Great news for those using Instagram as a marketing tool: Captions will now be embedded!

This means your copy will automatically appear below your photo or video. Prior to this change, embedded photos (in blogs or articles) did not make the original caption visible. I’m sure you can imagine how this update will positively effect your marketing efforts!

Here’s what you’ll see next time you get the embed code for an Instagram image:

Instagram, which turned four the day before this news broke, also announced it’s new embed code includes javascript that resizes the embed to fit the site your image is on, depending on what device a viewer is using.

Along with the caption changes, Instagram also made tweaks to the design making images bigger, cleaner, and more defined.

We saved the best for last: It’s easier than ever for readers to follow your instagram account directly from that embedded image! The new design includes a follow button.

Awesome right!

It’s officially Fall now – and as we welcome in my personal favorite time of year, we also usher in a month that highlights many worthy causes. As social media continues to be the best way to spread a grassroots message, I see some very inspiring and unique ways different organizations are kicking off their “MONTH” of awareness. Throughout the month I will be featuring different causes and what they are doing to raise awareness and funds for their causes.

Breast Cancer Awareness and the Susan G. Komen Foundation:
The foundation set this image as their Cover Photo on Facebook and introduced the month long hashtag: #WhatGivesMeStrength and asked people to post using it. Here are just a few of the most touching posts:

 

 

 

Sadly the odds tell us that Breast Cancer has touched you personally in your life. Consider donating to the Susan G. Komen Foundation (or others – there are many wonderful organizations supporting this cause).

Time for another Secret Series installment!

Using Pinterest is often times a big part of a social media marketing strategy (and it is a HUGE part if your client is an online retailer). There are a few insider Pinterest tips and tricks to making your time there useful; let’s get started!

1) ALWAYS make sure your pins have the source section filled out.

Without this, people clicking on the pin will not end up at your/your client’s website. You can fill it out by selecting your pin and clicking edit.

2) Brand your pins!

Add the web address (and logo if it fits!) to extend your reach and continue branding. Use tools like photoshop, picmonkey, and others to add your personal touch.

3) Use keywords in your descriptions.

If your pin is about a bridal veils, you better say bridal veil somewhere in the description. It sure grinds our gears when we see veil retailers just saying “so cute!” – that isn’t going to show up in search results. Here’s a great example of the right way to do it.

 

These are some of our favorite pinterest tips, stay tuned for more in our Secret Series! Check this one out for some of our best Twitter tips! You better know those.

I recently got turned onto a new FREE Twitter service called Tweepi. Tweepi helps you clean up your Twitter account and figure out all sorts of great things. Let’s talk about it!

Tweepi Flush

This feature shows you who you follow that is NOT following you back. You can aggregate the info alphabetically, based on location, number of followers, or the last time they tweeted. I recommend listing them by the last time they tweeted (ascending). You will be amazed how many people you follow who haven’t tweeted in YEARS! My rule of thumb: If they haven’t tweeted in 15+ days, flush ’em.

If you are actively following people hoping for follow backs, you may reach a follow limit. Tweepi flush is great for helping you figure out who to stop following…so you can find better people to follow who will reciprocate!

My favorite part of the flush section is seeing who is not following my clients and making a wish list. My wishlist includes people my client has either directly asked me to interact with, or fits within their target demographics. Users with large followings who don’t yet follow back might just need a personal tweet or two before the follow back comes. Create relationships with these people and watch your retweet and mention numbers soar!

Tweepi Reciprocate

It doesn’t make sense to follow back everyone who follows you – your feed would be such a random mess! But every so often you might miss following back someone in your industry and that’s where this section becomes relevant! Tweepi Reciprocate shows you everyone who follows you that you don’t follow back, and makes it easy for you to follow them right there in the dashboard. Simple!

Tweepi Cleanup People I’m Following

This section is very similar to Tweepi Flush and honestly I never use it. The only difference is that it shows people who follow you and those who don’t (vs. flush which only shows people who don’t follow you). You can skip it.

Tweepi Cleanup People Following Me

This section is interesting because — who wants less followers? Believe it or not some clients really only want VALUABLE FOLLOWERS. 100s and 100s of followers from Russia who don’t even use English characters aren’t going to be retweeting you, and they definitely won’t be referring you business. I love this section because it helps you get rid of the random followers who aren’t doing anything for you. **This section is only available with a paid membership.

So obviously we love Twitter – hope to see you there! @BelleStrategies

 

 

 

 

It’s only been an hour since Vani Hari, the writer behind www.foodbabe.com, announced her newest investigation and already the social media pages of Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors are covered in demands to know what’s in their #mysterybeer. Her petition already has over 10k signatures, and the hashtag is trending. Today is not going to be a good day for their social media managers.

Hari has built a loyal following of like-minded people who care about what they put in their bodies. Together with these health crusaders (dubbed the FoodBabe Army), Hari has helped bring enormous publicity to some of the not-so-tasty ingredients in our food. Subway, Kraft, and General Mills are just a few of the brands who have modified their ingredient list after Hari brought their consumers together and demanded it.

From a social media perspective, we enjoy watching Hari and her army wage war on the big guys. Using social media for good is always fun to see, especially since common viral trends bring us celebrity baby news and kitten videos. It always feels like we get to put one in the win column when something worthwhile goes viral.

Facebook Audio Recognition is here!

• Facebook’s new update for its Android and iOS app has Shazam-like audio recognition. It can listen and identify the background music/TV show playing when users update status.

• It’s great for Facebook’s data mining purposes because it can further improve its targeted ads campaign.

• The more specific Facebook’s advertising platform is the more effective your ad dollars are.

Adding audio recognition to identify background media when users update their status using their phones or tablets, help Facebook’s data mining operations. Advertisers demand increasingly personalized data for their target demographics. Hollywood and music bigwigs want the Facebook Shazam-like feature to gain real-time or always-updated feedback on what TV shows, music, pop stars, and genres are hot.

Read the full post originally published HERE