5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Bother With Social Media

All Posts, How to, Social Media

This may come as a shock but, what I’m about to lay out is very much true. Not everyone should be getting involved in social media. I’m not saying this to be mean, however I am going to shed some light for those who may be thinking of using social media in their business, but don’t really want to invest in doing it right.

Here at Design Theory, we use a LOT of social networks, apps, tools, and more to reach our audience. Through time we’ve learned what works for us, what to spend most time on for better feedback, and what networks may not be worth much effort for the target audience we want. How can you learn some of these things? A lot of trial and effort. If you’re not in it for the long haul, here are some reasons why you may not want to start.

You May Not Really Have Time

This is a classic and very human reason why not to get involved. You’re a business owner or freelancer. You’re already focusing on so much to get your business off the ground, legal paperwork, contracts, advertising. Though all of these can be helped or you can find help through social media, but we won’t go there right now. Thing is, it will eat up your day. When’s the last time you went on Facebook and spent less than 5 minutes on the site? Checking friends status updates, funny videos, wishing friends happy birthday. Well imagine spending about 10-15 minutes on at least 5 networks once or twice a day. Oh it adds up very quickly. Why do you need to spend that much time? Well because each network has users that are on it for a certain time. Finding the right time of day to post is crucial for your engagement. And you’ll also want to be available to respond whenever you get a tweet or post or message. Strike while the iron is hot to lead your visitors and followers back to your site to sell them on something.

You Think You Can Automate Everything

If there was one single app or service that could take what you’re thinking and edit it down to 140 characters, or create a cool viral video that gets shared among millions instantly, I’d be rich because I would develop it. So no one stop shop maybe, but there are social media agencies all around that if you spend time with them and allow them to get to know you and your business they’d be able to be effective at this for you and your brand. But that would cost some serious money to be done right. I don’t want you to fall for the social apps that let you post everywhere at once with the same message. Think about it; the people who follow you on Pinterest want to see pictures and video and not much text. Twitter followers are going to be looking at what you type, maybe a link to find more info or download something for free (and that’s if they see your tweet among the hundreds in their timeline). We all know Facebook posts that have pictures and video get much more attention than just text-only posts. And the biggest issue, what time you post to what network.

You Think It’s All About You

Unless you’re an already established brand, people aren’t going to be super interested in just you or your business. This interest is something you’ll have to sow, water, and grow (if you get what I mean). Chances are there are already known name brands that dominate your industry that your audience is quite familiar with. Its going to be an up hill battle for you to break in and make a name for yourself. Having a good client/customer base will be crucial at the beginning, and making them your “superfans” will be just as crucial to your social engagement. Your potential audience is going to be interested more in what you can do for them (free first then paid) than about who you actually are at first. Spend more time offering great tips and help on your industry and services and less time trying to sell directly.

You Just Want To Sell, Sell, Sell

Speaking of selling, don’t even bother. Well unless you have a hot product that people absolutely love and you’re having a tough time keeping them in stock, try not to start into social media with an “I must sell” agenda. Most people using social media networks have figured out how to ignore or parse ads from their normal view. Facebook realized this, and they’ve moved to incorporating sponsored and suggested posts in the mix of your news feed. Why? Because they noticed how people were totally ignoring the right side of their Facebook screen because that’s where the ads always were everywhere they go on Facebook. Try to talk more about differences in available products, why your products are actually better than the leading competition, ways your products may save money or time, and how your products or services actually are awesome.

You Anticipate Huge Results Immediately

If you’re thinking that for every tweet you’re going to get 20 new followers, or for every new Facebook post you’re going to have 10 reply comments, or for each board you create on Pinterest you’re going to get 50 new re-pins and followers, or each video you post on YouTube will go viral in a few hours, please walk away now. It doesn’t work that way. There’s no secret formula to what actually becomes viral. And results like that are quite seldom. Even for those that are able to go viral, its more rare for them to do it again. It is going to take some time to develop your audience and following. Regardless of what network it is. I have 500+ connections on Linked In, but I don’t get 500+ likes to ever single discussion I post. It takes genuine content, posted at the opportune times when engagement is most likely for each individual network. And yes social media can be tracked, but no you’re probably not going to get two dollars for every dollar you invest in it.

Agree with me or disagree, I’d still like to hear your thoughts. Lets discuss in the comments below.

Image Credit: GraphicsFuel (download them for free!)

Free Lightroom 5 [Beta]

All Posts, Photography, Product Reviews

Yes you heard me right, Adobe is offering a free copy of Lightroom 5. If you haven’t heard of or used Lightroom before, you should know it is an image editing software very similar to Photoshop – but not as hard to learn and use. The support for Lightroom 4 is awesome, there’s many tutorial videos posted by many photography enthusiasts like Kelby Training, Lynda.com, Adorama, and more.

Why is Adobe giving it away? Simple, it’s the easiest way to crowd-source for possible bugs, glitches, and feedback for enhancements before the product is fully launched.

What’s new in version 5? See what Adobe posted:

New Features in Lightroom 5 Beta

  • Advanced Healing Brush – Easily remove objects and fix defects—even those with irregular shapes such as threads or lint—with a single brush stroke. Take precise control over what’s being removed as you make unwanted objects just disappear.
  • Upright – Straighten tilted images with a single click. Upright analyzes images and detects skewed horizontal or vertical lines. You choose one of four correction methods, and Upright can even straighten images where the horizon is hidden.
  • Radial Gradient – Lead your viewer’s eye through your images with more flexibility and control. The radial gradient tool lets you create off-center vignette effects, or multiple vignette areas within a single image.
  • Offline editing with Smart Previews – Easily work with images without bringing your entire library with you. Just generate smaller stand-in files called Smart Previews. Make adjustments or metadata additions to Smart Previews and your changes will be automatically applied to the full-size originals later.
  • Video slideshow sharing – Easily share your work in elegant video slide shows. Combine still images, video clips, and music in creative HD videos that can be viewed on almost any computer or device.
  • Improved photo book creation – Create beautiful photo books from your images. Lightroom includes a variety of easy-to-use book templates, and now you can edit them to create a customized look. Upload your book for printing with just a few clicks.

Ok so enough of the fluff, go to Adobe and login with your username and download your copy. It will only be active to use until June so get cracking!

How To: Add A Menu To Your WordPress Theme

All Posts, How to, Web Development, WordPress

Have you ever installed a new WordPress theme that didn’t have native support for creating and selecting custom menu (navigation bar). Now before you jump in be sure to either do a backup of your files, or as you get to the Functions.php and Header.php files copy the original code to a text editor before you modify it. Once you’ve done these preventative “CYA” measures follow these steps below:

From your Dashboard menu, go to Appearance > Edit and add the code below to the theme’s functions.php file: (in some cases I’ve seen this called “Theme Options” just above where it says “functions.php”. This is the same thing.)

You can add this code below towards the bottom of your page code so that you can easily find it later should you need to reference it.

add_theme_support( ‘menus’ );

(you may need to add this on the next line if you get to the end and your menu doesn’t show up:

add_action( ‘init’, ‘register_my_menus’ );

function register_my_menus() {
register_nav_menus(
array(
‘menu-1’ => __( ‘Menu 1’ ),
)
);
}

User your browser’s Find feature and search for this code in your theme’s Header.php file:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=1’); ?>

Highlight this string of code and replace it with this code below:

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( ‘sort_column’ => ‘menu_order’, ‘container_class’ => ‘menu-header’ ) ); ?>

Lastly click on Appearance then Menus and you should be able to create a custom menu.

Top 10 Tips from Best LinkedIn Company Pages of 2012 [via Linked In]

All Posts, Social Media

I recently came across this Slideshare post from Linked In and thought it would be great to share it with all of you (our readers).

If you’re like us, trying to keep up with all the latest trends and social media enhancements can be a bit tough. Running a business and keeping clients happy while increasing your bottom line is the common goal, though you can’t ignore your social status and presence. Check out the slide below and I challenge you to see what tips you can take to update your own business Linked In pages in the next few days or week.

Psychology Marketing Techniques 101

All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Marketing, News & Politics

Surprised with Laptop 2Marketing strategies run the gamut when it comes to creativity – whether it’s pushing the envelope or pushing your buttons. Psychology Marketing (also known as Consumer Behavior Marketing) is one facet used by the industry meant to do exactly that; push emotional buttons to steer a response causing the consumer to consume a businesses goods, services and even agenda. It is well understood that “emotional marketing” plays a pivotal role in reporting/publicizing world events; selling medical pharmaceuticals-even selling cars!  As a result, psychology marketing has become one of the most effective tools to gain attention and cause the consumer(s) to react verbally or financially to a cause, service or product.

Human Interest Stories: The Grandfather of Them All
Wikipedia defines it as “a feature story …presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest or sympathy in the reader or viewer.  Human interest stories may be “the story behind the story” about an event, organization, or otherwise faceless historical happening, such as about the life of an individual soldier during wartime, an interview with a survivor of a natural disaster, or profile of someone known for a career achievement.”  Human interest stories give consumers an emotional connection to the problem, product or service being promoted.  It makes more difference in reactions and behaviors than most consumers ever realize.

Psychology Marketing is meant to:

  • – Look at how consumers think, feel and reason-out their decisions and ultimate selections
  • – Study how a consumer is influenced by their environment such as personal culture and media exposure
  • – Consider the targeted consumer, their motivations & strategies when comparing products or services for ultimate selection


This is what marketers use to adapt and strategize for  their marketing campaigns to more effectively reach the consumer.

Best at the Game: Non-profits
Most non-profit companies have cornered the market on attaching emotional elements to their causes in all forums of media and promotion. So whether it’s a poster, TV commercial or internet ad campaign, their marketing strategies include elements that strike a chord and causes us to pause, consider and act. And once celebrities add their devotion to let’s say a particular cause or movement, undoubtedly the campaign increases its projected success.

Best at the Awww Factor: Pampers
About 95% of consumers love a cute baby and Pampers is kind of capitalizing on that with their marketing campaigns.  One of my personal favorites is the Silent Night campaign by Pampers.  This great commercial plays annually during the New Year and has a profound effect on all its viewers.  How profound?  It actually remains one of their most successful campaigns since 2008. Why? Because their Silent Night commercial causes you stop, awww out loud and think about the beautiful sweetness of babies sleeping peacefully.  Their marketing team knew your affection and love meter would go up several bars half way through it and they’ve been reaping the benefits ever since the campaign’s inception.

Crying womanCurrent Events-Shockwave Effect
Nothing is works in the favor of news media more than shocking news.  You know the kind that makes you sad or enraged as what’s going on in the world. It might be hard to conceive that there’s marketing in calamity but there is. Ever since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, President Obama’s team has been hard at work to market the President’s legislative position in his responses orally in his speeches and with his actions as he continues to meet & address the Sandy Hook victims parents and school officials. His speech writing/marketing team penned an emotionally moving  speech that he himself found hard to emotionally contains as he teared-up during his public address.  His recent bashing yet inspiring Shame on Us speech moved many with a strong call-to-action for legislative changes in gun control and social responsibility.

These are 2 of my personal picks which includes one of the most watched and emotionally charged marketing campaigns to date.

The CDC’s Anti-Smoking Campaign uses scare tactics by showing us the horrific consequences of smoking. Some of the commercials are just sad but there are some that are inspirational for smokers to do whatever it takes which creates a sense of resolution.  Ah yes, they’ve tapped into our fight vs. flight responses and the former outweighs the later.

Liberty Mutual’s Half Acre Campaign reflected a Pay It Forward theme that inspires all of us to take just a moment to do something for someone else, big or small, recognized or not.  But it was recognized as the commercial captures.  Over and over again people take notice and act in the perpetual the cycle of “do right”.

Other Resources

http://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-use-emotional-marketing/

http://www.marketingpsychology.com/reports.htm

 

The Experience of WordCamp Miami 2013

All Posts, Events, Web Development, WordPress

Well this past weekend was the annual WordCamp Miami at the University of Miami. If you read my previous post about the expectations, I’d like to report that they were all met and then some. The amount of developers on site was awesome. A lot of which you’ve read blog posts from, heard about through plugins and software you’ve purchased and use, local, and abroad. The atmosphere was certainly electric.

Going I knew we’d be hit with a ton of information. Equipped with a few Macbook pros, tablets, chargers, and iPhones with MyWi for dedicated internet, we were ready for anything. We had cool badges with our names, Twitter handle, and QR Codes thanks to WP Beginner. Among that we were give a host of items from a cool reusable shopping bag from BlueHost to shot glasses from Woo Themes. Apparently they know that we developers appreciate a nice drink every now and again.

Since we went as a team we split up for most of Saturday’s sessions to try to cover as much as we could and collaborate later. It was totally worth it. Being three different tracks on Saturday and two on Sunday, needless to say there were a lot of options to choose from.

For those of you who didn’t make it, enjoy some of the pictures we took from our mobiles here. And if you’d like to see some of the recordings from the sessions, you can actually do so for FREE on the Live page of the WordCamp Miami website.