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Instagram for Businesses

Every day more and more businesses are using Instagram as a part of their social media plan. Launched in October 2010, more than 40 million pictures are uploaded to the application everyday. Reaching millions everyday, it is a great way to promote businesses. Here are a few tips to make your businesses’ Instagram page a success:

Make it your own: The Instagram page should reflect your company’s unique culture. The page should portray an experience and provide followers with a sneak peak about what your company is all about, instead of advertising your products or services. Old Spice’s Instagram feed provides their followers with humorous pictures that engage the audience and creates brand awareness.

Post frequently: Make sure that you post frequently and consistently. Ideally, at least one picture a day will remind your followers of how exciting your brand is. However, if there is a special event your company is having, it is expected that you will post more pictures as a way of promoting the event.

Use a hash tag that defines your brand: In a yearlong celebration of our 15th anniversary, at Optime we use #optime15 to consolidate all of our activities creating an experience where individuals can go to one place and find everything. Using a hash tag allows Instagram users to more easily find your page and pictures.

Amplify your reach by tagging others: With Instagram’s new ‘Photos of you’ feature, when you tag others in your pictures, those pictures also appear on their profile.

Follow these four tips and you’ll be well on your way to making your businesses’ Instagram page a success.

We thought these were hilarious, and fit some of us so well!

On Saturday, our Fulfillment team did a great job putting together a fun Family Field Day to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. They’re well on their way of reaching their goal of $2,500. Great job, ladies!

THE BIG 5: ALIGNING INTERNATIONAL TEAMS

1. SIMPLIFY

When you’re dealing with cross-cultural teams, it’s important to keep in mind the different cultures involved and how they interpret the tasks at hand. The easiest way to avoid getting lost in translation is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Clearly set your goals, responsibilities, and priorities of all the key players involved in the development of a project, both numerically and visually, allows everyone working on it to be ALIGNED. Avoid complicating things with fluff and get straight to the point.

In the words of Einstein “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”

2. CONNECT

Managing a project whose key players are scattered around the world seems like tricky task… But the best way to get around communication barriers such as time differences, multiple languages, and distinct work culture us to use collaboration tools and clearly layout how each one will be used in each phase of the project.

3. STRUCTURE

Now that you have clearly laid out your project’s goals and established the tools you will use to measure progress, it’s time to create some structure. Templates are the best way for everyone to understand what is needed for the completion of a certain element that fits in the larger picture, being it communicational elements on websites, microsites, apps, social platforms, or HTMLs. By keeping the layouts simple, you can create guidelines for all the steps to be completed. This helps everyone stay organized.

4. DEADLINES

This is crucial for any team in order to avoid those last minute panic attacks, the one’s where you realize things are missing and no one is available in the other countries because of a time difference or miscommunication. Deadlines are clear-cut and allow for a six-sigma approach to content development. No one is left waiting on someone else’s part and the whole team is aligned with the set time frames. With the use of the collaboration tools mentioned above, you can communicate and promote interaction between the team members on delivery dates and enable a flow of information so the project comes together in the way it was planned.

5. FLEXIBILITY

This is the most important trait anyone working with international teams should have. Even though you may excel in simplicity, connection, structure, and deadlines, the world is unpredictable and you must be ready to react to whatever is thrown your way. You can have an efficient foundation with the steps mentioned above, but a content strategy succeeds only when extraneous factors are efficiently managed. Be ready for anything and be ready to communicate with everyone on board if there is a change of direction.

Optime Webinar

Interested in learning how to measure social media results? Tune in tomorrow at 3:00PM EST! Sign up now at the link:ow.ly/iVKVZ

Use this advice to keep up with the trends while staying involved and engaged in conversation through social media!

Are you on Vine? We love this cool new social platform! Follow us @OptimeConsulting and tell us what you think!

COMMOTION: Community in Motion

In the social media world, they say power lies in creativity. But while content is King, collaboration is the Queen that sparks the content’s commotion.

We always hear that it's SO important to create meaningful content, build an audience, and most importantly, encourage constant engagement, but... WHY? That’s because there is an even more important factor that intertwines the constant goal of successful social media: Community.

After taking part in several Social Media Week sessions in Miami and New York, panelists continuously explained how they work in collaboration. Professionals in all industries and departments, both creative and strategic, emphasized that their jobs would not be complete without the team they work with to create valuable content. Everyone puts in a lot of work into what will be published for the sole purpose of attracting not just viewers but conversations, constant community, YOU.

This is where the real power lies. Great content, visual or verbal, will not truly be great until it successfully engages a community. Conversations should not just be from viewers and readers, but the brand itself as well.

Brands that take part in the dialogue they create through content are being a part of their own community. A simple idea, but many brands leave their content open for conversation without any input of their own.

Whether social media is being used for corporate purposes, promotions, awareness, or just for fun, interaction measures true success.

Social media users and brands that converse together, learn together, making social media the two-way communication that it is!

By constantly interacting, social media enhances the digital experience into one that makes users feel a part of something greater. Next time you are creating content, keep in mind that you could be creating a community in commotion!

There are better ways to market your content than Riding Memes

Today, brands are engaging their audience more and more using memes. Memes, as we know them today, began as images with witty or sarcastic remarks, created by users on forums such as 4chan or reddit. It’s not always a bad idea to use memes in your marketing, but because the trend has gotten so wide-spread, it might be a better idea to sit back and create your own fun content instead of relying on what is already online.

I know, doing the “Harlem Shake” can be REALLY tempting, but there are plenty of other ways to engage your audience without memes, especially when everyone else is using them.

Let your voice do all the talking. Instead of trying to adopt someone else’s voice or style, use your own. Build on your own creativity and let your audiences into your world through originality. Think about it, if the goal of a Meme is to start a trend, wouldn’t it be better to be the original creator rather than just another bandwagon wave rider? Connect with your users with a conversational tone and get to know them as the real you, become their friend, and let your ideas flow. This builds a stronger bond than building relationships through third party fads.

Create your own OC with Pictures OC- Original Content. Instead of going online and finding “appropriate” memes for your social media posts, take out your camera and snap your own pictures, putting you in charge. Use tools like Instagram to organically build a community. Instagram features like tagging and hash tagging allow you to breakthrough the clutter of meme’s and discover the real brand voices. Establish your true differentiators and network with people authentically, this way your community is permanent and not fleeting (like a Meme).

Fleeting Buzz Although there is nothing wrong with using memes, it has become so “mainstream” that they might actually hurt your marketing strategy rather than help it. Meme’s only work for a very short period of time- no more than a few weeks. A good rule of thumb is to disregard any memes that a late adopter would know about, like your 102-year-old neighbor. In the end, it’s best to keep your content authentic and original. Be proud of your products and services and have fun with them. You don’t need a meme to help you with that.

#Meme #OC #social media #buzz #instagram #marketing #pr

When it comes to #marketing, we could learn a valuable lesson from the Hispanic Community! #Optime15

#optime15 #marketing

“Receta” is the Most Googled Word in Spanish

Social Media Week seems to be well under way in Miami, and being in a multi-cultural hub that Miami is, Latinos on social media seemed to be a hot topic. In the social media world, brands that have been able to capture the attention of Hispanics are considered digital marketing juggernauts. Today’s schedule featured 2 panels exclusively for social media in Latin America; both addressed some key points for reaching out to the powerful community online.

Get to know us, and understand us. We are not all Mexicans! No slight against Mexicans, but it’s unfortunate how many brands believe that just by slapping a little bit of chili, and they’ve created something for their Latino community to enjoy. A guy in a bee costume won’t hit the spot, either.

For social media success in the Hispanic Community, you really need to get to know us. Knowing only Spanish won’t cut it, either. Learn what we like to watch, what makes us laugh, and what we’re proud of. It’s those little cultural nuances that really connect a brand with its audience.

Latinos are passionate. Generally, we are loud, we are larger than life, and we are passionate. We love sharing things that we like, and when something upsets us, we have no problem sharing our anger. That being the case, Latinos are generally not early adopters. Yes, there are exceptions, but the vast majority likes sticking to what they know. Brands should always keep this in mind, and brands using social media for marketing should work towards fostering advocates within their social media communities. For Latinos, advocates are like gold, they are most valuable to a brand.

Advocates are generally people who like a brand and communicate with and on behalf of the brand. They are quick to answer to users who may not understand a specific product or service, providing authenticity. People are also more likely to use a product or follow a brand based on advocates because they are peers.

Aprender Português In all of South America, Brazil has become the most active on social media. Some studies have shown that Brazilians can actually be the most social in the world. They are the fastest growing number of Facebook users and early adopters. If your brand is primarily Latino, it might be a good idea to brush up on your Portuguese, or at least learn it. Muito obrigado can go a long way if you’re trying to attract Brazilian users.Just like you would with the Hispanic culture, learn about the Brazilian culture. Finding out major holidays-especially Carnaval, and common traditions are just the tip of the ice burg for connecting with the Brazilian community.

We're excited for our new One Team One Cause Fundraiser towards Miami Children's Hospital! #Optime15

#optime15

Que ótimo! Today our marketing specialist Mariana is teaching us Brazilian culture in our Portuguese class!

#brazil #portuguese #marketing #office #class #brazilian

Our social media specialist Paola got a look at the latest tech innovations at CES 2013! #Optime15

#socialmedia #tech #CES #lasvegas #technology #marketing

5 tools to help you with your Social Media Strategy

A social media strategy means more than just figuring out where you want to post your stories. Just like any other strategy, you need tools to help stay in the loop, create content, converse and analyze. Here are 5 tools that our social media team uses day in and day out to make sure that our clients get everything they expect and more.

1. Social Bro: Social Bro is a great tool for tracking your community on twitter. It tells you who has followed you, unfollowed you, inactive accounts and actively mutual relationships. We check into this at least once a week to make sure we are connected to insightful people.

2. Hootsuite: Hootsuite works really well for analytics on Facebook and Twitter, as well as providing a nice dashboard showing you everything from what’s posted on your wall to likes, mentions and retweets. Hootsuite provides customized analytics showing social media progress, and customized lists for monitoring groups of followers on twitter, such as people you may think are influential.

3. Google Alerts: Sometimes, we’re so busy that we haven’t made time to find out about current events, or we can’t come up with social media content. Google Alerts has made it easy to keyword search, and it does it automatically! We’ve set up our keyword search to send us periodic emails containing information on social media in Latin America.

4. Mobile Devices: Just because something looks good or works well on a computer screen, might not mean it has the same effect on a mobile phone. It’s always a good idea to test your content, images and links on your phone as well. It’s also a good idea to test the content on a wide range of mobile devices, such as tablets and iPads to Blackberries, Androids and iPhones.

5. Dropbox is a great tool that we use to share anything from content, pictures and images to files and documents. Dropbox can be downloaded to your desktop and used as a normal file which can be shared with other clients or colleagues. We have used this tool during events where we would live stream information. Our remote employees working on our events would take pictures and upload them to Dropbox, where our team back at the office could upload them to social media immediately.

Social media is so much more than just putting content up on Facebook and Twitter. It’s all about coming together to publish an experience or ambiance through a social and public platform. What tools do you use to make your social media experience easier and more effective?

Join us tomorrow at 3pm EST for our Social Media Basics Webinar! We'll go over the popular social networks that can help you connect with your audience. Register now! https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/140884520

We are so proud of the launch of FY 2013 for our client, HP Growandwin, complete with a whole new look and feel. We know that this year will bring HUGE success to the program. BIG THANKS to our team who has been working so diligently for this moment.

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