Author: mholmes27

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How does Apple do It?

Photo by Zhang Kaiyv on Unsplash

The success of Apple

It’s a big question. How does Apple succeed? How do they stay relevant? I thought this was an interesting topic to talk about because they’re such a big name and they do things a little differently than the ordinary business on social media.

Social media presence

Their lack of social media presence is what interests me, and how they do it so well. Apple’s marketing strategy is pretty different from anyone else. They do have social media platforms but they are for different uses that are otherwise non traditional. For example, Apple does have a Facebook page and an Instagram account but they are both not used regularly. In fact, the official Instagram page is entirely made up of post that other users have submitted and tagged Apple in! Apple also does have a Twitter account but it is for help and queries. I found this all interesting because they are such a big name in the world. I wonder how they do it?

The allure of being exclusive

Part of why I think Apple’s social media strategy works so well is because of their reputation. There are a few different factors I think it comes down to when thinking about why and how Apple does what it does and so well:

  • Price point of products
  • Ease of use
  • Simple design
  • Creating mystery
  • Big launches every Fall season

Most importantly, Apple keeps it simple. The design is foolproof and the platform is easy to use for almost everyone. The photography used is top notch and they allow their products to speak for themselves without essentially begging the consumer with deal after deal. They are letting the consumer come to them. Almost reverse psychology if you will. But not every business can do this successfully. Apple is the one that can purely because of their reputation they have built over the years of being an exclusive, expensive and visually appealing brand.

Creating hype

The most you’ll ever see Apple do for their marketing strategy is launching new products every Fall season, some bigger than others. This works well because it creates hype among consumers. It creates so much hype in fact that there are regularly leaks that come out before the product comes out. It creates excitement among the consumers and ultimately leads them to buy more products and upgrade every year.

They speak for themselves

It’s clear the tech giant speaks for itself. With so many businesses and corporations clogging the social media platforms, it’s amazing to see how one can succeed without it. Apple doesn’t need the extra exposure that comes with selling on social media. They let the customers come to them. And even though Apple’s marketing strategy is very different than anyone else, they obviously know what they are doing! So what do you think? Is their success warranted? Could they do anything better?

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Effective Content Marketing Ideas for your Business

Photo by Melissa Grootes on Unsplash

These days, there are so many ways to create an effective marketing plan for your business that it is almost overwhelming. There are so many options it can be hard to know where to begin. But I think it is helpful to start with a few key things, to start as a baseline. It is also helpful to recognize that not every platform will work for every business.

What’s trending?

Something I’ve seen more of over the recent years is the use of hopping on the bandwagon of “viral trends”. This is a major opportunity for businesses and individuals alike to stay relevant and popular among their target audience. While the goal for small businesses is not to go viral, it is a goal to engage with their audience. I’ve seen many companies I follow on social media trying out small trends like TikTok video trends, instagram reels/stories and more.

Creating an Instagram profile

One thing is clear, and it is that businesses have to have an online presence and engage with their audience. In my personal opinion, Instagram is one of the most important ones because of the sheer amount of users on the platform. How does one business know how to approach this? It’s so daunting right? I think it is helpful to establish a clear plan for beginners:

  • Create a logo
  • Visualize your theme and stick to it
  • plan to post at least once a day
  • Upload your logo and name
  • Have content ideas

Reaching out

Another great way to promote your business using social media is to reach out to other businesses and partner with them. I’ve seen a lot of local and small businesses doing this where they will stock their products in another establishment, or make bakery items to sell with that establishment and both make a profit, and it increases visibility for both businesses. Even better when this can be promoted online too, and customers are influenced and more likely to make a purchase at both places. Using social media can be a highly effective way to market your business as we can see. Even Forbes thought so too! Let me know what you think of these ideas, and if you have more I haven’t thought of.

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Telling Your Story on Social Media In Under 20 Seconds-Grabbing Their Attention

Photo by Max Saeling on Unsplash

When you go on any of your social media accounts, what do you see? What I see is people sharing their lives, being relatable and most of all, telling their stories. It doesn’t matter if they’re long, short or not even seeming to be a story at all, that’s what social media is. It is a medium to tell a story. But the problem with social media is that everything is quick, convenient and has to be attention grabbing. We don’t like to read things for too long, so bite size pieces are perfect, especially for people on the go.

So how do we tell a story on social media these days, knowing it basically needs to be under 20 seconds for people to keep reading it?

Simple. It has to get a reaction out of the audience reading/viewing it.

There are many great platforms to tell a story on these days. A few of my personal favourites include Facebook and Instagram. I find that these platforms are especially useful when telling any story because of the tools it uses. They both use video content, and photos to convey a message or share a story. Facebook is a good one for sharing with friends and family because you can share a story in just one photo and maybe a caption. Mainly these will be about changes in ones life; new baby, wedding, big move etc. But they all effectively share their story in under 5 seconds while you’re scrolling through your feed, with just an eye grabbing photo. This is quite the shift from even just 20-30 years ago, when we would call our friends and family, send long messages or write letters. In todays age, we have to make reading easy.

Tiktok is great platform because it also enables video content, but more recently, Reels has also entered the game because of the success. As the website here points out, http://onlinesense.org/does-social-media-make-people-lazy/ it is a well known fact that social media makes our brains lazy. We have the world at our fingertips! There is so much information on the web, but because everything on digitalized, this makes it harder on your brain to grasp too much at one time. Our brains find it visually appealing when information is shown to us in a bite sized way. Think about it, you have a small screen in your hand. You’re likely to want to only read something that is the size of that screen, no more. So when Reels on instagram came out, we saw that it worked to grab peoples attention and more importantly, evoke a reaction. Personally, I love watching reels because they’re so quick to watch, usually 15 seconds, and they’re fun. Each Reel is instantly interesting, so it grabs my attention. Bonus points if it is funny, relatable or cute. And all the other platforms on the web saw this opportunity too and jumped on the bandwagon. It’s easy to see why Reels are so effective at grabbing your attention.

Another interesting aspect to consider is the use of these short videos in social media being used for Businesses as well. Because they’ve been so effective at targeting young people and their hobbies and interests, it’s also shown that it effective for marketing strategies. The use of short videos enables the audience to watch something visually appealing, short (10sec), eye catching and fun. This works especially well for businesses because it doesn’t require a lot of attention on the consumers end. All they have to do is watch whatever content said business puts out. Usually this will be something engaging like giving a behind the scenes look at their business, engaging in trends or reposts. All the business has to do is create these videos and this is usually free.

So how do you tell your story in a convenient way?

It’s easier than it seems. Keep it under 20 seconds if possible, make it visually appealing, add music or effects and most of all evoke a reaction!

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C0M0011-The Best Social Media Tools for Businesses In The Modern Age

There are many social media tools to take advantage of these days. From Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to TikTok and Snapchat and more, businesses, and individuals have so many options at their fingertips. It is impossible to ignore the fact that businesses absolutely need an online presence now in order to thrive, or even just function and bring in profit. Even a decade or so ago, social media wasn’t as important as it is now. It is an integral part of a business.

This is because there has been a huge shift towards so many aspects of our lives being put online. Almost everything we see, learn about, read or hear is online now. So it is only natural for businesses, small and large, to seize the opportunity and build an online presence. This is important because it puts a face to the brand. You see an instagram profile for a brands image, and it immediately becomes more humanizing. Us as humans need to know there are faces behind these images. So that leads me to the next part: what tools should you leverage for your business no matter what it is?

Instagram

Instagram is an important one because it is all about reels, pictures and stories. The two features combined, convenience and imagery, make it visually appealing to the audience. Its convenient because its quick. It doesn’t take up much if any time from the viewer to swipe through feeds, posts and stories. In the modern age, this is key. Quick easy to read posts. Also the imagery needs to be appealing. What helps make it appealing? Everyone has different preferences but the main key things are Sharp image quality, filters that aren’t too heavy and a consistency in colours in your theme on your grid.

Twitter

Not a lot of people use twitter now compared to say Instagram or Tiktok. But a lot of companies and corporations still do. This is because there is a still an element of ease to it. There isn’t a lot of reading required and its made easy to contact the business and have them reply to you. Ive seen a lot of companies leverage twitter for using their own jokes or talking to customers in a casual way. Again, this puts a human behind the brand which in turn, its more likely to get the customer to come back.

Tik-Tok

Tik Tok is a fairly new tool to the social media game but its gained so much popularity over the recent years that business have begun to hop on the bandwagon. And for good reason. With the latest generation in our society using Tik Tok everyday, there’s a ton of exposure to be had. The short video based platform is a great way for businesses to connect with customers by showing more about the business such as behind the scenes, recipes, product closeups etc. Besides just putting your name on social media and calling it a day, there is more to it than that. The main thing being time. Time is required to maintain your online presence. A lot of success is to be had in a few main areas:

  • Posting frequently such as once a day
  • Giving a behind the scenes look on stories/reels
  • Reposting other peoples posts about your business
  • posting close ups of products
  • Engaging with customers through comments, emails dm

As you can see these three main platforms are key in exposing your business online in the right way. They’re the best ones to use because of their ease of use and aesthetic appeal. The opportunities in this space cannot be ignored by companies and corporations these days. If you build a business, you almost have to be online too.