How do you keep up??

These days, there is just way too much stuff. Too much stuff on the internet, too many websites to visit, too many news channels to read and watch, too many social platforms, and just too many people to talk to. How do we keep up with it all? It's hard to stay on top of things because so much can get in the way of what we're doing at the time..whether we read an email and forget about it, go on vacation and can't get to our email for a few days, don't know the latest trend going on, or miss something that someone posted on Facebook or Twitter that eventually disappears in a few hours. 

The best way is to just prioritize your life. Figure out what is most important and start with that. For email, for instance, try responding to an email right away rather than reading it and then saying you'll get back to it. Or, if you have email that is more than 2 weeks old and you haven't done anything about it...delete it! Or archive it at least...make folders with different names so you know where everything is and can find it more easily. 

As for trends, it usually doesn't matter if you're on top of every single one or are the first one to know about something...unless it's your job to. You'll find out eventually and no one will know that you didn't already know. I am usually the last person to know about things and I've learned to live with it. I don't always have the time or energy to read news and keep up with celebrities or fashion trends. So, just prioritize what's more important and worry about that. Don't fret about keeping up with everything and worry about making time for everything every day. Just do the most important things first. 

Brand Marketing on Instagram

Instagram is becoming all the rage lately. Everyone who's anyone is using it, especially companies to try to increase awareness for their brand. And people who are on Instagram, about 90%+ of them, trust what their friends say and think about brands, so it's important for brands to have consumers make brand recommendations. 

A few tips for brand marketing:

• Share authentic content: Look real and be unique
• Content streams: Share behind-the-scenes images of your product, including "in the moment" images and planning ahead for the future. Build a calendar around content streams.
• Share quality content: remember--it't about quality, not quantity. Be interesting, engaging, and memorable. 
• Positive Content: Ask users to share their positive content on your media page.
• Post often: be consistent with posting great content and don't let people forget about you.
• Hashtags: DON'T FORGET HASHTAGS!! You can never use too many hastags, but make sure they're relevant to your content, as well as UNIQUE. Users may start to use this hashtag, which will help raise more awareness for your brand and content.
• Relationship building: ENGAGE with your users..always try to connect with them and not just post one-sided. It must be a two-way relationship.
• Customer Service and Negative Feedback: People want to talk to you, especially if they have something negative to say, so don't be afraid to talk back and try to solve their problems. 

After comparing the social media strategies of Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, I learned a lot..especially in relation to these tips for brand marketing. It is so important to always engage with your users, whether they are saying good or bad things, keep them interested, interact with them, and be memorable. It's not enough just to post things every once in awhile without interacting and engaging. You must always have something important to say that your consumers will remember and therefore be more likely to follow you, try your product, be a loyal customer, etc. These are very good tips for any company, no matter how big or small you are--and on any platform.