Using Colors In Branding

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8 Do’s and 5 Don’ts of Instagram for Building Your Brand

Instagram is a photo-sharing application launched in late 2010 and acquired by Facebook in 2012.

Though some forward-thinking businesses are already using Instagram, chances are you aren’t yet, and neither are your competitors. With its universal appeal, however, Instagram is not a medium marketers should ignore. And you’d better move quickly if you want to make an impact.

How You Shouldn’t Use Instagram

Let’s start out by defining how you should not be using Instagram, because you don’t want to waste your time—or, worse, turn off your potential fans—by committing a social faux pas or by annoying them.

All of the photos on Nike’s Instagram account are colorful, but the pictures end up coming off as the products of photo shoots rather than the more casual style cherished by other brands (and, usually, users). Nike’s myriad fans may still love the pics, but not all of us are Nike and we don’t have armies of loyal followers. So keep it real.

1. Don’t use Instagram solely for advertisements

This is true of any social network, but it is especially true on Instagram, where you have the potential to share all kinds of visual advertising your company has been using. Don’t do it. Resist the urge. And while we’re on the topic: Instagram is for photos—save your infographics and illustrations for Pinterest. They just look strange, and the square format doesn’t suit them.

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[VIDEO] Beyonce Send A Message in New Single Pepsi Commercial, Previews New Single

Queen Bey, gives us a preview of her new “Grown Woman” single in her new Pepsi commercial. See Beyonce battle Beyonce in mirror.

Not only does the commercial feature Beyonce’s Timbaland produced single it is also a message. The powerful message Bey sends us is “Embrace Your Past But Live For Now”. The brand story in the commercial is Beyonce facing her past through battling herself from her “Destiny’s Child” days to her 10 year solo career in her “Crazy In Love”, “Single ladies” days.

Mrs. Carter battle dances each of the past self in the mirror proving that even after marriage and a baby she has not lost her sasha fierce fire. Her brand is always evolving and she will continue to evolve but she is “Embracing Her Past But Living For Now”. You should too.

As you develop your personal brand for growth and for success remember to “Embrace You Past But Live For Now”. If you don’t know where you came from, You don’t know where you are going.

Is Your Brand Sinking? 7 Ways To Tell

When you really think about it, your personal brand is kind of like a ship you’ve built for yourself. Similar to a sailing vessel, you laid the blueprints and executed its building. When it’s finally set to sea, you’re left captaining it. But maintaining and managing your personal brand requires more energy than most want to admit.

Even the most successful brands take on water at times — from the personal brands of celebrities and thought leaders, to the corporate brands we’ve come to know and love. Seeing other brands experience trials and tribulations often leads you to wonder about your own. You may not be experiencing anything large scale, but there might be a few cracks to consider for future longevity.

Like a small leak on a boat, there are a variety of ways to tell if your brand is sinking. Here’s how:

1. Use your intuition. If you’ve developed a stand-out personal brand, you likely have keen business sense. Take a moment to consider the recent health of your personal brand — does anything look a little funny? If you’re having any doubts or strange feelings, it might be time to dig deeper and consider making a few adjustments.

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Pinterest Launches Analytics Tools for Brands

Popular online scrapbooking platform Pinterest has decided to introduce new analytics tools that will inform and allow businesses to track visitors to its site. This is part of Pinterest’s movement into monetising the site as it officially launches the free app to businesses.

The feature enables companies to obtain data through a tracking tool that informs brands how many people have pinned from their site, how many views each pin has, and how many users have visited a brand’s site from Pinterest. This nifty tracking instrument known as Pinterest Web Analytics will give owners insights with the idea of helping businesses understand the level of engagement their content has on the platform, once they have verified their account.

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Bud Light Gives You Four Ways Create A Powerful Brand

However, the brand wasn’t just trying to sell a few extra cases of beer in the process, they were building their brand. As the official beer sponsor of the Super Bowl for two years now, Bud Light’s mission was to create the premier destination in New Orleans during Super Bowl weekend, by providing world-class food, entertainment, and accommodations.

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Brand Extension: Teyana Taylor Designs Limited Edition Sneakers for Adidas.

Adidas has selected female sneaker head and G.O.O.D Music artist, Teyana Taylor, to design a limited edition sneaker. The singer-songwriter’s design is a retro style sneaker that is fabricated with premium Italian bronze leather, and an EQT midfoot strap.

The Harlem GLC special edition kicks will be available NBA All-star weekend, February 16th, 2013 in the Houston Adidas Originals store. In addition, the sneakers will be available for purchase at Adidas Originals retailers.

Previously, Adidas collaborated with Taylor’s label-mate, Big Sean, on the pro model ”Detroit Player.”

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How Co-Branding Can Make Two Reputations Better Than One

Bringing two or more brands together, under one umbrella, for a mutual purpose, requires each brand has a healthy respect for each other’s reputation.

Co-branding is a strategic partnership between professionals (personal brand) or organizations (products, services or programs) that recognize the value of leveraging each other’s reputation to amplify awareness about a product, service, event or cause. Co-branding provides opportunities to speak to audiences in new ways and connect to new audiences using relevant, share-worthy information that creates positive impressions about the brands involved.

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Beyonce Signs ‘Unique’ $50 Million Brand Ambassador Deal With Pepsi

Whether it’s Rihanna hollering “Everybody say HTC! Say Budweiser! River Island!” during her recent 777 tour or the hosts at last night’s Jingle Bells Ball getting the crowds at the 02 Arena to cheer louder for BlackBerry than for Girls Aloud or The Wanted, brands and music seem to be forging ever closer (and more profitable) relationships.

Celebrity Endorsements – Avoiding the Pitfalls

At the time of writing, Rory McIlroy looks set to sign a sponsorship deal with Nike worth a reported $250m.  Even by Nike’s standards that is a lot of money, but they are obviously confident that McIlroy’s endorsement of the brand over the ten year term will generate a return on investment well in excess of that amount.  Of course, they also have some spare bucks lying around after they terminated their deal with Lance Armstrong because of what they called the “seemingly insurmountable evidence that he participated in doping”.

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