Businesses on Tumblr

What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is a social networking site owned by Yahoo! that is focused on microblogging. According to the Tumblr website, Tumblr makes it "simple for people to make a blog and put whatever they want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows, links, quips, dumb jokes, smart jokes, Spotify tracks, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff. Tumblr is 301 million different blogs, filled with literally whatever." Once you start your Tumblr you can then follow other blogs. The Tumblr dashboard reminds me somewhat of Pinterest in that it is just a screen of never ending posts, which is a great way to kill time and find inspiring posts.

How should businesses use Tumblr?
Businesses should not use Tumblr as a place to dump all of their marketing media and promotions. According to Jennifer Beese, Tumblr is artistic, visual and a little on the weird side. According to Kissmetrics, Tumblr is more about the creative side of businesses and users are very skeptical of any marketing ploys that businesses may use. If a business is too pushy with marketing content and not just fun creative content then the business will not be successful on Tumblr. In order to do promotion right, businesses should focus on using humor and trends to gain traction.

Businesses can also consider using paid posts on Tumblr, but they need to make sure that these posts stand out. Paid posts should be exciting and draw the user's attention to them. Tumblr is a very viral platform and a post can stay "alive" a lot longer on Tumblr than on other sites because of the reblog feature. Businesses also have the opportunity to target these posts at specific demographics to get the most out of their post. Another feature businesses can use is sponsored day, which allows you to pin your logo and tagline to the top of the dashboard for 24 hours. Users can then click on the logo and see a page full of content selected by the company.

Who is on Tumblr?
Tumblr is a platform geared toward millennials. More than half of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24. The average time spent on the site is 28 minutes per visit. As of April 2016, Tumblr had around 550 million active users, which is about 1/3 as many as Facebook, but surprisingly higher than Instagram or Twitter. Tumblr is a place for humor and is driven by visual aesthetics, which are two things that millennials want from their online experience.

I didn't have much experience with Tumblr before doing research for this blog. I'd heard of the platform, but didn't know what it was all about. After looking through it, it seems like a great place to get lost. You can search for anything you want and get as specific as you want. It's a great place to see other people's creative outputs and get a good laugh. Overall, I think it is a great way for businesses to engage with their followers and humanize themselves. Businesses can be funny and follow trends on Tumblr. They can also reblog their fans creative works about the brand, which makes fans happy and allows the business to show their appreciation.

Live Streaming with Periscope

Live Streaming? Is it just a fad?
Periscope is a mobile app that is owned by Twitter. It allows users to post live videos of themselves and has chat interactions as well so that viewers can interact with the filmer. Live streaming has become increasingly popular in the last year, with Twitter buying Periscope before its launch and Facebook developing their own version of the service with Facebook Live. So, is live streaming here to stay or will it be gone just as quickly as it started? Personally, I think it is here to stay. Video is the most direct way to share a message and 55% of people watch videos online daily. Also, about half of all mobile user traffic goes to online videos.

So, what are the ways businesses can use Periscope?
According to Business News Daily, Periscope is a great way to connect more personally with your followers. Also, the app is free and allows you to communicate with anyone in real time. Businesses can use Periscope to:

1. Humanize their brand - Periscope is live which means it's off the cuff and not scripted. It allows the real you to shine through.
2. Go behind the scenes - Give exclusive looks at what goes on at your office or videos of different processes that are unique to your business.
3. Offer product demos and tutorials - I've seen these be very popular for makeup tutorials.
4. Live events - Super popular with sports teams! Show the crowd getting pumped up or behind the scenes of players warming up. Concerts and fireworks are also popular.
5. Q&A sessions - allows you to showcase your expertise and can be great for service providers.
6. Webinars - small companies can use Periscope for webinars and video conference calls instead of paid services.
7. Crowdsourcing/surveying - showcase new products that are in development, solicit feedback from customers and troubleshoot potential issues/changes customers would like to see.
8. Announcements/product launches
9. Customer service - companies could host chat sessions to discuss common issues their customers are having. Doctor's could also use it to speak with patients about symptoms and see/hear them.

Why using Periscope is good idea? What are the advantages?
Periscope gives people a good feel for what your business culture is like. It is live, so it is not a scripted commercial/video or investor call. It is live and allows viewers to see the real you. They don't expect it to be perfect and like that they can talk back to the company and ask questions and get answers instantly. Millennials are all about instant access! And Periscope allows them instant access to events happening all around the world. You can be sitting on your couch in Ohio and watch a livestream of a concert in across the country or around the world.

A lot of large brands have dabbled with Periscope, but I don't think a lot of them have fully jumped on board. They aren't sure how to effectively use the app or what value it is adding. This leaves a lot of room for small businesses to jump in and steal the show. Plus, small businesses are usually less afraid about messing up and return on investment. A lot of what I've seen on Periscope is sports, concerts, and just random people showing their normal life. But I can definitely see it becoming more popular as time goes on. Gaining 1 million users its first day and with over 10 million current users, it's only a matter of time before more people start joining. I think I might start my own cooking show!

YouTube

What is it?
That's the site you go to to rewatch all of the funny Super Bowl commercials, right? Actually, it has a lot more to offer than Super Bowl commercials and cat videos. YouTube is a video sharing website that is owned by Google that offers a wide variety of content. Top categories include:

 - Music videos
 - Movie trailers and other entertainment videos
 - Vlogs
 - How-Tos and DIYs
 - News and Politics

How can businesses use the site?
There are really only two business purposes that YouTube serves, increasing sales and growing brand awareness. To increase sales businesses can use YouTube Advertising, partner with popular YouTube channels to feature their products/services, or upload their own original content. To grow brand awareness should seek to engage with viewers by:

 - Informing them about their business and industry
 - Educating them about their products/services through demos, DIYs, and how-tos
 - Entertaining them while showcasing your brand

Using YouTube Advertising
YouTube offers a multitude of advertising options that all vary in price. Some popular types include: video mastheads, in-stream video ads, in-display ads, standard display ads, and video overlay ads. One key feature of YouTube advertising is that you only pay when someone engages with your ad. This means you are only paying when someone is actually interested in your ad! How cool is that. YouTube also lets businesses have complete control over their advertising budgets and allows them to target customers for a better reach by age, gender, location, interests, and more. YouTube gives business users a variety of different analytics to see if they are reaching their target market and allows them to tweak their ads to expand their reach.

Using YouTube to Grow Brand Awareness
Other than paying for advertising, businesses can use YouTube to grow their following, help customers, and entertain them. In order to do this businesses should:

1. Post regularly and be sure to post more than just their advertisements that are already on TV
2. Include calls to action - add links to your videos, ask viewers to subscribe to your channel, rate and comment on your video, and share it with their friends
3. Customize your channel - reinforce your brand identity by using your logo, color palette, tone, and slogans so that viewers associate the video with your business
4. Make the most of your titles and include the right categories and tags - searching YouTube is a lot like searching on Google, so make it easy on viewers and get descriptive with your titles and tags
5. Think about collaborating with popular YouTube stars or having customer submitted videos featured on your channel
6. Post links to your YouTube channel on your other social media sites to drive traffic there


Why it's important?
YouTube is now bigger than any individual US cable network when it comes to attracting 18-49 year olds, advertising’s most sought after demographic. Growth in number of people on YouTube and watch time is 40% and 50% respectively year over year. YouTube is available in 76 different languages. The average length of time a mobile user's spends on YouTube at one time is 40 minutes.
Personally as a young, married homeowner who has little experience with repairs, both related to cars and home, I use YouTube a lot for how-to videos. My husband on the other hand, watches a lot of videos about gaming and game play throughs and creepy stories (to each his own haha). Either way, we have both seen multiple companies that do a good job with both advertising on YouTube and using it to grow their brand.

Are Companies Getting Snap Happy?

What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is a mobile application that allows users to send and receive photos and videos. Sounds pretty much like texting, right? Wrong! Snapchat images are only sent to specific people from your friends list and are viewable for 1 to 10 seconds and then they are gone, poof! You can also add content to your Snapchat story, which is visible by all of your friends for 24 hours.

To sign up for a a Snapchat account, all you need is you name, email address, birthday, and phone number. You then get to pick your username, which cannot be changed after your account is set up. You will also have to confirm your phone number with a text code that Snapchat will send to you. You can then let Snapchat access your phone contacts to find friends to add. Sounds pretty easy. I even followed the steps and set up my own Snapchat account last night. Not sure if I will actually use it or not, but hey, I have the option. And now maybe if I use it my sister will stop pestering me to get one

How can businesses use Snapchat?
With 100 million daily active users and the largest social media platform in terms of access to millennials, 76% of Snapchat users are ages 18-34. Snapchat users share about 9,000 photos every second. This also translates into those photos being seen in a relatively short amount of time since Snapchat creates a sense of urgency in its users. Ways for businesses to use Snapchat include:

1. Providing photo and video access to live events
2. Providing behind the scenes looks and products/events
3. Hosting contests and promotions
4. Partnering with people with influence on the app such as celebrities to create one of a kind content
5. New product launches
6. Introducing new employees
7. Providing customers with special coupons

But why is Snapchat becoming so important?

Snapchat provides a low cost marketing tool with the ability to reach millions of people at once. This tool is especially useful for companies with a target market of people ages 18-34 and also companies that target females, as 70% of Snapchat's users are female. Snapchat is fun to use and allows companies to get creative with its many filters, geofilters, emojis, ability to doodle and add text to any video or photo. Snapchat can essentially act as a one stop shop in terms of altering photos. The expiration of Snaps gives users a sense of urgency when they get a notification that they have a new snap. They want to consume that photo or video right away since they know once they see it that it is gone, plus then they can respond with their own photo or video. Snapchat gives users a way to explore the world around them. 54% of daily users said that they look at Snaps and Stories from celebrities, 48% look at Snaps and stories from brands that they follow, and 47% look at discover stories.

How can businesses get started?
Businesses should be careful when setting up accounts, since it is not linked to any other social media accounts, customers might not know that you have an account. They should also choose their username wisely, since it cannot be changed once established and pick a profile picture that lets users know that it is your brand. To gain followers businesses should promote their Snapchat on their other social media sites. They should use Snapchat as a way to get followers more involved with their brand by offering Snapchat exclusive content. Offer special discounts to followers. They should also consider partnering with influencers on the site who can help build up their following. They should also explore options for being featured on the Discover stories, as this can help them get more followers.

Is Snapchat right for everyone?
No, there are some brands that wouldn't gain anything from being on this site. It is very unique and provides brands with a lot of options in reaching out to customers, but your customers have to be on the site to reach them. Snapchat is a fun app. Businesses who use it have to embrace that and get away from their traditional marketing thought process. According to Jenn Herman, n order to be successful on Snapchat, you need to build a following and engage with customers. If you send out a Snap, most likely you will get responses and you need to respond to them! This isn't Facebook where you write a post and then get thousands of comments that you don't respond to. You have to look at what users are sending back to you and respond. Be prepared for questions and comments. Overall be ready to have fun and have a solid strategy in place to make using this app work for your business.

Insta Connect on Instagram

Insta What??

Instagram is a mobile app used to share photos and short videos. The social network is owned by Facebook and allows users to upload and edit photos and videos for others to see. The network also incorporates the use of #hashtags that are searchable for people to tag their photos and add descriptions. The site/app has over 400 million active monthly users that share an average of 80 million posts per day. That's a lot of pictures! So, what kinds of pictures are people and businesses sharing? You can pretty much find a picture of anything on Instagram. Looking for celebrity posts and news, got it. Looking for food pictures and recipes, got it. Looking for new fashion trends, got it. With 80 million posts each day, there is bound to be something to spark everyone's interests. 

So how do businesses get started?

Signing up is pretty simple, all you need to do is download the app and enter an email address or Facebook account to connect to. If you connect to a Facebook account all of your information will be populated for you. You then have the option to choose your username and profile picture, add a website, and a short bio about your company. That's it! Then you are ready to start following other people and businesses and you can start posting your own images.

But, what should you be posting?

Well, that depends on your goals. Are you trying to:

• Increase sales
• Increase traffic to your website
• Increase brand awareness
• Increase branded hashtag mentions

According to Evan LePage, each of these goals will lead you to a different Instagram strategy. Along with goals, businesses also need to decide how often to post, what time of day, who will control the account, what content will be shared, and what content themes will be used. Most well known brands post anywhere from 1 to 10 per day. The number of posts and time of posting vary by business. It all comes down to knowing when your target audience is on the site.

Content is King

Deciding what content to post is easy for some industries and difficult for others. Restaurants, chefs, fashion companies, car dealers. These are all industries that make it easy to identify what will be posted on their Instagram accounts. But what about companies that sell household goods or even companies that don't sell any goods, only services? How do they connect with their followers? One way is through lifestyle content. Showing how ordinary people use your products. Instead of just snapping a picture of their latest style of bag, fashion brand Vera Bradley uses lifestyle content to show how real people use their products. This allows followers to connect to your brand and in this case picture themselves actually at the beach using your products.

Another way that companies can connect to followers is through user-generated content. So a follower shares a picture of your product, you can then Regram their photo for all of your followers to see. One brand that is consistently doing this is Starbucks. Below are two recent posts from Starbucks' Instagram account. The first is their own original content, the second is a Regram from one of their followers. As you can see, both of these images highlight the product, showcasing the beauty of the coffee and also the surrounds in which it is going to be enjoyed. Whether it is Starbucks content or a Regram, the images posted always give you the same feeling and that is key.

Both of these examples show how to increase brand awareness, increase hashtags, and drive consumers to your website, but what about directly impacting sales?

 How to sell on Instagram?
There are a few different ways that companies can increase sales by using Instagram. An obvious choice would be to captures people's attention with your posts and in the description of the post point them to your website for more information about the product. The Vera Bradley post above is a good example of that. But what about consumers who don't want to leave Instagram? A new trend is emerging with online shops and boutiques to cater to these consumers. More and more shops are allowing their followers to simply comment on a post with their email address to receive a link to purchase the item(s) pictured. To the left is an example from justlexboutique. Followers have the option to visit her boutique site from the link on her main Instagram page or they can simply comment on her posts to receive a link to buy the product. What could be easier?!

Instagram is becoming increasingly popular because it allows brands to showcase their products/services in a way that allows followers to really get to know the brand. Instagram allows businesses to show their personality and how they impact consumers. The trick is making your Instagram posts stand out from the crowd, so that consumers slow down and look at your content. Using the same set of filters in all of your posts and consistent hashtags is one way to build up your brand identity on Instagram and allow consumers to easily recognize your posts. Brands should also engage with consumers. Respond to comments on your posts and post comments on other brands/individuals that you follow. Don't just blindly post and not keep track of what people are saying about your brand.

Connecting on LinkedIn

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional social networking site that was founded in 2002. Since then it has grown to include more than 430 million registered users, of which 106 million are active each month. To sign up for LinkedIn is free for both individuals and businesses, but the company offers many Premium products that provide more value to both individuals and businesses. The site provides a way for users to market their professional achievements and make lasting business connections. I have personally been using LinkedIn for almost 7 years to discover job opportunities and stay connected with colleagues from college and previous jobs.

How can businesses get started on LinkedIn?

The first thing a business should do is set up a company page. This allows the business to provide basic details including their industry, website, contact information, company size, and they are able to upload a profile picture/logo. This allows anyone to search and find the business and if any of their employees have the business listed as an employer, the logo will appear in the employee's employment section and will link to the business page.

To the right is an example of the business page for Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. As an individual, this page will also tell you if you have any connections that work for this company, both first degree and second degree connections, and how many of its employees are on LinkedIn. You can also see any of the recent updates that the company has posted and any open job postings. If you click on any of the job postings, you will see how many people have applied for that position if any of your connections or past experiences are a commonality with the company.

Premium Features

Once an individual or business has a page on LinkedIn they will have the opportunity to upgrade their page to one of LinkedIn's Premium products. Before deciding on a Premium product, businesses should determine their goals for using LinkedIn. Are they trying to improve the quality of their recruiting function? Are they trying to attract higher quality talent? Are they trying to grow their sales and marketing reach? LinkedIn has Premium products to address each of these items individually! 

Job Seeker: designed for individuals who are searching for a job, $29.99 per month. Allows you to directly message recruiters, see who's viewed your profile in the last 90 days, and see how you compare to other applicants and move to the top of the applicant list.

Business Plus: designed for individuals and businesses who want to expand their networks, $59.99 per month. Allows you to contact anyone on LinkedIn, see who's viewed your profile in the last 90 days, and filter through connections with advanced search filters.

Sales Navigator: designed for salespeople who are looking to identify sales leads and connect with decision makers, $79.99 or $129.99 per month. Allows additional search filters and the ability to save contacts through Lead Builder, receive customized lead suggestions, and the ability to message anyone who doesn't have an email listed.

Recruiter: designed for HR/recruiting professionals, $119.95 per month for Recruiter Lite and $749.99 per month for the full Recruiter product. Provides recruiter specific search features, track applicants, and with the full product get data analytics and unlimited profile views.

Obviously, LinkedIn has a lot of different features that you can customize for your individual or business use. Identifying your goals of using this site are key to knowing which product you should be using. The average LinkedIn user spends 9.8 minutes on the site each day and in order to engage with them, companies need to make sure that they are posting and connecting with the right people. "According to LinkedIn, 50% of its members said they’re more likely to buy from a company they engage with on the platform." In order to do that, companies should be posting updates to their LinkedIn profiles regularly that interest their followers and help job seekers get a feel for what it would be like to work for the company.

What Businesses Should Know About Pinterest!

Pinterest. What is in a name? To me Pinterest can be broken down into two separate words, pin and interest. The site allows you to pin (aka save and organize) pictures, links, ideas, songs, etc. that interest you. When you lookup Pinterest on Wikipedia, it tells you that it is a personalized media platform that allows users to upload, save, sort, and manage images - known as pins - and other media content (e.g., videos) through collections known as pinboards. Even Pinterest's CEO Ben Silbermann explains the company as a "catalog of ideas," rather than as a social network, that inspires users to "go out and do that thing." Pinterest is a place for people to dream, to think about the future and what they want it to be like, and to organize all of those things in one place. It allows people to aspire to greater things whether that is traveling, trying new foods, living a healthier lifestyle, or giving themselves a makeover. Pinterest is there to help people think, plan, and organize, and ultimately, have fun!

Pinterest provides a lot of valuable tools for businesses and good analytics to make their use of Pinterest more productive. Pinterest allows businesses to see when someone saves their pin and also when someone saves something directly from their website, whether they have the Pin It button or not. This can be useful to businesses because it allows them to see popular pins and also popular items from the website that they maybe hadn't thought of pinning yet. Pinterest also allows its business users to see the common interests people who are pinning their pins have and also what other businesses they are pinning from/following.

Some other great features that help business users drive people to their website/stores are rich pins. There are currently six type of rich pins apps, movies, recipes, articles, products, and places. Rich pins allow people to download, price/buy, find directions, etc. all without leaving Pinterest. Pinterest also allows businesses to buy promoted pins. In order to do this you must be a US or UK based company, but promoted pins help with awareness, engagement, and traffic. Here is an example of a promoted pin that I saw on my Pinterest feed today for Warby Parker glasses. I've been searching for new glasses for a few months now and have visited their site previously and now they are showing up in my feed. A great thing about promoted pins is that most users of Pinterest don't really see them as advertisements. It is just another pin in your feed as you are scrolling down. I think this really plays to the advantage of the business because consumers won't feel like you are bombarding them with ad all the time.

Pinterest use for business may not be for everyone though. Since 84% of the users are female, it may not make sense for a company with men as their target demographic to be present on the site. An interesting study done by RJMetrics found that females who signed up for Pinterest four years ago are still using the site and that their usage actually grew greater with time. Also it is the perfect platform for products targeting women ages 19-39. It provides an easy way to buy products in just a few clicks. The site is image focused, which is what a lot of younger people prefer so they can actually see the product/services/etc. Pinterest search feature is also very cool. You can search for almost anything and then it will recommend more specific filters within that search that you might be interested.

One main pitfall for businesses to be aware of is that their Pinterest boards should be well organized and maintained. I know as a user that I hate visiting someone's page that has very vague board descriptions and things that aren't well organized. Becoming a pinterest guru takes time, but I think it is pretty easy for any business to get started on the platform as long as their target market is active on the site. I think a good rule of thumb for businesses is to have a game plan before creating their profile. Figure out what types of boards you are going to have and what you are going to pin. Will you only pin items from your website or will you also have inspiration boards that link to other businesses? Who will be in charge of your Pinterest and how often should they be pinning? Personally, I know that it is way too easy to get lost on Pinterest and before you know it you've wasted 3 hours pinning party planning tips and costumes for your future dog. So businesses should be aware of this because it can help their pins get more attention, but they will also want to avoid those distractions for the people posting their pins.

Sources:

https://business.pinterest.com/en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest

http://www.amyporterfield.com/2012/06/the-10-commandments-of-using-pinterest-for-business/

https://www.postplanner.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-business-beginner-guide/

http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/social-media/why-pinterest-better-than-facebook-brands/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/05/pinterest-is-sneaking-up-on-twitter-and-facebook.html

http://fortune.com/2015/07/13/pinterest-ceo-ben-silbermann/