TVA  360°  Virtual  Tours  Brett  Henderson    

 Mission  Statement  

  TVA  360  is  a  company  that  creates  high  quality  virtual  tours.    We  have  

created  a  website  to  provide  information,  samples,  and  contact  info  for  our  

customers  and  potential  new  customers.  We  are  proud  of  our  product  and  we  want  

to  share  it  with  everyone.  TVA  stands  for  Tyler  Van  Arsdale,  who  is  the  owner  of  this  

company  as  well  as  the  inventor  of  the  program  used  to  create  the  virtual  tours.  We  

pride  ourselves  on  having  a  technologically  advanced  product  as  well  as  great  

customer  service.  We  know  that  our  virtual  tour  is  a  high-­‐quality,  high-­‐functioning,  

and  technologically  savvy  product.  None  of  our  competitors  have  the  quality  of  tour  

that  we  provide.    We  will  be  using  our  web  presence  to  showcase  our  talents  and  

keep  in  touch  with  our  customers,  as  well  as  gain  new  customers.  We  chose  to  do  a  

blog  because  according  to  an  article  in  the  Journal  of  Advertising  Research,  “Blogs  

have  become  highly  fashionable  among  writers,  readers,  and  marketers.  They  are  

now  leading  destinations  among  web  users”  (Colliandr  J.  March  2011).  We  will  drive  

our  web  presence  to  our  blog  through  Twitter,  YouTube,  Facebook,  and  Email.  

Target  Audience  

  Our  primary  target  market  will  be  insurance  agencies  because  we  want  to  

provide  our  services  to  helping  people  in  need.  We  would  provide  a  virtual  tour  that  

would  showcase  all  of  the  valuables  that  each  of  our  customers  own.  This  service  

would  be  used  if  a  disaster,  such  as  a  fire,  tornado,  or  hurricane  occurred  and  

destroyed  their  property.  This  would  aid  the  insurance  agencies  in  helping  replace  

customers’  valuables.  

  Our  secondary  target  market  will  be  brokerage  firms  in  the  Tulsa,  Oklahoma  

area.  We  would  like  to  tap  into  the  more  expensive  houses  in  price  ranges  over  

$180,000.  The  areas  that  we  want  to  use  are  the  surrounding  cities  of  Tulsa,  such  as  

Broken  Arrow,  Jenks,  and  Sand  Springs.  The  customer  will  use  our  product  to  sell  

their  house  as  quickly  as  possible  by  showcasing  their  house  on  the  Internet.  Our  

customers  want  to  sell  their  house  and  get  it  off  the  market.  The  only  requirements  

for  using  our  product  are  to  have  a  house  for  sale.  

Needs  

  The  needs  we  are  trying  to  fulfill  for  the  user  are  samples  of  the  product,  

information,  answers  to  questions,  interaction  with  the  company,  and  company  

updates.    We  want  to  provide  as  much  information  as  we  can  to  keep  people  

interested  in  TVA  360.  Working  with  the  company  as  a  consultant  for  the  past  two  

years,  I  have  had  the  opportunity  to  talk  with  potential  customers  about  what  they  

think  we  need  to  provide.  According  to  the  feedback,  we  need  to  get  our  product  out  

in  front  of  people  so  they  can  see  the  full  effect  of  what  our  tours  can  provide.  We  

know  that  if  we  can  get  enough  people  to  see  the  high-­‐class  product  that  we  provide,  

we  can  make  a  huge  splash  in  the  industry.  We  ran  a  SWOT  analysis  of  our  company  

to  show  what  we  can  provide  and  what  we  need  to  improve  (see  figure  1).  On  the  

Website,  they  will  get  to  see  samples  of  tours  with  voice-­‐overs  that  serve  as  a  

testimonial  of  our  product.  The  samples  of  the  product  are  the  most  important  need  

of  the  consumers,  and  that  is  our  main  reason  for  having  a  web  presence.  The  rest  of  

the  information  is  just  to  provide  a  reason  for  people  visiting  our  site  more  than  

once.  The  needs  of  our  consumers  are  something  we  take  very  seriously,  so  we  are  

continually  uploading  more  tours  that  we  shoot,  blog  posts  that  the  consumers  can  

read,  and  a  continually  updated  site  they  can  frequently  visit.  

 

(Figure  1)  

 

Content  

  Our  content  meets  the  needs  of  the  audience  by  providing  blog  posts  that  

introduce  us,  break  down  pricing,  and  share  our  adventures  and  other  tips  that  we  

think  are  important.  We  based  our  content  off  of  three  different  steps  that  we  found  

in  Tactics  Journal:    

• Deliver  Value  –  Focus  on  the  customer  not  the  company,  think  of  the  

company  as  a  publisher,  and  promote  resources  not  products  and  

services.  

• Have  a  Voice-­‐  A  blog  theoretically  is  a  personal  journal.  So  have  a  

personality  not  a  PR  department’s  personality.  

• Think  Visually-­‐  Look  at  your  blog  post.  Break  up  the  copy  and  make  it  

readable  to  the  consumers.  Use  subheads,  bullets  bold  face  lead-­‐ins,  

links  and  highlight  words.  (Wyile  A.  July  2011)  

We  have  created  a  focal  point  on  the  home  page  with  our  name  and  slogan  of  the  

company.  According  to  the  article,  “Hummingbirds,”  “…your  focal  point  is  the  

equivalent  of  a  big  sign  that  says,  ‘Really  amazing  stuff  starts  here’”  

(Hummingbirds).  We  have  used  the  5  principles  of  media  creation  according  to  the  

“Principles  for  a  New  Media  Literacy”  article  that  was  published  in  the  Berkman  

Center  for  Internet  and  society  at  Harvard  University:  

1. Do  your  homework,  and  then  do  some  more.  

2. Get  it  right,  every  time.  

3. Be  fair  to  everyone.  

4. Think  independently,  especially  of  your  own  biases.  

5. Practice  and  demand  transparency.  (Gillmor  D.  2008)  

  Blog  posts  are  an  important  product  of  the  site.  It  allows  us  to  bring  in  

potential  customers,  as  well  as  keep  them  coming  back.  It  makes  the  website  feel  

less  like  a  company  pushing  business  on  them,  but  still  keeps  them  informed  and  

our  business  in  their  mind.  The  blog  posts  will  vary  in  information  such  as  Meet  the  

Owner,  Introduction  to  the  Company,  Updates  on  Products,  and  Polls.  We  will  post  

polls  once  a  week  on  different  topics  to  keep  the  audience  feel  like  part  of  the  team,  

while  it  allows  us  to  gather  consumer  feedback.  Guests  will  also  get  to  comment  on  

the  site  to  leave  feedback  about  our  products  and  sevices.  The  comments  will  be  

monitored  by  our  team  in  order  to  collect  useful  responses  and  keep  spam  or  

inappropriate  content  off  of  the  site.      

  We  have  a  Frequently  Asked  Question  page  where  questions  are  answered  

directly  by  the  owner.  We  decided  to  have  them  answered  by  Tyler  to  bring  a  sense  

of  comfort  to  the  consumer  by  connecting  the  audience  with  the  owner.  It  gives  

them  the  feeling  that  Tyler  is  answering  their  questions  directly.    

  We  chose  to  have  a  photo  gallery  to  showcase  some  of  the  photos  we  have  

taken  at  the  tour  shoots.  This  serves  as  a  place  to  showcase  our  talent  and  creativity.  

It  also  gives  the  consumer  some  really  cool  pictures  to  look  at  and  will  keep  bringing  

them  back  to  our  site.  They  will  also  like  it  because  it  will  show  off  their  house  to  

every  viewer  that  comes  to  the  site.  It  will  give  them  a  sense  of  pride  to  know  that  

their  house  can  be  showcased  on  our  site.  

  All  of  our  efforts  to  get  people  to  the  site  will  pay  off  when  they  click  on  the  

virtual  tour  tab.  On  this  tab  they  will  get  to  see  samples  of  tours  that  we  have  

completed.  These  tours  are  filmed  and  are  uploaded  on  YouTube  and  embedded  on  

the  page.  The  videos  will  be  a  sample  of  the  virtual  tour  to  give  the  audience  an  idea  

of  what  the  tour  is.  The  sample  will  provide  a  voice-­‐over  that  gives  a  testimonial  to  

our  efforts,  and  it  will  give  an  outside  voice  so  our  audience  feels  comfortable  on  the  

site.    

Social  Media  

  Facebook  will  be  a  big  part  of  how  we  integrate  social  media  into  our  site.  We  

have  created  a  Facebook  fan  page,  and  it  has  been  posted  to  the  website  as  a  widget.  

Consumers  who  visit  the  site  will  be  able  to  “Like”  the  fan  page  without  clicking  off  

of  our  page.  This  will  give  them  updates  on  happenings  on  the  blog  as  well  as  

serving  as  a  forum  for  our  consumers  to  communicate  with  each  other  and  with  us.  

We  chose  to  have  a  Facebook  because  of  the  large  numbers  of  users  and  its  

continuing  expansion.  In  an  article  in  the  “Mobile  Marketing  Association,”  it  says  

that  59.57%  of  the  sample  survey  respondents  had  a  Facebook  (Sangwon  L.  Winter  

2011).    

  Twitter  will  be  used  to  provide  updates  to  our  audience.  We  will  use  it  to  let  

people  know  what  is  currently  happening  on  our  site.  We  are  using  Twitter  because  

of  the  monthly  user  rate,  which  is  rapidly  growing  in  the  recent  years.  A  study  in  the  

Mobile  Marketing  Association  that  shows  “between  December  2008  and  Februrary  

2009,  Twitter  adoption  already  passed  the  critical  mass  point  at  which  enough  

individuals  have  adopted  an  innovation  so  that  the  innovation’s  further  rate  of  

adoption  becomes  self-­‐sustaining"  (Sangwon  L.  Winter  2011).  We  try  to  follow  

Susan  Gunelius’s  Twitter  Dos  and  Don’ts  to  make  sure  we  are  following  the  correct  

code  of  conduct  on  twitter.  She  has  six  different  guidelines  that  we  use:  

1. "Do  you  have  a  plan"  –  We  will  spend  time  throughout  each  workday  that  we  

are  on  Twitter  reading  through  our  @  mentions,  replying  to  questions,  and  

connecting  with  our  followers.  

2. "Don’t  over  promote"  –  We  will  follow  the  80  –  20  rule  in  which  80%  of  our  

tweets  will  be  non-­‐promotional  while  the  other  20%  will  promote  the  

company.    

3. "Do  integrate  your  efforts  with  other  marketing  initiatives"-­‐  We  will  include  

our  Twitter  address  with  all  of  our  marketing  pieces.  This  will  connect  our  

users  to  our  website  and  allow  them  to  get  updates  on  new  posts  and  other  

content  provided  such  as  new  tours,  links  and  photos.  

4. "Don’t  get  too  personal  or  too  negative"  –  We  follow  the  rule  of  “If  you  

wouldn’t  share  information  with  a  customer  in  person,  then  you  definitely  

shouldn’t  share  it  on  Twitter.”  We  will  also  shy  away  from  being  negative  on  

our  Twitter  page.  

5. "Do  engage  and  interact"  –  We  will  make  an  effort  to  engage  in  conversation  

and  connect  socially  with  our  followers.  We  want  to  have  a  good  time  and  

promote  our  information  that  we  have  for  every  day  life  such  as  pricing  and  

what  they  can  use  a  tour  for.    

6. "Don’t  use  corporate  Jargon  or  rhetoric"  –  We  don’t  want  to  build  a  

relationship  with  scripted  brochure  we  want  to  interact  like  a  human  and  not  

a  robot.  (Gunelius  S.  March  2011)    

These  steps  will  help  our  company  stay  connected  with  our  followers  and  keep  them  

coming  back  to  the  site.  We  believe  if  we  can  keep  a  social  friendship  with  our  

customers,  they  will  remember  us  when  it  comes  time  to  have  work  done.    

  Our  tours  will  be  sampled  by  making  YouTube  videos  with  voice-­‐over  

testimonials.  We  chose  a  YouTube  channel  because  of  the  reach  that  it  has  to  the  

younger  generation.  Clement  Chau  said,  “YouTube  provides  a  sociotechnical  

platform  to  support  a  participatory  culture  among  young  YouTubers”  (Chau  C.  

Winter  2010).  Three  samples  of  the  tours  will  be  embedded  on  our  page  with  a  link  

to  the  YouTube  channel  where  they  can  view  more  samples.    There  will  also  be  a  

link  to  the  website  that  has  all  of  the  virtual  tours  that  we  have  done  so  they  can  

look  at  them  if  they  want  more  information.  

  We  have  an  e-­‐mail  account  set  up  for  people  who  want  to  get  in  contact  with  

us.  They  will  be  able  to  email  us  with  questions,  to  book  appointments,  and  receive  

newsletters  of  what  is  happening  with  the  company.  E-­‐mail  is  a  quick  and  price  

efficient  way  of  communicating.    

  Our  main  focus  of  our  website  is  to  establish  our  web  presence.  We  live  in  a  

generation  where  our  audience  needs  information,  and  they  need  it  fast.  We  spend  a  

lot  of  time  updating  our  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  YouTube  channels  to  make  sure  our  

audience  has  that  information.  We  want  to  continue  to  post  blog  updates  and  

information  that  will  keep  brining  customers  back  to  the  site  on  a  regular  basis.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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