Proprietors’ Project Report

March 10, 2016

Prepared by: BIT 470 Projects in MIS Class [Spring 2016]

Dr. Kristi Berg (Instructor), Tapiwa Choto (Project Co-Manager), Samantha Hernandez Villegas (Project Co-Manager),

Cody Berg, Seth Gering, Marissa Guttormson, Courtney Holman, Ines Melissa Koue, and Navin Sapkota.

Table of ContentsIntroduction......................................................................................................................................................3Web Traffic Analysis.........................................................................................................................................4Social Media Management Tools...................................................................................................................11Pinterest Account...........................................................................................................................................13Discount Promotions......................................................................................................................................14Video Marketing.............................................................................................................................................15Project 52® Protection.....................................................................................................................................16Conclusion......................................................................................................................................................18Vote of Thanks................................................................................................................................................18Notes..............................................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction

This report is a follow up to the meeting we had with Ms. Penny Hanson on February 9th, 2016, at Minot State University regarding Project Paper Company. The purpose of this report is to furnish the company proprietors with feedback and recommendations for the needs, tasks, and opportunities identified during our meeting.

Our goal as the BIT 470 Projects in MIS class, was to explore ways in which we could help Project Paper Company grow by addressing and attending to the deliverables that were mutually assented on by both parties, and these were:

1. An insight into the analytics on Squarespace and Facebook to learn who your traffic is.2. Social Media Management Tools to coordinate posts and other activities on current and future

social networks.3. Setting up a Project Paper Co. Pinterest business account.4. Setting up and promoting discounts (Promo Codes) for the online store.5. Suggestions for video marketing.6. Recommendations for protecting the Project 52 concept from potential hijack by larger retailers.

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Web Traffic Analysis

We took an in-depth look into the available analytics on PPC’s Squarespace and Facebook accounts to get a better understanding of who is behind the traffic and their browsing means and habits.

Squarespace Analytics

A monthly overview of visits, page views, and audience size between August, 2015 and February, 2016.

Highlights

o Average of 256 visits per month.o 200 – monthly average audience size.o November, 2015 was the busiest month 1,800+ visits and 8,300+ page views. (Whatever you

did during that month is definitely worth repeating!)

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A monthly overview of devices used to visit the site from August, 2015 to February, 2016.

Highlights

o Over two-thirds of people visiting the site do so on their mobile phones.o October, 2015 had generated the highest desktop traffic whilst November, 2015 had the highest

mobile traffic thus far.

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A ranking of the site’s pages based on the number of views for the month of February, 2016.

Highlights

o 603 total page views.o Home page is the most popular page (naturally) followed by the Shop page with 30% and 27%

of the total count respectively. o Project 52 Card and Journal Set with the least page views, garnering only 2%.

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Facebook Insights

Facebook’s analytics tool (called Page Insights) is an indispensable tool when it comes to understanding the Facebook users who have liked your page.

You can use Page Insights to understand how people are engaging with your Page. With Page Insights, you can:

• View metrics about your Page's performance• Learn which posts have the most engagement• See data about when your audience is on Facebook

For example, you can look at each of your posts and see which ones have the most likes, comments and shares and the least negative feedback. You can use this information to create more of the types of posts that your audience is interested in seeing. You can also learn about when your audience is on Facebook and publish your posts when you're likely to reach more people.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/help/336893449723054/

N.B. To see your Page Insights, click Insights at the top of your Page. From here, you can view metrics about your Page by clicking the sections on the left (ex: Likes, Reach). To export your insights, click Export in the top-right corner.

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Demographics of fan base

Highlights

o 84% of your fans are women with the 35-44 and 45-54 age groups constituting the biggest segments totaling 52%.

o Virtually all your fans are based in the United States with more than half from Minot and the rest from cities within North Dakota.

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An overview of the engagement achieved by posts on page.

Highlights

o “It’s pillow day here at PPC !!” most popular post with a total reach of over 2,400 and 535 likes. Success can be attributed to resonance of customized pillows with audience.

o “Timeline Photos” had least engagement, probably owing to lack of caption.

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Data shown for a recent 1-week period, February 28 – March 5, 2016.

Highlights

o Post views are uniform across the week.o Posts were viewed mostly between 8:00am and 10:00pm, with the peak at 9:00pm.

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Social Media Management Tools

It was noted how PPC is currently overwhelmed with handling its current social media accounts. Challenges stemmed mostly from devoting enough time and managing the brand on more than one social network effectively to translate buzz into sales.

A warranted solution to this problem is use of a social media dashboard, which is a social media management tool that individuals or companies can use to coordinate a social media presence across multiple channels or accounts, through a single interface – an app or website.

Social media dashboards feature functions aimed at making the social media publishing process more efficient, standardized and effective, for example, content scheduling, collaboration tools that make it easy to add team members to the content creation process, and some social media dashboards also provide listening tools. These tools assist companies in monitoring social conversations on multiple platforms so the company knows what people are saying about the company or the company's products and company representatives can respond in an appropriate manner. 

There a lot of social media dashboards available on the market for small business (many allowing free trials). We streamlined our research into finding dashboards that were consistently featured on multiple rankings and our two that would be suitable for PPC are IF This Then That and Hootsuite.

IFTTT can automate web-application tasks, such as posting the same content on several social networks and track mentions of companies in real-time in RSS feeds.

Hootsuite is one of the most mature social media dashboards on the market, and has a comprehensive feature set and a wide array of compatible networks. It is an outstanding resource for social listening, and its customizable reporting tools are among the best available.

IF This Then That (IFTTT) ● Pros:

○ It can be set up so that IF you post on Facebook THEN it posts to Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc.

● Cons:○ No Analytics○ Cannot see all your social media

“streams”

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Plan FreeFor: Individuals looking to try Hootsuite to get more out of social

media

Pro*For: Entrepreneurs, owners & consultants that want to maximize

their time on social

Free 30-Day trial

BusinessFor: Small businesses & agencies that need one platform for their teams to

manage social media

Features Basic features:- 3 Social Profiles- Basic Analytics Reports- Message Scheduling

Free features, plus:- 50 Social Profiles- 1 Enhanced Analytics Report- Bulk Message Scheduling- 1 user included, up to 10- Access to Premium Apps

$9.99/mo. per user, billed annually

Pro features, plus:- 50 Social Profiles- Real-time Analytics- Publishing approvals- 5 users- Social Media Certification- Vanity URL (a unique web address that is branded for marketing purposes. It is a custom URL that exists to help users remember and find a specific page of your website)- 24/7 Priority Support- Custom Set-up & training

*Recommended

Can use at once:○ Twitter○ Facebook ○ Google+○ LinkedIn○ WordPress

○ Instagram○ Pinterest using Tailwind○ YouTube○ Foursquare etc.○ HAS 157 APP DIRECTORY

We highly recommend Hootsuite on the Pro Plan for PPC given the tools it comes with and it will remain a viable and convenient tool should you decide to expand your Wine Not Minot merchandise as a separate line from PPC. Both dashboards can be used on a computer through a website and are also conveniently available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for download on mobile devices.

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Pinterest Account

Given the craft-oriented nature of PPC we identified an unexploited opportunity to market its creative merchandise to a social network of like minded individuals, Pinterest. In accordance with our findings on PPC’s Facebook page’s followers, the platform has a unique demographic in that the vast majority of its more than 100 million active users (according to Venture Beat) are female. A ComScore study found that approximately 71 percent of Pinterest users in December 2014 were women, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Penny Hanson gave us the go ahead to set up a business account on Pinterest on behalf of PPC. A business account, while free like personal Pinterest accounts, grants access to features to help your business thrive on the platform, like analytics tools. It also allows you to develop campaigns to reach your desired audience, by boosting Pin engagement and driving website traffic with Promoted Pins.

The log in credentials are contained below and once you log in we advise you to change the password as a mark of officially taking over the account.

Username: projectpaperco@gmail.com

Password: ********

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Discount Promotions

Order discounts can be a simple method to promoting your business and expanding your number of customers as well as a great way to increase what a customer will spend. Squarespace offers step-by-step directions on how to enable the discount feature accessible through the site. The types of discounts available are:

Any Order Discounts Product by Category Discounts Single Product Discounts Order at Least Discounts

Once you have selected the type of discount you would like to offer your customers, Squarespace will guide you through the setup of the rest of the discount details.

You can use Squarespace's built-in features to market your store and spread the word about your discounts. For example:

Add a banner to the top of your site using an announcement bar. Create an email campaign using a tool like MailChimp (available through Squarespace). Create a page that lists all of your discounts and promotions.

Announcing your discounts on existing PPC and personal social media accounts works effectively in spreading the word.

Below is the link to the “Creating Discounts” help page. It contains all information and instructions you will need in setting up and promoting discounts.

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205811178-Creating-discounts#toc-types-of-discounts

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Video Marketing

By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic, according to Cisco. Video is the future of content marketing. When it comes to potential reach, video is peerless. Viewers love a good viral video - video content that is so informative or entertaining that they readily share it across their own social network feeds.

With PPC’s dependence on social media, a simple short video that can be displayed on your website and Facebook page to improve consumer engagement, click-throughs, and traffic. A viral element to the video would also help propel your brand to wider audiences through reposts and sharing online. For reference, a local business that has been able to implement this strategy and benefit from the buzz is Dakota Chappy through its Chappy TV video series.

Unfortunately, given to time and resource constraints, our class cannot produce and shoot a marketing video for PPC (as much fun as that would be). We have however made sure to provide you with a lead. Please feel free to follow up with the contact, Eric Thoemke, a member of ND Strong, a local filmmakers’ organization. His business card has been placed in front of the folder containing this report.

For more information pertaining to ND Strong and a sample of their work please visit: www.ndstrong.org

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Project 52® ProtectionWith the desire to increase the distribution of Project 52 there is the inherent risk of it being stolen by competitors and large retailers like Target as noted in our prior meeting. One way around this is registering PPC merchandise as Intellectual Property, which is any product, idea or work that resulted from creative thought. Examples are Projects Paper handwritten notes and other customized products offered by the company.

Use these three legal tools - with the help and oversight of an attorney:

• Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): Have anyone you work with sign a non-disclosure agreement that commits them to confidentiality. An NDA can be a mutual agreement between two parties not to share information with third parties, or it can go one-way (since you're sharing information about your idea with them). If the agreement doesn't have an expiration date, that's powerful.

• Non-compete agreement: If you hire someone to help you, have him or her sign a non-compete agreement. A non-compete agreement prevents an individual or entity from starting a business that would compete or threaten yours within an established radius.

• Work-for-hire agreement: If you hire someone to help fine-tune your product, make sure to establish that you own any and all improvements made to the idea. Anything they come up with, you own. You will still need to list the person who came up with improvements as a co-inventor in your patent, but they will have no rights to your invention.

Turn to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for help

Fortunately, patents aren't the only tools available to protect our ideas. First, file a provisional patent application (PPA). You can do this yourself online or use a template such as Invent + Patent System or Patent Wizard to help you. The USPTO also has call centers available with staff members on hand to answer questions and offer guidance.

Filing a PPA costs a little over $100, while patents can easily cost thousands of dollars in legal fees, depending on the complexity of your idea. A provisional patent application protects your idea for up to one year and allows you to label your idea as "patent pending." You can then use the year to gain valuable insight into your idea.

Also, consider applying for a trademark, which you can also easily do online. This costs several hundred dollars and will help you establish ownership. Because names become synonymous with products, having a registered trademark cements the impression that the idea you're selling is closely associated with your product.

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Useful link to more information:For small or medium-sized American enterprises, you can request through the U.S. Department of Commerce (www.tradeinfo.doc.gov) a free, one-hour consultation with an intellectual property attorney to learn how to protect and enforce your intellectual property rights.

Source: Key, S. (2013, May 8). How to Protect Your Business Idea Without a Patent. Retrieved March 8, 2016,

from entrepreneur.com: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226595

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Conclusion

In this report, we addressed the needs, tasks, and opportunities identified during our meeting with Ms. Penny Hanson on February 9th, 2016, at Minot State University. By looking into your Squarespace and Facebook analytics we were able to learn who your traffic is and their browsing habits. To retain the attention of and continue engaging your current social media following across multiple networks, we found social media dashboards you can adopt to assist in coordinating your campaigns. We recommend Hootsuite on the Pro Plan given the size of your business and listening tools it affords you to keep track of PPC mentions online.

Pinterest was the missing gem stone in your social media presence. Its strength lies in aligning PPC with like minded individuals who are into hand made crafts and customized products. We created a business account that is now available for your taking. Your current marketing activities can also be complimented by introducing promo codes by utilizing the discounts feature available through PPC’s Squarespace account and producing short interesting videos that are ready and easy to share on social networks and your website. Lastly we offered recommendations for protecting Project 52 from being copied by large retailers. Non-disclosure, Non-compete, and work-for-hire agreements offer the best cost-effective legal protection.

Vote of Thanks

On behalf of Dr. Kristi Berg our instructor, Samantha Hernandez Villegas the project co-manager, and the entire BIT 470 Projects in MIS Class of Spring 2016, I would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude for affording us the opportunity of peeking into and working to help improve Project Paper Company’s marketing efforts online. Your willingness to offer your business as a subject for one of our projects has helped bridge the gap between our textbooks and the real world for us. It has better prepared eight Management Information Systems seniors for their careers by offering them practical experience.

We hope our deliverables prove useful for your business and help take it to the next level. May you reap as much success in your endeavors as much we enjoyed working on this. Wishing you the best of luck and once again, Thank you!

– Tapiwa Choto (Project Co-Manager)

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*** N.B. Whilst all steps have been taken on our end to covertly handle all the confidential information you shared with us (account usernames and passwords), we advise you take precaution and change

the passwords to those accounts to prevent unapproved log-ins or hacking. ***

Notes

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