Tag: Facebook

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The “Benefit” of Social Media

It seems like everyone has some sort of social media channel today, whether it be a person, a company, a brand, or even a dog (seriously!).

Social media has allowed companies to interact with their customers in a different way. This has brought around some wins and, of course, some fails.

Overall social media has been beneficial to many industries and some have simply flourished with the growth of each channel. Perhaps one of the most successful in implementing social media into their identity is the beauty industry.

The beauty industry is a visual one. So many companies have really taken the visual aspect and worked it together beautifully with the personality of their companies. One has really set itself apart in the eyes of the beauty world and its followers: Benefit Cosmetics.

Benefit has been around since 1976, the company was started by Jean and Jane Ford and has thrived ever since. Benefit is known for their colorful and often times sassy packaging and products.

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How are they killing the game?

Benefit has effectively blended the sassy personality of their brand, the colorful charisma of their products and the behind the scenes looks at their company. Not only is their personal content on their channels amazing, but the relationships that they build with their fans and followers is something that all brands should strive for.

Benefit makes it a habit to interact with their followers. It is rare to send a tweet or tag a picture on Instagram that doesn’t garner some sort of response from this huge global brand. Benefit also makes a practice of displaying and promoting great work that their followers have created with their products. Whether it is a great wing using their innovative liner, or a set of eyebrows that is totally on “fleek” after a visit to the Brow Bar, they will let you know and sometimes even share your photo on their channels.

Twitter

Benefit “slays” the Twitterscape by bringing their bold personality into each tweet! Check out of a few of their most recent. Benefit isn’t afraid to color outside the lines when it comes to their brand and voice!

 

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Instagram:

Not only are they winning at Twitter on daily basis, Benefit’s most visual channel, Instagram, is a beautiful representation of the words aesthetically pleasing. The photos are bright, high resolution, simple and beautiful. The entirety of Benefit’s Instagram embodies the colorful charisma of their brand. Benefit embraces the different side of the beauty world, whether it is guys wearing makeup or cutting-edge products, they are not afraid to be different and encourage their followers to do the same.

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YouTube:

One of the biggest social media channels in the beauty world is YouTube. YouTube has quickly become a haven for professionals and enthusiasts in the beauty realm. There are billions of beauty related YouTube videos, and the amazing thing is most of them are not created by brands. Beauty “gurus” have quickly taken over YouTube as a channel. Benefit has done a great job of not only competing with brands that are trying to make their mark on YouTube, but they have worked to integrate these gurus (who have millions of followers) into their own channel and hold their own in the world of YouTube.

Check out Benefit’s new campaign featuring beauty gurus Dulce Candy (2,116, 131 followers) , Nyc Dragun (112, 717 followers), Nicol Concilio (193, 152 followers) , and Tess Holliday a well know plus-size model.

Snapchat

Finally, Benefit has made the leap that many companies are making to Snapchat (BenefitBeauty), which provides an even deeper look inside the world of Benefit. Behind-the-scenes looks, chatting with beauty gurus, contests and daily office life. Their story is a must follow for all the beauty lovers and social media enthusiasts.

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While Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat seem to be the fan favorites. Benefit has completely covered their bases in the social media game and have amazing accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest!

Benefit is a great display of what a dynamic social media strategy looks like for not only a beauty company but all companies and industries. They have created a strong brand and compelling voice that has been successfully applied and appropriate for each for channel they utilize.

Written by Cheyenne Cameron-Pruitt, Digital Media Director

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Free Social Media Tools

Managing and maintaining consistent messaging across all of your social channels can be overwhelming. Finding shortcuts to successfully execute campaigns will not only save you time, but boost your following and engagement in ways you never thought possible. Below are five of my favorite free tools that I use to get the job done:

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  1. IFTTT (Various)
    IFTTT, an acronym for If This, Then That, connects two services together so that an action from one service triggers an action at another. These connections are called “recipes” and their possibilities range far beyond social media but here are my top three:

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  1. Crowdfire (Twitter and Instagram)
    Crowdfire makes finding and connecting with your target audience simple so you can focus on doing what you do. Here are some feature highlights:

    • Track audience growth by seeing recent followers and un-followers.
    • The Copy Followers capability lets you find who might be interested in your content through a competitor’s followers.

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  1. Iconosquare (Instagram)
    Iconosquare is a thorough Instagram analytics suite that helps you manage your Instagram activity, analyze your performance and engage your community. Here are some feature highlights:

    • Share snapshots of your activity with followers such as: #actionsquare and #monthiconsquare.
    • Suggestions of the best times to post and which filters to use.
    • Receive emails that summarize your main metrics.

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  1. Hootsuite (Various)
    Hootsuite has become an essential tool for managing social media, tracking conversations and measuring campaign results via the web or mobile devices. It helps to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks like Facebook and Twitter from one web-based dashboard.

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  1. Grama– (Instagram)
    Grama is a free iOS-only app that helps you find hashtags to use on your Instagram posts through a keyword search. I love this app because you can type in one hashtag that summarizes your photo and it will provide a wall of related hashtags that you can then click, copy and paste directly into Instagram.

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Whatever your social media needs are, these tools will help you successfully boost engagement across platforms.

Written by Baret Yahn, Account Executive

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Unoccupied and Unplugged

Imagine you are sitting in a room. It is a plain room; there is not much to look at. Your phone is dead, your computer is in the other room and you cannot seem to figure out what to do with your time. You could leave, but you really don’t feel like getting up and walking around the room.

Pacing is ill-advised.

But you get fidgety, you can’t seem to keep your leg still. Your knee bounces under your palm, and your pesky laundry list of to-do items starts to lean heavily against the back of your eyes.

Photo credit: Micky Aldridge, Creative Commons, Original Photo
Photo credit: Micky Aldridge, Creative Commons, Original Photo

 

The list only grows: grocery shopping, homework, cleaning the kitchen, doing the laundry, going to the gym, etc. The list runs further down your throat until it nearly suffocates you.

The anxiety kicks in and you can’t help but wonder how many minutes have gone by. Three minutes. You groan in boredom before kicking to your feet and leaving the room.

No one is safe from the desire to avoid boredom. We are raised to believe that boredom is high up on the list when it comes to failure. Even learning how to lucid dream has become so popular, we are no longer allowed to merely sleep. We have to be doing things at all times.

Flappy Bird, Candy Crush and, well, any Facebook game, seem to only fuel our restlessness. Today, we can no longer sit in a room and merely be bored, wasting time.

Even simple tasks are being sung as wasteful. As if time itself is this finite resource that we must suck dry like all other pleasures this planet gives us.

We are wasting time walking from one college building to the next, we must be on our smartphones- Tweeting, texting or Vining.

We have been conditioned with the gut reaction to occupy ourselves. We cannot even watch television anymore without computers on our laps or iPhones with Instagram and Snapchat.

But what if we reject that idea? In the age of computers and flat screen televisions, I urge you to join me in an experiment.

Imagine and consider taking a single chunk of 10 minutes out of your day and simply be bored. Be brave with me, defiantly shut your computer and turn your phone on silent in the next room.

Face the intimidating silence of your mind.