Week 8 - Twitter

Search terms for Twitter.

• Dating advice over 50
• Baby boomers
• Things to do San Diego
• Wine
• Wine tours San Diego
• Restaurants San Diego
• Fitness
• Fashion advice

For many of my potential clients, it has been over 30 years since they went out on a date. They may want to gain a more youthful appearance or maybe find new adventures to share with someone. The search words are all things that others need to get back into dating scene. A few of the accounts I chose to follow are magazine writers and tour guides to keep me current on dating ideas and what is happening in the area. I also searched on dating advice to learn what others are saying about dating and relationships.

I found it best to stay local and add San Diego to the search terms.

The accounts I chose to follow:

Things to do in the area

• DiscoverSD Travel
• Baja Wine and Food
• PacificSD
• San Diego City Beat

Self Improvement

• Muscle Fitness
• YES Encinitas
• Alicia Kay Style
• RMRStyle
• Mens Fitness

Advice

• DatingInsight
• DatingAdviceCom
• Carolyn Hax

The lists will help me quickly find relevant information and ideas that I can blog or share with clients.

Many potential clients are retired or near the end of their structured working days. Mornings before their day gets bus,y around 9 am, or evenings after 8 pm.

Week 7B - visual support

There is something about finding other businesses successfully navigating the same business model as you that creates a tornado of emotion. Excitement because they've validated your concept and desperation because they are real competition. 

The four business examples I've chosen are Evan Mark Katz, EFlirt, SmartDatingAcademy, Nick Notas.

Evan Mark Katz is an dating coach that advises both men and women on finding love. On the website, he offers links to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Google+. The use of visual media is extensive and employs quote graphics over lush stock photography, videos of interviews of Evan answering questions, and video blogs. His images are compelling enough to share and they convey the topic. They add to the sense that the writer is committed and knowledgeable and that Evan Mark Katz is indeed the one running the show. For his social media

• Facebook 65365 followers - last post within the hour.
• Twitter 13200 followers with 840 likes. That's 15 follower/like -last post within the hour.
• YouTube 4197 subscribers - last post one week ago.
• Google+ 67 followers (no longer updated)

Other than Google+, which he seems to have abandoned, he posts several times per day. On Facebook, his last post was a quote graphic 20 minutes prior to writing this blog. That post already had 78 likes, 3 shares, and one comment. His Twitter mirrors his Facebook posts. He never posts without a visual and it is mostly original content (not re-posts). He posts less frequently on You Tube, where he adds a video blog about once a week.  By the number of followers,likes, and shares, his visual media is effective. It would not have much weight without his great writing advice, but the visual media is easy to share and is a quick read. In fact, an inspirational quote graphic he shared a week ago has over 1000 likes, 398 shares, and 70 comments. Based on that image post, he gets one like for every 6536 followers. His site shows up on any google search on dating or love advice. 

EFlirt is an online dating coach service. The website offers links to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. The use of visual media is almost non-existent on Facebook and Twitter, with only one clipart graphic on Facebook. Image use adds color to the page but is not compelling to share. For her social media

• Facebook 500 followers and 2548 friends - last post was 2 weeks ago. 
• Twitter 17800 followers with 2455 likes. That's 7.2 followers/like - last post 15 months ago. 
• Pinterest 765 followers - last post 44 weeks ago.
• Instagram 3281 followers - last post 6 weeks ago. 

Images used on Instagram and Pinterest are quote graphics. Facebook and Instagram are main social media sites maintained with the last Facebook post getting 140 likes and 14 comments and no shares. Frequency of posts is 2 to 3 times/month on Facebook and Instagram. By the number of followers and friends, this site main marketing strategy is through mixing the dating coach's personal life and business on Facebook. The visual media is pictures of her family life. It seems to be an effective strategy, but does not have the large number of shares as Evan Mark Katz. And this site is not as easy to find on a Google search about dating. 

Smart Dating Academy is an online dating service offering help with maintaining an online dating profile and emailing. On the website, they offer links to Facebook, Twitter, and You tube. The use of visual media if frequent with stock photography, plain quote graphics, and video blogs. The visuals are attractive but not informative for sharing. For their social media

• Facebook 1568 likes (no followers) -  last post yesterday
• Twitter 1436 followers with 697 likes. That's 2 followers/like - last post was a day ago.
• Youtube 273 subscribers -last update one year ago.
• Instagram 1067 followers.

Facebook and Twitter are the main marketing social media for this business. Most posts on Twitter are re-tweets. Most posts on Instagram are head shots of the dating coach. The last Facebook post has 6 likes with no comments or shares. It is updated about every two weeks, with each post getting no more than 3 likes per post and zero comments. Twitter is updated every week. Based on the lack of interaction, the social media is not the main marketing path for this business. 

Nick Notas is an online dating coach helping others to understand how to date online. On his website there are links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. The use of visual media consists of stock photography to add impact to blog posts. The images make the blog post more compelling to share. 

• Facebook 2068 likes (no followers) - last update one week ago.
• Twitter 867 followers with 3 likes.That's 289 followers/like - last update one week ago.
• Google + 407 followers - last post a week ago. 

None of his posts on Facebook have over 3 likes and no recent comments. His 3 social media sites all mirror each other with posts about once per week with links to his blog. Most of his posts do not have visuals. His visual media helps when scanning the page, but is not effective in reinforcing the content. 

I am following Evan Mark Katz and Eflirt.

Week 7A - Get Visual

One of the most important aspects of online dating are the pictures. So, absolutely visual platforms are perfect and probably the most effective way to reach my customer base.

It's unlimited the ways I can make visuals or my customers can make and share with me relevant visual content. Videos on Youtube and Facebook explaining how to use the dating applications or a video version of my blog. Pictures of infographics on Facebook and Pinterest of what works and what doesn't. Listicles of top dating issues, quote graphics on romance, images of what to wear along with any number of dos and don'ts -  it's endless. Even screenshots of profile fails or successes with the identifiable information blurred out is an option as long as it doesn't come across as mean spirited or a breach of privacy (that one I have to think on).

The limiting factor is my demographic. Folks over 50 years are on Facebook for sure. They are already on those sites because their grandchildren are there.... and so are their old high school sweethearts. In fact, 64% of adults over 50 are on Facebook. And Youtube has a high acceptance in my demographic. While older women are on Pinterest, it may be less effective in my target audience. Maybe Pinterest is valuable as a way to bring customers in through online searches. As for Twitter, the use is under 11%, so most likely not the best place for me to focus my efforts. Same for Snapchat, Google +, and Instagram. LinkedIn is widely used and a great place to post introductory videos of the services I offer.

Here's the thing, folks over 50 years old, and even more so for those over 60 years old, may have the highest divorce rate, but also have the lowest understanding of the web. I have helped numerous friends with online dating, but first I almost always have to help them set up a Gmail account, or teach them how to edit or upload images, and even explain to them that it could be anyone on the other side of that computer communicating with them. A significant amount of folks over 60 years old don't even try to learn about technology and are totally dependent on their children or grandchildren for guidance. So for my business to reach my customers online, I have to stay aware their lack of understanding and stick with where they already hang out - which is Facebook and Youtube.

I've scheduled 3 posts for the upcoming week. First is a short post about why folks over 50 years should try online dating -  a very quick read to let folks know what Pepper Dare is about. Second is a link to Pepper Dare's first blog post about online dating - longer more thoughtful content. Third is a link to an advice columnist - wanted to share some of her insight.

Week 6a - Business page likes

Pages liked:

Ok Cupid: Website used by potential customers who would be interested in the consulting services.

Evan Mark Katz: Offers similar advice and services with some overlap. Hope to learn and gain additional insight on how to offer and improve services.

Meetup: Product used by customers that have an interest in meeting others.

Divorce Attorneys San Diego: Local business whose customers may soon be single looking for advice and services.

24 Hour Fitness: Local business that many potential customers use to get into shape so that they can meet others.

Marriage and Relationship Counselor in San Diego: Local business used by potential customers.

Carolyn Hax: Advice writer. Has overlap in customer base.

Facebook Engagement and Reach

In order to build brand loyalty and create sales, every business wants to build a relationship of some sort with their customer. Facebook Engagement is a measure of that relationship in page views, comments, and likes on the content of a business' posts. The engagement metric lets a business determine the effectiveness their content with the target audience.

But before a business can engage a customer, they have to reach their target audience.  Facebook reach is the number of people who have seen a businesses post in a news feed. In other words, it is a measure of the size of the audience. Facebook differentiates between organic and paid reach and is somewhat analogous to seeing a storefront on a morning walk as opposed to a billboard on the interstate.

Monitoring the engagement metric on the Facebook insights page allows a business to create better content, find the best day of the week to post content, and decide when to pay to increase viewership. 

Target Market 4b

The target audience is single men and women looking for romance. Specifically, men and women over the age of 50 who are recently widowed, divorced, separated, or an empty-nester and living in the United States. For those who live in the San Diego area, additional consulting services may be possible.

Demographic: Nearly 40 million people are dating online. 10% of the overall adult population in the United States log onto a dating site every month. Specifically, for adults over 50 years, nearly 40 percent are single, divorced, or widowed and 12 percent of them having tried online dating.

Many over the age of 50 are at the height of their income earning potential and are willing to spend money on themselves.

Psychographic: Much of the stigma attaching to online dating is gone, but still lingers for those over the age of 50. Spending time online and using mobile technology is still foreign. They are more vunerable to scams because they lack an understanding of the medium.

Many are at the stage in life when their immediate family members have either moved away, or they themselves have moved for employment or retirement. In other words, they are completely alone for the first time in life and do not have a social network for a meeting romantic partner.

Those divorced or recently single feel frustrated with the split in their assets and income.

Those coming out of a divorce have taken a hit to their self esteem and may be looking for affirmation and acceptance.

Seniors want to enjoy fun activites and but are not used to venturing out alone. They want success in finding a partner to enjoy life.

Behavioristic: They believe online dating is a quick fix to their challenges and become quickly disillusioned. They will look for assistance or give up with online dating. One in 5 online daters have asked for help with writing their profiles. Women are more social and will ask a friend for help. Men tend to not ask other men for help and may be more open to professional assistance in writing a profile or help with online communicating.