Social Media

A Design Spin of My 2015 Best Nine Instagram 

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In celebration of the upcoming new year, Instagram asked users to share their best nine Instagram posts in 2015 while adding the hashtag, #2015BestNineInstagram. I decided to put my own little spin for this hashtag by showcasing some of the designs I did in 2015. Check it out here (#2015BestNineGraphicDesign)

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Portfolio Update: Promo Banners for Leadership Workshop

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Just added some design pieces in the portfolio. I designed three custom social media banners promoting a networking event/leadership workshop in Madison, NJ, co-hosted by The Association for Women in Communications – New Jersey and Women in Computing – Northern NJ. Please click the graphic above to learn more about it.

If you’re in northern NJ, you’re welcome to attend this exciting and informative event, which includes an opportunity to network with colleagues and friends over a light buffet dinner. Afterwards, Kathleen Cashman of Cashman Consulting, LLC is presenting a workshop, Your Best You – Tapping the Leader Within, to help you identify your leadership skills and formulate a personal action plan to develop and utilize them right away.

For more information about the event and to register, click here to go to AWCNJ’s site.

AWCNJ Kicks Off with Networking, Digital Marketing Tips, October 14

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If you are in the marketing and communications field who lives in the northern NJ area (Morris, Essex, Union, Hudson counties) AND want to meet new people while learning about the latest trends in digital marketing, the Association for Women in Communications (AWCNJ) is hosting a Fall Kickoff on Tuesday, October 14, at the Morris County Public Library in Whippany, NJ.

Karl M. Stearns, President of KMS Marketing Solutions, will explain the strategy behind email marketing and how it is used in conjunction with social media. The results will be an effective connection with your community to help build the buzz around your small business or non-profit, rather than a bunch of emails and random posts on social media.

Karl Stearns is a nationally known speaker on small business topics. As a Platinum Solution Provider for Constant Contact, he is one of a handful of Authorized Local Experts who has taught hundreds of small businesses how to utilize the powerful tools of digital marketing.

AWCNJ’s Fall Kickoff will begin at 6:30-9:00 p.m. at the Morris County Public Library, 30 Hanover Avenue, Whippany, NJ 07981.

Cost is $15 for members, $25 for non-members and $10 for students with current college ID. Admission at the door is $30. Sandwiches and refreshments will be served. You must pre-register for this event here.

For more information about the event, contact AWCNJ Programming at programs@awcnj.org.

Visual Content Marketing Tips Using Pinterest and Instagram

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InstaPinLogosSq2I recently attended a very informative webinar hosted by Piqora, a California-based company specializing in marketing and analytics for visual, interest-based networks like Pinterest, Tumblr, & Instagram. The team presented very helpful tips on how to market and promote products and services using Instagram and Pinterest.

More than just sharing photos, Instagram and Pinterest are two of the fastest growing social media platforms to help promote brands through visual content marketing. What are the main reasons for their success and what does using these platforms mean to your business? Here are some helpful nuggets that I learned from the webinar. If used strategically, Instagram and Pinterest can help promote your business more effectively.

What does Pinterest mean to your business?

  • Virality – Viewers collect images through inspiration or if customers want to buy something. “Repins” help amplify the message.
  • Content – Learn what type of of content is performing well and see what’s trending or popular.
  • Traffic – 50% of web referrals happen 3.5 months after the initial pin on Pinterest.
  • Money – Posting a product catalog can help drive traffic to your website or business, which in turn can generate revenue.
  • Strategy – According to Piqora, pinning at the right time or when viewers are active leads to 36% higher repins. The best pinning time is before 9am on weekdays and after 9pm on weekends.
  • One tip I learned: Hashtags are useless in Pinterest since the platforms can search keywords automatically. In other words, hashtags are NOT needed in Pinterest.

What does Instagram mean to your business?

  • Posting frequency – Best posting time is usually after 5:00 p.m.
  • Using multimedia types – Test and experiment with different media to see what your audiences love. For example, videos are a good visual to view an entirely different picture of a product while some brands don’t find video as effective as pictures with filters.
  • Hashtags play a central role for your content to be discovered. According to Piqora, adding up to 7 hashtags on each post generates the most engagement with your audience. Having 8 or more hashtags would be perceived as spam. When adding hashtags, make sure they are concise, catchy and easy to remember.
  • Should be a visual diary of your brand’s story – For example, if you want to show a logo or brochure that you designed, how about showing different variations of the piece or show inspiration on how you came up with the design.
  • Build a community in Instagram through authentic visual storytelling. Instagram provides an opportunity to show your brands personality and build emotional bonds with your audience. In addition, hosting a contest or promotion can help accelerate community growth, just make sure that you have a clear goal and strategy in mind before promoting the contest.

For more tips and resources on Instagram and Pinterest marketing, go to www.piqora.com.

Social Media Cover Banner Quick Guide

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Whether you are a business that wants to change the look of your brand’s social media outlets, or you want to show your personal and artistic style, here is quick design guide in creating your social media covers, including size dimensions for four of the most popular networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn (Premium only).

Quick Tips in Designing Cover Photos for Social Media Platforms

  • Keep a consistent look and feel for your brand throughout all of your social media networks.
  • Keep your networks fresh w/ new imagery. If you’re a designer, photographer, or artist, you can add a banner on the cover photo section as a way to showcase your work if you’re showing a single image or multiple images in a grid-like format.
  • Create your cover photos to reflect your style, personality or brand. Remember, cover photos should provide a visual background for your networks and are not meant to be used to advertise or sell anything.
  • High resolution images are strongly recommended. Anything smaller would look pixelated, fuzzy or have low quality. When you download images, it’s best to download from your computer instead of your phone or tablet. I noticed personally that if downloading a banner from the phone, the banner looks grainy if viewing from a computer.
  • If you’re promoting a business, try adding a logo as your profile picture.

Social Media Banner Sizes
Facebook (Source: Facebook Cover Size Helper)

  • Profile photo – Page profile pictures are square and display at 160×160 pixels on your Page. The photo you upload must be at least 180×180 pixels.
  • Timeline Cover Photo – Facebook cover size is 851 x 315 pixels.

Twitter (Source: Mediabistro-All Twitter)

  • Header – On-screen size is 1500 pixels wide x 500 pixels high, but Twitter recommends uploading an image up to upload 3000 pixels wide × 1000 wide photo while under 5MB.
  • Profile photo – Maximum upload size is 400 x 400 pixels (up to 2MB). Once uploaded, the photo decreases to 200 x 200 pixels on screen.

Google Plus (Source: Google Plus For You)

  • Profile Photo – 250 x 250 pixels
  • Cover Photo – 480 x 270 pixels

LinkedIn Premium (Source: Social Media Examiner)

  • Cover Photo – 1400 x 425 pixels

Still trying to understand the social media lingo? Here’s a glossary of terms for reference created by MediaMiser.

If you need help in creating social media banners, I’m happy to help you out. Please contact me to learn more.

Beautiful Website Design for Make-up Artist

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Designed by Design team from yveniaWeb Solutions.
Designed by Design team from yveniaWeb Solutions.

If you’re a make-up artist who’s looking to expand your business online, here’s a beautiful website design created by the Design team from yveniaWeb Solutions. Simple, clean and easy to navigate.

yveniaWeb Solutions is a partnership between yvenia Design and maWebCenters®, an innovative Internet marketing company specializing in business website design, eCommerce and hosting services. Here are five reasons why yveniaWeb Solutions can help promote your business.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

yveniaWeb Solutions – A Web Design and Online Marketing Partnership

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Websites are designed by yveniaWeb’s design team.

As a graphic designer, I usually work independently and efficiently in designing pieces that can help market and promote your business, organization or event. My portfolio mostly consists of print marketing collateral, web assets (web banners and other graphics) and other custom design pieces.

In terms of web design, I can build and design web pages using a content management system, such as Dreamweaver, WordPress, Vignette and SharePoint. However, I am still learning and understanding the web programming aspect in building a website from scratch, such as JavaScript. With a full-time job, building a business on the side, being a co-president of a professional organization, as well as finding room for some social time, even graphic designers need some help.

This is why I have partnered with maWebCenters®, an innovative Internet marketing company specializing in business website design, eCommerce and hosting services. yveniaWeb Solutions offers an online marketing strategy, as well as web design services, for small businesses, start-ups and other organizations who want to build their web presence. Our business also includes an award-winning Customer Service team and a group of talented web designers who can help your business with unlimited support for your website and other questions you may have.

Click here to learn more about yveniaWeb Solutions. If you want to see a demo of our web design and marketing solution, please contact me for an appointment.

Halloween Graphic Design “Pin”-spiration

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With Halloween coming up very soon (plus, using my Pinterest account a lot more), here are some top inspirational designs that I saw throughout Pinterest. It’s always interesting to see other Halloween designs that are more than just pumpkins, vampires and the colors, orange and black. Check them out here.

Here’s one poster design that I like, especially for The Walking Dead fans like myself.

For more graphic design inspirations, plus other pin-nable treats, visit my Pinterest account at www.pinterest.com/yvenia

Why I Use Paper.Li

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You may have noticed on my Twitter (@yveniaB) that I have posts linking to the yvenia DesignCom Daily site. This page was actually developed and powered through Paper.Li, a content curator platform that can help you create an online newspaper, generating news resources and social media posts that are of interest to you and to your audience.

After some research, I decided to use Paper.li to gather all my favorite design and marcom news feeds into one page. This page replaces the weekly “Links to See” posts that I have done in the past — which can be time consuming. This new format is daily (the site also has the option to do a weekly paper or morning/nightly version) and is presented in a visually pleasing layout. Plus, another benefit is I don’t need to search my Twitter feeds to  do a weekly post. Paper.Li can do that task for me.

In addition, you can customize your Paper.Li site to consistently match your brand, i.e. colors and fonts. You can register for a free account, but you would have limited options. If you want to fully customize your news site, such as your own domain or monetize your site through advertising, you can also upgrade to a Pro account for only $9/month — I’m planning to do that soon.

The downside is that WordPress doesn’t accept the Paper.li widget due to security issues and doesn’t accept JavaScript. I even originally wanted to link the newspaper from the main tab section on the homepage, but just to make it easier for myself, I added the site as a top menu link.

To subscribe to my Paper.Li site, please follow my Twitter or go directly to paper.li/yveniaB/1378252230.