Andrew Macarthy's Blog, page 24

9 Snapchat Tips and Tricks You Might Not Know About 2014 | Snapchat Hidden Secrets

9 Snapchat Tips and Tricks You Might Not Know About 2014 | Snapchat Hidden Secrets

Snapchat is increasingly being used by brands as a unique way to connect with their customers. If you're one of those brands, are you making the most of everything the photo and video sharing app has to offer? Here are 9 Snapchat Tips and Tricks You Might Not Know About, updated for the summer of 2014.

Turn on visual effects first...

In order to take advantage of some of the following tips, you'll need to enable them from the "Manage" section under "Additional Services" in Snapchat settings. At a minimum, switch on Filters, Replay, and Special Text. Done? Let's go...

1. Add filters to your snapped photos

When you have taken a photo, swipe your phone's screen to add one of three Instagram-alike visual filters, including sepia and black and white.

2. Add a time stamp or temperature

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If you continue to swipe left or right, you'll be able to add a time stamp or current temperature to your snap, but you'll need to make sure you have Location Services for Snapchat turned on for these to work.

3. Make text annotation large (and centre align it)

Everyone knows you can tap the screen to add text, but if you then tap the "T" icon, the text will become much larger. Tapping it once more will - as with the smaller text caption - centre it on the screen.

4. Use Emojis in your Snaps...

Snapchat's text function is compatible with the hugely popular Emojis emoticons, so if you have them installed, feel free to add them to your snaps to add a splash of colour or personality.

5. Make room for more text

Need more space to say what you want to say? Rotate your phone into landscape mode and you'll have around 1/3 more space to add text to your snaps. However, the image will then appear in landscape mode when sent (not so bad if it was taken in landscape mode, but awkward if it wasn't), so there is a trade-off on this one...

6. Use black and white colour paintbrush

Snapchat's paintbrush has two hidden colours - black and white. To use either black and white, tap on the colour bar and drag your finger all the way down and to the left, or tap and drag towards the left on the opposite side of the screen, respectively. Do not lift your finger off the screen during this command.

7. Replay a snap

It used to be that when you watched an ordinary snap, it was gone for good. However, with the option switched on in Settings, you'll be able to replay one snap per day. Once you've viewed a snap, look out for the "Press and hold to replay" message alongside it.

8. Skip through Snapchat stories

Already seen most of a long Snapchat story and just want to skip to the good bit? While holding your finger on the screen to watch, use a finger on your other hand to tap the screen. Each tap will tell Snapchat to skip to the start of the next section of the story.

9. View the time stamp of a chat message

Just like iPhone messages, you can see when each Snapchat chat message was sent by dragging your finger to the right on the screen, essentially pulling the chat screen away to reveal the time stamp underneath.

Over to you

Did you know about all of these hidden features in Snapchat? Have you discovered any Snapchat tips and tricks not listed here? If so, let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

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5 Lessons the Wimbledon Tennis Championships Can Teach You to Ace Social Media Marketing

5 Lessons the Wimbledon Tennis Championships Can Teach You to Ace Social Media Marketing

 With the Wimbledon tennis championships currently in full swing (sorry), now seemed like a good time to serve up (and again) a blog post all about the not-tenuous-at-all similarities between it and social media marketing. Keep reading to digest some match-winning strategy (no more, I promise), and to see some lovely photos courtesy of Instagram users lucky enough to be at the event... 

1. Advertising is subtle or kept to a minimum

Unlike other tennis tournaments, Wimbledon does not allow advertising around the edge of the courts, but the competitors' shirts do feature subtle mentions of their sponsors. Social media marketing works best, and is classy like Wimbledon, when self-promotion is subtle or infrequent.

2. Making the best of every opening

The British weather is temperamental at the best of times, so the weather at Wimbledon is monitored carefully and every effort is made to play while the sun shines. Capitalise on positive moments for your social media strategy, including company milestones, customer testimonials, and highlighting charitable work. 

3. Displaying impeccable etiquette

Proper naming etiquette and Victorian ideals are still maintained at Wimbledon. Male and female players are reffered to as "Mr" and "Miss" or "Mrs" respectively during matches. You needn't go that far on social media, but being polite and personable in reply to everyone that interacts on your page or profile goes a long way to building stronger relationships with your customers.

4. Getting the mix perfect

Strawberries and cream have been synonymous with Wimbledon since the 19th century; a day at the championships isn't complete without it, and they're the perfect accompaniment to any British summer's day. Matching up the right content for different social networks is just important. For example, what works on Facebook or Twitter doesn't always appeal to a different audience on Pinterest or Instagram.

5. Having a strong brand image

Dark green and purple are the traditional Wimbledon colours - if you see an image of a Wimbledon tennis match, you'll know it. With such an abundance of visual content on social media (and the tendency for people to steal), it is imperative that your brand image stands out from the competition whether through your colour scheme, logo, composition, fonts, filters, or other.

Over to you

Has Wimbledon inspired you to reflect on your social media strategy? Or are you already ace-ing every suggestion made above? Let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

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5 Instagram Hacks to Publish Perfect Photos Every Time

5 Instagram Hacks to Publish Perfect Photos Every Time

With summer now in full swing, I've taken the opportunity to relaunch my activity on Instagram. The app has seen a lot of big changes over the past year or so, including some nifty hidden features that you might not have noticed; tools that can vastly improve the quality of the photos you publish to your Instagram feed. Here are 5 Instagram Hacks to Publish Perfect Photos Every Time...

1. Use grid lines to straighten your photo

Even when you use your camera's grid line overlay, it can be difficult to line up a shot as straight as you like, which is where Instagram's Straighten tool comes into play. But did you know that double-tapping the screen three times in succession provides you with increasingly dense sets of grid lines? This is a great help if you need closer points of reference to angle your photo just right.

2. Compare "before" and "after" differences

When you've spent a while editing an image, sometimes it's easy to forget how it looked when you first began; reminding yourself of this will ensure that you don't go too overboard with your changes. Did you know that, on the filter selection screen, if you press and hold your finger on the image, you will bring up a snapshot of the original for comparison? Switch back and forth as much as you like until you're happy with the final result.

3. Set the strength of a filter and add a frame

Sometimes applying a default filter setting will give you the result you desire, but often you'll need to tweak the intensity. Did you know that double-tapping on a filter will bring up a slider bar for you to increase and decrease the strength of a filter, as well as add a frame if there is one available?

4. Double-check your photo just before sharing

There's nothing worse than publishing an Instagram snap, only to notice it hasn't come out quite as you anticipated. When you've spent so long editing a photo to make it look great, even the smallest defect can ruin the final result. Did you know that tapping on the thumbnail of the photo on the "Share to" screen blows it up into full view? This will give you one important, final chance to survey your post before it goes live to the world.

5. Use your earphones to avoid camera shake

This "hack" best applies to situations where even touching your phone to shoot a photo might upset the position or focus of the final result. (such as in low light) Did you know that your headphone volume can be used as a "shoot" button? Plug in your Apple earphones and hit the "volume up" button to take a photo.

Over to you

Were you already aware of these little Instagram hacks? If not, are you going to put them into practice? Let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
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5 Ways to Use the World Cup to Drive Engagement and Sales on Social Media

Results from a poll by Crowdtap found that a massive 74% of people will be posting on social media about the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in some capacity. With a world gone soccer crazy for the duration of the tournament, now's a perfect time to introduce some related content into your own marketing. Let's take a look at a variety of ways that brands are already taking advantage of the World Cup buzz, and hopefully you'll be inspired to create your own soccer-inspired content.

1. Four Seasons Hotel in Denver shows the human side of its brand, with staff getting behind their home teams...2. What's On Stage introduces some humour and national pride into its good luck message for the England team...

Good luck to England in their World Cup opener tomorrow. Do you like our Dream Casting? http://t.co/RdzrrLsk4E pic.twitter.com/2SxqpQmlRn

— WhatsOnStage (@WhatsOnStage) June 13, 2014

3. Soho Tea Room in Vancouver uses the World Cup to encourage customers with a special offer...
Post by Soho Tea Room.4. Insurance price comparison website, Confused.com has some team-picking fun on Vine...5. Click Fragrance offers a World Cup-inspired nail art tutorial - and promotes its nail products at the same time...

5 WaysBrands Are Using the FIFA World Cup to Drive Engagement and Sales on Social Media

Over to you

Will you be using the World Cup in your social media marketing? Let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
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5 Ways to Use Instagram to Connect With Customers And Drive Sales (Pressed Juice Case Study)

5 Ways to Use Instagram to Connect With Customers And Drive Sales 

Are you looking for inspiration and ideas when it comes to connecting with your customers on Instagram? Your approach should reflect the image-heavy app's focus on creative and emotive content, and one brand doing a very good job of it is Pressed Juicery. Let's take a look at a selection of the ways that it uses Instagram to attract an audience and engage with its fans:

1. Collaborations

In this image, Pressed Juicery works in conjunction with the Chalkboard Mag to promote each others' Instagram accounts and products. The content inspires users to try out the recipe, and reflects a scene that many of its customers might imagine happening in their own homes.

2. Cuteness

Any image that has the "aww" factor stands a good chance of being received well on social media, and the above image's like and comment count is testament to this. While the main focus of the image is on the dog, there is also a subtle hint of product promotion too.

3. Regramming

We saw an instance of re-gramming for collaboration's sake above, but here Pressed Juicery shares a photo (featuring one of its products) that was taken by a fan. By spotlighting it on their own account, it makes the customer feel special (making them more likely to share the image with their friends), and reinforces to everyone else the kind of lifestyle and culture associated with the brand.

4. Humour

In addition to cuteness, humour is a hugely popular category of images on social media. In the above example, Pressed Juicery shows the fun side of its brand personality, and hints to the fact that its products are something worth treasuring!

5. Promotion

Weve seen subtle use of branding and promotion in the earlier examples, but Pressed Juicery goes for a more overt tactic here. The company uses three separate images to tease and reveal the announcement of a summer promotion, complete with clear text overlays and pricing. It's well-known that users do not react well to constant self-promotion on social media, but when you've "earned" the opportunity through a mainly useful, entertaining, selfless, content strategy, the odd announcement like the above is normally okay. 

Over to you

How are you using Instagram to connect with your customers? Have any of the examples above given you inspiration for your strategy? Let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

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5 Ways to Use Instagram to Connect With Customers And Drive Sales (Pressed Ju

5 Ways to Use Instagram to Connect With Customers And Drive Sales 

Are you looking for inspiration and ideas when it comes to connecting with your customers on Instagram? Your approach should reflect the image-heavy app's focus on creative and emotive content, and one brand doing a very good job of it is Pressed Juicery. Let's take a look at a selection of the ways that it uses Instagram to attract an audience and engage with its fans:

1. Collaborations

In this image, Pressed Juicery works in conjunction with the Chalkboard Mag to promote each others' Instagram accounts and products. The content inspires users to try out the recipe, and reflects a scene that many of its customers might imagine happening in their own homes.

2. Cuteness

Any image that has the "aww" factor stands a good chance of being received well on social media, and the above image's like and comment count is testament to this. While the main focus of the image is on the dog, there is also a subtle hint of product promotion too.

3. Regramming

We saw an instance of re-gramming for collaboration's sake above, but here Pressed Juicery shares a photo (featuring one of its products) that was taken by a fan. By spotlighting it on their own account, it makes the customer feel special (making them more likely to share the image with their friends), and reinforces to everyone else the kind of lifestyle and culture associated with the brand.

4. Humour

In addition to cuteness, humour is a hugely popular category of images on social media. In the above example, Pressed Juicery shows the fun side of its brand personality, and hints to the fact that its products are something worth treasuring!

5. Promotion

Weve seen subtle use of branding and promotion in the earlier examples, but Pressed Juicery goes for a more overt tactic here. The company uses three separate images to tease and reveal the announcement of a summer promotion, complete with clear text overlays and pricing. It's well-known that users do not react well to constant self-promotion on social media, but when you've "earned" the opportunity through a mainly useful, entertaining, selfless, content strategy, the odd announcement like the above is normally okay. 

Over to you

How are you using Instagram to connect with your customers? Have any of the examples above given you inspiration for your strategy? Let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

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5 Quick Optimisation Tips for New Facebook Pages

5 Quick Optimisation Tips for New Facebook Pages

Now that everyone has been given access to the new-style Facebook Page, now's a good time to give it a good once over and a refresh. With that in mind, here are 5 quick and simple strategies to optimise the look and feel of your Facebook Page.

1. Any URLs in the short About section are no longer clickable like they were in the old design. So, make sure that yours are short and memorable for visitors who want to check them out.

2. Click on the pencil icon that appears when you hover your mouse cursor over any section in the left-hand column of your Page. Select Manage Sections and you'll be able to re-order whole sections of your Page by dragging and dropping them into your desired order.

3. The title of the first app on your Page appears underneath your cover photo. Take advantage of this added visibility by making its name click-worthy!

4. Speaking of custom apps, if you choose Manage Apps from the "More" menu at the top of your Page, this is where you can re-order them into the order that you wish.

5. Keep an eye on the Suggested Edits section of your Page Settings to respond to any recommendations for improvements made to you by fans.

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
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Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

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How to Schedule Instagram Posts Using the Latergramme App or Latergramme Website

How to Schedule Instagram Posts Using the Latergramme App or Latergramme Website

Do you ever wish you could schedule your Instagram posts? lWhether you're a marketer who doesn't want to flood your followers with loads of content all at once, or you want to accurately upload multiple photos to Instagram as part of a promotional campaign, the ability to schedule posts is very handy. To do that, enter Latergramme.

This iOS and web app allows you to upload Instagram posts to its interactive calendar, prep them with your caption, then schedule a time and date that you want to upload your photo. When the time comes, you'll receive a notification on your mobile device, then be prompted to open the official Instagram app to publish the item to your feed. 

Instagram does not permit third party software to post to its app, which is why the last step must be to open and publish through Instagram proper.

Here is a step-by-step guide to using Latergramme for iOS and on the web:

1. Download Latergramme fro the App Store and sign in.














. Tap the camera icon to take a photo or choose one from your Camera Roll.














3. Enter your image's caption and choose the date and time you want to post it to Instagram. Tap upload.














4. The image will appear under the "Scheduled" tab, waiting for its time to be posted. If you get impatient, swipe over the image to the right and it can be uploaded right away.














5. When your scheduled date and time arrives, you will receive a notification on your mobile device to let you know. Tap it.














6. Latergramme will open and you will see an Open in Instagram prompt. Tap it.














7. Instagram will open, ready for you to edit the photo if necessary. Otherwise, just skip ahead and publish!

Latergramme also has a web app at Latergramme.me. It functions in much the same way as the mobile version:

After you sign in, you can upload photos and drag them onto the interactive calendar to mark when you want to be prompted to post them to Instagram.














Again, you can pre-load your photo caption to save some time when it comes to publishing,














As a bonus, Latergramme includes a basic Analytics tool that shows your Top Liked and Top Commented Instagram photos.














Conclusion

While Latergramme isn't a perfect solution (that will only come when Instagram introduces its own official scheduling tool that includes automatic publishing), it is still a pretty good option for now, especially - as mentioned in my introduction - if you are a heavy Instagram user or planning a regular posting routine as part of a marketing campaign.

Are you a Latergramme user already or will you be giving the app a try? Let me know in the comments below! And if you think someone else would benefit from Latergramme, don't forget to share this post with them by clicking below!

Want to use Instagram for business success?

Join my Udemy video course, How to Use Instagram For Business,  the #1-rated Instagram course on Udemy and already enjoyed by over 700 people just like you.

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

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6 Ways to Brand Your Images For Social Media (And Why You Should Start Today)

6 Ways to Brand Your Images For Social Media (And Why You Should Start Today)

Social networks, more and more, are becoming a visual as a medium. With so much competition for eyeballs, it is important  for brands to ensure that their images are as eye-catching and recognisable as possible in order to get noticed. High quality images are one thing, but having fans instantly recognise when an image has been posted by you as they scroll through their visually-saturated news feeds, is also crucial.

One of the best ways to help make this happen is to brand your images before uploading them, so that your fans become familiar with your identity and style, and will hopefully pay attention and engage with the content. Here are six easy ways to do brand your images for social media:

1. Image border - Sainsbury's

The branding of Sainsbury's, a major supermarket in the UK, is synonymous with the colour orange. The method it uses to stamp its mark on is Facebook images is very subtle - just a thin orange line that sits underneath the photo. This method makes sure nothing detracts from the image itself, and espite the branding's subtlety, Sainsbury's still benefits because the quality of the photos it uses is high, and the brand is already very well known. Of course, this tactic could be extended to using a thin border around the whole image.

2. Logo - Pepsi

Pepsi makes sure that there is no mistaking who created its images; you might want to as well, with a large, clear logo. In some respects, Pepsi is such a big name that it can get away with this kind of overt marketing, but a large proportion of companies would benefit from branding that isn't so in-your-face (much smaller logo, more subtle), and posts that fit more naturally into the News Feeds of Facebook users.

3. Fonts - Microsoft

Microsoft is well-known for consistently using the above font in its advertising, and this also extends to its social media content. Identifying a font that reflects your brand image and using it consistently in your social media images will train fans to recognise it, and they're more likely to quickly spot your updates in their News Feeds as a result.

4. Color themes - Gap

The Gap clothing brand is synonymous with the colour combination of navy blue and white, and these hues are often reflected in its social media content,. While implementing a consistent colour palette might be tricky to do in the majority of everyday images, it is a lot easier to do in that which you create from scratch, such as something like the motivational quote above.

5. Filters - Tiger Lily

Using a consistent set of photo filters in your images can help to convey your brand's personality and culture - are you cool and fresh, suave and sophisticated, fun and playful, etc.. Of course, the filters you choose must fit well with your company's existing palette of colours in order for this strategy to pay off.

6. Post template - Oreo

Designing a template to be used for image posts is a good way of maintaining the consistency of branding over a series of posts, and your audience will pick up on the repeating pattern as well. In the example above, Oreo uses the same image/caption layout to mark significant dates in history.

Conclusion

Predictions point to the fact that visual content use on social media will continue to rise - 70% of marketers plan on increasing their use of just infographics and memes alone over the course of the next year, according to a poll by Social Media Examiner. If you do not already have a concrete brand image on social media, now if the time to do it, and the ideas above should help to get you on the right track.

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
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5 Inventive Selfie Contest Ideas for Social Media Marketing (With Real Life Examples)

 

5 Inventive Selfie Contest Ideas for Social Media Marketing (With Real Life Examples)

Incorporating selfies into your social media marketing contests is a sound strategy for a number of reasons, not least because it is a fun and easy way for your fans to engage with your brand, and their very nature means people will want to share them - free advertising for you!

Here are 5 Inventive Selfie Contest Ideas for Social Media Marketing (With Real Life Examples) for you to be inspired by:

1. Each month, Lens Village gives prizes away for the most liked and most unique selfies uploaded to Instagram with its unique hashtag, and @mentioning the brand name.

Tagged photos are fed into a live feed on its website to encourage more people to get in on the action. Would love to see this feed on a custom Facebook tab, too.

2. BarkBox invited fans to take selfies in front of a number of its poster ads, dotted around the subway in New York in order to win a 6-month subscription to its service.

Want to Win a 6-month BarkBox Subscription? Snap a Selfie! >>> http://t.co/EcJB3LsHuV via @BarkPost pic.twitter.com/NAvdDmI7JH

— BarkBox (@barkbox) May 23, 2014

The entry requirements read, "Keep your eyes peeled for these pups! When you find one, snap a selfie and use #BarkBoxSubwaySelfie on Twitter and Instagram. The first 10 people to email us at subwayselfie@barkbox.com with selfies featuring ALL 4 ads will win a 6-month subscription to BarkBox!"

3. Fisherman's Friend - a company that makes strong menthol lozenges - asked fans to take selfies to show what happens when they eat one...

Have you got what it takes to feature on our Wall of Fame? Tweet us a #selfie of you and your FF lozenges to #win. pic.twitter.com/ceGnrLzW4C

— Fisherman's Friend (@Fishermans_UK) March 27, 2014

No prizes for this one, but a coveted place on the brand's Wall of Fame is reward enough for many people to get involved.

4. Get Your Guide, a company that provides ideas of things to do in vacation hot spots all around the world, asked fans to snap selfies while on holiday. The photos are shared to Facebook, where voting through "likes" decides the winner of a cash prize.














5. Even B2B companies are jumping on the selfie bandwagon. Salesforce invited users of its newest app to show (via a selfie) how they use it within their business, for a chance to win a trip to Dreamforce 2014.

The #Salesforce1Selfie contest ends on 5/30. Share yours for a chance to win a trip to #DF14 http://t.co/qadZl8JSDZ pic.twitter.com/CMrhG96R0m

— Salesforce (@salesforce) May 16, 2014

The entry requirements read: 

"Take a screenshot of how you use the Salesforce1 Mobile App. Include a description of how you use it to run your business from your phone. Then share on Twitter using hashtag #salesforce1selfie.

Entries will be judged based on these equally weighted criteria:

business application;creative application of Salesforce1; andusefulness to employees."
Conclusion

Have you used selfies in your own social media marketing contests, or do you plan to in future? Let me know your ideas in the comments below!