Marketing March 22, 2021

Instagram Hacks For Organic Growth Part 1

It can be really hard to go through all the digital clutter to find the answers you’re looking for. I’m so glad I started this series on my Instagram Reels to help people in my community over on Instagram. As many of you may already know, one thing I love to repeat over and over is that we do not own the space we have on social platforms. We don’t even pay rent! But what we do own is our websites. We pay for the domains, hosting and the platform it lives on. Having said that, I realized all the digital gold that lives on my social channels and the lack of giving it space on my own website. I hope to update my blog readers with the same tips and tricks, or a bit more trendy, let’s call them hacks. Whether you’re a blogger, influencer or a business. I hope these tips help you to reach your social media goals on Instagram. Tag me in your efforts on social media, I would love to share them!

how to use Instagram for business

Instagram Profile Hack

A big part of your brand image is the way your profile looks at first glance. That first glance is a big deal. It’s your digital first impression to potential customers, companies who may want to work with you and most importantly your audience and community. Have you done an audit for your Instagram profile? A quick Instagram profile hack to remove titles for your highlights, especially if the title are within the highlight cover.

Those dots instead of a highlight title as a filler were so messy! If you’re also using something as a filler title (emoji perhaps?) on your highlights then you can clean that all up with this Instagram profile hack.

Go to emptycharacter.com and under method 1, tap “copy to clipboard”. Go back to Instagram, click on your highlight cover, and now title name, paste what you copied and save. That’s how you leave that area empty.

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A post shared by Humara | Toronto Blogger (@humjk)

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Events December 14, 2019

Toronto Social Media Week Learnings for 2020

As you may know there was a Social Media Week event downtown Toronto. I attended seminars that would either add value to my current Digital Marketing Manager role or the Influencer Marketing industry. Here’s a summary:

FACT: 2.5 Billion people will sign up for social by next year.
– Socialbakers ( A global AI-powered social media marketing company offering a marketing software-as-a-service platform called the Socialbakers Suite. )

to stay informed.

When Instagram came out with Instagram Polls, Question/Answer stickers for stories, everyone first used it for fun. More businesses are now catching on that this is a great tool to learn more about your community.

It’s not as easy as just asking a direct question. If you ask the right questions that pertain to a specific marketing strategy, this could lead to successful campaigning. Here’s an example, what if you need to confirm your hypothesis of what you’ve concluded about your communities needs? McDonald’s had an idea that their customers were eating McNuggets in many ways. Whether it was with ice-cream or dipping it in more than one sauce.

They went to Facebook to simply ask their community, “How do you eat your McNuggets?”

McDonald’s took this data and created an entire campaign around all the special ways people eat their Nuggets and then strategically planned a promotion around it.

2020 is the year of Community Engagement

For all those businesses, bloggers, influencers and personalities on social media who said “I don’t have time”. They will be making time in the coming months when they start to realize the shift. No one cares about the likes. Even the images are questionable. It’s really about how you’re connecting with your people. Do your followers actually feel you provide value to their day? What does that value look like? Among all of this, especially for influencers; we need to balance our authenticity to ourselves and our audience. Doing it just to make it? Your community will see right through you. However, if that’s your “thing”, be honest with everyone.

Spend more time having CONVERSATIONS than posting content.

In a nut shell:

1. CREATE your community
2. Identify trends and pain points
3. CREATE content you can both love
4. Analyze the engagement
5. LEARN from the data

Meeting and listening to Superfan speak about his experience with influencer marketing was incredible. This man is so POSITIVE.

social media toronto superfan — **“For 40 mins we’re in competition, but before and after the game we are brothers”**
**– Superfan** (Referring to Basketball games and if he doesn’t like any NBA teams.)

Think Forward to 2020

Trends that you’ll see come up in 2020 in the realm of Social Media are:

Added Value: There will be more value on digital content and creators will go through a behavioral change. Brands that haven’t been crediting content creators for their work will receive backlash from followers and content creators will stand their ground vs. shying away in fear of not getting more business.

Social Self Care: People are re-balancing their digital lives. Seeking out online optimism and engaging better with wholesome content. Opting out of unhealthy social habits. You’ll also see more brands promoting mindfulness and self care. Telling their followers to take a break from being online and enjoying offline activities.

Bad Influence: Yes, there is such thing as bad influence on social media. If you’re being fake, be ready for people to call you out on it. If your life isn’t so lavish as you make it seem on your pretty little squares, you’ll start to lose your communities interest. People want to relate to you. If they can’t relate to you, they’ll leave. As for businesses, stop trying to sell your products and look at selling the experience attached to owning your products. That’s where marketing has been going for the last 3 years. Experiential marketing isn’t just about events, it’s the story behind your product and what it stands for, how it fits into YOUR life.

Not to leave you hanging, but these were the most important takeaways I had from Social Media Week this year. I hope some of this knowledge helps you in your marketing efforts moving forward. Leave me a comment if something really resonated with you.

INSTAGRAM HACKS TO HELP YOU GROW

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Events April 16, 2018

The Toronto YAYOI KUSAMA: INFINITY MIRRORS Exhibit with Shiseido

The Yayoi Kusama exhibit in Toronto is at the Art Gallery of Ontario, also known as the AGO. If you haven’t seen this exhibit yet, I highly recommend you get on the list to go. I had the privilege of attending this event privately where we also got extra time at each art experience. My favourite sponsor of this event is Shiseido. I have lots of favourites by Shiseido that I’ve been using for years, but one of the newest is this gel cream that moisturizes my skin beautifully.

The Toronto YAYOI KUSAMA: INFINITY MIRRORS Exhibit with Shiseido – #infinitekusama

Just a couple of days before going to Japan for two weeks, the Yayoi Kusama event couldn’t have come at a better time. It was like everything was lining up for a prep to fall back into deep love for the real beauty of Japan, its people. Will I go back to Japan? Yes. Many times, God willing.
Here are some pictures from the event. Enjoy 🙂

Events November 20, 2017

To Give Is Beautiful – Shoppers Drug Mart – beautyBOUTIQUE [EVENTS]

It’s that time of the year when to give is beautiful. This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a holiday event at Vaughan Mills shopping center as a Fragrance expert. I took people who attended (open to public) through a fragrance experience that peaked all of their senses! All fragrances I spoke about are available at Shoppers Drug Mart’s beauty boutiques. In case you missed this event, don’t worry! The next one is happening at the Eaton Center, Dec 2nd and 3rd from mall opening to close hours.

To Give Is Beautiful – Shoppers Drug Mart – beautyBOUTIQUE

So here’s what went down: You’re greeted by some beautiful ladies, who go through a summary of the experience you’ll have. Then directed to the fragrance station. Here I asked people what fragrances they were most drawn too. Based on their answer that gave me an idea of which ones I should start off with showing. We discussed different scents, notes in the fragrance and before testing the fragrance some tips on how to best apply it. In a nut shell, beautyBOUTIQUE wants Canadians to step into the holidays with this year’s must-haves in fragrance from beautyBOUTIQUE by Shoppers Drug Mart.

Based on their fragrance choice there was a mocktail to match!

While enjoying their mocktails; they waited their turn to get a make-up application.

Once done with their make-up, everyone received a gift that had a make-up bag, a Christmas tree beauty blender and a 20x points + $10 gift card to be used at beauty boutiques.

There was also this super fun glitter wall that everyone took pictures in front. The lovely beautyBOUTIQUE ladies were taking polaroids of those who got their make-up done.

Those who made a purchase at the beauty boutique that day could bring it to the calligraphy station. To receive a tree ornament customized, 3 deluxe samples, $10 gift card – all beautiful wrapped in a silver box. Check out Mandy on Instagram who was doing beautiful calligraphy. Here.

So lock it in your calendars, the next event is happening at the Eaton Center, Dec 2nd and 3rd from mall opening to close hours. If you post your images or videos online, be sure to use the hashtag #ToGiveIsBeautiful.

This blog post was sponsored by beautyBOUTIQUE by Shoppers Drug Mart but the opinions are all my own.

Events October 4, 2017

How To Own The Holidays with Shoppers Drug Mart

shoppers drug mart holiday shopping — Photo Credit: Evan Bergstra

It’s October! I get it. Halloween hasn’t even gone by yet and here I am talking about “owning the holidays”. BUT… it’s never too early to start planning where you’re going to shop, what you’ll get and then you won’t have to be stuck the day before finding the lamest gift ever. I was invited to get a preview of what Shoppers Drug Mart will offer this holiday season at a beautifully holiday decorated home and I’m impressed with the line up! So here’s how you’ll own the holidays:

How To Own The Holidays with Shoppers Drug Mart

STEP 1

Make a list and check it twice. As I walked around the beautiful home at the event I could see that there was something for everyone. You don’t want to forget anyone so make a list and make sure you have everyone covered. The amount of stocking stuffer ideas is just insane! And I mean nice stocking stuffers. No cheese ball ideas. Miniature Benefit Cosmetics in gift sets that you can break up to use as stuffers, chocolates (the gourmet kind) and if you really want to get fancy you can even place them inside Christmas crackers.

STEP 2

Write down their interests. What they like, what they need etc. I find making short notes like that helps a lot to figure out whether they’ll like the gift you’ve picked out for them. Also, you won’t end up getting something they don’t like. Let’s just say it’s a good reminder. I usually use a few words to describe their favourites. So it looks something like this:
Jenny – Chocolate and make-up – Shoppers Drug Mart
What does the store have to do with being in the list? Brings me to the next step.

STEP 3

In your list, beside each person, put down where you’ll get their gift from. This ensures you get all the gifts you needed while you’re at the store. I always make this mistake when doing mass gift shopping and then I have to go back to the same store twice in one day.

What you can find at Shoppers Drug Mart for your holiday shopping needs:

BEAUTY

There are so many beauty brands to choose from at Shoppers Drug Mart and even more if you’re at a Shoppers that has a Beauty Boutique.

TOYS

SHOPPERS DRUG MART HOLIDAYS — Photo Credit: Evan Bergstra

TECH/GADGETS

AND SO MUCH MORE…

In case you missed my Instagram stories or tweets from this day, here are some of them:

Christmas in August with @shoppersdrugmartofficial was so much fun! I can’t wait to show you guys all the great gift ideas. It’s never too early to talk about the holidays! Yes, I’m that person that hums jingle bells in the summer time 🙋🏻 #owntheholidays 📷: @catforsley 💓

A post shared by Lifestyle • Fashion • Beauty (@humjk) on Aug 27, 2017 at 12:52pm PDT

I’ll be doing all my #holidays #shopping with @ShopprsDrugMart! How about you? #owntheholidays pic.twitter.com/oObO0lB20J

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) August 25, 2017

Had an amazing time at the @ShopprsDrugMart #owntheholidays event! Thank you! #bbloggers pic.twitter.com/whuiK0WuME

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) August 25, 2017

Social Media July 29, 2017

5 Things All Bloggers Should Do On Twitter [SOCIAL MEDIA]

It’s been a long time since I last wrote something in my marketing/social media series. As some of you know my educational background is in Marketing/Web/Social Media. I’m putting it out there into the universe that my goal is to start these series back up again. I hope these series will help my fellow bloggers, small business owners and those who are just curious with some of my tried, tested and true tips on how to best utilize social media marketing on different platforms.

5 Things All Bloggers Should Do On Twitter [SOCIAL MEDIA]

TWEET YOUR CONTENT
This should be an obvious one. Tweet your content and do it on the regular. Twitter is a fast moving platform. So posting repeat tweets (spread them out) is okay to do. Especially since only a percentage of your Twitter followers will see your tweets since it goes down in peoples feeds so quickly.
TWEET YOUR VIDEOS
Tweet your videos from snapchat, instagram stories or whatever. Videos get lots of attention and if you can start a conversation over one of your videos than you’re golden. For an example, I shared a short video of my plant that was growing in a not so normal way on Instagram Stories. I used that same video for a tweet to ask my followers what they thought was going on. What happened next was the natural conversation I was looking for. Also an answer because I genuinely wanted to know.

Any thoughts on why my plant grew like this? #plants pic.twitter.com/Wwb2dwKYFx

— Humara Kausar (@HumaraKausar) July 21, 2017

3. MAX OUT THOSE IMAGES PER TWEET

If you have more than one image then go ahead and use it in your tweet. You can add up to 4 images in your tweet and save those characters to tell your story instead of mentions (@humarakausar – is mentioning someone). You can tag the person/brand on the image instead.

New Year Make-up Look [BEAUTY]

Everyone’s getting ready to go out for New Years, or keeping it low key by getting comfy at home with the dearest to their hearts. Whatever it may be, bring in the New Year with some RED. I’m just gushing over this Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Beso! It is absolutely my favourite red lipstick right now.

At the BeautyBoutique Holiday Party last month I got my make-up done by a lovely make-up artist who put Beso on me for the first time. I hadn’t worn red lipstick I think in almost a year, and as soon as I saw it on me, I fell back in love with the colour. Here are some pictures from the event:

I’m in love with this New Year make-up look! So before you decide what lipstick to wear tonight, think of RED! The classic party look. Black eyeliner, mascara, natural face with that pop of red. When you do have a chance, I highly suggest to try Beso by Stila. It looks good on every skin tone and why not? I have a lot of red lipsticks but nothing like this one.

Beauty December 25, 2016

#BeautyBoutiqueHoliday Party! [EVENT]

Merry Christmas! Some of you are sitting around the Christmas tree with hot cocoa, eggnog and other fancy drinks and treats. Most importantly spending quality time with friends and family. Opening presents and sharing precious memories. Not only is it Christmas Day for me but our wedding anniversary! Five years ago today we got married! At this very moment I’m cuddling my husband and have baby D sitting beside us reading Christmas books. Not. Actually, baby D has fallen asleep, taking his nap, so my hubs and I are watching bad moms. :”D

The #beautyBOUTIQUEholiday party was held at

the TIFF building in the beautiful malaparte room. When we entered the room the first thing we noticed were the beautiful white Christmas trees with lip gloss, mascara and other beauty product ornaments! How cute!

I love shopping at beauty boutiques for gifts. I remember for one of D’s birthdays getting him his favourite fossil watch, make-up sets for countless events like a pumpkin carving contest we held and so much more. Definitely my go to spot for gift shopping. They do an awesome wrapping job and you get to collect optimum points! Which in my opinion is the best rewards program out there. I might have a biased opinion because it was my first job and worked at Shoppers for years. #truth

At the party I got illustrated! I love watching the artists work their magic in minutes and this time we got an image and animated version of the illustration. Check it out:

And here’s the video version. I added one of my fave Christmas songs to it:

Last night I got illustrated at the #beautyboutiqueholiday party! Can’t wait to share holiday make up looks with you soon on the blog.

A video posted by Hum (@humjk) on Nov 24, 2016 at 4:51pm PST

These lippy cookies were perfect! Gingerbread cookies at their finest.

How awesome are these personalized perfumes!

Events November 13, 2016

Baby it’s cold outside – Baby Shower

There are so many baby shower theme ideas to choose from. Just do a simple keyword search for a baby shower on google or better yet, Pinterest and you’ll see! Baby D was born in February, a very cold time. So you know when I saw the ‘baby, it’s cold outside’ theme, I related to it, as it was my exact thought every time I wanted to take my new babe out. If your baby was born in the wintertime then this is the very best theme to go with! Also a great one-year birthday theme.

As soon as you know the theme, start looking out for items that you’ll need whenever you go shopping. I remember some of the items I bought months in advance. For instance, three glitter snowflakes. One large, medium and small from Pier 1 were regular $75 and had gone on sale for $40 right after Christmas. I figured they would make for great winter decor around the house during the season, so I bought them! They looked beautiful on our cake/dessert table. Side note: My besties and sisters (love them SO much) wanted to help with everything but I actually really enjoy doing the crafty stuff and organizing so I just couldn’t resist! If this is you, you can instead definitely get help putting it all together, hosting and don’t forget the games!

The sign I used, as seen above – was the same art I used for my e-cards and then I followed the same design and colours into the baby shower theme. The cake, napkins and you can’t go wrong with white for a winter-ish theme.

It took me a long time to make this (because it was my first time) but making your own table garland made with wrapping tissue paper is the best! It was my version of knitting, while in nesting mode. Here’s a really good tutorial.

I also made my own cupcake stand with two boxes stacked on each other wrapped in white tissue and hot glued some white snowflakes on the front. Would’ve been a cleaner finish if I glued some on the sides of the box too.

For this theme, I found having a hot chocolate station is a MUST. Imagine coming in from the cold to an event where they have hot chocolate. YAS!

Some of the games we played were passing the chocolate poopy diaper to music (or I think it was a balloon.) whoever was caught holding it when the music turned off they were out, and the last person standing/sitting won a prize. Basically the game hot potato. We had other general baby shower games like holding on to a clothespin. Can’t say certain words and if you do, you get your pin stolen from you from whoever catches you saying it. The one with the most pins wins a prize. We set this game up near the entrance to ensure everyone got a pin and also set up the takeaways at the same table.

takeaways

The takeaways were snowflake cookies made by the same wonderful lady who made my cake. I ordered some brown boxes online to put them in and some stuffing to keep them in place. The boxes are called kraft boxes and with lots of research, I found the best price I could find online, here. 30 for $13.80. I was told it was a great find 🙂 Totally didn’t stay within the theme for the late lunch. We had Italian and Indian food catered.

Baby, it’s cold outside game idea for baby showers

We also had my baby book (where I keep all of his ultrasound pictures and first time memories in) at the table for people to leave messages for myself or Baby D. I decorated it with snowflake decals too. Gah. Snowflakes everywhere!

Here are some great printables for this theme:

Hot Chocolate Station

Other great winter baby shower/winter birthday ideas:

Use cotton as snow around your venue.
Create your own polar bear made from cardboard: link
A snowman diaper cake:
Water bottles, label them as ‘melted snow’.
DIY glue snowflakes: link

easy lemon bundt cake

Events November 29, 2015

You’re Invited! Join an exclusive Globe and Mail celebration! #gmggoeslive

“You’re Invited! Join an exclusive Globe and Mail celebration!”…..

That was the title of the email I received two weeks ago. Of course I was really excited to go! The event was held at the Fermenting Cellar in the distillery district. After looking at two maps, asking someone for directions and then joining two girls who also couldn’t find it, we finally arrived! As soon as I got there I realized I had passed by it three times! And I had parked right in front of it. I guess it was just one of those nights. Air head kind of night.

It was really awesome of Globe and Mail to invite some of us bloggers/influencers to this celebration. It was full of opportunities to snapchat, vine, IG and tweet! It was hard to find anyone I knew because the venue was pretty big, so the inner Dora in me started exploring the place and noticed so many cool details that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I had been with a group ~~chit chatting~~ networking. But it would’ve been nice if we could bring a guest. Sometimes I like to have a second photographer/friend. Hopefully next year! 🙂

The event was organized by Toronto’s top event planning duo Candace and Alison, who ran with a red theme all around the venue. There was a 42 ft matrix-inspired Twitter wall that showcased content of the new Globe Media portfolio and different zones for food, dessert, drinks and more! My favourite was the Fashion & Beauty zone by Globe Style Advisor. The live performance by electropop duo, Brave Shores was great but I listened on in a tad bit of sadness that I had forgotten to give my ticket with my name for the raffle. A chance to win a trip to NYC and an iPad mini?! New York is always a great idea for a trip! The gentleman standing in front of me for a fashion illustration won the ipad. Lucky soul.

I heard from the grapevine that the Fashion Illustrations idea came from Andrew Sardone! Absolutely brilliant! I love getting my face illustrated and caricatures. The last time I had one done was when I was at Social Media Week in New York a few years ago. There were two fashion illustrators and I got in the line to see Joce Teng. I love her signature of round circles on the cheeks of her illustrations. I’ve recognized it from her work with Louis Vuitton and L’oreal. She is so talented and really sweet to talk too. She also shared her illustration of me on her instagram account! Eeeeiii!!! 🙂

Had a great time tonight w/ #globeandmail! 😊 Details coming up #ontheblog so don’t forget to subscribe! My favourite zone was obvi the @globestyle #Fashion & #Beauty zone where I met the beautiful digital fashion illustrator @joceteng! Thank you for this😁 www.HumJK.com #gmggoeslive

A photo posted by Hum (@humjk) on Nov 20, 2015 at 12:12am PST

There was also a nail bar presented by Her Majesty’s Pleasure, I was on the waiting list but by the time it was my turn the event was over. From the looks of it, they were painting nails red. Oh well, I’ll have to check them out on King Street soon. This was my favourite spanish tapa: Petite Tartlettes