Social Media Trends for 2014

As my blog come to a close, so does the year 2013...well, at least we're in the ballpark of the year ending. Since, I've drooled over social media in all my other posts, I want to leave you guys with some trends to look out for in 2014. I've made it quite apparent that I love infographics, so here's another one coming your way via Twin Engine: 

 

This is not goodbye!

  

It's been real. It's been fun, but lets be honest, it hasn't been real fun. Hey, I'm just being honest. Thanks for baring with me and I hope you learned a thing or two from my posts. Maybe if you're lucky, my exit from the blogosphere will only be temporary.  Okay, so I kinda enjoyed it.  Stay classy folks!

Pinterest Marketing for Brands

Photo Credit: Marketoonist

The future of Pinterest is still an entirely new realm.  My last blog post, mentioned that Pinterest is growing into a powerhouse with it being the fourth most popular social media site in my little "study." However, many are still baffled by how it is integrated into marketing. I, myself was a little confused by this at the beginning as well.  

How can a site with a bunch of pictures be such a powerful tool for your brand?  I found a great slideshow from slideshare by Bulent Keles explaining how Pinterest works for brands.  If used right, it can be just as powerful of a tool as Twitter and Facebook.  Keles is far better at explaining the method behind the marketing madness on Pinterest than I am so I'll let him take it away with this slideshow below. Check it out:


                            

                            Pinterest for Brands from Bulent Keles

Pinterest can improve my brand...Whaaaa?

The best part about Pinterest, is you can create unique brands that tailor to specific audiences.  With shareable and quality images, it becomes easier to optimize you and/or your brand for viewers.

Lowe's, for example has almost 3.6 million followers and built its presence on specific boards, like the one to the right.  "Black Friday Deal Reveal" is full of items they will be featuring on that day.  Pure brilliance!!!  This is why they have become one of the most followed brands on Pinterest. 

Ellen DeGeneres has built her own personal brand around her daily talk show and book on Pinterest.  She has almost 264,000 followers all because she sticks with what she's good at...being funny, duh! Her boards feature funny babies, pets, and tattoos to name a few.  You wouldn't see her pinning DIY projects and how-to hair tutorials because that's not who she is.  

Dr.Seuss Learning Moment

As we were taught when we were little, "honesty is the best policy," so build your brand around what is you and stay truer than true, because that is just what you should do.  Ha! I went all Dr. Seuss on you there.  Anyway, building your brand on Pinterest can be easy and fun and is definitely on the rise.  Get pinning people!
 

What Social Media Sites do you use everyday?

Every morning when I wake up, after hitting snooze about five times of course, I always get on my phone and check Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Why do I do this?  Honestly, by now it's turned into a nasty habit.  It's not like the world changed overnight.  When I'm trying to put off something or bored, I've noticed I always grab my phone and look at those three social media sites, like clockwork.

This got me to thinking...If I check Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram almost always simultaneously, what social media sites does everyone else use on a daily basis?  Obviously, I took to my Facebook and Twitter to get my answer. Below is my post from Facebook:

To my surprise, I received an overwhelming amount of responses...well, not overwhelming, I have just always wanted to use that in a sentence, you know, to sound important.  However, I did compile 55 responses. The results are as follows:

      

   

1. Twitter  

Are you surprised?  According to Nielsen, Twitter users send 500 million tweets each day and 60 percent are accessing the network via mobile device.  For the longest time, I thought Twitter was stupid, but when I got to college, I too hopped on the bandwagon.  Since then, I've found Twitter to be one of my favorite forms of social media.  

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but on Twitter, I feel like I am able to express myself more freely and people just get it.  With 27 votes from my little "survey," Twitter is the top dog, however, across the nation, Facebook is still the front runner.  

2. Facebook

The runner-up is Facebook with 23 votes.  The funny thing is, 50 of the responses came from Facebook, yet people voted other than Facebook.  I love Facebook for creeping purposes, but I'm going to be honest, I'm not as active as I once was on it.  Yes, I still use it daily, but I'm not going to make daily statuses like I do daily tweets. 

According to Gigya, 79% of social media log ins by online retailers are with Facebook and it also accounts for 13% of worldwide mobile ad revenue in 2013.  I mean with close to a billion active users, of course Facebook, still holds its legacy worldwide. My results were also skewed, because most of the respondents were ages 19-25.  Whereas, Facebook captures such a wide age demographic.  I think Facebook will always outshine, since its pretty much the foundation of where social media took off. 

3. Instagram

With 11 votes, Instagram came in third.  Props to them.  Being a little over three years old, they have accumulated 150 million active users monthly according to Digital Marketing Ramblin (DMR).  I am personally a big fan of Instagram.  I mean, who doesn't love those filters, Throwback Thursday, and selfies on selfies.  The freedom to make a photo as beautiful or as hideous as you please is quite wonderful.  

It is also becoming a great network for businesses to expand their creativity with videos and many companies give bios of their employees.  For example, Red Frog Events, does a nifty thing called, Tadpole Tidbits.  They feature interns that work there with a short little bio, like the the one below.

4. Pinterest

Though Pinterest only had three votes, it still generates 70 million users and 80 percent of them are women according to DMR. Don't get me wrong, I love pinning things for my imaginary wedding and house that I'll never be able to afford, but I don't use it daily. Trust me, if I could I would.  The reason I don't though is because it is so endless. I literally get lost on that site for hours.  I can only update my Twitter and Facebook so many times before there's no new content, but Pinterest to me reminds me of Pi.  Yes that math equation 3.14 thing, it just goes on forever. 

What about the others?

Many rising social networks weren't even named in my survey.  Again, I think this is because of the demographic that responded, but sites like LinkedIn, Google +, YouTube, and MySpace are also on the rise. LinkedIn generates over 238 million users, but it primarily for professional networking.  Yes, I do get on my LinkedIn more often than I used to, but still not every day.  

One person happened to mention Tumblr as one of their favorites social media sites for day to day use.  I am still quite unfamiliar with Tumblr, but Digiday notes there are currently 102 million Tumblr blogs.  Quite impressive, if you ask me. 

As social media continues to grow and become integrated into our lives, we become even more frequent users. What social media sites do you use every day and do you think they'll stick around?

How to Improve your Job Search with Social Media

Photo Credit: someecards

Many of you know, I am graduating in December. Well, hopefully...fingers crossed.  (calm down mom, it's a joke, I'm going to graduate)  As my college career nears its end, I've started to have that wake up call, actually it's more like little voice inside of my head screaming, "Kayla you should probably get a big girl job, like, yesterday."
Needless to say, in the past few weeks, I have had a few minor freakouts. 

On a positive note, social media has actually become a useful tool in my job search.  Did you know that 93 percent of recruiters and 38 percent of job seekers are using LinkedIn?  Soooo, if you haven't already, maybe it's about time to spruce up that LinkedIn profile.   

With that in mind, many employers go through a social media screening process and 1 in 10 candidates are rejected because of what is found on their social media. How you portray yourself online is extremely important.  Now, I'm not saying, be somebody you're not on social media just to impress employers, but what I am saying is maybe delete that picture of you passed out with writing all over your face. 

I'm not perfect, actually most of my tweets are sarcastic, but that is how I am normally.  I will always let my personality shine through in my social media, yet I still know how to be professional.  Even writing this blog, I chose to write how I would talk, versus writing to be strictly professional.   

Sorry, went on a rant there.  What I'm trying to say is, never lose you when beginning your job search and let social media help you, not hurt you.  I came across a great infographic. I've become slightly obsessed with infographics by the way.  I totally wouldn't mind creating them for a living.  Anyway, the infographic below from MyCleverAgency discusses why social media is important and how you could use it to improve your job search.

I plan to use all of that information to help me in my job search.  I hope you do too! 

If you are interested in social media topics, you should definitely check some of my other blog posts and let me know what you think!

'Tis the Season for a Jolly Social Media Campaign

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Well, we pretty much skipped fall, annnnnd it snowed yesterday, which can only mean one thing... It's that time of the year again. Every advertiser's dream or worst nightmare.  

Soon, you will see holiday advertisements everywhere imaginable, if you haven't already.  Each year, the web becomes increasingly popular for consumers.  According to Fast Company, 66 percent of Black Friday purchases resulted from social media interactions and it is projected to be 87 percent this holiday season.  

Also, 80 percent of those who interacted with a brand's social channel ended up buying from that brand.  Basically, social media has become the main battlefield for the holiday sales war.  As businesses and brands compete for our attention how are they going to make their campaigns stand out from the competition? 

Here are three tips to ensure you have a jolly ol' successful social media campaign this season. (please excuse my annoying optimism there, it just fit, okay?!)   And, you're a consumer this still could interest you, look for brands that are following these tips, and I suggest that you buy from them, because they are doing it right! 

1. Start Early!

 I know it's really annoying as a consumer, to see Christmas ads in October, but this is strictly strategy folks. Brands use this to their advantage because it gets people talking and creates a buzz around their brand . Change your website or twitter background to something festive and make sure your website is ready for promotional codes or offers.  

Neutrogena 12 Days of Giveaways Facebook Campaign

Share your holiday promotions.  According to eMarketer, 86% of retailers said they use Facebook to promote their holiday campaigns. Sharing coupons and giving only exclusive offers via social media, creates traffic.  

I am a big sucker for coupons and if I see it's through the social media I use, even better because I did have to do virtually any work to get the deal.

Facebook and Twitter competitions are a great way to gain exposure over your featured products.  Many businesses include a free gift through a daily draw prize campaign.  An example I've seen used on social media is for the 12 days of Christmas, giving something away each day.  It encourages followers and fans to visits your page and enter every day.

2. Stay Active!

You're already ahead of the game by planning and starting your campaign early, but you must also stay engaged with your audience.  Your work is not done Friday at 5:00, social media never takes a holiday vacation.  In fact, you should become even more active on weekends during the holiday season.  As I mentioned earlier, people are more likely to buy from your business or brand if you respond to them.  

Social Media 24/7 via Flickr

Digital Sherpa gives ideas to promote your business every day this holiday season:  

• Use Mondays to start asking your followers on social media which products and services they like and want to see more of from your business. The key to executing this properly is to then respond back to your followers on social media to address their specific requests.

• Make Tuesdays your countdown to this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holidays. This year Black Friday is scheduled for Friday, November 29th and Cyber Monday will take place on Monday, December 2nd. You can use your various social media channels to offer certain promotions for these sales to help measure the success of your social media marketing strategy this holiday season.  
• On Wednesdays you can share images or videos of your business giving back to the community. Since charity is a big part of the holiday season, this will tie in nicely with your marketing strategy and show that you can deliver much more than just products and services.  
• Embrace video marketing on Thursdays and use Twitter’s Vine video app or Instagram video to create brief snip-its of how-to content or provide a sneak preview of a new product that will be arriving this holiday season.  
• Use Fridays to raise the awareness of Small Business Saturday, which will take place this year on Saturday, November 30th.

3. Track your success!

Quite honestly, a holiday social media campaign can be fun.  Who are we kidding, it's the season of giving and if you did it right, you should see success in your business or brand this holiday season.  As a consumer, maybe you will score some free stuff from online giveaways.  Either way, it's a win/win situation.

Photo Credit: Media Bistro

But, don't forget to track your campaign.  That's the beauty of social media is you can measure the success on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.  This will help you make changes for the following year!

With these tips,  holiday social media campaign should be ho ho hopefully a success! (Sorry, I had to)  As a consumer, look for those exclusive coupons and giveaways!  I know I will!

Using #Hashtags in Social Media

Hashtagging gone wrong

This September Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake released a YouTube video that basically makes fun of how ridiculous we sound when we use hashtags.  Well, not all of us sound bad, but I'm talking about those crazy hashtaggers that tweet something short, then follow it with a gazillion hashtags. (You know who you are)

I also see an absurd amount of hashtags on Instagram more than I'd prefer to.  Why people feel the need to #yummy #food #getinmybelly #noodles #spaghetti #sauce #garlic #bread #nomnomnom...you get my point, when they post of picture of their Spaghetti is beyond me, and is something I will probably never get.

Hashtags have gotten way out of hand.  I'll admit, I'm even notorious for those pointless hashtags in some of my previous tweets.  But, believe it or not, there is a right and wrong way to use them.  Hashtags can be a powerful tool for any person or business if used the right way.

Hashtags can boost your brand

Photo Credit: blog.hashtagify.me

The first hashtag was created on August 23, 2007 by Chris Messina.  According to a post on Quora that he wrote, hashtags were created to provide some means for groups to organize themselves. By adding the # sign in front of word you are essentially creating a clickable link.  By clicking on  that link, you will be brought to other users who have hashtagged that word.

The benefit?  Well, let me tell you, once something is made clickable, the content becomes searchable. Thus, giving you the ideal opportunity to engage with your audience every time you post, which is why this is has become a key tool for businesses and their brands.

I understand...now you're probably scratching your head about what you should and shouldn't be hashtagging. Well you're in luck,  the following infographic from Gremln gives you a crash course in Hashtag Etiquette.
  

Photo Credit: Gremlin - Social Media Tools For Business

Keep Calm and Hashtag On

And just like that, you've become a pro in the world of hashtags. Remember, be consistent and share the hashtag with relevant information. Show your boss, you hashtag like boss by increasing brand exposure!