Five Things Not To Do When Creating A Social Media Strategy

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By: Daniela Sanchez – Colombia

Social media is one of the most important topics that businesses have been talking about the last couple of years. However, despite these conversations, it’s still hard for some companies to integrate themselves into the digital world, and thus, they often do not have a good experience with technology nor do they get the great results they want. Below, I would like to suggest five things not to do in devising a good strategy for your company.

Digital marketing

1. Start posting without a strategy

It is normal to think that the first step is to create a business profile on all social media platforms, and to start posting about your company on every one of them. However, there is a lot of work to do before even launching your company’s marketing on social media.

First of all, you should:

  • Create a strategy that’s in line with your business strategy. It is very important to have a goal in using social media: What do you want to achieve? Do you want to sell or be well known? How are you selling now and how do you think social media can help you to sell more?
  • Know your target. To reach who you want to see your content, it is essential to decide which social media platform you should focus on first. Having excellent marketing material on all social media platforms is a lot of work; as you start out, target only two or three. You also need to ask yourselves some important questions: Who do you want to market to? Where are they? What kind of things do they like? How do they communicate?
  • Keep your identity clear. Make sure people know they are dealing with the same company when they see both your digital and printed material. And, because social media is such an important part of your company’s image, it is essential to choose colors, language and style that accurately reflect your company before you even start to post.

2. Don’t face up the negative feedback

Reading and paying attention to your customers’ opinions is fundamental for your company improvement. Also, it is normal if someone isn’t a big fan of your brand and he says something bad. Don’t panic. You may READ IT, take advantage of feedback and try to answer in a very polite way. A good idea would be asking the person to call you or write you with more details about the situation and try to resolve the inconvenient as soon as you can.

This is the perfect opportunity to know what people really think about you or your brand, even you can talk with them and know more about their opinions and ideas. Be sure that you really pay attention to negative feedback because they are honest opinions about the user experiences of a product.

TIP: It’s very difficult to face up to a negative comment if you’re not prepared at all. You should think about all the possible situations and plan how are you going to react.

3. Acting always like a corporation

Remember that you are using Social Media. That means that people expect to talk with people, even if you’re a brand or a company. Actually, people love to talk with real people. So you should add a human touch to be closer to your target. This point is essential if you really want to have a connection with your customers, but it is also pretty hard to do.

The best advice that I could tell you is to create a brand personality; think how your brand could be if it were a person. Talk, write and answer like that person, choosing the perfect words without forgetting punctuation and grammar.  People want a sensitive brand which cares about the environment and market situation and in general about the world.

TIP: Customer service starts even before people buy your brand.

4. Using a lot of advertising

It’s not a secret that everyone hates advertising. So please don’t post just information about your brand, that will only cause you to have less followers. Of course, you should post about your brand, products and sales, but not all the time: even if the purpose of your profile is to sell.

Now you should be thinking: what am I supposed to post? Talk about interesting topics related to your market, the environment, things that are happening in your city, identify your team and use phrases that reflect your brand personality. You can start trying to post between 20% or 30% about your products and the rest with different and interesting information for your target audience. It’s not going to be easy at the beginning, but with time you might find the perfect combination.

5. Don’t pay attention to analytics

If you have already done all the steps, you should understand that this is a lot of work. Even though it’s very probable you’ll not benefit if you don’t do this last step. The digital world is moving around analytics. It’s the best and, for me, the most important part of social media. Analytics can change your strategies and help you focus on what you need.

It’s possible to know if your posts are working or not, by just looking at analytics. That’s how you can change things that aren’t doing well or put more effort on topics that are having good results. You’ll be able to know: what kind of information is more interesting for your target? what time is better to post? who is looking at you? and in general, how is your social media working? The advice up to this point is to look at the results of your posts at least two or three times per week, but I really believe that more is better.

Definitely, social media can help you to grow your business. It’s time to work and good luck!

You Want To Be a Cool Parisian Guy ? Follow my Advice

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Rudy FRANÇOIS-MÜLLER, France

1- The Style

  • A lot of big luxuous companys come from France, like Louis Vuitton, Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent. Parisian guys are inspired a lot by the street mode. For exemple, when people wait at the pedestrian crossing, it’s time to find your inspiration.

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Paris fashion week 2018.

2- Good Place to Be!

  • Paris is a big city, but not so big when you want to discover beautiful areas without a lot of tourist. The district of Saint Germain des Pres is a really good place to be! I really like to seat in the “Cafe de Flore”. This is an really expensive coffee, but I can see a lot of celebrities (from France or Internationnal) and thst can inspire some people!

Image result for cafe de flore st germainImage result for cafe de flore celebrities

3- Are You Really Already Going to Paris?

You can’t say that you are going to Paris if you have not made these trips:

  • The Eiffel Tower is one of those must sees! I don’t recommend it to anyone who is afraid of emptiness but when you are in the Tower, we can see a beautiful view of Paris! And for the richest you can even eat in a starred restaurant in the first floor.Image result for tour eiffel
  • The Champs-Elysees is the most beautiful street in the world. They are many shops for all budgets. In the winter, all the trees are illuminated and this makes the street even more beautiful!Image result for champs elysees illumination
  • Montmartre is a very old district in Paris. Hilltop Montmartre district is a former artists village once habited by Picasso and Dali, and home to the domed Sacre-Coeur basilica. There are sweeping views of the city from its steep, winding streets, while the iconic Moulin Rouge cabaret below draws tourists and night clubbers.Image result for montmartre

4- The French Food

During your trip you should try the beef Bourguignon in a restaurant! It’s a beef stew braised in red wince, often red Burgundy (very delicious), and beef stock, generally flavoured with carrots, onions, garlic and a bouquet garni, and garnished with pearl onions, mushrooms and bacon.

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I hope you will soon discover the city of Paris and share your experience :).

 

Why People Buy Designer Brands

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Michelle Christoffersen, Denmark

A lot of people seem to be obsessed with buying designer brands, even when they can’t afford them. Why is it so important for people, and what is the psychology behind it? Self-esteem has a lot to do with this, and many people maybe feels that they have something to live up to. They want to have the same stuff as their friends, people they see on Instagram or their favorite celebrity. They feel like the society is evolved around materialistic stuff and that it gives you status to have the brand new designer handbag.

Back to social media and the internet, it has become the best way for businesses to advertise their brand name and their products. On Instagram for example, a business can make influencers wear their clothes and advertise their brand for them. Young people see these celebrities and influencers and want to have the same things as them, hoping that they too, can get a little of the glam. Self identity and social status plays a big role here, because people want to represent a certain kind of type. The clothes they wear represent which kind of person they are (or want to be).

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A good reason for buying designer brands is, that it is good quality and there is a big chance that a pair of jeans from a designer brand is gonna last longer than one for $25 in Marshalls. Designer brands are usually made from finer fabrics and have superior stitching compares to those of bargain stores. But then again, if you can’t afford it, it is not a good enough reason that it is better quality if it costs you $200 more and a big loan on your credit card.

Brand loyal costumers to a certain brand, also explains why people sometimes pay overprice just for the brand. Apple inc. is a good example for this. A lot of their costumers are ready to by the new IPhone, Ipad, MacBook etc. from them no matter the price and even though brands like Samsung and Microsoft often gives a better quality and system in their technology compared to Apple. The costumers don’t care. They are brand loyal and they are comfortable with the brand, so that is where they are gonna stay. It’s the same with clothing and accessories brands.

I have been guilty of buying things that are maybe a little overpriced because I wanted the brand, I think a lot of us have. Sometimes it can be okay to give yourself a little extra nice thing, but you shouldn’t be in debt for it, you should save up and only spend the amount you really can afford. I think our society today, evolves a lot around materialistic stuff and who has the most expensive and trendy stuff. That’s why a lot of people feel the need to buy these things, because everyone else does it. And who wants to feel like they are worth less than the rest? No one.

 

 

 

Instagram Food Culture

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Ramona Kramer, Switzerland

Instagram. There is basically no person in our generation who hasn’t heard that word yet or who even doesn’t use this app. In June 2018, there were nearly 1 billion monthly users and 500 million daily active users – with an upward tendency. Over half of the users are between 18-24 and on an average day, 80 million photos are shared.

Handy

Admittingly, I use Instagram every single day and I love to look at new profiles. Especially in the last few years, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of fitness accounts coming up, posting pictures of healthy food and promoting new weight loss products on a daily basis. This can be great for inspiration and motivation, but it can also put a lot of pressure on young, influenceable users that think they also have to eat perfectly healthy all the time in order to get the “perfect” body. Every Fitness Instagrammer pretends to know what’s best for everyone. For example one says only to eat vegan, the other one to cut out bread and gluten, the other one to eat 1,000 calories a day, etc. This can be confusing and lead people into a dangerous direction of a wrong self image and an obsessive lifestyle.

comparisoncalorie compare

I’ve been influenced by this trend before and I know some other people who have changed their eating habits because of Instagram. So, I was wondering how many other young females have had that experience with Instagram or if and how they are affected by this trend, positively or negatively. To get more information, I created a survey with questions related to this topic and I sent it to females, all between the age of 17 to 19. The answers were quite interesting.

granola

Out of 10, only one of the surveyed people doesn’t use Instagram. The rest are on this app multiple times daily. Only one person follows no account with posts related to healthy food, the others do, and half of them have already tried out a food recipe from one of these pages. Contrary to my expectations, no one has ever bought a weight loss product promoted on Instagram. Still, almost 70% feel pressured to eat healthy seeing these pictures and 30% even feel bad when they eat food that is considered “not clean”. One of the young women gave an interesting answer to the question of whether or not she sees these posts as an inspiration or bad influence. Her answer was: “As long as it is about healthy lifestyle, I see their posts as an inspiration. I don’t like posts about how to lose weight because I don’t feel like I have to lose weight, but the posts make me feel insecure about my body.” This is also where I see the biggest issue: This influence can make us suddenly feel bad about ourselves for things which seemed normal to us before.

Posting these pictures can’t be stopped and as long as Instagrammers want to be inspirational, it also shouldn’t be stopped. Still, there should be more focus on what makes you feel good and happy rather than what could lead you into an obsession with food and fitness. We forget so fast that the people who post these pictures are only human as well, and everyone can post his healthy salad and eat a cookie afterwards without sharing the dessert with the world. What you see on social media is never the whole truth, it is just segments of a life and everyone can decide what they want to share and what not to. So, in conclusion, try the healthy oatmeal for breakfast, but also enjoy your In n Out Burger without worrying about it.

Why is loving yourself so hard nowadays because of social medias?

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Image result for social medias impact on confidence

by Lea Barras, France.

I have to admit, sometimes I lose confidence in myself when I spend too much time on social media sites. But, even if most of people don’t admit it, I think that nowadays it is common for everyone, especially for teenagers and young adults. Indeed, nowadays, social medias are everywhere and everyone has an Instagram, Twitter or Facebook account. Event though these sites are really useful and have a lot of positive aspects, sometimes they can also have a lot of negative impacts, especially when it comes to self confidence and loving ourselves.

For example, when we are scrolling our Instagram page, we’re always seeing perfect girls with perfect bodies in perfect places. Also, with the famous hashtag #goals, we always see pictures of #couplegoal, #lifegoal, #friendshipgoal etc. In fact, these kinds of posts can have a really negative impact on our way of loving ourselves. Indeed, we start to compare and to wonder why we do not have that kind of body or why we don’t travel as much, why we are still single, why we do not have that much money etc. Then, we start to post pictures or posts just for people to like them because we always want to be the one with the most of likes etc. But when we don’t, we become sad or question ourselves, thinking it’s our fault or  that we are not enough.

We are used to see celebrities, such as Selena Gomez (in the picture below), who have the most liked pictures on instagram (she has sometimes more than 8 million likes) or influencers who always seem to have the perfect lives. In the end, it has been proven that these habits damage a lot our self confidence.

Image result for selena gomez most liked photo on instagram

Indeed, for 60% of people, social medias have impacted their self-esteem on a negative way. Let’s see the 3 main reasons why loving ourselves has become so hard because of social medias and the 3 main attitudes we can use to resolve this problem.

3 mains reasons why loving ourselves has become so hard because of social medias : 

  • Most of the photos we can see on social medias are retouched. 

Indeed, often when we see a picture on internet, it’s not real. The photo has certainly been retouched to fit the beauty standards that society has imposed on us today. Nowadays, women should all have perfect bodies, which means thin legs but with curves, tanned and clear skin, long beautiful hair, but this is not reality. We can’t be that “perfect” and this makes “normal” people,and especially teenagers, feel bad about themselves and having complexes about their physical appearances.

  • Famous people on the internet always show the best sides of their lives. 

People rarely talk or post about what’s going wrong in their lives or about their insecurities and fears. They only show the best that’s happening in their lives. That gives us the feeling that they have perfect lives with no bad days or struggles, whereas in fact it’s not true. Everyone has bad days or struggles with something. So we have to remember that people on social medias only show us what they want to and that we don’t know what happens in their lives behind the camera.

  • The constant run for Likes. 

Nowadays, Likes are more important than everything else. Everyone wants to be the one with the most Likes on his pictures. This leads to people being ready to do anything to achieve it. Indeed, sometimes we post things more for others (because we know it’s the kind of poses or pictures they like) than for ourselves. In the end, we don’t even like the things we post, but we post it because it’s the “trend”.

3 main solutions for being able to still love ourselves while being active on social medias :

  • Don’t compare.

“Personality begins where comparison leaves off. Be unique. Be memorable. Be confident. Be proud.” is a quote by Shannon L. Alder that we should all keep in mind when we’re using social medias and start comparing ourselves to these perfect girls in photos. Indeed, the only person we should compare ourselves to is ourselves because that’s what matters the most to us and that’s the most important for our own self-image. By doing this, we can only do better, whereas comparing with others on social medias can only bring us negativity because we’re different people so we’ll never look like them.

  • Trust your own timing. 

Everyone’s timing is different. Indeed, if your bestfriend is in a relationship and you’re not, that doesn’t mean that you “suck” or that you’re not beautiful or funny or anything enough to be in a relationship too. It just means that it’s not the right time for you. We shouldn’t pressure ourselves to be where other people are now in their lives because we do not have the same timing, and something that is good for someone now is maybe not good for you at the same time. Also, everything happens for a reason so we should just relax and appreciate life as it comes and not worry too much about the things we can’t control.

  • Remember that perfection doesn’t exist. 

Lastly, we should remember that perfection doesn’t exist because we can’t always be in a good mood, or being well dressed all the time because life comes in waves : one day you’re fine, the next day something is bothering you and it goes on and on like this. So we have to remember that it happens also to the perfect girl you see on Instagram, it’s just that she chooses to not show it to the world. Also, perfection is subjective : your definition of perfection is maybe not the same as the person sitting next to you, so you can’t be perfect for everyone. You should only try to be perfect for yourself and that’s enough.

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