You may not have heard of Pinterest if you are not an avid fan of arts and crafts. Pinterest is a hub of quirk and interest, an online visual search engine that allows its users to discover, pin (aka collect on a page/profile) and share pictures and videos relating to their interests. They pin these items on “Boards” – different pages they label as subcategories like Fashion, Craft, House Inspo and so on.

Pinterest is a huge hit amongst the public as a personal tool, but what benefits can it provide to your business? Like all social networks, it can be used carefully and cleverly as a marketing tool to do 5 key things.

Grow Your Audience

The more frequently you use the site, the more likely your content is to be pinned. When this happens, your content and services are exposed to new groups of people, with massive global potential.

Grow Brand Awareness

With all these potential people seeing your content, it’s a great opportunity to reinforce your brand values and personality by selecting content that fits. As you are more active and engaging, the audience learn more about you and this helps to build brand awareness and loyalty.

Improve your SEO

Using the correct keywords across Pinterest can help to improve not just Pinterest Search Rankings, but also Google Search Rankings for your business.

Increase Website Traffic

Creating content to pin allows you to include a direct link to your website, product or service! This means that every single piece of content you are sharing can have a direct call-to-action with potentially great results.

Place Ads

Like other platforms, Pinterest even allows you to turn your content into ads and will place them across the network. These appear to a person looking like normal pins – almost. They have a small text indication that the piece of content is an advertisement. They have an easy to use ad manager that allows you to define audience characteristics including Age, Gender, Interests, Location, Language and Device. You can even use business analytics so you can see how your ad is doing.

This is all great! But how do you know if Pinterest is for you? Have a look at what your business is promoting and compare it carefully to the type of content and consumers on Pinterest. If you are a finance business, then it might not be the right move. However, if you are a fashion, beauty, furnishings or even craft brand then Pinterest could be a roaring success for you. All you need then is content that can make you stand out from the crowd.

Having done a lot of reflecting on our beliefs and our ethos at Social Gamma, we are embarking on a new chapter in our company story: Social Good.

Social Good is a mission, a way for us to apply our individual and collective beliefs to our work every single day. The most fulfilling projects and clients we have taken on are the ones trying to make a positive change in the world, and we want to build them up to something greater than ever before. We’ve made the decision to make a change and a difference.

We’re focusing in on just a few key industries:

• Health, Wellness and Nutrition
• Non-Profit
• Sustainability
• Education

Having worked with many clients in these industries so far, we’ve come to love not just what they do, but what we can do for them. For our health, wellness and nutrition clients we have carried out a variety of web and app development services, as well as investor and lead generation digital ads. We have helped our clients gain key investors, find leads and even maintain and develop their online presence to ensure their continued success. Our non-profit and sustainability clients have benefitted form our social media expertise. We’re proud of the achievements we have made on their channels, both in engagement and follower retention. We have also helped them to achieve fundraising goals and launch successful events and projects. Our education clients found new leads and an increased following through paid lead generation and social media ads.

And this is not just a side project. The team has always had a passion for giving back, from their university days to now. One of our Account Managers, Ana, has volunteered at a special school, helping children from the ages of 8-14 with learning difficulties and autism. She also worked with toddlers in foster care. Our Lead Creative, Rebecca, was a Team Leader for breast cancer awareness charity “CoppaFeel!”, promoting the cause, educating young people on campus and raising funds. The team won a fundraising award and ranked 3^rd on the UK CoppaFeel! University Fundraising Leader board the year she graduated. Our Managing Director and Founder, Ria, led a group called Remedy Through Music, who visited children’s hospitals every week to sing to the patients. We are inspired to this day by the people we worked with and the plans we helped carry out.

So now, our mission is clear. We will use our skills and know-how to spread the positive waves out into the world! If you are in the health, wellness and nutrition, sustainability, non-profit or education industries and you’re looking for a Digital Marketing Team who share an affinity with your values and passions, then give Social Gamma a call. We look forward to doing Social Good with you!

As the end of the year is approaching fast and we are getting ready to decorate our Christmas trees and wear our Christmas jumpers, we looked back on the amazing year of 2018 and the best Social Media trends. So get comfy and grab a hot chocolate to enjoy next to your fireplace before checking out:

Our Top 5 Favourite Social Media Trends of 2018

Video, Video, Video!

GIFs, Boomerangs, Live Videos, and many more. One of the top trends that have marked 2018 is video content, which has taken a leading position on all platforms as the most preferred content. We’ve seen Instagram integrate live videos, IGTV etc; Facebook lives have taken over and are used by brands and businesses to create a connection with the audience.

According to these statistics, 87% of marketers utilise videos into their campaigns and viewers believe that 95% of messages from videos are retained on their minds.73% of B2B organisations using videos in their marketing campaigns are reporting positive results to their ROI. Video has really taken over 2018 and people feel the need to share moments from their lives even in more detail, video providing them this option. 

Brands and Engagement

The world of social media has allowed both consecrated and new businesses to grow and improve their customer engagement. In 2018, most brands realised the power that engaging on social media can have for their brand and opened up communication channels for their customers by using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Brands can now address their customers’ issues much quicker and more effectively, reinforcing the concept of brand loyalty, a key feature for a brand to succeed in today’s marketplace.

An example of a brand that has used social media to build up their brand loyalty is the very well known coffee chain Starbucks. Since the beginning of the year, Starbucks saw the power that social media has in engaging with their audience and launched a campaign that encouraged their customers to tell them what the next Starbucks drink should be.

InstaStories

InstaStories have taken over the year of 2018, brands have been using it for promoting their products in a more innovative and interactive way. They got even better when Instagram implemented the “Swipe Up” feature. Brands can now post stories that contain products and by adding the the “Swipe Up” feature, viewers can get redirected to the brands product page, making shopping through Instagram an even easier for users.

Besides the powerful effect that InstaStories have had for product promotion and brand growth, it has also become more and more popular with users as well. The majority of people now use InstaStories to communicate daily activities and are more conscious on how they are curating their Instagram feed. Instagram stories are a fun way of sharing your moments with your followers, the great thing is you can add stickers, GIFS and filters.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing has reached a culminating point in 2018, brands from all industries are using influencers to promote their products and ideas. Why? Because audiences trust influencers and also identify themselves easier than with ads/models etc.

The statistics on influencer marketing show that the conversion rate for ROI for brands is 10x and that 50% of social media users trust influencers and the products they use. It is the leading marketing tool in 2018, we have seen more and more people become influencers and can now find influencers for all industries.

Filters, Filters, Filters

Our last favourite trend is the most fun and makes us remember that social media is for sharing what you are up to with your friends. Filters are essentially augmented reality and this technology is present on most social media platforms.

Snapchat was the first to integrate it but soon Instagram and Facebook took over the filter game and made them available on stories so now turning from an unicorn to a cat is easy just with a swipe. In 2018 everybody took on augmented reality and even the new iPhone adopted the fun trend.

Click here to find out more about Social Media trends in 2018!

Overall, 2018 has been a great year for Social Media as more and more technologies are being introduced in the digital space. The rise of social media in marketing is an opportunity for brands to share an equal marketplace for both new and old brands, bridging the gap that has existed so far. Communication and fun have become easier and social media is a tool that is now part of most of our lives. Are you excited for 2019? So are we!

As previously mentioned, Instagram are not stepping down in regards to their competitors. Every week there seems to be a new launch or release. First, IGTV. Second, open-ended questions on Instagram stories. The latest news? Consumers will now be able to merge their Instagram contacts with their Facebook contacts. 

Although this launch doesn’t seem like much, the merging of contacts will certainly improve consumer usage on both applications, boosting the chances of users making accounts for both applications. Currently, Instagram now has 1 billion monthly active users (Social Media Today). Facebook Messenger has 1.3 billion (Social Media Today), meaning the merge of contacts on both platforms would be beneficial to either users. 

Alongside consumer benefits, this could also help with your company. Facebook/Instagram have yet to disclose whether this option is available for business accounts. But, even so, your company could merge contacts across platforms. This will generate ease when contacting clients and consumers across platforms, allowing more direct conversations with consumers across accounts. This merge will certainly benefit your brand if this feature becomes available for businesses. 

Facebook are also testing further cross-posting between Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp statuses. As well as this, the current cross-posts exist between Facebook Stories also appearing in Messenger Day. Also, consumers can already post Instagram Stories which can appear in Facebook stories. Let’s face it – the existent merges across both apps are endless. 

Facebook and Instagram are constantly trying to improve consumer usage by merging these apps in (not so) subtle ways. Saying this, it is certainly a benefit for both consumers and companies. If your company isn’t taking advantage of the brilliance of cross-posting; get on board. It will save your business a lot of time and energy when creating, and posting, content. 

As a digital agency in London we often have clients that come to us for a fresh start for the business. We try to offer them the best rebranding and make sure that they are successful. 

If you are reading this blog you are probably thinking of rebranding your business, you might have taken this decision due to factors such as: your sales are not going up, your social engagement is not that high or you simply feel that your brand needs a fresh start. 

These 5 tips for a successful rebranding, take you from the process of planning a rebrand, what to do for a good rebranding and analysing results after the rebrand.

1. Have a plan

For a successful rebranding it is important that even before you start you have a good a plan that is based on research.

Research why you need to change your brand, what is not working, you can even talk to your customers asking for feedback or create focus groups to get a better grasp of what needs to be changed. 

The next step is to plan what exactly you want changed and how you plan on achieving that. It includes a strategy on how to promote the change both internally to your team as well as externally to your customers and potential customers. 

2.  Differentiate your Brand

Now that you have taken the design to rebrand, make sure you find what makes you different on the market and focus on promoting that  through your rebrand. This way in a competitive market you will be sure to stand out. 

3. Consistent rebranding

For a successful rebranding being consistent on all channels is key. So make sure that you develop brand identity, that contains the brands colours and typeface that has to be reflected through your logo, website and social platforms. Being consistent usually makes your audience feel more comfortable and makes your brand look trust-worthy. 

4. Test 

After the rebranding make sure before even launching, that you test peoples reaction to your new appearance. This can be done by launching it internally to your team and a few customers that can give you the feedback you need. 

Hopefully these four tips on how to rebrand will help your brand when you are struggling to make a decision about rebranding or even if do not know where to start from. Whichever it is remember research and planning are the key for a successful rebranding.

In today’s world a website has become a reflection of yourself or your brand, it is essential for your promotion by offering people information about your products as well as selling your products. Due to the rise of the number websites it is important to differentiate and drive as much traffics as possible to your website. But how do you do that without going bankrupt? 

Well, in the past few years a new concept appeared in the web world: SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), that refers to growing you websites traffic organically, without paying for ads or clicks. For more information about SEO and SEM you can read our previous blog that defines the concepts better https://socialgamma.com/to-pay-or-not-to-pay/.

So how do you improve your SEO? 

Relevant Content 

The best option for improving your SEO is to have a blog on your website, that relates to the product or field of work that you work in. Writing blogs is essential because they drive traffic to the website, so making sure that your content is good is one of the keys to mastering SEO. The other key to driving traffic through blogs is using keywords. Keywords are actually a couple of words that should be integrated organically in your blog. These keywords help your blog to appear higher in the search engines. 

Regular posting

Posting content regularly on your website increases traffic, so posting a couple of times a week is essential to back up the other SEO efforts and grow your website views. 

Text Formating

It may seem like an easy task and pretty common sense, but when it comes to SEO, formatting texts can take your website higher in the search engines. So keeping a clean text, that has readable sentences, can make a difference. 

When doing text formatting there are a few points that you need to ensure the a good SEO such as: correct grammar, clear subtitles, using the bold, italic and underline functions to give the text a good flow, introducing media files and external links. 

Overall, using these first three tips for improving your SEO, your website traffic is ensured to grow, of course there are many other little tips that can improve your website even more. These three tips are just an introduction for those of you who are looking to grow their website. Remember with SEO even it takes more time and effort it is sure that your traffic will rise and it does not cost.

Values are defined as “important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Values have major influence on a person’s behaviour and attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.” It’s something most of us have developed over our life,  from our parents, society traditions or by ourselves.

So why are values important for businesses?

Values are important for business, because they assure a set of guidelines that drive the company. They are essentially the backbone of the stories that you tell to your customers and they can me a major differentiator in today’s market that is highly competitive. It engages communication within the business and even though a business may grow, values are still the core of a company, keeping it unified.

Values for every business vary and they usually link to the business culture or ethos. Two examples of businesses that have different values, but are both very successful are: Amazon and Netflix.

Amazon calls its values, Leadership Principles and they are Customer Obsession; Ownership, Invent and Simplify; Are Right, A Lot; Learn and Be Curious; Hire and Develop the Best; Insist on the Highest Standards; Think Big; Bias for Action; Frugality; Earn Trust; Dive Deep; Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit; Deliver Results. As you can see, Amazon is quite demanding and strict in their values but they have indeed managed  to grow as one of the biggest companies in the world right now. You can read more about Amazon’s principles at: https://www.amazon.jobs/principles.

Netflix has a different approach to their values they focus more on the human side and encourage its employees to relate to their values as normal people rather than employees. Netflix is proud of its companies culture an values, and making it seem more as a family business than Amazon. Amazon calls it values, real values and they are: Judgment, Communication, Curiosity, Courage, Passion, Selflessness, Innovation, Inclusion, Integrity and Impact. You can read more about Netflix’s principles at: https://jobs.netflix.com/culture

Overall, values are necessary even in agencies and when creating your businesses values, keep in mind what you want to achieve, how you are different and make sure that your values are clearly defined. Depending on where you want your business to go keep in mind that values are important and that they should be aligned with your business culture.

As a digital agency in London we have noticed how marketing has changed over time and have seen that marketing on social platforms has had a great growth in the last years. Brands today prefer advertising on social media platform, it has been proven that online ads have brought in sales and generated traffic, managing to achieve the brands goals.

Advertising on social platforms really changed the moment when Facebook implemented the option for Facebook businesses, now you are able to create online ads that correspond to your target customers and allow you to grow your business this way. After launching an ad campaign on Facebook, the platforms allows you to visualise the effect of your campaign by providing your business with data about the performance. It is best, for interpreting the data to have a specialist who can analyse it and then implement a retargeting campaign that may have better results than the original campaign.

One of the most recent and sought out online ad system right now is LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn is  the platform that has revolutionised how people communicate in an online business platform designed as social platform. They now have brought in this new feature and everybody wants in. But why? Well, as mentioned it is a more professional orientated platform, offering business a new way to target their. Audiences. Also, there are a lot of people that use LinkedIn either having a profile or for a business aIso there is a high traffic on the platform.

When creating ads on these platforms it is essential to know your target audience in order to have the most effective result. You can read  are previous blog about the importance of knowing your target audience for social media. As well as finding the right combination of visual and copy, to attract viewers to click on your ad, thus redirecting them to you website.

Overall, as a digital agency in London,  it is very interesting to be part of this digital world, we are always learning new thing and are always interested in the newest digital innovations.

As mentioned in our previous blogs, visuals are key to obtaining success on social media. We talked about designing posts but photography is very important when it comes to content. These are our tips, based on what we have learned as an agency.

1. The most important and first step to make sure you have the right photos for content, is to make sure you understand what the client wants. At times it can be difficult to understand what your client wants, so to ensure that the end result is satisfying for the client and for you, is to have photo references. Ask your client to send you pictures of what he wants and then make sure that the photos are doable. In the case that you are the one taking the photos check if you have right equipment that you need, if you’re using a photographer than be clear in explaining the concept to him as well.

2. When taking photos remember to think about things like lightning and framing  Lighting is such an important aspect because nobody wants a dark photo where you can’t understand anything so make sure you have a good balance on lighting. The best lighting is natural lighting.

When taking photos framing is key because you do not want to end up with a photo that either need to be cropped too much or is already cropped. So take your time when taking the photo and make sure you have the right position.

3. High resolution photography is a must when it comes to social media, having low-quality photos gives the brand negative points. If your creating content that for example does not focus on the brand product but on the image of the brand, you can use hi-res photos from websites. Make sure that you don’t get in trouble with the copyright of the photos, you can use websites such as Unsplash or Pexels. They have amazing high-resolution photos of anything you can imagine, which is a great asset.

4. Editing is a major part of creating a brand image on social media. For editing photos you can use apps such as VSCO cam if you are not familiar with photoshop. Choosing a filter for the brand is essential it creates a unique image and gives continuity in photos. Try not to edit the photos too much, remember simple is better, in this case, overdoing it might end up messy and the brand will lose followers.

We hope these tips will be helpful and remember we learned these from our experiences so don’t worry if your photography does not turn out prefect at first. Practice makes everything better.