Posted by Melissa Thompson

Social media feeds are always flooded with people’s selfies. Whether it’s a selfie of them doing something fun or just to document how cute they were looking that day, seemingly perfect selfies are likely a huge portion of what you see when you’re scrolling through your own social media feeds. 

But if you’re one of the many people who just can’t seem to take a good selfie, you’ve likely always wondered how some people can be so good at taking photos of themselves. So to help you actually become one of these people, here are three secrets for posting better selfies on social media. 

Stay Out Of The Shadows

One of the most important things to think about before taking a selfie is the lighting. According to Stephanie Saltzman and Jenna Rosenstein, contributors to Allure.com, the best lighting you can have when taking a selfie is natural lighting. So if you can, get outside or to a window so you can have a more natural glow about you.

In conjunction with light, you also need to be careful about how shadows are playing with the light. Even if you’re looking flawless, it can appear like you have big bags under your eyes or flaws all over your skin when you’re in bad shadows. So to ensure that your face looks perfect and your body looks like you’ve just had dermal fillers, try your best to stay out of the shadows.  

Create The Right Angles

Once you’ve got some good light to work with, you now need to make sure that you’re pointing the camera at the right angles of your face and body to make everything appear slimmer and more angular. 

To do this, Krystyna Chavez and Carly Cardellino, contributors to Cosmopolitan.com, recommend that you try tricks like looking up into the camera and extended your head further away from your neck. By doing these things, you’ll be able to make your neck and face appear slimmer as well as making your face and shoulders appear more relaxed. 

Give Yourself Options

When it comes to getting a good selfie, the more options you have to choose from, the better off you’ll be. Because of this, Elinor Block, a contributor to WhoWhatWear.com, recommends that you start off by taking way more selfies than you need. 

Once you have a good pool to choose from, go through the photos until you find the one you like the best. After this, pick a flattering filter or do a little editing of the photo to ensure that it’s just the way you want it. Finally, post the selfie to your profile and see the likes and comments come flooding in.

If you want to be able to take better selfies to post to social media, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you do just that.

Posted by Melissa Thompson

Social media has become more than just a place to share a few photos of your dinner and laugh at funny memes. In many ways, social media drives the way society sees itself and others. The power of social media is unrivaled, and as a result, so is the pressure that it can put on those that take part in it. 

As more and more people spend a large portion of their day scrolling and double-tapping, the more susceptible that they may be to the powers social media has over us. So, how has it shaped society? Here are some of the biggest ways that social media puts pressure on our daily lives. 

Unrealistic Physical Expectations

Social media, although it can connect us, can be incredibly deceiving. By using filters and retouching apps, people make themselves look unattainably perfect.  As a result, other people turn to plastic surgery in hopes of getting that “perfect Instagram look.”  While there’s nothing wrong with plastic surgery or wanting to look good in and of itself, it’s important what your motivation is behind it.  

If you’re trying to be perfect, the bad news is you’ll never get there. You will always find flaws and quirks that you’ll try to erase. Instead, you should embrace your differences rather than settling for a homogenous version of yourself.

Need to Be Popular

Social media is all a numbers game. If you don’t have a certain amount of followers and likes, then you may translate that into defining your self-worth.

The need to be popular isn’t new. Humans long for acceptance and validation amongst their peers and family. However, social media brings our need to be popular on a greater scale.

Somehow we have started seeing our value attached to the number of people that are following our accounts. 

Advertisements

The more time that you spend online, the more advertisements that you scroll past. The constant pressure to consume and buy can leave you feeling empty.

Too much exposure to advertisements starts to make you feel like you never have enough, no matter how much you have.

Addiction To Being Validated

It’s not an uncommon scenario for someone to post something, only too feel deflated if it isn’t instantly liked. They may become fixated with checking their social media over and over throughout the day to see whether their post is gaining attention.

Over time, it can become a full-fledged addiction. Without a certain amount of likes, they can grow irritable and depressed.

Hive Mind Mentality

Social media can create herds of people thinking in the same way, afraid to step outside of the norm. This hive-mind mentality can be positive for causes like equal rights, or world peace, however, in some cases, it can also fuel hate and intolerance. 

Posted by Melissa Thompson

No matter what product or service your business provides, you are going to need a strong presence on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are all heavily used platforms by most Americans and could drive significant business your way.

Need convincing? Pew Internet research shows that two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) use Facebook. About 75% of those users access the platform daily. YouTube is another heavily-used platform, even if it is not traditionally called ‘social media’. Three-quarters of U.S. adults and 94% of 18 to 24-year-olds use YouTube. Around 35% of adults state that they use Instagram, and another 24% say that they use Twitter. Many of these users, like those on Facebook, access the platform daily.

Matt D’Souza, Vice President of Sales Operations at Washify, knows first-hand the benefits of a social media presence. “The most important thing is carefully choosing your social media handle. It must be something memorable and something that represents your brand.” But how to choose?

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Social Media Handle

When it comes to choosing the perfect handle (username) for social media, you not only want to consider what your business is now, but what it will be doing in the future. Keep in mind that you may want to add future services. Pigeon-holing yourself into a handle that doesn’t take into account the ways in which your business might grow will mean having to come up with a new handle when those changes do happen.

Try to keep your social media handle to 15 characters or less. A shorter handle will allow you to use them across all social media platforms because Twitter limits names to 15 characters. 

Be memorable. If you’re unable to use your real name, choose something memorable. While you can certainly be witty or punny, try not to go over the line. 

Establish a URL that is the same as your social network handles. Find out if your chosen name is available and if it is, go ahead and reserve it. This will avoid the risk of having someone cash in by reserving your name for a URL and then charging an exorbitant price for it. 

Make sure you choose a social media handle that will work for you now and in the future. Currently, Facebook allows only one handle change. Twitter allows for multiple changes, but a better name might not always be available. 

The Handle I Want Is Taken. Now What?

Unfortunately, this happens. However, you can find a workaround and still get your brand name out there. Consider these options:

• Use a location such as ATL for Atlanta or USA
• Place words like “the,” “real,” and “official” in front of your name
• Add periods, underscores, or other punctuation
• Put words like “ask” or “we are” in front of your brand name

These steps can help you pick a social media handle that will serve you not only now, but also in the years to come.

Posted by Melissa Thompson

One of the most common mistakes business owners make is thinking that social media and digital marketing are the same thing.  They’re not the same. Social media is a crucial part of the full scope of digital marketing, but it is only one piece of the puzzle.  

Understanding how to utilize social media platforms properly is an invaluable tool for success in business today.  Take a few moments now to check out a brief overview, featuring some of the ways in which you can use social media to boost your business.  

Social media helps spread the word

The most obvious role of social media in digital marketing is the mega-audience it provides for businesses looking to spread the word.  Use social media sharing icons to make your digital content more “shareable.”  

Add sharing icons to your business website, your blog posts, and your operation’s intermittent newsletter.  The more opportunities you present web users to share your digital content, the more prevalent the impact will be on your organization’s visibility.  

Maintain a constant flow of information

The world and the web move at a fast pace, and your business has to keep up with the pace of change to remain competitive.  Your business needs a few professionals who devote their skills to building and maintaining your operation’s digital presence.  

If you don’t have the funds to create a new position, it’s wise to enlist the help of the professionals.  Hire a link-building specialist to boost your digital efficiency.  The key is to maintain a constant flow of information to keep consumer engagement on the up and up.  

Build a presence on several platforms

You won’t reach the level of success you’re hoping to achieve without casting a wide net online.  Create a business profile for your operation on a few of the social media platforms which seem to be most relevant to your industry.  

Do some research to find out where your target consumers spend most of their time when they’re browsing social media.  Use the information you uncover to spread news about your business operation and boost visibility in the right places.  

Interact with consumers through social media

Setting up various social media profiles for your business is great, but it’s only one step to creating the bigger picture.  Your social media profiles can do some things by just existing, but engagement with followers and passing users will make them far more effective.  

When people comment on your posts, take that action as an opportunity to interact with a potential client.  Setup simple polls and questionnaires for viewers to check out, and keep people interested in what might happen next.  

Posted by Melissa Thompson

Your doorbell rings, but you’re not expecting any visitors. You peek through the blinds and out the window to see an unfamiliar face staring at your front door. He’s holding a folder and dressed in business attire. 

Great, it’s a salesperson. You tiptoe away and hope he didn’t see you peeking out at him.

Door-to-door marketing is a traditional way of selling a product or service. In today’s day and age, it isn’t the most successful way of making sales because let’s face it: people don’t want to open the door to strangers.

Now, a huge portion of marketing takes place online in the form of written content and video advertisements. With the number of people that have access to the internet, it’s easy to see why these new methods are so much more successful.

The best way to make the most of your online marketing strategies is to give the people what they want. 

Some marketing practices are not as successful as others because they focus too much on selling their product rather than drawing the interest of viewers. Potential customers do not want to be marketed to. They want to see your product or service in action and realize how it can help them.

Marketing might not be a simple task, but many companies have done it well. Here are 10 videos that provide great information on the various subsets of marketing. 

• Introduction to Content Marketing – BuzzFeed

Content Marketing is an extremely important aspect of modern-day marketing. It defines your brand and a good strategy does more for you than you can imagine. 

Telling your product’s story in the right way is important to stress on. You have to make sure that your brand’s identity is managed well.

Strategically, content marketing is also used as a powerful tool to obtain positive results with search engines. Watch the video above featuring Keith Hernandez of Buzzfeed. He shares some insights that prove as a valuable introduction to new-school marketing. 

• Content Marketing Tips for B2B Organizations – Whiteboard Friday

I like these Whiteboard Friday sessions with Moz. This particular video focuses on the challenges that come with B2B Marketing. 

In this video, the host Rand stresses the importance of analyzing your buyer’s persona. It is important to write content according to your buyer’s persona. 

So within B2B Marketing, content generation, placement, and marketing get more complex when compared to B2C. 

It is crucial to focus on the right metrics and create precise funnels through your content over the web. Watch the video to get a detailed account of the B2B Content Marketing process, and gain some great perspective. 

• 13 Proven Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs – Buffer

Social Media Marketing is a major challenge for most of us. The competition is intense, and it’s hard to know where to start. This video by Buffer focuses on the importance of defining your goals. 

The host in the video touches on creating an open-ended community of customers and potential customers. This is important to build loyalty with existing customers. 

Your social media profiles represent your brand-voice and act as great funnels. Social Media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter help with sharing all other content as well. 

            Watch the video to learn how to fully utilize these platforms, and share it with your marketing team. 

• How to gain Instagram followers organically 2019 – Vanessa Lau

Instagram has evolved to be the #1 social platform when you look at conversions, no matter what you are directly selling. Whether you define your conversion as a product sale or app download, you have to have your  Instagram strategy on point. 

In this video, the host Vanessa Lau, explains various concepts to keep in mind to benefit from your Instagram account. Some of the concepts include changing your Instagram name for SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and establishing trust with your clients or customers. 

She also shares tips on how to conduct hashtag research for engagements, and create a successful hashtag for your business. The video throws light on creating impressions and designing an impressive feed, so you gain followers from the first impression you make.

            Don’t take your Instagram account lightly, and dedicate time to make it a profitable medium for your business. 

• 3 Ways to make your blog posts go viral – Neil Patel

As we discussed earlier, creating compelling content consistently is important. Apart from placing content all over the web, and your website, it is crucial to follow all strategies to increase viewership. 

This quick video by marketing whiz – Neil Patel, touches base on how to achieve virality for your content while reducing ad spends by focusing on content marketing. 

The content you put out there through your blog is a representation of your brand. Maintaining a blog that not only acts as a great marketing tool but also is a great resource for your customer base, is the way to go! 

• How to Get Traffic from Press Releases – Hernan Vasquez 

Press Releases are an important aspect of marketing any business, and all-important business activity. It is important to be recognized by high-authority publications from the time you launch as well as on the go when you have important news to share. 

Getting featured in publications relative to your field is the best way to go, apart from distributing content to other widely known publications.

This video by Hernan Vasquez provides some great tips on driving traffic through press releases.

• Why PR (Public Relations) is important for your business – Jerry Silfwer (TedX Talk)

Public Relations has a huge impact on your business. Like the name suggests it’s all about how you interact with your audience. 

            This process includes structuring your messaging and deciding on how you respond to your critics publically and personally.

           PR is about all forms of public communication including, managing your community and supporting social causes that are in tune with your brand. As a business, you have to continuously find ways to develop and grow your relationship with the world. 

In this particular Tedx talk, Jerry Silfwer breaks down the PR process and gives you gainful insight on creating a successful PR strategy. 

• Video Marketing Strategies to Captivate the Modern Audience – Tom Ferry

           Video marketing is extremely essential to maximize conversions. In today’s day and age, a high-volume of video content needs to be generated for your business. 

           Keeping the high demand for video in mind, you also have to make sure you are only delivering high-quality content, which gives you more reach. 

           With technology constantly evolving, consistent video-marketing can be executed by having a small dedicated team to produce content. With both animation and regular filming in the mix, you have so many options to choose from in terms of the type of content you want to put out there. 

           Agencies are always an option, and a good agency knows how to maximize your ROI, which has to be taken into consideration before deciding on who to work with.

              In the video above Tom Ferry shares exciting tips on how you can capitalize on this dominating video market. 

• Complete guide to SEO in 2019 – Income School

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about the strategy to achieve rankings on a search engine like Google which is most relevant to us in the United States. 

This includes the process of applying and competing for keywords, blogging in sync with your result-driven goals, backlinking strategy, and creating content that gets picked up by Google’s crawlers. 

           In recent times, SEO has become an extremely technical field, and it’s important to work with experts to achieve your optimization goals. The video above is a webinar recently conducted by Income School. 

          In the video, the hosts share various tips and tricks to rank well on Google. They also share industry experiences, and examples to give you some great ideas on how to go about your SEO strategy. 

• Experiential Marketing is the Future of Advertising – Layne Braunstein (TedX talk)

             This is a very interesting talk by Layne Braunstein. He explains what experiential marketing is, and gives detailed accounts of his experiences with it. 

             Braunstein reminds us that while creating marketing strategies, the focus has to be on humans. Society has now evolved, and most brands are simply influenced by humans. This is important to understand. 

            Events are a great medium to execute experiential marketing plans. In this video, Braunstein gives examples of some marketing campaigns he worked on that involved extremely unique events. 

           The other tool used often for this breed of marketing is – technology. You’d be surprised by the innovative strategies a strong team can come up with to interact with a wide range of audiences through web and mobile devices. 

           Do watch this video to take a look at some modern-day marketing approaches led by Layne Braunstein to get some great perspective. 

The best way to create a successful marketing strategy is to appeal to the audience’s emotions as well as their wants. It is important to have an industry-specific marketing strategy to determine the tone of your content. Whether content makes them cry, laugh, cringe, or simply learn, it has to make them favor your brand. 

Before creating marketing content to increase your sales, keep in mind the steps you’ll need to take to reach success. It helps to take some time to assess where you currently are in your marketing strategies to make sure you have the resources to improve.

Don’t sell yourself short by not dedicating enough time or funds to creating and executing the best marketing practices.