Portfolio Project Outline:

Photo by Octavian Dan on Unsplash

The Perfect Portfolio Project Opportunity:

This month I am excited to be working with a small, local business for my portfolio project. The business is owned by Jennifer Jones, a woman who is living her creative dream. She creates a variety of different types of home decor objects from personalized decorative signs to Christmas ornaments.

I learned through a local Facebook page that she was looking for someone to build her a website and to run her social media. I contacted her and she decided I would be a good fit for what she was looking for.

General Goal: Create a website and social media presence that will result in higher sales, social media following, and engagement.

• Higher sales
• Higher social media following & customer engagement
• Facebook likes at the start: 122
• Facebook likes goal by the end: 200
• Instagram followers at the start: 24
• Instagram followers goal by the end: 100

How I Will Stay Organized:

The tools that I have been using to manage my work and Praxis schedule are the same tools that I used for this project. You can view a quick video where I explain my task management system here.

• I will use Google Calendar to block off work time and make a weekly schedule. You can view my calendar for this month here.
• I will use Trello to create a board that is going to serve as my project management system. You can view my Trello board here.
• I will commit to working on the portfolio project a little bit each day (no zero days except for Christmas and Christmas Eve).

Hard Skills:

• Run social media for a real business
• Create a website
• Use knowledge of tech tools I have learned for a real business

Soft Skills:

• Communicate with and keep employer updated on progress
• Time management
• Organization

Tools I Will Be Using:

• Canva- I will use this tool to create a logo for the company.
• VistaPrint- I will use this tool to create business cards and customer loyalty cards.
• WordPress- I will use this tool to build a website.
• Drift- I will use this tool to create a chatbot for the website.
• Etsy- I will use this website to reach more potential customers & hopefully increase sales.
• Facebook Business Suite- I will use this tool to create social media ads.
• Google Docs- I will use this tool to create forms for customers to fill out for orders.
• Google Sheets- I will use this tool to keep track of customer information.
• Mailchimp- I will use this tool to create email campaigns and track how successful the email campaigns are.
• Zapier- I will use this tool to connect Google Sheets to the Mailchimp campaign list.
• Google My Business- I will use this tool to create a Google listing for the business.

Final Deliverables:

• 5 published blog posts
• A well put together website that includes a chatbot
• Social media ads
• Spreadsheet to keep track of customer information
• Etsy account
• Mailchimp email campaigns
• Loyalty program
• Listing with Google
• Project landing page

Weekly Breakdown

Week 1:

EOD 12/6/20:

• Create a finalized project outline
• Create the first draft of the project landing page
• Create a project management system with Google Calendar and Trello

Week 2:

EOD 12/7/20:

• Document the beginning standing of the business’ social media and internet presence. What needs improvement?
• Finish building and have approved by Jen which logo and business card design she likes
• Have a rough draft for blog post completed: Why you should support small businesses this holiday season.

EOD 12/9/20:

• Have the first draft of the website finished
• Have blog posts completed and posted to Medium
• Have Etsy account created and ready to use

EOD 12/10/20:

• A first draft of the blog post on the importance of websites for small businesses
• Create a sequence of 3 social media ads

EOD 12/11/20:

• The first draft of the blog post on social media marketing for small businesses

EOD 12/14/20:

• Blog posts completed and uploaded to Medium
• Final Website created and published

EOD 12/15/20:

• Drift chatbot for the website finished

Week 3:

EOD 12/16/20:

• Use Google Docs to create an order form

EOD 12/17/20:

• Use Mailchimp to create an email campaign & create a schedule for next month’s worth of emails.
• Use Zapier to connect spreadsheet tracking customer info to Mailchimp account.

Week 4:

EOD 12/18/20:

• The first draft of Zapier blog post completed

EOD 12/21/20:

• Upload final Zapier blog post to Medium
• Set up a business listing with Google
• Use Vistaprint to find a customer loyalty card & set up an outline for how it’ll work

EOD 12/23/20:

• Draft blog post on organization tips for a big project

EOD 12/28/20:

• Analyze project success- what worked, what didn’t?
• Look over all work and make edits where necessary
• Finalize landing page

EOD 12/30/20:

• What I would do differently next time
• Submit project

How I’ll Measure Success:

• Was I able to complete each of the tasks I planned by the date I planned?
• Are social media postings more frequent & is there more engagement?
• Did I reach my social media following goals?
• Was I able to implement a loyalty program?
• Did I sharpen my knowledge of the tech tools I have experience with?
• Do I understand the functions and capabilities of spreadsheets better?
• Have total sales increased?