Dear Instagram –

I wanted to write and thank you for your service. I also wanted to let you know that within the coming week or two I will be downloading my photos and deleting my account – unless you rethink the changes you’ve outlined in your Terms of Service that will take effect January 16.

I realize you’re offering me a free service and I should be grateful. And I am (or was). I’ve really grown to love Instagram. I enjoy experimenting with your filters and trying fun effects on my photos. I also appreciate the ease of being able to take an image, manipulate it and then with one click send it to all of my other social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr). Additionally I enjoy being able to quickly scan through all of my friends’ photos and interact with them without having to deal with the additional posts that have junked up my Facebook Newsfeed.

The thing is though, I’m not so in love with your service that I’m willing to give you rights to sell the images I take without my permission. No, I’m not a professional photographer. In fact, most of my photos probably make real photographers cringe. I don’t shoot the images for the love of the composition or the artistic nature, but because I love the personal subject matter in my photos. Look through my Instagram profile, and you’ll see that most of my pics include my family, my son and my life in general. My photo subjects are precious to me and are not for sale.

Instagram – I really hope you will reconsider the changes you’ve proposed for your Terms of Service. Otherwise I’ll find another way to share my photos, even if it means paying a small subscription for the service.

Regards,
Alissa Menke

This Friday, March 30, the new Facebook Timeline will be applied to all pages, updating the display to a chronological format and offering features to improve analytics, branding options, and overall fan interaction. Will your page be ready to go? If you’re still wondering what you need to do in preparation, here are some highlights and the most important things to keep in mind:

Cover-image eye candy

The Facebook cover image (the wide, horizontal 851 x 315-pixel photo across the top) adds instant personality to your brand’s page. Be creative! Choose an image that conveys your brand and will be appealing to your audience. Don’t try to get too sales-y though. Facebook won’t allow calls to action, contact information or website addresses in this image area.

Profile-picture limitations

Gone are the days of the vertical profile image. You’re now restricted to an image that’s 180 x 180 pixels, inset with your cover image. Your best bet is to utilize your company logo. And remember, this is the image that will be sized down to a mere 30 x 30 pixels on news feeds. It must be easy to recognize!

Bye-bye landing tabs

Facebook has removed custom landing tabs from the Timeline. Instead, users visiting your page will go directly to the brand Timeline. No worries: The time/money you’ve invested in creating custom tabs isn’t lost. Tabs can now be found with the other apps you’re using on the page (photos, video, etc). These apps are located just below the cover image, with only four showing at a time (photos always show in the first spot). By hitting the down arrow, users can find up to a total of 12 apps for the page. You can customize them any way you want, including using call-to-action imagery or messaging.

Private messages

Consumers now have a new way to communicate directly with you without commenting on your wall for the world to see. By simply selecting the message button in the right-hand corner of your page, users will get a pop-up box that lets them send a message to your page administrator’s inbox.

Easier access to admin panel

On the top of your page, administrators will find highlighted information from the admin panel. This dashboard-like feature is divided into five sections: notifications, messages, new “likes,” Insights and page tips. This format gives you a quick overview of your page’s performance without spending lots of time digging through the more extensive information found in Insights.

Go back to day one

Brands are no longer limited to posting content only since the time their Facebook page was established. Using Timeline, brands are encouraged to take visitors back to their beginning, showing a true history and all of the major milestones for the brand. And, while the previous format could display photos and video, Timeline’s more visually engaging arrangement of multimedia content will captivate visitors more than ever before.

Highlight content

You can highlight content in your Timeline by clicking on the star icon in the top-right corner of the story box to make it wider. You can also “pin” content to the top of your Timeline by clicking on the pencil icon. Doing so will keep that story at the top of your Timeline for seven days, giving it special attention.

Understanding these updates and optimizing your page for the new Timeline will help continue building your brand and earning you fans. If you have questions or would like help with your brand’s Timeline, reach out to us. We always welcome questions and love to collaborate!

As a teen, I spent hours daydreaming, flipping through magazines, scouring the pages for the latest fashions, gadgets, inspirations and celebrity photos. I’d clip images and create poster collages for everything I loved and hoped to become, cool things I wanted to buy, and great athletes I wanted to be like. In general, it was inspiration for the future. These posters adorned the walls of my bedroom, inside the door of my locker and the covers of most of my notebooks (along with some really awesome doodles I did during class).

Digital dreaming

Fast forward 15(ish) years and I’ve started doing the same thing. Only, this time, it’s different. My tastes have changed and the collecting method is digital. Now I’m using my Pinterest account to collect things that inspire me or that I’d like to do/use/have.

Pinterest is an online network that allows users to find images and videos and recipes and DIY projects (get the picture?) and then “pin” them to boards that you create and organize. Other users can follow your boards and like or “repin” the things you’ve pinned. It’s a great way to collect ideas or inspirations, share them with your friends and get their feedback. Pinterest isn’t exactly new (it was founded in 2008), but its invite-only network has become wildly popular in the past six months, especially with women aged 25 – 54.

Inspiring and efficient

Besides being much cleaner than methods of old (goodbye piles of magazines and stinky glue), Pinterest is efficient. (Well, at least it can be, as long as you don’t let yourself get caught up daydreaming.) You can quickly surf through new pins from your computer, tablet or smartphone thanks to Pinterest’s handy app. Also, you can actually purchase related merchandise or download the recipe/project plans you’re lusting after by clicking on a pin and going to the original website from where the concept was pulled.

If you were like me as a teen and are longing to relive your glory days of collage making or are just interested in checking out Pinterest, leave me a comment, and I will invite you to join the network. I promise you will get oodles of great ideas in a matter of minutes from lots of major brands, such as Gap, Kate Spade, Martha Stewart, Lowe’s, etc. Pinterest is kind of like a curated online lifestyle magazine of the future – and I’d love for you to join me in the creative adventure.

Guava, strawberry, pineapple, tamarindo – these are just four of 11 drink flavors offered by a Mexican-based company making a global splash via a smart social media strategy.

Jarritos has always been popular among Hispanics in Latin America. Now the company is targeting young, non-Hispanic followers well beyond its borders. How? By creating an online community and engaging millennials using social media, Jarritos has expanded nationwide and globally. They are definitely playing the social media game correctly: They have more than a million Facebook “likes” and almost 4,000 Twitter followers.

The company introduced its brand to the world using Facebook, Twitter and other sites. Wisely, they have empowered millennials to share the brand with peers, encouraging fans to upload photos of themselves with the product and conducting an art contest that featured Jarritos’ vibrant bottles. Via their Facebook page, fans also can participate in a Jarritos scavenger hunt, join a club and send friends a virtual Jarritos.

Their contests, prizes and interactive pages create excitement and loyalty among followers. Taking advantage of a place with no closing hours or time zones, the company continually engages with the Jarritos community by being active online and available 24/7. As important, the company stays true to their brand and target audience, using fun, eye-popping and consistent images online. Their website, Jarritos.com, is colorful both in art and content.

It’s clear: Jarritos knows what it needs to do to target the audience the company wants and grow the brand. They have made an impact in social media, and people are talking about it.

While it can be hard for a foreign company to do a crossover in the United States, social media is changing that. At least, in the case of Jarritos, consumers who may have never known about the company, its products and brand now do. That’s a big step in the land of social media – and an example for others to emulate.

Image credit: Jarritos Facebook Page.

While Klout’s online-influence rating system is somewhat controversial, users all over the web are scoring free stuff through Klout Perks, including me!

What is Klout?

Klout is an algorithm that measures your influence online. From your basic social media profiles (Facebook and Twitter) to your more niche networks (such as LinkedIn, Flickr and Blogger), Klout collects the data you post, then analyzes and scores the things you talk about, how big your audience is and whether you have the ability to get others to take action.

To determine your Klout Score, Klout measures:

• True Reach: The number of people you influence. Just because you’ve got hundreds of Facebook friends or thousands of Twitter followers doesn’t mean any of them are really paying attention to what you’re posting – or that they’re even real people. This number focuses on how many people you’re truly able to influence.

• Amplification: How much you influence people. For example, when you share a YouTube video or recommend a new movie, are people following your lead and spreading your message?

• Network Score: How influential your online network is. Are the people connected and do they have the ability to influence others? Or is your network comprised of lots of empty profiles to boost your friend/follower numbers?

After analyzing your online influence, Klout determines your official Klout Score, a number from 1 to 100, which Klout updates daily. The higher your score, the more influence you have. Klout reports the average Klout Score to be around 20. (Currently, mine is ranging between 53 and 55.)

Now back to that free stuff …

Awhile ago, I received an email letting me know my Klout Score had qualified me for Klout Perks: a year’s supply of Secret Clinical Strength Waterproof antiperspirant. So I opted in and even tweeted a link for my friends to sign up for a year’s supply of Secret.

I had my doubts about actually receiving anything, but about a week later, a box arrived with four sticks of Secret. After trying the product, I found that it’s really something I like and will probably buy in the future (even though I won’t need to for, like, a year). So in this case, Procter & Gamble’s social media giveaway strategy through Klout worked. I’m not only a converted user of the product but I’ve spread the word about it.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to have tons of friends/followers to qualify for Klout Perks. Klout decides who receives Perks based on topics of influence and location, so being influential – even if it’s related to only one thing you’re passionate about – might still help you score free stuff.

So, where’s the controversy?

Well, it can be pretty easy to cheat and inflate your Klout Score. At the end of the day, Klout’s entire system is computerized. So, to some degree, you could game the system and appear to be an influencer on topics you don’t really know that much about.

The fact that a Klout Score can be pretty superficial has made a lot of people wary of it. Although I tend to fall into this group, I do see some value in using the service as a benchmark and initial research channel when I’m evaluating people online.

According to Klout, the best way to improve your Klout Score is “to consistently create great content that people want to share and respond to.” And for the most accurate Score, Klout suggests you connect all of your social networks.

What do you think?

How much value do you place on your Klout Score? Have you ever received free goods/services/access as a Klout Perk? Tell me!