Social Media is such an important tool to connect with hotel guests during each stage of the booking cycle: shopping/purchasing stage, experiential stage (during their stay with us) and post-experiential stage (after they’ve departed). This particular blog post will focus on the shopping/purchasing stage and how the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego connects with our future guests.

Let’s say a family from Arizona has decided to beat the heat and take a trip to San Diego over Memorial Day weekend. The family is excited about their upcoming vacation and begins to search for hotel rooms. It’s very common for future guests to research online reviews and reach out to their most trusted travel advisors, their friends and family, during this shopping stage. Common Facebook posts and tweets during this stage may consist of: “Anyone have a great hotel recommendation in San Diego?” At this point, since our future guests are actively searching for a hotel in our market, our hotel begins to actively search for these buyers.

Connecting With Customers

Closely monitor your online reviews.

81% of travelers find user reviews important and will check these online hotel reviews before making room reservations. Make sure you have a dedicated person or team who is responding to all reviews across all channels (TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google, Online Travel Agencies, etc.), especially the negative ones. Guests want to know that their concerns have been heard. Be sure to share any issues that are trending on your review sites with the appropriate departments within the hotel and work together to set up action plans to rectify the common complaints. This will help prevent these same issues from showing up in future reviews. Future guests who are in the shopping stage also like to see that a hotel is paying attention to their reviews and responding.

We had an example of a particular guest who wrote a wonderful blog about our property after his stay and he mentioned that he had originally booked a room at one of our competing downtown San Diego hotels, but changed his reservation to the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego once he saw that our management was responding to guest reviews on TripAdvisor. He went on to have a fabulous stay at our hotel and provided some great online coverage for us on his blog.

Monitor key phrases and words on your social media channels.

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego uses a tool, Revinate, to monitor certain terms and phrases across all social media networks and blogs. Any time a person tweets or posts about a possible trip to San Diego, this shows up on our feed and we reach out to this potential guest directly to offer assistance in booking hotel rooms or to answer any questions they might have.

After they’ve made the decision to book a room at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, many guests love to share the good news on their social media channels. “Can’t wait for our stay at the Manchester Grand Hyatt over Memorial Day Weekend!” This is a great opportunity for our hotel to connect with these guests before they arrive (if we haven’t already connected with them in the shopping stage).

Using specific search terms that we have set up to monitor in Revinate, The Manchester Grand Hyatt finds these posts and reaches out to guests who mention our hotel online. We do this to (a.) let them know that we are active on the social media channel that they are using and that they can use us as a resource during their stay (we’ll recommend restaurants, activities, aid with special requests, etc.) and (b.) promote any special offers or hotel outlets that they shouldn’t miss during their stay. “Our @SallysSeafood has a great Tapas Hour daily from 2:30-5PM on the San Diego Bay” or “Our @Kin_Spa is offering their Summer Specials through the end of August – be sure to check them out while you’re here on property for some R&R!”

Connecting With Influencers

If a guest is considered “influential” on social media (tools like Sprout social help us determine who is an influential follower) then we may even schedule sending a small amenity to their room with a “Stay Social” card that lists all of our different social media pages and an invitation to leave us feedback on TripAdvisor after their stay. We do this to build brand loyalty and keep the online conversation going – fostering engagement and more mentions of our hotel to their social networks.

A great example of fostering relationships with influential users during their stay is when we connected with Angela Quisumbing on twitter, an influential “Mommy Blogger” and founder of San Diego Mom’s Night Out, when her and her family checked-in to our hotel on a “Staycation”. After sending a welcome tweet to the Quisumbing family, we sent up a coloring book amenity for Angela’s daughter along with a personalized card and of course, our “Stay Social” card. Angela was so impressed with our online engagement with our guests that she went on to write several blogs about the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego. We continued our online conversation and eventually also partnered on a San Diego Mom’s Night Out event where we were able to showcase our Kin Spa to this target market. All of this great exposure and partnership stemmed from a single welcome tweet to Angela during her stay.

By the time our “social” guests arrive on property, they know how to reach us online for recommendations throughout their stay (through Facebook or Twitter), they know all of the best happenings and specials offered in our different restaurants and spa, and they’ve already formed a certain amount of trust and are maybe even building some brand loyalty through frequent online correspondence with our property.

Meet Expert: Kristin Helms

Kristin Helms is the Marketing Manager at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, the tallest waterfront hotel on the west coast. Kristin is responsible for the overall marketing strategy, media plan, social media and public relations campaigns for the various markets within the hotel: Group, Transient, Catering/Wedding, Local, Spa and nine food & beverage outlets. Kristin is also managing the marketing communication strategy as the hotel undergoes a major renovation. Kristin received a bachelor’s degree in Communication and a minor in Marketing from San Diego State University and has been in the marketing industry for the past twelve years. Connect with her on Twitter @kristinhelms or @ManchGrandHyatt and visit the Manchester Grand Hyatt on Facebook.

Want to be featured next? Fandom is looking for social marketing rock stars to share their stories, case studies, tips and expertise. Check out our blogging guidelines and contact us or tweet us @FandomMarketing today.

The post How Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego Uses Social Media to Connect with Guests Before They Even Arrive appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

You’ll want to start with a goal. Do you want to get new followers (acquisition) or entertain your audience (engagement)? Both are equally valuable depending on what your business needs are at the moment. Nailing down this simple direction will determine the right program.

How-to Advertise on Twitter

Hubspot recently shared an article that breaks down how Twitter’s self-service ads work. And not to brag, but we were one of the brands invited to check out Twitter ads when they first came out. Rob shared his experience and provided Twitter advertising tips for small businesses on our blog awhile back. Since they’ve already covered the basics, we want to dive in a little deeper and focus on the strategy of how-to advertise on Twitter.

Setting Twitter Advertising Goals

As mentioned earlier, before you start dumping your advertising dollars on Twitter make sure you define your goals for the campaign. This is critical or else you could end up wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars without results. Do you want to:

• Increase your following
• Share a special promotion
• Reveal a new product
• Host a giveaway
• Announce important news

Once you decide what your goals are for using Twitter ads you will have a better idea of what kind of ads you’ll want to run. Read further to find out how.

Acquisition vs. Engagement

Twitter has three types of ads your brand can run in the form of Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets and Hashtag buys. Promoted Accounts will get you followers and requires no creative. Promoted Tweets create engagement around conversations driven by your brand. Hashtag buys cost well over $100,000 for a 24-hour run. We’ll leave the latter to bigger brands and dive into the two that are used by most businesses.

Promoted Accounts

Promoted accounts are great for follower acquisition. If your goal is to gain more followers and increase awareness this is the way to go. This is a good strategy if your brand is building their Twitter account or finding a way to reach a high volume of people in a short amount of time or even before a big promotion hits. Some of the benefits of Promoted Accounts are:

• No need to develop creative copy or images
• Increases discoverability
• Twitter suggests others to follow you based on interests and connections who follow you
• Can target followers of competitors
• Pay only when people follow
• Approximate cost per follower range we’ve experienced is $1.50 – 2.00 – Twitter recommends a bid price per follower and as your bid increases so does your estimated reach

Not sure if the cost per follower is worth it? I’d suggest running some numbers on your business to determine:

• Value of a social media follower
• Lifetime customer value
• Or, compare it to your other paid media cost per acquisition

Having a point of reference is helpful and will make the most of your advertising budget.

Promoted Tweets

If your goal is to engage with your audience, Promoted Tweets will be the best way for you to advertise on Twitter. Promoted Tweets must be crafted by someone who is familiar with using Twitter. They are regular Tweets that can reach people who are interested in your business product or service. Here are some tips to get good engagement out of your Promoted Tweets:

Incorporate relevant brand terms and specific keywords into your content

• Keep your content short
• Keep it conversational
• Include a short link for further engagement
• Pose a question
• Ask yourself if it is RT worthy
• Make it about your audience and not your brand or product
• Use an actionable, on topic hashtag that will drive people to create their own conversations around it e.g. #WhenIWasAKid
• Piggy back on one current topic or event hashtag to increase your reach e.g. #FathersDay

About hashtags: You do not need to do anything special to create one except to simply begin using it. Hashtags do not contain spaces or special characters and are not case sensitive, and always contain #. Hashtags are used to aggregate conversations and are clickable within a Tweet. Explore some at search.twitter.com to see what people are or are not talking about. A unique hashtag that is not in use is highly trackable and brandable.

Just like with the Promoted Accounts, you only pay for engagement (i.e. when some our Tweet is retweeted, favorited, shared or click on your promoted link).

Measuring Success

Everyone loves to see their numbers grow. Social media measurement helps to ensure your program is justifiable to upper management and provides you insights to make you better at doing the job. Luckily, Twitter ads provide a real-time dashboard that provides the metrics of your campaign. It displays impressions, number of clicks, click rate and how much you spent.

The growth chart is easy to read. In this particular example, you are able to see a report of new followers from your organic efforts and new followers as a result of promoting your account.

Expert Tips

As a bonus here are a few expert tips from Fandom’s media planner Greg Lantz.

• Your goal should help you determine which type of Twitter advertising to use. If your goal is more followers then Promoted Accounts are a better choice for your campaign. But if your goal is engagement, perhaps to promote a contest or drive users to discover something on your website, Promoted Tweets offer a more direct way to tell your potential customers what you would like them.
• Make sure Promoted Tweets use “tweet lingo” and are not too direct response oriented, or customers will avoid clicking on your ads because they are being sold to too much.
• Promoted Accounts will be volatile the first few days in how many impressions you receive. Expect a very large volume of impressions and spend the first day or two, with a rapid tapering off of spend shortly afterwards. Twitter seems to reward campaigns that receive high follow rates by showing the promoted account more often.

Twitter is not an inexpensive advertising channel. It can be tricky too. Be sure who ever is tasked with managing your ads is familiar with paid media, the Twitter ad platform and tweeting. It is critical that they optimize your media spend to get to your target acquisition or CPC price. Ad dollars are not something to be played with and I’ve unfortunately watched budgets go down the drain from inexperience. Get educated or get the right expertise on your team so it doesn’t happen to you!

If you have questions feel free to leave a comment or Tweet us @fandommarketing.

Share this on Twitter!

Add #Twitter advertising to your marketing mix. @melonie shares a crash course on how to get started. bit.ly/16n6LBu

— Fandom Marketing (@FandomMarketing) May 17, 2013

The post Now Anyone Can Advertise on Twitter, Here’s a Crash Course appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

Here are four Pinterest strategies we suggest utilizing to drive results:

1. Make sure your basics are covered.

This translates to analytics! Pinterest has rolled out web analytics for businesses, and if you haven’t yet set your brand up with those, move that to the top of your “To Do” list after you finish reading this article. For businesses purposes and to really gain insights into what your customers are loving, this is a must-do.

2. Showcase what’s popular.

Chances are, if Pinterest users love your newest patio furniture set, floral maxi dress or recipe for stuffed peppers, than this is an item more people will love too. Why not showcase your most popular pinned item(s) on your homepage? Not all website visitors will be Pinterest users, yet a simple “What our fans are loving!” with the Pinterest logo can attract any type of visitor. Most anyone loves to see what others are loving at the moment.

This idea can be carried across the different social channels too. Have a “fan favorite” Pinterest board or feature the most pinned item each week on Facebook or your blog. Test different ideas to see what drives more clicks/sales!

3. Keep them looking.

While browsing Pinterest on my phone the other day, I came across an item perfect for the paranoid mother in me. I clicked through to check it out, and rather than just posting that the item was no longer carried, the company, Solutions posted this:

The item I was interested in was no longer available, but they had posted a message specifically to Pinterest users directing them to other products on their site. I was so impressed by their product and commitment to helping me that I did click through and look around. Not only did they keep me on their site longer, but they showed me that they value their Pinterest fans.

4. Make contests personal.

I recently came across a contest for a major home interior organization. It was a classic “Pin It to Win It” contest, and they asked fans to pin favorite items from a new collection for a chance of winning. Problem? The majority of the items weren’t “pin-worthy.” Scrub brushes and cleaning supplies on plain backgrounds don’t top the list of things people look for on Pinterest nor qualify as items people want to share with friends. Many users are cautious of spamming their followers with material that friends won’t find valuable.

Done right, a contest should encourage the pinner to showcase their own personal style while at the same time sharing material that is useful or fun. JetSetter just hosted a fun campaign asking pinners to pin an image of their favorite hotel with a short blurb on why they love it, along with a designated hashtag. This campaign was awesome because it wasn’t the same image being pinned over and over again. Rather it was a collection of beautiful travel destinations and useful tips. The hashtag was all they needed to create awareness for the company, and had they wanted traffic from the contest a link could have easily been incorporated into the sharing requirements.

Pinterest users look for visually beautiful images, useful tips, great stories, inspiration and new products. The secret is all in the image that accompanies the story. Make it compelling. Develop a solid Pinterest strategy based on what your customers want (not what you want to share!) before starting your next Pinterest campaign.

The post Four Ways Brands Can Take Advantage of Pinterest appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

While the first thing that comes to mind when you think about outreach is bloggers, you might be overlooking influence in other channels. Social influence is everywhere from Twitter to Pinterest. It can even be found in forums or private groups like iVillage, Yahoo, and Facebook. And with marketing becoming more visual, you might be surprised at just how much impact a single photo can have.

Let’s start thinking outside the blog!

How do you identify an influencer?

The answer to this all depends on your marketing strategy. Decide what’s important to you first, then the concept of influencer marketing will make more sense. Among the definitions I like this simple one best from BusinessDictionary.com:

Influencers are Individuals who have the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of their (real or perceived) authority, knowledge, position, or relationship.

Traditionally marketers might have created word of mouth marketing through tactics like Avon lipstick samples. Today, it is less costly and higher impact to market to social influence by courting bloggers and tweeters to try your product.

An influencer is not necessarily someone who has a large following, but someone who engages well with an online community and can potentially get their followers to engage with your brand.

What do they look like? Here are a few influencers that might surprise you.

Boo the Dog

The official Facebook fan page for Boo, unofficially the cutest dog in the world, has almost seven million likes. This little fame-ine has landed deals with big brands like Gund, Nordstrom and Virgin Airlines. One photo is enough to melt the hearts of 70,000 people. Can you blame them? In addition to the likes and comments there are thousands of people sharing his photos with their Facebook friends. And yes I will confess, I have a Gund Boo plush and two books sitting on my shelf. That’s influence.

Facebook:

The same photo melts another 6,400 hearts on Instagram:

One of the Web’s Most Sought After Influencers, Who’s Not a Dog

In 2010 Calvin Lee @MayhemStudios was called a Twitter Marketing Phenomenon by Forbes. While he has a blog, it wasn’t blogging that made him famous. He’s kind of a big deal on Twitter, Instagram and other social networks. Calvin is sought after by major consumer brands to try their products and spread the word to his 82,000+ followers. Why so influential you might wonder? It’s not that complicated. He’s genuinely an all around nice guy whom people trust and who loves sharing. Trust is a key ingredient.

@MayhemStudios Tweet on Influence:

@MayhemStudios Twitter followers wearing his official t-shirt:

Where to Look For Hidden Influence

• Twitter – Because they influence topics and opinions in discussions with large, engaged audiences.

• Pinterest – Because they share photos that link back to your site.

• Instagram – Because they’ll share a visual of their product experience with everyone using their smartphone.

• Foursquare – Because they’ll help others discover your store, restaurant or venue,  compete for mayorship and leave positive tips about your products.

Now, think outside the blog. Where can your brand find influence?

The post Think Outside the Blog, How To Find Hidden Influence appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

Let’s take a look at how your brand can entice bloggers to not only attend your event but also help you promote it (and share your news) in a way that is beneficial for both parties.

You might find it helpful to read my last post, 5 Tips for Successful Blogger Outreach From a Blogger’s Perspective.

The Invitation

This goes back to doing your research. Invite bloggers who will actually be interested in attending your event, but don’t limit yourself. Be creative. For example, if you are a restaurant introducing a new menu item, invite people who blog about food. Notice, I didn’t say foodies or food bloggers. Think of all the different markets you can reach like moms who blog about food, sustainable food bloggers, and of course the foodies.

As a rule of thumb you want to invite bloggers who are:

1. Relevant
2. Local
3. Influential

Don’t always expect something in return

Although we hope that bloggers will post an event recap the next day with a raving review the truth is that’s not always the case. There are other ways bloggers might share your news. Dedicated followers will notice their check-in on Facebook or Foursquare. Their live tweets and images on Instagram while at the event using your hashtag will get other people interested in checking out what else there is your brand has to offer. It’s called “social” media for a reason. Besides, your event should be so blog worthy that bloggers can’t help but write about it the instant they get home. If blog posts are really important to you, then create an ambassador program where that is part of the deal.

Set the tone and make it easy

As the host, make sharing your event details easy and set the tone by letting them know what to expect, how to dress, what to bring. You can even request that they share the details in a blog post or via their social media channels, but you don’t want to push it. Give bloggers a chance to share your news in multiple ways. Provide them with the nuggets they need so it will be a no brainer for them to share.

Here are a few things that will make blogger’s lives easier if they consider sharing your news and/or event details with their networks. You can even create a press kit or event landing page that bloggers can refer to and you can update at any time.

1. Create suggested messages for Facebook and Twitter. They can literally copy, paste and schedule in Hootsuite or Social Spout.
2. Send them images. Images are all the rage these days especially with bloggers who use Pinterest and the buzz with the new Facebook layout.
3. Send them all the details in an easy to read format.
4. Be responsive to questions bloggers might have about your event. If you get a question more than once, update your press kit or event page so others with similar questions can find answers easily.

Offer incentives

Blogs want to share your news, really they do. Sometimes sharing your news is more enticing to their readers when there is a giveaway attached. Hosting a giveaway will also encourage bloggers to blog about the event and/ or your special news.

Offer affiliate programs, a discount or complimentary visit to return for a more intimate or personal experience with your brand, discount codes they can extend to their readers.

Show some appreciation

Even though we shouldn’t expect anything back in return, we still have to offer the best to bloggers and make them feel special. As the event host brands have a reputation to uphold.

• Give bloggers the VIP treatment at your event (treat them like the media that they are).

• Thank them both privately and publicly.

• Retweet their tweets

• Like their Facebook posts and leave a comment while if you can.

• Tag them in event photos.

• If they happen to write a blog post about your event or promoting it beforehand, leave a personal comment thanking them for doing so.

Bloggers are here to stay. They are in demand because they build and keep relationships with their followers. You want to make sure they are happy and genuinely invite them to relevant events. Treat them like you would the morning news anchor or your local TV host. You never know what can come of a great relationship with a blogger.

Tell us how you work with bloggers when hosting an event. We’d love for you to add to this list.

The post The Right Way to Invite Bloggers to Your Next Event appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

1. Work Remotely

I know this may not work for everyone. And some corporate offices have strict policies about working from home based on confidentiality or simply because they need you at their disposal just in case. But if you are a small firm or a small business, allowing employees and partners to work remotely is one of the biggest ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Fandom Marketing supports working remotely and it helps everyone save money, energy and time. For example:

Money: We save money when we don’t have to spend it on gas.

Energy: We conserve the air that gives us energy when we don’t use our cars and spread gas into the air when we drive.

Time: We save time when we don’t have to get ready to for a meeting or face a morning commute in traffic. We can use this time to work efficiently and be flexible.

Of course, we have co-working days a few days times a month for when we really need to get together. When we do get together some of us will use local transportation by using the services of Car2Go or hitching a ride with Uber.

2. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

Okay, this seems like an easy tip, but many times we just forget to do this, or we just throw recyclables in the trash because it’s more convenient for us (i.e. the recycling bin is too far). Make recycling easy for everyone by placing a bin for trash and bin for recyclables. If you are on the move, save your recyclables until you find a proper place to dispose of them. I usually leave an extra bag in my car for water bottles and when I get home, I toss them the recycle bin. Some places still take money for your recyclable items so why not save a little extra cash while you’re at it.

Other ways you can help reuse, reduce and recycle:

• If you like to take notes on paper, use paper that is about to go in the recycle bin before picking up a clean sheet
• Bring your lunch to work in a reusable lunch or canvas bag instead of using a paper or plastic bag
• Donate old office supplies to charity for others to reuse
• Recycle old electronics at proper drop off locations and never throw them in the trash. You can find a list if what you can recycle and where at recyclesandiego.org
• Use organic cleaning products to clean your office and only use what you need

3. Go Paperless

Although I mentioned paper in the section above, there are still several things that can be done to help reduce the use of paper while working. Here are some things we can do on a daily basis to make sure we save the trees!

• Make sure your accounting department (or you) opts to get your bank statements online. That way you can view them and pay them in one place
• Use Google docs to collaborate with your team and work on projects
• If you need to make an announcement or send an invitation to your staff, use email or electronic invitations such as eventbrite, Facebook Events or Evite
• Send and sign contracts electronically
• Email presentations instead of printing
• View documents on a full screen before deciding to print
• If you must print, only print the pages you need and print using both sides of the paper

Those are my tips for staying green while working. Here are a few ways the Fandom Team keeps it green.

“Google Hangouts is a great way to hold a meeting if everyone can’t be there in person, and it helps saving gas.” -@AnneMcColl

“Take notes on your laptop / mobile device instead of writing on paper?”
-@Hip_M0M

 “I rarely use paper – only my computer for notes. And when I need to save a paper something I scan and then recycle my papers.”
-@GingerAnderson

 “Use Twitter for top news rather than having the TV on or receiving paper newspapers. Send presents through Facebook rather than using paper mail or a car to drive to purchase a present and mail it. Save on gas by collaborating using a private Facebook group from the comfort of your home!”
-@Melonie

 “If you have to meet in person, schedule a lunch meeting at a restaurant or establishment that supports local growers and has sustainable practices in place when cooking and disposing food. Also, if you have children, teach them to take care of the Earth early on, make it contagious so they can help preserve the place they’ll be living and working in long after you’re gone.”
-@MiraMesaMom

What are some ways you like to promote sustainability or go green at work and in your personal life? Share them in a comment below.

The post 3 Tips to Go Green at Work appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

Foursquare offers brands, businesses, and blogs many opportunities to create a presence and connection with fans. Businesses with a physical presence have the opportunity to claim their foursquare venue and run a variety of specials to attract visitors. When you manage your venue, Foursquare provides you with a variety of back-end metrics.

If you are a larger brand, with less of a brick and mortar presence, and more of a global presence, there are many other ways to use Foursquare. Venue tips and city lists are a great way to spread your presence. And even running your own Foursquare account and checking in with images around the country, help draw a connection between the fan and the brand. Here are four brands on Foursquare that are using it in a noticeable way.

ESPN

They have been a big supporter of Foursquare, teaming with them to create badges, and events, namely providing Foursquare with sporting event information directly into the app. But they also check in as a brand at some of the different sporting events around the country, with storytelling images.

Food Network

We all look to our mobile devices to find places to eat and take pictures of our food. The Food Network does a good job combining both by writing tips and featuring pictures with those tips.

History Channel

When touring around a city for the first time, it is fun to learn about what makes the city unique, or the history behind a particular venue. Who better to do that than the History Channel?

Matters of Grey

You don’t always have to be a large brand to create engagement and interest on foursquare. Running a brand foursquare account at Matters of Grey, we combine checkins, tips, and images to keep a strong brand presence in Foursquare.

Conclusion

It is easy for brands to bring it on Foursquare. If your brand isn’t using Foursquare in one of the ways mentioned in this post, then you may be missing out on some key data and another way to connect with your greatest fans.

Join the Foursquare Day celebration in San Diego on April 16th or find a meetup in your city. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #4sqday and #4sqdaySD.

Meet Guest Blogger: Andy Morales 

Andy Morales is a cofounder of MattersofGrey.com. Matters of Grey is a geek collective writing about web design, social medias, typography, technology, nerd humor, ringtones, and is a leading provider of comprehensive information to users of Foursquare. Their Foursquare Badge List and Foursquare Forum provide the world with the details of all things Foursquare.

Share With Friends

Happy Foursquare Day! Find a meetup in your city bit.ly/1107Vftor RSVP in San Diego bit.ly/1108xl1 #4sqday #4sqdaySD

— Fandom Marketing (@FandomMarketing) April 16, 2013

The post Brands That Bring It With Foursquare appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

5 Instagram Feeds You Should Follow

1. Lowe’s Home Improvement
   What is awesome about Lowe’s Instagram efforts isn’t just their own feed (filled with beautiful home and garden photos), but their focus the #ProudMoment tag, where fans are encouraged to show off their do-it-yourself projects. Lowe’s is making it about their fans, not their company, and celebrating those incredibly prideful moments that often go unrecognized.
2. Lego
   Lego may be a bit of a more obvious choice then the next two below, due to the sheer number of children and adults that adore their product. It’s no surprise they share photos that are unique and spark creativity in anyone that follows them. If you have children like mine who love to look at photos on my phone, hand over Lego’s feed to them and they’ll go crazy.
3. Tampax
   I’ll admit, this one came to me when I was brainstorming the company I would least expect to see on Instagram. When I found their page, I was impressed with the quirkiness of it and the behind-the-scenes look into their brand. While they don’t have a ton of photos yet, I do think this is one to watch.
4. General Electric
   Again, a brand that may not be the obvious choice for sharing photos, but one that is truly demonstrating the art in their product with their Instagram presence. General Electric’s feed is a fascinating look into their products and how they are made.
5. President Obama
   If you want to humanize a political figure, just watch what President Obama’s team is doing for him on Instagram.  It paints a well-done, patriotic picture of a community-focused family man, who happens to be running our country.

With any social media effort, the million dollar, “what is the ROI?” question arises. With Instagram, building the relationship and staying top-of-mind are two less measurable, but still important goals of the photo sharing. I would imagine many followers of brands Instagram feeds feel a closer connection to that brand, because these photos aren’t the polished, professional looking ones we’re used to in advertising. They are human.

That being said, here are three brands we would like to see take the leap to Instagram:

1. Etsy.  They have a site filled with beautiful images and products, and a huge opportunity to showcase the many vendors that make up their community.
2. Dove. And specifically, their “real beauty” campaign. Dove has received a ton of positive press for their “real beauty” focus, and Instagram aligns perfectly with that idea. No photoshopping, just real moments of beauty.
3. Skittles. For a brand as quirky as Skittles, Instagram would be a fun place for them to connect with fans. Their homepage shows the different approach they take to their marketing, and I would love to see what they can do with the “experience the rainbow” idea on Instagram. The ideas are endless.

What are your favorite brands on Instagram?

The post 5 Brand Instagram Feeds You Should Follow appeared first on Brands With Fans Blog.

Bigger Images

If you haven’t noticed images are taking over news feeds already. When I update my status using a photo I get more views and interaction than when I post a status without one. That goes for my personal page and business page. Facebook is doing their homework as Zuckerberg mentions during the reveal that photos take up almost 50% of the news feed already. Why not make the experience even more enjoyable by making images bigger, vivid and more inviting. Here is a before and after photo to show you how the images will change.

Multiple News Feeds

With multiple news feeds, people will now be able to manage what they see. In addition to the current feed you see today, there will be more feeds that you can subscribe to such as all friends, a feed that shows everything your friends are sharing; photo feed, a feed that shows only photos from friends and Pages you like; music a feed with posts about the music you listen to and following, a feed with the latest news from the Pages you like and the people you follow. Think of Facebook as your very own personalized newspaper.

There is a bit of concern and confusion as to what this means for businesses Pages. Will updates on brand’s Pages become harder to see? Who will see promoted stories and content or event Facebook ads.

Mobile Consistency

More and more people are logging onto Facebook on everything but their desktops. With the new changes, Facebook will be consistent across mobile platforms. This means that what you see on your desktop you will see on your iPad and smartphone devices.

How to Market with the New Facebook Layout

It’s plain to see that Facebook is ever-changing. If we want to remain at the forefront and give our our audience valuable content, we need to adjust accordingly. We must see the Facebook changes as an opportunity to better our marketing practices while sticking to our budgets and reaching our goals.

This major change in particular should give brands a chance to truly feature their creative side. Here’s how.

• If you haven’t already get your design team working on a variety of poster images and graphics that will entice your audience to follow a link, comment or like.

• Use text directly in your images rather than in your status. People will more likely be drawn in by the image first.

• Keep your copy short, sweet and straight to the point.

• Use imagery to tell a story that resonates with your audience.

• Create valuable content people are willing to share.

• Post relevant content more frequently to ensure you will be seen in the news feeds.

We asked the community what they thought about the new Facebook changes. Gary Nix (@Mr_McFly), Marketing Specialist at Blue Fountain Media commented, “With brand content being separated from your regular feed, you need to be more creative and create content that is easy and favorable to consume. Boring content will hurt your brand more than ever now…It’s up to the brands now. There will be pushback from users because the angry voices are often the loudest. However, if brands do what they’re supposed to do: know they’re audience, create the content their audience wants and marries digital social content to real-time social action, everything will be fine.”

While being creative is only part of the equation, brands still need to manage and monitor the best times to post to Facebook as well as the type of content their audience tends to engage in. Remember the other big change made this year in January regarding Facebook’s new search engine? Another important question arises. How can brands optimize for Edgerank? Only time will tell.

If you can’t wait to try out the new Facebook news feed you can sign up to be on the waiting list here.

The video below from CBS goes behind the scenes of the Facebook changes and gives a good overview of what we can expect. Take a look.

What do you think about the major changes coming to Facebook? How do you think brands can leverage these changes to create new opportunities?

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