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Three Cheers for Irony

Posted on by That Blonde with the phone

I usually write about daydreaming of beauty, makeup companies, social media and Instagram, but this time I thought I might shake things up bit. There is not a secret that I love daydreaming. It allows me to imagine possible endings and alternative situations that include people in my life. While there might be other solutions to escape reality, I prefer to daydream!

Ever since I was a toddler, I learned that even when life doesn’t go your way you can always make yourself feel better by thinking about possibilities. Daydreaming can help you tune out the noise from parents arguing and fighting with each other, the loud cars honking, screams from people on the steets and even the stupid overplay songs on the radio. But What most people don’t know is that It can also help you ease the pain of a broken heart.

A few years ago, I was in love with a guy who did not reciprocate my feelings. I used to daydream about ending together and that one day maybe he would love me the same way I loved him. Knowing that he didn’t love me caused me pain, but then I would start daydreaming and everything was ok again. From that point on I realized that daydreaming was better than crying or feeling sorry for myself. Daydreaming inspires me to keep trying and never give up. The only downside is that eventually we must wake up, even from our daydreams.

Life has taught me that no amount of Estée Lauder concealer and Chanel foundation can cover up the sadness reflected in your face. No amount of likes and nice comments on a pic on Instagram can delete the painful memories.  No matter what anyone says There is not a easy fix for a broken.

When people are heart broken, they know they need to get over it, but the question remains: when is it time to say goodbye and start over ? Daydreaming allows me to keep a little bit of hope while moving on. This way I can face the future without ignoring my past. Or so I thought. Four years has passed by and I did in fact move on! I was happy until two days ago when I realized the person who broke my heart is happy in a relationship with someone else. That’s ok! Right? Well not exactly. He was not the kind of person who was looking for love, he was a pessimist, rude and just negative in every way and yet he found love. That’s not fair! I was the optimistic, hopeless romantic who dare to appreciate the beauty of  a dark rainy day!  And Yet he is the one who finds love? While I’m alone as a dog? I’m ok alone or at least I thought I was! I just don’t see how this is fair! Life’s irony is just too crude and harsh to even understand. So I want to dedicate this entry to irony! Three Cheers for the ironic twist of fate! How daydreaming helped me let go of love and yet it caused me pain. Three Cheers for the time that I wasted thinking about him! Three Cheers for him and his girl who is not me but I guess he knows that by now! Three Cheers for today the day that I finally realized that it’s ok to daydream but maybe not about lost causes. Three Cheers for anyone out there who has ever felt this way. So happy that the pain and stupidity can finally leave and I can close this capter in my life for once and for all! Three Cheers for the person reading this entry and thinking about their own love stories. Three Cheers for having something to shake me and help me realized that while not being fair life will give you happiness. I know mine is still out there. I just need to daydream more about other new possibilities!

Daydreaming about Analytics

Posted on by That Blonde with the phone

Early this year, I started this blog as an assignment for my social media class. I must confess that I did not know what I wanted to write about. I was so lost trying to figure out exactly what topics would be the most interesting, compelling and captivating. I wanted to write from the heart in a way that I would reach many people and engage with them. After writing four posts about Tarte’s makeup online community, and social platforms like Instagram, I am very happy  with my results and I want  to share my progress and knowledge about social media analytics.

Analytics are tools that facilitated the measurement and evaluation of online campaigns, social media accounts, and other type of online platform. These tools are applied by not only businesses but average users to determine the effectivity of engagement, content, and reach on their social platforms. Properly using analytics would increase the way people can connect with their audience, since it is possible to analyze their online efforts and determine the number of audience growth, account traffic and visits each day. Also by understanding the most important key performance indicators for each account, a user can realized about futile attempts to meet his or her goals. Users can also find new strategies based on successful material that shows approval from the audience. In a way analytics reflect the numbers and statistics of audience interaction. Analytics can also draw awareness about meeting objectives and evaluating current tactics to communicate a message.

Many social media platforms like WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter offer their own statistics and ways to measure performance. Google Analytics is way to measure online presence, websites and content besides analyzing social media accounts.

The picture below shows the stats from my WordPress blog. By clicking on the year option, I decided to evaluate my progress so far. The chart and table shows that my blog had 40 views, 26 visitors, 22 likes, and 2 comments. By interpreting those numbers, I can see that my posts were somehow effective in engaging with other bloggers. I only had 2 comments that also represent the impressions and ways in which people felt about my posts. I did not include many tags in my posts and that might be one reason why I didn’t reach as many people as I expected. I did meet my goal of engaging with people, but I would have liked to engage with more visitors and have more views.

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Analytics can be powerful tools once people know how to use them to improve their online presence. It is not about the numbers, but what they represent and how they change the way people interact with the public.

 

Dreaming about #kissandmakeup

Posted on by That Blonde with the phone

As a makeup enthusiast, I love to find cosmetics products that do not only make me feel beautiful but triggers a positive change in me. As a responsible consumer, I like finding out about brands that support and encourage corporate social responsibility and promote good citizenship values. There is no secret that I have previously talked about Tarte and its exceptional social media campaign #tartecosmetics. This time, I will focus on another Tarte’s social media campaign that has caught the attention of many Instagram users.

The #kissandmakeup is the latest Tarte’s Instagram campaign that is inspiring not only tartelettes but makeup enthusiasts to join in to stop cyber-bullying. The campaign focuses on bringing awareness to this problematic issue that affect the whole entire cyber-community. Tarte is aware that cyber-bullying highly damages women’s self-esteem and that currently affects its Instagram community. As it’s described by Tarte’s CEO, “Cyber-bullying is all too common on social media. 88% of teens witness cyberbullying every day. We want to use our social platform to encourage our fans to spread positivity rather than judge someone’s appearance which is why this initiative is so important to us” (Tarte cosmetics Partner with ByStander Revolution to Help Stop Cyber-bullying, 2016). As a way to put an end to this issue and ensure a hateful free place to its online community, Tarte has partner up with the Bystander Revolution organization to promote positive comments instead of negative remarks.

The #kissandmakeup campaign encourages women to post selfies that show a kiss stain on their hand covering their mouth. Also they need to use the #kissandmakeup, tag a friend and complement her or him. They also need to tag @tartecosmtics, and @bystanderrevolution. Some pictures will be featured on Tarte’s Instagram account.

It is most likely that this campaign targets the following audience’s demographics and psychographics:

Demographics:

  • Young women ages 16-25.
  • Not married.
  • High schoolers and college undergraduates.
  • Tartelettes, Tarte’s Instagram followers.
  • Makeup consumers.
  • Makeup artists, enthusiasts, regular consumer.
  • Users part of  Instagram makeup communities.

Psychographics:

  • Heavy social media users.
  • Instagram users that have experienced cyber-bullying.
  • Women that experienced bullying in the real world.
  • Women interested on makeup and photography.
  • Succeeders with high work ethic and support stability.
  • Young Aspirers oriented to image an appearance.

As a way to effectively communicate the message, Tarte features the posts of celebrities, makeup artists and well known Instagram makeup personalities. These individuals help to spread and promote the message among their followers. As seen below, Tarte reposted a picture of the famously actress Melissa Joan Hart participating in the #kissandmakeup.

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(A screenshot from tartecosmetic’s Instagram account)

The #kissandmakeup does a great job motiving women to use their prior knowledge and experience on cyber-bullying to speak up and participate in the campaign. The success of the campaign is also attributed to use of Instagram as a media platform to reach out its target audience. The great use of Tarte’s social media presence and its 3.4 million followers to solve this issue, conveys the interest of the company on meeting societal expectations.

 

References:

Tarte Cosmetics Partners with ByStander Revolution to Help Stop Cyber-Bullying. (2016,February 11). PR Newswire. Retrieved from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tarte-cosmetics-partners-with-bystander-revolution-to-help-stop-cyber-bullying-300218594.html

 

 

 

Dreaming of #tartecosmetics

Posted on by That Blonde with the phone

tarteeee

(A screenshot from tartecosmetic’s Instagram account)

Two months ago, I wrote about Tarte, the cosmetics company, and its Instagram/Twitter campaign. The #tartecosmetics, as it is known by many Instagram users, has been not only a revolutionary step for the company to communicate in a personal level with its costumers but to celebrate its philosophy of achieving a real healthy beautiful look. By featuring posts of average women, Tarte has increased its followers on Instagram to 3.5 million; the campaign has captured the attention of many potential clients. The average women’s testimonials, the product information, the makeup tutorials and the creative yet playful ways in which each post is displayed, are just a few of the strategies used in this campaign.

Tarte is well aware of the perks of using Instagram and Twitter accounts as channels to convey its message across its target audience. Many women go on these social media platforms looking for information about makeup products and guides that help them achieve a beautiful look. By choosing to focus on the company’s social network, Tarte’s campaign attempts to influence these women and capture their attention by providing beauty tips and testimonials. The campaign was designed to target makeup consumers that are looking for high quality, performance and healthy cosmetic products. It also focuses on a young generation of millennials that are interested in learning about Tarte while socializing and connecting with other people.

Also Tarte’s social media campaign address many other goals and objectives that are important for the company to increase production and maximize profits. By fully understanding its public and generating content that appeal to the target audience, the #tartecosmetics campaign generates attention and creates an influential positon in the makeup community. The campaign also focuses to meet the following goals:

  1. Increase brand awareness by featuring testimonials
  2. Establish a personal connections with costumers
  3. Increase users, followers, clientele
  4. Advertise and promote cosmetic products.
  5. Achieve credibility by featuring make up experts
  6. Promote beauty among average women
  7. Strengthen relationships with stakeholders

In order to examine if this is campaign is as successful as the company wants it to be, a series of research should be conducted. Tarte can examine the number of current followers in the Instagram and Twitter accounts and compare it to the amount of followers it had before the #tartecosmetics campaign. Also, Tarte can survey the costumers that purchase products online by asking them how they heard about the product and  the reason why they decided to buy it. The survey can have multiple options including the social media campaign reference. This research strategy will help to measure the level of engagement that it is achieve by the campaign. Counting the posts with the hashtag #tartecosmetics can be another strategy to measure and see the level of brand awareness among social media users.

Tarte is a cosmetics company that is interested in positioning and gaining the trust of its clientele. By providing not only natural products but making an effort to establish a two way communication system, Tarte is reflecting a level of great social media and corporate social responsibility strategies.

 

Dreaming about Instagram

Posted on by That Blonde with the phone

As a young adult, having a strong social media presence is as important for my social life as for my professional career. There are many social media applications that are used by people to express their thoughts and share ideas with friends and colleagues. Instagram is one of the most common social media platforms in which users engage with each other by sharing pictures and videos. As an incentive to join Instagram, the Instagram statistics report reveals that Instagram has “400 million monthly active users” (Smith, 2016). But how exactly did Instagram become such a sensation among people? It all started when it was launched in 2010 as a simple iOS app to share modified pictures with cool filters. Its popularity increased even more by releasing adaptations to Androids and when Facebook bought it in 2012. After that, Instagram accounts were enabled to link to existing Facebook profiles, increasing the number of users. A few recent modifications include video feature of only 15 seconds length, and direct messaging to a specific user. It is important to know that, “Instagram is all about visual sharing. Every user profile has a “Followers” and “Following” count, representing how many people they follow and how many other users are follow them” (Moreau, 2015).

Did You Know?

Instagram has being link with many other websites and applications.  In fact, “Social media management platform HootSuite also recently announced the addition of Instagram to its app directory. This gives HootSuite users access to almost all of Instagram’s features, which include searching, viewing and liking content, adding comments and sharing photos to other social platforms” (Au, 2012).

Basic Steps:

In order to connect with people through Instagram the following aspects are required:

1.An account needs to be created, either with a person’s Facebook account or with his/her email.
2.Select an username and set up a password
3.Add a profile with your interests and information (optional)
4.Link another accounts (Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr) to connect with contacts and share the same pictures in other social media platforms.
5.Depending on individual preferences, set account to private this way pictures can only be seen by followers and not public
6.Double tap on images to like them, or click on the heart shape symbol under the picture
7.Follow people with common interests; some users have set their account to private mode, so in order to follow them a request must be sent.
8.Post picture by selecting the desired image, modify it (apply filter, crop it, change the brightness, saturation, adjust color) and add a caption.
9.Add Hashtags # to pictures so more people will see it.
10.Other users can be tagged on pictures by adding @ and the username. Ex. @sarahluciah.
11.The location can be added as well in the picture.
Other Uses

Instagram is also a great channel for small businesses and companies to interact with their public and expose their products. Brands and businesses can benefit by sharing pictures of products in creative ways that motivate their customer to leave comments and thoughts. An Instagram account can also be used as a way to humanize a business and establish a two way communication with stakeholders. Interesting post strategies like pictures of the behind scenes from a campaign, the before and after the use of the product, exclusive information about promotions and events, sneak peaks of upcoming products, services and locations, capture the attention of customers and potential ones. An example of this is seen in the Mango post of equipment behind the scenes of a photoshoot.

mango 2

Another example of attempting to public engagement by Mango is seen just by posting a picture of their products.

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info

 

 

Instagram can be used in many ways. From an communication strategy applied by a business to a way to interact with friends and family, this media platform will continue increasing as many people discover their practical and easy way to express ideas through pictures.

 

References

Moreau, E. (2015, August 3). What Is Instagram. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://webtrends.about.com/od/prof4/a/What-Is-Instagram-Wiki.htm

 

Smith, C. (2016, January 19). By The Numbers: 160+ Interesting Instagram Statistics (January 2016). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/important-instagram-stats/

 

Au, V. (2012, October 3). 10 Creative Ways to Use Instagram for Busniess. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram/

Dreaming of a Beautiful Self

Posted on by That Blonde with the phone

There is no secret that every woman wants to be beautiful. Makeup is one of the answers to enhance physical features to feel beautiful. I personally have tried so many cosmetics products and some of them are not as efficient as advertised and they damage my skin. While looking for a mascara for sensitive eyes, I came across with the cosmetics brand Tarte.

Tarte is one of the most precious cosmetics companies in the United States. Its founder and current CEO, Maureen Keller, created cosmetic products that capture the glamour and green attempts to achieve the perfect look with healthy options. Tarte cosmetics are cruelty-free. The company focuses on outstanding formulas that will make waterproof mascara, powder foundation and other products last up to 12 hours. Tarte contributes and supports environmental protection of the Rainforest. Its philosophy promotes real results for women.

Tarte launched a social media campaign inviting costumers to upload pictures of themselves wearing Tarte make up, and their favorite Tarte cosmetic products on Instagram or Twitter. By using the hashtag #tartecosmetics, Tartelettes, the individuals that use Tarte cosmetics, share their personal and unique Tarte experience with the world. Some of the posts will actual be featured on the official Tarte Instagram, Twitter accounts and its official website. These posts work as a practical way to spread the word about Tarte cosmetics using the Tartelettes’ social network. Also, this campaign uses social media platforms to not only establish a personal relationship between the company and its customers but to display testimonials of real women using Tarte in unique, creative ways.

disney tarte

(A screenshot from tartecosmetics’ Instagram account)

As an active Instagram user, I currently follow Tarte on Instagram, and I have noticed that the company incorporates the concepts of ethos and logos in its successful persuasive messaging strategy. These concepts are used as a way to establish credibility by featuring posts of well-known Instagram beauty experts like @Makeupbydenise. Denise posts pictures and video tutorials to show how to apply makeup and the products she uses to achieve beautiful looks.

 

denismakeup

(A screenshot from tartecosmetics’ Instagram account)

The Tarte campaign’s content emphasizes the Interactive two way conversation between the average costumers and Tarte cosmetics. By only choosing pictures in which Tarte cosmetics are highlighted in some way, Tarte not only captures the attention of the Instagram and Twitter users but focuses its content topic to promote beauty while using healthy products. The Campaign applies the social media content creation concept to increase its users and clientele by posting the pictures of the Tartelettes in its social platforms. The posts on Instagram are effective in conveying that Tarte relates to the average women.

meow(A screenshot from tartecosmetics’ Instagram account)

Tarte is definitely a cosmetics company that is interested in finding innovative ways to strengthen its relationships with its shareholders through different channels. I personally think this campaign is effective since it shows posts of regular women. It is not necessary to be a model or an expert to be featured in Tarte’s social network. I also think it’s a great way to connect and expand my network by interacting with fellow makeup lovers and enthusiasts. By using social media, Tarte also informs costumers about new products and how to apply them to achieve a healthy beautiful look.