Author: jordanm438

We finished our PowerPoint highlighting each of the projects we completed during the two weeks of the program and how they will be beneficial to Homestead Sage. An example is sharing about the Facebook page we created and how that will open up new opportunities for the business through reaching more potential customers. We are so excited to share our experience at Homestead Sage with other students in the Work Experience Program and we are so appreciative for this opportunity! Thank you, Homestead Sage!

Today was our final day working with Homestead Sage through the Work Experience Program. To wrap up, we had a meeting with our hosts to present our finalized projects and shared some feedback and reflection on our experience with them. They helped us make some adjustments to our work, but were very pleased with everything we presented overall. I shared with the hosts that I learned so much from being able to work with them. I am so thankful for this opportunity to grow in my marketing abilities! Not only did I learn how to adapt a marketing strategy for an energy and technology business, but also learned more about how to use each of the social media platforms to reach different audiences effectively. Sophia and I spent the rest of the day working on our presentation for tomorrow.

Sophia and I both had experience with Canva before the Work Experience Program, but working with Homestead Sage has given us the opportunity to explore new ways to use this program. One of our tasks today was to use Canva to create more content for the Homestead Sage social media pages. In a prior meeting with our hosts, I asked them what made their business stand out amongst their competitors. Mr. DiFrancesco replied that it was their employees, the people, and their expertise in implementation. This response gave me the idea to make spotlight posts in Canva for each employee at Homestead Sage. I have included the template, which can be used for each employee by switching out the name and photograph. I also made additional graphics that can be used for posts and stories in the future.

When creating content, I learned more about copyright rules. A lot of people think that you can just take an image off of Google Images and use it without restrictions, but virtually all of the images on Google are protected by copyright. After searching for content and finding it to be very difficult to locate high-resolution, business appropriate, images, Sophia and I discussed with our hosts today. Mr. DiFrancesco agreed to send us a OneDrive link including folders of pictures and videos of various completed jobs. We will be able to incorporate these pictures and videos in our designs for our Social media posts without fear of copyright infringement.

Sophia and I had another meeting with our hosts today to check in and share our progress with them. We began with presenting an information series created in Canva and our updated Resource Library including quotes pulled from each of the articles. After that, I shared my screen on Zoom to show Mr. DiFrancesco and Mrs. Scandalios the updates I made to their Twitter page and the new Facebook profile I created for them. They were very pleased with our work! We decided to spend the rest of the day working on updating the Social Media pages and creating more content.

 

Prior to the beginning of our work experience, Homestead Sage already had an Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube Channel, but they did not have a Facebook Page. In the initial meeting with our hosts, I shared the potential benefits of having a Facebook Page to reach more of their target audience and they agreed to let me create one for their business. I also spent some time working on a cover photo for this page. I had some experience with Photoshop, but I was excited to be able to learn more through this project! I wanted to combine the green of the business logo and the blue from the UV lights in the picture to create a design that was both eye-catching but still clean and sleek. However, I didn’t know exactly how to combine these two colors effectively. After playing around with different settings and getting a little help from my graphic designer father, I was able to learn some new layering and masking techniques to get the job done.

After our meeting, Sophia and I were given the credentials so we could access all of the Homestead Sage social media pages. I took some time this afternoon to log in to each account to connect with related businesses and industry sites. I also took the opportunity to continue my research on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and to begin the process of creating a Facebook page for the company.

To start our day, Sophia and I had a meeting on Zoom this morning to discuss the feedback given to us by our hosts and to plan out our next steps. We worked together to develop a branding strategy and to think of ideas for content for Homestead Sage’s social media pages. It was really interesting to think of the different aspects of a branding strategy that work together to share the information effectively to an audience. We planned to spend the rest of the day working on creating content and logging in to each of the Homestead Sage social media accounts to maximize the reach of the business.

Today, I had the opportunity to share my presentation on SWOT Analysis with our hosts during our meeting. In the presentation, I mainly focused on the opportunities, the O of SWOT, by suggesting strategies like creating a Facebook page to share ads that can be targeted towards people of certain demographics and help the business reach out to more potential clients. After we shared, Sophia and I had a discussion with our hosts about how we could help grow their social media pages. We are going to use the research we gained through creating the SWOT Analysis presentation and the Resource Library to make posts to promote the business and educate the public.