For the love of photos (part 1)
If you’re like me and the other one billion or so people using social networking sites, you LOVE taking and sharing pictures. With the birth of Facebook (and now its new Timeline feature) plus rise of camera-ready smartphones, the frequency of photography sharing over social networks has spiked tremendously. Consider these photo-sharing statistics:
- Facebook often has more than 750 million photos uploaded to its site in a single weekend. [TechCrunch]
- Twitter sees about 170 million tweets each day, and 1.25 percent of those are linked to a photo sharing service. That equals more than 2 million daily tweets that include pictures. [Sysomos]
- More than 3,500 images are uploaded to Flickr each minute. [Search Engine Journal]
- Mid-2011, Instagram hit a big milestone after only nine months in existence: 5 million users. The site and app are now seeing 1.3 million photos uploaded each day — a rate of 15 photos per second. [TechCrunch]
Recognizing the importance of these numbers, marketers are eagerly seeking ways to capitalize on their audience’s obvious fondness for photo-sharing. Resulting campaigns like this one from Tiffany’s, aim to use photos to encourage engagement with the brand. I predict campaigns like these will continue to blossom. What do you think?
Be sure to stay tuned for my next post, in which I’ll share tips for creating marketing strategies that engage your audience using photo-sharing social networking sites.
Follow me on Instagram to see just how much I love photo-sharing!
Mobile Marketing: The next big thing on a smaller screen
There’s a lot of buzz going around about what the next big thing will be in 2012. My guess – like so many others – is mobile marketing. There’s a reason so many advertisers, marketers and PR gurus have turned their attention to the mobile space, and it all starts with a pair of statistics:
- There are about 328 million wireless connections in the U.S.
- There are about 312 million people in the U.S.
There are more wireless devices than people.
That’s right. There are more wireless devices than people. When you consider the opportunities for brands to have a presence on smartphones and tablets, there is no turning back: mobile marketing is here to stay.
Luckily, the mobile marketing industry is so expansive that there’s something to suit every brand’s targets and goals. Chances are, just one or a few of these approaches could translate into valuable results:
- Location-Based Services (LBS): From publishing “check-ins” to friends’ news feeds to getting more traffic looking for good deals, tools like Gowalla and Foursquare have made it easier than ever for brands to get their feet in the mobile marketing door.
- Applications: There’s a wealth of possibility in creating smartphone applications or display ads for those apps. Not only will that extend your brand to the functional mobile space, it may help keep happy customers with an easy-to-access tool.
- Mobile-Optimized Websites: Hopefully, if a user clicks on a display ad within an app, they’ll be directed to a mobile website, but that’s sadly not always the case. Having a site that is optimized for mobile devices can provide the consumer a more satisfying mobile experience.
- Augmented Reality: If this isn’t the wave of the marketing future, I don’t know what is. Read up on AR if you haven’t already. Some cool things are coming our way.
- QR Codes: There are so many uses that I just can’t stop raving about them.
The possibilities don’t stop there. There’s still mobile gaming, SMS marketing and more, so keep your eyes peeled for this 2012 trend. After all, big things are coming on small screens.
Wow, LinkedIn, You Really are Helpful
I’ve always appreciated the value of networking, and love tools that can help me succeed in meeting the right people. While I’ve been a member of LinkedInsince June of 2007, it has become increasingly more relevant to what I do. With that said, I’m focusing more on how businesses can use LinkedIn beyond finding good employees.
Source: Linkedin.com
With more than 135 million members in over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn has to be constantly evolving – but how can it increase sales leads or help a business find a great vendor or partner? It’s easy… just pay attention to its key components:
Top Headlines. Look here for articles that are relevant to your industry and the economy in general. I’m constantly sharing articles that are featured in the “Top Headlines” area of the site. The articles are worth reading and give you a good reason to follow up with leads by sending articles relevant to them or their business.
Updates. Take a look at this area. It lets you know who’s made a move, if your contacts are linking up with people who could be valuable to you, or if they’ve written something interesting. I’ve found that tracking “Updates” gives me something I can always use to start a conversation.
People You May Know. Go on, do a little stalking. Connect with anyone who shares a mutual contact. Just explain why you are connecting without sounding like a sales pitch. There’s a good chance they’ll want to be connected to find out why you may be valuable to them and see what your contact list looks like.
Groups You May Like. Join as many LinkedIn groups as you can to find out which provide the best information and go from there. You’ll find interesting discussions specific to your industry, making it really easy to stay up to date on industry trends, particularly if you sign up for the email threads that share discussions on topics specific to each group.
Companies You May Want to Follow. This area lists several of my competitors, but again, is a good place to stay up to date. You need to know what competitors are doing, and following this section of the site makes it easy to keep track of innovation in your industry.
More. This little drop down is oh so helpful, offering even more resources on LinkedIn. The answers function allows you to ask and answer popular questions similar to Quora. You could even become an expert in a certain area and be featured on LinkedIn’s home page. The Amazon Reading List allows you to enter and search books helpful to your industry. There’s also a place to search and add industry events, and research polls on various topics.
While I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for a few years, I’ve just recently come to appreciate its power. I like knowing what I can about someone before I meet in a professional setting and this intelligence is equally beneficial for businesses reaching out to make sales connections or find a good partner. So before you decide LinkedIn is just a place to post your resume, take an afternoon to spend some time updating your profile and researching the site’s tools, and don’t forget to download the app to your smart phone. As you’ll see, its basic components can increase your industry knowledge and networkability.
What’s bubbling up with SOPA?
You may have been reading about SOPA for the last few weeks or you may just now be hearing about it. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a proposed bill that – if passed – would restrict access to websites that host or facilitate pirated content. There is a lot of talk among groups and social forums in general about this bill, whether it will be passed and the potential effects it could have in the online world.
If you have not already, we suggest you read up on SOPA so you can follow this newsworthy bill’s progress. Here are a few articles that explain more about SOPA, break down the potential effects, and share both sides of the soap:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/technology/sopa_explained/index.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/
What are your thoughts about SOPA? Are you in favor or against?
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