For this week's blog I have decided to look at YYoga again. I think they are doing a very good job with their social media to continuously build relationships with their clients.

The tracking tools that I am going to use to analyze their social media are as follows:
Monitter: Yyoga has a strong presence on Twitter so I think it is important to know what people are saying about them on Twitter. The terms I will be looking for while using monitter are:

• Yyoga
• Yoga
• Yoga Vancouver

When searching these terms I got a lot of hits. Here are some of the things being said on Twitter about Yyoga:

• "Lovin the new sauna wraps at the flowwelleness centre @YYoga"
• "breaky in @gastwon. Mid-day s(day 19 of my 30 challenge)@YYoga a super cute lunch stop _Bel_Cafe- shaping up to be a #perfect day
• "Woke up w a sugar hangover (seriously, Who knew?!?!). solution did Rachel Marten's 2hr Anussara class @YYoga Yaletown-hangover gone!!

Google Alerts: This will allow me to see what is being said online (outside of Twitter) about the company. It will alert me to blog posts and news articles. I will be using the same search terms for Google Alerts as I did for Monitter. I signed up for Google Alerts at the beginning of this week and here are some of the results I got.

• Happy Holiday
• Foursquare

There are obviously many more tools that I could use to analyze what is being said about YYoga online but I think this is a good starting point.

Using Social Media to achieve Marketing Goals

For this week's blog post I decided to look at YYOGA. I think they are doing a very good job using social media to achieve their marketing goals. I think they do a very good job of being a source of information in their industry. On their Facebook page, they are continuously posting links, pictures, and asking and answering questions. They do a very good job of communicating and connecting with their followers.

From a visit to their Facebook page it is obvious that they are doing something right. They constantly have people posting on their wall and uploading pictures or links to sites that others may find interesting. Even though not all the content is yoga related- for example, lots of people have posted pictures of their Halloween costumes on their wall, it is bringing people together who share a common interest and getting them to interact..

As for their Twitter account, it would appear that they are doing as equally well. The have over six thousand followers and when doing a search of YYOGA on Twitter there are many tweets about them. This shows that people are talking about them online and interacting with them. Much like their Facebook page, their Twitter account is full of inspirational messages, links and answers to questions. They do a great job of reaching out to their followers.

Here is a list of my 10 favourite things that helps to keep me healthy, active and happy!

1. Favourite form of exercise: Swimming
2. Favourite winter sport: Skiing
3. Favourite summer activity: Wakeboarding
4. Favourite workout wear: I really had to think about this one. Like most Vancouverites I LOVE LOVE LOVE Lululemon, but it's too pricey. So when it comes to buying workout wear I choose one that is a much lower price and I go to Target
5. Favourite "healthy" dessert:
6. Favourite healthy pizza: As somone who loves pizza and needs to eat it, I usually try to eat this healthier alternative. Cauliflower Crust Pizza
7. Favourite (funny) workout video: Take Anything You Want
8. Favourite music video: I'm Sexy and I Know it
9. Favourite Hike: Grouse Grind/ Bump 'n' Grind (when I am visiting my parents in California)
10. Favouite sports body: I OBVIOUSLY had to choose the famous Ryan Kesler photo!

I "Digg" This

When searching for an article related to my blog I came across a site that had a list of blogs that had been nominated for Shape’s Magazine Best Healthy Living Blogger award. I read through a lot of blogs and came across Then Heath Said. I really enjoyed this blog so I thought I would “digg” it.

I decided to “digg” this blog because I love how detailed it is. The blogger really gives it’s readers a look inside their life- the posting of the pictures of stuff she has baked or written. It really makes you feel as though you are apart of her life. I think one the main reasons why I enjoy this blog so much is that I wish my blog were more like this. If I was doing this blog because I really wanted to not just to get marks to pass a class- and I actually had time to sit down and really think about what I wanted to say- not just 15 minutes at the end of the week I think I would have a blog like this.  I think this blog does a fabulous job of showing the MANY different ways to live an active, healthy, happy life.

Social Media Test

For this weeks blog, I looked at the North Vancouver Recreation Commission. I chose this company because they are all about active living. The compoenent of the social media campaign that I will look at is their Facebook page. I picked this component because I have never looked at it before and I thought it would be neat to use something that I have no previous opinion on. From what I can see, there is not a lot of interaction going on between the NVRC and between its followers. If I were to be in charge of this page I would try to increase the amount of communication that goes on.

The test:

I would look at how many followers the NVRC has and compare it to how many posts/likes take place each day. I would divide up the interactions into:

• Likes
• Answers- posts that people have put up responding to a question asked by the NVRC
• Questions- posts that people put up asking the NVRC about programs etc

I would then look at what type of content generates conversation not only between followers and the NVRC but between followers themselves. In order to determine what creates the most conversation I would code each post. From that data I would be able to figure out what is needed to facilitate conversations on the NVRC Facebook page.

North Van Rec Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/northvanrec?sk=notes#!/northvanrec?sk=wall

Social Media Personality

Ideally, I would like my blog to be a social one. A place for people to come and not only get tips on staying fit and being active but to provide tips to one another- what works for them.  I think by having a blog that also is a discussion forum would make it much more engaging for people.  As most people know when it comes to being active – not everything works for everyone. Some people require more motivation than others. If I were to create this blog only on tips that work for me it may not appeal to everyone. But by making it more like a community where people can share  their tips it will hopefully appeal to a much wider audience.

The Importance of Transparency

Like we have learned this week, transparency is very important in building trust and relationships. In Social Media and other forms of marketing, trust is very important especially if you are trying to sell a product, idea or lifestyle.

In the blogging world, people expect that when you write a specific blog, like the one I am writing- how to stay active- that you are an “expert” in that particular area. There is an expectation that that the information that the blogger is giving is accurate and that the blogger is a credible source. If your followers were to find out that you are hiding information or giving misinformation it can have some very negative consequences, such as a loss of readership. Once you have been identified as being deceitful it can be very difficult to rebuild your reputation in the online world.