Recently Facebook had announced its new app called Rooms where users do not have to use their real name and form group discussions. The app takes homage to the early days of the internet where we used chat rooms and forums.

Rooms allows users to choose the appearance of the Room and determines who gets to join it. It is a remix of Reddit, Instagram and old school chatrooms with the ability to remain anonymous and being able to share photos and videos. Users can also invite other users to discussion groups by sending them the unique QR code below.

 

What is great about rooms is that the moderator can choose to invite a certain group of people or make it public and they also have the ability to remove people from discussions. The moderator of the group can also add age filters, allow post approval and decide how discoverable the group is.The moderator’s role ultimately determines the privacy of the group however it will be interesting to see how trusted this group is with Facebook’s lack of privacy trust.

 

 

You can download and try the app here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rooms-create-something-together/id924643029

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/24/facebook-chat-room-rooms-iphone-app 

 

A few weeks back I had a new type of post pop up in my Instagram feed from Instagram themselves. It stated that I can expect to get sponsored posts in the coming weeks and can hide them if they bother me. My initial reaction was a negative one and didn’t want to see sponsored content from anyone I didn’t already follow. Although, when I got my first post, It didn’t bother me at all when in fact, I started to think how this is a great thing for brands.

Instagram sponsored posts  is a great way to get more creative and catch the eye of someone scrolling through the newsfeed.  What Ben & Jerry’s have done is create several aesthetically pleasing and professional looking photos and appears to have targeted different photos to different people. I started looking into what other people are seeing and t was surprised to see that Ben & Jerry’s had created such a variety of sponsored posts and I have only received these two:

 

Both of these posts appeared several days apart and are the only sponsored posts I have seen so far and both times they have caught my eye.  I am looking forward to seeing other brands roll out their sponsored posts.

 

With the ease of social media automation, it is more tempting than ever to auto schedule or automate messages on our social platforms. Many companies do this right and for the right reasons, but there are also many brands who use the automation in a harmful way to their business.  It is important to understand that your followers do not want to be seen as just a number and prefer to have a unique and personal experience with their brand, which is likely why they follow you. When it comes to social media automation there are many guidelines out there on the dos and don’ts of social media.  According to Hootsuite, here are some things to consider:

Do:

• Schedule your posts before you go on vacation
• Use automation tools to find out the best time to post
• Add a personal touch to your scheduled messages

 

Don’t:

• Auto direct messages should not be a part of your social media strategy
• Scheduled messages should not be the same for each social channel
• don’t forget to read the articles you are automating

 

The importance of these dos and don’ts have been further highlighted recently by Social Media Today. They really pinpoint on the importance of personal touch and the use of different messages for different social networks. If we look at Facebook and set up automatic Tweets from Facebook, it can look something like this:

Not only is this extremely annoying, but it doesn’t give me any indication of what the photo is about or why I should click the link.

The main point is to create a different strategy for each channel and to make it personal. Don’t make your followers feel like a number.

 

After our website audit assignment and looking at several different websites in the beer brewing business, there was one thing that I found that was rare among most websites and that was bringing in their brand personality to the website design.  I started doing some research on ways in which businesses can bring their personality on to their web site.  Besides language, images and typography there are some essential elements that are often missing as below and noted here.

Bringing personality to your website allows for the viewer to have an emotional connection with your brand which will entice them and understand the type of experience they will have with your brand. Your website acts as one of your most important online marketing tools and it should be informative but with a unique flare.

What are some ways to bring brand personality to a website?

• A Blog:

o   Start Business blogging, this will help viewers understand you from the language that you choose to use and the news and content you write about. Ensure your blog is linked to your website and on the same platform, so that users are not taken to another page which can cause confusion and distance from the overall brand image.

• Your Social Media Buttons

o   Get creative with your social media buttons, use one’s that can reflect your brands but are still recognizable.

• About Us page

o   Show viewers more about you and who is behind the brand on your about us page. Be sure to include pictures and interests of the people behind the business. Viewers will be able to grasp the personalities of its owners and expect when they are welcomed in store if human contact is a part of their business.

 

• Website Navigation

Create something that makes you stand out but is still intuitive. It is important to not to make the viewer unsure of where to find the appropriate information fast.

 

 

For more details on brand personality and web design:

http://writtent.com/blog/7-ways-to-infuse-your-company-website-with-brand-personality/ 

http://spyrestudios.com/personality-in-web-design/

http://designshack.net/articles/business-articles/how-to-find-or-create-your-brand-personality/