Finding the Perfect Brand Influencers

Social media is the most powerful tool when it comes to building brand awareness and gaining loyalty. With that, your “brand” is less of how you see yourself, and more of how others perceive your brand. You can, however, strategically guide your audience to perceive your brand in a way that corresponds to your overall vision for the brand. One way to guide this perception is through utilizing brand influencers on social channels to drive recognition and recommend the brand to their audiences. Here are some tips and recommendations for finding the perfect brand influencers on Instagram.

1. Make sure the potential influencers’ online presences align with your core values and target audience. The brand influencers you choose will be a reflection of your brand, and it is important that the partnership makes sense. For example, if your target audience is young, active couples, you wouldn’t choose a middle-aged suburban home-decor blogger. There are plenty of brand influencers out there across so many categories.

2. Check the engagement level of the influencers’ followers. While targeting brand influencers with high follower levels expands your reach, having engaged followers is more successful for your ROI. The number of likes, comments, and tagged photos is more important because your audience is actively engaging with your brand influencers and therefore engaging with your brand. 

3. Authenticity is key. The best and most successful brand influencers come across as friends, not as paid advertisements. Look for users who incorporate real-life, authentic moments of their lives in the foreground of their content and the products in the background. While it may seem like you could get more exposure with heavier, promotional-style posts from your influencers, followers respond more positively to authenticity.

Digital marketing today is a two-way street, where brands and consumers communicate with each other constantly. Brand influencers are amazing to create more conversation and stretch your reach into your target audience further than you could have imagined.

Story by: Clara Sims  

Content originally created for and published on Imagine Media Consulting blog.

5 Tips to Leverage Pinterest for your Business

Pinterest is a great tool to search and organize ideas and products for almost any personal or business-related activity. Businesses are increasingly joining the Pinterest platform to gain exposure and drive traffic back to their website. Here are five ways to make the most of your business page on Pinterest.

1. Add a Pin It button on your site

This is a great way to drive more traffic from pinterest to your blog (or other site), and vice versa. The Pin It button incentivizes your viewers to add your content to their Pinterest boards, and their followers will then be exposed to your images and website as well.

2.  Create boards that reflect your business

It’s so easy to get caught in the fun, diverse, and entertaining nature of Pinterest, but it is important that your business presence on Pinterest stays relevant to your brand persona and your boards accurately reflect your business. Find a balance between what your followers want to see and what you want your followers to see. For example, if your business sells children’s apparel or accessories, pin not only your products, but also articles relating to children’s safety, kid-friendly recipes to try, and DIY birthday party ideas. This will keep your target audience entertained while your products stay fresh in their minds.

3. Use “rich” pins

A rich pin is a pin that has a wealth of relevant information attached to it so that Pinterest users can understand the exact details surrounding your pin. Add information like price, location, ingredients, and then add important metatags to your site.

4. Invite others to post to your boards

Creating a group board allows other users or businesses to collaborate to make the perfect Pinterest board to suite the common interests and objectives of all the users. Some magazine companies use this tactic and collaborate with various brands and designers that are often featured in the magazine.

5. Vary Board Positions based on Season

Pinterest traffic varies based on the time of year, and it’s important to remember that when placing your boards! Holiday seasons are particularly busy times for Pinterest traffic. Highlight popular seasonal activities and products such as Christmas recipes, Halloween decor, or tips for Spring cleaning to stay relevant during important times of year.

There are so many more great tips to utilize Pinterest for your business!

Content originally created for and published on Imagine Media Consulting blog.

4 Simple Ways to Incorporate Digital Marketing Strategy in your Store Location

Social media strategy is highly focused on driving traffic to websites or into physical store locations, but this isn’t a one-way street. Retailers with a brick and mortar store location can up their social media engagement with just a few simple tricks that they can incorporate into their stores to extend their reach and boost their success online.

1. “Follow Us” Cards or Displays- A display or business cards with your social media handles at the checkout counter is a great option for your customers to become aware of your social channels if they weren’t already. You can even slip a card into their shopping bag with their receipt so they’ll see it again once they’re going through their new purchases.
2. QR Codes- Selling individual accessories or home decor pieces? Try placing a QR code linked to a recent post next to a featured product. This way, customers in store can see holistically how a particular accessory can be incorporated into an outfit or a home accent can tie an entire room together. This option is also great for food products. Attach a QR code to an item that goes into a great recipe from your website.
3. Like/Follow for Discount- Another great incentive to get customer engagement on social is to offer discounts for follows and likes at checkout. Whether it’s 10% off their purchase that day or the next time they come in, it’s a great way for you to increase your reach and for them to save a buck or two.
4. Hashtag decals- Ready. Set. Mirror Selfie. If you sell apparel, chances are people are snapping pics in the fitting rooms to their friends asking for opinions. Adding hashtag decals into your fitting rooms can act as another method for boosting your brand awareness.

These four little details are great to effectively blend your in-person and online presence, gain new followers, and keep your most loyal customers coming back!

Content originally created and published for Imagine Media Consulting blog

7 Excel Shortcuts You Should Know

Emails, task sheets, calendars, and spreadsheets are crucial for businesses to stay on top of their organization game. Excel is popular for organizing spreadsheets of important information and numbers that can ultimately hold the core activities of business together. Here are 7 great shortcuts for Excel on Mac that will maximize your efficiency so you can spend less time crunching numbers and more time making meaningful connections and doing what you love.

1. Date and Time- If you need to quickly add today’s date or time to a spreadsheet

Date- Command +  ;

Time- Command +  :

2. Fill Down- If you need to copy information in a cell down a column without having to copy/paste

Command + D

3. Select All- To select all cells in a particular region without having to click and drag

Command + A

4. Repeat- To repeat your previous action and place it a new cell

Command + Y

5. Extend Selection- To select a large amount of data without having to scroll down 200+ cells

Command + Shift + Arrow Key

6. Edit Cell- To edit the contents of a cell without having to double click the cell

Command + U

7. Multiple Cell Entries- To enter the same formula into multiple cells

Select All Cells - Command + Enter

Just these seven simple shortcuts can save you so much time and effort, and you’ll find your work day much more efficient. Still want to know more? You can find 222 more Excel shortcuts here.

Content originally created and published for Imagine Media Consulting blog