Social network | J2 Marketing

Jan 28 2013

Instagram

How To: Using Instagram for Business

If you are new to Instagram, you may want to read this article first.

Here are a few of our ideas on using Instagram for business:

1. Show yourself at popular events

Ever go to tradeshows, community events, local gatherings, or parties? Show yourself off a little bit. People like to see what you’re up to and see that your company is active, not growing cobwebs. And they may just come see you at your next event.

2. Show off your workspace

You may have a lot of cool and unique things at your workplace or in your workspace. At least give everyone a chance to envy what you have

3. Spotlight your products

Stop taking boring old pictures of your products. Make something that’s seemingly mundane into something no one has ever seen before! You’ve worked so hard to make your widget, now put some extra effort into showing it off.

4. Show how it’s made

Who isn’t curious about how everything is made. There are even shows out there about this kind of stuff (How It’s Made). Display your expertise to the world by showing how you do it. Your customers may gain a greater respect for what you do.

5. Retrofit your daily/weekly specials

Please don’t send an all caps message on Facebook/Twitter about your daily deals, every day. (eg. SPECIAL DEAL TODAY ONLY!!! 5% OFF WATER IF YOU BRING 10 FRIENDS!!). Give out some realistic bargains and make them attractive. I guarantee you’ll see a better turnout.

6. Behind the scenes

Great way to tell people what you do without giving a sales pitch, show them what you do. Behind the scenes shots make a great portfolio and verify your experience. You may hear people say, “I didn’t know you could do that!”

7. Highlight your customers

“Oh wow! They work with those guys?!” For business to business, be more creative in showing who you work with. Your clients may like the notoriety as well. For business to customer, show off your 1,000th customer and give them a gift. Everyone likes to have a day of fame for all their friends to see!

8. Give a sneak peek

Here’s an example of our client giving a sneak peek of their soon to be released training videos. Build the anticipation of what you’re about to do so you can get a much greater response once it’s all done.

9. Contests and giveaways

Garnish the power of your followers. Have them post an epic picture of your product or business. Whoever posts the coolest picture (chosen by you or by votes), gets something free! You want to increase your engagement, and nothing does that better than getting something free in return.

What do you think? These are just a few of the things we teach our clients to use it for. What ideas have you seen? How do you use it for your business? Comment in the box below!

If you’re not sure how your business could use this and you’d like to know more. Let us know, here.

Tagged business, Customer, Facebook, Instagram, J2 Marketing, Online Communities, Photo sharing, Social network, Twitter

Jan 24 2013

1 Comment

Instagram

What is Instagram?

This post is one of many to come regarding Instagram and its many uses. For those who have no clue, this will touch base on what Instagram is, how to use it, and why you would want to use it. Later there will be more detailed How-To articles and answers to the many mysterious FAQs for Instagram.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is an online photo-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take a picture, apply a digital filter to it, and share it on a variety of social networking services, including its own and other leading sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

Instagram was launched in October 2010

Facebook recently bought Instagram (April 2012) for a whopping $1 Billion! Think twice before making fun of “nerds.”

Whats all the hype?

Why use Instagram?

Besides the obvious reason that “everybody else is doing it?” It’s a new playground for any photographer to showcase their photos to their friends, in a unique fashion of course. Snap, capture, or take (whatever you call it) any average photo with your phone, add some cool effects (vintage, black & white, blur, color, etc), throw it in a unique frame, and voilà… you’re now a professional.

Instagram for personal use?

It’s just like any other social site out there, meant to share with friends and others alike. Everyone has their own reason for using it. Ask your friends, they’ll all give you different answers.

Instagram for business use?

Now you’ve opened Pandora’s Box of opportunities… In another post, we’ll break down details of using Instagram to promote your business. But for now, just imagine taking a picture of your widget, adding some pizzazz, and showing it off to interested customers without uttering a word. Make looking at your product or business more enjoyable and entertaining while getting your message out. Use Instagram well and you can generate a lot of hype without a whole lot of words.

Check out this post for more detailed info on, How To: Using Instagram for Business.

In the meantime, if you’re still confused or stuck with understanding the scope of Instagram’s potential for you, just remember, so are millions of others If you want specific help with your business or industry, contact us HERE.

Tagged April 2012, business, Facebook, FAQ, How To, Instagram, J2 Marketing, Online Communities, Photo sharing, Social network, Social networking service, Twitter

Jun 02 2012

1 Comment

Social Media Tips

How to Schedule Posts Right on Facebook

So, you’ve heard of Hootsuite and other post scheduling services, right. Well, Facebook, in their desire to take over the world, has updated their posting feature to include the ability to schedule your post. And the best part is, it’s easy. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to your Pages Timeline and type in your post

2. Click the little clock in the bottom left corner.

3. Choose a date and time in the future.

4. Hit Schedule, and BAM! you’ve scheduled your post into the future.

Now, we’re sure that you might make a mistake once in a while, so you’ll need to edit or delete your scheduled post. Here’s how to do that, and again, it’s easy.

1. Go to your Admin Panel and choose the Manage drop down menu.

2. Choose Use Activity Log.

3. Locate your scheduled post at the top of the page.

4. To the right, click on the down arrow to reveal another drop down menu where you can choose to change the time, post right away, or cancel all together.

Now you’re ready to post like the pros!

Tagged Broadcast programming, Drop-down list, Elkhart, Facebook, Goshen, Granger, Hootsuite, HootSuite - Social Media Dashboard, J2 Marketing, Mishawaka, Organization, Osceola, Social media, Social network, South Bend

Mar 02 2012

Cue the Tumbleweeds: Google+ A “Virtual Ghost Town”

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that fledgling social network Google+ may very well be a “virtual ghost town,” despite having 90 million registered users since launching in June. According to new data from research firm comScore Inc., users are signing up — but rarely return for another visit. “Visitors using personal computers spent an average of about three minutes a month on Google+ between September and January, versus six to seven hours on Facebook each month over the same period,” the report reveals, noting that mobile usage is not factored into comScore’s data. So what’s the problem? “Nobody wants another social network right now,” explains Altimeter Group analyst Brian Solis. “Google hasn’t communicated what the value of Google+ is” for users already spending much of their time on Facebook. Yeah, it’s rough out there for any company whose name doesn’t start with an F and end with “book.”

Orignal Post

Tagged Altimeter Group, Brian Solis, ComScore, Elkhart, Facebook, Google, Goshen, Granger, J2 Marketing, Marketing, Mishawaka, Social network, South Bend, Wall Street Journal

Feb 24 2012

1 Comment

Marketing Tips, Social Media Tips

New Facebook Ads

Facebook appears ready to launch a new set of premium ad units, and, based on a review of documents which purport to describe them, the social network would seem to be doubling down on two core principles that mark fundamental departures from traditional advertising.

First, Facebook is making the new ads social by default, meaning they will automatically show users when their friends have already Liked the advertiser. And the new formats will draw their content exclusively from posts to brands’ Facebook Pages, rather from advertising copy written independently.

Combined, these features make two statements about where Facebook believes the future of online advertising lies–at least in its particular universe. It is saying that ads based on content, rather than messaging, have a better chance of hitting home, and that ads involving tacit endorsements from the people you know have a better chance of capturing your attention.

“When people hear about you from friends, they listen,” the Facebook materials say. “We’ll expand your ad with stories from friends who have already connected.” (“Stories” is Facebook’s shorthand for a wide varitey of interactions on the site. In the case of ads, it seems to refer to the fact that the ads will display which of a viewer’s friends have Liked the brand.)

Facebook has not commented publicly on the new ads (presumably they will discuss them at a marketing launch event in New York next week). But the materials describing the new units were posted to Scribd earlier this week. The news was first reported on GigaOm.

Tagged advertising, Elkhart, Facebook, Facebook Page, Goshen, Granger, Indiana, J2 Marketing, Michiana, Mishawaka, New York, Om Malik, Online Communities, Scribd, Social network, South Bend

Jan 31 2012

How To: Make Someone An Admin of Your Facebook Page

Step 1: Sign in to your own personal Facebook account

Step 2: Make sure you are a friend of the person you wish to add as an admin. If not, search them and send them a request

Step 3: Go to your Facebook Page

Step 4: Click Edit Page at the top of your Facebook Page and select Admin Roles

Step 5: Start typing the name of your desired Admin and select them when their name pops up

Step 6: Click Save Changes. It will prompt you for a password. Enter your personal Facebook password

Your done!

Comment for any questions!

- J2 Team

Tagged 2010 Winter Olympics, advertising, Facebook, Facebook features, HootSuite - Social Media Dashboard, J2 Marketing, Online Communities, Social media, Social network, Social Networking, Twitter

Jan 17 2012

Do Chamber Meetings Still Beat LinkedIn for Networking?

Which types of networking are most successful? A recent survey of 12,000 business people around the world confirmed some of my hunches but produced some surprising results, as well.

As part of research for a book, my co-authors and I asked people what types of organizations they belong to and whether networking played a role in their success. We cross-tabulated the results to determine how effective different types of networking are.

As we had expected, people who get the most results from networking efforts seem to participate in face-to-face casual-contact networks like chambers of commerce, referral networks, and to a lesser extent, professional associations.

We were surprised, however, that only 27 percent of the respondents said online networking has played a role in their success. Networking through women’s business organizations and through service clubs fared even worse, with only 17.7 percent and 17.2 percent of respondents, respectively, giving them credit for playing a part in their success.

Even though they didn’t do well in this survey, I’m quite an advocate of online networks, women’s business organizations and service clubs. I did some thinking about why these groups received such low-success ratings.

I’m inclined to believe women’s organizations and service clubs didn’t do well because they have other important purposes that take precedence over networking. Women’s business groups often provide a place where members both support and educate each other, while service clubs focus primarily on providing service to the community. People, therefore, may not experience as much tangible success in networking efforts in these groups.

The survey results for online networks made me think of a comment I hear quite often from business owners who want to market their products and services on social and business networking sites: “I’ve got a profile page and a thousand connections…now what?” Many entrepreneurs spend a lot of time and effort building their online social capital through LinkedIn “connections,” Facebook “friends” and “likes,” and Twitter “followers,” but lack an actual plan for turning the growing number of contacts into customers.

Another issue for online networking: the exponential increase in marketing and social messages and the competition for people’s attention. In the course of a typical day, we might be chatting on Google Talk, looking at friends’ photos on Facebook, watching a celebrity’s Twitter feed, learning about a connection’s promotion on LinkedIn, reading a blog for business or pleasure, and doing an Internet search. We are inundated and easily distracted by these entreaties: Read this! Buy this! Try this! Connect with me! Like my business!

I certainly don’t think entrepreneurs should stop finding ways to improve their success in the online networking arena. But the results are the results, and — still a surprise to me — they’re not very good.

Tagged Business networking, Facebook, Google Talk, LinkedIn, Networker, Social media, Social network, Twitter

Design. Create. Brand.

Tag Archives: Social network

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