Image via CrunchBase

But will Facebook ever meet the same fate as Myspace? Many think not. Firstly, Facebook is too intertwined into our lives it’s second nature to us to use it now; we use the apps on its site, the apps it develops and owns (Instagram, for example.) we use our Facebook profile to log into other sites, and we link everything we use on our profile. There are very few other methods of promoting small businesses better than Facebook. So can we escape it, even if we really wanted to? 1/5th of the worlds population has a Facebook profile, and how could any new site compete with that?

However, maybe we’re not so doomed as we think, even the biggest companies in the world can lose out as technology advances, and the general consensus is that we are becoming mobile. Many have speculated that websites may be doomed due to the rise of mobile browsing and mobile apps, so why wouldn’t Facebook be included in that? 4G has just been introduced, so it’s not so far into the future that we may be able to browse online even quicker and more efficiently whilst on the move.

Facebook has an app, but it’s not without its problems. Many reviews report frequent crashes, slow loading and many other problems such as statuses not posting correctly; the majority of the app’s ratings are at 1 star, and the average is about 2.5 stars.

Let’s not forget the anger Facebook causes on a regular basis with its users; the Edgerank algorithm, which Facebook uses to determine which posts you see in your news feed has been hailed as a nuisance by users and page owners alike. People do not like to be told what they want to see, and businesses are upset that even though they may have thousands of likes on their page, only a tiny proportion of those users might see each post, as Facebook now wants to charge users to promote their posts. Regardless, I know many who complain and threaten to leave Facebook, but inevitably do not. In some cases, some exposure to Facebook’s wealth of potential fans and marketing is better than none at all.

Image via CrunchBase

English: Graph of social media activities (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Try Facebook’s competitors; Path, for instance, follows the same concept as Facebook, but it is much more beautiful and user friendly. The developers at Path have really thought out how their site and App looks, and it’s seamless. You can still customize your profile, but the modern, clean, and incredibly well designed basis of Path is a million miles from Facebook – and yet, I can’t find one person I know who is using it. I’ve tried inviting people, but a fact remains; people do not like change.

 

So what do you think will happen? Will we see the light and move to a better social network, or will we remain complaining but content? Will it take 5, 10, or 20 years?

 

Let me know your opinion by tweeting @instinctive_HQ

 

 

The post What is the Future of Facebook in Social Media? appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

LJMU Graduate Software Developer Internship

20 Days Part Time Over 8 Weeks Starting January 2013

Instinctive Creations are looking for a recent LJMU Graduate’s to take part in an Internship that is funded by Liverpool John Moores University.

The role will comprise of working on an in-house project, utilising cloud technology and mobile applications.

Essential Skills:

PHP
My SQL
Knowledge of OOP principles

Skills and Experience Desirable but not essential:

Android Development
UI Design

Please Send a CV to careers@instinctivecreations.com .

Closing date for applicants is the 29th of November and Interviews can only be held on the  30th of November.

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LJMU Graduate Creative Marketing Internship

20 Days Part Time Over 8 Weeks Starting January 2013

Instinctive Creations are looking for recent LJMU Graduate’s to take part in an Internship that is funded by Liverpool John Moores University.

The role will comprise of working on a marketing strategy and product launch for some in house mobile application technology.

Essential Skills:

Ability to take the Initiative
Ability to Work to Tight Deadlines
Excellent Communication Skills
Ability for Creative Thinking

Skills and Experience Desirable but not essential:

Marketing Strategy Documents
Market Research
Video Production
Photoshop
Photography

Salary will be equal to the current Minimum Wage Criteria.

Please Send a CV to careers@instinctivecreations.com .

Closing date for applicants is the 29th of November and Interviews can only be held on the  30th of November.

The post Instinctive Are Looking For A Creative Marketing Intern, Could It Be You? appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

Peugeot Panamá
The french car company used Pinterest to hold a huge competition, sending users to all of their sites including their twitter and Facebook pages. Users had to pin all the images that made up the car, including the missing boards which could be found on Peugeot’s websites, to create the car image. In doing so they were entered into a competition to win the car itself. Traffic to all of Peugeot’s sites and links back to them from thousands of different Pinterest accounts gave the company and the contest a huge amount of exposure – plus being one of the first companies out there to use Pinterest in this way really put Peugeot in the minds of internet users everywhere.

Etsy
With over 150,000 followers Etsy have put a huge amount of time and effort into their Pinterest boards. Pinterest and Etsy seem to go hand in hand, with Etsy’s boards not only showing you the fantastic products available sorted in a way that  can help you find exactly what you’re looking for but also showing you how to make super cool items yourself. Pinterest and Etsy, just like many other social media platforms like tumblr and twitter, have found they have some very popular sellers and pinners thought of as celebrities. Etsy have utilised these famous characters and their fan bases, allowing them to create ‘Guest Pinner’ boards on the official Etsy account.

There are plenty of other great examples of companies using Pinterest very effectively and it has become apparent that anything to do with fashion, food, animals or luxury products is extremely popular. Understandably then companies like the Whole Foods store, GAP and Modcloth are all doing exceptionally well.

Despite the obvious advantages of creating a following on Pinterest, many companies just haven’t cottoned on. Tiffany & co. would be a perfect candidate to make it big on Pinterest, with the majority of Pinners being women as well as the hundreds of thousands of wedding inspiration boards out there all hungry for beautiful engagement rings and other gorgeous jewellery, it seems a shame for them not to be taking part. Abercrombie & Fitch also seem to be lacking in the Pinterest department which, as a huge fashion brand that has only climbed in popularity of late, is a bit of a let down. It has become obvious through Pinterest however, which of our most loved brands love us back, taking the time to share images of their products as well as ones that aren’t to help us find just what we are looking for, shows commitment. Once again it is the power of the social network that shines above all else.

The post Doing It Right On Pinterest appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

We are currently looking for the right person to join our small team based in Liverpool City Centre. Working as a digital marketing administrator you will be involved in all aspects of the business on a daily basis and will be assisting the team in providing a range of digital marketing campaigns for clients.

Still interested? Then carry on reading for more info……

About Us

We are a young and dynamic digital marketing agency and place our main focus on building an environment which encourages creativity, innovation and ideas. We believe that people work best when they are given autonomy and the chance to grow in their job role; the technology industry is constantly evolving, so why shouldn’t our staff be too?

It is the overall team ethos and company values that have enabled us to produce successful marketing campaigns for clients in a wide variety of industry sectors. We promote an atmosphere of constant learning and encourage all team members to explore new ideas so that we can keep up with anything new that is happening in the digital marketing world.

Job Title: Digital Marketing Administrator

Job Description:

Working alongside the rest of the Instinctive Creations team, you will be responsible for providing support to all aspects of our digital marketing campaigns, as well as taking care of day to day general administration duties. There will also be the opportunity, depending on the right candidate, for this role to develop to include managing client accounts.

Key Tasks:

• Supporting the department and team with administration duties as requested for Digital Marketing projects
• General day to day office administration
• Liaising with clients to assist with the running of marketing campaigns
• Devising and maintaining office systems
• Attending meetings, taking minutes and keeping notes
• Credit control

Essential Skills:

• An interest in digital marketing
• Good organisational and communication skills
• Good attention to detail
• Ability to work using own initiative
• Previous experience of working as part of an effective team
• Ability to work to deadlines and manage own time

The following skills are not essential, but would be an advantage:

• A Business/Marketing related degree
• Knowledge of Apple Mac software and programmes
• Experience of using Adobe Photoshop

Personal Qualities
The ideal candidate for this job will be creative, self-motivated, and interested in developing a successful career.

The Nitty Gritty

The role will initially start off as 20-25 hours per week with the chance for it to progress into a full time position for the right candidate. Starting salary will be £12,950 pro rata per annum.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 17th October.

If you feel that you possess all of the qualities needed and are interested in becoming the latest member of the Instinctive team then please download an application form in one of the below formats and follow the instructions included.

Download Application Form

The post We’re Looking For A Digital Marketing Administrator! appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

Once you have overcome the first hurdle of actually getting people to your site through SEO, PPC or other marketing campaigns and have then managed to convert these visitors into buyers or subscribers, you now have the task of getting these people to turn into regular customers. It is these customers that can turn out to be the most valuable and this is where the powerful world of email marketing can have its biggest impact.

As your number of conversions increases, so to does your customer contact list through newsletter sign ups and email opt in check boxes. It is what you choose to do with this information which will help decide how many people return to your site.

You could of course do nothing and just allow your contact list to grow, blissfully unaware of the potential gold mine you are sitting on. On the other hand, you could utilise this and start regular email marketing campaigns to reap the varied rewards of targeted marketing that is aimed specifically at people who are clearly interested in your services.

We have seen a variety of advantages for different clients with a wide range of conversion targets and these our the top 5 benefits of email marketing, based on actual experience and analysis of real data;

• Return Custom – whether you deem a customer to be someone who purchases from your site or just comes back to read the latest blog post, email marketing is one of the most effective methods of turning a one time customer into someone who comes back to your site again and again.

• Brand Awareness – if someone signs up to your website or buys one of your products but then never hears from you again then chances are the next time they are looking for a similar item or service, they will find someone else by just submitting a search. Send them a weekly or monthly email though and you are going to be in their thoughts. Even if they end up ignoring or deleting most of your emails they will still serve as a reminder that your website can provide them with what they need. Email marketing can have a big impact on building the brand awareness of your current customers and for this reason alone it is something which should be considered.

• Increased Traffic – it is all well and good sending an email to your contact list but the recipients still need to have a reason to click through to your site. Creating promotional emails which include discount codes, competitions, giveaways or free downloads will give them that reason and you will usually see the spike in your traffic each time an email is sent. More traffic means more chance to convert those customers!

• Simple Tracking – by using the right email marketing software you can find a wealth of information each time you send a newsletter out – How many people opened your email? How many people clicked through to your website? Which products prove to be the most popular? Having this information to hand means that you can constantly make improvements to your emails so that you get better performance from them each time by using the most popular layout, design and even email subject title.

• Keeping Customers In The Loop – if you have got a new product range that you have launched or have redesigned your website then it makes sense to let your current customer base know about it. By sending out a regular newsletter, you can keep your contacts fully up to date with all of the essential information about your site or business in general.

Whether you have got a contact list of 100 or 100,000, it makes sense to start making more of the customers you have already got. If you can provide them with more reason to come back to your website then chances are you will be in their thoughts the next time they need to make use of the products or services you provide.

The post The Top 5 Benefits of Email Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

There’s nothing to be ashamed of in being a blogger – quite the contrary, we create a huge amount of the content on the internet, and our power to influence consumers and trends has increased so substantially that some bloggers have become minor celebrities. The problem is, there are 15.1 million blogs on WordPress, 10 million Tumblr blogs, and a whole lot more on Blogspot. Being a blogger is nothing special anymore, and I barely know anyone who hasn’t tried to blog.

Sure you have hipster Ariel…

To be very honest, only about half or less of those statistics are going to be good quality, professional and well-written, and even less than that are going to have a readership. Maybe it’s the fact that people aspire to the celebrity status of some bloggers, or maybe it’s the fact you can make money from a good blog, or get freebies from PR companies, but the motives behind a lot of these so called bloggers are entirely financial or for their own benefit, and that’s definitely what a lot of people think of when the word “blogger” comes up.

So here’s the final word; if you want to be a blogger, if you seriously want to blog full time in the future, if you know it’s not just a passing hobby for you, and if you’re going to dedicate a lot of time money and resources to it, then you can achieve something big out of getting involved. Make sure you have something new to bring to the table; a unique selling point – nobody wants to see the thousandth street style blog they’ve browsed today, no one wants to look at blurry pictures you took in the mirror, and trust me, for general news and political rants – other bigger bloggers have it covered.

To finish, here’s five golden rules of blogging –

-       Buy a DSLR, don’t take all your blog’s photos on your phone or on Instagram.

-       Get some good web design – forget WordPress standard templates, keep all images the same size, get a good logo, make your banner beautiful and don’t use some crazy background that’s neon and animated.

-       Don’t spam your blog with adverts and affiliate links. Write to make an impact on the world, not to make money.

-       Like I said before, don’t be a cliché, pick an exciting topic, keep your content fresh, find shops no-one knows about, visit events no one else goes to. Be the first to break new news and trends.

-       Don’t pay for followers. Don’t go around asking for followers. Don’t self promote. Good content will draw readers in it’s own time.

The post Too many blogs? appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

1. Shell Oil

This is a very recent disaster! Shell’s PR took a massive dip when Greenpeace decided to take some serious action against the brand. Shell don’t have the best reputation when it comes to the environment, and what you do publicly can have some deadly repercussions. In this case, it was Greenpeace who hijacked the global super power’s social media. First of all they started a viral campaign, where images of the arctic were placed alongside disastrous marketing slogans such as “Your ignition is my extinction”, “Some say catastrophe, we say opportunity.” and “Birds are like sponges… For oil!”. The adverts were styled exactly into Shell’s branding and even feature the shell logo and name, causing many people to believe that Shell made the adverts! Not only that, but when Shell threatened legal action, the charity retaliated again with a fake Twitter account. Again people believed Shell was responsible for the account which featured some disastrous and rude quips from the “social media manager”. Shell’s reputation is damaged and the campaign reached a global audience, and how could they have redeemed themselves? Firstly by not attacking the environment ruthlessly of course, and secondly, their Twitter team could have handled the event better – people tend to retaliate when threatened by a brand over Twitter. Keep that in mind!

2. Glossy Box

This beauty sample box brand made one of the biggest sins in social media – they didn’t believe the customer was always right. You need to remember with social media that your one account can’t possible fight thousands of fans – so don’t upset them! Glossy Box’s catastrophe began when they decided to let some famous bloggers run their social media. Foolishly, and allegedly, one of these bloggers didn’t agree with a complaint made by a Glossy Box customer, so went on their personal account and insulted the individual; never, ever, ever, forget your social media accounts are public! The customer found the insult and made it public, sparking many other Glossy Box customers to be outraged. Not only that but it then opened and onslaught of customers claiming their complaints had been deleted from the brand’s Facebook page and they had been blocked from making further comments. The golden rule of social media, is that it’s better to be seen publicly and professionally resolving a customer complaint that it is to delete the complaint and anger the customer!

3. McDonald’s

We’ve all heard the McDonald’s horror stories; people finding things which shouldn’t be in their burgers and so on, so when McDonald’s tried to start a successful hash-tag campaign on Twitter called #McDstories they got a lot more than they bargained for. The hash-tag caused a flood on horror stories about the fast food chain from disgruntled customers to be made public on Twitter. According to Mashable.com, stories included things like “Found a fingernail in my big mac once.” and “Bit into something so hard I chipped my molar.”. The moral of this story? Good social media is founded on a good brand! In this modern age of quick social sharing, keep your reputation squeaky clean!

The post How Dangerous is Social Media When Not Handled Properly? appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

An Example of the US Tumblr Demographics

Although many of us might have a presence on a lot of different social media sites, each site is aimed at a slightly different market segment and businesses need to pay attention to this fact. You need to look at your target market as a business, and then you need to align this with the target market of the sites you want to be on.

Say for example; let’s pretend your target market is a young female under the age of 25, who are interested in creative subjects – Lets look at the demographics for two sites.

Twitter has a fairly perfectly split audience when it comes to gender, with 52% of their users being female, and 48% being male. 33% of its users earn between $25k and $50k, and a huge 57% of its users are between the ages of 25 and 44, this makes most of the people on Twitter adults of average earnings.

Tumblr however, has 50% of its users being under the age of 25, and Tumblr’s target market is creative types such as artists, students and designers. So we can see, Tumblr is much more likely to have a large amount of our target market active on the site.

This doesn’t mean we should ignore the benefits of Twitter and solely use Tumblr, but it does mean that Tumblr should provide a lot more return on investment and has a lot more potential to bring in business if a lot of time is invested in it.

Some social media brands are just known to have certain people who use them, for example, many people who are interested in technology and internet culture will use Reddit, whereas many graphic designers and photographers use Stumble Upon.

In summary, make sure you do your research before you create your social media presence; if you’re a small company and you don’t have time to market across all the platforms, then it’s essential to pick and choose carefully to get the maximum return on your time investment!

The post How to Plan Your Online Marketing Campaign Using Demographics appeared first on Instinctive Creations.

One way in business these days to incorporate fun is charity, your killing two birds with one stone and enjoying yourself whilst raising money for a number of good causes!

Last year we raised just over eight hundred pounds with our 5 minute ‘Who is Webby Blogpost?’ video featuring a song by our very own Ed Payne, it was fairly ridiculous and a good time was had by all involved.

This year for Sport Relief we decided, because we had a few more staff we needed to have some fun and aim to double what we did last year….. £1600 minimum…

We ended up doing up the same as last year and spending double the amount of time and effort to run the Instinctive Sport Relief Derby which you can read about all the goings on in Ed’s blog post.

To follow up on last year we also decided to do a silly video that incorporated the run up to the events and the event itself, this also got out of hand and ended up at an epic 14 minutes 30….. a bit too long for what we had initially planned, for those who haven’t seen it, its embedded below. Im chuffed to say we (with the help of Liverpool Science Park Tenants) helped to raise exactly £2,198 pounds and twenty four pence for Sport Relief!!

I loved every minute of doing the video and running the event and I think a lot of fun was had! Watch this space for more events coming up in the next year or two. We are about to order a mural to wallpaper on our wall our targets for fundraising in the next few years, I’ll post a photo when it goes up….

For those who haven’t seen last years video….

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