How to Live Tweet to Build Your Event’s Exposure

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Junction


You’ve got the Twitter account, and now you’ve got the event coming up, but how do you make the two build on each others’ success?

Live Tweeting is a term that you may have heard of, and it is an art that, when used well, can be very powerful.

All of the major television events and conferences now use Live Tweeting to get their messages out to the widest audience possible, so what is it?

What is Live Tweeting?

At every event there are pinnacle moments that leave you breathless, or catch the audience’s attention. Those are moments that can easily be captured in a few words or a photo, then shared through Twitter to give the world a glimpse of what it’s like to be there.

That’s the primary goal of Live Tweeting – reading a few words or viewing a Twitter picture is nothing like actually being there, but it gives you a glimpse and makes the readers with that they had attended. By using a few key techniques, you can maximize your event’s impact and make sure that everyone is clamouring to attend your next one.

The Account

There’s nothing wrong with taking a bit of credit for the stellar job that you’re about to do: if you’re an event planner, feel free to use your business’ account. If you’re a gown boutique hosting a show, then by all means you should use your account to Live Tweet the event.

If the event is big enough it should have its own account, but that requires another level of commitment.

The Hashtag

A hashtag is a # followed by a word or phrase on Twitter that identifies a tweet as it relates to a topic. For example, if you want to know everything that’s happening in and around New York Fashion Week, you’ll search #NYFW on Twitter. The result will be a stream of everyone who’s talking about the designers, parties and styles at the shows.

Although your event my not be the same calibre as the Manhattan runways, you can use the same tool to get people talking about, and more importantly listening to, what’s happening.

Continue reading →

Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s About Time(Line) – Facebook, That Is

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Junction

Welcome to The Social Post – the place where the incredible and ever-changing world of Bridal Social Media is discussed. For more about the author, Conner Galway, check out his bio at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

You’ve probably noticed that Facebook has changed – again.

For your personal profile, the switch from old Facebook to the new Timeline version probably caused little more than a reorganization of your stuff and a few minutes to get used to it.

Business Pages, however, have been effected much more dramatically. For today I’m going to focus on the positive opportunities, which are many. For a lot of people, some of this stuff may be review but it’s important to have the foundation of your Page solid first, then we can start talking about the more advanced stuff.

Cover Photo


The most visible change is the addition of a large banner image opportunity. When Pages are changed to Timeline automatically, no cover photo appears. In order to add a photo, simply click the Add a Cover button on the top of the Page.

Making a Great Cover Photo

The cover is the first thing that people see when they come to your Page, and it’s the only major area that you have control over. The best brands use cover photos as an opportunity to set a mood and hilghight the features that make their businesses unique.

What Size Should A Cover Photo Be?

Facebook has given us a defined area to play with: 850 x 315 pixels.

The uploader will stretch or press photos of other sizes to fit the area, but to avoid distortion make sure that your photo fits perfectly.

Profile Picture


Facebook Profile Pictures are no longer the places that we have to jam our whole brand personalities into; the cover photo handles a lot of that for us now. Profile pictures are best used to present clean, simple branding. The most common and effective photo to use for most businesses is the brand’s icon.

The profile picture becomes the small image that appears beside ever post and comment that the Page makes on Facebook, so it’s important that it can be seen clearly even when it’s very small.

What Size Should a Profile Picture Be?

Again, Facebook will re-size most images for you, but to ensure that you’re giving the best possible impression to the people who are visiting your Page, it’s worth it to take a minute and make sure that what you’re putting up is the perfect size.

Facebook gives us 180 x 180 pixels of space. Before uploading your image, test it at 52 x 52 pixels as well. That’s the size that it will be appearing next to your posts in your Timeline. Show it to a few friends at that size and ask them if they know what it is. If yes, then you’re all set to upload.

Continue reading →

Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How to Make Sure Brides Remember, Recommend & Return-To your Website

Posted on May 11, 2012 by niko

In Pursuit of the Ever-Elusive ”Stickiness”

So, you ‘re spending money and energy on links, clicks, ads, google-ads, facebook-ads, social media .. [insert preferred marketing channel]. It works for you: dozens/hundreds of targeted, local brides-to-be visit your website and check out your services & rates.

Do they Book you, Right away?: Unfortunatelly, probably not: the average bride looks at at least four vendors, before she starts making contacts (source: our Bridal Network directory!) Meaning that they will (hopefully) appreciate what they find on your website, make a note, then move on to the next vendor..

The Danger: (i.e. the #1 cause of wasted marketing) That the bride will not make a note; she makes a mental note instead, moves on, clicks something else, then again, then again .. oops! what was the first site I saw? .. hmm.. oh well, moving right along.. – Not good: thanks to the availability of information on the internet.. you just lost a customer, a customer you paid real money to acquire!

So, How Do the Brides “Make a Note” then?

In the good-old-days, if you liked something on the Internet, you simply bookmarked it. Easy. “Add-to-Favourites”. A kid can do it, right?

Well, wrong: These days everyone accesses information from multiple places – home, work, phone – so bookmarks are actually kind of useless. Web users (your brides!) seem to have developed altogether different ways of “flagging information”. Here they are:

How brides bookmark and share your website

How Brides bookmark & share a Favourite Webpage

Continue reading →

Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Turning Your EMail Marketing into Social Media

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Junction

When I first entered the internet marketing scene one of the things that I knew to be absolutely true was that email marketing is deader than disco.

It wasn’t even a month later that we sent our first e-blast for a boutique client to a list of over 5,000 people who had signed up online. 22% of those people opened the message and 7% of them clicked a link in the email, which resulted in just over $7,500 in new sales for the client.

Just like that, the one thing that I was absolutely convinced of had been shattered. Hopefully you’re not as naive as I was and you’re aware that a large list of people who have voluntarily given up their email addresses to receive your marketing material is an incredibly valuable resource.

Sure, email marketing is valuable but what does that have to do with social media?

Everything.

EMail Marketing To Drive Social Media

Social media is any content or interaction where you get to have 2 way communication with the public. The people who have opted in to your email list have told you very clearly that they are interested in what you have to say, so what better group to convert into social media interactions?

Your fans may not be ready to drop everything and make a purchase on the spot, but they do love you so they are often left disappointed after reading through an email blast that only pushes sales. Given the opportunity they’d happily share your content, enter a contest or repin a photo, all you have to do is ask.

But Won’t That Hurt My Sales?

Not at all. The people who want to make purchases will make purchases. They won’t be distracted by a secondary block in the email that asks them to interact in social media.

In fact, it may just have the opposite effect – people who had no intention of becoming a customer today will sometimes inquire after sharing because they’ve now become ambassadors of your brand.

Continue reading →

Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment