Moran Media

Graphic Design and Instruction

twitter

Marketing Monday: make shared blog posts look good

by

FB

 

When you post to your blog, you can share to facebook, twitter, google plus, and other outlets there are small previews that show up on social media (as seen in the images above).  Every few cycles it seems like things change, but for now, this is how posts on facebook look.  You will notice that the posting on the left looks much more attractive, something you will want to click on more than the one on the right. (And if your post doesn’t have an image, the odds of people clicking it are pretty slim, people like pictures over just text). Screen shot 2014-11-18 at 8.17.15 PM

Screen shot 2014-11-18 at 8.15.35 PMHow can you make facebook links look pretty like this?

I have discovered through trial and error that what you need to do is when you add an image to your blog post* you need to post the full size image, not the small or medium image. (as seen in the image to the left) This works best with images over 600 or 800 pixels in width.  Using the featured image option in wordpress also helps. (As you can see from the image on the right.)

*Assuming you are using a wordpress install as your blogging platform which is what I recommend to all of my customers.  If I built a website with blogging enabled, then it is built upon the wordpress software.

You can always change the image size once you posted into the blog post by clicking on the pencil icon on your image and typing in the size you want, as seen below.

Screen shot 2014-11-18 at 8.38.39 PMThis also works on tumblr and google plus, look below for the examples of both using the medium and the full size image formats. Thankfully twitter just handles all images the same way.

google tumblr

 

Any questions?  

Marketing Monday: Oreo’s ad campaign

by

Welcome to the first installment of Marketing Monday, my weekly column on all things graphics, design, marketing, and anything else related.  Each week I will focus on something I think is clever or just something I think designers and customers need to keep in mind.

This week I want to talk about Oreo’s social media campaign and their new Ad ascetics.  I’m sure you’ve seen a picture of an Oreo similatr to the one posted here.  It’s clean, simple, a white background with the cookie transformed into a symbol for an idea, in this case it’s the earth (north america centric) to celebrate the first flight around the world on September 28th.  The look of the ad is eye-catching, since an Oreo cookie is iconic they are using their product as the main focus.  It’s clever seeing the orea as different symbols.

The company hit a bit of controversy with their Pride ad on June 25th, an Oreo cookie with seven layers of creme, all layers a different color of the rainbow to celebrate Pride Day.  Thanks to that controversy Oreo’s facebook page has earned 27 million likes and those 27 million people get a daily image of an Oreo in a different symbol.

People are entertained by the concept, this supports the concept of the Advertising Contract often mentioned on the Age of Persuasion, a CBC radio show dedicated to advertising history.  The Advertising Contract is an implied agreement between the consumer and the marketer that in exchange for being exposed to ads, you the consumer must be entertained.  It’s an implied contract that began in the 20’s (listen to the linked episode for the full story) and is often forgotten today.  Thanks to TiVo, DVR, PVR, Video on Demand, Music on Demand, Netflix, and many other sources of media that limit advertising, the consumer can skip all the ads they want.  To get people to pay attention to your ads, you need to entertain them, you need to show them something special.  Oreo is doing this, oreo is in 27 million people’s daily lives thanks to their daily ad campaign that is hitting every area of interest.

I recommend you take a look at Oreo’s facebook page, check out their website The Daily Twist, see them on Twitter, They hit up tumblr, they are even on Pintrest, they are everywhere, entertaining people and encouraging them to share their ads.  We as consumers are doing this, because we have a bit of nostalgia for the cookie, but more because the cookie is pushing our favorite areas of interest.

How can you use the example of Oreo’s campaign in your social media campaign?  How can this be used by smaller companies and organizations?  Keep them entertained.  Leave your suggestions in the comments section.