Tuesday 8 July 2014

Woo The Consumers With This #Insta Mantra

Posted by Cosmos Star Consultant on 23:12 with 5 comments

In the World Wide Web, each day the trends keep fluctuating. Day one if it is the hashtag #Fifa that is topping the charts, the next day it is most likely a word like #Death that trends worldwide. Things are very brusque when it comes to social media and highly unpredictable. It is therefore very difficult for one to comprehend if his/hers business will take off well when it is the social media he has to keep pace with. What’s been grabbing eyeballs these days are a photo sharing app #Instagram.

This social media asset merely started for fun purpose is slowly picking pace and turning out to be a major player in the world of social media. With many users publicly putting out their pics and #selfies on #Insta, it has become an instant hit with the audience. The filtering option adds to the popularity of this app. However, the question that’s looming in the “social” circuit is, will this social media asset help in the growth of business?

Well, certainly, it will, if used appropriately!

Pictures speak a thousand words

Being a photo sharing app, one ought to be very careful about what goes up on the site. The pictures uploaded ought to be very close to the business the company is dealing in. For instance, if the business is all about auto-parts, the poster can upload a rare, exclusive imagery of a vintage Mercedes auto-part or perhaps, a Rolls Royce. This is likely to get more attention and hence more likes.

Colour does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it
Pierre Bonnard was right in saying this for colour lays emphasizes on our point. Let the pictures that are put across #insta; be in the hues of red, blue, orange or plain black&white. The amalgamation of all will be more likely to trend on the popular page of #insta. But let not the colours dull the message that you wish to put across.

The #world is #full of #Hashtags
We never realized this before the #Twitter era, but, yes, the world is indeed full of #hashtags. Make sure you use ample of them when posting on Instagram. Insta operates on hashtags and your image catches quickly if the hashtags used are apt.

#Instapic #Picoftheday #Like

That’s how it should be. Every #instapic ought to have a CTA or call to action. This is just a shout out we give to make the social media junkies aware that yes, we are in the market!

Follow and get followed

That’s how the world operates. Give and get. The social media is no different. A parallel world, that asks us to follow the popular accounts and get followed back by other accounts as a vote of thanks.

Where do I reach you?

You are a firm providing array of services. You are active on social media. You have an account on Instagram. I follow you. I wish to hire your service but how do I reach you? That’s the question that plagues many consumers. The entrepreneur either ought to give away the URL to the website or perhaps a contact number/ email id where the consumers can reach you.

I am hungry for prizes!

That’s what everyone out there on the social media starts thinking when the buzzword is #Contest. Yes. Once you have successfully established yourself amongst your followers, use them to get you more followers via the weird and quirky contests. Albeit make sure your contest pertains to your business.

Monday 7 July 2014

4 Things that Make a Successful Twitter Contest

Posted by Cosmos Star Consultant on 00:11 with No comments


Everybody loves a good contest and the anticipation of winning. Twitter is no exception. Holding a contest on Twitter leads to instant engagement on your brand page.

1.    The Hashtag
The hashtag for a Twitter contest is the primary way in which the audience will interact with your brand. The hashtag, hence, needs to be creative, fun, spunky and something that the audience will like contributing to. It is a good idea for the hashtag to include your brand name, or your contest giveaway or a bigger cause to motivate people into participating.

2.    The Rules
Every contest has rules and a Twitter contest will have them too. For a twitter contest, you will need to outlines how the contest will work, how the winner will be selected and all the other conditions of participation before the beginning of the contest.

3.    Great Prizes
Twitter people love contests because they love winning prizes. Here is a question that confuses most social media folk: should you give away one big prize (like an iPad) or a lot of smaller prizes (like lots of iPods)? We suggest several smaller prizes as they will prove to be an incentive for more and more people to join. You can also spread the contest over several days if you have multiple prizes. This will help you increase participation and retain the high engagement rate over several days.


4.    Promote
So you have a great hashtag, you’ve set the rules and the prize is very tempting. But how would the tweeple (slang for Twitter people) know about your wonderful contest if you don’t promote it? You need to create a buzz before launching the contest to let people know that an exciting contest is coming up. Make your promotion tweets catchy. The tweets before the launch of the contest should request retweets (Retweet this and let all your friends know of this exciting contest!); whereas the tweets at the closing end of the contest should focus on the urgency (5 minutes before we end this contest. Participate now!)

You can also get in touch with bloggers personally and ask them to participate in your contest to give it the necessary drive.