrap it up and slip it on for your honey later. You’re his gift he can unwrap!

6. Jewellery- Diamonds are a girls best friend. Cartier has their iconic Love collection and Tiffany and Co have great items as well.

7. Gift Cards- Okay,  so I’m the girl who dates the guys who buys me gift cards. In reality I HATE them because no real thought goes in to them BUT I would rather that then a crappy crappy gift that I would never use. I’ve seen some cool ones where you can personalize it and its always better than a fist full of cash.

8. Chocolate & Teddy Bear- almost everyone loves chocolate.Make sure that you buy the kind your significant lover wants. My suggestion-something milk chocolate. Who doesn’t love a teddy? Men, buy a nice medium sized bear and spray it with your cologne that way she can think about you in bed when you’re apart.

9. Vacation- wouldn’t we love it if we could go to Bora Bora or The Maldives. I would love to be tanning on a Yacht somewhere! A girl can dream right?

10. Love Coupons- This requires barely any money and a little imagination. I made these for G for his birthday last year and he loved it. Make up coupons with things like Make you your favorite dinner or Bake you a Cake (well the ones I made I can’t put on the internet lol) But you get the idea! And it only cost me $4 to make!

Hope you have a happy loving Valentines Day!

Bisou

-A