Marketing Archives

Marketing January 16, 2014

Instagram for beginners: How To

You’ve decided to jump on the Instagram bandwagon and don’t know where to start. You’re wondering alright, another application to add to the rest. I’m sure you’ve come across at least one Insta picture without actually downloading the app or even knowing it. It’s everywhere!

Your Instagram account can be whatever you want it to be.

Just put in thought to your posts and you’ll see your followers grow. If you’re not sure what to post on Instagram, try doing A/B testing. Post different pictures and see what your fans prefer. Whichever images get the most likes, that is your category to target.

Keep in mind not everyone on Instagram has the goal to gain followers or likes. Some are on Instagram to promote their products, brand, post their opinions, speak out for a cause or a place to be recognized for their awesome food pictures. What ever it may be, you’ll need to know how to use this application. Check out the below youtube tutorials. On a side note I finished recording these videos right before the Instagram update. So add this to your learnings from the videos:

Instagram direct is Instagram’s new update. It allows you to choose if you want to share your photo with all your followers or just a few. Click on the “Direct” tab, and select the followers you would like to share them with. The picture will not show up in your public feed, and just the users you selected will be able to see your photo.

Marketing January 14, 2014

Social Marketing Universe

Have you thought about your social marketing strategy for 2014?

Be the master of your social universe. Right now the social marketing universe is expanding at an overwhelming rate. New networks are sprouting regularly. I bet you didn’t know about Jelly. The technology that ties them together also continues to advance. With its advancement comes great opportunities.

Those who are intimidated by it all will be tempted to avoid learning. The social followers will dive in headfirst and fail. Somewhere in between are the curious souls who do their research on how to master the social networks that their customers are on. That could be YOU!

Some people think all you need is a Twitter account, or a Facebook community/business page. Reality is social is a lot more than just one platform. In order to gain success in the social marketing universe, you need to be involved in more then one platform. The more platforms you’ve dipped into, the better. Not to be confused with making accounts on different social platforms and just leaving them bare. You need activity on all of your platforms. It’s easier than you think. Upon hearing this most people get scared and think “oh my goodness, ain’t nobody got time for that“.

The trick is, use one platform as your hub station for the social universe you’ll be creating. I recommend a website or a blog.
Whenever you create a new post or put up something on your website, use tweetdeck, hoot suite, or manual copy and paste to post it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whichever platforms you’re using. The point is, it’s all got to come back somewhere that has MORE content and information for your customers/fans/followers to engage with.

If you look at the social universe from this angle, you’ll be on your way to increasing your social network:

Foundation of your social community: Website/Blog
Social pushers of your content: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Visual stations: Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest and Flickr

(you don’t need to be set up with all of these platforms, as some are very similar)

Increase your social network with solid information and engaging content. If you can’t manage and differentiate the use of all of your social platforms then it would be best to start with less and do your best. Less posts but amazing content is better than more useless posts and crappy content. Check out the infographic below:

Join me on Twitter with hashtag #SMXChat on Tuesdays at 3pm EST.

Events December 26, 2013

Social Media Week

Social Media Week Toronto took place this year from September 23-27th. The theme for 2013 was “Looking Ahead to 2015″.
All the seminars were in some way about what changes and trends would be coming up in the next 12-15 months. The Windsor Arms Hotel, a beautiful petite boutique, was the venue for Social Media Week.
Day 1 was kind of like the first day of school. Everyone following the calendar board to see what seminars they wanted to go to next and which rooms they were held in. The first day buzz of being around like minded social media people was exciting. The first tweet using the #SWTO hashtag, purchasing a snack from the cafe to donate money towards Social Media Week and sitting in that extremely hot with no air circulation, St.Thomas room. Just a few of my fond memories of that week. My first day schedule, was a half day due to some work meetings I had that morning.

Day 1:
Tracking Visual Data; Measurement Without Words
Preempt Me: The Future of Marketing and Marketing Communications
Comedy is the Currency of the Internet
Social Media Isolation

Day 2:
Peer to Peer Strategy: How Koodo Leverages its Online Community to Reduce Support Costs
Content and Creativity: Achieving Mobile Success with Content
Big Data, Small Data, Data that Totally Rocks
Small Data. Big Wins.

Day 3:
The Death of the Home Page
Social Media goes to University
People Focused Content Strategy
The Crowdfunding Success Pattern
Why Behavioral Data is Key to Social Selling Success

Day 4:
Campaign to Commitment. Social Media, Brands and Long Ideas
The Pitch Powered by Cision and Umbra
After Party with Idea Rebel
Social Media Barometer

Day 5:
The Danger of Dusty Ideas
Big Data meets Social Commerce
Creating Constructive Content Calendars