social media

6 Photography Tips to Pump Up Your Social Media at Events

You’ve seen them. Straight on selfie head shots (or dead shots). Pics that do nothing to compel people to engage.

Let’s be real, a pic needs to be different, colorful and engaging to earn a like, regram or share from your followers. And at events, it can be even harder to have your social media post stand out among the flutter of party pics, unless you’re deliberate in capturing and sharing images that resonate.

My favorite piece of advice on how to make images interesting comes from Caitlin Winner, Facebook’s design manager and part time painter… “Start with Heart”

Pay attention to what excites you. Is it the shape of the thing? Is it the color relationships? Is it the way the light is casting shadows? If you make an image in service of what is interesting to you, others will find it interesting, too.

Follow Caitlin’s advice and these five tips from Marketing Rival, and you’ll have no problem amplifying your social reach at your next event — from expo to meetup.

1. Make a style match

When attending ICFF NYC I discovered the office accessories company Base Object at the Design Milk Bar. Their colorful, fun desk candy was the perfect color match for our NPZ Style and Decor office space. I snapped a photo then attached one that I had of our office for quick engagement on Instagram.

2. Make it personal

My biz partner Shannon Winning has been a big fan of furniture and design studio Bend Goods since she found them on IG a year ago. She made a point to personally connect with Bend’s social media manager at ICFF this year.

3. See things differently

Skip the booth photo or the firing squad line up of attendees. Get up and over the top and take your event photo from many angles to offer a unique, likeable perspective.

4.Incorporate branding

You don’t have to take a picture of the sign outside the corporate meeting room to show where you are. Look for opportunities to incorporate subtle nods to the event’s branding or your own.

5. Show those happy people

I don’t know what happens to us when we get to forums and events. We suddenly forget everything we know about photography. Instead of smiles and individual faces, we focus on a row of the back of people’s heads and dark grainy shots of speakers at a podium. Let’s remember that it’s actual happy people we want to see (and please, no crotch shots of the presenters on stage. Ever.)

6. Keep the momentum going

There are going to be a thousand kajillion photos of your event during the event. Take some time to curate a few beauties to post after. You can use this fantabulous new feature from Buffer that has all us social media managers looking like this:

Because Instagram doesn’t actually let third parties post on the platform, Buffer came up with a work around by essentially allowing you to pre-write your post. You write it, leave it, then post it when you want. Hashtags or @-mentions will remain when you post to Instagram along with your image. It’s good for those who want to be consistent with their social media presence, but you have to remember to publish it manually. Still, we’re excited.

Let’s remember the whole point of social media: That we are to be social.

Sharing photos that spark emotion (“Wow, look at that color!” or “Aw, puppies…”) make our feed memorable and engaging. Good photographers have an ability to zero in on one subject in a crowd and tell us a story with one photo. You can be an engaging storyteller too if remember what it is that resonates with you when you’re the audience.

If you’re already powering your social with great images the next step is connecting with the influencers in your industry. Learn how to initiate and transform these connections into a brand ambassador relationships in our free ebook.

5 Not Terrifying Social Media Updates For Your Brand

There have been a ton of changes to social media in recent months, and many of those changes will actually make our job in marketing easier. (Yay! And we thought it was just going to be nasty algorithm changes…)

From direct connections on Pinterest to more characters in a Tweet, small changes on top channels are helping brands tell their stories and engage more naturally with their consumers.

And without a big learning curve.

We’ve sifted through the recent changes to bring you the five feature updates you can begin using now, before you take that long July 4 weekend.

1. Facebook Live video feature

Facebook usually takes a beating when it rolls out a new update, but this time there was little backlash. Live streaming is a real-time way to connect with your followers and find new ones: 92 percent of mobile video viewers share those videos with others. That’s a whole new potential customer base for your business. It’s also a way to make a deeper connection with your existing customers. Use Facebook Live to give a behind the scenes look at your production. When you host an event use it to interview industry leaders and top players and keep your audience updates throughout the day.You’d do well to put a chunk of money behind this (or any) Facebook work. To be seen you need to be advertising.

2. Multi account feature on Instagram

Despite the entire world hating the new logo, the latest Instagram update has some great changes, including a new layout aaaand allowing you stay logged into multiple accounts (personal and business) at the same time. Cue round the world applause. If you’ve been logging in and out of your work and personal accounts you know what a pain this is (especially if you’ve got multiple brand accounts) and what an obstacle to posting it was. With all that work someone is going to be neglected, and it’s probably your personal account/side business. Instagram also changed the way the feed works so your engaged users are less likely to miss your posts. For instance, you post a photo at 11 p.m. but your customer doesn’t check her feed until 8 am. Because she’s liked, commented and engaged with you before, she can still see it. This is similar to Twitter’s “while you were away feature” but it can’t be dismissed.

3. Character relaxation on Twitter

Twitter made every marketing professional’s dream come true this summer when it eliminated character counts for photos and videos, which means you can finally consistently follow best practice by including images in your tweets with sacrificing important messages. This update came on the heels of Twitter’s last big image friendly change — the addition of polling, GIFs and live broadcasts via Periscope. Twitter wanted its audience to be able to do more in 140 characters, so @names, videos, GIFs, polls and quote tweets no longer use up valuable space. And, the pesky period before @name is no longer necessary when you tweet broadly to an individual or company. That’s one extra character for you. And for those who really dig original tweets, Twitter now lets you retweet yourself. So if you have a tweet that you think went unnoticed, simply hit the retweet button and save yourself some typing. Twitter is still the best tool out there for live commentary and up-to-date information, and for me in my brand work, it’s still the best way to connect with people to build important relationships.

4. Autoadvance on SnapChat (Should you even care?)

SnapChat has seen its users skyrocket lately, with more active daily users than reigning king, Twitter. Chat 2.0 lets you take direct chatting to a whole new level with video chatting and direct messaging. Snap stories now auto advance, letting customers see a brand’s story in its entirety within their own personal stories so they’re less likely to be ignored. Users can still choose who to follow, so be sure to continue to promote SnapChat as a place where your customers can find cool features and inside looks at your biz. But, SnapChat isn’t for every business, and it does take some getting used to and some investment. Just like with Twitter and Facebook, you have to put some money behind it (definitely if you are just starting out on the platform) and you need to be willing to use your other channels to refer traffic there. Better to wait until you have the advertising dollars and a fully developed strategy.

5. Direct pinner access on Pinterest

Pinterest had a complete facelift in 2016, and is now easier and faster to use. It also went global, making its mobile app readable in 31 languages. One of the biggest changes is that users can now direct message a pinner. See a great kitchen design you think is perfect for your flooring customers? Direct message the pinner and find out exactly what materials were used. Find a blogger you think would be a great fit for your company? Connect with them and see if a partnership is in order. This new tool is great for brands to connect with customers. Not on Pinterest, but considering? If you’re a visual brand (design and architecture, fashion and style, cooking and crafting), or you sell products, consider this: 87 percent of Pinterest users have purchased a product because of Pinterest, and 93 percent have used Pinterest to plan for future purchases. That’s a huge opportunity to influence buying decisions and gain loyal customers. So get pinning.

What I like best about these updates is that they’re specifically engineered to help brands reach their customer base, but they’re not onerous or annoying (generally) to the user. Simpler, more friendly interfaces, relaxed constraints and better tools for communicating make my job easier and social media more social. Tweet that.

how to target media with social media for public relations

Instagram Partnerships: Where Everyone Wins

What’s better than a beautiful, well curated Instagram feed? Two beautiful, well curated feeds working together for double the audience.

The social media manager’s job of curating content can be daunting. And it’s especially difficult in the design industry where there’s stiff competition among visually stunning design companies that post daily (often multiple times) on Instagram. The stand outs in surfaces, furniture, jewelry, textile (even appliances) all have strong, creative visuals and messaging.

But their secret to reach beyond their existing followers is partnerships. Co-marketing in visual branding enables companies to harness a greater variety of content to tap bigger audiences, and Instagram is the perfect channel for it.

Check out this example from Pantone

Co-marketing on Instagram creates a reciprocal relationship that:

Attracts followers
Increases engagement
Drives sales

Win. Win. Win.

The best co-marketing relationships are between like-minded companies with equally visual products.

Here’s what I look for in a strategic digital marketing partner:

A strong story

Found My Animal is a Brooklyn handcrafted rope accessories company that is raising awareness of the urgent need for animal adoption worldwide. The company with 37K followers partnered up with the iconic clothing brand Free People, with 2.6 million followers on Instagram. Together, the companies share a love of animals and boho fashion, melting their pet loving followers’ hearts for a cause.

Active followers

It’s not all about the numbers. A brand could have thousands of followers but if they never engage on the account, they’re worthless. It’s better to choose a partner with 5,000 followers that comment and like pics then one with 100,000 that sees no activity at all.

I love the fun way that NYC companies Dylan’s Candy Bar (85.7K) and leggings company Terez partnered to reach their already highly engaged audience. Terez (144K followers) created a line of Dylan’s candy print leggings and encouraged user generated content featuring them. Both companies shared photos of Terez’ adorable dancers and follower submitted pics on their Instagram accounts. Their bright, happy posts drew likes, comments and new follows.

A common style

This year we helped launch the digital presence for Vetrazzo (1,730), a handcrafted recycled glass surface company, known for its bold and beautiful colors. When Laura U Interior Design paired Vetrazzo’s countertops with a turquoise fridge from retro appliance company Big Chill (3,055), it was an opportunity to co-market the brands on Instagram. When the Laura U team shared the coastal kitchen design with their 15.8K followers we featured the image again on Vetrazzo’s account and tagged Big Chill and Laura U. The three brands’ styles and colors echoed a cool coastal character that resonated with their followers who loved the design inspiration.

A complementary personality

A brand that’s cultivated a particular voice and personality to match their audience (fun, snarky, sophisticated, oddball) should pair with a brand with the same vibe. When beauty company Birchbox (475K) paired up with shoe retailer Keds (318K) on an exclusive shoe line it was almost as if their joint followers dreamed up the perfect shoe (and collaboration).

Sometimes these relationships are formal with strategic campaigns between the brands. Other times it’s an Instagram tag and a shout out that organically begins the relationship and lays the groundwork for future partnerships.

However they begin, co-marketing relationships on social (or through email or blog content) should feel authentic to the audience even if the brand products seem incongruous (ropes-dogs-boho fashion). The common element for Dylan’s Candy and Terez was fun. For Vetrazzo and Big Chill it was color. For the audiences in all these cases the common element was a richer Instagram experience and exposure to another brand they would undoubtedly love.

Put Down The Hammer: Why DIY Is Killing Your Business

The DIY game is strong in my family. This summer my husband single handedly cut in half and removed a 12 foot cast iron oil tank for our basement. And my 84 year dad just rebuilt his dishwasher. There isn’t a lot of calling in the cavalry at our place.

There’s some nice pride in DIY. (Home Depot banks it’s whole brand on it.) People will say, “Wow, you did that?” And you will say, “Why yes, yes I did.” But sometimes, DIY is a waste.

This time last winter I was standing on an eight foot ladder in an unflattering Tyvek suit stapling fiberglass insulation into the rafters of my second floor addition. We set out to insulate the entire now gutted first floor and the upstairs add on ourselves, because that’s how we do. To get it done my husband had to build two measuring and cutting jigs, buy taller ladders (and my oompa-loompa suit) and make more trips to Home Depot than I care to remember to fill our truck with as many Pink Panther rolls as it could fit. We filled every space, between every stud, in every wall, and every ceiling. It cost us nights, weekends and work time and hundreds of dollars, but we figured we were saving the cost of a pro job and every penny counted. It was itchy, miserable and took months. The suck level was high.

Cut to months later when a contractor friend said to me, “You know, your sheetrock guy could have done the job for less than you spent on insulation rolls and he’d ‘ve had it done in a couple of days with his crew.”

I wanted to simultaneously punch him and fall to the ground and weep. All that work was stupid pointless.

I ran straight to my neighbors doing almost the same project and practically commanded that they pay their sheetrocker to insulate their home. I had learned something about DIY, I just didn’t know the lesson was for my business too.

My DIY spirit makes for a persistent tension in the Marketing Rival agency where my partner Jen is chief delegator and I am chief cheapskate and power horder. Jen is quick to outsource tasks to professionals like lawyers, bookkeepers and web developers, and I’m like, “I can do it. I’ll buy a book about it and do it after dinner.”

I had to learn this lesson again this summer when Jen and I were getting ready to launch our new agency with a new site. I was building out the site in a new image heavy template that I loved, but like a floor out of plumb with the wall, it needed help, and I was busy.

Pages were gathering html dust and we were recreating our pricing plans in Word for every client and prospect as our “work with us” page sat half done. It’s not that I was lazy. We had that copy cranked out in no time. But when the client work was flooding in and there were problems to solve and deadlines to meet, those beloved business pages got neglected. I just did not want to pay someone to do something that theoretically I could do myself.

Though she didn’t say it herself, I’m sure Jen was frustrated. Eventually she convinced me to unfold my tight sweaty fist from around our website and hand it over to our developer. I begrudgingly agreed.

My awakening came when said developer fixed, in five minutes, a wonky spacing issue I was having on our home page. I had spent hours on this problem and in the time it took me to scroll through a morning’s worth of Instagram posts, he had it fixed.

Do you know that scene in Monty Python Search For The Holy Grail when the clouds part and King Arthur says, “Good idea, my Lord.” And The Lord thunders down, OF COURSE IT’S A GOOD IDEA. It was like that. Only I heard, “Pay professionals to do what they do professionally and stuff gets done.” (Paraphrase of course.)

Then I thought, what else can I give this guy to do? As it turns out, a lot. There were many tasks juuust outside my wheelhouse that I was doing and he could do better, faster. The money I spent to have him work on pages was an investment in three important things:

Project progress. Quality of work. My sanity.

And it’s the reason we have such an attractive, functional site today.

I was glad to have it done, but really, also a little peeved. Because I said I would do it myself.

But here’s the thing. I wasn’t being honest with myself. I couldn’t program my own website anymore than I could change my own oil. Yes I could figure it out, read the manual, take a programming class (or a few hundred). But that takes time. And even after time, I’d get something produced by a beginner.

No one wants beginner work representing their business.

And that’s a tension in marketing where we as marketers spend a lot of energy writing about how you can do digital marketing yourself. We do this to serve our clients, to help strangers become prospects, to keep the Google juice going. We provide tools for people to get started on DIY content marketing and PR. An editorial calendar to keep you organized. A blogging manual to teach you the ropes. A media prospecting ebook to get you going on social PR. And these are great for those times when you just can’t call in the cavalry to provide you with a suite of marketing services. (I’m thinking of cash strapped start-ups and budding small businesses especially.)

But here’s who DIY marketing isn’t for:

Companies who want to grow. And I don’t mean by increments (today I did 11 push ups!). I mean smash through the glass of their goals to the prize on the other side.

What do you need to be that kind of company?

An insulation moment.
A nagging hunger to grow.
A market that needs what you have to offer.
The understanding that that there is value in spending today for tomorrow’s goals.
AND, a commitment to stick it out.

Marketing – blogging, adwords, pr, social – it all takes time to show results. Yes, you want to be agile. Yes, you want to iterate and pivot and all those beautiful ridiculous startup words. But man, YOU GOT TO KEEP GOING. And you don’t want to DIY it for the long haul.

One, it’s exhausting.
Two, you’re not that good at it.
Truly. You know it.

Yes, you can write your own blog, build your own site and do your own social media. But at what cost?

A blog that gets some traffic. A site that looks ok. Lead generation that’s weak. Social media for show and not leverage.

At Marketing Rival (now Ultraviolet) we’ll continue to give tips and tricks and some tools to help you improve your marketing because we want an educated audience of clients and prospects. But know that these tools aren’t meant to replace professional work.

You’re going to pay for your marketing one way or another, in cash to a professional (who can deliver you return on your investment) or with the time and effort you steal from your business.

Don’t be like me. Let someone else handle the insulation.

Twitter moments: What the heck are they and how do you use them?

A dog snuggling with his bird best friend is trending. So is “the 10 strangest things to ever happen
in a Walmart.” And so is Justin Bieber. But we’re not going there.

Who cares? And what makes something trend? Technically speaking, trending social media news is determined by the platform’s algorithms. You don’t need to take advanced math all over again, so we’re going to cut to the simple explanation.

Essentially, when a topic gains above average mentions in a short period of time, it becomes a trend. Trending is unpredictable. Even the most random things can start to trend. Hence the large amount of cat topics and celebrity baby names trending daily. But is there any point in paying attention to this? Can you use it to profit your company? Yes and yes.

Today we’ll show how you as a business owner or your company’s social media manager can use Twitter’s trending topics to your advantage.

Ever notice that little lightning bolt on your new Twitter home page? That new feature is Twitter Moments, and it could be the answer to increasing followers and engagement. Let’s take a tour through how it works.

Twitter Moments is the social media platform’s attempt at making the sometimes overwhelming Twittersphere a little more manageable, especially for newbies. Moments lets you see the top tweets for what’s trending that day, whether it’s Star Wars or Hoverboards or Republican debates or Queen Elizabeth. Think of it like a magazine. A magazine that allows you to pick what you want to read and skip everything else. The information featured in Twitter Moments are actual tweets, not full-length articles, so you’re guaranteed to get your news in the quick format Twitter is known for. Twitter Moments can be, and should be, used as your go-to source for quality info that you control.

Let’s say you own an automotive shop. You look on Twitter Moments one day and see that
people are talking about an upcoming ice storm. Since you sell snow tires, chains and de-icer, you can jump on that trend with a blog about how to prepare for a snow and ice storm, Facebook and Twitter posts showcasing your winter storm products, and maybe even offer a special deal or a coupon. Get in on the conversation and show your customers that you’re on top of current trends. You’ll look like a pro, and feel like one too.

New to Twitter? Moments lets you get a feel for what Twitter is all about without having to follow even one person. Figuring out who and what to follow is the most daunting part of using the social media channel, but Moments gives you a look at what you might like and then you can choose to follow who you wish. But this isn’t the best part of Twitter Moments. The coolest thing is that the new feature allows you to reach an entirely new audience.

These days, social media marketing is much more than just connecting with people, it’s a two-way, give and take relationship. It’s about engaging with an audience and letting them know what you and your business can do for them. The more you connect and engage, the more awareness you can provide them with. Social media prospecting is the best way to quickly get to potential customers, showcase your services, and work to get them to engage directly with your brand or product. Twitter Moments is taking social media prospecting to a new level.

Twitter Moments is instant gratification for the instant gratification age, and your business should jump on this newest feature, both for staying current on popular buzz and new lead generation.

Photo by Pat (Cletch) Williams

Forget Facebook. Click Send.

Hop in the car kids, because today we’re heading to Boston to learn how one startup made it stupid easy for followers to give them free press (and how your company can do it too).

We’re talking about how to reengage your dormant contact database with email, the most underrated social media engagement tool.

Let’s dig in.

At some point in your marketing efforts you realized it was important to gather email addresses from visitors, maybe to deliver company news or perhaps your blog. Maybe you’re even gathering them for lead tracking and nurturing (high five!).

You’ve amassed a fat, juicy list of contacts. Fantastic. But if you don’t use it to connect with those people socially, you are missing an opportunity.

Today I’m going to show you how Grove Labs, a Boston-based startup uses email get its supporters to promote it on social media.

First, a little about Grove Labs. The company, founded by two then MIT students developed an in-house aquaponic growing system powered by a mobile operating system that enables people like you and me to grow organic kale with LED lighting and fish poop. I know. Amazing. A little icky. You totally want to try it. You can learn more here in this 3-minute video.

Now a little about me. I’m fan and follower of the company, though I don’t yet own the product, which is still only in the homes of early adopters in Boston. It’s also a little out of my reach financially as all my money is going to build a home that could one day house a Grove ecosystem. And that’s important to note because: Even though Grove has yet to make a dime off me, I promote them on social media, liking and sharing their news and giving shout outs when I’m doing organicy garden things. All my friends know what the Grove system is. (I posted the above photo on Facebook last year. Does this kale make me look organic?)

Recently the company launched a Kickstarter campaign to take the product nationwide. The results were over-the-top with the campaign more than tripling its $100,000 goal – and the campaign isn’t over for 20 more days. Instead of just sending a nice “We did it! Thank you!” email, those Grovers, powered by organic super foods probably, did something very different.

They asked their contacts for more.

“With your help over the next 28 days,” Grove said, “we can prove to the media, to our investors, and to each other, that the future of food starts now. Here are a few things you can do to help:”

I’ve broken up and enlarged Grove’s beautiful markeing email to show you why each point is so effective and how you can apply it to your business (especially if you’re a startup or are using crowdfunding).

Did it work?

A week later Emily Malkin, spokesperson for the company said, “Since sending that email we have 59 new backers, 11 of which were $1 contributions, and 21 of which were $10 contributions.”

That’s $221 of their $323,886 raised so far. A pittance if it’s only dollars you’re after, but clearly from the tiny ask, it wasn’t.

“The point of the email was first to excite and inspire confidence based on our success so far, and secondly to provide immediate and easy action items for the segment of our community that is excited to contribute but can’t commit to the investment of a full Ecosystem,” Malkin said. “Remembering to include our entire community as we move forward is extremely important – we are starting a movement and everyone counts!”

BTW, I have updated that al totnumber raised three times in the last day. Something is working up there in Boston.

Next Grove asked supporters to leverage their networks on its behalf. And, as I said in the beginning, they made it stupid easy for supports to share by giving them the message to share.

If just one supporter shared that message on social media with a few hundred friends or followers the potential for exposure is huge, like compounding interest.

Bonus: They controlled their brand messaging. I’m telling you, those leafy green eaters are onto something.

Next they asked for feedback – the simplest way to get buy-in and market research.

If your clients, customers, users, are anything like me, they looove to tell you what they think about your product or service including obstacles to purchasing that they encounter.

Point four in their email is more of that social media love they asked for in point two. Since you’re already on Twitter….might as well.

Finally, they gave supporters, who have probably been loving them from afar on the web, a chance to see and touch their product (and perhaps the founders) in actual life. Seeing the calendar of live events across the country gets the contact excited (OMG, they’re coming to Brooklyn!) and gives her a sense that the brand is now, as Malkin said, a movement. And oh look, there is a clear call-to-action to register.

Emily at Grove, who sent the message, gave her contacts, not one but five, chances to engage with her company. (More here on who should send your company’s emails.) She also increased her chances of engagement by removing obstacles and objections:

I don’t have any money to give – Just give a dollar and get updates!
I don’t have time to compose a social message – Here, use this one!
Wait, where do I register? – Right here on this shiny orange button!

If your company is relying on Facebook generated requests like Marketer Maggie invited you to like a page: Sprockets Are Us, you are missing the most direct, personal and actionable channel for social media engagement. Instead of using your email marketing for newsletters, billing or blog delivery only use it to leverage your best asset: your supporters’ social media influence.