Postmates, you get the city life and you get me!

I've travelled to NYC once a month the past 9 months, and there are quite a few things I notice in terms of marketing efforts while there. I just got back last night and keep thinking about one thing in particular. The rise in instant delivery services is obvious there. Every subway I rode on had an advertisement about a different delivery service being offered in the city. Postmates is currently the leader in this industry, but there are quite a few competitors including: Seamless, Amazon Same Day, and Google Shopping Express. Postmates describes themselves as "Postmates is transforming the way local goods move around a city by enabling anyone to get any product delivered in under one hour. Postmates' revolutionary urban logistics & on-demand delivery platform connects customers with local couriers, who purchase and deliver goods from any restaurant or store in a city." I don't know about you but I would love to be able to have everything I want delivered to me within in an hour. If you've ever been in the city, you know that you can't get hardly anything that quickly by doing it yourself. With mobile being ever so present in today's culture, these companies get it! People want to be able to make a few clicks and have what they want delivered in that moment. As we all know, millennials are a "right now" generation.

It is about time, Instagram!

All I can say is...It is about time! Instagram has been causing people problems for a while that have wanted to make a collage of pictures. Personally, I never have been able to find a free application that satisfied me with their collage layouts and styles. I would have to search and search for an application, then it took me forever to make the collage and export it to Instagram. Every time I made one I would think geeze, why doesn't Instagram offer this as a part of their app?! 

I have great news. According to Forbes, they now have an app that does it all! No more nasty white borders around every picture in the collage from PicStitch. Also the app offers "a built-in "Photo Booth" feature which lets you take a sequence of up to four photos in selfie mode which are then dropped directly into the layout preview". I agree with the article, this Instagram Layout App does tackle third-party competition. *Going to download it now*

Article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmonckton/2015/03/23/layout-from-instagram/

Retail Brands Can Have Fun Too!

Being that Instagram is the social media platform I check most often, I am surprised I haven't written about it yet. Well, here it goes! Let me tell you about my most recent experience with the platform. Recently I started following a few different retail Instagram accounts (I am starting a career in retail come July). I felt that following some accounts from the industry could give me some insight into a few things before starting my job. I was actually very impressed by the posts that Macy's was posting. The creativity and photograph quality was much better than I was expecting. There are a variety of posts done by them including: posts pushing product, posts about what is happening around the world, and posts about what Macy's themselves are doing outside of selling product. Their posts are done at a consistent rate, about once a day, which is great for the brand. Sunday started the #macysflowershow in their Herald Square store. I had never heard about this event, but thanks to Instagram I now am super intrigued and look forward to seeing the posts of the show. The ones so far have been absolutely beautiful. I've learned that retail is not all about just what the store sells, but can be about the fun events they get to host! If you have brands you love, go follow them on Instagram! You might learn something new about the brand that makes you even more loyal. 

Generation Like

I recently watched a video about the influence of social media on PBS called 'Generation Like'. It gave me so much insight as to how marketers can use social media to benefit their brand more efficiently. Here are a few things I learned form the video:

Consumers use social media for a variety of things such as empowerment, to become 'liked' and to be well known nationwide. Consumers want to feel a sense of satisfaction with themselves when they post something and get a certain number of likes. Social media is influencing consumers to be interactive to the extent that the consumer is the marketer for brands. “Social Currency” means the amount of clicks, likes, and page views, that a video, page, or picture may receive. This correlates into money for companies, because it is the venue in which marketers are able to reach their target markets. Brand engagement is crucial to all brands investing in these young You-Tubers. The whole reason for the brands to invest is so that these people will engage with their brand more. When the consumer's attention is caught by the videos or posts being made with the brand involved, the consumer then becomes curious about the brand. These You-Tubers bring the consumers to the websites of the brands to allow them to learn more about the brand and want to buy it

It is very positive to me to know that as an individual if I wanted I could potentially reach such a large amount of people with the information I want. The possibility and potential social media gives is beyond imaginable, which is exciting. 

Generation Like Video: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/generation-like/ 

The Power of Pandora

While outside running one day, I was jamming to my Pandora station as always. Typically I hear a couple songs each time I exercise that I have never heard before. I always look to see who the artist is and research them to see what other songs they have. On this particular day the artist I came across was Kortney Jamaal Pollard also known as "Mali Music". His voice intrigued me, and I wanted to learn more about him and his music. The first song I heard was called "I Believe". It spoke some very truthful concepts going on in this world in relation to religion and beliefs. I immediately connected with his music and listened to his entire CD. I believe is truly a beautifully written song about continuing to believe in Christ in this world of chaos. The beginning of the chorus "I Believe" says: 

"I'm just one ah them ole people who's got to hold on 

Sometimes I can't see but I still believe"

Those words are so simple, yet so meaningful in my life. Mali Music is now one of my favorite artists and it all came about through Pandora. This shows the power of Pandora for new and upcoming artists. This social media platform is a way for them to be heard by listeners that choose to hear genres similar to the type of music they produce. None of my friends had heard of him, and now they have all because one Pandora listener heard his song. Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing and thats exactly what I did when I found out about Mali music; i told everyone I knew. I even posted it on my Instagram account. (and as you see am writing a blog about it). 

I dare you to take a few minutes and check him out: http://www.igrooveradio.com/meet-kortney-jamaal-pollard-singer-songwriter-producer-mali-music/   

Twitter is on a Shopping Spree

A couple years ago Facebook snatched up Instagram, but what is Twitter doing to keep up? Twitter recently bough Niche which is a company that connects advertisers with social media video stars. I think this was a smart move on Twitter's part, because as we all know those crazy video stars are pros at reaching consumers. The way Facebook has been able to gain such a large net worth is partly through buying these smaller companies and using what they have found or created and adding that to what Facebook already has. Twitter is genius in wanting to have that same strategy, because it works! According to mashables.com Facebook is worth approximately $11.5 billion and Twitter is worth $1.4 billion. If I were Twitter, I would also be taking some notes from Facebook and attempting to use some of their strategies. Niche is not the only company Twitter bought, they bought ZipDial this year as well and Madbits last July. I think Twitter is on the right track, and needs to keep up the good work. 

*To find out a little more about Twitter's recent purchases: http://cir.ca/news/twitter-acquires-smaller-companies

Calling All Cooking Supply Companies

Pinterest is a social media platform I mentioned in my first blog I personally benefitted from. I also believe companies can benefit a tremendous amount from it. Specifically I have seen that companies selling cooking supplies or ingredients could benefit most from Pinterest. My friends and I use the platform a few times a week at least when deciding what to have for lunch or dinner. If companies created recipes using all of their ingredients and posted often to their own Pinterest account, I believe consumers would be more likely to go buy those ingredients. I want to share an example of this with a recipe I made this week. McCormick posted a recipe from their website McCormick.com on Pinterest and I decided to make it. All of the spices included in the recipe were McCormick's brand. I enjoyed the recipe so much it made me want to look at more recipes using their ingredients specifically. Below are pictures of the Pinterest recipe:

                            

    

      

Facebook Puts the "U" in Super Bowl

We all know Facebook is on top of things in terms of advertising, right? Just when companies think they can get their posts shown based off the number of likes and comments, they make you pay to be seen by your target audience. That right there is how you make money! So, what is Facebook up to right now you say? They have introduced a completely "New Super Bowl Experience". Instead of paying millions to have a 30 second commercial/ad shown, they have decided to use their platform as a way to engage their audience. On the Facebook Newsroom* they share what this "new Super Bowl Experience" is all about. Some specifics on what it will in tell are:

• See posts from your friends and people in your network with Friends and Groups
• See real-time reactions from people around the world with Live Feed
• View photos and videos from news outlets as well as people at the game
• View posts from the NFL, teams, players, NBC and other public voices with In the Story
• View live scores, the current play time, and play by play updates at a glance
• Join the conversation by posting about the game with the update “watching Super Bowl XLIX”

I think this is genius. Social media is no doubt an effective way to reach specific audiences, and it was proven last year that Super Bowl watchers are definitely still using social media while watching. For example, when the power went out during the Super Bowl in 2013, Twitter went WILD. Why not integrate social media with the Super Bowl? Facebook decided they would!

*http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/01/introducing-a-new-super-bowl-experience-on-facebook/

A Campaign That Created Value & Valentine's

If you want to know what a dang good social media campaign looks like then stay right here, because I am about to show you! Lately companies have been challenged with not just using social media platforms so that they can say they have a Facebook or a Twitter and be done with it. They are using Social Media as a channel to strategically reach those goals that have been placed for the upcoming year (or this is how they should be using them). All campaigns, whether social media or not, need to be relevant to the consumer, right? Well Nestle hit the nail on the head with this whole relevant thing by getting their consumer to ENGAGE with them, and they created VALUE for their consumer. Okay okay, I know you are dying to see what the campaign was!

This is how mashables.com described it:

"Sometimes expressing how you feel — especially on Valentine's Day — can be a little daunting. Nestle's Coffee-mate stepped in, tasking a team of professional artists to turn users’ declarations of love into shareable, one-of-a-kind valentines. Using the hashtag #CMValentine, users submitted love notes on Twitter and Facebook, which were turned into handcrafted Valentines for their loved ones. By thinking “outside the cup,” Nestle turned everyday expressions of love into miniature works of art, increasing their channel engagement and adding new consumers to its social media communities."

As Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, I can only hope someone comes up with a campaign similar to this, because I am not so blessed in the card making business. Nestle did a great job of making sure their campaign connected with what was going on at the time as well as offering something the consumer truly found valuable.

Video of the Valentine's Cards acted out:

One of the Valentine's Coffee Mate made:

3 Social Media Platforms I Personally Benefit From

Personal Shopper

Okay. So first off, who doesn't like personal shoppers? *crickets* That is what I thought. Everyone loves them! Personal shoppers are a girl's dream come true, and probably a boy's as well. Girls love fashion advice (or at least I do), and boys need all the fashion advice they can get! Can I get an amen? Well, when I am roaming around surfing the web, cookies* are tracking what I look at and being a personal shopper for me without even having to ask me about my fashion tastes. That's awesome, right? You may say AHHH that's kind of creepy, but I am just thinking about how beneficial it was to me during the holidays. I spent weeks looking for that perfect pair of neutral colored booties, and guess what? Every time I got on Facebook there was a new ad on the side showing me another pair of booties I might like....See! This is where the personal shopper comes in. While I am sitting in class, Facebook is searching for me the perfect pair of booties. I personally I love the “creepy” ads on the side of Facebook, because I found my perfect shoes without having to spend hours going from site to site looking for them!

~The perfect booties I found thanks to Facebook Ads~

Personal Pins

Pinterest is a personal obsession of mine. It's kind of a girl thing, but no judgement if you're a guy and love it; thats even better! Recently, I noticed a new feature while browsing through what I thought were all the pins my friends had posted or other pages I requested to follow. All of a sudden, I realized the pins I kept wanting to re-pin said “Picked for you”! It was so neat to me! As a future marketer, I then began thinking of all the ways marketers could now place their product or pages in the eyes of consumers in a different way than I mentioned earlier, (ie. throwing an ad in your face on Facebook). These ads could now be placed in an area that consumers were wanting to find new ideas and new products. Typically when I am looking at Pinterest, I am looking for new trendy pieces of fashion, creative ways to set up home décor or even maybe a new workout plan for my new years resolution (don't act like you don't plan to start working out every New Year and then by mid January you're back on the couch eating potato chips...we all do it). Anyway, Back to how these personal pins benefit me. Just like personal shopping, who doesn't want the products and ideas they are interested in to be right in front of them? Just yesterday I searched for great leg workouts and later that day I had so many different options “picked for me” right in front of my eyes. Needless to say, going to the gym was such a breeze because I had a plan. I do believe Pinterest is a great platform for companies to reach a specific target market. If I am interested in something on there, I am not hesitant at all to click the pin and let it take me to the link, however sometimes I'm hesitant to click an ad on Facebook or wherever not knowing whether it is a scam or will cause pop-ups.

~Home Decor Pin Picked Personally for ME~

Personal DJ

I feel that paying for ad free services is just craziness! (sorry if you disagree) I am all for some free music, especially when it plays songs that I enjoy without me having to make a playlist. Pandora is my personal go-to when jamming out. I love being able to type in a certain genre or artist and knowing every song played after that will be something of the sorts. Wherever it may be, the gym, my bedroom, my car, I am always opening my pandora application to hear some tunes. All I have to do every once in a while is press a thumbs up or thumbs down on the app, and it remembers whether I loved a song or hated it. Tad-ah!..Personal DJ at your fingertips, literally. To me, Pandora is a great platform to reach consumers who are already being attentive because their awaiting their next jam and will then hear your ad. I have to admit though, if I hear one more Taco Bell ad on there, I may never eat it again (okay maybe I will...a college girl needs her crunch wraps). I don't mind hearing an ad here and there, but every three songs is a little much, don't you think? I hate making playlists because sometimes I just can't think of songs I want to hear, much less think of enough for 2 hours worth of jamming. Although, there may be a few repetitive ads from time to time, I thing Pandora is a great application for listening to the music you personally prefer. My point is, Pandora rocks you should try it some time! *Goes Back to listening to Sam Smith Radio*

~One of my favorite songs played for me on Pandora~

*A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, Internet cookie, or browser cookie, is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website.