Monthly Archives: March 2014

Mar28

Social Media Videos!

Posted on March 28, 2014 by mmendez7

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

Social Media & PR

A new twist on PR

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Bloggers’ Block?