Building a Brand? The Secret to Great Facebook Graphics

As we all know, images when shared on social media hold so much power and when done right, it can really help your business grow its online exposure. More than 60% of social media is made up of pictures and this is because people are seeing how powerful a great graphic can be. When it comes to Facebook graphics, here are a few secrets to help you get the best performance out of your images.

1. Brand Assets

By brand assets I mean logo’s or product photos. It is important that you have various images of your products and a logo for your business as people won’t trust your company if you don’t have assets to back up your content. Doing an image stock check will allow you to see what images you have available to use when planning your visual strategy.

2. Voice and Visual Style

When it comes to your online voice and visual style, you really need to know who your target market to define what your customer wants from you visually. Is your brand mature, conservative or humorous? You need to know your visual style so that the images you are posting have the best possible chance of being shared via social.

3. Use Grids or Frames

When it comes to the images you are posting, you need to think about whether you are going to use a grid layout or a frame. Photo’s should be contained in one of the other so that your design has a more professional appearance and design order.

4. Filters

Filters are not just for #selfies. Well known brands on social media use filters to improve an images quality and to give a unique effect. Make sure that if you are going to use filters, that you chose one appropriate for your audience and not one that is just flashy and irrelevant to the image.

5. Be Creative

I say this time and time again because it is so important to be creative when it comes to social media and images. There is nothing worse than boring pictures because they won’t connect with your audience. Display your products in a unique way to give you a creative edge.

I am a huge advocate of photo editing tools and have always used PicMonkey until now. I have come across an even better, completely free of charge image editing tool that really is amazing. If you want to give your images that extra boost online, check out Canva


Keywords: Best Practices, Facebook, Social Media Marketing, Branding, Engagement, Influence, Loyalty, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Networks, brand building, facebook graphics

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Ethan McCarty is Moving to Bloomberg as Global Head of Internal Communications

It was a great pleasure last year to interview Ethan McCarty, who, along with Susan Emerick, did so much for listening (the IBM Design Labs) and employee advocacy in IBM Global Marketing. McCarty is moving to Bloomberg, where without doubt he will make his mark.

 

Here's the letter he wrote yesterday morning to his friends; I'm publishing it with his permission:

After thirteen challenging, rewarding, meaningful years, today is my last day at IBM. I am going to Bloomberg as the Global Head of Internal Communications.

I have worked on amazing projects and programs at IBM -- building IBM Research's digital communications system, launching Autonomic Computing (!), developing and facilitating the Jams, producing the Annual Report, introducing Smarter Planet, personalizing, socializing and democratizing our Intranet, growing our Alumni network, celebrating our Centennial, creating our digital strategy and our Social Media strategy and, last but certainly not least, launching the M&C Labs.

When I told a mentor that I was leaving, he said something that really stuck with me: you are starting to ask questions of yourself now that IBM cannot answer.  I think the biggest one is, of course, can I do great things outside of IBM?

At Bloomberg I will be at the crossroads of financial services, media, technology and even politics -- the very things that make New York City such an exciting place to live.  The company has a very strong and unique culture (and concomitant zaniness too, no doubt) and it is going through an exciting moment -- its founder's return, a massive expansion of the employee population, expansion of the core terminals business into adjacent industries -- that will make a compelling challenge for me as I build their Internal Communications capability. I aim to apply much of what I have learned from IBM to Bloomberg's CEO's quest for a more cohesive identity and narrative for Bloomberg employees.

So I am excited to test my mettle outside of IBM -- and nervous too: IBM is like my home town and leaving is scary.  Yet I feel very good about the work I've done with all of you and the network of relationships I have through IBM.  Looking back at my time at IBM, the massively overwhelming feeling is that it has been time very, very meaningfully and well spent.  And I have you, my fellow IBMers, to thank for this.

I am hopeful for IBM and all my IBM friends -- the company is on the precipice of a set of changes that will be super interesting, challenging and mind-expanding. You can feel the engines revving up for a course-change. And I will be rooting for you to make it in grand style (and not just as a shareholder).

Because I will always be an IBMer; I feel as though I have a tattoo on my heart in blue ink -- it's the eight bar logo, of course.

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Top 5 Ingredients For A Successful Instagram Campaign!

Despite having the highest engagement among all social media platforms, few companies have truly tried to tap into Instagram's potential to create campaigns to engage with their audiences.

There are a few possible reasons that attributed to this: The disabling of URL on Instagram user’s post heavily crippled its ability to drive direct traffic from Instagram. There isn’t an advertising option that’s similar to Facebook for brands to promote a campaign or product offering. Lastly, there is no default way for a user to re-share post, which leaves brands with only hashtags to reach their audiences.
But all these little problems can be easily overcome with some simple tips and tricks that we can learn from other brands.
Let’s start with the most important one.

#1 Understanding Your Instagram Audience

People visit different social networks for different reasons, and you need to know what type of post your audiences love the most on Instagram.
Starbucks love curating users’ photos on Instagram and re-posting them on their account. These little actions let their customers know how much they care about their creativities and opinions.
Especially in the past one year, fans were showing their creativity and love for Starbucks by drawing beautiful artwork on their cup and posting them. And in order to reward these fans, Starbucks constantly goes through these fans' account in search of the best artworks and re-posting them on their own.
Once the fans realized that Starbucks appreciates what they are doing, more of them participated and more designs started popping up every day.
All these traffics and excitement from fans then finally led to the White Cup Contest.
Here is an excerpt from Starbucks Newsroom on the contest.
“Waterman said he’s inspired by the creativity he sees throughout the Starbucks social community with cup art that’s been posted on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. People are already experimenting with different mediums, and he suggests they should “turn up the volume” on their creativity with this contest.” -
This is my favourite cup!

Most of the artworks are really amazing; see them for yourself over here. Starbucks White Cup Contest
That’s to say, don’t simply hold a photo contest on Facebook and ask your Instagram audiences to participate. Understand what your audiences love about your Instagram account and create a unique campaign for them.
Now it's time to move on to the minor details on how to make an Instagram campaign successful.

#2 Get A Short And Easy-To-Remember URL

Directing traffic from Instagram has always been a problem for marketers as URL are turned into 'unclickable' link text in user's posts. By and large, this will usually result in a dip in conversation rates due to the additional steps that users have to go through.

Well if you can’t beat the game… try making it easier.

To overcome this restriction, use easy-to-remember url and this can be seen from the Starbucks White Cup Contest.


“mystarbucksidea.com" - Although this isn't an URL that Starbucks creates specifically for the campaign, it is still very relevant.
I mean how easy to remember is that? It has the word “Starbucks” that every one is familiar with. And the word “my” and “idea” that relates to the contest theme of creating our own design for the white cup.
This helps to lower the pain of going through that additional step of opening a browser to type the URL, as users can easily remember it.

#3 Using Hashtag To Spread the Word About Your Campaign

Instagram is a social discovery platform where users love searching for others who are similar to them.
Which is why, it is particularly important that you create a unique hashtag for your campaign. By doing so, it not only helps to spread awareness for your campaign when users talk about it but also to provide social proof when users search that hashtag on Instagram.
Here is an excellent example by Bloesem Living.


See how the hashtag #WINBLOESEMCLASS describes both the contest as well as a mention of their brand.
Another way to spread the word using hashtag is to make use of more generic ones such as #contest #giveaway or something more geo-specific such as #contestsg or #giveawaysg.

#4 Using Re-gram to spread the word about your campaign

If you are unfamiliar with the word re-gram, it simply means to re-post what a user have posted on Instagram. Unfortunately, Instagram has yet to make this function a part of the default app.
So users generally turn to apps from either Android or iOS to do the job for them. Or this can also be done via screenshot, editing and posting.
Now, there are several important factors to take note of when creating an image that's perfect for re-posting

1. Understand that Instagram is a very visual platform at its core, so create photos that are visual appealing and one that users will want to share.
2. Keep your contest simple.
   Don’t ask your audience to tag 10 of their friends, use 5 hashtags, or even to type a long string of text all at the same time.
   To re-post your photos is already a chore in itself; don’t make it any more troublesome.
3. Let your users know what you want them to do within the photo itself. This way, when they see the re-posted photos from their friends, they will know how to participate with a single glance.

Here is a great example from Arnhem Clothing.

By using one of their product photo shoot for the background, they are doing a brief introduction of themselves to consumers who might not know about them yet.
They also clearly display the prize within the photo to catch the attention of users. Followed by 3 simple instructions on how to win.
How did they fare in the end? The photo was reposted 5402 times with the hashtag #Arnhem1000. I say that’s a lot of brand awareness generated!

#5 Use Your Instagram Profile To Your Advantage!

What are the 2 things that users can click on in an Instagram post?
Hashtags and Profile Handle of course!
Take a look at this user’s repost of Bloesem Living’s contest.

What do you think her friends will click on after clicking on the hashtags and realized it doesn’t contain any information? Yes. The profile!
Which is why it’s absolutely necessary to update your Instagram profile according to the campaign that you are holding. Here are 2 things you can take advantage of in your profile.

1. You can update your URL with the landing page URL so users can click on them easily.
2. Create a short description of the campaign using the profile description provided to users.
   “Click on this URL for more information on how to win $1000 vouchers from us!”

This way users who didn’t see your original campaign photos and are too lazy to search for it can simply click on the URL to learn more.
That is it. These are the ingredients I have gathered to help you create a successful Instagram campaigns. Social media has always been about experimenting and being creative.
So go ahead, be creative and experiment!
Let me know in the comments if you think there are other ingredients that will help spice up this dish!

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Why Google+ Is Key to Your Semantic Web Marketing

In my book on Google Semantic Search I stressed how Google+, Google’s “social layer” is key to succeeding in semantic search and the emerging semantic web.
In the months since I first wrote those words evidence is piling up on just how important this key is. If you’re still sitting on the fence wondering whether you should join “yet another social network” I have this to say: the semantic web and semantic search are a real paradigm shift. If you’re not adjusting your mindset as a marketer or as a business owner to meet it, five years from now you will no longer be in business.

With that in mind here are three reasons that Google+ should be the main online web strategy you should be spending any time on:

1. Engagement is the only metric that really matters. Whether you’re a brand, or a person, the ultimate metric of the success of your “social signal” is the engagement you generate in your Google+ posts. An original study carried out by Dustin Stout shows conclusively that Google aggregates all interaction from its social network, including what happens on a website through the Google+ social media sharing button into its social signal metrics. So the days when automatically blasting out a post on all social media platforms was enough to get the attention of search engines, are now behind us.

2. Google+ is key to organic link building. Those who think “link building is never going to go away” are half-right. In the semantic web Google looks at organic links. Successive Penguin search algorithm updates killed the value of almost every link building effort that looked unnatural, paid-for, or reciprocal and cleaned out Google’s index with a focus on quality. A Moz study on the impact of social sharing activity of posts shared in Google+ found that amongst other direct SEO benefits posts that had been reshared in the social network were ranking higher in search than posts that hadn’t.

3. Google+ profiles are important in the semantic web. Google uses a Google+ profile’s activity to determine the activity, authority, power and trust an individual commands. It then uses the interaction to determine the validity of content and its contextual value. In that respect it is forcing those who are on its platform to interact like real people rather than marketing automatons, form real relationships and develop reputation the same way they would offline: slowly and through delivering real value. If you do need a little help optimizing your profile there you can do no better than Stephan Hovnanian’s handy guide.

Is it difficult and time consuming to do all of this? Yes it is. Is it yet another energy-draining layer of social media activity that you now have to find the time for? Absolutely. There is little point in trying to automate your G+ activity, it will not work. But the semantic web is here, now. If you want to be around five years from now you really have no choice but to adapt.

Keywords: Best Practices, Google+, Branding, Strategy, Metrics, Engagement, Google, Influence, Search, SEO, Social Media, semantic web, semantic web marketing 

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Shifting Tastes and Fizzling Sales for Coke: Listen Up!

Social forensics and listening practice aside, Coca-Cola has recently received a clear message of souring consumer tastes as sales of Diet Coke fell for the second consecutive year on the heels of a second quarterly drop in global sales.  Reflecting a trend in consumer thirst and ideas about health, overall sales of diet sodas have fallen more than sales of beverages containing sugar, with Diet Coke sales down by a ratio of 3 to 1 over sugar-sweetened Coke.  Sales volumes for Diet Pepsi and Pepsi plunged over twice as much.

Last week, in deference to the consumer concerns it is tracking in social media—in particular, the safety of Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners—Coca-Cola launched an ad campaign disputing Diet Coke’s hazards to human health and defending its safety.  They are certainly on the right track here. As our NetBase social intelligence monitor reveals for the past week in the word cloud below, consumers continue to associate artificial sweeteners with disease in humans.  Discussions around Gulf War Syndrome reveal consumer suspicions attributing the disease to the thousands of pallets of Diet Coke distributed to soldiers during the conflict.

  

Suspicions linking artificial sweeteners to cancer date to the 1970s. This was the social media dark ages, well before consumers had a voice capable of impacting corporate policy. Nowadays, consumer complaints can actually alter food and beverage formularies.  As more companies begin to understand the intrinsic relationship between sales and investment in social ROI, beverage companies like Coca-Cola are leveraging actionable social insights to respond to and initiate conversations with consumers.
Today’s consumer health science ultimately gets leaked or published in social media, rightfully fueling public fears. As recently as last year, for example, a study by Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital initially touting the safety of Aspartame was retracted in a press release titled “The truth isn’t sweet when it comes to artificial sweeteners.”  As the Coke word cloud below reveals, when high-fructose corn syrup is filtered for other sweeteners—artificial and sugar- or cane-based—in addition to Aspartame, including Cyclamate, Bisphenol A, 4-MEI caramel, GMOs, high fructose corn syrup—as well as alcohol in soda, consumers draw a correlation to obesity and diabetes, with a leading concern revolving around children’s health.   

  

Meanwhile, Coke has launched a new defense of Aspartame, the primary substance in its diet drinks. This comes on the heels of its proactive marketing campaigns this year to address falling sales and a market shifting away from artificial sweeteners and additives, and speaks directly to those now seriously concerned about health issues, food and beverage safety, and the harmful effects of additives and chemicals.
Our NetBase social analysis is a cautionary tale of consumers who continue to make associations among studies linking artificial sweeteners to cancer and other life-threatening diseases, including obesity and diabetes. We also see concerns about drink sizes and the life-long effects of additives and chemicals in the food chain.
Sugar and high fructose syrups in sodas, too, have been targeted by consumers and consumer health protection watchdogs like the Center for Science in the Public Interest as fueling obesity and as a leading contributor in diabetes, as we see in the NetBase theme chart below.  CSPI, a leading Coke critic, is advocating that Coke spend more time and money on new research for safer low-calorie sweeteners, rather than on an ad campaign resurrecting its old Aspartame safety claims.

      

And just how are people responding to Coke’s new defense of Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners? In the past week since Coke went on the defensive, net sentiment has fallen compared to the prior week. This, combined with a rise in passion intensity score, reflects an emotive negative social consumer reaction.  Our NetBase listening tracker also reveals heightened alarm over Aspartame consumption by parent bloggers. They cite links to cancer, muscular sclerosis and diabetes, as well as potential links to weight gain, fatigue and other maladies afflicting children in growing and disproportionate numbers.
As social media makes the science of disease increasingly transparent, companies like Coca-Cola can no longer placate consumers with self-serving ads that skirt scientific studies whose findings have already scared increasing market share away from sugary and Aspartame laden drinks.  Ironically, Coke has in place a leading listening strategy.  Perhaps it just isn’t “hearing” the language of its market.

Keywords: Monitoring Tools, Branding, Advertising, Enterprise Social, Platforms, ROI, Listening, Sales, Social Customer, Social Media, Coke 

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3 Lessons in Brand Passion from Winning Brand Builders

What separates two brands in an industry, from one being successful and another not? Brand passion! The passion that company founders have for their brands is transferred to their customers, so customers not only purchase products but they become brand advocates because they are as passionate about the brand as the brand creator.

There is no one formula for creating a successful brand, and while passion is often a key factor, it does not guarantee brand growth. To achieve phenomenal company growth and brand awareness, brand founders need to strategically focus their passion for their product into the right marketing outlets, i.e. newsletters, social media, website design, product design etc.

To better understand how brand passion, combined with strategic marketing, can lead to brand success I want to look further into three passionate company founders: Brian Scudamore, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, and Susan Gregg Koger, founder of ModCloth.

Brian Scudamore, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Have a clear vision of what you want to do—of what you want to be—and know what your values are. That’s what worked for me.

- Brian Scudamore, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Contrary to having a passion for “junk”, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Founder and CEO Brian Scudamore has a passion for removing junk. Scudamore grew 1-800-GOT-JUNK? into a multimillion-dollar company from one $700 used pickup truck, a clear vision, and a simple yet brilliant marketing strategy. Scudamore’s vision for his company was different from how many entrepreneurs approach their business plan. Instead of saying he wanted to start a junk-hauling company, he set a specific goal to build a junk-hauling company that would extended to the 30 U.S. and Canadian cities larger than Vancouver. His marketing strategy was developed around the catchy, memorable company name. He decided on 1-800-GOT-JUNK? because it not only worked as the company name, but also as an easy way for customers to reach out to them for services. No need to look up the company phone number, it was right there! See examples of their marketing communications on Integrated Brands.

Pete Cashmore, Founder and CEO of Mashable

I’m very much a creative person, but you’ve got to do the follow-through. A lot of people start out with an exciting thing and they want to take over the world, but really the people who do take over the world have a good plan of how to get there and the steps along the way.

- Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable

Pete Cashmore has always been avid about following your passion. Cashmore’s passion laid in writing and technology, two outlets that allowed him to constantly learn. Pete founded Mashable in 2005 as a blog focused on developing social media and technology news stories. “I started writing about new companies, websites, and applications so I could learn how it works and how to build companies. I didn’t know that was going to be the company,” quote from Pete Cashmore in Fast Company. Mashable grew quickly, becoming a trusted source for upcoming tech and social media trends.  “What distinguishes him from the average CEO, though, is his uncanny ability to read the shifting landscape”, Success Magazine. You can see how Pete Cashmore’s passion is expressed in Mashable’s brand communications on Integratedbrands.org.

Susan Gregg Koger, Founder ModCloth

Never apologize for your age.

- Susan Gregg Koger, Founder ModCloth

Modcloth, an American online retailer specializing in vintage, vintage-inspired and indie clothing, accessories and décor, has rapidly grown to be one of the most popular online clothing retailers. Susan began building Modcloth in her college dorm room with boyfriend, now husband, Eric. Eric had experience hosting and designing websites for retailers, provided technical support for the site, while Susan provided the passion for unique and affordable vintage fashion. Modcloth’s rapid growth and strong following can be tied back to the unique involvement of their customers in the product decision process and use of social media. ModCloth holds regular contests through Twitter, Facebook, and on their blog where visitors can submit names for new items, vote on what they want ModCloth to sell, and photos of their fashion ensembles. Another way that ModCloth differs from other online retailers, is that they have designed the user experience to resemble what it is like to flip through the racks of a store, no matter what media platform they are using: social media, website, or mobile app. You can see this on Integratedbrands.org.

Original article

Keywords: Best Practices, Branding, Strategy, Marketing, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Brian Scudamore, mashable, ModCloth., Pete Cashmore, Susan Gregg Koger

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