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Three Online Photo Editing Apps Reviewed

May 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A huge part of creating good content is creating good images, or at least creating entertaining images. I have Photoshop on my work computer but am far too cheap to put it on my laptop (especially with Adobe’s latest subscription model). And for me, Photoshop is a bit over-complicated for what I want to do anyway. Here are some great web-based apps for creating and editing snappy dapper photos when you only have a few minutes to spare.

Picmonkey

Seattle-based Picmonkey has been a favourite of mine since Picnic bit the Google-buyout bullet. It has some similar features to Picnic (which is now the Picasa photo editor) but is constantly releasing new features and filters. Beyond basic edits and touch ups you can add text, borders, graphic overlays and filter effects. My current favourite is the Ombre effect which does this jazzy blue (you can change the colour) fade business.

bi polar penguin ombre

While I have a subscription that gives me access to every feature, this is more than enough to keep you happy for free as well. They also have a pretty sweet Facebook app that allows you to edit photos pulled straight from your FB albums.

Collages

Picmonkey also a handy collage tool that lets you upload multiple photos and lay them out using preloaded templates. Great for product shots and events.

PicMonkey Collage

Pixlr

Totally free and 3 options depending on how creative you want to get with your photo wizardry.

Pixlr-o-matic

pixlr-o-matic

Not quite as amazing as their mobile app, Pixlr-o-matic still has plenty of game going on. You can upload a photo, apply effects and add overlays and borders. They have quite a few options to play around with, especially if you’re going for bright and playful photos. My only complaint is that the 1:1 cropping function doesn’t allow you to edit what portion of the photo is being cropped. When that’s an issue, I crop photos before uploading them to the app.

Express

Express is basically the web version of their sweet mobile app which means you can apply cool effects like this:

bi polar penguin express

You can also apply text and make basic adjustments. It’s a great feature for someone who likes to play around but isn’t comfortable using more Photoshop-like tools.

Editor

To me, Editor feels very similar to some open source photo-editing programs. You can create new images, edit using layers, paint, burn, dodge, blur and a number of other tools that will be familiar to Photoshop users. One small drawback is not being able to resize an image that you open as a new layer. Though, it is possible that I just haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

Do you have a favourite photo editing app that you’d like to share? Leave a comment and let us know what it is!

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Great Social Tools for Social Causes

April 4, 2013 By 3 Comments

Photo Credit – Flickr infomatique

Using social media to reach out to the masses clearly isn’t a new concept so it makes perfect sense that social causes would also make use of social platforms to amplify their message. Social media is inexpensive, it has a further reach than most traditional media options and you never know, your heartfelt efforts may even go viral. Hello, KONY.

The concept might be old hat but there are some interesting applications and networks that are making it easier than ever to activate your would-be support base.

Thunderclap

This recent campaign for March for Innovation is a great example of the power this application. Find a message, add your voice, Thunderclap together. It’s basically a recipe for becoming a social army and in this case the army is fighting for smart immigration reform. What would your Thunderclap be about?

Change.org

Change.org makes it incredibly easy to rally folks around your cause. You sign up, start a petition and write a compelling argument for why it should be signed. Change.org has a great email marketing program to help support your petition and introduce it to new, previously unknown allies. It’s also a very share-friendly site which is always handy.

Causes

Causes provides a few more tools to package up your message. You create a custom page that integrates with Facebook, set up your own email campaigns and can even receive donations. Pretty much everything you need to find people to help you save the world.

Good Ol’ Facebook

Facebook really does give you one of the best platforms for drawing an audience around your cause. Setting up a page to coincide with your other efforts will help you find new supporters and stay in touch with them. Check out how some of these pages, big and small, use Facebook:

Stick it to Fast Food
Upworthy

If you have a digital media budget you can also increase your Facebook impressions and page views with “promoted page” paid campaigns. However, from my own experience, this needs to be done with caution as you can just as easily attract a boatload of haters who are happy to spam your wall with the opposite of you want it to say. My tip is to refine your target audience as much as you can and keep a close eye on the page notifications.

Well, there you have it. Now go forth and make your world a better place to live!

Have you used social media for, or to support, a social cause? Do you think social media helps win the battles? Tell us about your experience!

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Facebook Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Truth About Peer Recommendations

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you have been getting friendly with the likes of Klout Perks, Yelp and BzzAgent then you’ve likely noticed that there is some serious swag you can get your hands on these days (and I don’t just mean landing a job). But is this just internet’s way of saying “I Love You” or is there a less touching force at play?

BzzAgent describes their process as the chance to try “cool new products, share deals with friends and influence top brands.” But actually it’s your network that is being influence by your promotional efforts, not the brand. Facebook has made a pretty good business from your influence with their “Sponsored Stories” advertising program.

From Facebook Sponsored Stories

Your Facebook activity and corresponding influence is a hot commodity. But as most of us have heard at this point, if you’re not paying for the product then you are the product! And that is certainly true with the content you publish online.

Free is good, right?

Privacy issues aside, if you’re being rewarded with a free product or service then surely it’s you’re the one getting the most benefit out of the transaction, right? Sadly no. Peer recommendations are the most effective form of marketing*, far more effective than print, TV or online marketing. And harnessing peer recommendations, likes, pluses and shares on social sites is big business. Though the majority of marketing budgets are still being spent on TV and print, there is a noticeable shift towards platforms with social integration. Trust in traditional marketing has fallen so drastically in the last decade that it only a matter of time until marketers figured out what to replace it with. Ever notice how keen Starbucks is to give you access to free wifi while they’re “rewarding” you for being such a lovely customer?

I like giving reviews!

If you like giving your opinion but would like to maintain more control over your influence then stick to sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor where you have plenty of space to give your what for and the reviews can remain as anonymous as you would like.

*Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising (SOURCE: Nielson “Global Consumers’ Trust in ‘Earned’ Advertising Grows in Importance” 

Image credit – www.bzzagent.co.uk/

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Klout, Social Media Influence, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Freak Out – People Asking Me to Retweet Their S**t

March 23, 2012 By 6 Comments

Image credit - brandstyledesign.com

Mike and I were chatting about our freaks outs of the week and it turns out that we had the same complaint. We have both been approached by people, under slightly different circumstances, asking us to tweet or retweet what turned out to be total crap. For Mike, he was sent a direct message asking him to retweet a link to a bunch of people that are trying to raise money to make a movie. Fine, who doesn’t like movies? The problem was that they had absolutely no prior relationship with Mike and the request came out of the blue. Bad idea!

For me, I had one of my clients  send an email with a link to a blog topic that they thought would be “interesting” to our network. It was a nice break from the usual emails they send complaining about pricing but when I checked out the link it wasn’t an interesting blog post at all but a straight up sales pitch for business coaching and offered no actual value to readers.

Seriously, it’s just plain tasteless to send requests like this and it’s going to burn you sooner or later. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a right way to ask for a retweet and studies have shown that you are more likely to be retweeted if you do ask for it. But don’t be a jerk about it!

How to ask for a RT (and not be a jerk):

1 – Make sure what you want to have RT’d is worthwhile.  If you’re asking someone to go to bat for you then it had better be something that won’t make them cringe when they look into it.

2 – Don’t send that type of request to someone that you don’t have an existing relationship with. Being on the receiving end of those requests is pretty off-putting and more likely to get you called out for it (or even the topic of a Friday Freak Out post).

3 – Ask nicely, folks! Adding ‘Please RT’ to your tweet is a direct, non-offensive way to show that you want to get your message out there and the decision to RT is then left at the complete discretion of any potential RT’ers.  If your going to directly ask someone to promote your content then don’t pass it off as something it’s not and give an honest reason why you’d like their help with it.

4 – Don’t be offended if your request doesn’t go your way. Everyone has the right to decide what they want to put out to their social networks and your content isn’t a good fit for me, then take it like a champ and get over it.

Do you freak out when you get these RT requests too? How do you go about asking for a RT?

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Friday Freak Outs, Social Media Influence, Social Media Skills, Social Networks, Twitter Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Social Change – The KONY 2012 Viral Fallout

March 16, 2012 By 6 Comments

I am on my third cold since Christmas so the word ‘viral’ is a touchy subject for me but the controversy surrounding the viral popularity of the KONY 2012 campaign is distracting me from coughing and sniffling right now and that’s nice!

Viral Sensation

Even if you’re not a social media addict, you probably still saw the KONY 2012 video lurking around Facebook or Twitter (or here on TSPB). Considering the video has been shared on Facebook over 2 billion times, it would have been nearly impossible to miss it. The stats showing how quickly the video and overall campaign reached dizzying heights in views, shares, tweets, mentions and pluses are nothing short of stunning. According to this post from The Drum, the video reached over 112 million views in nine days easily surpassing any kind of viral video that came before it.

Viral Controversy

And then came the naysayers! Nearly as popular as the original campaign, the droves of people and posts calling the campaign a ripoff quickly followed. It’s tricky to say if the controversy has added to the video’s viral popularity but it certainly added an interesting layer of conversation to a topic that many of us were unaware of a week or two ago.

Social Change

Only time will tell if the social media movement will bring about any kind of quantifiable change to current events (I say current since it’s now clear that the specific events from the KONY 2012 video are no longer taking place) but I think anything that brings attention to social issues is positive, regardless of controversy. I also think that this may be an indication that people are hungry for a real cause to get behind. Maybe we’re getting tired of hearing one another complain about our “first world problems”. In age of shortening attention spans and desensitisation, it’s nothing short of a miracle that 112 million people sat through a 30 minute video about a subject that didn’t benefit them in any way.

What are your thoughts on the KONY 2012 video? Do you think it deserves the attention it has gotten? Do you think that social media is a good platform for social change?

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Online Measurement, Social Media Influence, Social Networks Tagged With: , , , ,

Is Twitter Selling Out or Just Selling Data?

February 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

News hit the wire yesterday that a company called Datasift, the company behind Tweetmeme, has been given access to all tweets dating back to January 2010. The company, which is already known for it’s deep analysis of social media data, says that this access to the historical twitter information will allow for an “ unprecedented capability to filter Social Data, extract meaning and create insights.”

What does this mean?

According to the video that was their latest blog post, Datasift aggregates public social data which can then be dissected and analysed for consumer behaviour, trends and insights. Basically, they look at the overall sentiment of posts, the originating location and details about any linked pages.

Who would be interested in this data?

This kind of in-depth social data will be most sought after by very large brands. And, in accordance with that, it’s likely to come with a hefty pricetag. The service is still in a testing phase but you can sign up for the wait list.

Should Twitter have the right to profit off your content?

There are a few questions in all this that deserve some attention. To start, Twitter does indeed have the legal right profit from public tweets but will users be comfortable with this? Will this stir up some attention from privacy advocates as has been suggested by Mashable? Will the public embrace Twitter the same way if selling tweets becomes a major source of income for the social media site?

What to do if you don’t like it?

If you are not comfortable with your two year old tweets being man-handled for data then you should be able to opt out by deleting the old posts. Is it worth the hassle?

Do you have any thoughts on the latest Twitter news? Does the sale change your views about Twitter? Will you be deleting old posts? Please leave a comment and let us know!

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Online Measurement, Social Media Channels, Social Media Influence, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Stats, Technology, Twitter Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Friday Freak Out – The Stupidity of Brands Like Claire’s

February 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

As larger brands and business get more involved with social media marketing, I’m starting to notice a theme: big names making some big PR mistakes.

The latest example of poor social behaviour is Claire’s Accessories. The fashion accessories chain was recently called out by Tatty Devine for its blatant plagiarism of several of their designs. So far, Claire’s has yet to officially respond to the accusation but that hasn’t stopped scores of tweeters, facebookers and the like to unleash a swarm of unfriendly comments on the matter. So much so, that Claire’s is now a trending topic. So, how has Claire’s reacted to the sudden attention of consumers everywhere? By deleting all negative comments and burying their head in the sand. Big mistake, Claire’s!

Word to the wise – social media is a two-way medium, so either get with it or get off it!

This comment was deleted a few minutes later

Do brands and businesses really think that they can receive all the benefit of social media marketing without needing to be held accountable? Social media is an amazing forum for staying in tune with your customers but it also gives those customers significantly more involvement in the way your business is viewed. Brands that ignore this really need to get a grip! All plagiarism issues aside, here is what Claire’s need to do today:

Be honest

There is a problem. They know it; we know it, so there’s no point in pretending it doesn’t exist. Be honest and at least say that you’re looking into it.

Speak up

Instead of trying to silence your customers, use your voice to address their concerns.

Say you’re sorry!

You were wrong to rip off the designs. You were wrong to not immediately respond to the issue. You were wrong to try and control negative comments on public forums. I think at this point, an apology is more than appropriate.

Save face

Now that we’re clear there is problem, you’re talking about it and you’ve apologised, tell me what you’re going to do to fix it. This is your chance to recover your public image. Make the most of it!

Do you have a take on Claire’s response? How would you handle this situation? Please add your comments and get in on the debate!

Stay tuned for more Friday Freak Outs!

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Friday Freak Outs, Social Media Customer Service, Social Media Influence, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

5 Great Resources for Writing a Social Media Policy

February 15, 2012 By 6 Comments

Letting your coworkers run around online representing your brand is enough to turn most business owners into frazzled basket cases, but if fear is the problem then having a strong social media policy can be the fix. Creating a robust social media policy, like everything else in business, is a fine balance between being so strict that you discourage your employees from getting online and being so overloaded with subjective terms no one can tell what the rules are. Here are 5 resources that will help you along in crafting the right policy for your company.

Image credit: blog.hubspot.com

HR Magazine: Honesty is the Best Policy
A great read on what employers should consider about how their employees represent them online.

Hubspot: 5 Noteworthy Examples Corporate Social Media Policies
Before you write your own policy, see the pros and cons of what the large brands are doing.

Social Media Today: 57 Social Media Policy Examples and Resources
A comprehensive list of examples and guides.

Social Media Examiner: 10 Tips for Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Business
Some great overall tips to consider.

Mashable: 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy
This post if from a couple years ago but many of the “must-haves” still hold true for what your policy should contain.

Your policy should be a reflection of your overall company values so take a look at all the examples I’ve listed and then do it your way. But no matter what, make sure your policy is helpful to your employees. After all, they’re online whether you like it or not so help them be a positive representative of your business.

Do you have any tips on creating a strong social media policy? What issues have you run into with your employees being online? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Social Minds – An Interview With Kyle Lacy

February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Kyle Lacy is an author, speaker, blogger and all-round social media enthusiast, not to mention the Principal of Marketing Research and Education at ExactTarget. Kyle recently took the time to answer a few questions and impart some gems of advice on starting out in social media marketing.

Photo credit:http://kylelacy.com

Please describe what you do in 140 characters or less?

Principal, Marketing Research and Education at ExactTarget. Author. Speaker. Bar Enthusiast

You have 2 books under your belt, Twitter Marketing for Dummies and Branding Yourself, not to mention a well-read blog. What is the first piece of advice you give when people ask for your for social media marketing guidance?

There are many things that are built into the process of using social media for marketing. The first thing I usually tell people is centered around research. Always research why, who, and how you will be using social media. It is important to answer the why before using any type of tool in marketing strategy. Who are you going to reach and how are you going to do it? Very important questions for the business and yourself.

You also work a lot on community development. Why is community building important and what types of business should look take it seriously?

Any social media user should be involved in community building (both online and offline). Community is what builds successful businesses and a fulfilled life.

It is extremely important to be involved. What else do you have if you don’t help others?

Can you tell us a bit more about the buzz (positive and otherwise) around #social46? 

#Social46 was an initiative started by the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee to help bolster the social media “Klout” of the city of Indianapolis. Klout was used to help identify the participant, and the list was augmented manually with known local bloggers and other social media elite. Overall, the buzz was positive. As in any list, there will be those with hurt feelings who were not chosen to be added in the mix.

#Social46 was only meant to be a hashtag used by the thousands to help build the city of Indianapolis NOT personal egos. In the end it worked out, we had over 3,000 unique individuals use the hashtag.

Based on your experience with #social46, do you think a similar template should be applied to the London Olympics? 

I believe that every event (whether big or small) should try and embrace the social media users of the community. The reach and potential communication channel could be massive if done the right way!

What one piece of advice would you give someone who is looking to build a career in social media/digital marketing?

Be thorough and provoking.

Create content every single day of your life.

Strive to be successful both from an intangible brand and tangible financial position.

Network offline and online.

What new social media platforms are you the most excited about for 2012?

I’m extremely excited to see where Pinterest goes this year and how it is fuelling the retail environment. I’m also interested in the massive Facebook IPO and where that drives the company.

Huge thanks to Kyle for his time and great insight! 

 

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Interviews, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
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