Instagram Training for beginners

As well as providing social media training and advice for businesses and individuals, I do voluntary tech talks at the library and train seniors/beginners on using this amazing platform.
 
Instagram is a fantastic visual social sharing photo site for businesses and for pleasure.

Here is what we did last night:

It’s a step - by step process:

1. Took the picture

2. Cropped it - I used a paid app called Photogene (2) (You do not have to pay for any apps if you do not want to) - search the App store I think Photogene 4 is available for purchase. (It's a brilliant tool for cropping, blurring, rotating, and editing)

3. I decided to display the full size of the photo so used InstaSize to do so (it is a free app so please be mindful of advertising) - https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/instasize-post-entire-photos/id576649830?mt=8
4. We chose the Lo-Fi filter in the tools section to bring bring some saturated colours and shadows to the photo

5.We added a description - Loving these (but I could have said Training at the library, or reading these as well)

6. We added several hashtags #childrensboo usingks #instabook #booksofinstagram #catbook #librarybook (I advise using ONLY 1-5 hashtags per picture and to check hashtags first (on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google and by using tagboard.com)

7. Then we posted it!

Instagram for beginners example: https://instagram.com/p/3_Fil4xLWo/?taken-by=ebbye

It sounds like a long process, but this was part of my training last night :)

It is fantastic to learn a new skill so if you have any questions please ask away.

Or visit my Pinterest board for tips, tools, and resources: https://www.pinterest.com/ebbye/social-media-love-instagram/

I post up tips, tools, resources and advice on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialNetworkingandMarketing

And feel free to flip through my magazine on Flipboard which has plenty of tools, tips, and resources as well!  - https://flipboard.com/@ebbye/sm-training-i5hv3jv5z

I offer customised one-on-one or group training for people or businesses so please feel free to contact me. I also offer social media advice and community management.

Oh and I love Instagram - it's an amazing platform for learning about the world and sharing photos.

Be Creative this Year with Your Social Media

This is the year to be creative! 

Mari Smith believes that 2013 is the Year of the Video and uses her site to teach you how to produce high-value, quality video content. She also teaches how to distribute it effectively online and on mobile, and how to create measurable results http://www.marismith.com/yearofthevideo/

Use Video and Photography to highlight your business and brand online.

Make use of Instagram and Pinterest to interact with people and create a connection with people.

Here's info on how to use Instagram for Business  - http://instagram-business.tumblr.com/ and a free Ebook from Hubspot on how to use Pinterest for Business - http://offers.hubspot.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-business

I've put together a board on Pinterest with examples of how businesses are using social media creatively by creating fantastic campaigns - https://pinterest.com/ebbye/great-use-of-social-media-for-marketing/

Don't forget to mix and match your content and to use different types of content to keep your audience engaged and interested. 

If you need ideas on which content you can use and why - download Hubspot's free eBook on how to Engage Fans on Facebook and use these ideas for Twitter and your blog as well.

Be creative with your marketing and sites this year! 

Don't forget to keep your fans and followers happy on Pinterest, a blog, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by creating and finding content which is fun, informative, entertaining, enlightening, educational, inspirational or motivational and which most importantly adds value.

Image from Hubspot on Facebook

Back Up Your 2012 Social Media

As the year comes to an end; it's time to back up all of your 2012 social media. Why should you backup all of your social media - Valerie Khoo answers this question.

It takes time to find content, images, links and data for daily social media on a variety of accounts and platforms. Social media as a whole is very labour intensive and time spent online, building a community, building engagement, creating content and uploading information often means that people who are managing social media are at the job 24/7.

If you ever need to find something from a few months ago such as reuse an image or rewrite a blog post based on changes in the industry - all you have to do is access your backups rather than searching for (and possibly not finding) the information you created or used online.

You are creating an easy paper trail.

And while you're at it, back up all your documents, folders, files, photos, passwords, emails, contacts and accounts - so you can keep and have records of all the work you have done over the past year.

1) Purchase an external hard drive - this will expand your computer's storage capacity and back up your data. it's great for making sure you don't lose anything important and is useful as a great storage system in case you buy a new laptop or need to restore your computer.

2) Use https://www.backupify.com to backup Your Personal Online Data. there are a range of options to choose from and provides backups of your personal Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Sites, Google Contacts, Flickr, Picasa and Blogger accounts.

3) Use SocialSafe to archive your Facebook timeline, Facebook Pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and Viadeo profiles. Everything is stored locally on the your PC or Mac.

3) An alternative for Twitter - go to http://www.allmytweets.net/ - copy and paste a year's worth of your Twitter Tweets into a Word document for easy access and a later search if necessary. AllMyTweets is also a fantastic resource if you are searching for a specific Tweet on Twitter.

4) For a Facebook Business/Fan Page - you can either use Backupify or SocialSafe or you can simply copy and paste ALL of your Facebook posts into a Word document - to save for a later search or analysis.
It is best to backup all your Facebook links, updates and images to have a record of your work done over the year.

5) I'd also use copying and pasting as an option for all your Blog posts and use an Excel spreadsheet to insert all your links for a later stage - especially if you have a social media team (or person) who should be making use of a weekly/monthly social media editorial/content calendar.
This Excel document or calendar will help you track your social media on all accounts - month by month.

6) Save all your images into a social media folder for 2012 and backup those images into an external drive. If you have purchased images or created your own images; these can always be reused at a later stage.

7) I haven't found any backup options for Pinterest as of yet. Go through your Pinterest boards and copy and paste the data you want to keep into a simple Word document; so you can access content at a later stage - *UPDATE - I have found a few options to backup your Pinterest pins using one of the following tools - http://socialwebnerd.com/blog/20-tools-to-backup-your-social-media-content/

There are two good reasons why you should back up all of your social media content and data for the past year:

1) It is good to have and keep the data for your own records and to assist you if you need to search for anything at a later stage. I'd advise that you look at this data in 3 months time and it will help inspire you to write blog posts about changes in social media, business growth and it will help you keep track of your social media as a whole.

2) This will help with social media training. By having accessible data from the past year; this could help a new employee view all of your content on each account and review your brand image online. By having access to a wide variety of information; your new staff member will be able to see exactly how your brand comes across online and what is expected of him/her.

Keep records of your social media each year and this way you can easily analyse your data and track changes from year to year.

Mine are all in simple Word documents saved in an external hard drive for easy access!

*UPDATE

Here are 20 Tools to help you BackUp all your social media accounts including several options to back up your Pinterest pins and links - http://socialwebnerd.com/blog/20-tools-to-backup-your-social-media-content/ 

My advice is to backup all your data on a monthly basis; especially if you work in social media or/and digital marketing as this will help you generate reports.

Image: http://www.handybackup.net

Social Media Gifts for the Holiday Season

Image created on http://www.pizap.com/ from TweetBookz and Firebox

Stuck on gift ideas for the workplace and office? 

Impress your clients with social media these fun gifts make great reminders and they are fun for clients and customers.

These are also perfect gifts for anyone who is addicted to social media!

Instagram Prints - can look wonderful on your work wall or at home - purchase and select your best Instagram pictures for Canvas Prints for your office or opt for the retro Polaroids - these Polaroids are great for end of the year parties!

I'm loving the idea of putting together an Instagram Poster which is a fantastic way to showcase all your brand images.

TweetBookz will make an adorable gift. This is a great gift for clients. Choose their Tweets throughout the year and present them with a keepsake of their best Tweets!

For more social media gift ideas for your clients have a look at Social Stand Media's Top 12 Client Social Media Gifts for 2012 - http://socialstrand.com/2012/12/05/top-12-client-social-media-gifts-for-2012/

Here are 276 gift ideas for anyone who loves digital, technology and gadgets - http://www.techinvestornews.com/Gadgets/Latest-Gadget-News/276-gifts-for-the-geek-in-your-life

I love the Crust Be Dreaming USB Hub! http://www.modcloth.com/shop/computer-accessories/crust-be-dreaming-usb-hub

Need ideas for Secret Santa or office gifts for your work colleagues? How about quirky stocking filler type gifts at affordable prices - http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/gift-guides/secret-santa-gift-ideas

Social Media Tips

Lisa Galarneau who is a social media anthropologist and did research for Microsoft; explains what she has discovered about social media, this may be helpful for you - http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/06/05/10-social-media-secrets-from-the-social-scientist/

She is fascinating - have a look at her site - you never know what you may learn from her! http://lgalarneau.webs.com/

Although she discusses sharing and engaging; she uses her Twitter accounts to ReTweet information while I still emphasise that you try build a community on every platform you use.

I understand that most of you use social media to promote your own business, have a look at your content, mix up content a bit more and start engaging with other people ( Use the search feature on each site to find relevant content, valuable information and even people/businesses to follow)

Twitter can be the most useful tool/platform for sharing and exchanging information; I highly encourage you to mix up your content (quotes, resources, your own info, other info, info which relates to your brand/content, images, videos, interesting posts, responding to other people, answering people etc)

I recommend Tweeting at least 1-5 times a day (although you can Tweet up to 250 times a day!) and when there is an event, festival or function which is related to your business/brand - you might find you are Tweeting more on some days and less on others.

Mix up your Facebook content (resources, news, images, videos, your own content, your own services/products, images, quotes and even ask your fans questions/respond to them) - communicate with your fans.

I recommend a Facebook update once a day in the mornings between 9am - 11:30am EST

Try to mix up content on a ratio of 10:1 (for both Twitter and Facebook)

 - 10 interesting, informative, fun, entertaining, educational, inspiring, motivational, links, images, videos, tips, tools, guides, how tos, other resources updates

to 1 brand/business, product, blog post, service, launch,  announcement, event or any other information about your business/brand update

If you need help with Pinterest - let me know. Certainly have a board or a few business boards with your content/products/blog posts but set up a few other boards as well. Connect with others (in other words find, like and comment on other people's content/pins)

Instagram is fast becoming a great photo sharing opportunity for brands to reach their audience. If you are interested in Instagram - set up a business Instagram account with your own images but branch out a little and connect/like/comment on other people's content too. (You can find other content or hashtags via the search feature)

Your business blog is essentially for your business. However think about your audience too and ask if they will be interested in the post. Is it valuable, is there a link to purchase something, to attend something, have they all the information they need?

Is the information timely and relevant? How are people finding you, what tags and keywords are you using? What do they want and what are they searching for? Is the post title relevant? Are the images attractive and does the entire post grab their attention?

I recommend a blog post at least once a week on a Wednesday or Thursday morning between 9-12pm EST - and then pop the link with an introduction (An interesting, valuable introduction to give people a reason why they should be clicking to read) onto Facebook and Twitter.

Search Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook ,sites and blogs for inspiration for your own blog posts (or newsletters, marketing ideas, launches, announcements etc) Find relevant images and content and don't forget to cite the original source and link back to the original content!

Social Media is about building a community and being social and offering engagement/ a different relationship with your customers and clients. Have fun using social media as a PR and communications tool while having fun answering your fans/followers and engaging with people.

If you have any questions about content and how to use different platforms please ask! You can connect with me on Twitter | Facebook | email me on ebbyeryan@gmail.com or even just call 0408 478 224.

source: http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/05/5-business-blogging-tips/