The Power of Videos on Instagram to Enhance Your Marketing Campaigns

Sharing videos on Instagram is one of the best ways to gain new followers. I have been doing a little research to help you to get started, and it's easier than you think!

Firstly, decide what is the purpose of the video? 

I have been very guilty of posting short video clips on my Instagram account without considering what message I am trying to convey.

Most viewers are watching on a laptop or on a mobile phone, and in most cases with the sound off. Therefore, it is important to add text or captions to ensure that your message reaches your audience. I know that I am more likely to watch a video with text than without!

Almost every video that I have posted to Instagram to date has been without sound or text, so other than showing my audience what I've just made, who is the target of my posts?

I have two main aims:

• To inspire the ballooning community
• To promote my balloon decor 

Here's a video that I created using a free app called Apple Clips. 

"Clips is a mobile video editing software application created by Apple Inc. Apple describes it as an app for 'making and sharing fun videos with text, effects, graphics, and more.' Wikipedia







By simply adding a little text, you are telling your viewers what your decor can do for them, - remember, we sell the emotion that our balloons create and not just balloons! 

I uploaded my edited video to YouTube for the purpose of this blog. It looks better when published to Instagram or Facebook as it keeps its square shape. Square videos are a big hit on social media, and Instagram is no exception. Since it was originally a square-only platform, users gravitate toward a square format on Instagram. 

Make sure that you capture your viewers' attention immediately. Keep your videos short! Your videos should be bright and have movement. 

Another app that I like to use occasionally is KiraKira+. With this app, you can add effects like a cross filter to attach to the camera lens. Light-emitting materials and reflective objects will shine even more, especially decor with metallic confetti!

Be careful with this app as it can make your balloons look beautifully sparkly, and your customers might want you to supply that effect!







You might want to add a note to your posts saying "Sparkles, powered by KiraKira+" or something like that to let people know that it's an effect created through an app, but of course, with the right lighting your balloons can sparkle, so maybe you can sell that effect, too!

Here is a very short video clip that I made using KiraKira+.  I was preparing confetti balloons for a job that I was doing and decided that it might make a great video! It is one of my most viewed posts on Instagram, and it helped to boost my followers considerably! I might repost it in the future, but next time I will definitely add text using the Clips app! 

I hope like me that you are enjoying growing your social media presence and followers. I am really enjoying experimenting and learning more. I hope that some of this information is helpful to you. Please let me know, I would love to get some feedback!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

@suebowler

"Good Design Matters for your Business" - Zoe Adams-Jones Shows You How to Create Fabulous Social Media Posts Using CANVA.

We all want to do a better job with our social media activity. We know how important it is to increase our customer base and to connect with our current customers. However, producing engaging content and having content consistency is not quite so simple.

I am always looking for an easy solution and when it comes to design, Canva is simply perfect! Canva, for those of you who have not used it before, is a graphic-design tool website. It uses a drag-and-drop format and provides access to more than a million photographs, graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals. The tools can be used for both web and print media design and graphics. It offers a wide variety of content types that include Facebook and Instagram post templates, posters, brochures, and so much more!

Canva is free. However, you can upgrade for a nominal monthly fee to increase its functionality. Personally, I would start with the free version and then upgrade later if you feel you need the extra functions.

Zoe Adams-Jones

Recently, the wonderful Zoe Adams-Jones, CBA, of Jaz Trading in Queensland, Australia, made a live online tutorial - "Creating Easy Professional Graphics using Canva" - that she shared with the Australian ballooning community and to her followers on Facebook. Zoe has a background in digital marketing and has many years of experience in this field. She very kindly agreed that we could share her tutorial with the readers of the Very Best Balloon Blog.

I had previously "had a go" at using Canva, but because it did not work for me instantly, I gave up. As with anything new, you need to invest just a little bit of time to go through the steps. Zoe's tutorial will guide you through the simple steps of how to use Canva with ease, and within no time you will be producing fabulous marketing materials that you can use across all your social media channels.

I recommend that you open up Canva first (www.Canva.com) click on "Create a Design" and have a little play for a few minutes. Then watch Zoe's tutorial and everything will start to make sense!

A Few Simple Steps on How To Build Your Instagram Following

Last year, I made a commitment to myself to work on my Instagram account. I have always been a Facebook kind of girl, but today, I find Facebook cluttered and a little overwhelming with the number of unwelcome posts, videos, and adverts that appear constantly in my newsfeed. Instagram, on the other hand, I find inspiring and filled with content that I want to view. I wonder how many of our customers feel the same way?


Like any social network out there, there are right ways to use it, wrong ways to use it, and clever ways to use it.

Let's begin with hashtags.

I have written about hashtags before, but this time I would like to be a little more specific. Using hashtags is one thing. Using the right tags is a completely different thing. 

If you want to tag your photos properly, you'll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate research to make sure you're using hashtags that not only describe what you do but are also being searched for on Instagram. So how do you do this?

Have you heard of Webstagram? Not only does it show you the most popular Instagram hashtags, but it also offers a free search tool that allows you to find all the top hashtags related to your post. 

There is also another free site called All Hashtag. It has a "hashtag generator." Be selective with your hashtags. Using the top-rated hashtags might mean that your posts get lost and never seen. 

The important thing is to build your own hashtag list. There are two types of hashtags: BRANDED and COMMUNITY.

Branded, is specific to your company - your company name, for example. It's amazing how many people don't hashtag their own company name, including me! 

Community, like branded hashtags, can connect like-minded users around a specific subject. But, unlike branded hashtags, community hashtags don’t need to be directly related to a business. They can be broader and much less focused. You might decide to do a #happymonday or #TBT (throw-back-Thursday) campaign. This is a great way to engage with a wider community.

A slightly sneaky but great way to discover new and trending hashtags is to check out the hashtags that your competitors and industry influencers use.

Free Photo Editing Apps That Make Your Snaps Instagram Worthy

I expect you know this scenario well! On Saturday I was working on a wonderful outdoor balloon installation. The sun was shining, and I knew that there would be some great photo opportunities. When I had almost reached the event venue, I realised that I had forgotten my camera! Thank goodness for mobile phones, but can we get a good enough photograph that is Instagram worthy?

I see many balloon-related photos on Instagram, but so often the photographs are dark and grainy or they are not particularly eye-catching. The important thing to remember is this: Instagram is a totally visual platform. And, the more visually appealing your photos are, the better they’ll engage your followers.

So once I returned to my office, I decided to check out some of the free or almost free photo editing apps that are available, to see if I could transform some of my snaps into professional-looking Instagram photographs.

Snapseed Rating 3.8

Google's photo-editing app Snapseed (Android, iOS) is one of the best photo-editing apps around, thanks to the incredible control it gives you over your pictures. It has nine editing tools for tweaking your photos, including a brush tool that lets you selectively adjust exposure, saturation, and colour temperature, and a healing tool that lets you remove blemishes or erase objects from photos completely. Snapseed also has its own set of filters (sorted into 11 different categories, including Retrolux, Noir, and Glamour Glow). Unlike Instagram, Snapseed lets you fine-tune filter effects by modifying attributes like brightness, saturation, and texture strength.

Here are three versions of the same photograph, the centre image is the original image
the first and last have been edited using the Snapseed app.

Snapseed was the first of the apps that I downloaded, and I immediately enjoyed playing with its very simple to use features.

You start by clicking on OPEN. You can then choose where you want to select your photograph from.

• Open from Device
• Camera
• Open latest image 

Once you have selected the image that you want to work on you can then start to play with the tools. You have three options:

• LOOKS
• TOOLS
• EXPORT

Start with looks. Looks is very much like Instagram filters and gives you a number of options of how to alter your photograph. 

If you click on TOOLS, you have many other fine-tuning options, including the usual crop and rotate, but so many other very exciting options - you need to check them out!

Finally, once you have made your changes you have the option to:

• Share...
• Open in...
• Save with changes that you can undo.
• Save a copy
• Export 

This was my favourite editings of this photograph. This function was selected in LOOKS and is called "Morning". It really makes the balloon colours "pop" and stand-out from the background, I think this will make a very eye-catching Instagram photograph!

Another great feature before I leave Snapseed is the text tool. It's a quick, and stylish way to add your name to your photographs (see photograph at the top of this post).

I decided to compare Snapseed which is a free app with Pixelmator, which was a highly recommended editing tool that cost £4.99 - so not very expensive, but is it worth the price?

Pixelmator - Rating 3.2

My first observation with this app is that it is not as simple to use as Snapseed. Sadly, I am a bit of a "download and go" sort of person and if I cannot make it work for me in the first few minutes, I give up. However, having paid my £4.99, I decided to work a little harder to get things going.

So to start, you need to click on the + button on the top left-hand corner of the screen.

This will allow you to:

• Create Image
• Get a photo from your iCloud Drive
• Get a photo from Photos
• Take a Photo

If you click on Create Image, it gives you some great options:

• Basic
• Collage
• Frame
• Card
• Poster
• Photography
• Vintage

So I thought that I would try out the Collage option as this was not an option on Snapseed. I chose Grid as my collage design.

I definitely enjoyed playing with this function, but again, I think it will take a few goes to perfect and get the best from it! I love how you can display a selection of photographs from the same job and edit each photo as you go. The problem that I incurred was how to position the photo within the frame, as I would have liked to reposition them a little - more practice, Sue! 

Each photograph within this collage has been edited to enhance the colours
to give maximum impact.

This is a tool that is only compatible with IOS devices - iPhone, iPad, and there is also a very comprehensive Mac version - Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro.

Having made the investment I will certainly learn to use Pixelmator, but I think for quick editing, my go-to will be Snapseed.

Here are some more great free apps for photo editing. I will get round to trying them all over the next few weeks and months! 

VSCO Cam (iPhone, Android) - Rating 4.4 
Adobe Lightroom (iPad) - Rating 4.3 
Instagram (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone) - Rating 4.8 
Pixlr Express (Android, iOS) - Rating 3.9 
Flickr (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone) - Rating 4.3 
Photo Editor by Aviary (Android, iOS, Windows Phone) - Rating 4.5 
Repix (Android, iOS) - Rating 3.4 

This blog post was assisted by a great article on Gadgets 360 -  Best Free Photo Editing Apps for Android, iPhone, and Others - to read the whole article, click HERE

You will have hours of fun playing with these fabulous apps, and I look forward to seeing some of your amazing photographs on Instagram! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

Instagram — Are You Using It To Grow Your Balloon Business?

Instagram is one of the social media groups that I have not really got to grips with. Since I set up my Instagram account, I have used it mainly to post personal photographs, rather than balloons or business related items. It was only when Shannon Kilford of Born to Party in Sydney, Australia, made a really interesting comment regarding Instagram on a recent blog post, I decided that I should really find out more about this social media platform. 

"I am also a passionate Instagram user! This social media platform has literally changed my life and my business! 90% of our customers use it and come to us with pictures off our Instagram account requesting a particular design. I also find it useful for instant messaging and sending images back and forth to my clients. Not many days go by when I'm not using direct messages to communicate with my clients this way! As our account grows, so does our business. It's definitely not a coincidence. You are welcome to check out our Instagram here; www.instagram.com/borntopartyshop

We also use Facebook, and in the beginning it was a great tool for growing our business. But since Facebook made changes to its reach for business pages, it is not nearly as good as it used to be so we don't focus on it as much as we used to."

To read Shannon's full article on "Modern Balloon Styling," click on the link below;
Giant Balloons, Confetti Balloons, Tassels, and Organic Decor — Modern Balloon Styling by Shannon Kilford, Born to Party, Sydney, Australia.

The power of the #Hashtag

Hashtags — what do they actually do? I see hashtags that have been added to posts. I have even used them, but if I am honest, I am not really sure how they work!


Hashtags were first used on Twitter and are now used on Facebook, Google+, Google search, Instagram, Pinterest,  and I am sure many other places, too! 

The hashtag appears to be the most popular means of categorising content on social media. It makes your own content discoverable and allows you to find relevant content from other people and organisations. The hashtag also allows you to connect with and engage other social media users based on a common theme or interest.



It has become common practice to use hashtags at balloon events. I believe that it started at the World Balloon Convention 2014 with #Worldballoon14.  It is a fantastic way to see all the different photographs posted by everyone attending. I was recently at the Qualatex Event in Johannesburg, South Africa. We created a unique hashtag for the event, #QualatexSA2016 and asked everyone to add this hashtag to all their pictures when posting on Facebook. We even turned it into a competition and awarded prizes to the photographers that captured the spirit of the event. We had great results and were able to see lots of wonderful photographs that we might not have seen without this common link! Plus, we can easily find these photographs again in the future simply by using the hashtag. These are the winning hashtag photographs from the event.

Balloon Wall with Jag Dhillon by Fyah Lighter
Photo Frame and Arch by Balloon Pop
Photo Frame by Madeleine Janse van Rensburg 

Using hashtags on Twitter

A hashtag—written with a # symbol—is used to index keywords or topics on Twitter. This function was created on Twitter and allows people to easily follow topics they are interested in.

Using hashtags to categorise Tweets by keyword:
People use the hashtag symbol (#) before a relevant keyword or phrase in their Tweet to categorise those Tweets and help them to appear more often in Twitter search results.
Clicking or tapping on a hashtagged word in any message shows you other Tweets that include that hashtag.
Hashtags can be included anywhere in a Tweet.
Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Tips for using hashtags:
You cannot add spaces or punctuation in a hashtag, or it will not work properly.
If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet.
Twitter recommends using no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet as best practice, but you may use as many hashtags in a Tweet as you like.
Type a hashtagged keyword in the search bar to discover content and accounts based on your interests.

The Twitter Cheat Sheet Infographic above, is based on data from Buddy Media and was from an article that I read, "Twitter Cheat Sheet To Increase Engagement And Followers" on Linchpinseo. It's a great read and gives some very helpful information and statistics!

I was really interested to read that Tweets with one or two hashtags have higher engagement than Tweets that use more than two hashtags.

Using Hashtags on Pinterest

In Pinterest, hashtags are only clickable and searchable in pin descriptions and they work a bit differently than they do on Twitter or Instagram. Clicking on a hashtag in a pin's description will not only result in pins that include that hashtag but also in pins that include the same word or phrase in the description.

I tested hashtags on Pinterest, and sure enough if you click on a hashtag it brings up every picture with or without a hashtag that relates to that word. So it's not such a great filter on Pinterest as it is on other social media channels.

Using Hashtags on Facebook

Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your personal Timeline or Page. This helps people find posts about topics they’re interested in. To make a hashtag, write # (the number sign) along with a topic or phrase and add it to your post. For example:

I just saw the cutest puppy! #dogs

When you click a hashtag, you’ll see a feed of posts that include that hashtag. You may also see some related hashtags at the top of the page.

Please keep in mind:

• A hashtag must be written as a single word, without any spaces.
• You can include numbers in a hashtag, but punctuation and special characters (like $ and %) won't work.
• You can search for a hashtag using the search bar at the top of any page.
• You'll only see posts that were shared with you.

When you add a hashtag to your post, the people you’ve shared your post with can also see it in that hashtag's feed. For example, if you share a post with a hashtag  #Friends, they can see your post in that hashtag’s feed.

Keep in mind if you use a hashtag in a post you share to Public, and allow people to follow you, your post will appear on your public profile and in that hashtag's feed.

Using Hashtags on Instagram - extracted from an article by By Brittney Helmrich from Business News Daily.

Hashtags are a great way to help other users find your content on Instagram, just like on Twitter. Since users can both search for hashtags and click on hashtags they see in posts on the app, using relevant hashtags can be a highly effective tool for getting noticed. However, just like on Twitter, you have to make sure you're using the right hashtags for your brand, and that you don't go overboard.

Hashtags like #nofilter (if you're sharing a photo that hasn't been heavily edited with filters added), #selfie (if you're sharing a picture of yourself,) and #tbt or #throwbackthursday (if you're sharing an old photo) are all incredibly popular on Instagram, but they may not work for you or your brand. Using popular hashtags just because they're popular might annoy your current and potential new followers, and it will be obvious you're just trying to get more followers and exposure.

It's a good idea to look at other established brands (or even personal users and bloggers) in your industry for examples of what to do, especially when it comes to hashtags. A fashion boutique, for example, would want to use very different hashtags from those used by a bicycle repair shop, so following and paying attention to other successful Instagram users in your field can help you get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

On Instagram, it's not just the hashtags you use that matters, but also how many. Instagram allows a maximum of 30 hashtags in a post or comment, but 30 hashtags is a lot, and using that many would be excessive. The fewer hashtags you can use to get quality responses, the better. Using a large number of popular hashtags might earn you a lot of likes from other users, but it probably won't increase your following all that much. The interactions you get will likely not be from people who are interested in your brand, but rather those who just saw and liked your image. If you aim to keep your hashtags relevant, interesting, and specific, you won't need 20 hashtags to gain exposure.

It's also important to note that hashtags can include letters and numbers, but they can't contain any non-numerical symbols (so #DaveAndBusters might work as a hashtag, but #Dave&Busters does not, for example). Using hashtags that don't work on the app might make you look like you don't know what you're doing, and they won't help you gain followers or likes, either.

Searching hashtags on Instagram is also a good way to find new users to follow and get your account noticed. For example, if you use a certain hashtag on your posts, or if there's a certain hashtag that is relevant to your brand, you can do a search for it and see all of the photos posted with that hashtag. Scroll through and like the ones you find interesting, and follow users with content you like. If those users think your content is relevant to their interests, they'll likely follow back — or at least check out (and maybe interact with) your posts.

Incorporate hashtags to categorize your content and make it easier for non-followers to discover you. We recommend up to three hashtags so they don't detract from the simplicity of the post. Ask questions to engage people.

To read the full article, Instagram for Business: Everything You Need to Know - See more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7662-instagram-business-guide.html#sthash.nUdI9s8q.dpuf

Well, that was a lot of information! But it has helped me to understand hashtags a little more. It is important that you understand how hashtags work for each of the social media channels that you use. Hashtags used on Pinterest, for example, are not as effective as those used on Twitter or Instagram. One of the biggest tips that I have learned is that you should not use too many hashtags on each of your posts. Often, 1 or 2 are more effective than 3 or more! 
Businesses can really benefit from using hashtags in their posts. Adding one or two hashtags to a post can help to increase their social reach and improve brand awareness. Following and using trending hashtags can help a business if they join in on a high traffic discussion on topics related to their industry and service.

Here are just a few of the top trending hashtags that can be related to the balloon industry:

Twitter
#giftsforhim
#gifts
#gift
#bridesmaid

Instagram
#love
#picoftheday
#party
#pink
#black
#work
#christmas
#sweet
#birthday

Simply by using any of these hashtags in your posts could give your business a greater reach to new customers! Check out what's trending and start hashtagging!

#happyballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com