Final Project Selection and Problem Solving

FrameworkBY AMY SCHMOLDT

Where do I start???

Project Choice

Problem to solve?

Target Audience?

Most useful methods?

Focal Point?

Website?

Blog?

Homebuyer 101 Theme

One-stop shop for

information

Using my expertise

Buyer contributions

Industry contributions

Why did I choose Homebuyers for the subject and why use Social Media to reach

out? “Generation X (individuals born between 1960 and 1980) made up 31

percent of the home buyers in 2013.”

“Generation Y (individuals born between 1980 and the early 2000′s) accounted for 28 percent”

“Younger Baby Boomers (individuals born between 1955 and 1964) accounted for 18 percent”

“Today’s home buyers also do their own research”

“Generations X and Y use technology all the time, so it only makes sense that they would use technology to search for homes and research what they want. Young buyers are usually very in-the-know about local home prices and already know which homes they want to visit.”

Source: Home Creations(2014). Homebuying Trends and Statistics for 2014. Retrieved from http://www.homecreations.com/blog/2014/03/04/home-buying-trends-statistics-2014/All rights reserved.

How would homebuyers benefit from by viewing my project?

• Share Experiences

• Ask (and Answer) Questions – Contribute to discussions

• Collect information from local professionals in the Industry

• Lenders

• Realtors

• Title Companies

• Moving Companies

• Home Inspectors and Appraisers

• Insurance Agents

Social Media Choices???

o Target Market/initial audience-builder – Facebook

o Ability to share ideas and start conversations – Wordpress Blog

o Feed relevant Mortgage and Home Market news into Blog –Twitter

o Collect professional audience and contributors – LinkedIn

o Demonstrate process of applying online for a loan (or to demonstrate pertinent things in the future) – Screencast-o-matic

o With using Facebook and Blog pages, I can tell its effectiveness by reviewing analytics and contributions from the audience (posts).

o The goal was to feed all social media audience users to the blog page and/or Facebook page

The First Roadblock:Setting up the Blog page…

Wrote a post… Lost the post! After navigating for

40 minutes, I found that there was a dashboard with different options. One of the options was to save drafts, which was saved (and I didn’t even know it!).

FACEBOOK

Capture Audience?

Increase Visibility?

Feed to Blog?

Facebook Community: A Group or a Page?

After developing a Group on Facebook, and inviting almost 50 Facebook friends to follow it, I quickly found that a Group cannot feed into my Blog page. Therefore, I had to revise my Group into a Page. A Group cannot be ‘converted’; I had to start over. I created a page, invited almost 100 friends to ‘Like’ my page, and was able to link the feed of the page to my blog page.

Twitter!

Retrieve useful information?

Quick references?

Trustworthy?

Twitter – follow and be followed!

Pages Followed

Mortgage News

Rate Activity

Realtor/Homebuying

As a result of following a few pertinent pages of information (to feed to my blog page), I acquired new followers to my Twitter account!

Screencast-o-matic

Download software

Timing/creation of video

Permissions/branding issues and questions

Video Creation and Permissions/Legalitie

s

After creating a sample video, I forwarded it to my employer, asking what the legal process was to use a demonstration video from their website. I learned that there is a process to reviewing the video through compliance, security, and Marketing/Branding before obtaining permissions. This was completed, however, timing was a factor with completing this task! It is NOT a quick process!

Employer’s website demonstration

One more problem…my video will not upload!!!

After several attempts, my format of the video did not

agree with the Wordpress blog site. Therefore, I uploaded it onto my Facebook page, which feeds into my blog page.

Let’s Take a Look:Facebook Page: Homebuyer 101 (and incorporated my video from Screencast-o-matic):

FacebookWordpress Blog: Southeast WI Homebuyer Guide:

Southeast WI Homebuyer Guide | Homebuyer info you need, under one roof!Personal LinkedIn Page:

Amy (Justman) Schmoldt | Assistant Vice President - Mortgage Lending | LinkedInhit down arrow next to the Edit button in profile, view recent activity for

blog postPersonal Twitter Page:

https://twitter.com/

Problem Solving:

WHAT PROCESSES DID I USE TO SOLVE PROBLEMS???

“”

Just do it…

I began learning initially by watching a YouTube video of subject matter to learn things during our first 2 classes. However, I found that my best method of learning is by experience. I tried new things and failed (on many occasions), but learned NOT to make the same mistake twice! I did not learn Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook or Screencast-o-matic by a video or someone showing me – I jumped right in and took the challenge!

SLOGAN FROM NIKE

Can anyone use the Homebuyer 101 Facebook Page and Blog site?

Anyone can use the chosen media sites, as long as they have: Internet access (such as Internet Explorer, Google

Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc.). I personally used Internet Explorer for the entire project.

Keyboard/mouse to type questions and responsesSome development of these sites included the

need to download the latest version of Java.

In Summary… Since I currently do not hold a training position within a company, I felt

that training my current position’s target audience was best suited for this project.

After working in the field for several years, I found that my clients routinely ask the same questions, and were always pointed to different websites or vendors to acquire the information.

Wouldn’t it be GREAT to have it all in ONE place?

Wouldn’t it be GREAT if it were accessible by everyone with internet access?

Hopefully, this project will expand on a larger scale.

Any questions?