Three Golden Rules for Productivity

Life is… busy. There are days spent where you are undeniably active, yet the word active (or even the word busy) does not mean productive.  Have you ever reflected back to your day when you’ve finally sat down to take a breath and felt as if you struggled to make it to that moment? You maybe felt sluggish and unmotivated; simply going through the motions or possibly the day was absolute chaos yet still missed the productive mark.

Your dreams will start to feel dauntingly out of reach unless you start to purposefully carve out time to set up your day, or week, for success. Motivation will fleet. Time will start to slip away.

“You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” –Harold Hill

How do you move forward? How do we simplify and get back to fundamentals?

As much as I do not want to credit my best days (we will define best days as highly productive and fulfilling) to a simple routine (because I find routines robotic and redundant) there is a striking contrast in mood, productivity, happiness, and overall well being between the days following the routine and the days where the routine was pushed to the side and abandoned.  

I challenge you to implement this short routine for one week and to take note how your demeanor changes and how productive you feel at the end of each day. Here are the three golden rules to follow:

1. Get up

2. Get active

3. Eat right

Get a full night’s rest:

Sleep is a vital indicator of overall health and well-being. Though research cannot pinpoint an exact amount of sleep needed by people at different ages, the recommended amount windows between 7 and 9 hours.

Almost every morning, almost every day of the week, my alarm goes off at 5:45am and the first thought in my head is ‘No, not yet’ and I hit snooze. I try and hit my target of getting out of bed when my alarm first goes off, but it’s a moving target. And a moving target is hard to hit especially when another hour of sleep sounds so inviting.

Here is a brief list of benefits from a full night’s rest:

- Lower stress
- Increased memory
- Decreased fat and increased muscle mass with exercise
- Increased attention and focus
- Longer life
- Decreased dependence on stimulants like caffeine

If you need more convincing do a quick Google search. Who cares if you wake up at 4:45AM if you just went to bed three hours earlier? You won’t last long.

Once you’re up and standing, make your bed before you do anything else. You’ll be able to check off an accomplishment within moments of starting your day, and once it’s made the temptation of crawling back under the covers will vanish. You wouldn’t want to have to make your bed twice in one morning, would you?

Get Moving:

I know I will love the version of myself that is glowing, sweating, and feeling accomplished with a workout ending before 8AM. Once again, this is another moving target. Reminding yourself how great you’ll feel after the workout is a great motivator to get you out the door.

With another quick Google search you can find that exercise will decrease anxiety, depression, and stress. If you neglect to care for you body, every other aspect of your life will suffer. So whatever your preference is, get your body moving.

Nourish your body:

Food is fuel; it’s really that simple. Limiting your breakfast to a cup of coffee in the morning is not going to do much for your brain, or stomach.

Make an effort to get an adequate amount of protein first thing in the morning.  Protein dense foods keep you full longer and keep blood-sugar levels steady, which prevents spikes in hunger.

Supposedly the magic number is 30g protein for breakfast, so I tend to do my best to get at least over 20g. A classic go to are eggs- each egg has about 6g of protein, and a serving size of cottage cheese has 10g of protein. There are of course plant-based proteins such as legumes, nuts, seeds, and greens. You also always have the common protein shake but I find eating whole foods to be much more satisfying, especially for my taste buds.

A morning routine is absolutely essential in everyone’s life and with repetition there will be tremendous rewards. Positive mornings will not only give you energy boosts but they help you to increase productivity in your daily work.

Achieving goals is a science. If you follow a simple pattern, you can accomplish all of your goals- no matter how big they are.

- Michelle, Marketing Assistant

Should Realtors Target College Students?

As an out-of-state student at the University of Michigan, my family is always looking for ways to save money on my college expenses. Tuition is on the rise, mandatory textbooks can be hundreds of dollars, and flights to the Midwest can double within a week. However, there might be great opportunities to save money that I, along with millions of other college students, have missed out on by paying for room and board at universities. 

According to College Board, room and board fees for the 2016-2017 school year averaged to be roughly $10,440 for both in-state and out-of-state students. I remember the enormous stresses that came with on-campus housing: hoping for a friendly roommate, a location that wasn’t a bus ride away from campus, and one of the dorms that was on the cheaper side. This makes off-campus housing seem to be a less expensive and less stressful option, but unstable monthly rents and utility fees often cause new difficulties to arise. In some housing markets, one of the best choices to make for students living in a college town is to invest in a home, rather than on-campus housing.

This may come as a surprise to some, especially since young Americans have been pushing back home buying until much later in life, decreasing the homeownership rate for the Millennial generation to a new low. However, with the help of parents paying for college tuition, dorm rents could easily be converted into tax-deductible mortgage interest payments on a home. Take a look at the price difference between monthly rent fees and the cost of buying a home on or near by your college campus. There may be more benefits and opportunities for saving than you’re aware of.

Some of the major advantages of buying a home rather than paying rent on a dorm or apartment monthly rents include stability and fixed expenses. With a home, there is no need to worry about relocating to a new place every year, struggling to move all of your belongings, or finding roommates who you can trust to commit to a lease. Apartment and dorm rents often increase year-to-year, but with a home, your monthly mortgage is much more likely to remain stable. Depending on the size of the house, rooms can be rented to other students to bring in more money to put towards the house’s mortgage or other expenses. If the home is smaller, students can take advantage of using it as storage space for long breaks, saving more money on shipping items home or paying for a storage service. Depending on the housing market, there are other financial benefits of owning a house as well, such as tax benefits or appreciation in value.

Furthermore, living in a house as a college students brings other advantages that are not only monetary. Although dorm living can be a fun college experience, there are many more realistic life lessons to be had in living in a home. You can learn about investing in real estate, budgeting finances, and all of the other responsibilities that come with home ownership. This can be fun too. Having the freedom to decorate and furnish a house in your own way and having access to your own kitchen are adventures in themselves.

Whether you’re a student trying to save money on your living situation for next semester, or a realtor who lives nearby a college town, crunch the numbers of monthly rents and home ownership costs and see how they compare. You never know - there might be a housing market for college students you’ve been missing out on!

- Danielle, Marketing Intern

Unique Ways to Showcase Your Property

     Trying to find unique ways to differ yourself from your competitors can be a challenge. Luckily, there are several techniques you can try to showcase your property and set yourself apart. One way to do it is through video. Smartphones can record and upload video with just a few taps. Videos give something that photos can’t: an immersive look behind the scenes.

Snapchat (left) & Instagram (right)

     Snapchat stories have been around for quite some time now, but now there is another option in the sharing stories market- Instagram (you can check out the blog we did previously on these two here). You don’t have to choose between the two if you don’t want to, instead use both and take advantage of the different features they have.

     Snapchat is the veteran when it comes to stories, and with new competitors coming into the market they need to be innovative. Recently they added several new features that could be extremely helpful to real estate agents. Prior to the recent update, you were restricted to a 10 second video, but now you can record up to six videos in a row giving your videos a more seamless look. Another interesting feature is adding a link to your video with the new ‘swipe up’ element. If you are showing off a house in your clip you can add a website with the property details on it and ways to contact you.

     When it comes to Instagram, they have mastered the ability for users to explore within the app through hashtags and locations. When you search either of the two you will be able to see what other people are doing in their posts and stories when they use that specific hashtag or location. For instance, if you use #realestate on a post, you’ll be able to see what others are posting using that same hashtag. The same goes for posting a story and typing a hashtag onto the image or video (the hashtag turns into a clickable link on the photo/video). These features are the same for locations. So when taking a video of the home you’re selling, be sure to put the location on your story with the town you’re in to get people there or anyone looking up that town to see it!

     Both of these companies allow you to show the behind the scenes of what you do and where you are. Say you are in the process of getting a home ready for an open house, you could show it off quickly to your followers. Someone may see that and now go to that open house because they liked something you showed off!

     If there is a park nearby you can virtually bring your followers on a walk and show the neighborhood off. Decide to stop by a popular lunch place near by? Bring them along! All of  these actions will not only humanize you as a real estate agent but also display the home you're selling and what the area has to offer.

     Aside from social media apps, you can also showcase video with one of these flying robots (aka drones). Not everyone has a drone laying around, but if you are looking for something to take your business to the next level this can be that solution. While this technology may seem intimidating to use at first, it's actually quite simple with some practice. With that being said, most people still leave it up to the professionals to use. Before you do explore drone videos, check with your local board to confirm the use of drone footage is allowed in your area.

     The possibilities are endless with this device. You can simply showcase a 360 view of the house, which allows the potential buyer to get a better taste of the home itself before even stepping foot on the property. Then you can go a little further and show the neighborhood the home is located in. This will be able to give the potential homebuyer a good idea of what the area will provide.

     The use of drones isn’t necessary for all the properties you sell. Instead it can be used on the more special properties you sell. For instance, they shouldn't be used on homes with small interiors or ones that are shrouded by trees or other buildings, but there are several instance where drones could come in handy. (Check out this link to see drones in action!)

     Close to the beach and want to show that? This is a perfect instance to use a drone.

     Selling a property with a large and beautiful yard? Use a drone!

     These are just a few of the reasons why drone use may be extremely beneficial to selling properties. You don’t have to run out and splurge on this technology though, instead ask your usual photographer if they have one or are going to invest in a drone. Many photographers are starting to shift into this area of photography or are debating on jumping in. They also have companies that specialize in drone photography, so with a quick search you can see if they have drone companies for this purpose near you!

     The possibilities of video will allow you to further your business and show off your listings in unique ways. All of these options give the prospective buyers a better look and insight on what they will be seeing when they come to your open house or tour and who they will be working with when buying their home.

- Amanda, Marketing Intern

7 Tips To Improve Your Business With Social Media

     Although businesses come in all different shapes and sizes, the size of your team doesn’t define the magnitude of your social media presence. Competition has recently heightened between Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, with the companies constantly releasing new updates and mirroring each other’s features. This has created a sense of pressure for businesses to be as creative and tech-savvy as they possibly can. However, the strategies used in your posts are much more important to their level of engagement than the size of your company or the genius of your marketing employees. Check out these social media tips to improve your business that you might be missing out on!

1. Twitter: Schedule Your Tweets in Advance

     Having a tough time remembering to post a new article, celebrate your company’s one year anniversary, or recognize National Hot Dog Day in 140 characters or less? You can be sure to never miss out on sharing an important Tweet by composing them in advance and scheduling their post time. If you come across Twitter inspiration for a later date, jot it down in a website app such as Hootsuite. Not only does this save you the time and energy of posting on Twitter all in one shot, but it also allows you to collaborate new ideas with your team and choose the optimal posting time for your business.

2. Snapchat: Post Links in Your Stories

     As of this month, Snapchat released a new Paperclip feature that gives users the ability to attach links to their stories. This is a great opportunity for businesses to direct users right to their websites, landing pages, blog posts, or pages with more information about a particular service. By toggling your stories to run on a loop (rather than 10 seconds max), you can increase user interaction with your posts. Check out this article to watch a demo about posting links in Snapchat stories, as well as to learn more about the app’s new features.

3. Facebook: Allow and Encourage Client Check-Ins

     Let people check in to your business page by going to your “About Tab” in Facebook, pressing “Edit Page Info,” and making sure to check off the box below the map to ensure that the option to check in appears on your page. When a Facebook user takes advantage of this feature, they’re showing their friends that they visited your business or are enjoying your service. This is an easy way to advertise your company online while simultaneously increasing your engagement for free.

4. Instagram and Facebook: Use Photo Editing Apps

     Although it can be time-consuming to create your own images, taking advantage of photo editing apps can be a great way to make your photos pop on your different social media sites. According to Webdam, posts with images receive 650% more engagement than posts with only text. To make sure that your images are clear, eye-catching, and are creating a consistent “look” for your company, check out our previous blog post that dives into the details of 5 of the best photo editing apps.

5. Instagram: Get Access to Insights

     If you haven’t already, try switching your Instagram account to a business profile to view the analytics of your account. This feature provides information about the age range, gender, and frequent locations of your followers so you can learn the best ways to tailor your posts to your audience. In addition, Instagram Insights show your top posts right on the app, so you don’t have to go to a third-party site to analyze how users have been liking your content. With this tool, you can easily become the expert on your followers’ taste and activity on Instagram to improve the reach of your posts.

6. Instagram and Snapchat: Post Stories Often

     Stories last for only 24 hours, making them temporary, but the long-lasting effect they can have on your business isn’t. Take advantage of these features and make your company seem more personal by showing users the behind-the-scenes of your typical work day or something new that you’ve been working on. You can add your location, text, or filters to grab the attention of users and increase the number of views per posts. If you’re feeling generous, try offering a special deal on your service to those who reply to your story to increase the engagement with your post and your potential to reach new clients.

7. Twitter, Snapchat, & Facebook: Know How to Use Your #Hashtags

     Post hashtags that are trending, related to your business, or simply creative on all of your social media posts. When used often- but not in excess per post- hashtags can allow you to connect with your current audience and grow your network. You can maintain your branding by using some of the same hashtags consistently, but also should switch up your hashtags to stay up-to-date with the trends and maintain the interest of your users. This helps to engage your followers while simultaneously building your company’s relationship with them.

     Whether you’re just getting started with your company’s social media accounts or already have built up a good following, there are always ways to improve your content and gain a greater presence. And remember: social media is there to generate leads for you, but it won’t convert them for you too. Stay on top of how you manage your leads, get excited for the launch of our CRM (coming soon!), and let us know how these tips work for you!

- Danielle, Marketing Intern

Top 5 Mobile Photo Editing Apps

As the saying goes, “the best camera is the one that’s with you”. Your mobile phone has a camera that is capable of capturing a photo in less than 2 seconds and is almost always with you. In those 2 seconds, you are trying to frame your subject, adjust the lighting, adjust the focus, zoom in or out and most importantly-, find the correct angle (the ladies will agree this is most important). Blink, and the subject has either moved or you didn’t get one of those previous things right. As a parent of a 1-year-old, I know this feeling all too well. Luckily, I’ve taken an online mobile photography class via Skillshare.  For those of you who don’t know what Skillshare is, it is a platform where you can take online courses in any area imaginable (photography, writing, design, cooking, etc.). I’m not going to go into too much detail about how to take a photo, but I do want to transition into the editing process once the photo is taken. How can we make the “not so perfect” picture look like a million bucks?!

Mobile phones are no longer just for talking and texting, the capabilities of these devices continue to grow with each version of a phone. Whether it’s the camera quality, speed, capabilities, or features, companies are bringing it to your mobile phone. If a feature isn’t available for your phone, don’t worry, “there’s an app for that”! I’m going to go over 5 photo editing apps for your mobile phone (in no particular order), which each have different uses that I find helpful in my everyday life, as well as professional life.

1)   TouchRetouch (iOS/Android)

Many apps now offer the ability to remove unwanted elements from a photo. However, TouchRetouch is dedicated solely to this purpose and is one of the easiest and most effective to use.  Using your finger, you can quickly and easily highlight objects (or parts of objects) that you want to remove. The app automatically removes the selection, replacing that area with pixels from the surrounding areas. If you’ve ever found yourself looking back at photos from an open house and wished you had moved that garbage can, this app will be your savior.

2)   VSCO (iOS/Android)

VSCO (pronounced visco) is a popular photo-editing app. While this app also functions as both an app and photo-sharing platform, its collection of filters and user-friendly editing tools is what really makes it stand out. Unlike other apps where the filters can be overpowering and take away from your subject, VSCO’s presets are designed to emulate classic and modern analog films. Many of the filters feature a soft, slightly faded look but all can be adjusted to suit your taste.

3)   Afterlight (iOS/Android)

If you are looking for a photo editing app to give your pictures a little “pop”, you may want to give the app Afterlight a try. This app has a collection of image adjustment tools that allow you to customize textures and light leaks, as well as a blending tool that creates double-exposure photos. Other features include a unique set of frames and borders that can be added to your images. Whether you want to add basic exposure and color adjustments or create your own unique look by combining multiple effects, Afterlight provides a great set of tools within a very user-friendly interface.If you’re looking to be a little more creative with your social posts or photo designs for any marketing materials, this would be great for you. The app is free, however you have the option to purchase and download additional filters, tools, and more. Give it a try!

4)   Canva (iOS/Web)

This online/mobile design platform makes it easy for anyone to create professional graphics quickly, even without a design background. Canva features templates, graphics, fonts and photos for users to design a range of graphics from slideshows, handouts, posters, Instagram photos, Facebook cover photos, Snapchat geofilters and the list goes on. This app is the most simple of them, you just select a template, add your image, change the text and you’re done. If you use the web version you can create your own dimensions and start using templates from scratch.

5)   Lively (iOS)

Last but not least, the Lively app is a little different from the rest. This app isn’t so much for editing or stylizing photos, it’s more about the moment you think you captured but may have just missed. The feature is available for users with an iPhone 6 and above- giving them the ability to take Live Photos, where the camera captures a couple seconds both before and after the shutter button is pressed and strings those frames together to form both a still photo and a GIF. Lively lets you turn those Live Photos into videos or even still photos. In my personal experience with a 1 year old that is always moving, this app helps me share the perfect moment even if I just missed it.

Whether you are brand new to mobile photography or simply looking for a new photo editor app to add to your collection, hopefully this list has given you some inspiration.  It is worth mentioning, no amount of editing can turn a bad photo into a good one, so always start with the best image possible. Test your photo editing skills and try to create an image to share on your social media or other marketing platforms. Feel free to send us over your edited pictures and ask us any questions you have on the apps. You never know, it could change your business!

- Anthony, Marketing Manager

You VS. You

     If you were given the opportunity to race against yourself, would you take it? You’re probably wondering how that would be possible. How can you race against yourself without being cloned? Well, Nike wanted to take the world up on that challenge, and created the first LED running track that allows you to virtually race with yourself (yes, your real self). All you need to do is put a tracking sensor on your shoe, run a lap, and wait to meet your match. The technology designs your own virtual avatar, which then runs the next lap with you, at the speed of your previous lap.

     The competing avatar appears next to you on the walls surrounding the track, giving you the inspiration to keep up, beat your previous time and continue to push yourself. Each time you beat “yourself”, the avatar will then run the next lap at your new best speed. With each lap that you run faster, the avatar gets larger – increasing the desire to keep up.

     Nike created this “Unlimited Stadium” to help athletes better themselves. The goal was to strengthen the athletes’ weaknesses – for example, teaching them proper pace and speed for their abilities. Looking at this project from an outside prospective, it speaks to many other scenarios aside from running.

     What if you could challenge yourself in other ways? If you had something, similar to the Nike Unlimited Stadium, that recreated the you of yesterday, and sat them next to you today – would you work harder? Be more productive? Can you make more follow-ups today than you did yesterday? Think of the goals that you have set for yourself and for your business. Once you accomplish these goals, perhaps your next goals will be a bit harder to achieve and therefore you can continue to push your limits. Your greatest competition is often yourself. So, in the race against “yourself”, who will win?

- Alicia, Marketing Assistant

Technology: Making Smart Homes a Reality

     In the early 1900s, people predicted “electric homes of the future” that included technologies that today we take for granted. These futuristic homes included the television and computer. Now, nearly a century later, these products have not only been invented but advanced much further. While these are devices that we wouldn't typically think of as “smart home” items, they were just a few of the steps it took to get to where we are today.

     Pop culture showed this idea with the Disney film, Smart House in the 1990s. In this movie the house takes the role of an overprotective mother who controls everything that happens. From the food to the chores, the house named PAT had it covered. Of course, things went awry after some time and everything ended up going south with a lockdown in the home.

     Now, lets fast-forward to today’s world - what does a smart home mean? We live in a world where a person’s smartphone can purchase items and communicate with others across the world. Now, we can use these devices to control our homes. Apple recently developed an app, called Home, that allows you to sync up smart home technology products with your smart phone. One of the apps many features is the ability to ask Siri if your house is locked and if you forgot to do so you could have her lock it by just asking.

     Even tech companies that had no prior intent of getting into the area of home products have forged their way in with sell out devices. These products include the Google Home and Amazon Echo. With these products, you just simply ask a question out loud and the product acts as your personal assistant in your home.

     Some products on the market will even learn from you and your actions to predict and control the temperature. With just a tap of a button someone can adjust the temperature of their home before they even get there. This technology can be seen by companies like Nest who pride themselves by saying, “Nest is focused on making simple, human, delightful things. That’s how we’re creating the thoughtful home: A home that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it.”

     The purpose of a smart home is to use technology to easily satisfy all your needs. Its purposes are to make your life simpler and make a difference in your daily activities. Sound appealing? That is why you should try simple with Jarja Media and make your daily life, and organizing your business, a little easier.

     Technology is the way of the future in homes, cars and businesses. Even if a smart home is not what the 90s movie Smart House depicted it to be, technology is playing an important role in making this once futuristic and unlikely idea into a reality. The technology Jarja Media is creating for your business is becoming a reality and will help take your business into the future. Try simple, you’ll like it.

- Amanda, Marketing Intern

A Speedier Today

At Jarja Media, we offer our clients “Marketing At The Speed Of Today,” providing new website creations, a high-tech CRM, and the most effective ways to generate leads. You may be asking yourself, what’s really going on at the speed of today? Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, the world of technology has completely revolutionized. We can work remotely, contact thousands of people in a matter of seconds, and are #hashtagging like we never have before. While the youth has been growing up with this innovation, a majority of us are still learning how to adapt and utilize this “speedier today” to benefit our businesses. In the past decade alone, marketing strategies have shifted to keep up with the increased interconnectedness that advanced technology has created between producers and consumers. Here are some of the ways how.

Social Media

With all of our different social networking websites, businesses have more opportunities to market themselves to consumers. We can post quick videos, pictures, and blurbs to capture people’s attention without losing their interest or bogging them down with too much information.  This makes businesses seem a bit more personal, where users can really get to know companies and see some of their behind-the-scenes work on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.

In addition, social media gives consumers more control to share how they feel about products and services they use. Whether they’re commenting directly on a website or writing reviews on their Facebook, it’s easy for other consumers and competitors to quickly learn about others’ experiences with your company. So be careful- social media can spread reactions about your products or services faster than you’d think.

Advertising is Everywhere

Whether you’re driving past a billboard, scrolling through Facebook, or signing the bottom of a receipt, advertisements are everywhere. Digital marketing experts have estimated that Americans are exposed to about 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day, whether print or online. This can be used as an advantage to our businesses. With so many opportunities to advertise, there are more chances to reach target audiences. Social networks and browser cookies make it simple to market effectively to relevant audiences, based upon demographics, search terms, and purchase history.

Unfortunately, we have to be wary about consumers seeing too many advertisements each day. Advanced technology has created a new phenomenon of “ad blindness,” where the vast number of advertisements has made consumers more accustomed to ignoring them. As a result, we need to be very particular about our marketing strategies. Businesses need to ensure that their campaigns are reaching the right group of people at the right time, or else their efforts could be entirely overlooked.

Because of these changes, people are spending more time and money choosing their marketing employees and strategies than ever before. In 2015, it was estimated that companies would be increasing their marketing budgets roughly 80% over the next few years to stay up-to-date with the speedier today.

It can be overwhelming to manage all of the forms of technology at once. While it may seem time consuming to learn how to most effectively utilize your Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook accounts, these websites are there to be used to our advantage. You can check back to our previous blog post touching on the benefits of Instagram Vs. Snapchat and a few of the ways to use social media to accurately reach your target audience. This has opened new doors for businesses to strengthen their relationships with their consumers, become more creative, and overall enhance the productivity of their marketing campaigns. But don’t worry too much- as the technology of today constantly gets faster, we’re all on the run to keep up with it.

- Danielle, Marketing Intern

Instagram vs. Snapchat - The Endless Battle

There are many difficult choices in life: hot dog or hamburger, cat or dog, pen or pencil, Kendall or Kylie (do you see where we’re going with this?) But, while these choices are tough, there is typically one option that we will choose over another. In the world of ever-changing things, some choices are not so simple to make. Lets take the battle of Snapchat vs. Instagram for example. These two opponents have quickly taken over the social scene and have consumers and companies alike asking, “which one is better?” While you may already have your own personal opinion on the matter, we thought we would share our insight as well.

In the early years of 2011, Snapchat showed its face to the world for the first time. They introduced the idea of disappearing photos to us, and made us just a little less vulnerable to show people the “behind the scenes” moments of our lives. The app also gives you the option to put a filter over your face and become a dog for the day, you know, if you want a break from the human life. Of course, this took the world by storm, and before we knew it Snapchat had grown into the hub for quick social updates – cue Snapchat stories. It may have started out being the place that millennials would go to see what their friends did the night before, but it has now grown to provide consumers with entertainment, political, and world news.

While Snapchat took off with immense success, Instagram was not far behind to follow their lead. In 2016, Instagram launched its own version of “stories” – including many of the same features as its rival. This has led them to grow even more, bringing us to their latest update, Snapchat’s facial recognition filters (sound familiar?) 

Businesses have begun encompassing the features of both platforms and have been trying to master how to use them to their advantage. This seems like a tough job, but understanding the benefits of using one over the other is important. Take Snapchat for example. The user base is mostly millennial (at a whopping 60% of users under 25), meaning that if you business model speaks mostly to that age demographic, focusing on branding through Snapchat would not be a bad call.  Also, the app tends to be used for more “fun” and “unfiltered” content as opposed to pre-planned and designed photos shared in Instagram. In addition, Instagram showcases its “stories” feature based upon who viewers engage with the most on the platform. By showing the stories at the top of the news feed, brands have a higher chance of being viewed by their audience, which is often much larger on Instagram as stories are publically shown by default.

So what's the point? Well, while both platforms help to promote your brand, it’s all about where the eyeballs are. As Instagram continues to release new features, people will continue to be drawn to what is new. While these features may mimic Snapchat, users will still be drawn to check out the newest Instagram features – so why not utilize these and let your brand be what they see?

- Alicia, Marketing Assistant

Think Out of the Box

Last night I watched a documentary series called Abstract that focused on famous designers from all around the world, and all aspects of design. The episode was based on Tinker Hatfield; Nike’s Vice President of design and one of the most influential members of Nike’s success. This episode caught my attention because of my love for sneakers. I don’t consider myself a “sneakerhead*”. I don’t stand in lines for days prior to a release or attend sneaker conventions to trade kicks. I’m just a guy who grew up in an area where what you had on your feet said a lot about you before you even opened your mouth. I was lucky enough to always have a fresh pair of kicks and knew what was in or “hot”. As I get older and look at today’s sneaker culture, it makes me sick! The whole process of using bots to win drawings for the limited release sneakers, all to just throw them up on the web to resell for 2 or 3 times retail price is one of the biggest problems. I can honestly say that I don’t own a pair of sneakers that I have not worn. 

I just had to get that off my chest - now onto the real reason for this post. Hearing Tinker talk about his design process and what went into certain sneakers makes me appreciate the sneakers a little more. His approach in making the Jordan sneakers for Michael Jordan was very involved, not only because MJ was tough to please but he was considering leaving Nike after the Jordan 2. Tinker was tasked with creating the Jordan 3 to try and keep Michael from jumping ship, and with his great listening skills and innovative thinking he was able to create one of the most iconic sneakers to date. Michael's needs, wants and concerns were all addressed in every sneaker which helped keep Nike thriving, Jordan excelling and Tinker's designs evolving. His thought process on designing is “getting out and experiencing life, it gives you a library to translate into new, unique designs”. He “thought further into the future” and his designs reflected that. Take for example his Jordan 15. Jordan had been retired, AGAIN, for over a full season, the shoe fit terrible, the court feel was off, and the design of the non-traditional tongue wasn’t enough to carry the show. Some consider this shoe one of the worst sneakers of all time. For Tinker it was a reflection of what he was going through at that time. He had just lost his mentor and his father, and was ready to move on from sneaker designs. I never owned the 15’s or (wanted to) but I vividly remember when a friend wore them to school I thought to myself, “that is a sneaker I would never wear”. There are a lot of sneakers I would never wear because it’s either not my style or there is too much hype around them. But just like any creative project, each one has a different impact on the viewer.

Think about your favorite song, movie, meal or sneaker. I bet for one person who agrees with you there are ten more who hate it. That doesn’t change how you feel about it, right? Tinker said “as a designer, if people don’t either love or hate your work, you haven’t done that much”. Designers of all levels have affects on people whether they know it or not. Be open to new ideas or thought processes; THINK OUT OF THE BOX! You might just design someone’s next favorite pair of sneakers!

*Sneakerhead:

1. A person who collects limited, rare, OG, or flat out exclusive kicks.
2. A person with background knowledge of certain sneakers.

- Anthony, Marketing Manager