Marketing Strategies
Your 5 Step Guide to Creating a Great Instagram Story
1. Plan ahead. Like all great stories, plan a beginning, an end, and most importantly, stick to the plot! The beginning posts of your IG story must be attention grabbing for your audience. This is when you announce you’re about to tell an amazing story and create a screen tapping hook that yells, “Hey, something…
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7 Sites with Free Stock Photos for Your Social Media or Blog
Beautiful photos enhance every part of your marketing strategy – from blog posts and social media graphics, to website slideshows and ad campaigns. But if you don’t have a huge photography budget, it can be a struggle to find high-quality images that fit your brand’s needs. You can search Creative Commons images hosted on Flickr…
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Why 6 Seconds is Ideal for Video Ads
Short and sweet: that’s the recipe for success when creating video ads. While 30-second spots have long been the norm for TV, mobile and social media usage are changing the way brands think about ads. And the new standard is brief, punchy video ads that last only a few seconds, and stand out in a…
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Tips for Using Canva for Social Media Graphics
Whether you’re posting on Instagram, Facebook or another social network, your brand needs high-quality visuals to capture your audience’s attention. We’ve talked before about how you can take better photos, starting with the equipment you already have. But what about creating beautiful graphics? A striking graphic can do wonders to boost engagement, drive sales or…
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Why Micro-Influencers Are Better for Your Brand
A “bigger is better” mentality often prevails when planning influencer marketing campaigns. We aim for big-name influencers with bigger audiences (while spending bigger budgets) because we think they’ll be worth the investment. More eyeballs equal more engagement, right? Not necessarily. Mega-influencers like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid do gain attention for the brands they promote,…
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How Brands Can Use Instagram Location & Hashtag Stories
In May, Instagram released two new features to help people find Stories related to their interests. Through the Explore tab, users can now search by location or hashtag, and scroll through a compilation of Instagram Stories that have a particular location sticker, hashtag sticker, or hashtag in a caption. The Explore tab also features select…
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Creative Ways Brands Are Using Snapchat
Snapchat is a social media platform that poses both challenges and possibilities for marketers. It’s not as straightforward or intuitive as other social networks, but its flexibility offers enormous creative freedom and storytelling opportunities for brands that can think outside the news feed. Here are a few examples of brands that are doing…
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An Overview of Snapchat Advertising
While Snapchat pioneered the ephemeral style of storytelling that is everywhere on social media right now, the app itself has a lot of staying power. Brands, enticed by the platform’s 150 million daily users, are integrating Snapchat into their marketing plans. But advertising on Snapchat is still relatively new territory (it’s only been available since…
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The Story Behind the Stories
Snapchat pioneered Stories. Then Instagram followed. And now Facebook has jumped on board. The basic functionality of Stories is the same across all three social networks. Users compile photos and short videos – enhancing them with filters, text, drawings and other tools if desired – into a slideshow that is viewable for 24 hours, and…
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Influencer Marketing: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” When it comes to influencer marketing, that old cliche definitely applies. Brands new to this type of marketing may lean toward simply reaching out to a handful of mid-sized lifestyle bloggers to promote a new product. However, the most effective influencer marketing campaign requires a more strategic…
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