This week we had an International Exhibition for one of my classes. This was such a cool and fun experience. We all learned a lot about different cultures and countries. I posted pictures of the type of things we had. I think this was fun for everyone involved. We all got to try new things and see different cultures traditions. This is important to know in business for when you travel to meet business people or go to meetings. You have to know what is okay and what is not okay when dealing with people from a culture different from yours. This project helped prepare me for future business opportunities because I had to talk with people from China. During the duration of this we had some issues in communication from the barriers that exist from our different cultures and languages.
For class we have a semester project where we have a Facebook page we manage and a twitter page. My group has the Arkansas State University College of Business pages. The College of Business did not have a twitter page when we started the project. We have since created a twitter page and run it. This has been such a huge learning experience. Social Media is a large part of business and even now groups on campuses. People now would rather have you on their social media account than receive emails or actual mail. As for the pages I help manage, I plus other students find it beneficial to follow social media pages for the university, so we can keep up with things going on that we find important or interesting.
Learning everything that goes into maintaining these pages have really helped me and I am sure that these skills will benefit me in my future career, whether that being working for myself or for a cooperation. So much goes into maintaining the pages that people don't know about. You think that it would be like managing your personal page, but in reality it is completely different. Busineses and organizations have to behave on social media different than people with personal accounts. click here to see the Facebook page, and here for Twitter. Last week we had Leslie Moore come and talk to my Marketing Management class. She shared so much information that was REALLY helpful. Some of the things she talked about were things we have been taught not to do or to do, but there were some new things that made me think about businesses and my own. I did not realize how much font could impact your image. I started thinking of large brands and local businesses and their fonts/logos. People may not realize the impact that font and color has on their purchasing habits. Stores use colors to make you feel a certain way so you want to shop or feel comfortable to keep shopping.
We recognize brands based off of the logo and font that is used. People love being able to recognize a brand they have always used and hate when you change the logo or slogan to something "new" in hopes it draws in a new crowd. Like when Gap tried to change their logo, people let them know they HATED the new one and wanted them to bring the old one back. You have to appeal to loyal customers and also try to be fresh enough to bring in new ones. Recently my family and I went on a trip to Gatlinburg, Tn. While trying to find a cabin my mom was looking for a few things like how many the cabin would sleep, location, does it have a pool, and how clean/updated the place is. She found a cabin she thought was nice and updated for a good price and booked the cabin. Once we arrived we noticed some things that were NOT disclosed on the listing for the cabin. This cabin was at the TOP of the mountain, now while that isn't very shocking, a warning of the actual location would have been nice. The pool was not very clean, neither was the hot tub. There was not an air vent in all rooms, which causes them or not be able to be cooled or heated properly. Those issues are just a few of many wrong with this place.
Now my problem was not with what was wrong with this cabin, but with the terrible marketing and advertising the listing was for the cabin. The best way to not get repeat service is to falsely advertise about your service/product and customers find out. Customers want to be fully advised about what they are getting when they are going to spend time and money on something. People who own lodging places, especially ones that claim to be higher end with quality and certain amenities, you should FULLY disclose those or show reviews for new customers to see. When you are looking for places to stay then you look for reviews of the place and other places similar. You WANT reviews so you can show that what you say about your place/service is true. |