creative ideas

5 Creative Uses for Facebook Photo Albums

by Marian Schembari on June 2, 2011

As more businesses – small and large alike – start setting up shop on Facebook, the more the seriously creative ones stand out. Recently, I’ve seen a number of folks using photo albums to post everything from featured menu items to the year’s highlights.

I don’t care if you’re brand spanking new to the site or your well-established page has a trillion billion fans, you can always learn a thing or two from companies thinking outside of the page box and getting clever with images. Here are five things you can do right now to up the ante on your page and engage fans in a way you might never have expected…

Tag Your Products

Every day, Delish Cupcakes uploads an image of their “cupcakes of the day.” Not only are they artfully displayed with the occasional classy photo filter thrown in, but the cupcakes themselves are tagged with their incredibly cute names.

Do a Delish: If you sell something – anything – dedicate a photo album on your Facebook page to visually draw in your fans. Tag the products/menu items with their name and add a little description to give us more info and a URL if applicable. And don’t forget to “Do a Delish” by making sure to answer all questions as they come!

Highlight Your People

Hit travel website, Gadling, has an entire album dedicated to their writers. But they don’t just feature boring ole headshots. No, Gadling emphasizes how all of their bloggers love travel and have uploaded some great shots to prove it.

Do a Gadling: Whether you have employees, students or even family involved with your page, highlight those that work behind the scenes and Do a Gadling by relating the images back to your niche. For example, if you’re a winery, collect photos of your employees in a vineyard, sipping wine or crushing grapes a la Lucille Ball.

Get an Opinion, Start a Discussion

Online fashion retailer (and one of my personal favorites) ModCloth has essentially created a Facebook designer team of ModStylists who not only model outfits using ModCloth products, but display outfit tweaks side by side and ask for fan feedback.

Do a ModCloth: No matter what your niche, asking for user feedback is the best way to get fans talking. Website designer? Show us two versions of your site with slightly different background colors and ask users to vote. Author? Take a screenshot of the first sentence of your latest book written two ways and let the discussion ensue. Even if you have a preference, it’s fun for fans to get involved and you never know who might change your mind!

Create a “Best Of” Collection

Ridiculously good-looking popular HBO show True Blood compiled a short album of the best show moments of 2010, including a screenshot and link to a Sesame Street parody (True Mud), Comic-Con panel and Grammy nomination.

Do a True Blood: While it’s easy to have a press page or news section on your website, people are visual and compiling your favorite happenings from the year in an easy-to-digest format, fans can share in your success without the incessant self promotion. Use Facebook albums to highlight publications, press coverage, images of events you attended/spoke at, etc. The options are sort of limitless here, meaning you can get as personalized as you want!

Show Off Your Community

3D cinema company, RealD, does a great job crowdsourcing and pimping their tech by posting hundreds of photos of happy movie-goers in their 3D glasses. The trend has become so huge that fans upload the photos themselves, tagging RealD in the process.

Do a RealD: This may not be the newest trick in the book, but showing off customers at an event, using your products and essentially being real people (not models) looking happy as can be is the best advertising. No one uploading photos of themselves auto-magically on your page? Just ask. Author Jody Hedlund put together a great album of readers posing with her book that got started because she simply asked them to. Luckily, her readers love her enough to oblige. Plus, people love seeing photos of themselves.

Your Suggestions

Unfortunately, we don’t see enough pages using photo albums to their full creative capacity. So it’s even more important we highlight how many awesome ways there are to make your page a full multimedia experience! What tips would you suggest for businesses to liven up their Facebook photos?

How 5 Stores Can Creatively Use Social Media

by Marian Schembari on December 14, 2010

Lately, I haven’t been able to shut off my brain. Since I’ve been slowly expanding into helping all creatives with social media, I’m constantly on the lookout for how other kinds of businesses can be kicking their butt into social gear.

And since I have this dream of owning my own shop one day, part of my dorky fantasies include how I would market my own brick and mortar business. So every time I go into a crazy cool coffee shop or empty boutique I always think, “Dudes! I bet you a million dollars you’d get more business if you got online.”

In the next few months I’ll be launching a service specifically designed for stores, but in the meantime, some of the ideas I’ve had:

The Fashion Boutique

I was looking in this beautiful shop window in Auckland and the saleswoman was just sitting in the corner reading. The store was completely dead. What if, during employee’s free time, they created an outfit from store clothing and tweeted out a photo? The store could create a basic blog where information for each ensemble was available, along with a little blurb on why they chose the pairing? People would go to the site specifically for fashion advice or to see the day’s outfit. Fashion bloggers have been doing this crazy successfully for years. Why not transfer that idea over to a store that could actually make direct money from it?

The Craft Store

This wasn’t an idea I had at all, but is recognition of a New York craft store that is ROCKING it. I can’t remember how I found the purl bee, but I read their blog, which is chock full of craft ideas they’ve dreamed up and offer.. FOR FREE. I don’t need to buy their book or sign up for a newsletter, they just give it. And when I stumbled across a project I really liked? You can bet your ass I trekked down to their Soho store to buy the fabric I needed directly from them.

The Art Gallery

I’ve mentioned Wooden Stone Gallery a few times, but it’s a medium-sized functional art gallery I worked in during my Sophomore year of collage. The jewelry buyer, Charlotte, told me stories of the store’s jewelery – info about the artists, what they were doing with their lives, how a piece was made – during slow hours. Not only do I know a lot about jewelery now, but I bought a fair bit from Wooden Stone because I felt a connection with the artists that made it.

I’d love WS – or any small art store for that matter – to create a YouTube channel where they’d just talk for 5 minutes about their stuff in a non-promotional way. Just sharing the stories of the work. Or, they could encourage the artists themselves to take us on a video tour of their studio. Art lovers would watch it just for the art appreciation, artists and designers would watch to learn and buyers would watch because it’s just so much more interesting than browsing. And how much more likely would you be to then support Wooden Stone and said artists? A million bajillion times, that’s how much.

The Fitness Center

I’ve recently landed a client who’s a celebrity trainer and have been brainstorming ways fitness coaches can use the multimedia aspects of the web. Everything from quick video clips to daily Twitter tips to photos of yoga poses can all be really great ways to inspire folks to take your advice.

But what if a local gym did this? Used FourSquare to reward me for checking in, making me to promote them and use the gym more. They could posted videos of their classes and give out email fitness tips to highlight their expertise. This would encourage folks to join their fitness center over their competitors.

The Salon

W already know Yelp and FourSquare can help get clients in the door, but whenever I look for a hairdresser in a new city, I’m bombarded with 10-20 option with 4 stars and I know a lot of those reviews must be staff (I worked at a place that forced employees write tons of positive reviews, FYI). I’d be so much more likely to book a session with someone who did before and after shots of clients or gave step-by-step instructions on how to acheive a look at home. You could even do this with manicures, makeovers, etc.

Loyal customers at smaller places tend to be more open to having their photos plastered on the interwebs because it’s like being on TV and they can send the post or tweet to all their friends (further promoting the store). If clients do hesitate, offer a 15% discount on their next visit if they agree to before and after shots.

I’m sure plenty of stores are already doing a lot of this, but I wish there was some way I could convince the slow ones to step outside their comfort zone. But if you have a favorite shop that’s using social media effectively, share with us! I love seeing small businesses rock out when they might have otherwise been failing.

Also, if you’re a store owner and reading this? My newest service might not be live, but you’ll probably get a ridiculous discount if you get in touch with me now.

{Photo credit 1} {Photo credit 2}

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A Jargon-Free Interview: Erica Reitman of Effed in Park Slope

by Marian Schembari on November 30, 2010

Do you know what I’m bored of? Social media bogs that interview people who are in  social media. Not that they’re not useful, but I find the information just teaches us out to blog about blogging.

What if you write a blog about bird watching? Or hula hooping? Or cupcakes?

What if you write a blog about, say, Brooklyn?

Then this is the interview for you.

(Well, it’s for you if you want advice from real people using social media and not boring “experts” like yours truly…)

Fucked in Park Slope is a ridiculously popular blog that features laugh-out-loud posts and the kind of snark that makes Mama proud. The second I saw it I knew I had to harass talk to editor Erica Reitman for my brand-new series interviewing folks who ROCK at blogging. And guess what? They don’t blog about blogging.

So without further ado, my new internet bestie Erica gives you insight into FIPS, Twitter, managing more than one blog and the benefits of not blogging for a living…

The Basics

First of all, who are you?

I’m just some 30-something, smart aleck-y chick who tells it like it is [my kind of girl!]. I never really believed I could be a writer (and if I’m being really honest, I’m *still* surprised by the fact that anyone actually cares about what I have to say), but I discovered through blogging that I CAN ACTUALLY DO THIS SHIT. Well kinda… it’s still pretty friggin’ hard. I’m married to a cool dude and we have a cool Basset Hound named Oliver.

How did you get into blogging? What prompted FIPS and Design Blahg?

I started FIPS two years ago with a friend who also lives in our leafy, Brooklyn neighborhood. Not sure if your readers have ever heard of Park Slope, but some crazy-ass stuff goes on down here: People bring their babies to bars, everyone works in this big Food Coop and parents get into days long fights over the assumption that a navy blue hat might belong to a boy. We felt like the opportunity was ripe to start our blog that took on the neighborhood in a more bad ass way. Four hours after we posted our first blog entry, we had been picked up by all of the big NYC blogs and the rest is history.

I started Design Blahg this March because I’m obsessed with interior design, and felt like there was, again, a void in that world that I needed to fill with a snarky, curse-y, funny blog that also happened to be about design. That one has been slower in terms of traffic and popularity, but it was a good reminder that stuff ain’t always so easy when you’re starting out.

Why two blogs? How do you function by keeping them both up? AND three Twitter accounts?

While I love FIPS, I can’t exactly convince you with a straight face that I’m passionate about Park Slope news, or ranting about the Stroller Nazi. I love design and read all of the blogs out there, but just felt no one was quite doing it like I’d do it. So, voila, Design Blahg.

The audiences for both sites are so completely different, I needed separate Twitter accounts. And believe it or not, I actually have FIVE (though one is not active anymore and I barely use the fourth one).

Are these sites your full-time work?

BWHHAHHHHHAAAAHHHHHA. Um, no.

I’m a Marketing Director at Squarespace, which is a rad web publishing platform that you should all sign up for (use code ERICA for 10% off!). Really, its all sorts of fab. And I can say that because I came to the company AFTER becoming a gigantic fan . Plus, they pay me way better than blogging.

How do you monetize the blogs?

In version 2.0 of FIPS we’re thinking more  about monetizing. We’ve always had a steady stream of advertisers, so I’m excited to see what’s gonna go down! I’ve also started some side gigs, like doing singles events (check out BK Hookup for more on that). On Design Blahg I starting working with Carbonads, and so far so good!

Do you have staff or is it just you? Contributors?

I’m lucky enough to have a bunch of great writers who help me run both blogs. Thing are getting so busy with FIPS though, I might be at the point where I actually need to hire an editor. Its amazing to have the extra help and our writers all rule my face EXTREMELY hard.

Some “Rapid Fire” Qs Y’all Should Read Because You Can Learn Things

Favorite social media site:

Twitter, twitter and more Twitter. I’m not sure I’d have any friends without it. I’ve gotten soooooo much from my involvement with Twitter, if nothing good ever happened again, I’d still be ahead of the game.

Any cool things that have cropped up because of social media?

Here’s a short list:

  • A freelance writing gig for MTV
  • A real job at Squarespace
  • A real job teaching blogging at Mediabistro here in NYC
  • A million billion cool friends
  • Countless biz opportunities and connections
  • Another side biz
  • MONEY
  • Speaking opportunities at conferences
  • Getting free shit (from people who love/read my blog)
  • Connections with people I would have been terrified to connect with on my own (politicians, journalists, and even some pseudo celebs).

Best Twitter tip (generic, bull-shit, jargon advice is greatly discouraged):

When starting off, build up a week or so’s worth of tweets BEFORE you follow anyone. Yes, you will feel like you are talking to yourself, but tweet like you have thousands of followers and drop all sorts of juicy twittage. Then you can let loose and start following people. Cause if you follow me, and I go back to your profile and there’s nothing there, I’m just Audi 5000.

Best Facebook tip:

Ditch it for Twitter.

Best blogging tip:

Take a half a day on the weekend and schedule some posts so you can lighten your load during the week. Also use Link Within or Outbrain. Since I added that to my blog I’ve increased page views by a kajillion.

How do you learn about social media?

I follow 200+ blogs in my RSS reader and I work Twitter like its my job.

Worst part about blogging:

Think of your available spare time as the water that comes out of the kitchen sink and your blog as the drain. All the water in your kitchen sink eventually goes into the drain, right? Any questions?

Best part about blogging:

The fact that I can go back and look at TWO SOLID YEARS of posting every single day. That’s proof I actually am a writer. BOOYAH.

So there you have it, folks. Erica is my new internet love and you should follow her on Twitter here. And here. And here. Enjoy!

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Using Twitter Search to Help People

by Marian Schembari on November 17, 2010

While I usually answer questions as part of my weekly(ish) newsletter, reader Laura asked me a great question the other day and, since I know some of you aren’t into the whole subscribe-to-more-Marian-thing, I’m going to post my answer here.

Laura wanted to know if there were any resources on using Twitter Search to find people who might be in the same field, interested in what you have to offer, potential blog subscribers, etc etc. “Like-minded people,” she called them. While I’m all for finding like-minded people, my favorite way to use TS is to find people who need my help.

For people unfamiliar with Twitter Search, just go to the site. It’s just a feature to search what people are tweeting about. Here’s a great little intro video care of Common Craft:

The Honest Truth About Twitter Search

Unless you really hone in on search terms, you get bombarded with a lot of spam, retweets, completely irrelevant tweets and messages in other languages. So you have to target people by language. Click on “Advanced Search” and choose “Written in” and then the language of your choice. You can also specify location, hashtag, specific users, dates, links, even “attitude.”

Actually Using Twitter Search

I work with a lot of authors, so here are some examples on how they can use TS to find people talking about:

  • Their genre
  • Similar authors
  • Their specific book
  • Anyone looking for book recommendations

To give you a quick example, let’s say you’ve written a romance. Do a Twitter search for “romance book,” “romance recommendations” and/or “romance novel ?” Adding a question mark is one of my favorite tactics because you’re reaching out to people who are actively looking for recommendations or asking simple questions. If someone says “Anyone know of a good romance?” or “I just finished a Nora Roberts book, what’s next?” you can jump in and get the party started.

Now, I never suggest authors recommend their own books. If someone did that to you, you’d probably think it was spammy. HOWEVER. If someone suggests you read something and you haven’t talked to them before, you usually click on their handle to see who they are. If you see they’re a romance author and are looking for a book, you’d probably put two and two together. I find recommending someone else is much more powerful that pimping yourself out.

And don’t just look for recommendations! Any discussion about your genre is good Twitter fodder. Check out these great tweets I found that are just begging for a response:

Any sort of service professional can search for people looking for their services. So, a photographer in London can search for: photographer? near:London – what this does is search for people asking about photographers near London. “Photographer London,” “good photographer near:London” etc are all good. Sometimes you just need to try a bunch of variations to find the terms people are using most frequently to talk about the things related to you.

Search for Questions You Can Answer

This is actually how I found the lovely Jeffrey Pia. I asked a question about PayPal buttons, he answered it, offered to help, and we’ve developed and awesome (and hopefully mutually beneficial) professional relationship. I always see Jeff answering questions on his Twitter stream and you can do the same.

Here’s how you can pull a Jeffrey: Are you a web designer who specializes in WordPress? Do a Twitter search for “WordPress ?” or for more specific questions you can answer. So if you always get asked by clients how to switch from Blogger to WordPress, do a search that features both terms and a question mark and see if you can’t help someone out. The karma is brilliant because who will that person go to first if they have another question? You. And that can turn into a new client, referrals, etc.

Here are some tweets I found using these keywords that would be perfect for a WordPress expert to respond to:

Homework

So here’s your homework for this week: Check out Twitter Search if you haven’t already, and start playing around with keywords. But don’t just take the traditional route and try to find people who are talking about one topic like publishing or photography or bird watching. That’s too easy and won’t give you the kind of results you’re looking for. No, instead search for people you can help. Instead of people in publishing, search for those looking for book recommendations. Instead of searching for everyone talking about photography, search for camera questions you can answer. This is not only going to help put you in touch with like-minded people, but actually get you in their good graces and establish a long-term relationship.

If you’re up for it, try this tactic right now and post your results in the comments section! I’m curious to see how you guys get on and what kinds of questions you answer!!

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Why I Hate Information Products

by Marian Schembari on September 30, 2010

There are a number of ways bloggers can make money – the most common method being advertising, followed by donation buttons, services and products. For most people at my level of blogging (not enough traffic to make any real cash through ads, good enough traffic to sell things to our audience), the next logical step is to offer an infoproduct. Most bloggers I know offer products that teach about blogging, but depending on the niche you can offer anything from recipe books to DJing tutorials.

Infoproduct: The Definition

Last week I created a Twitter poll asking how you felt about infoproducts, and a surprising number responded saying, “What’s an infoproduct?”

According to Wikipedia, an information product is “any final product in the form of information that a person needs to have.” Oh wow. Thanks, Wiki. Soooo helpful.

So I’ll try my best to enlighten you: An infoproduct can be anything from a book to training videos, but in the online world an infoproduct is usually found in the form of a “blueprint,” “mastermind group,” or “training program.” Vomit vomit vomit. EBooks, video workshops, membership sites… infoproducts come in many forms, so if you’re still confused here are some examples:


It’s Already Been Said

Due to some reader suggestions and general popularity of said products, I’ve considered offering something similar. It would be nice to make a product and be done with it, as the freelance lifestyle is full of the stress of finding the next client. Thing is, I have some issues with the It’s Already Been Said model.

One of my biggest problems is that I’m in a business that, by definition, consists of a HUGE online community. Meaning what I have to teach has already been taught. Social media is always changing, yes, but the content that’s already out there is pretty stagnant. On top of that, even though I know a few people would buy my stuff (like the Pajama Job Hunt), I just feel “icky” repeating the same ole information. I guess I have this very large desire to be different. Creating an infoproduct means I’d just be following the crowd.

That said, a client said to me during an email debate about products, “As for the information being the same, that may very well be true.  However, I’m a picky girl when it comes to teachers and you’re much more my style.” She also told me to tell myself, “Who cares! Hasn’t been said by me!”

There is No “One Size Fits All”

Also, I think the services I offer now are pretty awesome. And unique. Consulting is a VERY personal thing, and despite what many social media consultants preach, one size doesn’t fit all. Besides avoiding spam, there are very few rules we can all follow successfully. So while I see a lot of people making the same “mistakes” online, I also think different people needed to be treated in different ways. Different issues need to be addressed. I’ve bought a product or two and have concluded they can’t possibly be a substitute for someone coaching you along the way. So I think that’s where I’m headed. There’s definitely an eBook in my future and I know books are basically an infoproduct, but paying $200 for stuff I could learn for free by Googling it just isn’t my cup of tea.

There is so much free information online it’s relatively easy to learn how social media works and you can then put it into practice. But once you’ve learned it, I come in and point out what you’ve missed, where you’re losing followers, how to pimp out your profile. I do the things a generic infoproduct can’t do.

That said, a $17 eBook on Twitter is obviously way cheaper than my $100 critiques and there will be those who can’t afford my rates.  It’s probably smart to offer less expensive solution to working with me. This is my dilemma.

Everyone, Their Mom and Probably Your Mom Too

In my Twitter poll, a whopping 48% ticked off “everyone and their mom is creating a product.”

I’m not saying infoproducts are bad for everyone, I just think so many internet people go about it the wrong way by creating sleazy sales pages or teaching the same regurgitated bullshit over and over. I’ve bought a few infoproducts, created one and been given a few for free and have decided they’re not for me. But they may be for you. I highly recommend reading Catherine Caine’s How to buy infoproducts wisely if you’re considering a big purchase.

Am interested to hear your experiences now. Have you ever bought one? Would you do it again? Are you like me and sick-to-freaking-death of every blogger under the sun creating a product??

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