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/