Signature Strategies » Social Media

Is Pinterest Right for Your Company?

Signature Strategies — Thu, 28 May 2015 03:24:06 +0000

Social media – with so many to choose from, which one is right for your business?

Lately, it has been difficult to ignore the fact that companies of all shapes and sizes have been jumping on the social media bandwagon with increasing enthusiasm.

Nowadays, it is rare to go onto a company’s website and not be showered with a range of social media options; Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds, blog posts, LinkedIn Pinterest, Instagram…

So which social media should your company choose? All of them? Just one? Or is that digital suicide?!? ARGH!

We all know that social media outlets allow a company to connect with their clients in more ways than ever. It is a way of keeping prospective and current clients up to date with the different aspects of the company. As well, provide a platform for listening and networking, and generally encourages communication from companies to customers, their staff and competitors.

But do you follow the thousands of companies who have chosen and saturated the ‘catch all’ social channels, or do you take a punt and sign up to niche avenues to share your latest products?

Take Pinterest for example, this image-based platform is a simple concept where users create and name Boards as anything they like, such as Places I’d Like to Visit, Recipes or My Wedding, and then post relevant photos to their Boards. Users then categorise Boards under one of the 32 general Pinterest categories. Users can then follow one another based on shared interests.

But how can brands and companies utilise this platform for their benefit?Here are tips as to how companies can take advantage of Pinterest:

Get your products on there and start sharing!
Pin from various sources rather than one specific site – keep it interesting and don’t just self promote.
Repin from within the site to engage with others – repinning is one of the most social activities on Pinterest and it’s how any user really builds his/her network of followers.
Comment on pins you like and share ideas with users.
Create a few boards that cover a broad range of interests, rather than maintaining a single board devoted to one topic – this will encourage a wider following.

But remember not every social media platform is right for every business. Choose carefully and make sure you have a digital and social media strategy in place before you jump into it. If you don’t, get in touch so we can help you make sense of the ever-changing social platforms!

Let’s Hear it for Layout!

Signature Strategies — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 07:14:12 +0000

Hey look… there’s two of me!

Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app is making it easier for you to experiment with your photos using Layout. This is Instagram’s complimentary app for photo editing and comes up against other Apps in the market that Instagrammers have already been using. These include Fuzel, InstaFrame, and Collage. Layout, just like the other photo formatting apps, lets you easily combine multiple photos into a single image. It’s fun, it’s simple and it gives you a new way to flex your creativity. But will it shine above all other apps of this kind already in the market?

Here’s what you need to know to get started:

1. It lets you get experimental with custom layouts and mirroring.

Layout users can select up to nine photos to collage. Depending on how many you choose, the app will present you with your options for layouts (10 at the max).

From there, you can resize, zoom, mirror (which I instantly love – pictured above), rearrange, and flip images within the grids. You can also easily replace photos with different ones by pulling up your camera roll and swapping with a tap.

2. It helps you find faces.

To help Instagram users share more photos of their friends (and selfies, of course), Layout provides a “Faces” button. This button then shows you all of the photos in your camera roll that feature people and discards cityscapes and other photos clogging up your camera roll. Genius!

3. Photo Booth…

For capturing spontaneous moments, the Photo Booth feature takes four photos in quick succession (really quick succession!), just like the Photo Booth app on Apple computers. Tap the button to start the countdown, get yourself in front of the front-side camera, pose for your photos, and then find them instantly saved in your layout previews. The feature is limited to the front-facing camera, so this one’s just for selfies. Personally, I found this very stressful and the pictures were taken much too fast… In saying that though I often avoid the photo booth at weddings so I’m not much to go on!

4. It provides new opportunities for storytelling for brands.

Instagram wants to provide users with the tools they need to tell more visual stories—be it collages, comic-style narratives, or fantastical re-imaginings of everyday products and images.

As Instagram’s post reads: “From imagining mirrored landscapes to sharing multiple moments from an entire adventure, we’ve seen these kinds of visual storytelling happening on Instagram and we’re inspired by it. With Layout, it’s easier than ever to unlock your creativity — and we can’t wait to see what you’ll make next.” Source Instagram Blog.

Without a doubt, Layout’s simplicity – both in its ease of use and the small number of available editing options – will make this app popular among selfie aficionados and brands alike.

Time will tell whether Layout will remain a standalone app, rather than having its features integrated into the main Instagram app.

Social Media and Your Reputation

Signature Strategies — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 21:16:45 +0000

With the advent of the Internet in our everyday lives, new technologies and ways to connect with different groups within our society such as social media, it is easier than ever, to ruin your reputation… I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom but the saying goes “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”* These days it could take 140 characters and as little as a second! PR and Digital Marketing Professionals now have to wear a myriad of ‘hats’ to protect our clients’ reputation, drive awareness, and build brand advocacy. More then ever, your Markating company is your friend! Tools to communicate, share and stand out in the message-cluttered market are getting cheaper and yet more powerful. With so many accessible and effective channels to market, the ability to reach your audience and have them ‘hear’ your message expands. However, there are things you need to be wary of with social media and your reputation: Social media makes organisations, and public figures, much more accessible to the public. Customers can ask questions or complain about your service and or product in a public forum such as Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook and they expect a response within 24 hours – if you don’t deliver, they’ll bag you even more. Ignore them at your peril! You need to ‘socially listen’ – to your online media networks and clients. Understand how they like to be spoken to and what is the etiquette of each media channels. Listen to what they are saying about you, your company or product. How can you right the wrongs or improve your business to meet their expectations?

Know what’s on your social networks – There have been cases where company Facebook pages have not been monitored daily – an unhappy customer or disenchanted ‘follower’ writes an inappropriate post that doesn’t get dealt with and you’ve got yourself a social media crisis!
Always tell the truth. A little white lie may seem like the right choice in the moment but companies and individuals are more likely to get caught out for not telling the truth. Remember, your posts, tweets, in fact any indexed content stays around for a long, long time on Google!

Social media isn’t a one-way communication medium. It is about building relationships with customers and prospects in their media channel of choice. A reputation and credibility can be built over time but lost in a moment; so tell the truth, communicate on their level and build relationships over time. To be successful you have to stay on top of the latest innovations, understand the new social media platforms, and be willing to change with the times; but most importantly, be trustworthy. Consumers are fickle and will not stick around if you are not in the game for the right reasons! * Warren Buffett