Strategic Public Relations

Instagram's Android Launch Complete's the Picture for Brands

With 1 million downloads made in the first 24 hours of its release, Instagram's long-awaited Android app has clearly been well-received.

The Android release was a bit of a tidal wave as you can only access the platform via its mobile app or using your app login to use web-based options that tap into the Instagram API.

More users mean more potential for your audience being on the platform. So here's a quick recap of Instacontent, from here and elsewhere, to help users get their sea legs with an app that's gotten a serious second-wind. 

Watch How Brands Do: There are a variety of brands with an established Instagram presence. Luxury and beverage brands have quickly taken to the platform, having found a user base. But the media are also using it to give you backstory access around events like the upcoming U.S. Presidential election.

But before you follow everyone's well-documented lead, ask how this fits into your larger social > online > marketing > business strategy. If it doesn't roll all the way up, it's not worth investing time and resources.

Manage Your Feed: Statigr.am, by far, looks to be the best way to manage your feed, track statistics and even organize your photos and the people you follow into lists. It even allows you to message each other users through the site,  gives you promotional tools and promotes contests from other brands and users.

Use Supporting Apps: If you're taking pics with your phone, you can access a handful of apps to make your images stand out and better represent what you're trying to communicate. And there's a lot of Instatips too to help you optimize your use of Instagram.

Back that Pic Up: You'll want to have a backup copy of your photos, right? Well Google+ app users have it easiest as Google+ can automatically backup your phone's pics. But there's also options for Dropbox users and everyone else.

Take It Elsewhere: Some brands are tapping into the API-provided portability of Instgram content. Starbucks streams relevant user pics into its online Coffeehouse. And any user can easily stream their pics into a Tumblr or onto Facebook for non-Instafans to check out their work. And don't forget sites like Animoto make it easy to turn your pics into a video.

Go Offline: Photowalks are a great way to get a handle on the app and its potential. I've organized two of them and they're fairly simple to execute. If you're not about socializing in real time, you can still use any number of sites to print your pics in a number of ways. I've used CanvasPop forexample and highly recommend it.

It's Deja Vu All Over Again
With apologies to Yogi Bera, I'm already seeing a lot of Twitter "how-to" content becoming relevant again. From filling out your profile and using an avatar to posting content before following a ton of people -- many of those basics apply here (and to Pinterest!). You can even project an Instafeed by user or hashtag, to create a visual back channel at events.

How's that for a link-laden, to-do list? It's not even taking into account Instagram-related content I've curated on Pinterest and Scoop.It. There's a lot of opportunity and creativity in this site. If your audience is not on it, you can still use it for your own personal reward.

Follow me on Instagram
Cross-posted to my work blog.
Infographic via Visual.ly 

5 Tips for Free, Easy Photo Edits

The news of Google's latest service shutdowns means picture editing is no longer a Picnik for many bloggers, Flickr users and others.

Google is shutting down Picnik and wrapping the technology into services like Google+. And while many die hard Picnik users are understandably miffed, the odds are good that several alternatives have come about to handily replace their de facto image editor.

Whether or not you use Picnik, here are five tips for free and easy photo edits.

1) Your Computer: Most laptops come preloaded with image editing software. It may only cover the basics, but it'll do in a pinch and they work whether or not you're online.

2) PowerPoint: This may be seen as Macgyver by some and MacGruber by others, but you can pull images into a powerpoint slide, edit them and save them out again as jpgs. This is also great if you don't have photoshop and want to combine images. Again, you're limited in what you can do, but you can do more than you think.

3) Pixlr: If you prefer Photoshop, but don't have access to it, check out Pixlr. It's a great, free online image editing tool that closely resembles the graphic design software.

4) BeFunky: I've used BeFunky in the past for some photo fun, but they've enhanced and expanded their offering with plenty of free options to edit and filter images, add special effects and more. Thanks to Matthew Dooley for the heads up on BeFunky's full array of options.

5) Picassa: I use it on my desktop. It also connects to Picnik, but it lets you do quite a bit of editing without it. It's also a great photo management tool.

Bonus Tip: If you're in love with a photo app on your smartphone? Use Dropbox or something similar to transfer images back and forth and simply edit on your phone. It's not as straightforward as the above options. But if there's a filter you're in love with on your phone, it's an option for the right shots.

UPDATE: Thanks to David Parmet for also tipping me off to the Aviary App which allows you to edit pics from/in Facebook. 

Picnik is a great site. Hopefully Google makes a quick and obvious integration of Picnik into all of its photo tools. In the meantime, the site's given refunds to all its users and is free to all until it shuts down in mid-April. This gives die hard fans plenty of time to find an alternative that might even improve upon their former photo editing habits.

Social Media Consolidation Leaving Users in Lurch

Picnik is just one of several sites changing their policies or shutting down completely. Co.Tweet's moving to paid only as part of Exact Target's product offering. Twitter bought Summify and it's shutting down soon.

Social Media is maturing and, as sites buy other sites or evolve, it's impacting users. Hopefully it means more from mainstream sites like Twitter and Google+ in the above examples. Just remember it's business. And it's something  we'll surely be seeing more of in the future.

And a thanks to ShannanB for inspiring this post. 

 

Presentation Trap #234: The (Slow, Boring) Build

A payoff slide kills the boring build, letting you assert first, support later.

There are more than 100 ways to deliver "death by PowerPoint." One death blow I've wrestled with lately is narrative flow.

We tend to build a case for assertions before making them. It's even built into the standard "problem, solution, results" case study. But building up to an assertion risks losing the audience before you can make your point.

The Payoff Slide
Depending on the presentation, I start out with a "payoff" slide in my deck -- not unlike the payoff sentence that kicks off this post. It's my main assertion -- a 140-character elevator speech that can be tweeted by the audience. And I spend the rest of the presentation proving out the assertion. Here's an example on the second slide.

As I've said before, you still need to tell a story that your audience wants to tell after your presentation. So you still need to end on a high note. But if you save it all until the end? You lose the audience before you get there.

Payoff To Stop Walk Out
Losing an audience is literal these days as presentation attendees are more serious than ever about investing their time. An extreme example is South by Southwest Interactive. I've seen SXSWi speakers flame out as people leave during the presentation -- in droves. It's not polite. But it's based on the content they're getting (or not getting) from a presentation. And it reinforces the need to capture and keep the audience's attention.

This guy is boring uploaded by Narisa 

#NOCincyBananaSplit & #bananasforCLT -- a tale of two hashtags

Can Twitter sway an international brand and its potential relocation plans?

That remains to be seen. But I’ll argue it can’t hurt.

#NOCincyBananaSplit
A few weeks ago, Twitter’s J.B. Kropp contacted me and expressed his desire to get organized around what is now known as #NOCincyBananaSplit. It’s our Twitter-based campaign to make sure Chiquita knows that Cincinnatians want them to stay in town.

It was inspired by the news that Charlotte, the other Queen City, was being considered along with a third city as possible spots for Chiquita to relocate. And it’s great to see how quickly we were able to tap into Twitter and show our support.

Here’s how a phone call turned into an online dialogue with Chiquita’s CEO in less than 36 hours.

On September 16, 2011 at 9am J.B. Kropp contacted me about the Chiquita news. As a Cincinnati native, he saw the opportunity to tap into Twitter to make a difference.

Within an hour, a colleague and I came up with #NOCincyBananaSplit and an initial email from J.B. went out to a small handful of local influencers. From there it snowballed into 140 character calls to action. This initial burst of activity got Ad Age’s attention. This in turn got the local media’s attention.

And by the end of the work day, the news had taken place, it was covered by the media and we all moved along with our lives.

Twitter a CEO Tool
That next day @FdoAquirreCEO responded to Cincinnati's show of support, via Twitter of course. And it’s important to note that, while Chiquita’s CEO’s use of Twitter is not unique, Fernando Aguirre is definitely more evolved than the average Twitter user. He understands more than the basics and uses it to engage with other users and not to simply broadcast messages. It’s a potentially humanizing tool and he’s using it to put a face with a large company.

Tweets continued off and on. And a week later, on September 24^th, @BrianDFrancis turned the Cincinnati campaign into a friendly competition by getting Charlotte organized for its own Twitter campaign.

CLT or CVG TBD
#BananasForCLT did as much to underscore the importance of these efforts as it did to make their own side of the story heard. In addition to giving #NOCincyBananaSplit a second wind, this whole exercise has reinforced a few things.

1) Offline & Online: While the vast majority of this, including media coverage, took place online, it all started with a phone call and an email. The need for more direct and personal contact should never be overlooked. And making sure online and offline complement each other is the easiest way to make this happen.

2) Less Can Be More: We talked about supporting the Twitter campaign with everything from a Facebook page and a microsite to larger, offline expressions of our love for bananas. But it didn’t make sense. @FdoAguirreCEO’s use of Twitter was proven and doing anything more would simply diffuse our efforts.

3) Professional vs. Personal: If this was more than a friendly-competition, I’d take several steps to generate a bigger impact. Creating a Twitter landing page to make avatar swaps and creating tweets of support dead simple for people to join the cause would be my first step. Paid ads, most likely on Facebook, would help drive folks to the page. And an offline way to express your support would also be made available.

4) Don’t Be a Jerk: With most any online effort, there will be trolls trying to take over your bridge so to speak. But it was great to see how friendly competition helped both sides out in the long run. It would be easy to get into trash talk with 400 jobs on the line. But there were even cases of members from each side policing their own supporters.

Twitter’s ability to sway the relocation of 400 jobs is still up for debate…even after Chiquita announces its selection. But it’s a humanizing platform and it’s helped @FdoAguirreCEO connect with consumers nationwide in this example. And its helped two cities make sure Chiquita knows exactly how much their presence is appreciated. Mission accomplished.

3 LinkedIn Hacks

A recent upgrade of LinkedIn’s iPhone app made it look simpler and prettier. And while it's gotten some good reviews, I've heard some folks are left wanting more. Regardless of how you're using LinkedIn from a mobile perspective, there are other ways to get your fix without visiting the site.

Outlook Integration
As the defacto email platform for coporate America, odds are good you're also using Outlook. I've installed the LinkedIn/Outlook integration at work and it's pretty slick. Of note is that it's easy to install and setup, unlike RSS feeds in Outlook.

And for every person you address an email to their profile pops up at the bottom of the email with some of their latest LinkedIn activity, as this screen grab shows. It feels a bit like Gist's social CRM platform.

Cardmuch(ing)
LinkedIn bought the Cardmuch app and it's a free, dead-simple way to turn any print business cards you've recieved into LinkedIn/iPhone contact info. It works amazingly well. The only thing missing for me to give it two thumbs up is there's no obvious way to export all of this content.

Visualizing 
LinkedIn's API is being tapped in some more trendy ways as well. Visualize.Me lets you turn your profile into an infographic. You can customize it and create a public link to the outcome so you can show people how #winning you are -- instead of tell.

These are just three ways to extend LinkedIn and help your business networking efforts. What are some of your favorite ways to leverage Linkedin?

Bagging Blogger/Brand Stereotypes at Savvy Blogging Summit

Jessica George and I are hitting the road on behalf of our employer, Empower MediaMarketing, and will be en route to Denver in July as part of the Savvy Blogging Summit.

Our presentation is called “Paper or Plastic? Bag the Blogger/Brand Stereotypes and Get Serious.”

We’re focusing on how bloggers can create and improve relationships with brands based on our own experience doing so for several Empower clients. And, based on our perspectives, we'll also take an irreverent look at the stereotypes on either side of the blog post.

In the meantime, the industry is still having much discussion around the topic of influence. What is it? Who has it? How do you get it? We’ll also discuss this topic with attendees to help them move from a one-time transaction into a full-blown business relationship.

We’re looking forward to connecting with the other #sbsummit attendees and soaking up some of the other content. More to come!

5 Things You Can Learn On A Photowalk

Over the weekend, Cincinnati Social Media held a photowalk within downtown Cincinnati. We had amazing weather for it and, in two hours, I took 120 pics and walked a little over a mile with more than a dozen #cincysm members and Instagram fans.

While I've planned a ton of events over the years, every one is different and you can still learn something new each time. So here are five things I learned on the #cincysm #instameet.

1) Cameras Are Not Required: While I was inspired to organize this event by Instagram, it didn't matter if you had the app, or an iPhone -- all forms of capture were welcome. Others had Androids or their SLRs in hand. But a high point of the day was when I realized two children were using their Nintendo DS' to take pictures. The kids were accompanying their parents on the walk. 

2) Back Stories Make Big Stories: It was great to meet some folks for the first time that day as well as others I'd known online, but had not met in person. One attendee had not been downtown for about five years. So it was great to get his perspective on how much the city has changed and improved. Everyone seemed to contribute a lesser known fact about buildings as we walked. This gave a great back story to the pictures we took and we got to know each other better in the process.

3) New Perspectives Will Find You: I've spent a lot of time downtown over the years and knew the path we took has plenty of photo opportunities. But there were still certain spaces, perspectives and details I saw for the first time. Photowalks are great when you're out of town, but they can also reconnect you with a space so familiar that you don't pay attention to it.

4) Promotion Before Makes For Difficult Follow-Up After: Events are shared  and overshared via social media. This one made it to LinkedIn (which serves as CincySM's web page), Facebook (not everyone targeted were CincySM members), on Instagram and all of these pushed to a MeetUp site to keep it organized. This is fine -- even without the context. But it makes it tough to track everyone down post-event. All 12 attendees have different online preferences and a different point of reference for the event online. In addition to Flickr and Instagram, we're using DropEvent for a spot to aggregate images (h/t Christiaan). But even if everyone agrees to a single hashtag and rallying point post-event, you still find yourself repopulating the same sites you used to promote the event with this update.

5)  Organizing For Flexibility Is Critical: With a lot of events -- from weddings to conferences -- your attendance can change at the last minute. So I had multiple routes in mind in case we needed to split up into smaller groups. And as we walked our route, we tried to tweet/instagram a few pics so folks could catch up to us. This worked out well. But for the next photowalk, I'll also designate a single way for late comers to communicate with us so they can catch up more easily during the event.


The event was great and it was a blast taking a ton of pictures with Cawood, FranToh, Stuku56, Castlepoint, JustThinkChris, TorenCastle, GlennaVonHenna, Kathy Jo love blue, Tattooprincess and Pezhunter. Stay tuned for the next one. We'll definitely be doing more.

10 Instagram Hacks

In December 2010, I installed Instagram on my phone.

Six months and more than 215 photos later, I now enjoy using my mobile phone to take pictures as much as I enjoy using my digital camera. And in doing so I join more than five million users of a photo app less than eight months old.

What’s the big deal? Some suggest it’s Polaroid nostalgia. But the app’s power is in its utility, simplicity and community. Instagram is an easy to use, but powerful, social camera. It allows you to point, click, edit using one of 11 filters and share all within a single app. It’s essentially a microblogging platform focused solely on pictures.

Regardless of what you call it, Instagram introduces you to its community and their stories one photo at a time. Here are 10 things I’ve learned using Instagram that will make your experience with this app even better.

1)  Community: Check out Instagramers.com to meet new, passionate fans. Created by Phil Gonzalez, the site features users and includes tips, tutorials and a photo of the day contest. It’s a great way to connect with people and to see how creative users are getting within the apps constraints. Or if Facebook is more your style, check out the Instagram Community fan page.

2)  Ambient Awareness: From fashion, music and luxury brands to news outlets, non-profits, startups and some of your favorite beverages, there are a lot of brands on Instagram. And with any new platform; it’s interesting to see how brands use it to interact with fans. We’re already seeing examples of news releases, activism and extreme branding.

3)  Stats & Back (that pic) Up Hacks: Instagram’s open API has inspired a flurry of sites that create a richer web-based experience for this app. There are more than I can list in a single post without losing your attention. But if you only check out one, make it Statigram. It provides you with analytics around your Instagram account.

For those of us that want to back up our photos for archival purposes or just to make it easier to share with others, we have a couple of options. Facebook fans can use Instasync to create a Facebook Photo Album. Dropbox users can tap into Instadrop to automatically make a copy of your Instagram pics as they’re posted. Or use Copygram (currently in beta) for a more universal back up option. These are great when you find yourself with too many pictures on your phone.

4) Flickr: Yep, for me, Instagram and Flickr provide two different things. In this case, head over to Flickr and check out the Instagram group. If you’d like to mash up the two sites, Gramjunction is worth checking out. Juan Sanchez tapped the Insta-API to create a site that takes your Flickr pics tagged with Instagram and serves them up in a stream. Clicking through takes you to the Flickr page/account for that photo. This allows Flickr Fans to continue to focus on their site of choice and still parse out their instagram pics.

5) Instaview Sites: By far the web-based sites allowing users to interact with and view Instagram pics are the most popular choice for developers tapping into the API. There are a ton of these “Instaview sites,” but most require you to be a member of Instagram to access them.

Regardless, I enjoy using Inkstagram for its interface (it doesn’t work on IE, fwiw). But there is something for everyone in this category from sites including Extragram, Gramfeed, Webstagram, Instagrid, Listagram and a viewer that lets you view popular photos by filter used. You can even create a screensaver (web-based or Mac-based) with your Instagram pics. Or create a widget to bring your pics to your blog.

6)  Novelty View Sites: Novelty view sites are like Instaview sites but they come with a twist. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Anecdotal evidence tells us there are more cat people using Instagram but maybe it’s better to compare kittens and puppies?

Or view pics based on geography (map-based), color or geo-location (near you). Hot or Not fans will appreciate Instawar and Pic A Fight. Or if you just want to gaze at the popular crowd, visit Rrrewind to do so across a variety of social content.

7)  InstaMake Sites: If you thought the novelty view sites were cool, a host of sites take it offline to create Instagram souvenirs. Teeny Tile and Stickygram offer magnetic attraction. Instatees and IGTees let you wear your Instagrams. Hatchcraft and Keepsy allow you to frame your pics or make them into a scrapbook.

And while Instaprint was one of the first options for printing your Instagrams (using a pre-identified hashtag), it has been joined by Postagram, stickers, Instamaker and other Instagoodies as well as posters and contact sheets from Printstagram, Social Print Studio and Printo.

8)  Challenges: I can frame this section up with a single name: Josh Johnson. @JoshJohnson is a photographer with daily tips and a rotating set of photo challenges that get the Instagram community congregating from around the world. Challenges are one of the best ways to engage with Instagram (participation = social media satisfaction, hmmm, sounds like a meme) But while Josh is the most active and prolific Instgramer I know, Spenser Kaufman @deceivexxdeny, also provides some interesting opportunities amongst others.

9)  Tag It: Much like Twitter, hashtags are a critical device with this app. They’re used very creatively on Instagram to tell stories. All of the challenges rely on tags and tagging your location is a great way to meet folks in your community using Instagram. That can come in handy for photowalks.

10) Photowalks: Photowalks take the Instagram community offline and in person -- where it's most important and powerful. They're an amazing way to get inspired, meet other photographers and take a ton of pics. There was a global Instameet earlier this year. But you don’t have to wait until next year to have one. Just head to Instameet and create your own. Or find one to participate in. Psst, the Cincinnati Instameet is on Saturday, June 25th. Join us!

Instagram is APPtastic
Phew! In an earlier post, I focused on mobile photo apps and left out Instagram. And now it’s probably obvious why. It’s inspired an ecosystem of sites Now it might make more sense if I tell you that, on average, 10 photos are posted to Instagram every second.

To check out the above link storm, uh, hacks in a curated page, check out my Scoop.It on Instagram sites.

It’s a far from exhaustive list, believe it or not. So if you have a site to add, do it there or share it in the comments below. Or post about it on Instagram and copy @prblog.


Cross-Posted at My Work Blog

Mobile Photo Apps Get Serious

Smart phone photography offers users a set of near professional grade tools thanks to the continual "bigger/better/faster/more power at less cost" evolution of technology. In this post, I'm singling out iPhone apps as that's my mobile device (don't be a h8r). And I'm not even touching on Instagram as it merits its own post.

A slew of low- to no-cost apps to help your pics look their best are introduced on a near daily basis. While there are a ton of novelty apps, most offer multiple options allowing you to take pictures, edit and share within the app. This seemingly basic capability has helped photo sharing become as common as placing calls on many mobile devices.

Here are just three mobile photo apps that have made the biggest impact on my picture taking:

• Camera+   A colleague introduced me to Camera+ after I'd been using CamerBag (which is a fine filter app). But if I had only one app, it would be Camera+. It allows you to easily edit and apply a ton of filters to your pictures. And combined with iPhone's HDR capabilities, it's made my Instagram pics look better than amatuer at times.
• Diptic   Diptic lets you combine images. Think of "before and after" shots or a series of shots that tell a story. It's flexible and dead simple to use. There's also a Flickr group dedicated to this app.
• PhotoShop Express   It's a basic version of Photoshop that lets you shoot/edit and share. It's the only free app in my top three. But it's connected to Photoshop's online tools and makes for a very handy companion if you're using those tools.

There are a ton of niche apps I use from time to time that complement the above apps.

• Halftone   A fun app that turns your pics into comic strip panels.
• Panorama 360   The simplest, most social panorama app I've ever used.
• Labelbox   Scrapbook-inspired, it lets you put captions on your images.
• ToonPAINT   Turn your pics into somewhat abstract drawings. You can paint them afterwards as well.
• Slow Shutter Cam   For anyone that's been dying to create streaming light pics, this is your app.
• mogophoto   From slow shutter to fast, mogophoto takes 20 pictures in 1-2 seconds for stop-motion photography. It's great for sporting events and live action shots.

All off these apps are good at what they do. But they're just the tip of the app store. I've also played with picfx, Picture Effect Magic, Color Splash, Photo Mess, myPhotoBooth, LEGO Photo and even The Threadless Threadcam.

These apps have impacted the quality of my pictures and even how I use sites like Flickr and most recently Instagram. They're fun to use and have inspired my creativity. What are your favorite photo apps?

Lessons from “The Future of Non-Profits” | BOOK REPORT | 05.17.11

Open publication - Free publishing - More authors

Randall Moss asked me to review “The Future of Non-Profits” and I’m glad he did. While it’s specific to non-profits, some of the content can be applied to other organizations. In fact, the book is a practical guide with several resources to get readers started with innovation in their own organizations.

My abbreviated review for his promotional efforts:

It’s a must-read for anyone looking to go beyond the status quo and instigate sustainable change in an organization. Randall Moss and David Neff translate decades of hard-earned experience into an action-oriented book. The rapid rate of change brought by digital technology has rendered the word innovation a broadly-defined cliché. “The Future of Non-Profits” reclaims meaning for this word.

The book is organized into three sections to help readers build out a process around innovation within their own organizations:

• definitions and strategies,
• the three pillars of innovation (awareness, structure and staffing) and
• implementation and future considerations, including the future of fundraising and communications.

Throughout these sections it reinforces some important points that apply to more than just non-profits.

Innovation’s Not Just for R&D Labs: This isn’t news, but it’s important. Innovation doesn’t need to be cordoned off in a special location, away from the rest of the company. And it doesn’t have to equate to inventing the next QR Code or writing music that hasn’t been invented.

The Process of Innovation: Following a well-defined process can lead to more incremental innovations. This can have a greater impact on an organization over time and this approach can make innovation a sustainable process.

Entrepreneurs & Selling In To Your Organization: To me this is what gives the book some sharp teeth. It’s a realistic review of who you’ll need on your team to succeed, how to recruit them and how to innovate within the organization vs. innovating despite the organization.

Lead with Examples: The book serves up several cases throughout to show how much fundraising has changed. With Goodwill International on Twitter, American Cancer Society fundraising on Second Life and Susan G. Komen’s “Race For the Cure” attracting half a million “likes” on Facebook, even well-known non-profits are regularly changing their approach.

Advocacy, Action, Donation
While the above examples lend themselves to fundraising, organizations should evaluate whether or not social gaming, Twitter, Flickr, geotagging and even mobile apps might help their cause.

Change? Her Name is Constant
“Change is a constant” was first uttered in 535 BC by Heraclitus. Nearly 1,500 years later, this snowball keeps rolling down the slope, seemingly gaining speed.

As a result, innovation is no longer a nice to have. To live in a state of constant iteration and still GTD, books like “The Future of Non-Profits” need to rise to the top of your to do list.