The Power of Social Media

So, yesterday I was watching Ellen with my mom and came across this crazy story.

A man who lives in New York City went out one night and got his phone stolen at a bar. He got a new phone and just continued with his life. A year later though while this man was using his new phone, suddenly pictures of a middle aged Chinese man started showing up in his photo stream. Since he was an iPhone user, his iCloud was synced up onto both cell phones, the stolen one and his new one.

Here's when things get crazy. The owner of the phone posts on Buzzfeed and Twitter what had happened, and out of nowhere had people responding left and right. Someone then suggested that he join a social media site called Weibo, which is a Chinese version of Twitter, to continue to talk about what happened. On that website he started to be the number one trending item and had a bunch of people looking for the man on his phone. Eventually he actually found the man on his phone on this website and they started talking and became friends! So much so that Matt, the man whose phone got stolen, went all the way to China to meet his new friend.

BUT THERE'S MORE

When Matt arrived at the airport, there were actually people there who recognized him and started to treat him like celebrity! All these people in China know who Matt is and his new friend "Brother Orange" (because all the pictures the man took when they first appeared on Matt's phone where selfies of the man in front of an orange tree)

So what does this have to do with social media marketing? Well, since this whole thing these two friends have kind of created a brand for themselves. Brother Orange named his restaurant after all of this, and they were on Ellen. This shows how much power social media has and what you could potentially gain from it as a person or as a business.

For the full story look here.

More People Making Money on YouTube

Yup, I said it, and you read it. Money on YouTube. This will be my SECOND blog post on essentially the same thing. But it's still so mind boggling to me. People, ordinary people. making good money on YouTube!

What made me talk about this is an article I ran across titled "This 8-Year-Old Girl Makes $127,000 a Month Baking Sweets on YouTube" The article talks about how YouTube has become a huge way to make money and make people celebrities. They put the little girl from the YouTube channel CharlisCraftyKitchen as the example for YouTube success. The article says that "Charli's channel generates an average of $127,777 in ad revenue per month. That's taking into account YouTube's cut of revenue. The channel gets an average of 29 million views each month — in March, it had 29,133,270"

I did take a peak on her channel, and I have to admit, that Charli and her sister are terribly cute. Oh my word. But it still blows my mind how a social media website can do so much for a person. I am personally a YouTube geek. I subscribe to different vlogs, aspiring musical artists, and some cooking channels as well.

This then leads me to a whole new question. Will YouTube become the new television? I know for a fact I spend more time on their than I do watching TV. They already have adds, different channels post "episodes" on a regular basis, and now these people are making money from it. Maybe I should make my own channel before it turns into a whole other platform. :-)

Hostess...Whyyyyy?!

So, as many men out there may know, yesterday was opening day for Major League Baseball. I am the type of girl who wouldn't know about this glorious day, but I am the daughter of a huge Red Sox fan, so the MLB was a big topic of discussion in my house yesterday.

Before I started taking my Social Media Marketing class, I never paid much attention to how companies use days like this to promote their brand and product. Yesterday I saw a live feed of opening day on my Snapchat and it has also been all over my Twitter. Before, I probably would've just kept scrolling and not pay much attention, but now I actually like to see what companies are doing. So while I was scrolling along I see an "oh no they didn't" moment made by Hostess.

Here is the picture they posted on their Twitter account:



With the caption: It's here and we couldn't be filled with more sweet joy. #OpeningDay

When I first saw the picture I thought it was so cute (and yummy looking) but when I actually read it, I had to pause and think. Suddenly I was like "wait, football has touchdowns, not baseball". It's hard to tell if this was intentional or not but either way it grabbed a lot of attention. Different people started to respond, even Sports Illustrated Magazine. They re tweeted the post and said, "Pssssst, @Hostess_Snacks, we think you might be mixing up your sports". Although this is a pretty big mix-up, I guess it's become more funny than a catastrophic mistake. When companies make mistakes like these, you usually see them delete the tweet or try to hide it, but Hostess has kind of just kept rolling with it. So maybe it was intentional? Either way, Hostess, you made a mistake, it's a home run, but I would still like that cupcake. haha.

Some additional comments regarding post was found here.

Quitting Your Job for YouTube?!

Sounds kind of crazy right? Well, it's actually something that is happening for some people today.


I was on Entrepreneur.com looking for some news in social media marketing. While I was browsing, I came upon this title, "How These Four Dads From Utah Quit Their Day Jobs to Make Millions on YouTube" and naturally, I was stopped in my steps. It didn't make sense to me, FOUR DADS, QUIT JOBS, MILLIONS ON YOUTUBE?! My brain could not comprehend having all these words in the same sentence.


After being confused, I read the article and learned a lot about The Piano Guys.







These are four Mormon dads from Utah whose career is now found on YouTube. This was not the plan for them in no way shape or form. It started with a store called The Piano Guys in Utah looking to gain a greater presence on social media sites for marketing purposes. They wanted to bring more people into their store. So, the owner asked Steven and Jon, a pianist and cellist, to make video clips for their Facebook and YouTube pages. Unfortunately, while people loved the music, it failed to help the store succeed. More attention was drawn to the men rather than the store.


After some time the store ended up closing down, but the guys continued to make videos. The posted creative covers to popular songs on a regular basis. Later, the band started to build a fan base and eventually got contacted by Sony. They now have three albums, 3.7 million subscribers, collaborate with celebrities, and go on tour. Since they gained this new found fame, the had to make the decisions to either keep their jobs and do less work on YouTube, or make YouTube their career. It took a couple years, but the group decided to leave their day jobs and make YouTube their full time job. Although it sounds kind of crazy at first, it ends up making them a lot of money with tour, album sales, and video views. These average dads now get to call themselves millionaires.

Pinterest Marketing Tips

Sorry for the mini hiatus! With exams and spring break, I got kind of caught up in all of the stresses of my last college semester, and earned a couple greys because of it. But here I am again with some fun social media marketing information!


Today, we're back on my favorite outlet, Pinterest! And how to get some awesome results and get the most out of this social media outlet.


I stumbled upon this article titled, 5 Pinterst Tips fro Crazy-Good Results. This article had some great ideas on how to get great marketing results through Pinterest.


What I found most interesting was when the author, Susan Harrow, spoke about using the images to speak for your brand rather than a bunch of words to sell the product. She uses Home Depot as an example to prove this point. As most may know, Pinterest is known for Do-It-Yourself products, so of course Home Depot would want to work their way into this outlet. Now, instead of pasting their bright orange logo allover the site, the use real nice, professional, bright colored photos to grab your attention. This is super smart because once people like it and pin it onto their board, the more likely they are to go to Home Depot in search for the product to reproduce whatever picture they saw.

There a couple other tips in the article that relates to whatever you maybe trying to promote and grab attention towards.

I personally use Pinterest for my own pleasure, but it's good to know how to use it in a form of marketing for future jobs and to also be aware how companies are working even when you don't totally realize it. :-)

Oh, the dress

I know, I know. I hate to be another person to mention that silly dress. But here I am. Not to debate on the color, but to talk about how it almost broke the internet and impacted social media in a great way.

Before I continue, I have to say, I saw white and gold.

Now, let's talk about I saw it come about. It was Thursday evening and I was scrolling through my feed on Instagram. I saw a celebrity I follow, Quest Love, post the dress and didn't think much of it. I didn't even read the caption. I just kept scrolling through like it was no big deal. The next day when I woke up and refreshed refreshed my feed, HOLY COW, it was everywhere! From the celebrities I follow, to my friends from school, to the youth from my church were posting about. I was so confused. When I went to Twitter, that's when I saw companies start to "tweet" about it also. And naturally, I knew I had to talk about it on here.

Since I only saw the posting from Dunkin' Donuts and Pizza Hut, I was curious to see if anyone else got into the action.

I found this article on Entrepreneur.com titled "Color War: Brands Attempt to Cash In on the Great Dress Debate via Social Media" which displayed the hits and misses from companies that used it in their social media marketing. I recommend checking out so you can read all of them. Although this writer says Denny's was the best, my personal favorite was Dunkin' Donuts:

Dunkin' DonutsVerified account‏@DunkinDonuts

Doesn't matter if it’s blue/black or white/gold, they still taste delicious. #thedress

As much as I didn't care about the dress and what color it was, I found it cute and funny when places commented on it. I find it important for companies such as Dunkin' Donuts to comment on these things because it keeps them up to date and relevant. For me, as much as I value the product itself, it's nice to know the company is trying to relate to me, the customer. I'm not sure if commenting on the dress increase sales, but it might have helped with brand loyalty in a way. 

Social Media Mistakes That are Killing Your Brand

Good Morning!

This week I wasn't sure what to talk about or what to look into. Then, BAM, I ran into this article from Entrepreneur.com titled, "8 Social Media Mistakes That Are Killing Your Brand". This are article as a whole was very interesting, so I highly recommend you read it for yourself.


Here are a few of the mistakes that I found most interesting and helpful:

• Number 2 on the list, Not responding appropriately to negative feedback. Oh my word, I totally agree with this. I think a lot of people who are starting a new brand and are new to social media marketing, get this totally messed up. I have seen a lot of people respond to negative feedback in a negative way by going right into defense mode. What I found interesting from the article though is that he mentions to not ignore the negative comment either. Me, personally, a person who avoids confrontation, would have a struggle with this. But I have to admit, it makes sense. Demers explains it by saying, "Rather than avoiding, why not use these situations as opportunities to shine? Respond thoughtfully and promptly to negative comments, and use them as opportunities to showcase your commitment to customer service."

• Number 4 on the list, Being a one-trick pony. When I first read the heading I was like, "What?". But as I read it, I learned that it meant posting the same kind of content over and over again and not changing it up. I think that a lot of people starting a brand or already have an established brand get comfortable. They think that if a method they're using works, why not just stick with it? This ends up hurting the brand because people will get bored and eventually look for something new and relating to new things happening in the world and in society.

• Number 7 on the list, Offering canned responses. This is one is by far my favorite and I truly hope and pray all business owners see this! This means not responding the same to all customers and having a simple generic response to complaints and compliments. I am the type of person that it takes a lot for me to complain or express my opinion on a specific product. So, if I'm reaching out to your company about a product, I expect to be treated in a way that makes me feel like you are listening to me and are taking what I said into consideration. If I sent an e-mail or tweet, I'm not looking for a response that has already been posted on your website, but an answer tailored to me. This can be as simple as using my name in the response.

If your interested in putting your brand on social media, I recommend reading this entire article.

Social Media and The Grammy's

So, besides Pinterest, I am also a lover of music. It's my most favorite thing to keep up with and keep an eye out for, so naturally I had to watch the Grammy's last Sunday. It was an awesome show full of great performances, awesome speeches, and fabulous fashion. While watching the Grammy's though, I did find myself going on Twitter and Instagram during commercial breaks to see behind the scenes stuff from celebrity accounts and to just see what people were saying about different wins and performances. In that one night I found myself starting to follow celebrities I hadn't followed before on Instagram like Meghan Trainor and John Legend. I ran into this article on AdWeek.com titled "Did the Grammy Awards Give Nominees a Social Media Bump?" When I first read the title I thought, of course it did! Everyone is suddenly going to be a fan of the winners and want to follow who they are and their music! This article said that it didn't. At least not for big winning celebrities like Sam Smith. On the website they posted this infograph showing some stats recorded by StatSocial:

The data that was collected showed that the big winner Sam Smith didn't grow much on social media but other new artists who were nominated for Record of the Year got a big increase over Grammy Weekend. I find it so interesting how that happened. I wonder if it's because people didn't know who these artists were and were curious? Or maybe they are mad that a particular artist didn't win and decided to comment on it? Either way, it's fun to see that even for music awards, social media still has a great affect on artists and the industry. The more people follow them or tweet about them, the greater chances they might just have to make an even more successful album in the future.

Pinterest Turning Pins Into Profit?

Hi there!

Just as a little intro, I'm Khaeris, and currently enrolled in a Social Media Marketing course. This blog, while a requirement for my course, will consist of things that are current, or out of curiosity to me, in relation to social media and marketing of course. 

Okay, so for those who know me, knows I am totally OBSESSED with Pinterest. As I take my Social Media Marketing class, I can't help to think of Pinterest and how exactly they work when it comes to making money and such. If I could get paid to pin, I totally would. Or to even get "Pinterest Famous" would be completely awesome! So with that, I naturally had to Google "Pinterest Profit". I ran into this article and video clip on CNN titled, "Pinterest's Joanne Bradford Talks Turning Pins Into Profits" In the article Joanne Bradford, Head of Pinterest Partnerships, spoke about what Pinterest does and how it can become a powerful marketing tool. In this article Bradford mentions how the company is working on making "promoted pins" as a form of advertising. She says, 

"The thing is, Pinterest allows a brand to be who they are—it's not just about re-targeting. It's about being where (people) are doing those things, like planning a trip, redoing your house, rebuilding a motor cycle," she said. "We think we've got real intent and signal to help a marketer."

 Although advertising is an important thing, I think Pinterest's view on it is more on focusing on how it will help people and influence their everyday lives, rather then just throwing stuff in randomly, which I find refreshing. In the article Bradford mentioned how her daughter saw Crock-Pot recipes on Pinterest that motivated her into buying one and using the recipes she found. I find myself in the same situation all the time, and as much as I hate to admit it, depending on the source of the idea, if the person who mentioned to project says a specific brand to use, I tend to buy it so I have a grater chance of it coming out properly. So far, I haven't seen many promoted pins on Pinterest yet, but I have a feeling it'll be a great tool for brands such as KitchenAid for baking and Crayola for arts and crafts. As long as they keep it relateable and not super thrown in your face, I see it being super beneficial for such companies.