WEEK 11: Marketing with Twitter, LinkedIn, Social Influencers

 Social media has been one of the main outlets for me to advertise my business, I am a baker running a small business out of my home. I advertise my cakes and desserts about 2 times a week on my social media platforms. I have taken advantage of these platforms as a form of free advertisement for my company, I have seen successful results from the exposure I have received from these platforms especially from Instagram. I have been able to connect with many other local and non-local bakers, influencers of all sorts, and I have also partaken in collaborations with other companies. All of this resulting in an increase of followers and my name being shared among new customers.

Twitter is a social media platform used for sharing what's on your mind with a large audience allowing others to comment/like and retweet your post. Twitter is used by a handful of celebrities like the Kardashians and John Legend, they tweet just about everyday posting what's on their mind, photos of family, and videos. I made a business Twitter account, but I don't think Twitter would be as useful or as successful in my baking business like Facebook and Instagram will be. I was searching on Twitter for some of my favorite bakers and didn't have any luck finding them, although I was able to find my local bakeries. Twitter was a popular app a couple years ago but has lost a lot of users over the years. I had a personal Twitter account but ended up deactivating it due to a lot of my friends not being on there. I am going to try it out for my business and see how it goes.

Linkedin is a business and employment online service, it is a great place for companies to advertise their employment search with mobile apps or links to job openings, and it's also for professionals to upload their personal resumes or professional history to advertise themselves. For my company, at the moment this would not be useful because I am not at the stage where I can advertise openings for my business. Currently, it's a two-man show.

I believe influencers are very beneficial for businesses who are promoting their new products because influencers normally have a large following. I have personally bought items from different influencers that were promoting other businesses new items, they normally offer good discount codes to use as well. It would be well worth the cost if the influencers they are working with are consistent with their post and are accessible to their audience to answer any questions on where and how to purchase a certain item. I have collaborated with a couple small businesses such as event planners, wedding coordinators, photographers, and other bakers. They help promote my products by taking photos, videos, and posting on their own pages is a form of advertisement for my business. Their followers see my desserts and begin to follow me and place orders. I was recently sponsored by Zuley Kitchen, they reached out to me to select a product to advertise on my Instagram page, I selected their matcha powder and created a matcha cake with it. They promoted my business on their Instagram, Amazon, and Pinterest.

I have been using social media for the last 4 years but I have ventured into trying out Twitter and researched information about Linkedin, even though I will not be using Linkedin at the moment I think it will be a great source for my business to use in the near future once I expand into a storefront or once I purchase my dessert truck. I will continue using my main social media platforms that I currently use now and I plan to venture into other platforms such as Pinterest and Tiktok.