Social Media Marketing by DKMC

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HOW TO BUILD A FOLLOWING

This quarter, my group and I were instructed to come up with a fan page. We decided to create a fan page for fashion tips called @Fashion4Collge on Instagram and Twitter. To be honest, I thought that building a following was hard -- specially if you’re not a celeb or if you’re a start-up business. 

We were able to acquire a total of 168 followers on Instagram and 38 on Twitter in 9 weeks. I don’t think I would consider this bad but If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would have done the whole thing differently. Our page is called Fashion4College, and the one thing we did wrong is not posting pictures of people in college. If we would've posted our own pictures and focused on fashion tips, we would have acquired more followers and engagement. 

With that said, I found a really good article online on how to build a good social following. According to Amy Jo Martin, founder of Digital Royalty (social media consulting agency), the best way to build a social media following is through SHARING, 

Martin provides us with 7 tips on how to provide QUALITY CONTENT and how to BUILD OUT your network: 

Follow Likeminded People in the Business - “Surround yourself with a network of people that your brand and expertise, so that you can become an influencer among them.” 

Share Frequently - “Don’t let weeks pass between tweets or posts, and try to maintain consistency” --- We posted everyday. We could have done better on building a following, however, if we posted at least 3 times a day. 

Provide Education And Information - It is important to offer content that is informative and useful to people because it can increase your retweets and shares. 

Remember Entertainment Value - "A little humor can go a long way toward humanizing your brand.” 

Throw in Some Inspiration - Inspiring quotes and photos make your business or page feel less commercial. My group and I did a lot of this, and I believe we did really well on this. 

Offer An Exclusive - Posting exclusive news or deals make people feel part of your inner circle. 

Be Responsive - "RECIPROCATION IS KEY”: Responding and replying to your followers/audience helps to keep conversations going -- We tried our best to reply to all the comments our followers made. 

So there you go! Hope this helps! 

Take a look and follow our Instagram and Twitter Page: @Fashion4College 

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How to Save 10 Hours a Week on Content Marketing

Good Tips!

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CONTENT STRATEGY vs CONTENT MARKETING

Greg Secrist, founder of BKA Content, gives us a lecture today about the difference between Content Strategy and Content Marketing. 

According to Secrist, “content marketing” is overused by the online business industry, not that content marketing isn't important.

Content Marketing and Content Strategy? Aren't they the same thing? Secrist’s answer is NO. Content marketing refers to one part of your overall content strategy. He expresses that the understanding between its difference is one of the most important things you should do in order to succeed as a business. 

He separates and explains the two concepts: 

1. CONTENT STRATEGY is the “planning, development, and management of content --- written or in other media.” --> This is your MASTER PLAN for using content; This lays out how you will use content to accomplish the goals for your business. 

A good content strategy answers the following questions: 

Why should the content be published?

Where are we going to publish this content?

When should we roll out this content to viewers?

Who do we want to see it?

What reaction are we hoping to receive from the content?

What in the world do we do with the content after we’ve published it?

What types of content do your multiple audiences need or want?

How should you organize and structure your content?

Who is posting and maintaining your content?

How often is content being published?

How does your audience find and interact with your content?

Developing your content strategy takes time, research, and STRATEGIC planning. 

2. CONTENT MARKETING is “typically a soft-sell sales approach to attract customers and retain them through creating and delivering relevant, meaningful content”. This is a combo of sales techniques + organic marketing. 

WHAT’S THE TRICK? Don’t make it seem like you're giving your audience or customers a sales pitch. Make them feel informed, and make sure you publish your content marketing pieces to the right audience, using the right medium. These pieces are often found on blog posts, white papers, case studies, PR, social media marketing, SEO, and more. 

“A content marketing strategy is simply an appendage to your overall content strategy as it focuses solely on creating, measuring, and publishing content marketing pieces for specific audiences. It accurately addresses the “Why” of your overall strategy and what motivates customers to engage”.

He concludes his lecture saying:” A good content marketing strategy can only live up to its fullest potential if there is a strong content strategy foundation holding it up. In other words, your content strategy addresses the “How” of using your content, as well as the ‘Where’ and the ‘What’.”

To some of you who were confused, hope this helped! Read more of his article HERE. 

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MUST READ!

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Google Shop in London

It was announced that Google will be launching its first store (called the Google Shop) in London this week to raise its worldwide image. The store will be located inside a store called Currys PC World, a well-known electronics store in London. 

Why is Google doing this? According to Ezra Gottheil, an analyst for Technology Business Research, Google isn’t doing this to sell their products, its to market their brand: 

“While Apple's stores are real stores with huge volumes, this is about building the brand and exposing people to Google who don't know about all the Google offerings.”

Google is doing this do give consumers the chance to see and experience the company’s range technological devices such as Android phones and tablets, Chromebook laptops and Chromecast. People coming in will be able to try out Google’s software tools and apps using features like: 

Chromcast Pod - allows users to play movies and videos

Portal - lets users seemingly fly through any part of the world using Google Earth 

This to me is pretty cool, it would be like an amusement park shop. According to Gottheil, he think this is what the company wants from opening this shop. They want people to have a different experience compared to what they experience in an Apple store. 

To be honest, Im not a very big fun of Google. I lean towards to Apple because its accessible everywhere and because of its design. You don’t see a lot of stores of Android phone companies like Samsung or HTC around the mall. I think that Google is doing this to make their products more accessible. Having its own store will probably help them to market more of their products like the Chromebook or Chromecast. All Google needs to worry about is getting people to go in. 

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Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson Announce 'Zoolander 2' By Walking In Valentino's PFW Show

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Beats by Dre. Great Design or Great Marketing?

I like going to the gym, and zoning off with my music. I've been using my Apple headphones for the past few years, and Im pretty much content with just using that. Recently, however, I have been noticing that almost everyone in the gym has their cool-looking BeatsbyDre headphones on. I never really understood why people would actually spend $250 on just headphones. Then, I thought, maybe people just buy these headphones because of the hype. 

According to Liddel, Beats Solo (the brand's best selling model), is just like any average, bass heavy headphones that comes in a variety of colors: blue, pink, white, red, purple, green and black. 

Beats by Dre single-handedly brought mainstream appeal to high-end headphones, giving young consumers street-ready cans with plenty of street cred. But Beats isn’t great design—it’s just great marketing." - Devin Liddel, Fast Company Online

The brand markets its design very well. Over the years, the design has been inspired by the fashion culture with its chunky design and bold colors. This in my opinion, makes their brand pretty cool.

People are just buying into the brand's seductive image fueled by celebrity endorsements and sponsorships, which a lot of company's do. According to studies, using this strategy has been the brand sell four Beats Solos every minute of 2013. The brand still continues to use this strategy until today. They use celebrities in music, sports, and TV.  

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Taylor Swift's and other celebs Approach to Content Marketing

I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift, but recently I have been hearing news about how she presents herself to her fans and how she maintains or attracts a relationship with them. 

On Business2Community Online, Andrew Wilson wrote about why Taylor Swift is inspiring, not because of her great music, or the way she dances in the award shows. Taylor Swift inspires her audience -- she was able to accrue millions of adoring fans all over the world despite of the fact that she's really annoying. 

HOW DOES TAYLOR SWIFT DO IT? CONTENT MARKETING! 

I believe that in order to get a lot of fans, whether you’re a small business, big company, or celebrity, you need to be able to market yourself in a way that people feel love and inspiration from you. 

CEO of Sticky Content, Catherine Tool, gives us examples of Taylor Swift's and other pop-stars' techniques of content marketing. 

1. SHOW EMPATHY 

Taylor Swift appeals mostly to the teeny bopper age bracket. Why? Her songs like "Shake It Off" or "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" focus on the stuff teenagers in high school are going through like getting dumped, going to the mall, boy crushes, and mostly being dumped. Taylor Swift understands her target audience and it shows from her songs; she understands the mindset and the issues her fans are going through, and she empathizes with them through her lyrics. 

She also connects with her fans by being santa. Viral videos of her wrapping gifts to send to her fans, make people love her even more.

2. KNOW YOUR NICHE

The success of any content marketing campaign is knowing your niche. The trick to it is that: never try hard to appeal to a big and broad market. Concentrate your marketing efforts on your areas you excel in or your expertise, and what consumers expect from you. 

3. COLLABORATE 

Have you ever wondered if Will.i.am is really a good singer? If you don't know Will.I.Am. search and him and Youtube and listen to his music. If you didn't notice, most of his songs are auto-tuned. 

As shocking as it is, Will.I.Am over the course of his career, he has manages to sell nearly 10 million singles in the UK alone. HOW? He collaborates with other musicians such as Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, David Guetta, and many more. 

This concept applies to your business' content marketing. 

Get the best out of your B2B strategies by inviting your peers to collaborate with you, which will maximise your reach and give your brand awareness levels some uplift. Big-name corporate organisations such as Virgin and GE have seen huge success through mutually beneficial partnerships with other brands.

4. GET TO THE POINT

Your customers or target audience doesn't want to read an essay or watch long videos of your campaign. All customers wants to know is your point: what you're selling, how much it is, where to get it, what the benefit of the product and service is for them. 

Remember to know what you should tell them or what you're trying to tell them without beating around the bush. 

5. TAKE RISKS

The UK and US pop charts have never been known for ranking many Korean pop stars, so when Psy released Gangnam Style, it was a bit of gamble. But, as Psy’s bank balance will confirm, it pays to be bold. Nowadays many brands allow for a certain amount of risk in their content marketing campaigns, whether that’s being humorous, a bit radical, or slightly contentious. A perfect example of a brand incorporating risk into its strategy is Coca Cola, whose 2020 content marketing strategy has 10% of its campaigns committed to being ‘high risk’ approaches. You should always keep a keen eye out for opportunities to raise a few eyebrows.

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4 Things Michael Jackson Knew About Content Marketing

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Content Marketing Lessons from Netflix

In Netflix's early year, the company was considered to be mainly an "online video store", like Red-Box or Blockbuster video but online. 

Netflix has created a new market for online video streaming over the past few years. Recently, it was reported that Netflix uses almost 35% of Internet downstream bandwidth. The average American home uses about 20.4 every month from streaming movies and TV from Netflix alone. 

"According to a study released earlier this month at CES, 51% of people ages 13 to 34 consider Netflix subscriptions “very valuable” compared to 42% for broadcast channels and 36% for cable subscriptions. But Netflix’s domination of our homes and screens is about more than their vast library and seamlessly simple technology. Behind the entertainment giant looms some deviously savvy marketing minds that pros in the content industry can learn much from". - Adam Weinroth 

Adam Weinroth, from Business2Community Online, explains 5 lessons Netflix has used for their success: 

1. Move from content curation to content creation. 

"Netflix began to acquire exclusive original content to add to its streaming service in 2011. What started with political drama House of Cards (first aired in 2013)  has developed into a veritable juggernaut of outstanding content, including Orange is the New Black, Peaky Blinders, The Fall and even the 4th season of Arrested Development. As marketers, Netflix understood that they had to sustain higher quality, unique content offerings and deliver them consistently to compete with television giants like HBO and Showtime."

2. Quality is head of state. 

It was reported that in 2016, Netflix will be launching 18 new series. "Netflix isn't just consistently creating unique content", the company is consistently creating unique content of the highest quality. The company has partnered up with actors and creative producers such as Kevin Spacey, David Fincher, Tina Fey, and Jane Fonda. 

The lesson to learn from this is that quality content must be adopted by any business if they want to differentiate themselves with other brands. Like, Netflix's numerous of original series, this is done so by promoting authenticity and legitimacy to attract your audience. 

3. Build relationships instead of creating purely transactional moments.

Netflix doesn't follow the traditional content delivery model like on TV; they don't release their series episode by episode. Netflix releases its original series in one whole swoop, allowing their addicted viewers (LIKE ME) to binge watch all the episodes. This amazes me because I remember when they released Orange is the New Black 2. I got so excited and love the show so much that I ended finishing the whole season in 3 days. 

Netflix knows how to tap into its audience. They've also have a promotion of a free month trial for new customers, in which those new customers will eventually continue the membership. 

4. Lean on data and make the most of it, every chance you can. 

"It’s no secret that data and machine learning lie at the very core of what makes Netflix so successful. So much, in fact, that the brand created the Netflix Prize and awarded $1M in an open competition to best their highly regarded recommendations algorithm in 2009. While its interface may be gorgeously simple and easy to use, what’s going on behind the Netflix curtain is complex. According to the New Yorker, Kevin Spacey stated that Netflix approached him with the idea of House of Cards and said, “We believe in you. We’ve run our data and it tells us that our audience would watch this series. We don’t need you to do a pilot. How many do you wanna do?” The brand has such intimate knowledge of viewers’ watching behaviors that it can invest budget dollars accordingly, making the prospect  of original content creation less risky".

5. The most important part of marketing is how you market the content. 

Netflix is changing TV from mastering the art of native advertising. 

"Netflix uses native advertising to deliver content that is both contextual and adds value without ever seeming superfluous or overtly self-serving".

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Marketing on Snapchat? Yes or No?

What is Snapchat? Snapchat is a social media application that allows users to send photos and video messages, as well as chat with their friends. Snapchat allows users to add captions, drawing, and filters to their photos and videos. 

According to Forbes Magazine, in 2014, Snapchat users was estimated to be 50 million people and is continuously growing. 

Millard Brown Digital, a market research company who partnered with Snapchat, identified the networks's distinct advertising formats: 

1. Brand Story - Each story is consists up to 20 seconds of content within the platform. NBC Universal's "Ouija" worked well with its Snapchat releases. 

2. Snapchat Our Stories - Snapchat Our Stories is a "collection of user-generated content based on location. Major events like the American Music Awards or the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving parade used this strategy". This feature allows marketers to advertise local events, and allows users to interact with their posts to create personalized content. EDC or Electric Daisy Carnival and the American Music Awards have used this strategy to connect with their audience. 

Why are these brands and companies starting to advertise on Snapchat? 

Marko Radovanac, a contributive writer for BrandingMagazine, provides us with 6 advantages of advertising on Snapchat: 

1. It is a perfect tool to deliver a call to action

2. It delivers offers and coupons of brands in a couple of seconds 

3. Clients can gain new followers with the help of giveaways

4. Brands can promote products to customers

5. You can post sneak-peeks and teasers about new product launchings

6. With couple of photos or short videos, businesses can tell a brief story about their brand, product, service, or events. 

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LinkedIn and PepsiCo

Businesses hang out online on all sorts of places these days... Social media is clearly still a driving force behind company branding, customer engagement, and an excellent source to share content. A lot of us have been caught up in the social media whirlwind for quite some time now, and you might be thinking you have hit your max for both social and content marketing.

As well all know, LinkedIn's main purpose is to connect like minded business owners together and help people search for jobs. It's used as a source for lead generation and luring top talent to add to your company. LinkedIn is reported to be on the rise as one of the most popular social networking platforms for this year. Believe it or not, a study has proven that LinkedIn beats Twitter when it comes to content marketing. 

Recently, the company has recognized that a number of business executives and professionals have valuable information, insights, and experiences to show their audience. Brands are now able to expand and maximize their exposure on Linked with informative content. 

PepsiCo is reported to be doing just that!

It was reported today that PepsiCo is using LinkedIn to run a video content. WHY? The company wants to build awareness among college students of their content marketing job opportunities. 

How can you join?

You must have a LinkedIn account to enter. US college and university students can join by creating a short video due March 3. The video must include an innovative concept for using technology and short-form video content to link a PepsiCo brand to up-and-coming musicians.

The Grand Prize winner will get to meet the company’s CMO of global consumer engagement, Frank Cooper III, and get to work this summer as an intern in their NYC content studio. The NYC Content Studio produces short-form video content for the digital marketing department.

The judges will select nine finalist videos and post them online, in which consumers will be the one to vote (between March18-30) for the winner. There would be one winner. The finalists will not go home without anything. Finalists will receive a year’s upgrade to a premium LinkedIn Job Seeker account and a PepsiCo gift basket.

During the content, PepsiCo’s LinkedIn page will feature information on branded content and its marketing efforts, as well as it’s future plans for its content studio. The page will also feature job seeking advice, and feature positions that are currently open for students can apply to.

Kudos to PepsiCo doing this!

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New! from Facebook: Product Ads

Last week Tuesday, Facebook introduced a new way to advertise: Product Ads. 

"Many businesses sell more than one product. But if your business has lots and lots of products to advertise, all that variety can present some challenges. How do you highlight more of your products? How do you advertise the right products to the right people? Today we’re introducing product ads, a solution designed to help businesses promote multiple products or their entire product catalog, across all the devices their customers use. With product ads, businesses can showcase more products and people on Facebook can discover more relevant products" -Facebook.com

Product Ads is a set of tools that helps businesses target their audience of Facebook more effectively. So how does it work? Businesses can upload their products on catalogues to Facebook and create ad campaigns, or let Facebook automatically deliver the most relevant products to people -- which can be show in single or multiple product ad units such as this: 

Product Ads can also be customized. How? You can automatically reach people who visited your website using a feature called "Custom Audiences", or you can also reach people based on their audiences. You can also curate your ads based on what products were viewed on your website or the best selling products. 

Now, what do you think? 

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Reaching The Younger Crowd: The Millennials

"Ever since social media elbowed its way into our online lives, marketers and brands have been striving to use social platforms to push content and engage young people."- TechRadar.com

A lot of marketers, however, have trouble gaining these young people: the millennial's attention. How can we get their attention? According to Geoff Gower from TechRadar.com, the trick is "for advertisers to harness some of the ingenuity that millennials possess when it comes to creating engaging online content". 

Here's a list on how we can improve on gaining the millennials attention:

1. Online Partnerships: partner up with YouTube Vloggers, or Instafamous bloggers. For example, fashion blogger Shea Marie partnered up last year with Steve Madden to create a special edition collection of shoes. Her campaign for this partnership was really successful. 

2. Co-creation of content: Co-creation is a strategy that focuses on customer experiences and interactive relationships. This allows and encourages active involvement from the customer to create a rich and valuable experience. 

The key to achieving a rich and valuable engagement is allowing your audience to feel part of your campaign while still retaining the element of overall control. For example, Oreo: The company turned their tweets into treats at the SXSW event last year. People at the event (which were generally millennials) were able to create personalize cookies, based on trending twitter topics, with the use of a 3D print. It was a big hit. 

How? Oreo involved their audiences as part of the marketing output so that once they are hooked in, they will be willing to share their experiences and message between their friends, family and peers. 

3. Digital Natives: We need to remember that millennials are the Digital Natives - they hold real power as online content marketers because they understand the social landscape as the understand/ understood the layout of their school campus. "They know where the cool kids hangout, where the geeks can be found, what's being talked about, and what's not". They are always in the know. They understand what kind of content people want and the "it" places today. 

On social media, millennials understand what kind of content their audience wants and the places their audience are, so they know where they'll find interest and amplification for what they want to say. This ability to find their audience on the highways and byways of the internet isn't the only reason for their success – authenticity also plays a key role. No matter how bizarre the content, millennials carry an authentic voice that isn't manufactured.

I believe that It would be effective to hire millennials to market your company because they are natural born content marketers. How? Digital and social media is simply not an add-on to their lives like older people today feel like. For most millennials, they feel like being on social media is very important or necessary to how they live their lives and how they identify the world around them. As a result of this, millennials are able to develop content that help reach and engage their audiences. 

4. Social Media Will Evolve: 

"Despite social media behemoths like Facebook reporting a drop in user numbers, social media will not disappear, it will simply evolve. From walled garden platforms based on one-upmanship, to channels for UGC curation and ephemeral IM-based mobile functionality, the chance for advertisers to connect with their audience in one way or another will continue for a long time".

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The 87th Annual Academy Awards: The Oscars 2015

"Every January, the entertainment community and film fans around the world turn their attention to the Academy Awards. Interest and anticipation builds to a fevered pitch leading up to the Oscar telecast in February, when hundreds of millions of movie lovers tune in to watch the glamorous ceremony and learn who will receive the highest honors in filmmaking" - Oscars.org

On Sunday, February 22, the 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, will honor the best films of 2014. 

 WHAT HAPPENS? 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the Oscars in 24 categories. Categories include the following:

Best Actor in a Leading Role 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role 

Best Actress in a Leading 

Best Actress in a Supporting Role 

Best Animated Feature Film

Best Picture

Best Cinematography 

Best Costume Design 

Best Director

Best Film Editing 

Best Foreign Language Film 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

Best Production Design 

Best Sound Editing 

Best Sound Mixing

Best Visual Effects 

Best Music (Original Score) 

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

Best Documentary (Short Subject)

Best Documentary (Feature)

Best Animated Short Film

Best Live Action Short Film

Best Music (Original Song)

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Go HERE for a full list of nominees by category for the 87th Academy Awards | PICK YOUR WINNERS! Go to http://oscar.go.com/mypicks to predict the winners and challenge your friends!

Performances: Grammy-winning  singer, songwriter and actor Adam Levine will perform the Oscars, along with Jennifer Hudson, Anna Kendrick, John Legend and Rita Ora. 

THE OSCARS BACKSTAGE: For backstage, Red Carpet, and Winners access you won't see on stage, join The Oscars Backstage, the ultimate viewing companion presented by Samsung Galaxy®. The Oscars Backstage will be live at 7 p.m. Eastern Time / 4 p.m., Pacific Time on ABC. The Oscars Backstage lets fans select from three channels that will pull from more than 20 live cameras strategically placed on the Red Carpet and throughout the backstage areas of the Dolby Theatre, providing fans with insider views into the most memorable moments of the night. HOW DOES IT WORK? Select the “watch live” section in the WATCH ABC app or on abc.com on Oscar Sunday, February 22nd 7e|4p to launch the exclusive red carpet and backstage cameras.

Stay UP-TO-DATE: 

Inquire about TICKETS: http://www.vipawardshowtickets.com/academy-awards-oscar-after-party-vip-tickets/

For Oscar news and Insider updates: http://oscar.go.com/blogs

To watch trailers of the 2015 nominees and the best moments of Oscars history: http://oscar.go.com/video/2015-best-picture-nominees/_m_VDKA0_cde5qzqd

Learn more about the Oscars! http://www.oscars.org/oscars

Learn more about the Academy and its history! http://www.oscars.org/academy-story

SOCIAL:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Oscars/featured

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAcademy

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAcademy

Instagram: http://instagram.com/theacademy

CONTACT INFORMATION: http://oscar.go.com/contact-us

#TheOscars2015 airs on Sunday, Feb 22 @ 5:30pm PT #PressRelease #News #AcademyAwards http://t.co/64Qb8gG9OM pic.twitter.com/EkeNqulyVr

— Fashion4College (@Fashion4College)

February 12, 2015

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6 Important Strategies for Your Social Media Marketing Plan

Fun Fact: An average person spends 4 years looking down at the phones over a lifetime. 

The past few years have been a thrilling and successful year for social media; more and more people are joining social media networks making them attached to their phones 24/7. This might be sad for us people wanting to have an actual face-to-face interactions with people. However, for marketers, this is an advantage to market your brand, products, services, or your business to consumers.

As marketers, its important to remember that we need to take advantage and keep track of ALL our social media channels; We need to build a strategic plan for this year! 

Here are 6 important steps into building your social media marketing plan for this year:

1. Build a community rather than a number of followers:

Having 10,000 followers is something to be proud of. We need to remember, HOWEVER, that it DOES NOT matter how many followers you have on your Twitter or Instagram. The only thing that matters the most is interaction with your consumers and having good content. 

What can you do to build a community and increase your engagement? 

Insert Personality, Humor, and Spunk into your brand! Today, no one wants to hear a boring sales pitch on social media. People or consumers want to see and read interesting things because they want to feel entertained.  

Converse Directly to your Followers! Reply to your customers, have conversations with them, retweet them, like and comment on their posts... meet all their needs. 

2. Create powerful social media movements across all social channels:

Keep your audience or your target consumers engaged by being ENGAGED. How? 

Create social campaigns and run it across all your social media platforms: make it stand out by adding charitable, inspirational and emotional components -- promote your business or organization by encouraging people to get involved: 

Tell a POWERFUL story, add a human element 

Brand your movement with unique names and utilize #HASHTAGS

3. Experiment with Facebook Ads:

Want utilize Facebook as one of your social media channels? Use Facebook Ads! Your Ads will show up on your target consumers newsfeed more often! Make sure you have a budget for it! 

4. Suck Up to Influencers:

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to the big influencers in your industry. For example, are you hoping to become part of the Fashion industry? Pay attention to fashion bloggers or fashion icons! Keep up with them and get connected! Here's how: 

Make a list of your influencers - follow them on all your social media platforms 

Favorite, Like, comment, and repost their posts/ content!

Tweet to them, message them, or tag them!

Use the same hashtags they use!

Note: just make sure you don't overdue it! People don't like spam and if you overdue sucking up to them, they might think your annoying (SPAM!).

5. Share Trending Content:

Balance the content on your posts. "There needs to be a balance between marketing your business, brand, product or service and sharing stories or news from other sources. Here's how: 

Look for viral videos on YouTube, or cool videos about your industry. You can even make your own!

Scan the news: search for stories or articles that is closely related to your brand or industry!

Follow & use TRENDING #HASHTAGS! 

Last but not the least.... 

6. Plan in advance what you post!

Keeping up with all your social media platforms is time consuming... and it will help you if you plan what kind of content goes to your postings ahead of time. Develop a calendar and plan your postings AT LEAST 3 weeks ahead of time! 

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#Selfie

#The Selfie; a craze that has taken over America and all over the world. 

According to Krystal Overmyer, writer for skyward.com, the selfie "could play a major role in brands' 2015 marketing strategies" 

Last December Forbes magazine predicted this year will be about storytelling when it comes to marketing. This will create outlets for customers to share their experiences with products and service -- which will make brands more human and relatable. 

Many brands are now looking at selfies as a form of storytelling to enhance their marketing efforts which can generate likes, shares, comments, and ultimately gain engagements. 

How can we use place the #selfie into content marketing your product or brand? 

take pictures for #BTS of behind the scenes moments

create selfie contests! this will encourage your target customers to post creative pictures of themselves using your product.

Engaging an audience through selfies could prove an effective way to enhance brand engagement. 

Consumers want to see real users of a company's product or brand, and I think that the idea of using selfies may generate positivity and engagement, which can lead to increased product sales.