Instagram Heats Up The Social Video Scene

Roughly two seconds after we posted our blog about Twitter’s social video app Vine, Facebook’s Instagram—the app well-known for glorifying pictures with various filters—announced their new video feature. While the move cemented the importance of social video, it set social media analysts abuzz regarding the two services.

Out of the gate, Instagram has set itself apart by providing effects that Vine has not brought to the table just yet, including:

•         Up to 15 second video clips
•         Thirteen customized filters to edit the look of your video
•         The ability to choose a cover frame instead of it being the first frame of the video
•         The ability to delete certain sections without deleting the entire video
•         A feature called “cinema” to stabilize the video and remove jumpy cuts
•         Unlike Vine, there is no looping feature

So which app is going to win this seeming battle of social video? So far there have been mixed predictions. While Mashable believes Instagram’s existing strength will “take the wind out of Vine’s sails”, TechCrunch.com opines that Vine’s growing community of creatives and designers, will continue to blossom. Here at Miamore, we (at least in the immediate future) believe the two will co-exist with different usages—much like Facebook and Twitter. Given how difficult it is for most small businesses to create a compelling (and quality) 15-second video; along with the challenge of seamlessly mixing video and photography on Instagram, we still favor Vine and its quick videos and looping feature.

Do you agree?

Lessons in PR: Communication isn't simple

Communication. Pretty simple word. But pretty tricky business. Ever tried to communicate to a family member, friend or significant other how they hurt your feelings in a tense situation, only to have it backfire? Okay, now that 99% of you are nodding, I’ll get on to my point…

Everyone, it seems lately, thinks they are “PR experts”. But public relations isn’t about having a lot of friends or throwing fun parties. It is about expert communication, especially with the press (and, in this age, on social media). I find myself, almost daily, cringing at PR faux pas—from basic to potentially fatal.

While hiring a professional to represent your brand is the best way to avoid this sort of deadly foot-in-mouth syndrome, I understand that this is often cost-prohibitive. If that’s the case for your company, there are some basic PR/communication rules that I drill into my staff and interns daily, and that I happily share. From me to you: lessons learned thanks to my 10+ years’ experience interviewing thousands of designers, politicians and retailers as journalist; 3+ years as a publicist giving press interviews and representing brands on social media… but, mostly, thanks to my relentless journalism professors at the University of Connecticut.

1. Fact check. Think you know how to spell the proper name of an organization or person? 98% of the time, you’re probably right. You do. The problem is the other 2% of the time. If I spelled a proper name wrong on a college journalism project, my journalism professors would make me write it correctly, by hand, 500 times. Actually, it may have been less than 500; but having spent a couple nights sitting in the dorm lounge writing a name over and over until my hand ached: I still double check the names of even clients I’ve worked with for years.
2. Listen. As a reporter, I learned the most in interviews when the interviewee suddenly went off on a tangent in response to an innocent question… often revealing more than I ever imagined asking. This is a basic of any business communication: listen carefully to the question before opening your mouth. Example: I once served on a non-profit board and, when I hadn’t received end-of-year financial reports, I asked the executive director for them. The executive director’s reply was shockingly angry and defensive. How dare I accuse her of misappropriation of funds? Well, actually, that hadn’t crossed my mind. But once she threw it out there, told me to call her lawyer, and told everyone within earshot that I’d made such an accusation; it definitely crossed my mind (and everyone else’s). Enough said.
3. Condense. Short is, indeed, sweet. Say what you have to say. Then wait an hour and go back to edit. In PR, wordiness has always been a cardinal sin. Today, it’s deadly for a publicist or any business person. Who among us isn’t suffering from information overload? Case in point: The average attention span of someone opening an email? 8 seconds. The average attention span of a goldfish? 9 seconds. Need I say more?

The Business of Blogging

While I’m not big on traditional New Year's Resolutions, like many business owners, the start of a new year is a time for planning and, well, resolving to make my business more efficient and prosperous during the 366 days ahead. At Miamore Communications, we often get so focused on our clients’ marketing plans that we let our own flounder. One way I intend to maintain our own marketing is with a 2012 Miamore formal blogging calendar. I encourage you to do the same with your business blog—whether you operate B2B or B2C.

B2C companies that blog get 88% more leads/month than those that don't.
 

B2B companies that blog get 76% more leads/month than those that don't.*

Not surprisingly, from 2009 - 2011, the percentage rate of businesses that have a blog increased from 48% to 65%. A total of 85% of businesses consider their company blogs as useful and important to their business, and 27% of those who blog rated their blogs as critical to their business, according to WebSwagger.

Why are blogs so critical? For starters, they drive sales:

57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired leads directly from their blogs.

72% of companies that blogged on a weekly basis found that they had received new business directly from their blog.*

Potential leads that convert into sales are the key incentive to blog, which leads us to our next point: An up-to-date blog also plays a key role in boosting that ever-elusive yet much sought SEO for companies.

Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors.*

This is because websites with blogs:

• Show up in more search results for a wider range of queries/keyword searches
• Attract more links: Inbound links raise the "SEO value" of your website
• Attract social signals: "Share signals," such as Facebook Likes, Tweets, and Google pluses, indicate the popularity of a document to search engines, and they can boost rankings. 

Keeping all this in mind, now is the time to not just make a vague resolution to keep your blog fresh throughout 2012, but to create concrete plan to ensure its success, (even if your other resolutions fall into the 88% failure rate for New Years Resolutions!). That plan should include:

• A proper place and format for your blog
• Build your blog into your website to maximize SEO.
• Incorporate your social media profiles into the blog
• Provide readers tools to follow your blog, and to share your posts via email and social media
• Create a format that illustrates your business: for example, if you are a designer, your blog should be highly visual
• A schedule of blog days
• Make blogging part of your weekly calendar to ensure that posts aren’t missed and content remains fresh
• A calendar of blog post themes to include a variety of content that:
• explains what you do
• humanizes your work
• avoids repetition
• incorporates everything within your 2012 marketing plan
• includes photos, graphs, or other visuals
• The allocation of resources
• Do you (or a key person on your staff) write well, understand how to write effective posts and—most importantly—have the time every week to write posts, maintain the blog, and respond in a timely way to comments?
• Do you need a consultant/ghostwriter to create, execute and promote effective posts regularly, and to monitor the blog for comments and feedback?
• A strategy to market your blog
• Every blog post should be promoted via your other social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Incorporate your blog into your email marketing
• Include your blog url in your email signature

Have your own experiences with business blogging? Please share them here. If you need more help with your 2012 blogging plan, contact me directly.


*research by Hubspot

Blogging 101

Blog...B-L-O-G; this four letter word can instill so much dread in business owners navigating the ever-changing interactive world. But a blog need not be intimidating. So, inspired by several small luxury firms who recently told us they still don’t quite understand… here’s our back-to-basics how-to for those still wary of blogging.

First, decide how to host the blog. Using a web-based tool like Blogger or Wordpress is free and simple (and will at least get you started), while hosting the blog on your own website has significant Search Engine Optimization benefits (There’s a joke in the digital world that BLOG stands for... Better Listing On Google). Simple explanation: because you regularly update a blog, and since new content registers with search engines, a regularly hosted blog on your site will help with your SEO.

Second, choose your blogging platform. Wordpress is the darling for its flexibility (best to use if you’re hosting the blog on your site). But there are Blogger, Live Journal, Type Pad and a host of others. This part is really a matter of trying each and seeing which platform you prefer. We personally love using Blogger. While we’re losing out on the SEO benefits, it is very convenient for Miamore Communications because, first: Blogger is Google’s blogging platform and we utilize Google quite a bit. Also, posting is a breeze. After you select a blogging template and personalize it, it is very intuitive, with easy-to-find iconsicons, which allow you to enter links, videos, and pictures.

Third, understand why you are blogging and how a business can best utilize a blog. A perfect illustration: Luxury super store Neiman Marcus recently created its NMDaily Blog, which serves as an informational source to its dedicated customers. With interviews from top designers, pictures from various fashion events, make-up tutorials and Q&As, NMDaily creates a sense of community for Neiman's shoppers. Another benefit to this blog is that it grows the Neiman Marcus brand in the interactive community--readers of the site can "like," "tweet," email and share posts with their friends and family... making them not just shoppers, but individual brand ambassadors. You couldn't pay for this type of advertising! How does a smaller firm similarly utilize blogging? By simply putting an idea out on your blog, or maybe an image with a short and concise caption, you are inviting your consumers into the world of your brand, a world they can identify and feel at "home" with… one to which they develop loyalty. A blog allows not only great exposure for a brand; it also allows you immediate feedback.

Sound great? It is. But, the top thing to consider when starting a blog is the commitment it requires. Blogs are about writing—in order to be effective; research, editing, and writing must go in to each post to make it a quality read. With that said, it's difficult for many businesses to maintain regular postings. Keeping up an actual blog is a serious commitment: either the dedicated time from you or an employee, or financial resources to outsource the work.

If you are still a little uncertain, our best suggestion is to register on Blogger and/or Wordpress, set up a free account and poke around. Also, check out other successful blogs in your business category. Meanwhile, feel free to ask us any questions. We are here to help!

What We See Depends on What We Look For...

I spent yesterday evening with a fabulous, dynamic group of specialists in various creative and business fields, planning what everyone, everywhere will soon hear about: StyleWeek Providence. I could not be more excited to work on this project! If anything makes a fantastic concept better, it is a palpable energy driving it… and that is exactly what StyleWeek Providence has.

StyleWeek Providence is the brainchild of dynamo (talk about energy!) Rosanna Ortiz Sinel, a fashion writer and general fashion guru. When she shared her brilliant idea with me a couple months ago, I almost jumped out of my seat. See, we are both transplants to Rhode Island with a shared interest and expertise in fashion. Further, as relative newcomers to Providence, we see our new home with “outsiders’” (read: not jaded) eyes. The home of RISD and the historic center for jewelry design (not to mention the most vibrant and charming city in New England!), Providence overflows with a creativity that, until now, has been largely disjointed. StyleWeek Providence gives those creatives in the areas of fashion and design a common voice. And it will be a powerful one.

Top designers in various fashion categories, from across the region—Rhodies (that’s local-speak for “Rhode Island dwellers”), New Englanders and those with local ties (a la RISD alum)—will showcase their collections at shows spread across five days next June. Far from being just a social event as many regional “fashion weeks” are, StyleWeek Providence is, at its root, a business event, with buyers from New England, New York and across the country invited to meet the area’s phenomenal talent, and have the opportunity to then introduce it to their customers and audiences.

StyleWeek Providence is also, in a time when businesses everywhere are facing difficult challenges, an incredible example of small businesses uniting and promoting the local economy. Not surprisingly, businesses across the city are embracing the idea (the most recent and most exciting: Hotel Providence, the area’s finest upscale boutique hotel, home of one of the city’s most gorgeous event venues, Aspire, will be not only host to the closing-night show and festivities, but also serve as the official hotel of StyleWeek Providence).

So, while I’m gushing about StyleWeek in general, my points here are much broader for small businesses…

First: bringing in “outsiders”, who can view your area or business with fresh new eyes, can be a key step to visualizing your full potential and, ultimately, growing your reputation and business.

Second: Never underestimate the powers of partnerships, and common visions and goals. Our designers and venues have no prior connections, but are pulling together in ways that are the stuff of cross-promotion chapters in Business 101 textbooks.

The fundamental message is (while I hate this cliché): never stop thinking outside the box, and investing in new ideas, consultants and voices who can provide new vision and voices to grow your business. To borrow from John Lubbock: What we see depends on what we look for.

StyleWeek Providence’s inaugural event will be June 6-10, featuring fashion shows and celebrations at venues across the city. For updates, join StyleWeek’s Facebook Fan page, follow us on Twitter, and stay tuned for the website launch on Nov. 1. If you’d like information of sponsorship opportunities, a buyer or press invite, or to be considered to show your designs at StyleWeek, feel free to contact me.