Week 12 Part B - Online Business Tools and Me

For my research project this week, I investigated Groups on LinkedIn and free online tools for scheduling and making appointments. The scheduling tools are not related to marketing, but they would be important to a company trying to solidify a system for making online tutoring appointments. I would consider a scheduling site as a "business specific online tool."

LinkedIn Groups

I joined two groups on LinkedIn: 

  • Math, Math Education, Math Culture (this is the name for just one group)
  • Math Education
The first group has about 58,000 members, and the second has just shy of 9,000. I noticed in the Math Education (smaller) group that only 3 people seem to posting and interacting regularly--that is, on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Those three members have been posting their own instructional content videos., which is a good way to self-promote. However, it also means that the group dynamic is a little dry.

The first group about math, education, an culture seems a little more interesting. There is a larger number of people posting, and the topics are more varied. It could be someone's own lecture video, a paper that was published, or a thoughtful quote. I believe the variety in topics stems from the way the group was founded and that it contains more members. One of the stipulations of this group is that you cannot "post promotions." While I wouldn't be able to post a direct advertisement for Rad Math Tutoring, there are subtle ways to promote the business in that group. One way would be to post a math-related topic through a link to my Facebook or blog. I could post my own instructional content videos. That could be an effective way to promote one's tutoring talents while also "sharing" math information.

Scheduling Tools

WhenIsGood and SignUpGenius are two free scheduling tools that I've used in the past, but this time I was looking at them through the lens of my own business needs. For WhenIsGood, I can create a schedule of availability for potential tutoring times and send it out to a client. The client then marks their availability by painting times in green. From the perspective of the client, it would be a very simple process and just involve a few mouse clicks. From the perspective of the business owner, the process would be more time-consuming and involve more steps later on. I would choose an appointment time that matched the availability, book the appointment, and give the client the appointment time and Zoom room information in a confirmation email or text. SignUpGenius is similar, but it cuts down one step. I present the client with a schedule, and they book a fixed time on their end. I would still have to email the clinet the Zoom room information. It could be worth the cost to pay for a subscription to an app like bookafy. This app is new to me but looks promising. The app creates automated Zoom meeting links when an appointment is booked and sends reminders via email or text. Free sites could work for a small regular clientele, but if I wanted to expand in the future, then an app like bookafy would be a real time-saver. 


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