Pump Up Your Instagram!

Instagram, what started as a fun way to share photos with your friends has now turned into a free way to improve your business. From big companies like Michael Kors to your own personal profile, there are several ways to improve your marketing on your Instagram.

Here are 5 tips!

1. Add a link to your biography. Once people visit your Instagram page, you want them to keep going on to the next level! These days, there has been a rise in Internet bloggers. Personally, there are several fashion beauty and lifestyle blogs that I look at weekly. If you have your own blog, put a link to it in your Instagram profile! Or, if you are a big business, have a link to your website! Here is an example:

2. Subliminally include your products into your Instagram posts. Make your product look very appealing to the target audience member. For example, Lauren Conrad has a fashion line available at Kohls that is very popular among my age group. Here is an post from LCLaurenConrad that incorporates items from her fashion line in a picture that many girls could find appealing and relate to.

3. Use a text overlay on your photos. Sometimes, people will not take the time to read the caption of your photo that includes the action that you want them to take. It is a good idea to put your message right across the picture so that it stands out when someone is scrolling through their news feed.

4. Make your captions include a call to action! If there is a sale, notify the viewers! If there is a new line of sweaters coming out for the holidays, tell them about it! Make sure the call to action is clear. Otherwise, there is no point in even posting the photo and caption.

5. ######## Hashtags!

It is extremely important to take advantage of hashtags. It is a great way to gather information and draw in more viewers from other people who are looking at the same hashtag. Make sure that the hashtag is relevant, and don't overdo it. On average, it is recommended to use approximately 1o to 15 hashtags in each post. 

Read more about how to pump up your Instagram at: 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/improve-your-instagram-marketing/

Pin, Pin, Pin!

So I must admit, I am slightly addicted to Pinterest. However, I don't think I am the only one who has this addiction. I found some statistics about Pinterest from www.Digday.com. Pinterest has about 25 million users and the average activity of a user is 2,757 pins; 35 boards; and following 355 users. Clearly, Pinterest is a great way for companies to show their products to pinners and show them ways of how to use their product. Pinterest is a great way for companies to integrate their products within pins so that people don't even realize that they are being exposed to an advertisement about the brand.

Pinterest accounts for more than 25% of retail referral traffic. I see this so much on Pinterest. I have found multiple ways on how to use a certain product in several different ways. I just looked at my "likes" on my Pinterest profile, and in the first two rows I had two ways of how to use one product for a different use than what it is originally intended for. The first one was a scrub made out of vinegar and cold water to get stains out of my leather boots. The other product suggestion was to make a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda and apply to your teeth with a Q-tip to easily whiten your teeth at home. These pins on Pinterest will increase the sales of these products because pinners can see all of the different ways they can use this product that they probably would not have known about if they weren't on Pinterest.

I also came across several recipes that are based around one product. I thought this was interesting because it is huge product promotion. When I saw these pins I was wondering where these recipes came from. They could just be people who created a delicious recipe, or maybe it was people who work for that food company that want to make people buy their product. For example, I came across a recipe for Oreo Balls and Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies.These desserts cannot be made without the customer purchasing either Oreos or Snickers. I actually thought this was a really good idea on how to advertise because they catch someones eye and they might want to try it. I think it is a great social media marketing strategy for companies to use.

I also came across some things that would discourage people from buying a product. This shows a slightly negative side of Pinterest. The example I found was a duplicate recipe for Red Lobster Spinach and Artichoke Dip. If people really like this dip and typically go out to eat at Red Lobster just to eat the dip, then they will be interested in trying to make it at home. It might be cheaper and easier for them to just make it at home. Then that means that Red Lobster just lost a customer because people can just make their product at home. Even though Pinterest has a slightly negative side, I still think its a great website and offers many opportunities for companies to reach out to their customers.

How many Twitters does Twitter have?

A common misconception is that separate departments of a business are not aware of what is going on in other departments of the business. For example, even members of the finance team should know about the company's social media pages. This means that it is not just up to the marketing department to be involved in social media. More involvement by employees can better the chance of becoming well known and increasing fans and followers.

I found an article on www.Hubspot.com that was titled "How to Cultivate a Company Wide Social Media Culture" that included some great tips for companies. This article stated that in order for a company to be successful, they need to adapt their entire corporate culture to our social media oriented world. 

Some tips that I thought would be really helpful for companies that are trying to spread their social media efforts is to incorporate social media training into the standard job training. This is important because everyone will be on the same page on how to be involved in social media for the company. The other great tip is to incorporate social media into company events. When hosting an event, you can create a hashtag that everyone attending the event will tweet about. Also, you can use the "check in" feature on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram as well as use location based platforms such as Foursquare.

I was trying to look for a company that had company wide social media platforms with multiple Twitter accounts. The one that intrigued me the most was all of the different accounts that Twitter has. I couldn't even count them all because there were so many! Here is a screenshot of the top six accounts that came up when I searched for Twitter accounts. 

There is even a description of each Twitter account! I would never even think to follow a Twitter account. I thought this was interesting because it shows how much even social media platforms market themselves through social media. I think that  the Stories account is really neat because it is a good way for the people at Twitter to see how people like the platform and they can directly see and respond to either positive or negative stories by searching the hashtag #twitterstories. It makes sense to have so many accounts since there are so many members on Twitter. According to Business Insider, there are currently 232 million monthly active users.

Instagram Ads: Good For The Company, Bad For Your Wallet!

In the past year or so, I have noticed more and more sponsored advertisements coming up on my Instagram feed. Every so often I won't even realize that it is a sponsored advertisement and I think to myself, "When did I start following this page?" At first, I wasn't a huge fan of sponsored advertisements on Instagram. Instagram was the one social media site where I controlled everything I saw. Everything in my news feed appeared in my newsfeed because I chose to follow that company or person on Instagram. I thought that it would just end up like Facebook where there are ads everywhere you click.

However, I have changed my opinion about Instagram advertisements. I think that they are very subtle, not very in your face. The only one that I have noticed recently is advertisements for Michael Kors. I think the photos that they chose to include in their advertising were very attractive images of Michael Kors Products. I liked them because they were just showing a picture, it wasn't telling anyone to buy them. There were no promotions in the photo or the description. It made me want to look into purchasing the product. The only negative thing about this is that Michael Kors products tend to be fairly expensive, which is not a good sign for your wallet!

I found an article from Tech Crunch that can be viewed here. This article discussed how over 5% of Instagram ads have lead to likes. This is a very good sign for companies because it is showing that it has the potential to grow even more as people become more aware of it. I think that this is starting off successful because for me personally, I scroll through a lot of things on Facebook and just randomly read things that catch my eye. On Instagram, I don't follow as many people that I have as friends on Facebook. So I tend to take my time more and look at every Instagram post on my feed. I think a key indicator in success of this is to research and track your user's activity and interests on the internet so you can advertise the best products to them. For example, if you continue to have Michael Kors ads pop up on a 13 year old boy's Instagram who is into dirt bikes, he will most likely scroll right past it.

The analytics company that Instagram uses is called Nitrogram. This particular Michael Kors advertisement was viewed by 6.15 million people, and received over 218,000 likes. That means that 3.57% of those views led to the likes of the photo. For one of the first Instagram ads, that isn't too bad. I am sure that these advertisements will continue to expand an become even more successful.

Social Media Making Us Think

With the rapid growth of social media in recent years, it is truly unbelievable how fast some topics can spread once they have been shared on social media. Personally, whenever I hear anything about a current event, I search my Twitter page about it before I think to turn on the news or ask my peers if they know any information about what is going on. I think that this is both a good and bad thing for the world. On one hand, I think it is great that information is very accessible to a large amount of people and there are great opportunities to inform people on issues that they may have never known anything about.On the other hand, it is very easy to share non-credible information that might alter the opinions someone has about a certain issue.

As the year 2014 comes to a close (can you even believe its already over?!), think back and reflect on all of the times current events and issues have flooded your news feeds on Facebook, Twitter, etc. From the ALS ice bucket challenge, to the debates about Ferguson, social media has created a place where people can share and spread their opinions with others. In an article I found on E!, they rounded up fifteen different instances where social media posts or advertisements really made us stop and think about the issues at hand. While some of them are extremely controversial and sensitive topics, or some lighthearted and funny, they really made us stop while we were scrolling through the newsfeed and really think about what we were seeing.

Here are some examples:

Ebola sparked an uproar of fear in the United States after there were some cases of people entering the United States with Ebola. Without even learning more about what the disease is, people just got scared. While they had the right to be safe and concerned on the issue, many people created stereotypes for Africans assuming that they all were walking around with Ebola. The movement of #IamLiberianNotAVirus started when a woman was being judged by her race of having Ebola when she was not infected with the disease. This photo was shared on Facebook, and it immediately went viral. It taught us to educate ourselves before jumping to conclusions about people.

When a video was released of NFL player Ray Rice physically abusing his wife, it caused an uproar on the issue of domestic violence. This ad on social media really stuck out to me because of how graphic it is. It is a visual representation of how many women who are abused both physically, verbally, emotionally, feel on the inside every day. There were many arguments on how Ray Rice should be punished by being suspended from the NFL. Sometimes, it takes a graphic image like this to make people stop and think.

Check out some more examples of how social media made us stop and think at: http://www.eonline.com/news/603760/15-times-social-media-made-us-think-in-2014

Snap This, Snap That!

Snapchat has grown in popularity in recent years. For those of you who don't know, Snapchat was invented by three Stanford University students; Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. Snapchat is a photo sharing application where users can take and share photos, videos, and illustrations to a selected group of people for no longer than ten seconds. In my own experience, I have noticed that Snapchat is the new Facebook of this time. A feature that I believe has caused the growth in popularity is the "My Story" option.

Here is a notification from Snapchat explaining what a Snapchat My Story is:

Snapchat stories have created much more of an interaction between Snapchat friends because you are able to send your story items to all of your Snapchat friends in one click of a button. Snapchat stories have also created new ventures for Snapchat.

Snapchat now has the option to create sponsored stories to send to every Snapchat user. Snapchat now creates collaborative Our Story events that users can add their photos and videos to. The first Our Story was in June for the Electric Daisy Carnival dance music festival. Anyone within the arena in Las Vegas could add their experiences to the story. Our Story Events that I remember personally seeing from my account include; College Football, National Dog Show, Base Jumping, and many more. Each event includes a personalized illustration or logo from the event. Here are some examples:  

Snapchat's newest "money makers" are sponsored Snapchat stories. The first sponsored story was a collaboration with Samsung at the American Music Awards. This story included photos and videos of celebrities, the show, and behind the scenes of the show with a sponsored illustration of the AMA's and the Samsung Galaxy Logo. I personally think this is a genius advertising strategy because you are not throwing it in the users face. For example, if they don't want to watch the story, they simply don't. Here are some screen shots from the first sponsored Snapchat story.

A great strategy that Snapchat has is that not all of the Our Stories are sponsored events. For example, no company is paying them to create a story about National Hot Air Balloon Day, but it creates an interest from the audience. I think this is a great new way to advertise to users through Snapchat.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/23/snapchat-sponsored-our-story/

Black Friday or Black Thursday?

For as long as I can remember, the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) has always been the day that I avoid going to the mall to stay away from the chaos of thousands of people running through the stores to find the best deals for the holiday season. I personally feel that Thanksgiving should be a relaxing time where you spend time with your family and eat as much as you possibly can. However, there are many people who spend Thanksgiving cutting out coupons and planning their route around the mall. While there are two different kinds of people who view Black Friday in different ways, theres retailers who support Black Friday and who do not support Black Friday. In recent years, stores have been opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day. It seems that it is no longer considered Black Friday, but Black Thursday instead.

An article from The New York Times titled "Some Retailers Promote Decision to Remain Closed on Thanksgiving", provides the different views that the leaders of these companies have on this issue. This issue has been known as the open-versus-shut debate. The retailers believe that they will be open on Thanksgiving Day to please their customers, or they will remain closed to promote the importance of the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Retailers that will be open on Thanksgiving Day include: Walmart, Kmart, Macy's, Target, and Radio Shack. Retailers choosing to stay closed on Thanksgiving Day include: Costco, Marshalls, Gamestop, TJ Maxx, Barnes and Noble, Bed Bath and Beyond, Burlington Coat Factory, Nordstrom, Crate and Barrel, Patagonia, Dillards, and more.

Richard Galanti, the vice president and CFO of Costco says, “It’s an important holiday in the U.S., and our employees work hard during the holiday season, and we believe they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving Day with their family and friends. We’ve never opened on Thanksgiving, and when the trend to do so occurred in the last couple or three years, we chose not to because we thought it was the right thing to do for our employees.” Other retailers don't have the same opinion on this issue as Richard. A mall near Buffalo, NY is planning on charging retailers $200 per hour if they don't open by 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

There is even a petition on change.org with over 55,000 signatures supporting Target to remain closed on Thanksgiving Day and a Facebook page titled Boycott Black Thursday with over 87,000 likes. Would you sign the petition? What is more important to businesses, spending time with your family or increasing profits and sales by opening on Thanksgiving Day? 


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/business/some-retailers-are-promoting-their-decision-to-remain-closed-on-thanksgiving.html?_r=0