This being said, a lot of brands don’t invest time or effort in ‘branding’ their presentation templates. Whatever the reasons may be for doing so, here are some compelling reasons why having a branded PowerPoint template is a must.

1. PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD

When making presentations to clients, investors and key business stakeholders; it is so important to make a good impression and convey the right message about your brand. Your brand message isn’t just what you speak about your brand. It compromises of so much more than that – your logo, your business card, your presentation, your product, your service, your marketing collateral, your digital presence, etc. Your brand voice must be clear, unique, strong and consistent. Having a PowerPoint template that is consistent with your brand voice will ‘create giant impact’ on your audience.

2. BE CONSISTENT WITH YOUR COMMUNICATION  

A branded PowerPoint template can be shared across your organisation so that any employee who needs to make a presentation uses the template and your communication across organisation is consistent. This ensures that prospects aren’t jeopardized and opportunities aren’t ruined because of badly formatted and uninspiring presentations.

3. GET MORE EFFICIENT AND SAVE TIME

A PowerPoint template is a tool that has been pre-customized with your branding and so, the design is taken care of. This helps you focus on the more important thing: the content of your presentation. It saves you the time you’d otherwise invest in selecting colors & fonts, adding your company logo and formatting your slides.

Using a template is pretty straightforward. Instead of beginning with an empty PowerPoint each time you want to put a presentation together; you can pick from an assortment of slide layouts and assemble a unique presentation very quickly. All you need to do is insert your content and imagery into the placeholders, save your presentation, and you’re good to go! This makes you so efficient and quick at preparing for your meetings.

4. A TEMPLATE ISN’T AN EXPENSE, BUT AN INVESTMENT

Standard branded PowerPoint templates are an inexpensive asset for brands who don’t have the time, manpower or resources to invest in customised PowerPoint designs every time a presentation is being planned. They are a must-have collateral for start-ups, young businesses as well as established brands. The value that a branded presentation will add to your overall branding strategy can’t be undermined. It’s an advisable long-term investment that amplifies your brand voice at important meetings.

If you’re looking to make your brand’s out-bound communication more enthralling and compelling, then this tailor-made presentation solution can’t be ignored for long.

Five Stones can help you conquer presentations with our robust, clean, engaging and creative PowerPoint template designs. Get in touch with us right away!

GET YOUR BRANDED POWERPOINT TEMPLATE TODAY

Author: Rebecca Pearson

Rebecca Pearson is the Founder & CEO of Five Stones Media House, a creative branding agency based in Mumbai. Five Stones provides bespoke branding solutions that help them achieve their business goals through creative visual branding, websites, SMM, SEO, event management and content solutions. We journey closely with brands in a dedicated and passionate way and help them fulfill their purpose. 

The post Why a Branded PowerPoint Template is a Must! appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

Visual branding efforts like creating a logo for your brand, designing marketing collateral that will be shared with potential customers, and even product design needs to have time and effort invested in employing the benefits of colour psychology.

How do Colours Specifically Influence People?

#1 – YELLOW

Yellow provokes one to think, inspires communication and generally evokes a feeling of warmth, cheer and hope. In marketing, it characterises openness, positivity, energy and clarity. It is often used to seize the attention of window shoppers. Moreover, research shows that it is the first colour that babies and toddlers react to and hence it is used a lot by baby product and toy brands. Yellow has one of the longest wavelengths and this makes it a very psychologically compelling colour. It is hard to miss and lures attention. Too much yellow can cause anxiety and it can overwhelm a person; so, one has to find the right balance when using it in their branding efforts.

Here are some famous brands that have used yellow to create an impact on their customers:

#2 – ORANGE

Orange sparks friendliness, enthusiasm, confidence and optimism. When used in marketing, it also indicates aggression, and is often used to impact impulsive buyers. Brands with orange are seen as jovial and assertive. It’s usually used to make a call to action like ‘subscribe’, ‘buy’ or ‘sell’. People identify it with affordability and great value. That’s why thrift stores like Payless and Home Depot use it. Here are other brands that use orange in their logos and branding.

#3 – RED

Red is passionate, loud, bold and vivacious. When referring to behaviour and visual cues, red stirs up the strongest emotions. It symbolises desire and increases urge and intensity. In marketing, red is known to increase heart rates and it creates alarm and urgency which is often leveraged during clearance sales. It also stimulates people’s appetite, and hence is in a lot of restaurant branding. Check out the brands that have used red in a powerful way to create significant impact in the market.

#4 – PURPLE

Purple has always been associated with royalty, wealth, wisdom and success. It also has a calming and soothing effect on people. In marketing, it’s often used to convey sophistication, extravagance, class and creativity. A lot of cosmetic brands, luxury brands and anti-aging products use purple. Brands that want to be seen as imaginative and creative like Yahoo, Craigslist, and Hallmark use this colour. It is the ideal combination of the consistency of blue and the vibrancy of red making it very popular among premium brands. Here are some brands that have made it big with purple:

#5 – BLUE

Blue is the colour of dependability, strength, trust and security. It characterises stillness, peace and tranquillity. There’s a calm confidence that is invoked in people when they see the colour blue and a lot of brands have leveraged that for their benefit. It increases productivity; and so, it is often used in office spaces. It generates a sense of security and trust about a brand. A lot of banks, financial institutions and educational institutions use blue as it inspires loyalty. JP Morgan, American Express, Facebook, Dell and LinkedIn are examples of brands that use blue. Here are some more:

#6 – GREEN

Green oozes out of nature and brings with it such a feeling a freshness, growth and healing. It is known to alleviate depression and inculcate positivity. It symbolises wellness and a lot of brands that deal in organic goods, wellness services, therapy services, environment-friendly products, etc. use green. In marketing, it is used in shops to create a welcoming and relaxed ambiance. It has for long been a representation of fertility and newness. Spotify, Land Rover, Holiday Inn and John Deere use green. Here are other successful brands that have used it:

In today’s extremely competitive market, with consumers being surrounded by innumerable choices; how does your brand stand out and draw attention to itself. Your branding efforts must aim to employ every proven technique in marketing to generate engagement and sales. Changes in colour schemes through a rebranding effort have enabled many businesses to increase their influence on both sales and customer loyalty.

Are you incorporating the right colours in your branding and marketing efforts? Find out now! Sign up for a FREE BRAND IMAGE CONSULTATION where one of our experts will analyse your brand and provide you a report with suggestions on how to improve it.

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Author: Rebecca Pearson

Rebecca Pearson is the Founder & CEO of Five Stones Media House, a creative branding agency based in Mumbai. Five Stones provides bespoke branding solutions that help them achieve their business goals through creative visual branding, websites, SMM, SEO, event management and content solutions. We journey closely with brands in a dedicated and passionate way and help them fulfill their purpose. 

The post Why Does Colour Psychology Matter in Branding appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

LinkedIn is a very powerful social media tool to boost your business that can help you expand your business network, generate sales-ready leads, and capture your target audience’s attention. Linkedin is THE ideal platform for social business marketing, but it needs to be utilized properly. The key to success with marketing your business on LinkedIn is patient, consistent work.

Here are four tips to help you use LinkedIn more effectively.

1) Optimize Your Company Page

Think of your LinkedIn Company Page as your business’s LinkedIn profile. A company page lets prospective customers know more about your company. It is your platform to post content that is relevant, useful and unique. Rich content will attract the right audience to your page. Your Company page will also help you build relationships with new as well as existing customers.

2) Use Linkedin Groups

LinkedIn groups are hubs that connect you with other professionals in the same industry with similar interests/challenges. Groups are ideal for building business contacts and establishing yourself as an industry expert and thought leader.

You can either join other groups or create your own groups and spearhead discussions that will help you connect with other business people.  The real secret of having your own group is the free email broadcast tool included with it. This gives you direct access to your audience’s inboxes.

Some ways to maximize your LinkedIn group:

1. Add keywords in the description of your group to increase your search rankings on LinkedIn’s search section.
2. Add keywords in the title of the group to be found on Google.
3. Add your company website or blog to the group to drive traffic to your site.
4. Add your blog RSS feed to the group so every new article is automatically posted to the home page of every group member.
5. Send a weekly message that adds value for group members and drives traffic back to your site.
6. Connect people in the group by making introductions to those who could potentially do business with one another.

3) Post Relevant and Engaging Content
Content is key to social media marketing. You must spend time creating content that will attract potential customers to your company page. The content should be aimed at establishing you as a thought leader in your field of expertise. As an added benefit, LinkedIn will sometimes put a spotlight on your most engaging and attractive in one of their categories, which will exponentially increase its visibility.

4) Use Linkedin’s Search Optimally

LinkedIn has a very efficient search tool by default. However, LinkedIn premium offers an Advanced search tool that is brilliant and extremely useful. It helps you locate business and people with precision. If LinkedIn premium falls outside your current budget, the regular search engine could also be very useful. The key is to connect with the right people. A good way to do this is by commenting, sharing your opinions and weaving your way into circles that will help boost the credibility of your company as well as generate leads.

We have prepared a free LinkedIn Marketing Strategy to help you get started. Check it out below.

FREE LINKEDIN MARKETING STRATEGY

Author: Alisha Fernandes

Alisha Fernandes is a Brand Image Artist at Five Stones Media House, a creative branding agency based in Mumbai. Five Stones provides bespoke branding solutions that help them achieve their business goals through creative visual branding, websites, SMM, SEO, event management and content solutions. We journey closely with brands in a dedicated and passionate way and help them fulfill their purpose. 

The post How to Use Linkedin to Market Your Business Effectively appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

A lot of entrepreneurs don’t believe that their startup needs a website or they don’t budget for a website to save on costs and rely hugely on conventional marketing to get the word out about their brand. Some entrepreneurs assume that since they don’t spend much time on the internet, their customers won’t either. At other times, they just leave it for ‘later’ if and when the business grows to a stage where they think they will need a website. But here are seven reasons why one of the first things your startup absolutely MUST HAVE is a website:

1. Your Customer Will Take Your Business Seriously

Most people look for products and services that they need on the internet today and if you don’t have a website, you’re losing these people to your competitors who do. If you do have a website that is not professionally made and doesn’t highlight your services and offerings in a professional way, chances are you’ll lose the attention of your customers even if they do land on your website.

2. You Will End Up Saving Money With A Website

You may assume that you can’t afford to have a professionally created website, but the truth is that you can’t afford to NOT have one. The one-time cost of getting a website designed and developed is nothing compared to the ongoing costs of marketing your products and services through other means. While you may think you have saved money by opting to not have a website, you will be surprised how much you will save in the long run by having one up right at the beginning.

3. Your Website Will Be Your Online Hub

What if we told you that you could have an online hub that would always have updated information about your products and services and that your customers can access this information all day, every day? Your website will be this online hub for you! It will be like a brochure that people can look at on their mobile phones and computers and access information at a click easily and quickly.

4. You Can Target More People

Your website will increase and widen your reach in terms of potential customers enormously. If you opt for an e-commerce website, you can sell your products and services to customers online and immediately cut down the costs of setting up a physical location to sell. This widens your reach and will help you grow as a business much more than you would conventionally.

5. Your Website Is Your Online Showroom or Gallery

Your website is a platform where you can display your work through means of a portfolio, product gallery, image gallery and client testimonials. You can display your client logos and client work too. All these elements increase the trust and dependability of your brand and enables customers to opt for your brand quicker when they come to your site.

6. Your Customer Service Will Become Professional

Your customers always need more than just a good product or a service. They are looking for tips, hacks, information, knowledge in the subject area and even for someone to connect with within your organisation. Your website can help host of all this at one place with so much ease. By having a blog, an FAQ page, a contact page and perhaps an online chat bot; your customer service immediately becomes so much more professional.

7. You Save Time Because of Your Website

Being in touch with your customers, building a database of potential customers, initiating marketing efforts and sharing information with people about your brand TAKES A LOT OF TIME! You will exhaust yourself and burn out if you try all of this manually AND it might even not be effective. Having a website will solve so many of these problems and make it so easy for you to focus on other areas of your business. Your time is money and saving time is definitely saving money..

If you’d like to get a professional website for your startup today, please register for a website consultation call back from our team and avail of a SPECIAL STARTUP DISCOUNT.

DISCOUNT ON PROFESSIONAL WEBSITES FOR STARTUPS

Author: Rebecca Pearson

Rebecca Pearson is the Founder & CEO of Five Stones Media House, a creative branding agency based in Mumbai. Five Stones provides bespoke branding solutions that help them achieve their business goals through creative visual branding, websites, SMM, SEO, event management and content solutions. We journey closely with brands in a dedicated and passionate way and help them fulfill their purpose. 

The post 7 Reasons Why Your Business MUST HAVE a Professional Website! appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

Writing a detailed business plan is an important part of setting up your new business. If you are an entrepreneur who is seeking to boost the chances of your startup surviving the test of time, writing a business plan has to be your first step. Here are some tips that can make this seemingly daunting task easier and give you something to start with. There’s also a FREE BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE at the bottom that you can download and use to start writing your own.

1. Write for your reader.

The first thing to ask yourself before you start writing the plan is: Who is going to read this plan? Is it a potential investor? Is it a potential partner? Once the audience is clear, the writing will get direction. You must be able to adapt your plan for different readers, as they will each have very specific requirements. For example, a possible investor will want to see detailed descriptions of the return on their investment and the timeline for when they will get back their money.

2. Market research is a must.

Market research is a very vital step that every serious entrepreneur must undertake in order to ensure business growth in the market place. The market research that you detail out in your business plan must include things like a description of your industry and information about the market size. It must have details about the envisaged growth of your business and how it will penetrate and make an impact in your market. You must also have information about your competitors and their market share and impact.

3. Know your competition well.

A lot of startups overlook the importance of studying and understanding their competition and their influence in the marketplace. Is your business in an industry that is overly competitive or is it in one that lacks sufficient competition? Both of these scenarios have their own challenges but you can only deal with those challenges when you know what kind of competition you are dealing with.

4. Get detailed and descriptive.

In an effort to make you plan concise, don’t leave out important details. Take the liberty to get descriptive in each section that you write and make sure that all of the information you include is backed by data and decisions that are informed. The plan should reflect competence and should be well written with no errors, typos, misinformation, wrong data, incorrect projections, etc. Write your detailed plan out in a word document but it can help to have a PowerPoint version of it too for you to use as a presentation.

5. Cover all grounds.

According to the industry that you serve in, ensure that your plan covers all the necessary information like your Vision, Mission, Purpose, Company Type, Product/Service, Market, Competition, Management, Internal Structure, Operations, Work Flow and Financials. It must also have a five year plan that covers in detail what the company intends to do over the next five years. It must have graphs, charts and necessary supporting data to fill all these sections with.

6. Do the math.

The numbers you project in your plan will be extremely important especially when a potential investor or partner is looking at it. Keep your numbers conservative and realistic. If math isn’t your strong area, get someone who understands finances well to help you with your projections. Make sure your financials include an operating budget, cash flow details and sales projections for different periods of time. You must also include a break-even plan that will help investors know when they will benefit from the money they invest in your business.

7. Your executive summary is very important.

Perhaps the most important part of your plan will be the Executive Summary that you start with. It is basically a summary highlighting the most important parts of the plan at the start. For readers who are hard-pressed for time, this summary will give them a taste of what your plan is about and will help them know if they want to read further. This is why the Executive Summary must be written well. It must be concise but also must be interesting enough to make people want to know more detail. It has to have something that will ‘wow’ your audience!

8. Review your plan and implement it.

Have someone who is completely detached from your business and process to review your plan and give you objective feedback on how to improve it. Make sure you edit the plan as needed and make changes in it till it is finished but remember that finishing your plan is actually the beginning of everything! Now, make sure you implement it. What’s the point of the plan, if it isn’t followed up with action. Keep your business plan  as a live document that you can go back to and update with the changes and learnings you experience as you conduct your business.

A successful business plan is one that helps the organisation achieve it’s set goals and helps the entrepreneur focus on the purpose and vision at all times.

Comment below with your thoughts and ideas. Also, download a free business plan template to help you get started today!

FREE BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE

Author: Rebecca Pearson

Rebecca Pearson is the Founder & CEO of Five Stones Media House, a creative branding agency based in Mumbai. Five Stones provides bespoke branding solutions that help them achieve their business goals through creative visual branding, websites, SMM, SEO, event management and content solutions. We journey closely with brands in a dedicated and passionate way and help them fulfill their purpose. 

The post 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR BUSINESS PLAN! appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

1. Ask yourself “What is my BIG idea?”

It is imperative that you answer this important question right at the start and not save it for later. What is your BIG idea? What important problem does your product/service solve? What specific need does your business fulfil? Your answer to this question will form the basis of WHAT you do. It will be the foundation of your business and vision.

2. Do something you LOVE to do.

Your big idea can be a fantastic one, but if isn’t something that is close to your heart or something that you are insanely passionate about, you won’t be able to sustain the effort required to see it realized. Your edge as an entrepreneur is hinged on whether you absolutely love what you do.

3. Write down your PURPOSE.

The PURPOSE of your business will birth your MISSION STATEMENT, VISION, and VALUES. It must describe your BIG idea and why you are doing what you are doing. Write down your purpose, read it aloud, memorize it, put it up somewhere prominent, or tattoo it on your forearm (for extreme entrepreneurs only). Point is, your PURPOSE should constantly remind you why you became an entrepreneur.

4. NAME your business right

Your business name can determine whether the market accepts your products/services. Ask yourself – Does the name sound good when said aloud? Is it meaningful and relevant? Is it backed by a story that customers can identify and relate to?

Make sure your business name is unique so that there are no trademark issues later. Check if there’s a web domain available for that specific name on a hosting site like GoDaddy.

5. Work on your BUSINESS PLAN.

Your BIG idea and PURPOSE statement are useless without a robust BUSINESS PLAN. Many startups overlook this part because they are too eager to get started. Your plan must be comprehensive and have detailed information about your company, product/service, market, ideal customer/consumer, competition, management team, marketing plan, operations plan, and financial plan.

6. Know your CUSTOMER or audience.

The success of your business is directly related to how well you know your customer. A good way to know your customer better is to create semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer, based on real data and some educated speculation about demographics, behaviour, motivations, challenges, and goals. This will help you better understand the pain points of your customers and ensure that your products/services are targeted to meeting those needs.

7. Get your PRICE right.

Pricing your product or service right is everything! Startups can tend to underprice products or services initially in an attempt to maximize incoming business, but this will exhaust your resources very quickly. On the flip side, overpricing your products or services without first building trust and reputation can scare away potential customers. A complete no-no is letting the customer’s budget dictate your price point. Price your offerings based on your effort and cost, adding in with a competitive market edge, and you are set to win!

8. Perfect your PRODUCT/SERVICE.

Don’t stop going back to the drawing board to rework, modify, and change your strategy as you grow and understand your industry and customers better. Change is an integral path to growth and success. Startups that are unable to change and adapt can fizzle out within a few months.

9. Get the RIGHT TEAM alongside you.

Partner with people who share your vision and add value to your team. Growing in number too quickly and unnecessarily can slow down or even end your progress. But, if you are unwilling to delegate responsibility and grow with the right people, critical issues can fall through the cracks and get neglected. Share your vision with people close to you who can be effective in scaling up your business. If your operating budget does not allow for hiring more full-time employees, you can consider working with contractual employees or freelancers.

10. Keep the CUSTOMER first.

The previous tips do not matter if you lose sight of your customer and their needs. Do not neglect client feedback. Financial growth and success should be the end result of a well-planned business strategy that is hinged on serving and building a long-lasting relationship with your customers.

These are just a few tips. Of course, never give up and never stop believing in yourself and your purpose. Take time off regularly to inspire yourself, spend time with family and friends, and get motivated. Work hard, but not at the expense of leaving no time for yourself. Remember that you are important to the cause that you carry. We can talk more about how to work on your entrepreneurial routine, but let’s leave that for another time.

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Author: Rebecca Pearson

Rebecca Pearson is the Founder & CEO of Five Stones Media House, a creative branding agency based in Mumbai. Five Stones provides bespoke branding solutions that help them achieve their business goals through creative visual branding, websites, SMM, SEO, event management and content solutions. We journey closely with brands in a dedicated and passionate way and help them fulfill their purpose. 

The post 10 TIPS FOR STARTUPS THAT CAN GUARANTEE SUCCESS appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

Here are ten things you’d totally get if you are writer:

1. When You Have To Delete Your Search History Before Somebody Arrests You.

Am I hiding something? Not really. But after four hours of searching ways to poison somebody or torture them a little without being caught so that my antagonist won’t come across as a fake, I must admit, I get a little worried that the cops will come after me!

2. When Showers Turn Into Less Washing More Thinking.

I’ve lost track of the number of times that a regular shower has birthed some of my best concepts. There must be something to do with the sound of flowing water that triggers creativity. Googling that right now!

3. When You Begin To Finally Start Typing That Story Out and You ‘Accidentally’ Open Facebook.

I’ve found that Facebook is my worst enemy when I”m writing. While the passion for writing is something that comes naturally, it requires a fair amount of discipline that most writers (read:me) are not so natural at! 9 out of 10 times I’ve begun to type out my ideas seamlessly, when suddenly the urge to check notifications on Facebook get the better of me. Before I know it, I’ve wasted 5 hours of what would have been a complete story eating chips and chocolate, falling prey to click-baits and spending money I don’t have on clothes I may never wear!

4. When You’re Busy Living A Normal Day and Suddenly You’ve Made A Story Out Of It.

I’ve always been a compulsive storyteller, even if it was my own life and even if it was in my own head. My younger cousins and friends would often spend evenings eagerly listening to the “Misfortunes of Tianna” only because I couldn’t help see my life with all its good and bad moments as a story full of plot twists and thrills. I’ll admit, it made me feel super-cool but it’s not like I didn’t know that behind this coolness was just a disorder of sorts that compelled me to see things in ways that my audience probably never would have. I guess this habit had always made me humor all of the bad times and work on getting my protagonist (in this case, me) out of a mess and into a better place!

5. Did I dream it, did I write it or did we talk about this?

Anyone who knows me well had heard me ask them at least once, “ Did this really happen or did I dream it?”What comes out of an overactive imagination and a thirst for playing with images and words is dreams that are as vivid as what I imagine a dose of hallucinogenics would be. Often, my stories are inspired from real life events, people, feelings, dialogues and dreams… the world is a writer’s oyster!

6. Reading Your Story For The 20^th Time And Starting To Hate It To The Point Of Deleting It.

A lot of artists struggle with this. When you read or stare at something you have created so much, little monsters called flaws start to pop out at you, it’s true! They are even so heartless as you scream out how each little line or character needs some change. Finally, you’re either shutting down your system or deleting the file forever, depriving the world of a great read!

7. When You Realize That Writer’s Block is NOT an Urban Legend.

This realization hits me about once everyday. Yep, blank pages, both digitally and in reality are torture! Cold, black keyboard letters do not form clear words or sentences some days and other days there are portals to a magical world. I’ve found that the best way to write, is to not write. Take a break, go for a walk, a vacation or a time-out to get inspired…it works!

8. When Ideas Pop Up at the Most Inconvenient Times…

Remember that time you were in church, feeling pure as ever when suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a heinous plot twist that involves things God would NOT approve of? NO? I have. Ideas for stories and scenes and character sketches have a tendency of turning up in the middle of the night, on a romantic date, in the middle of a busy work day or at a place so far from your laptop that you know you’d forget it by the time you get home!

9. When You Forget To Eat, Drink or Shower

This happens every time you get a great idea! Your life suddenly gets undone and you find yourself morphing into a adrenaline run that doesn’t need food, water or showers to sustain. It is also an effective diet plan…not.

10. When You Comfortably Ease Into The Fact That You Are Weird or Slightly Crazy

A writer isn’t producing his best work unless he feels deeply, I think. How can you write if you are not stirred and shaken to a point where you must write about how you feel? There have been times when a donut and a mug of coffee has made me feel emotional to the point of writing 1000 words about it, leaving me teary eyed, and feeling like I’ve had an epiphany. Writers embrace “different” and “strange” like it makes them belong, ironically.

Despite the assumptions and realities of being a writer, one deliciously cherished fact that keeps me going is that a writer can be whoever they want to be, travel to wherever they want to go and experience as much as they want to. If you can imagine it, you can live it.

“I change during the course of a day. I wake and I’m one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I’m somebody else.” – Bob Dylan

If you are thinking of becoming a writer professionally and want a reality check read this: Life as a writer- Expectations vs. Reality.

Tianna Coelho is a writer, blogger and hooper extraordinaire. When she isn’t writing, she spends her time with her hula hoop and travelling on envious adventures. She embraces life and wonder like no one we know and is such an inspiration to creative people. She agreed to write this fun piece for us and we are going to pay her in donuts when she’s in Mumbai next (she lives in Pune currently). A big shout out to Tianne and her creative head that we are so in love with. 

Follow Tianne’s blog here: quirkazoid.wordpress.com

The post 10 Things You Will Totally Get If You Are A Writer appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. Growth hacking focuses on driving growth rather than just relying on conventional marketing strategies to promote a business. Growth hackers take traditional marketing techniques and blend them with innovative ideas to ensure optimal growth.

Now that you have some context to growth hacking, I want to give you five tips on how you can use growth hacking with respect to social media.

• Make it Personal

When you are building your brand on social media, it is imperative that you reach out to people in a way that makes them want to gain familiarity with your page. A few ways to do this is to take the time out and reply to comments in a personalized way. This shows that you have taken the effort to appreciate their support.  “Thank your followers for following, but don’t automate it. Find something in their profile or feed that is relatable and start a conversation. Most people will retweet what you tweet back at them, and you’ll gain a loyal follower rather than a passive one.” – Carolyn Shaffer, Social Media Coordinator at C. T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston

• Make it Viral

Sharing posts make them viral. So brainstorm to come up with creative ways to get your audience to share your posts. Either the post is so relevant to the audience that it engages them and makes them want to share it, or you incentivise the sharing of posts by giving your audience the chance to win something free using promo codes or to get discounts. Do whatever works best for you. Also remember that the content has to be something that grabs the attention of people. If you want to make an impression, you cannot get on the bandwagon and do the same old thing over and over again. Spend time coming up with new ideas that will help your brand be recognised for what it does in the market.

• The Power of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has a lot of potential. It basically focuses on influential people rather than the market as a whole. It identifies individuals that have influence over potential clients, and orients marketing activities around these influencers. Take some time out, maybe about half an hour to an hour, every day to identify people who have the potential to make an impact on your target audience and start reaching out to them. LinkedIn Premium or Twitter are both great places to start. You can message them or tweet to them. Start a dialogue and engage with them and see how you can find ways to collaborate in a way that both parties are benefited.

• The Process of Growth involves Give and Take

When it comes to social media, you can’t expect your brand to grow by simply depending on your followers to create the magic and make your brand go viral. If you are looking for your brand to organically take off on social media, you have to be willing to engage with other social media accounts.  This could mean engaging with other customers, partner companies, or even competitors. Yes, I said it, ‘competitors’! It’s time to work smart and realise that we need each other to grow and that this is not an isolated process. Let me give you a very simple example: you make a deal to subtly promote another company to your x number of followers, and in return, that company promotes your work to their x number of followers. Such cross promotion can be very effective if done well and can help you gain more valuable visibility.

• Share Great Content

Sharing great and insightful content never grows old. To leverage content marketing, you need to put out valuable information that will be absorbed quickly by your audience. One useful tip to do this is learn about the interests of your target audience. There are several tools you can use to find the latest trends, and then have a plan in place to dole out powerful content.

That’s all from me. I hope these tips help you in some way. Growth hacking is a concept that is helping several organizations gain an edge over their competition.

– Alisha Fernandes

The post Growth Hacking and Social Media appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

1. Know who you are: Brand identity is key, without sounding too zen-master like; you need to know who you are before the world knows you.  The key lies in finding a set of core values that you stand for. (Hiking up the Himalayas to find inner peace – completely optional).

Find adjectives that you aspire your brand to be synonymous with.  Take for example: Moschino, always fun, young and quirky; creating products that are about redefining fashion and never what you’d expect it to be.

2. Be who you are: Now that you have found yourself – make sure every facet of your brand/ business reflects that identity. From the smallest details like the font you’d use on your website, and the colour scheme followed, to the person you would choose to endorse your brand on television someday. Every ad campaign, every tweet and snap posted – ask yourself – does this reflect my brands identity? If the answer isn’t a resounding YES, don’t post it. (There’s a reason why people with a split personality disorder seek psychiatric help. Don’t be that guy)

3. Visually Hypnotize: looking to stay in your consumer’s pre-frontal cortex? Stay etched in their memory with visual hypnosis – in other words; use visual aid to stand out enough to be remembered. Whether it’s through the extensive use of a particular colour (like the classic red soles on every pair of Louboutins, or the bright blue Tiffany and Co. boxes) or a monogrammed print like Louis Vuitton or Gucci.  Find a unique visual aid to rely on and showcase this in varied moderation to help stay on the mind of your consumers.

Finally,

4. Sell a story: Draw consumers in, with an inspiring story about your brand’s origins: most historic fashion brands play up the the story of their founders. Like the tear jerking favourite: Coco Chanel, the little orphan girl raised by nuns, who rebelled against the societal standards of femininity and took the fashion world by storm. Many of Chanel’s collections take inspiration from her life and emphasise this story. Don’t have a story? Sell your unique vision/mission – like Stella McCartney and her fight against animal cruelty, or her quest to bring sustainability into the fashion industry. Her latest fashion campaign was shot at a landfill to reiterate the consequences of our over consuming lifestyle.

These are a few simple yet crucial foundational principles that will help you build an immortal brand, one that will live on in the hearts and minds of its consumers.

In other words, help you build a brand that will never die. 

Amy Suzanna is a fashion blogger who has a way with words and wardrobes.
She loves fashion, studies it and also gives her unbiased, bold opinions on her blog: The Pencil Skirt.
She is a self proclaimed High School Musical and Lion King subject matter expert.
Amy has an adorable dog called Bambi who is a fussy eater (just like her). We love Amy! <3

The post CREATING IMMORTAL BRANDS appeared first on Five Stones Media House.

Piggy back on your Influencers.

It’s not a new thing in town to follow influencers, but it’s important to know how to draw attention to your brand while you piggy back their accounts. The process is quite simple actually- follow them, tag them, communicate with them. Once you make a post that you think any of your influencer’s audience might enjoy, tag them and let them know that you think they’d enjoy it, also encourage them to share it on their accounts. DM them to let them know if there’s a post you enjoy, this way you can begin to communicate with them.

Make that tweet long!

How many of y’all have been daunted by the 140-character limit of Twitter? It’s quite challenging to express your thoughts within a sentence, isn’t it? This hack will prove to be the most useful to you if you’re a Twitter addict but get frustrated with the length of a tweet. All you need to do is begin to write your sentence down as a normal tweet and then reply to yourself on the same tweet, with the continuation of the rest of your sentence. Do keep in mind that you need to take away the mention to yourself, if not you’ll just be someone having a conversation with your own account. A tip to remember- Make sure your first tweet is interesting and engaging, it should make someone want to scroll down and read the rest. Don’t give away everything in your first tweet. This works wonders!

Authentication Certification of your Influencer.

With the above-mentioned point, you do know how to use an influencer, but there’s a prelude to that. You need to know if the influencer account you’re following is the real-deal or an imposter (trust me there are tons of them online). It’s easy to figure this out on Facebook and Instagram with the “verified tick” marks, but what about Twitter? The best way to find out about this is to check the lists your influencer is part off on Twitter. You can see this information either on Twitter or on your Tweetdeck app by simply navigating to their profile and checking the number lists the influencer is part off. Do your math and check to ensure that this person’s followers are more than the number of lists he/she is part off. Once you’ve done that, your job is done. Tweet away and reach out to your influencers!

Get them bloggered!

Do you find that the blogs you share don’t get the amount of attention they deserve online? It’s not something rare. Most blogs that are posted on your accounts go unnoticed due to people’s attention span being close to a sparrow. So how do you get your audience to be interested and engaged enough to go read your blog? It’s quite simple. This takes a little effort but it does pay off! All you need to do is to wisely choose a couple of lines or statements from your blog that you can use as a quote. Now make a post of it and put it up on all your social media accounts with a link of the blog attached to it. This is bound to get some traffic to your blog and your website!

Twitter Chatter!

Business requires you to be very aware of building professional networks for yourself. What’s the best way to do it? Gone are the days were you hand out your business card to every person you meet. We live our lives on social media these days, so take hold of the opportunities you have and go at it! Twitter has a great way to build your network by hosting Twitter chats. Also, it’s very simple and perfect for people on the go. All it takes is an hour a week to start off with. You can either host a twitter chat yourself or be a part of another one. The concept just consists of having a discussion with fellow like-minded people by using a specific relevant hashtag. You’ll be surprised at the amount of connections you’ll make with each chat you’re part off!

All the above-mentioned points are just a tip off the iceberg in the social media world. There are a ton of things you are set to discover and explore on a daily basis. The key is to be engaged and curious to use various ideas to get your brand into the limelight!

– Sophie Leslie 

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