My Time at Crush Brands

Personal branding happens with every post we ever make. No need to bullshit or exaggerate to our followers because transparency is key. We have to give our followers the real deal because we want people to know that we’re relatable, funny, and most importantly ahead of the curve! As our summer intern is getting ready to leave Crush Brands, she reflects on what this industry has taught her.

 You won’t get followers from sitting around and doing nothing:

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Unless you’re famous AF, you have to be proactive to get more followers! Post at smart times, take aesthetically pleasing pictures, and make people WANT to follow you for being something new in a sea of unending content. Take advantage of peak times to get the maximum amount of exposure. Managing social media accounts is a 24/7 job, so be on the lookout for the next greatest post—always.

Connect with important people:

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Get word out that you and your brand are important. It’s crucial to connect with your audience but also get yourself recognized by influencers. Relationship building is crucial, and Crush Brands works hard to achieve this. We’re always trying to stay up-to-date with what’s trending and connect with other like-minded accounts. Get your brand onto people’s radar.

Don’t post the boring because nobody cares:

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Be creative. Who wants to follow an account that posts the same content daily or posts information that puts us all to sleep?? Not us! One tip that we have is to see what competitors are doing and if it’s working for them or not. Get inspired by all that is online. Trending topics change daily, so keep up!

Did you know Facebook, Insta, and Snapchat were different??

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As a fan, why would you follow you on Facebook and Twitter if you were going to see the same content on both? Post different content on each platform because your users expect different content on each site. Each social media is its own channel. Its imperative for social media managers to take into consideration the audience, the style, the tone, and the successes (or epic failures) of previously posted content on each channel INDIVIDUALLY. 

Make Something from Nothing:

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Content curation is creating something meaningful out of all of the information on the Internet. This may sound simple, but it is definitely not. Unless your salad has diamond encrusted salad dressing that is also fat-free, don’t share an update about it. You’re trying to break through all of the social media noise, so make your content stand out. You have to discover new exciting information that not many people are aware of yet but would be interested in hearing about.

Videos are never going out of style:

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Have you noticed all of the videos on your Facebook newsfeed? You want to keep scrolling down the newsfeed, but for some reason you always end up watching video posts. From Buzzfeed’s Tasty videos to current events, videos dominate in the social media industry. If you see a video you like, you can recreate it for your brand! Make the products or message relevant to your business, but be sure to maintain the quality. The goal is not plagiarism but rather inspiration. Be open to be inspired. 

Make each follower feel like 1 in a million:

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With apps like Snapchat, Facebook Messenger etc., users have more of an opportunity to personalize their online presence. Yes, you want as many followers as possible, but you also want to have meaningful connections with each user. In the case of a celebrity, athlete, or person of high public interest, the real leverage comes from interaction with fans not from the number of followers. The interactions have to be real. Be transparent because the more relatable, the better.

Lighting and Editing are our best friends:

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FaceTune is great for the amateur editor but having a team capable of creating flawless Photoshop pictures is really important. We want our clients to be pleased with the results so creating the best possible lighting is essential. One of the most helpful lighting accessories has to be our ring light. It’s impossible to look bad in front of this! We work hard to make photo editing look unbelievably natural.

Got a secret, can you keep it?

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We work for many high-profile celebrities and athletes, which requires a confidentiality agreement. This clientele requires flawless editing and personalized posts. We have to always consider their privacy and post strategically. Their social media accounts are highly scrutinized, so every word counts on our end and every warped image from poor photo editing gets them in trouble!

Never too many #Hashtags

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Hashtags are absolutely crucial on social media, but are you using them correctly? We’re always after the greatest visibility without oversaturation. We never want to use too many hashtags or hashtags that are not completely relevant to our posts. To capture the audience we want, we MUST do our due diligence on strong and searchable hashtags.

 

 

Our advice:

What’s really worthy of a retweet or a share? You don’t want to make the mistake of retweeting or following an account that puts bad content out on the Internet. See if you agree with other content they post and if they are a reputable account. When’s the best time to post to social media? What’s the ideal amount of characters per post? These are just a few of the burning questions social media managers have to constantly assess and answer. Managing social media accounts is much more complicated than most people would imagine. To be successful, start by figuring out who your audience is and what your brand account is all about.

How to add a contact button on Instagram

Listen up business Instagram users! We’ve got the scoop on an incredibly useful new Instagram tool. But, in order to add this feature you have to have a business page. Allow people to contact you with the click of one button. And here’s how:FullSizeRender-1

1. Go into settings, click on switch to business profile. The image below will pop up for you to connect an Instagram account to Facebook.IMG_0072

2. The app will take you into Facebook, click on the ‘Page’ you want to connect. For us, we connected Crush Brands Facebook page and Instagram account. Next, you’ll want to enter in the information you want available on your Insta page. You can add a contact e-mail, phone number, and the location of your business. Click ‘done’ and you’ll be back on your updated business Instagram profile.

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As you can now see, there’s a contact button, which is super convenient for followers!

3. In case you didn’t know, here’s how you can check out your insights on Instagram. See how many impressions you have, what gender predominantly looks at your page, the average age range, location of your likers and more!

4. Now right from the Instagram app, you can get directions, call or e-mail us instead of following a link to our website.

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Expectations vs. Reality

Are you a whore for the likes? Well, we are.

Where would we be if we didn’t #DoItForTheGram?

The “We ❤ NYC” Shot

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What we’re trying to portray: Just roaming the streets during our lunch break! We love spending our free time on the calm NYC streets and avenues wandering around the fabulous city surrounded by beautiful tall buildings. Working in the city is so great. No need for subways or taxis; we’ll walk everywhere! #EmpireStateofMind

What’s really going on: Holy sh*t! These angry cab drivers seriously need to watch out. And yes, we chose to stop walking across the four-lane street so we could get this artsy AF Instagram shot, but so worth it because it will get so many likes. Do we care that everyone was yelling at us to get out of the way? No. It only took our entire lunch break to get the perfect angle—not too bad!

 

The “Did We or Didn’t We Eat That” Shot?

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What we’re trying to portray: Look at how cool our dessert looks OMG. We’re so trendy by posting this on Insta and who cares if it’s swimsuit season. #NoRegrets

What’s actually going on: Let’s be clear here: the cotton candy colors make the picture great but none of us actually ate it. You know we’re a social media company; we’re all about aesthetics. It took an hour for us to order because the restaurant was so crowded but still worth it. We found a clean black wall to take the pic and used our ring light to make this picture on point, which it totally is.

 

The “Too Cool” for a Selfie, Selfie

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What we’re trying to portray: Living the dream, looking amazing, and hanging out on the beach for sunset. Check out how good her collarbones look! Oh and the hair? All natural and flawless!! Thank you beach breeze!

What’s actually going on: The sun was setting, and the lighting was amazing. But, what you don’t see is how trashy this beach is. Someone should really clean up all of the seaweed and empty beer bottles. Best part of this photo is that you can’t see her wet hair/no makeup look. Appearance is everything and we captured as much as we could. You really thought we cut off her face to be artsy? Ha.

 

The Productivity Shot

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What we’re trying to portray: The sunrise is so calming. We love starting our day with a Starbucks skinny vanilla latte w/ 2 Splenda and fresh fruit. There’s nothing better than getting a head start on e-mails at the crack of dawn right before yoga. Namaste!

What’s actually going on: Ooh I hope someone brought donuts today….

 

The Sand-y/Summer-y Shot

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What we’re trying to portray: #BeachDay #BeachCasual! No complaints from the beach! Such a relaxing day laying out with a piña colada.

What’s actually going on: You don’t understand how hard it was to pose like this. Try to replicate it—we dare you. We saw this on Pinterest and tried to copy it, but it took forever. Nobody suns in a superman position as they drink a piña colada. Who even wears this much jewelry to a beach? Nobody. The messed up tan lines are worth this shot!

 

The Clean Eating Shot

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What we’re trying to portray: Healthy food and the gym are two of our fave things! These greens taste amazing and can energize us for a long day at work. Plating is essential, and if this industry doesn’t work out we could always become a catering company. Follow us for delicious looking food! We’ll post the recipes in our bio.

 

What’s actually going on: Come on, this was absolute shit. Who could honestly get full off of this? We’d be hungry within 10 minutes. And, who has the time to cut their vegetables that perfectly? Time for takeout.

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We all are guilty of posing, editing, or enhancing our pictures. We aren’t judging you! It takes some serious skill to make your real life look flawless and awesome. Just remember: try to not get caught!