Tag Archives: Public Relations

Apr22

Instagram for your business!

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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.

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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.

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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

 

 

 

 

Apr2

Pinterest for your business!

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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:

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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

Mar26

Growing A Following

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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