May1

Fashion Stylist Workshop Video and Prezi

Posted on May 1, 2014 by mmendez7

Hello everyone!

My previous post was about the Social Media Workshop that I gave with my group to our client Andrea Whaley of Wardrobe Interventions in Austin, Texas. We cover platforms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and both of Andrea’s websites.

We formed all of the platforms to fit a fashion look and modeled it from Rachel Zoe’s social media since she is also a fashion stylist as well. The presentation was mainly a workshop on information about how to post, edit and engage using apps, social media and contest/creative ideas. We kept the presentation fun and creative because after all, IT’S ABOUT FASHION! This gave our group a chance to put our thinking caps on and create a great presentation that will help our client build her brand, grow her social media as well as gain more cliental.

Here is the Prezi my group and I presented to Andrea Whaley for her business Wardrobe Interventions.

This is the actual video of our presentation in class. (I apologize in advance for the lighting and sound! It was not professionally shot)

I hope these videos of our presentation helped explain exactly what I have been blogging about all semester!

XOXO

Murphie

May1

Reflection Post

Posted on May 1, 2014 by mmendez7

Reflection Post

Hello my wonderful followers!

I apologize for not posting anything in 2 weeks..(blame finals for that one)

I am finishing up my semester in this social media for pr course that I am taking. Although I am finishing, I will be keeping up with this blog.

I want to go over some of the things I had to go through before and after presenting my social media plan for my client, Andrea Whaley, who is a fashion stylist based in Austin, Texas.

To start it off, Andrea hired my group and I to build her a Social Media plan for her business to grow a following, become more creative and appealing to the eye and update her tech skills online. We started off by giving her two websites new ideas and looks, a Facebook facelift, new Twitter ideas using pictures and contest, as well as creating her an Instagram account and ideas to go with it.

The PLN (personal learning network) is the group of individuals and business that helped me on my journey to discover new ideas to tell Andrea about. It helped me prepare for my training session with her by teaching me new techniques on ways to tweet, connect with followers and how to write in an entertaining way! (at least I hope so..)

Rachel Zoe was my favorite person to follow on all of my platforms of social media because she related perfect to my client gave amazing examples of what social media for fashion stylists can look like! I encourage all my readers to go and take a look. Her social media team is awesome and gives great example of tweets that stylists can do to connect with their audience and make it fun!

I will be using my PLN to build my social media in the future by continuing to follow the bloggers, social media companies and individuals that will keep my updated on social media especially once I get a job as well as helping me keep this blog interesting! haha. PLUS, as a PR and Advertising major, I would love to become a PR professional. As I keep learning social media more as it grows can be very beneficial to my clients and place of work.

I even made a list on my twitter of people to follow.

After working with Andrea, I learned that tailoring a plan specifically for a certain type of business can be very restricting. I enjoyed coming up with the plan along with my group, however I was not expecting to have to work so deeply and fast. I loved doing a project for a real person because it gave me the ambition to learn more and raise the bar on my own social media skills. I feel like working with my client gave me a glimpse of what a real professional does on a daily basis with real goals to reach instead of only focusing on a grade and presenting to people in class who are not very interested.

I hope I clearly laid out what I have been working out all semester for ya’ll! So thank you for reading!

XOXO

Murphie

Apr22

Instagram for your business!

Posted on April 22, 2014 by mmendez7

Instagram for your business!

Hello all of my wonderful readers!

Last time I talked about why you should use social media for your business! This week I am back to talk about one of my top favorite social media sites, Instagram! I will be talking and giving examples on why this is an awesome site for your business!

BUT FIRST! As some of ya’ll know, I am in a Social Media for Public Relations class where I get to work with a client to help them use different types of social media sites to get their company recognized.

I am working with fashion stylist, Andrea Whaley who’s company, Wardrobe Interventions, has asked for help from my team and I on building her social media image on the net and gain more cliental.

Instagram as we all know has become more popular in the past year. This social media site is a great tool to use when it comes to fashion for both men and women. Using smartphone Apps like PicStitch or PicCollage fashion companies and stylists can showcase different pieces of an outfit. Using these Apps with Instagram makes it easy to view different outfit ideas along with jewelry, shoes and other accessories all in one picture!

However, Instagram is not just for fashion stylists. Companies like Nike, Ralph Lauren, Apple, Nordstrom and Starbucks are using Instagram to build their customer engagement. Using Instagram as a tool is a way to display your companies product, obtain customer feedback and build a brand name.

There are so many possibilities you can have using Instagram! Since it also has a feature to record video and break it up into sections of your choice, your business can get even more creative. Videos are a booming tool to use in social media because of the reach it has to users all around the world! YES, the WORLD! Well, everyone in the world that has a smartphone. haha.

AND.. Use HASHTAGS! Hashtags are a great way to get users involved and lock-in a staple word or phrase that only YOUR business has on social media.

It is easy to create these cool social media images, but be careful with language and always stay appropriate! You want a good brand image to be successful.

So stay creative, have fun and build your brand!

Until next time,

XOXO

Murphie

Apr15

Why Use Social Media

Posted on April 15, 2014 by mmendez7

Why Use Social Media

Hello my lovely readers!

I hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

My last post was about using Pinterest for your business in order to grow your following and get creative. I am a huge advocate for using social media to grow a business and I am here to teach everyone why I think that. \

Social media has become a huge part todays society. Celebrities, huge corporations and everyday people use social media to connect with customers, pushing information out to the public and building a brand. Building a brand is a huge deal for any business with, or without social media. The company’s image can make or brake a company so social media is a great tool to use as an easy platform to reach customers and interested clients.

Some companies that use a social media as a tool for their image come out very successful! Companies like Whole Foods Market, JetBlue and Charlotte Russe.

Whole Foods Market is a great example that uses Twitter to communicate and build relationships with customers. They provide links to cooking tips using their products, informing customers where the food they buy comes from and deals they can get in-store. One thing I found that they do great on is using timing with their recipes and deals. During Lent they give recipes on meatless food options as well as holiday meal recipes and deals!

Whole Foods Market is so popular with social media that they not only have over 3 million followers to verify them, but one of those followers is the President!

JetBlue Airways is another great company that uses Twitter as a way to reboot their customer service with flyers! Here is an article by Social Media Examiner which gives the examples of how their customer service works on their social media!

Lastly, Charlotte Russe is one of my favorite companies that uses social media to the maximum power it can provide! They recently launched an app that makes is easier to shop at their business! Here is an article that talks about this awesome creation!

Social Media can build a brand and break one like I mentioned earlier. In order to stay on the good side of social media and your customers, watch what you say! Spelling, vernacular and replies are a huge part of why businesses fail online. Using language that is insulting to individuals makes the company look unprofessional and disrespectful. Misspelling words can also make a company look unprofessional and careless of their image to the public. Putting the social media of a company in the hands of persons that are not professional and informed can hurt the brand image and cause the company to need major damage control.

Always remember to stay professional, appropriate and double check what you say! As long as these rules are followed and you stay creative and interesting, your company will grow tremendously! At first, it might seem slow but it will get bigger and better! So stay creative and always keep up with your social media!

Until next time!

XOXO

Murphie Mendez

Apr2

Pinterest for your business!

Posted on April 2, 2014 by mmendez7

Pinterest for your business!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all are having a great week!

Last time I talked about how to use videos in social media apps like Vine and Instagram to gain more followers. I highly encourage all of you to try it! It makes business fun and creative with an awesome result in the end!

So, this week I will be talking about how create a Pinterest account and use it to your businesses advantage!

Pinterest is one of my favorite social media sites by far! I have 13 boards and over 1,500 total pins! To any of you who do not know what Pinterest is, this is the breakdown: The basic idea of of Pinterest is to “pin” pictures and/or article you are interested in onto a board that fits that category. Then continuously making more boards of other categories to build and grow you Pinterest as a whole.

For example, if I was on Pinterest under the Women’s Clothing category and saw a cute picture of an outfit, I would then pin it to my “Outfits” or “Attire” board because it fits the genre. BUT, you can name your boards however you want! My women’s clothing board is actually just “Attire” (not so exciting..) but, you can get as creative as you want with it! Another example would be if I came across a picture of some delicious nachos for a party appetizer! I would pin it to my food and drinks board, and so on. Easy, right!?

Here is an example of my Pinterest account boards:

The possibilities are endless!

So now that we ran over the basics of this site, lets get down to business!

For you business you can create a profile with the name of your business and post pictures form your website, clients and creative pictures that are related. Since my client is Andrea Whaley of Wardrobe Inventions, so the Pinterest I would have in mind would involve closet transformation before and afters, outfit ideas, clients with their new closets and weekly ideas on how to gain more clients. Some ideas would involve contests for a percentage off a closet raid or cutest outfits for followers to look through. This can easily be translated into other types of businesses, just think creative and try to aim for ideas on ways to be unique compared to your competition. One way I always keep my creativity alive is by thinking of ways that would attract me to website. If you would not be interested in it, why expect anyone else to?

So remember, Pinterest can be a great tool to use in you PR bag for your business! Its free, easy to use and makes your business look modern and creative!

Until next time!

XOXO

Murphie

Mar28

Social Media Videos!

Posted on March 28, 2014 by mmendez7

Social Media Videos!

Hello my lovely readers!

I hope everyone is having a great week! I just had an idea on a wonderful tool to use for entertaining your followers and I HAD to share it ASAP!

My last blog post was about how to grow your following and build your presence on social media for your business. My client Andrea Whaley of Wardrobe Interventions. As you all know, if you’ve been following my posts, she is a fashion consultant/stylist based in Austin, Texas.

So, this new idea I had are on videos that can be used for Instagram and Vine. These videos are 6 seconds for Vine and 15 seconds for Instagram. There are numerous apps that create different ways to edit the videos into video mixed with picture collages, filters to add effects to the color and turn the videos into different shapes. Some of these app are InstaVid for Instagram, ClipStitch and VidStitch.

In these collages, you can say so much in so little time! When you have a video you want to show along with pictures of examples, information or other things, this is the perfect way to do so!

This is an example of the layouts you can choose from

After choosing a layout that suites your needs, you add the video and pictures into the spots you want! Remember, this app can also allow you to put up to 4 videos in ONE collage! So your creativity can definitely shine through!

This is what the end result would look like in this particular collage style with 2 pictures on the left and the video on the right:

Another way to use these videos is by creating stories that reach the full length of time, OR use sectional pieces that create the video. Vine and Instagram both are designed in a way for you to film short, separate instances so they can be linked together for a total of six seconds. Cool, right?!

Here is an example of Malibu Rum’s Vine video using separate shots to create a whole video compilation!

I hope this cool new technique gave you ideas on how to be creative for your business! Remember, followers love fun and different ways to stay entertained!

Until next time!

XOXO

Murphie

Mar26

Growing A Following

Posted on March 26, 2014 by mmendez7

Growing A Following

Hello my lovely readers (:

I have been away for spring break and I’m ready to jump back into my blogging!

Last time I talked about how to build a blog and the way to layout your blogs look to improve traffic. This week I will be talking about how to grow a following on other social media sites. I know I have touched base on some of this in past posts, but it is always good to learn more! More followers are never a bad thing..

So, I am an avid Twitter and Instagram user all day, every day. Although I am content with my current followers to following ratio, growing more followers is still difficult to accomplish. I have recently made a new Twitter account created only for professional and educational reasons dealing with school. Trust me, starting all over again is harder than I remember! I feel like I have been in a follower slump since I made it! However, recently after a new discovery, I have found that there is an easy way to build your community. This can also be translated into Instagram accounts as well!

This past weekend I attended a PRSSA coference where numerous speakers discussed social media and how it can be used to grow a following and used as a PR tool. One of the speakers I met was a well known social media user with over 15k followers. Once I tweeted at this person, I noticed I started gaining almost 5 followers a day and growing. Then I realized, the trick is communicate and get to know professionals in the same field of work as you and connect with them on social media! Continuous communication, yet not creepy/stalkery, creates a relationship. This in turn attracts their followers to want to communicate and join in as well! Since this past Saturday I have went from 32 followers to 98. All of these followers are in the same profession as I, as well as important people with a ratio of 2k to 15k, following to followers.

Another tool to use is hashtags! Hashtags, Hashtags, Hashtags! Instagram is a great site to use when trying out your hashtag skills! Another example coming in 3, 2, 1…… So one of my friends who is an artist is constantly trying to grow a following on Instagram. On one picture of a drawing, my friend hashtaged: color, pencils, drawing, art, work, artwork, creative, picture, canvas. In a matter of 8 hours, the picture went from 37 likes to 124. Easy right? YEAH! Here is another example:

On twitter, using hashtags is also perfectly OK! However there are rules. One of my man rules I tell myself daily is to use short, simple and easy to remember hashtags pertaining to my topic of discussion in that particular tweet. Some examples are easily laid out like this:

You are tweeting about Obamacare and your opinion on it. Some hashtags you could use would be #Obamacare , #Obama , #Healthcare , #2014

By using these, you are staying neutral to the opposing opinions as well as keeping it short as sweet. REMEMBER, twitter is used to express thoughts, not hashtag ideas. So keep the hashtags short enough to where the main thing on the tweet is what you have to say. Think about hashtags as jewelry on a woman. The woman is the most important in the bigger picture, yet the jewelry poses as accent pieces that enhance the woman as a whole.

I hope these ideas have inspired you to tweet and Instagram all day experimenting with new hashtags. By following these instructions, there is a great chance more followers will come in as well!

Good luck and have an awesome week!

XOXO

Murphie

Mar6

Bloggers’ Block?

Posted on March 6, 2014 by mmendez7

Bloggers’ Block?

Happy Thursday my lovely readers!

Last week I discussed a social media website called Delicious as a tool for any business. Delicious is a social bookmarking website where it is easy to separate websites and blogs of a particular topic. Throughout my posts the past couple of weeks I’ve discussed strictly social media, websites and fashion. For all my fellow bloggers or anyone interested in creating a blog, I felt I should post a couple of ideas about creating a blog and how to lay it out.

In my opinion, I enjoy blogs that include 3 things:

1. relevant to something I want to learn more about or that I like to read about

2. the lay-out is updates, easy to read and not too busy, yet not boring

3. funny, interesting and creative writing language throughout the posts on the blog

This week I will be focusing more on number 2 and 3, then eventually touching base on number one towards the conclusion.

Ok, lets get started! So lay-out and writing of a blog are my favorite parts to discuss and learn more about. In my blog, I try to use fun and creative ways to attract new readers by using catchy blog titles, up-to-date language and easy to read flow so everyone would be able to understand what I am writing. As far as the actual layout of this blog, I chose to go with a background and banner that is cute, attractive and appropriate to the topic I am writing about. This blog is centered around social media, PR and fashion so I did not want to go for anything with pictures and colors that would take away from my discussions.

If you are looking to create a blog, go for a theme that is relevant to your topic. Some things to think about would be color scheme, pictures and banners that create a sense of sophistication for your topic.

Here are some examples of blogs that base the blog style/look off of their topic of discussion for their general blog posts:

Tech Blog

Make-up Blog

As you can see, the colors and general layout of the blog pertain to the topic. From the font, to the social media handles, everything relates and fits together. In order to attract readers, the blog should look legit, put together and professional. Like I said before, the language should be unique and sound like the blogger in order to give it an extra boost of character. However, the language should say professional, appropriate and always on topic. Unless the style you are going for is crazy and spontaneous, then do whatever seems fit! HAHA.

All of these things I am talking about bring me back to my first point. If your blog is interesting, up-to-date and fun, readers WILL want to stay connected with you! Reading about something you like is fun, what is even better is when where you are reading it from makes the topic even more interesting! All in all, following these ideas I gave as well as reading other blogs and gathering info, your blog should be fabulous! Good Luck!

Until next time!

XOXO

Murphie

Mar3

YUMM, how Delicious..

Posted on March 3, 2014 by mmendez7

YUMM, how Delicious..

Happy Monday Everyone!

In my last blog post I explained the relevance of using Social Media as a business owner looking to grow a network. Social Media is one of the BEST tool to have as a growing business or anyone looking to grow a community within their interests. As a lot of you know, my client is fashion stylist Andrea Whaley of Wardrobe Interventions based in Austin, Texas. She is looking to grow her network and reach new clients and interested Twatchers (for Twitter) and Facebookers! This is just one of the many posts I am blogging about to help her do so!

My past couple of posts on here were about Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr. This week I want to talk about maintenance of your network, blogs, social media accounts and knowledge of your profession.

Delicious is a social bookmarking manager that allows the user to keep track of websites and blogs that interest the account holder. The website breaks down all websites into a personal tab that allows the user to find, follow and subscribe to places of interest online. My personal account is centered around Public Relations, Social Media, Fashion Stylist and blog builders that help me discover new and improved ways on mastering my technique.

Any business can use this bookmarking website to their advantage! I felt that this would be one of the best ways for my client to keep track with what is happening in her profession. A successful business owner should constantly know creatively different and new ways to make her business better. By using this website, Andrea Whaley of Wardrobe Interventions can subscribe to other fashion stylists to network, learn new way to get customers and build a community. Sometimes, even the most creative of people need help getting new ideas! and this is a perfect way to do that.

Delicious is also a great tool to have when learning new techniques on social media. Like my picture example above, this social bookmarking site can help a business learn how to gain followers on twitter, build a community with a blog and build a website from scratch successfully. Countless of websites and blogs can be accessed from this site and be useful to a growing business.

Other websites you might know about like Diigo and Pinterest can also be used for social bookmarking online. Diigo is basically the same concept as Delicious, however in my opinion Delicious is a way easier website to navigate on. Pinterest is another social bookmarking website that provides a more visual aspect compared to Diigo or Delicious.

So just remember, every business that wants to grow a network and community needs to stay up-to-date on what is new. Constant upkeep is always essential when working and learning in the area of social media and blogging. Social media is constantly changing and growing, and so should the minds of all growing business owners! Staying updated will make your business a lot easier than you might think!

So in the words of my wise professor, “Remember, Social Bookmarks are your friends!”

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO

Murphie

Feb23

Relevance of Social Media

Posted on February 23, 2014 by mmendez7

Relevance of Social Media

Hello Lovelies!

My past posts have been all about how to use social media and use them to build your business. This week I am talking about how to keep your followers and customers hooked on your business! I will give ideas on attractions relevant to Fashion Stylists. However, other businesses can take the ideas and make them unique to fit their products or services!

My client is Fashion Stylist Andrea Whaley of Wardrobe Interventions based out of Austin, Tx. I have already given suggested Social Media sites for Ms. Whaley, now here or some ideas on ways to attract more followers and customers. REMEMBER: any business can take these ideas into their owns and make these ideas their own!

As an avid Social Media user, I am always look forward to getting rewarded and/or put into drawings to win something from an account I am currently following. Then again, who doesn’t like getting rewarded for no reason?! A lot of fashion stylists, make-up artists and clothing stores are using traditional techniques to gain more followers by holding Social Media contests, campaigns and giveaways.

Most of the contests and campaigns require contestants to 1. Follow the brand/company on social media, 2. retweet, repost or shoutout the brands name or their unique hashtag name onto the followers personal social media site and 3. sometimes brands require the contestants to go to their websites and find a secret “code” or link that enters their name into the contest. By getting followers to retweet, hashtag or name the contest holder onto their social media, the contestants followers will see, and want to join as well. At the very least the perspective followers will follow your company/brand social media site and watch out for other contests and rewards in the future.

A good example of how to use these ideas to gain more followers is the Charlotte Russe clothing stores. They have a successful social media campaign with a strong following on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Their social media campaigns are focused on social engagement and user-generated content. Charlotte Russe has a weekly trivia contest on Twitter that attracted consumers to visit their website. Another idea they have come up with according to Macala Wright Lee, CEO of FashionablyMarketing.Me is, “Charlotte Russe is running ‘Be The Next Charlotte Russe Design Star’ a t-shirt design contest where the winner will have his or her shirt produced and sold online.” This is a great way to include customers in what the company is selling and attract other followers!

Charlotte Russe also uses Social Media sites like Pinterest to promote contests to win a new wardrobe like this wonderful and cute ad here:

And this ad used in-store to promote “Liking” their Facebook page to win free jewelry!

Speaking of Facebook, the clothing store Topshop partnered with Facebook to achieve the largest online audience of a live-stream London fashion show. Over 200 million people could look at images and content from the runway in real time. How cool is that!? A positive impact was seen by Topshop sales as customers were able to immediately purchase the looks form the runway, with the first dress on the catwalk sold out before the end of the show!

So, I hope that these idea will help your business/company grow a following and attract more customers by using fun and creative ways to get them involved!

XOXO

Murphie

Social Media & PR

A new twist on PR

Reflection Post

Bloggers’ Block?