Top 5 Hashtag Mistakes

Looking for more information about hashtags, what they are and how to use them? Check out this blog post.

The use of hashtags in social networks like Instagram, Twitter, Google+ and so on is very popular, and – when used correctly- hashtags can be a very efficient way of getting more readers and viewers to check out your content.

But there are some pitfalls you should be aware of before you start tagging away – here are my top 5 hashtag mistakes:

- Hashtagging every word
You probaply seen this on Instagram and might have wondered if it is a good idea? It’s not. The point of adding a hashtag is to make your picture searchable and easy to find for people looking for that particular topic.

Turning every word into an hashtag is pointless – have you ever searched for #is #and #a ? No? Nobody else either… Instagram allows 50tags per picture (which I think is plenty), make sure to add tags that people actually search for and don’t “waste” tags on these words no one searches for.

- Hashtags on Facebook
Not many hashtags fails set me off like hashtags on Facebook! It has no purpose (hashtags are not searchable on FB!) and just screams “I have no clue what the #s mean!”

(If you share photos from Instagram on FB, tags are ok – as it is clear that they are added in a setting where they have a value and purpose)

- Adding hashtags that are not relevant for the picture.

In an attempt to get more IG likes and followers, some people add popular tags that are not relevant for the picture. I don’t think this is a very smart strategy, personally I get irritated when I search for a topic and a lot of the pictures that show up are off-topic. , this does make me hit “unfollow” rather than like. So this strategy is definitely not working on me – how about you?

- Special Charaters
Double Check that your hashtags are working (highlighted like hyperlinks and click able), some special characters are not supported. For instans, “+”, “&” “?” and so one are not supported on Instagram.

- Hashtags on private profiles

Hashtags from private Instagram or Twitter accounts are only searchable for your friends, so unless you have a really big follower base, there is not really any reason for adding hashtags to your photos – your friends will probably see them anyway. An exception is If you and your friend made your own hashtag for a party, wedding or vacation trip e.g.

What do you think are the biggest hashtag mistakes out there?

Oggl – First Impressions

Oggl is a new photo sharing experience powered by the popular Hipstamatic camera, films and lenses. It refer to it self as “A Community Of Creative People Capturing & Curating Their Lives Through Photography” and was recently launched. Here are my first thoughts and experiences:

What I love:
- The “Shoot With This” feature, that allows you to
copy the lens and film settings from other users uploaded pictures.
- The look and feel of the app. Oggl has wisely copied the very
cool design of Hipåstamatic – Looking good!
- The editing feature -This is something I, and probably others, have been missing in the
Hipstamatic app. With Oggl you can switch between lenses and films
after taking the picture.
- All the different lenses and films ( worth the 9,99$ to me)

What I miss:
- The possibility to upload pictures from your camera roll.
- Being able to share the same picture twice to Twitter. I accidentally spelled something
wrong the first time I shared the picture, and there was no way of sharing it twice, not even after editing the picture.
- An easier way to search for friends, I can’t see any way to search for friends from Facebook or Twitter yet.
- More settings – I’m missing an option to adjust my profile photo and the possibility to turn of the auto-save to the camera roll
- More ways of interacting, you can currently not comment on pictures (you can @mention in your capture title, but I cannot see any commenting features yet, nor do you get notifications when people follow you, like or curate your photos.

Nice to know:
- Currently only for iphone
- Free to use, but you can become a member (9,99$ annually) to get access to more films, filters, support the development and skip ads.
- Currently by invitation only, request an invitation in the app or on Oggl.com. (In my case the invitation came less than 24 hours after I requested it)

Are you on Oggl? My user name is @Mariannemixi if you want to look me up

A Facebook Update in Real Life

Tired of all them Facebook updates and changes? Given any thought to what your real life would be like if it was just like a Facebook update? This funny video captures some of the frustation you might have regarding Facebooks constant changes

Instagram: a Quick Guide to Instagram’s New Tagging Feature

Psst – if you’re looking for information about Instagram hashtags, click here.

Instagram recently added a new features: The possibility to tag people in the pictures you upload (earlier you could only tag people in the sense that you @mentioned their user name in the picture text or comments).

To start tagging people in you photos, go to the photo and click on the button in the lower right corner. Once you’ve done this, you get a list of options, the last option on the list is to “tag / add people to your photo”. Touch the photo and start typing Instagram user name or real name of the person(s) in the photo and press “save” when the name comes up.

With the new tagging feature, you (and everyone else) can get a full overview of all the photos you have been tagged in. You can see all photos you are tagged in under the “Photos of you”-tab on your profile page:

Instagram is taking a step closer to Facebook with this update, but has also taken some important precautions : No one other than the person that uploaded the picture can tag people in it. And you can turn of auto-approving
and choose to approve manually. In the “Photos of you” tab, press the button in the right top corner and switch from automatically to manually tagging.

What do you think of this new Instagram feature? Useful or not?

Oggl – Hipstamatic is taking on Instagram

With Oggl, Hipstamatic is creating a new photo experience available at your hands through your smartphone (iPhone only so far). Oggl is combining Hipstamatics lenses and films with the filters, editing features and social experience that Instagram is known and popular for.

Some important features:
- Focuses on sharing your best photos, and seeing the best photos of others
- Possible to share pictures to other networks like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr
- Comes with lenses for different purposes, such as food or landscape photos,
- and editing-in-app features – a feature Hipstamatic has been missing so far, and by introducing it as a Oggl feature, Hipstamatic is surely offering Instagram some competition.
- Introducing a Membership fee: 9,99$ annually (or 2,99 $ quarterly) for all features from Hipstamatic and new gear every month. This is unusual, but might be a clever move? It’s not a big expense, but maybe it will keep the “spammers” out?

I’m excited to give Oggl a try, I’m a big fan of both Instagram and Hipstamatic and a combination sounds like a perfect match

Do you think you’ll give Oggl a try?

London Calling!

My plans for the summer are coming together, and last night I booked flight tickets for London. I’m super excited since London is one of my favorite cities and because I have not been there for a couple of years.

I’ve already strated to look for things to do and see, places to stay and go, and good spots for a bite or a drink. Like everytime I’m looking for travel inspiration, I start at Pinterest, my fresh, new London board is created and some pins are added already – have a look here.

One thing I like about going back to London, is that I’ve already done a lot of the “must-do” things for tourist, and feel free to spend my time going back to my favorite places and finding new ones. However, I still have some must-visit places left to go, and my to-do list is soming together:

On my to-do list:

- Tate Modern – It’s been on my bucket list every time I’ve been to London, but for various reasons I’ve not yet gotten around to paying it a visit – About time!

- London eye – Same reason as tate really, so this time I’m going for sure!

- Walk around with no map or purpose – My favorite activity on vacation, perfect for exploring new hidden gems, and very relaxing.

- Shopping- Come on, it’s London, I practically have to go shopping!

- Day trips – Brighton, Oxford and Southhampton are places close to London that I also think is worth a visit.

If you’re looking for ways to use social networks in your vacation planning, have a look at this blog post.

Do you have any suggestions for where to go, what to see, and what I should absolutly NOT miss in, or close to, London?

Snapchat Marketing

I’ve written about my love for Snapchat before (you can read it here), and one of the things I’ve been missing is companies adopting Snapchat to their marketing mix. Therefore I’m trilled to see that some brands are picking up on Snapchat and using it as a mean in building a relationship with their audience. One of them is Taco Bell.

When Taco Bell wanted to create buzz around the return of Beefy Crunch Burritos, they announced it first on Snapchat.

And the response from their fans was huge.

Some reasons why I think this was a hit:

*Taco Bell meet their customers on the customers turf and terms. No ads or billboards – the message straight to your smartphone (after you’ve first sent a snap to Taco Bell).

*They managed to think ‘outside the box’ and attract attention in a new and unconventional way.

*They did it the “Taco Bell way”, Taco Bell does not seem afraid to try new approached (e.g. they are using Vine too) and they have their special way of communicating with their customers and fans – in a fun and casual tone.

More of this, please!

Do you know of any other companies that are using Snapchat or other apps in a cool and creative way?

Social Media Spring Cleaning

Spring is here, representing renewal and a fresh start – why not use this time of year to clean up your digital presence too?

Here are my 3-steps to a Social Media Spring Cleaning:

Review your strategy – what is working and what is not?
You can treat your social media activities like you treat your closet. Just like reviewing your closet from time to time and changing, adding or taking out cloths from the closet, you should from time to time also review your social media activities and campaigns, your goals, strategies and results. What worked out and what did not? What should be changed and what should you still be doing?

Explore new networks
Are there any new networks generating a lot of buzz now, or a network that is still under the radar that you happen to know about? Look into how these can benefit your personal or professional brand. My new favourites are Vine and Snapchat, which both present a lot of new opportunities and exciting use cases for your company and /or personal brand.

Update bio and “About me/ us”
Did you get a new job or more responsibilities, learned a new skill? Got a new cool hobby you want to share? Did your brand get a new feature, a new product or a new partner? A lot happens in a year, make sure others know about it. Remember to keep your LinkedIn profile up to date too.

Your turn – what did I miss? What are your best tips for cleaning up your social media presence?

Social Media: How and What We Consume [INFOGRAPHIC]

Reblogged from Infographic List:

Social Media: What and How We Consume. Some Interesting Facts to take away from this Infographic: - Mobile First Audience is Growing - Tumblr has a Growing Audience - Social Network Apps are in the Top 3 App Categories (Just beaten by Games and Weather Apps - More Women View Videos on Social Networks, but Men Watch Longer

Winning an Instagram Contest

I’ve earlier written about how to host an Instagram contest, now let’s move to the other side of the table – How do you win an Instagram contest?

While I don’t think there is a secret success formula to winning any Instagram contest, or any other contest, (that would be boring anyway, right?), I believe there are lots of ways to increase your winning chances. Below you can read some of my advises (that I’ve had winning experiences with myself).

The first two advises are basics, that would apply to pretty much all Instagram contests, while the last four are most relevant in contests where the picture(s) with the most likes win.

Study the rules
Knowledge is power, take some time to study the contest rules and conditions. You might find something that gives you a computational edge! What does the contest rules say about use of hashtags? Can you upload as many contributions as you like? How is the winner(s) picked? Is there some way you can influence the contest, by e.g. asking friends to like and share your picture? Are there any hints given as to what the jury might be looking for?

Keep an eye on the competition
Check out the contest hashtag and analyze the other contributions. What do you like? Is there something you can build on (not copy!) and make better? Are some motives / interpretations more frequent than others? (Maybe you should go for something else, that would stand out in the bunch?)

If you are entering a contest where the picture(s) with the most likes wins, there are lots of ways to gain more likes quickly:

Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags

The fastest way to get people to like your Instagram pictures is adding hashtags. Make sure to use tags that are popular / frequently used, while they also describe your photo ( the Tag for likes app can be useful in generating popular tags).

Make sure you know the Instagram hashtag etiquettes as well.

Promote your picture
Tell your friends and connections about the contest, and ask them to vote for your picture. Your competition will, so you should too!

Pick your best shot…
You should (obviously) pick the image you’re most satisfied with (make sure it is aligned with the contest rules too of course). Also try picking one that you think will be easy for people to like kids, candy, sunsets, and nothing too controversal (depending on the contest of course).

…and stick to it
Once you’ve found the perfect shot, upload it and don’t upload any other pictures. Why? Because it causes confusing for the people you’ve asked to like your photo, and (in my experience) people stumbling on to your Instagram profile tend to like the last picture uploaded.

What did I miss? Do you have other tricks for winning an Instagram contest?