Wk2: Positive Comments

 Here are the positive reviews I left on Yelp today:

Moradi MD

Doctor Moradi is really the best!  Not only speaking as a previous employee, but as a client as well.  He really cares about his patients and provides everyone with beautifully natural results.

TNL Boba Tea

They have a really large menu and everything we have tried so far has been delicious! They are family-owned and very friendly to our kids, which makes going there even more enjoyable.

Week 2 Part A: Business & Consumers: Communication and Reviews

In the past, communicating with businesses usually consisted of either calling or sending an email, both of which could result in long wait times before receiving a response. However, now there are many more avenues of communication with companies through different social media platforms, their own webpages, live chat, etc. and response times are usually much quicker. Through social media specifically, you can usually chat with someone live instantly via messages, you could tag the company directly in a comment or your own post or story or respond to any of their content.

I read reviews on almost everything I purchase if its a new purchase, specially if its something for my kids like toys, slime, clothes, etc.  For myself, beauty items are the reviews I'm usually reading.  I also specifically seek out review videos on cosmetics/hair items since it really helps to actually see the products being used. I really appreciate the length that some people go to review products.  For example, the majority of make-up video reviews consist of filming multiple times a day to show how the products are holding up several hours later and throughout the day.

For this assignment I read reviews on Amazon of many different manufactures of pin pad door locks. The reviews ranged from terrible (1-3 stars) to amazing (5 stars).  Of course, many of the ones with the best reviews were the most expensive ones and the prices ranged from as low as $30 to over $300 so that was a vast difference.  With so many options, I would have had no idea which one to choose if it weren't for the reviews.  Thankfully, I was able to find one with pretty great reviews (4.9 star average) at a really great price deal!

Personally, I'm not one to post negative reviews typically unless its something important like a health/safety issue.  If I receive a defective product, I'll contact the company directly as opposed to leaving a negative public review.  I do leave good reviews when I find a product I like specially if there are not many reviews and/or mixed reviews since I know I really appreciate and base a majority of my purchases off of reviews.

 

If I had my own business on social media, I would respond to comments the way I did when I was in charge of customer service for a supplement company.  The majority of their comments were positive, but of course you can't please everyone so they did get some negative reviews as well.  The positive comments were responded to with sincere gratitude and the negative were responded to apologetically and with solutions (refunds, replacements, promo codes, etc.)

Week 1B: Blog Comments

 The student's blogs I commented on are:  Coco Dry, Colby Parry, & Jared Spurlock.

Week 1B: Social Media Use Today

Social Media has become such a big part of our everyday lives that it seems to have become normalized to be on it excessively and abnormal to not use it.  I was always aware of that subconsciously, but never really thought much of it.  That was until last year when I took a break from social media.  I realized how much of our communication goes through social media platforms now as opposed to calls, texts, or face to face.

The first month of my break, the majority of texts I received were links to videos/posts on social media and even a lot of search engine results link to social media so it took a continuous conscious effort and a couple reminders to friends & family in order for me to be able to stick to my intended break.  The only platforms I continued to use are YouTube (for entertainment, not engaging or creating), Nextdoor, Peanut & Pinterest sometimes for recipe ideas.

I wasn't sure how long of a break I was going to take initially, I had just felt like I was stuck in a rut of endless scrolling and it had started to feel mind-numbing.  Not only was it hindering and distracting me from my priorities like spending quality time making memories with my family, but I also noticed a negative impact to my mental health.  It's hard not to get sucked in to comparing yourself and your life to the seeming "perfection" we see online, even though that's usually not the reality.

It felt a little weird and isolating at first, but I feel more focused and motivated and have been able to be more productive than ever before.  I filled my extra time with going back to school, cooking, and starting new activities with my husband and kids such as fishing. Also, our daughter will be starting home school soon so I know that will take up a portion of my time as well.

I've been off social media for about a year now and I can't really imagine going back on, at least not to the extent that I was before.  However, I do understand social media is a pretty essential aspect to any successful business so I would prefer to use it strictly for business. 

Week1A: My Blog Theme

Hi! My name is Michelle and this is my first blog post. I had a hard time choosing a theme; it took me longer than I expected since not only was I looking for one that I liked visually, but also one I could personally relate to. 

At first I thought of uploading a picture of my own choosing as the background, but I couldn't decide on one. So I browsed the premade themes instead. I considered a couple other themes before I finally found and chose this one called Artsy.  I liked the abstract watercolor visual in general, but also liked the specific colors; they reminded me of a beautiful summer sunset.

I did still like the idea of incorporating a personal picture though, so I included one at the top of my post. I also thought the colors of the picture complimented the colors of the Artsy theme pretty well.  The picture is of chalk art my toddlers created together and my son's wet hand print in the middle.  

My husband and I have been together since 2008 and have a 5 year old daughter, 3 year old son and 4 month old son.  Our world revolves around them and one of their favorite things to do is anything creative and artistic with us so that was another reason I chose the Artsy theme.

One final thing that made me choose this theme was that it is non-specific and can fit in fine with pretty much any topic as I'm not yet sure what all topics I'll be posting about.  In contrast to some other themes, which were pretty specific like the one called Tasty Treats featuring pastries.  I did also go into the advanced features and customize the fonts.

I was surprised to learn how easily and quickly a blog can be created, and specially for free!  I have a large extended family with many members out of state/country so my husband and I actually really like the idea of creating a personal blog to share pictures and updates of our kids with our families as opposed to using social media for that like we have in the past.