Meme of the moment - Be Like Bill

Unless you have been living under a rock without your  smartphone clawed in your hand, you will have seen at least one Be Like Bill mention on Social Media. Be Like Bill is a passive aggressive stick man doling out internet etiquette one meme at a time.

#BelikeBill pic.twitter.com/NxGhVqgqxl

— Be like Bill (@belikebilI) January 16, 2016

Bill is highly relatable and therefore shareable.  There are things people do on social media, which sometimes irks us.   Bill allows us to say what we want without the blame - see, totes passive aggressive!  "oh, that wasn't about you...you food posting crazy person".....(Seriously though, post your food people, if it makes you happy).

Bill isn't infallible, as these next two show. Which is it Bill? Are you the grammar police or no?

#BeLikeBill pic.twitter.com/Osdj1N7O7g

— Be like Bill (@belikebilI) January 22, 2016

#BeLikeBill pic.twitter.com/dZOffv8V8c

— Be like Bill (@belikebilI) January 28, 2016

If Bill isn't your style, there is also his gal pal Jill and both have their own social media pages.

“@BeLikeJill: #belikejill pic.twitter.com/bQTAnWm3Wy”@kev_rawding

— Jill rawding (@jrawding19) January 20, 2016

I do get a little twitchy whenever I read what a real woman or a real man is supposed to be like.  However, I do like wine.  So rock on Jill.

Because of the format of the stick man and font it is easy to manipulate for anyone's use.  Here, the Police have embraced the meme to share some safety messages:

#BeLikeBill #AustraliaDay have a great one guys 👍🏻🚔🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/xoFjMLFWdN

— WA Police (@WA_Police) January 26, 2016

Rain is forecast for the next few days - if you're out on the roads please #BeLikeBill pic.twitter.com/AK551STcMf

— Police Scotland (@policescotland) January 21, 2016

Then there have been a few companies using Bill to promote their products:

Be smart like Bill,switch to @sprint @marceloclaure @ch117622 #BeLikeBill @Kpalet5 @sprintNEarea @kunletel @b_rez1 pic.twitter.com/eH9m4xeaQu

— SprintBowie (@sprintbowie) January 24, 2016

Lease your next car. Be smart. Be like Bill. #BelikeBill @belikebilI #carlesing https://t.co/s3zygA79lb pic.twitter.com/BD8pDMYsf4

— ContractHire&Leasing (@ContractHire) January 19, 2016

The absolutely best one I have seen though, has to be from Streets Ice Cream!  #winningatcontent

Check out the video on their Facebook at the below link:

Be Like Buffalo Bill

There are also apps and quizzes available online to allow you to create your own version of the meme (though be careful with these as some do pose a security threat to your computer - you can read about that here). 

Ultimately though, the tide has already turned on Bill, so you might see a bit more of this going forward (I swear, stick people just make us mad!):

Be like Uma. Kill Bill. pic.twitter.com/TlMysHLsUi

— Bo_JAH (@mcbojah) January 21, 2016

Be like Uma .. don't be bill .. #BelikeBill pic.twitter.com/2oRj9PYfMU

— Verified ;) (@nattym1979) January 19, 2016

And best of all, this Batman meme (that gets around too), when Bill or Robin just needs a high five to the face:

Be like Batman. ;-) #BeLikeBill pic.twitter.com/Z4lBrvXey1

— Ken Kaminesky (@KenKaminesky) January 28, 2016

Kmedia Ltd is headed by Kym Moore, a writer and Social Media Enthusiast. Visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information. Follow us over at https://www.facebook.com/kmedialtdnz

New Zealand Social Media's April Fool Day Darlings

That's a real pie blended up!

It's April 1st today, and all over the country New Zealand Marketing peeps rejoiced as their carefully crafted April Fool's content was scheduled to hit our newsfeeds.  All those hours of work released for us to see and hopefully have a good laugh at.

Tonight I'm compiling a list of the ones I liked the most from the morning madness.

First up in the food category has to be I Love Pies and their awful looking mince and cheese smoothie.  I mean, I guess if you heated it and ate it as soup, it wouldn't be too bad...but still nicely done to them!  You can see the whole post here

Tip Top's Foraging Range

Second up is Tip Top Ice Cream, who's new Fruju ice blocks looked like they would hit the pavement faster than hitting the spot.  Kale and Coconut was not too far away from believable but the Cauliflower and Walnut one sounded and looked revolting.  You can see the posts here and here

Pic's Really Good Peanut Butter offered up a double lidded glass jar, so you can always get to the last of the Pic's.  Genius!  You can read more here

And while we are on breakfast spreads - Boundary Road Brewery came up with their own answer to Marmite - a Pilsener Lager Yeast Spread.  That might have been a bit of a winner methinks.


While we are on breweries Mac's beer came up with a bottle you open from the bottom, so it has a more "wine glass" feel.  I can't see how that would go wrong.  Meanwhile Good George came up with a drone for local beer delivery - where do we sign up fellas?

Pak n Save Supermarket got in the spirit of April Fool's as well.  Introducing a new Pak n Shave service where you can buy food and get a hair cut too.  I must admit though, that when I read "Get the chop while you shop" my mind went elsewhere.  Maybe a thought for next year guys!

Well it was super fun watching my newsfeed this morning and I hope you enjoyed reading along.  Did you see these ones?  Did you see anything that I haven't covered here?  Comment below! 

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information. Follow us over at https://www.facebook.com/kmedialtdnz

How do I get rid of comments and edit in Instagram?

Back in November Instagram announced a whole bunch of updates to their app, but the one that got me fist pumping had to be the edit caption option. It was always a painful exercise having to delete a post and re-do it just to fix a typo:

http://blog.instagram.com/…/1…/discovery-and-caption-editing

In the last few weeks I have noticed a lot of comments on pictures here and there, that could be easily deleted or edited.  However, editing Instagram is not always as intuitive for users as you might hope.  So for all those learning to use Instagram, I wanted to document a few more hints and tips.

Editing Your Caption

Once your picture has posted, take a look at it.  In the bottom right there is a menu button (looks like three vertical dots).  If you tap the button then you get options.  To Edit tap the word Edit.  This will take you into the text box and give you the ability to edit it and re-save the photo post.

Editing Your Own Comments

If you post something and it's not quite right, you don't get an edit option!  However, there is a work around.  Tap the speech bubble button as if you are going to comment.  Then tap on the comment you want to edit.  A menu will pop up.  Select copy text, and you should receive a message to say it has copied.  Then tap the comment again, and select delete this time.  You can then paste the copied text into the comment box by holding your finger on the text box.  It will ask you if you want to paste.  Paste your text in and edit as required.

Delete Spammy Messages From Your Photos

It happens to the best of us.  Post something up in a public forum and suddenly you are being urged to "hurry hurry hurry! F4F" and the like.  Some random comments are fine, and don't seem out of place on the image.  But if you get a comment on a photo that makes you uncomfortable then you can delete the comment.  Like editing your own comments, tap the speech bubble button, select the comment you want gone and then tap delete on the menu that pops up.

Hope these tips help you keep your photos and comments error free.  Thanks for reading along.

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, follow us over at https://www.facebook.com/kmedialtdnz

September 2014 Instagram Challenge

Suddenly September and Spring is in the air. Christmas is on my mind, hence the delay in getting this blog out!    In fact September is sliding by before my very eyes.  Nevermind, it's definitely time for some Instagram fun.

  And so as always, a new month brings a new Instagram challenge.  Thanks to all those that participated last month. 

Here is the September challenge:

I clearly had summer on my mind when I selected these ones! 

It's another 7 day photo challenge, and a fun networking opportunity for you and your business.  Join in, do one during the month or all seven - whatever suits you best.  Think of it as a fun way to increase the content that you are sharing on your Instagram channel.  Taking part will give your customers a behind the scenes look at your business' fun side.  

I'll be checking in on all our participants and I will be sharing any note-worthy entries month-to-month as well.  So look out for those updates too.

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information. Follow us over at https://www.facebook.com/kmedialtdnz

How Often is too Often?

Getting the balance right on posts to social media assets is something every business wants.  You want to post often enough to be relevant and useful, but not so often that your followers unfollow you or mute your content.  But how do you know what the balance should be?

When you are first starting out, it will be quite difficult to gauge from your own social media assets what your approach should be.  There simply won't be enough data for you to make a good decision about your approach from your own followers.  However, you can do something:

Competitor Analysis

Have a look at other similar but more established business pages.  When are they posting?  How often are they posting?  What is the level of engagement from their followers?  From this you can determine when it might suit your audience to see your posts and how often people want to hear from you.

Ask your followers

Even if your fan base is small, you can ask a question and then see what the response is.  Ask something fun like "Are you seeing this post on a phone, tablet or laptop?"  or "How addicted to social media are you?  How often do you check per day?"  Post questions like this at various times in the day to see what the reach is like and how many people respond.  Answers to these questions will give you some insight into your potential customers while gauging overall interactions.

Be aware that while some businesses might flood newsfeeds with sales posts and calls to action, followers have the ability to mute or unfollow businesses that become a nuisance or upset the balance of business and fun on social media. 

Calendar and Schedule

Once you have determined a schedule of content that should work for your business, get gathering and scheduling those posts either on a calendar or directly into the asset if it allows that functionality.  On Facebook, for example, you can schedule for weeks in advance.  It means you then only need to add ad-hoc posts when you want to comment on current affairs that you couldn't account for.

Revisit

Every quarter, I recommend a revisit to your approach.  Make sure that what you are doing is actually yielding you the results you were after.  If it's not working, then look at your page statistics again and determine if there has been a shift in when people are online or engaging.  As your fan base grows, you will find this shift happens quite naturally, especially if your initial fan base was not made up entirely of your ideal customer.   Refocusing your efforts regularly means that you don't end up being left behind.

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information. Follow us over at https://www.facebook.com/kmedialtdnz

August 2014 Instagram Challenge

Hello August!  I'm actually starting to feel a little panicky about how quickly this year is sliding by.  Today it was warm enough that it felt like Spring - I even lay outside for some time taking in the sunshine.  Unheard of, mid-winter.

As always, a new month brings a new Instagram challenge.  Thanks to all those that participated last month.  We had some really neat shares. My favourite was under #plants - which looked a lot like how gardening turns out for me most of the time (fail).

Here is the August challenge:

Big excuse for a bit of design work, but bigger excuse to go and buy or bake cupcakes.  August is all #win. 

It's another 7 day photo challenge, and a fun networking opportunity for you and your business.  Join in, do one during the month or all seven - whatever suits you best.  Think of it as a fun way to increase the content that you are sharing on your Instagram channel.  Taking part will give your customers a behind the scenes look at your business' fun side.  

I'll be checking in on all our participants and I will be sharing any note-worthy entries month-to-month as well.  So look out for those updates too.

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information. Follow us over at https://www.facebook.com/kmedialtdnz

Keep Calm & Create Content

The Keep Calm trend is a bit on the old side, but people are still using the terminology as well as the content pictures to comment on all aspects of social media and general life.  My go-to when wanting to create a Keep Calm poster is the Keep Calm-o-Matic

At Keep Calm-o-Matic, you get a selection of icons to use, fonts, and backgrounds.  You can search for posters that suit your requirements, or create your own to share.  You can even upload your own images to be used as backgrounds.  That is how I made my Queen's Birthday one:

I used an image I use on my website, which incorporates my brand colours.  Getting the wording right, and to sit nicely took a little while.  However, I love the font colour and the icon against The KMedia pink and orange. 

Remember that creating your own content is a great way to help you increase social media engagement.  It can be relatively easy when you use tools like this one.  It's free to use and you don't have to sign up if you don't wish to.  Content is still King (or Queen) when it comes to increasing engagement across all social media channels.  So Calm Keep and Create Content! 

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information.