7.31.2016

NEW INSTAGRAM!


After four years of studying fashion design, I am graduating at the end of this year. So I am creating my very first collection and im super excited. The point of this post is I have created a new Instagram showing my process over the next six months until my collection is released. I would appreciate it if you gave it a follow and ill be posting cool content soon! click here

5.28.2016

7 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2016

What are the 7 social media marketing trends for 2016...?


1. Video Content

In 2016, expect to see a substantial increase in the use of videos for content marketing.
There are a variety of video types that you can employ to accomplish this task, which include:
  • Educational video. When you create an educational video, not only are you instructing your audience, but you are also marketing to them at the same time. One example is “Whiteboard Friday,” published by Moz, an SEO software firm.
    Whiteboard Friday, an example of educational video content.
    Whiteboard Friday: an example of educational video content.
  • Explainer videos. Explainer videos show viewers how to use your product. Pinterest, for instance, has an explainer video that demonstrates the benefits of using its social network.
  • Entertaining videos. To keep your audience entertained and engaged, you can create a series of short videos whose sole purpose is for viewers to share. Buzzfeed has done an excellent job of this by combining entertainment, education, and shareable content in a series of short recipe videos — all without selling anything. The page that houses the videos has attracted more than 15 million likes on Facebook alone.
    An example of short, entertaining videos.
    An example of short, entertaining videos created by Buzzfeed.

2. Pay for Exposure

In 2016, paying to advertise on social networks will become a must. Part of the reason is that organic social reach — those shares you receive from family and friends — are not as effective in marketing as they once were.
Paying for advertising allows you to reach a specific demographic rather than just relying on organic social reach alone. When you use Facebook’s advertising platform, for example, you can market to a particular age group, gender, location, and other parameters — something that a Facebook post shared organically cannot do.

3. Social Shopping

If patterns from previous years are any indication, social commerce — the act of selling via social networks — will likely increase in 2016.
For example, an Internet Retailer’s Social Media 500 report said that social commerce rose 26 percent from 2013 to 2014.
According to a report by MarketLive, an ecommerce platform, in Q2 of 2014, less than one percent of revenue could be attributed to social recommendations. By Q2 of 2015, that figure had increased 151 percent.
Additionally, Business Insider reported that ecommerce referrals by way of social media increased nearly 200 percent between the first quarters of 2014 and 2015.
Part of the reason for this growth is that “buy buttons” have been showing up on social networks such as Pinterest and Twitter, allowing consumers to purchase from these sites directly.
Social media buy buttons.
Social media buy buttons.
To this point, in his article about buy buttons, Recode’s Jason Del Ray said that the conversion rate will improve by using the buy buttons because consumers are purchasing products directly from the social site itself.
Lastly, an infographic by Shopify, a social commerce platform, breaks down which social networks drive the most sales and lists their respective conversion rates.

4. Marketing Automation

2016 is the year to create a marketing automation strategy for your business, to make your job easier.
Marketing automation is a software platform designed to help businesses market across multiple channels simultaneously. It alleviates the need to perform repetitive tasks such as sending emails or marketing on social media sites.
Local small businesses should consider using some form of marketing automation software to keep up with the growing amount of content they will need to deliver to their customers and prospects.
Numerous options are available, but choose the one best suited to your needs and that won’t break your budget.
The G2 Crowd website will help you find the right marketing automation software, based on your needs.
The G2 Crowd website will help you find the right marketing automation software, based on your needs and budget.

5. Facebook

Facebook will continue to be the dominant social media platform in 2016 but with some changes.
According to iStrategyLabs’ 2014 Facebook demographics report, Facebook’s fastest growing age demographic is people over the age of 55. Also, a PEW Research report on social media found that 56 percent of Internet users ages 65 and older now use Facebook, up from 45 percent in 2013.
If you are looking to market to those 55 and older, then Facebook is where you should focus your marketing efforts.

6. Search

While most people still use search engines to find information, many are foregoing this route and are performing searches on social media sites instead.
Part of the reason is that users are growing weary of text-heavy search results and gravitating toward visual content such as images or videos, each of which you are more likely to find on social media.
Users also search on social media because they know that they will receive information such as feedback, comments, and reviews from actual users more so than with a search engine.
While search engines are not going away anytime soon, it is important for small businesses to think about how they can be found both on search engines and in social media.

7. Mobile Marketing

The need to have a mobile-friendly website is not a new concept. For years, marketers have been telling businesses that they need to optimize their sites for mobile users.
Today, however, mobile-optimization is the norm and no longer an item to place on the back burner, to address later.
This past summer, Google announced that, for the first time mobile searches surpassed desktop searches. Add to this the fact that, in 2015, Google’s algorithm started to penalize sites that were not optimized for mobile devices.
As such, in 2016, expect to see companies putting more efforts into marketing to mobile users.

PINTEREST

Does using Pinterest create more sales? 


Pinterest now drives more sales than Facebook, and it is significantly more product driven.70% of users on Pinterest say they use the site to get inspiration on what to buy. It’s also on the fastest growing social media platforms in the world. According to Semiocast, Pinterest now has over 70 million users globally. According to expanded ramblings, six months ago, the site had 50 million users. Marketing on this site gets your products seen. Marketing well on this site gets your products sold, and flying off the shelves.
think of Pinterest as a new way of flipping through magazines and scrapbooking. You  may remember, back in the day, if you’ve ever been involved in planning a wedding, changing home decor, or sharing great fashion trends - you’d flip through stacks and stacks of magazines with multi-coloured post-it notes. Well, Pinterest kind of does away with this - and makes sharing your product pins with customers and their friends incredibly simple.








So if Pinterest does increase sales, then how can you as a business benefit? here are some tips to make your business on Pinterest more successful. 
Tip 1: Make your Pins memorable
Every day, people are bombarded with content from all over the web. To stick out from the crowd, it helps to create boards that reflect your character and values—feel free to use your boards to tell Pinners where your inspiration comes from.
Here are some other quick pointers for making your Pins memorable:
  • Use beautiful imagery
  • Add text overlay and detailed descriptions
  • Set up Rich Pins to add extra details like price, stock info to your products
  • Make your Pins shoppable with Buyable Pins
Tip 2: Pin regularly

Get into a regular cadence of saving Pins to your boards. That way, your audience gets fresh content in their home feed (and get to know what your brand is all about).

Pro tip: A good time to add Pins is around seasonal moments like back-to-school, Labor Day and Valentine’s Day. That’s when Pinning activity usually spikes, and when people are looking for things to purchase.
Tip 3: Learn about your audience

Check your analytics to see how your Pins are doing. You can also see get data about your audience and what interests they have, which will help you understand who your customers are, and what they want.

See how DODOCase, a leather goods company, used Pinterest Analytics to influence business decisions.
Tip 4: Create ads from your best performing Pins

If you have Pins that are doing well already, try using Promoted Pins to get them in front of even more people. You’ll be able to target the exact audiences you’re interested in, and drive the actions that matter most to your business.


HASHTAGS

#Hashtag #Whatisahashtag? 


What on earth is a hashtag and why is it all over social media? The definition for hashtag is: A word or phrase preceded by a hash mark (#), used within a message to identify a keyword or topic of interest and facilitate a search for it. So whenever a user adds a hashtag to their post, it is immediately indexed by the social network and searchable by other users. 

Okay so that is what explains what a hashtag is but why is it all over social media and what is the point? Here is an example of someone on Instagram using hashtags on the post that she is making. 





































By using the hashtags, if her followers click it, it will direct them to images that are associated with that word kind of like a data base. So how would this work for social media marketing? Well it is another case of creating virality and brand awareness through social media posts and people who have quite a lot of influence are successful at this. For example fashion bloggers who may post about an outfit will use the hashtag to tag a brand just like in the image above she has tagged "#hermes". Someone who is following her may have never heard of it so by clicking on the hashtag they are then redirected to all images that have been posted with the same #hermes hashtag. 

So if you are starting out by using hash tags you can get people to look at your page as well as other people using hashtags about you will continue a chain similar to give aways where people will visit your page more often and your brand will be more 'recognised' which is the end goal.  

GIVEAWAYS

Give it away, give it away, give it away, give it away now ! 


Everywhere all over Instagram you have probably seen posts made like these by different types of companies such as clothing brands, make up brands, online stores (the list goes on) But what does it mean? and what is the point in giving away free stuff?! 



Okay so all you have to do is follow the instructions and then you may possibly win the prize that is in the picture. A lot of companies are doing this because it creates 'brand awareness' which means if you had not heard of the brand before then it creates brand recognition in your brain so you remember the brand. Also by following the brand on Instagram it allows your followers to see who you have been following which in turn they may go to the page and follow as well, to sum it up it's a domino effect of people finding out about the brand and hopefully following which is the end goal of the company and the main reason why they hold the competition in the first place. The hashtags as well also helps spread virality for the competition as well. (I will be making another post just about hash tags). 

3.17.2016

LOUIS VUITTON - SPRING / SUMMER CAMPAIGN 2016





LOUIS VUITTON 

Jaden Smith stars in Louis Vuitton's latest campaign for Spring / Summer 2016. The other is Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to Gen X-ers; Insta-generation icon to the Gen-Z set) wearing a pleated skirt and posing along side female models photographed by Bruce Weber. Yes, a boy in women's clothes in a womenswear campaign. Gender-free clothing and championing individuality were two of fashion's big themes in 2015. What's surprising, perhaps, is that it's Louis Vuitton we're talking about. LV is not an indie label pushing the limits of fashion like Vetements it's the flagship brand of LVMH. it's competitors tend to play it safer in the campaign arena, aiming straight for the elegant and moneyed middle of the road. 

The campaign itself was blasted all over instagram targeting gen 'y' and 'z' who are more gender fluid with their fashion choices. I think Louis Vuitton as a brand (since hiring a new creative director) is trying to change the image of Louis Vuitton even though it's a classic french brand. They want to try and target a newer and cooler audience which would make a new type of customer want to shop at Louis Vuitton. 

5.14.2013

MELBOURNE: PHOTO DIARY

 

 




























 
(ALL IMAGES TAKEN BY ME)

On Thursday, I flew to Melbourne for a short holiday. I had never been to Melbourne before, I had heard many interesting places to go and check out and I was anxious to see what Melbourne had to offer. Coming from a small city in Adelaide, Melbourne is like New York City. There are buildings everywhere and tall, the people roaming the streets constantly every single day, it was extremely refreshing. Melbourne is much more cooler and quirky with street art, small cafes and boutiques from high end designers to vintage. Looking like a tourist, I took many pictures throughout my four days in Melbourne and these are the ones that I thought I would share with you all. I would definitely recommend visiting Melbourne if you have not been before because it is definitely worth visiting. I will be posting what I bought from Melbourne soon! so stay tuned.