Elements Design

This just might be my favorite blog post to write each month. I get excited about sharing my favorite apps that can help spark a unique social media or marketing idea or jumpstart a mobile media strategy. Also, these apps are just really fun and innovative technology that I get to try out and play with!

1. 1SE

1SE stands for “One Second Everyday.” This app allows you to take a video and/or pulls in all of the videos you’ve taken and snip together a one second clip from each day. At first I thought, what good would a one second video do – isn’t that just a glorified photo? But seeing a moving video that brings together your entire month is pretty amazing. When you open the app, it automatically pulls in and highlights days that you’ve already taken a video. The general screen is put together like a calendar and the days you have videos appear on orange. Once you pull up a video then it allows you to select the one-second clip that you’d like to feature on that day – its really very simple and easy to use. Once your month is complete you can share your videos directly through Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

How Is It Relevant For Your Business?
Each month we do a recap of our blog in pictures. Instead of a stagnant recap, we could use 1SE and transform it to a moving motion picture recap that our readers can watch. There are many opportunities like this for brands and businesses – this is mobile media at its finest, get creative! In a world where we are updated instantaneously through social media networks, this app is moving in and moving towards the next wave of social media sharing. It’s following two big trends in Social Media, instant updates (anyone has time to watch a one second clip) and video technology – ex. popular apps like Keek and Tout.

2. Marksta

In today’s digital age, using or “stealing” someone else’s photos on online is a common occasion. We’ve become accustom to taking images on our phones and using and sharing those images on every social network out there. And with those two statements, you’ll see why this app is genius. It allows you to watermark your work and then upload to any of your social networks. It also allows you to customize the watermark, which is great for anyone, but especially designers or photographers who are looking to add something more then just a standard text watermark. Why risk someone else taking credit for your work when this awesome app does the work for you?

How Is It Relevant For Your Business?
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – creating content is key. Images are a huge part of your content strategy and too often, images are being used online without proper credits. This app makes it fool-proof for you to watermark your images, your designs or your content and post directly onto the most popular and most social, social media sites. Using this app is so simple that it’s hard to justify why anyone wouldn’t watermark their images, especially when sharing them on social media. Getting your content out to the masses critical, getting credit for that content is even more important.

3. Snapseed

Snapseed is not your average photo-enhancing app. It gives you many more options and much more control over what, where and how you edit your images. This app is for the more “advanced” user, as in, it doesn’t do all the work for you – you don’t just click a button and it “auto-enhances” your image. Too often, those one-click apps don’t maximize your photo to look its best. With Snapseed you’re able to adjust your photos contrast, brightness and other standard enhancement tools with just the swipe of a finger – but it’s also a lot more then that. You can focus in and edit selective parts of an image, you can crop or straighten an image by a percentage of a degree, and you can even add in photo filters (like Instagram) that focus in on specific parts of your photo.

How Is It Relevant For Your Business?
Camera phone images aren’t always the best quality and yet, we use images that we take on our phones for everything. This application will give your camera phone images a much more professional look and gives you more control over the edits to the image. There are many apps that have an “automatic” color correcting or enhancement button, but that usually isn’t the best option for your photo. In working at a design firm, I have come to greatly appreciate the work that goes into making an image just right. Using this app will certainly show that you put time, effort and care into the content you’re sharing. You want to put your best photo forward and you can do just that using Snapseed.

The old adage “you learn something new everyday” is definitely true for any one who is working with social media platforms. Even if you work with the same platforms everyday, there is always something new to try and learn that can add value to your social media strategy. Today, I’m passing along a few helpful and simple “did you know” tips for popular social media platforms.

Instagram

Hashtags:
• Hashtags aren’t just for Twitter users. Creating and using a hashtag on all of your images is just as important on Instagram as it is on Twitter.
• The benefits of using a hashtag on Instagram are similar Twitter. On Instagram, if you create a hashtag it will automatically form into a link – that link will take you to any and all images that use the same hashtag.
• In addition to searching for other popular hashtags, you can also track all of your hashtags that you’ve created so you can see what you have been tagging in the past.

Get Social:
• Instagram isn’t the only photo app that you can use to alter your images. There are many other apps that provide similar editing such as Afterlight. However, these apps do not have the social aspect of Instagram and certainly don’t have the reach of over 100 million users. So if you’re ready to join Instagram, make sure you recognize that it is not just a photo-editing app – the site has grown to one of the biggest social media platforms of this year.

If you’re still not convinced that Instagram is an appropriate social media platform for business – Amy’s post will change your mind!

Pinterest

Hashtags:

• Hashtags can and should also be used on Pinterest. They have the same tagging and tracking capabilities that Twitter and Instagram have.

Price Tags:
• Even though you cannot add a website link to a description, there is still an easy way to promote your product though Pinterest using a price tag. They are very simple to add –  you simply put the price in the description and use the $ symbol and it will add the price tag to your listing.
• In adding the price tag it also automatically adds your pin to the searchable “gifts” tab. Here, users are able to search for gifts within a certain price range. If you don’t have your price listed, your product won’t show up!

Secret Boards:
• You can also try Secret Boards for Pinterest. If you aren’t familiar with secret boards you should check out my post on the best ways to use this feature.

Facebook
Facebook is truly the most popular social media site today. But often times brands aren’t using Facebook to maximize their reach to their followers. There are so many tips and tricks for this platform but I chose to highlight these two as simple, underused tactics on Facebook.

Link Your Networks:
• It’s just as important to link all of your other social media sites to your Facebook page as it is to link them to your website. Your profile toolbar/tabs, that directly below your cover image, is something you should spend some time working on. Using Facebook “apps” you can connect your company’s Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter account and more. These will show up directly into your Facebook page so that your follower won’t even need to click away from your page.

Get Notified:
• Usually when the little red box appears in your “world” icon, it means someone has posted to your wall, commented on an image, or done something that is directly related to you. But did you know that you can also “follow” friends, brands and companies so whenever they update or post, you will get an immediate notification? Go to their page, find the “like” button and when you click on it there will be an option to “get notifications.” This eliminates the need to wait and see if and when shows up in your feed.

Linkedin:

Start a Company Page:
• Linkedin has a similar feature to Facebook’s “business pages” with their Company pages. Many companies are still using “groups” as their page, but this should be avoided. Company pages have all of the benefits of a regular Linkedin profile but you’re also able to post stats and information about your company, news and promotions, job postings and it also allows people to “follow you” much like any other social media site.

News You Can Use:
• I find a lot of great articles that I share through other social media platforms on Linkedin. In my opinion, it’s an untapped resource for those who want articles and information about news in their specific industry. You can also subscribe to “channels” on Linkedin so that the content that appears in your Linkedin Today is directly relevant to the topics or industry that you choose.

News Feed:
• Your own personal News Feed is there, every time you log into Linkedin. Many people don’t realize it serves the exact same purpose as the Facebook News Feed. All of the individuals, companies and groups that you follow will appear within this News Feed as you update. Whether it’s a new job, article or a simple status, you are able to “like,” “share” or “comment” on these types of posts.

There are many more tips and tricks on social media platforms but these are just a few of the basics. Are there other tips that you use on social media platforms that you want to share? We’d love to hear them!

~Allyson

When you’re designing or redesigning a website, there are a lot of factors and components to consider before you even start the project. If you’re not sure where to start, Amy’s post last month about the 6 things you need to know before redesigning your website is a great place to begin! With smartphones, tablets and new technology coming out daily, we’re often asked the best ways to maximize a website for mobile platforms. I found this great infographic by Webtrade that breaks down the basics of responsive web design.

This graphic explains the basics of responsive web design as well its advantages which includes improved Google SEO, enhancing using experience and saving time and money  - just to name a few.

Is your website optimized for mobile platforms?

~Allyson

Last month I reviewed three of my favorite new apps and it spawned a number of our readers to ask me what other great new social media, marketing or business-related apps were out there. Well, you asked and here they are:

1. Bump

Simply put, this app is awesome. When I first downloaded it I thought it was too good to be true – content sharing by bumping your iPhones together, really? Well, it works. When you first download the app it will take you through a number of screens where you can choose what content you’d like to share. This includes photos from your camera roll, Instagram photos, apps, contact information, videos, audio and even access to your DropBox account, if you have one. Once you have selected the piece of content you’d like to share you can do one of two things – bump your iPhone together with another iPhone {who also has the Bump app} or go to http://bu.mp and bump your iPhone with your computers space bar to send the information to your computer. I tried this from my iPhone to my computer and it worked. The image I selected on my iPhone showed up on my computer screen with the option to download, email or upload to Facebook.

How Is It Relevant For Your Business? 
There are so many ways you can use this for your business. Here at Elements, I regularly take images on my iPhone to share on various social media platforms. Then I usually Instagram the image on my phone, pull up my email, email the image to myself, find the email on my work computer, download the image and then post it to the blog or social media. With Bump, all those steps are removed! Aside from image sharing, the file sharing options are perfect for any business meeting or presentation. There’s not need to pre-email the files to your clients or carry your presentation on your laptops. Ask if they have the Bump app and you can share all your documents right there. It can also work as a virtual business card. Forgot your cards at home – bump your phones together to share your contact information with each other on the spot.

2. Keek

Keek has been described as a combination of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. There certainly are similarities with this app and the social media platforms it compares itself too. I would simply describe it as a video “status update.” It has a length limit, much like Twitter, of 36 seconds.  You can subscribe and follow others on Keek, browse videos that are the most viewed and most popular and you can see all of this information in your own profile. Hastags are also used in Keek and you can search for videos using these “klusters.” The videos are very easy to create, just hit the record button, and then even easier to share on other social media platforms.

How Is It Relevant For Your Business?
Three words – user generated content. The same way businesses use YouTube as a social media platform to get their brand out, Keek can be used similarly. Where YouTube can be used for commercials, branded videos and promotions – Keek can provide a much more personal experience for your followers. Are you on the road and want your followers to see what you’re up to? At a trade show  A conference? Give them a behind-the-scenes look using Keek. Do you have an exciting new announcement to share? Use Keek as a 36 second teaser and share it on your social media pages to start the hype. Will millions of users and traffic increasing on the app everyday, Keek is an up-and-coming app and social media tool that you don’t want to miss out on.

3. Flipboard
When I sit down to look at my computer or my phone each morning, there are thousands and thousands of news sources, social media platforms, forums, blogs and websites that I can go to for infomation. So where do you start? Flipboard will make your own personal “magazine” filled with news and topics that are tailored specifically to your interests. When you first signup for Flipboard it will ask you about your interests – are you into food, travel, design? Yes, yes and yes – you can check off all the categories that you like and exclude the ones you don’t. You also have the option to sign into your Facebook and Twitter accounts to include news from the pages and friends you follow. You can also search for other blogs, magazines and news sources, that share their information online, and receive all of their content related to the categories that you follow. Additionally, you can search for specific topics that are breaking news or trending. Flipboard also makes it easy to share these stories on your social media sites to your friends and followers.

How Is It Relevant For Your Business?
Knowledge is power! Ok a little cheesy I know, but very true. The more you know, the more you can share. Who has the time to scour hundreds of websites everyday to make sure you are up to speed and ahead of the game? No one. Flipboard makes it easy to literally “flip” through hundreds of articles and news sources and find the most relevant and newsworthy items for you. Who wouldn’t want a personal magazine written for them everyday?

Have you tried any of these apps? Give them a try and let us know your feedback!

~Allyson