Curalate Insights: Tips for the Visual Web

1. Shoot in Creative Auto.

Creative Auto is an intermediate-level camera function that allows budding photographers to employ advanced photography techniques. With Creative Auto, you can control the depth of field and brightness of an image while automating more complicated functions like aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Jaime recommends that you keep your camera settings on Creative Auto “to capture unexpected moments” while wandering through your city. “This way,” he explains, “you won't miss the shot while adjusting the settings on your camera. You can always tinker with the photo at home using the photo editing app of your choice.”

While Creative Auto is typical of a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera, did you know that you can add a plethora of manual elements to your mobile photos too? Lumia devices, for instance, allow you to control the ISO, shutter speed, exposure compensation, focus and aperture. iOS devices allow for manual capabilities as well via third-party camera apps, including manual focus, manual exposure and exposure compensation.

Check out the following five apps if you’re looking to experiment with manual settings on your mobile device:

Manual

ProShot

ProCamera

VSCO

Slow Shutter Cam

2. Study natural light patterns.

Most photographers—whether newbie or expert—know how important lighting is to the quality of a photo. But it’s not always as simple as facing away from the sun, turning on a flashlight, flipping a light switch or casting a well-placed shadow. “Natural light is a photographer's best friend, but it could also be your worst enemy,” Jaime explains.

To address this, Jaime recommends experimenting with apps that reveal patterns of natural light throughout all four seasons. We’ve found a couple of tools that might be worth exploring:

1. The Photographer’s Ephemeris: Available on both iOS and Android, The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) is an app that helps photographers to better plan outdoor photo shoots that are abundant with natural light. It’s especially suited for landscape and urban scenes, and enables its users to visualize how light will affect any location on earth – day or night.

2. LightTrac: With LightTrac, a photographer can quickly determine the best time and location for a photo shoot based on light conditions where they are. To provide an accurate read of natural lighting, the app calculates the sun’s angle and elevation based on location, date and time of day.

3. Use the tools you have to enhance your photos.

We’ve already mentioned a handful of valuable tools that can help you take better digital photos. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Once you have a great photo to work with, you can continue to enhance the quality and toy with image characteristics from there.

“Don't be afraid to use the tools that Instagram and other apps provide you to produce your images,” says Jaime. “The idea that only unfiltered or unedited photos are real is ludicrous and outdated. Photographers have always edited their images regardless of the medium. Digital photography is as real as photos captured on film.”

Instagram, for example, introduces new editing functionalities on a regular basis to grow the ways in which people can use the photo-sharing platform. Consider the many different options by tapping into Instagram’s photo editor before pushing a photo live:

Scale

Crop

Straighten (or unstraighten, for that artsy appeal)

Filter

Brighten

Saturate

Highlight

Add or remove shadows

Fade

Adjust color

Vignette

Tilt shift (i.e. selective focus)

Sharpen

4. Have a project in mind.

It was American film director and producer Frank Capra who said that, “A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.” It’s important for photographers to follow that hunch – as well as the next one, and the one after that.

As Jaime puts it,  “Always have a project to shoot. This will give you focus.” He adds, “It can be anything, it does not matter. What matters is that the passion for your project translates on to your work. Powerful images are always powerful because of the person behind the lens.”

5. Embrace the editing process.

Practice makes perfect, but the beauty of digital photography is that you don’t have to be perfect the first time around. “Don't be afraid of editing,” Jaime says. “Often an image is made better not for what you kept in the frame but for what you cut out of it.”

In other words, start off with a wider frame, including elements and details because you can – not because you find anything particularly beautiful or compelling about them. You can eventually begin to zoom in, narrow your lens, and identify where the true story lies. Maybe it’s what you expected – the person, object or place you intended to capture. But maybe, it’s something entirely different all-together. The bottom line: You’ll never know unless you try.

2. Pinterest announces ‘Buy It' button.

This week, Pinterest announced the launch of its ‘Buy It’ button, enabling consumers to buy products directly from pins. They’re called “Buyable Pins” and are available to businesses of all sizes.

3. Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom launch Pinterest commerce to capture impulse sales.

Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom are looking to increase mobile sales as launch partners for Pinterest’s Buyable Pins feature. “Pinterest is the perfect visual playground, it’s a place where the Neiman Marcus shopper can create her own personal look book, where she can mix and match designers and make purchasing decisions that she can now act on quickly,” says Natalie Bowman, Vice President of Media at Neiman Marcus Group Services, Dallas.

4. Forget Protein World, Instagram is driving the new fitness 'regime reality.'

Instagram has become the unintentional author of “regime reality,” a universe predicated on a feel-good aesthetic and need to show off and share your goals with everyone else. According to James Kirkham, Global Head of Social and Mobile at Leo Burnett, and co-founder of Holler, this has created an entirely new business category, where the platform is Instagram, the currency is audience follows and the income opportunity is vast.

5. Tumblr replaces 'Ignore' with a more robust 'Block' feature.

“Tumblr has made it easier to keep trolls out of your account. The feature has been renamed ‘Block’—‘A proper, muscular name,’ the Yahoo-owned company said—and it's accessible from several locations on the website. To shake off haters and weirdos, you can click on their avatar on your dashboard to load a right-hand side menu, where you can find block under the human-shaped icon.”

6. Pinterest has a strong chance of building a big commerce business.

“[Pinterest’s move to add a buy button] makes perfect sense. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, which focus respectively on sharing moments from the past and present, Pinterest has always been about the future. People use the social network to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and figure out where to travel – giving Pinterest valuable insights into what its 70 million monthly users want.”

7. Take the wheel: 5 ways to drive buyer behavior with UGC.

Your website is the No. 1 place consumers go when they want to keep in touch with your brand. Whether you want them to explore, laugh or buy, MarketingLand lists five ways that user-generated content can make it happen.

8. Tumblr debuts its own GIF search engine.

“Tumblr [announced this week] a new feature designed to take advantage of the extensive collection of GIFs hosted on its service: a GIF search engine. The news follows that of Facebook’s decision to officially support the animated file format on users’ Timelines, announced last week. With Tumblr’s implementation, web users will now be able to more easily locate GIFs on Tumblr as well as add them to their posts, while also properly crediting the GIF’s original creator, the company says.”

9. Sigma Beauty’s customer-focused strategy: “UGC is the secret to our success.”

For a business fueled by ecommerce, exhibiting how a product will present itself in the real world can be a challenge. In this Q&A with Sigma Beauty’s Social Media Strategist, Amber Mulle, you’ll learn how Sigma has been able to monetize their customers’ content on social and their site. Amber sheds light on Sigma Beauty’s UGC strategy, providing valuable insight into how marketers can harness fan images to generate revenue.

1. How have your fans’ photos helped your team to create a narrative around your products?

We take user-generated content and combine it with beautiful imagery to tell our brand’s story. Curated content is the secret to our success, especially being in the makeup and beauty industry. It’s hard as an ecommerce business because our customers can’t go to Target or Macy’s to try things on, so seeing people wear our makeup is beneficial.

2. Do certain images work better than others?

We find that simplicity is key. We use certain colors (usually on solid white or black) when creating in-house photos – the cleaner, the better. Pictures of our makeup brushes will always outperform other photos because it’s the backbone of our brand. Makeup tutorial videos generate more engagement, too, because of what you can see in just 15 seconds.

3. It’s great to hear that Sigma has such strong relationships with its fans. How does your influencer program work?

Sigma got its start in 2009, primarily through social media and YouTube. Instead of traditional marketing, we sent out brushes and cosmetics to YouTubers and other online influencers, offering the creators 10% commission on any sales they bring in through their affiliate links. More than 2,000 YouTube influencers have created a total of 3,500 videos about Sigma Beauty, generating 16.2 million earned media views for our brand.

4. Can you share any unique campaign results that have arisen from your work with influencers?

Back in April 2014, we partnered with a very popular YouTube beauty influencer on a makeup brush collection. We were a little unaware of how magnetic her fans were to her – so magnetic, in fact, that we sold out in just three days. Our conversion rates more than doubled, and our online traffic skyrocketed to almost 1 million pageviews. We brought it back, and a few days later sold out again. It just goes to show you how influential their community is when it comes to fans and their buying power.

5. What advice would you give to a marketer who wants to get started using UGC, but doesn’t know where to start?

Getting started can be the hardest part. In order to start posting user-generated content, your customers need to create it. Let them know how to engage with you by using specific hashtags or creating contests around product launches. To create buzz, we always send press kits to beauty influencers to review on their channels before our product arrives to our site. In return, we ask them to tag their looks or photos with certain hashtags so we can add them to our Fanreel – it’s always mutually beneficial. I also suggest personalizing your communication and making your fans feel valued. Humanizing your brand is key.

Monetizing Images

How is UGC so effective? It all comes down to the fact that fans want to be appreciated, and they want to be a part of the brand. In turn, their content ends up creating even more fans and more buyers. To learn more about how Sigma Beauty monetizes UGC, as well as some of the notable results they are seeing, download our newest case study. 

A Piece of the Pie

Emojis are often referred to as a universal language, and it makes sense. They allow the people who share them to convey entire messages without using many words. It some instances, they eliminate the need for text all together.

No brand knows this better than Domino’s. The pizza behemoth recently announced that their customers can order a pie by simply directing a 🍕 tweet to the Domino’s account. (If you scroll down to our infographic, by the way, you’ll find that the pizza emoji ranks 92 on Instagram.) Gone are the days when a hangry diner had to pick up the phone, turn on a computer, or—gasp—tap into an app. It sounds like an April Fool's joke, but it's true: The American pizza chain is now taking orders with a single 🍕. (Do you think they’d send a Hawaiian if we included a 🍍?)

The Language of Lust

While Twitter has become a valuable and convenient form of customer service, Instagram’s visual prowess, as well as its emphasis of products and experiences, is creating new opportunities for brands to connect with their fans. Now that emojis are a big part of that equation, we got to thinking: Which characters do people care about? To explore the growing importance of emojis in Instagram communication, we put together an infographic of the top 100 by rank. It's followed by a handful of insights. See if you can find your favorites below.

Insight 1: Love isn’t just in the air. It’s on Instagram.

The No. 1 most frequently used emoji is the single red heart. It was shared more than half a million times (575,381) in tandem with a hashtag, which is 79% more than the next most popular emoji.

Insight 2: Instagram is all smiles.

Four of the top five most popular emojis are positive smiley faces (including the laughing-so-hard-I’m-crying icon). If you look at the top 20 emojis, smileys comprise half.

Insight 3: Positivity and humor abound.

Smileys aren’t the only positively sentimented emojis to dominate the top 25 either. A plethora of hearts, kisses, affirmative hand gestures and, of course, the perfect “100” all made the grade too. At the end of the day, Instagram users are generally using the platform to express joy and delight. Your content and your comments should follow suit.

Insight 4: Celebrate good times!

Beer is the most popular beverage (it ranks 49), while the most popular food is birthday cake (it ranks 64). What can we conclude from this? Instagram is a place where people go to celebrate. When communicating with your fans, have an uplifting attitude.

Insight 5: It’s a grand old flag.

Fact: According to Instagram, 63% of images shared by users in Finland contain at least one emoji; this is more than any other country. Additionally, some 70% of Instagram users dwell outside of the U.S. Despite this, the American flag is the only flag emoji to break the top 100 (it ranks 59). The next most popular flag comes from Italy, ranked 125, followed by the French flag at 160 and the Japanese flag at 166.

How We Did It

Instagram introduced the ability to use emojis in hashtags on April 27, 2015. To understand the growing value of emojis on Instagram, Curalate analyzed the total photo count for each single character emoji hashtag between April 27th and May 27th, 2015 – a one-month period following launch. This analysis includes brand and user-generated images. It accounts for emojis that appear within the image caption as well as any comment posted by the original user.

Are emojis for me?

We know what you’re thinking. Emojis are quirky and all, but how do I know if my audience will respond positively to these icons too? If you’re a brand that caters to a younger audience (say, the all-mighty millennial segment or perhaps even teens), then it’s a no-brainer. Emojis are now a part of the social and digital lexicon. Incorporating them into your messaging is simply another way to connect. As with any content strategy, however, it’s important that you do your homework first. As we learned from this study, there’s a method to this emoji madness. Go with what you now know.

2. 3 ways user-generated content transcends social.

“Retailers are increasingly experimenting with ways to encourage consumers to snap and submit photos while engaging with their merchandise, from requesting selfies on their social channels, to leveraging influencers, to marketing hashtags in their stores. Better yet, consumers are answering the call. To truly unlock the potential of UGC, it’s important to consider all of the different (yet scalable) ways to collect and display these visual engagements.”

3. Hawaii leverages UGC and social to spotlight spontaneous island experiences.

“The [Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau] is … employing a user-generator content aggregator program to help track and categorize video and other content – a particular challenge because of the huge amount of digital content about Hawaii, and the need to be able to correctly identify and employ appropriate content from each of the six islands.”

4. Pinterest makes media push targeting evergreen content.

“For several publishers with ‘evergreen’ stories that are just as relevant today as they are six months from now, being on Pinterest is paying big dividends. Pinterest drives more traffic to About.com, for example, than any other social network. About.com told Forbes that users who come to their site from Pinterest are 200% more engaged—by time spent on the site and by stories read—than users who come from other social networks.”

5. Fashion brands turn to visual social platforms like Instagram for organic reach.

“A number of fashion labels, such as Brioni and Hermès, have bypassed more established platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, choosing instead to expand their social presence to Instagram, a platform with high organic engagement levels.”

6. 4 ways to encourage social engagement through brick-and-mortar retail.

“If you have a physical location, then you likely have a lot of Pinterest- and Instagram-worthy content just waiting to be shared. If you haven’t done so yet, start exploring ways in which you can leverage your store to increase social engagement.”

7. Instagram images are earning up to $100,000.

“Seventy million images are posted on Instagram each day, but only a few are in the top tier attracting brands. Harpers Bazaar notes that product placement in blogger photos on Instagram is becoming much more prevalent, with Instagrammers now earning tens of thousands of dollars and making a living from the visual social network.”

8. Hashtag ambitions: How Acuvue seeks engagement.

Acuvue Hong Kong has partnered up with Fimmick for a new Instagram-led campaign, “See What Could Be.” Participants are encouraged to create their own unique hashtags on Instagram, which are used to represent their bold beliefs and passion on the theme to boost engagement through their friends.

9. Jack Rogers slings summer excitement to Instagram for countdown-themed giveaway.

“Women’s shoe designer Jack Rogers ramped up excitement for summer, a big sales season for the brand known for its classic sandals, by leveraging a countdown-themed giveaway on Instagram that offered users a chance to win one pair of its most popular styles each day, proving that social media-enabled contests are still potent with consumers.”

10. Pinterest improves Related Pins with deep learning, plans product recommendations using object recognition.

“We try to understand what’s in an image through that,” Kevin Jing, Head of Pinterest’s Visual Discovery Team, told VentureBeat in an interview at Pinterest headquarters in San Francisco last week. “We try to figure out what people want. That’s our job – to extract information from the image. It’s also our job to figure out how to use that information once it’s extracted.”

1. Audit existing fan photos.

Before you approach your CMO and propose an elaborate UGC strategy, do your homework. What type of content are your customers sharing organically? One only needs to perform a simple search on Instagram to answer this question. There are a couple of ways to go about this:

Search by location. Use Instagram’s geography tags to pull in images shared in one of your physical locations. This could be a brick-and-mortar retail store, a restaurant, a hotel and so on. For employee-generated content, run a search for your company’s HQ.

Search by hashtag. Start with your brand’s name, a campaign hashtag, or perhaps a popular product that’s top of mind. What's most likely to create conversation?

A quick search for “Curalate” on Instagram, for instance, produces more than 1,000 photos. These images have come to live on Instagram, yes, thanks to the diligence of our all-star Community Manager, but also because of the snapshots our spirited employees and brilliant clients choose to share. For an even deeper look, I might also search for “Curaladies” (a popular hashtag among the ladies of Curalate) and “Curalattes” (because at Curalate, that's a thing too).

Bear in mind that consumers don’t always include branded hashtags and handles when sharing content on Instagram or another social site. In fact, Curalate recently examined a selection of Instagram images about brands that we work with, and found that 80% that include a brand’s location tag don’t actually mention the brand in the caption. In other words, don’t limit yourself to an analysis of hashtags. Give yourself options.

2. Identify consumer trends.

The culture of your core audience becomes evident when you look at all of your customers’ photos in aggregate. When analyzing the types of photos that your customers are sharing, consider the following:

Who is most likely to share content about your brand – moms, teens, millennials, fashion bloggers, animal lovers, DIYers?

What are they sharing photos of? Is a particular style, product, collection or department dominating the conversation?

Where are your customers when they share brand-oriented photos – in your stores, at the beach, on the run, with friends?

When are your customers more likely to share photos? (Think: seasons, holidays, events, etc.)

Why are they tagging your products? Consider what motivates your customers, from product launches to marketing campaigns.

How? Think technically here. Are they tagging your brand organically? Are they using your geo-tag? Is Instagram where UGC is most prevalent?

If you can answer some of the questions posed here, then you can develop a data-driven UGC strategy with confidence. A great example of this comes from French fashion house Longchamp. They recently launched a campaign to fuel excitement around their iconic Le Pliage purse – a product they realized their customers were already championing organically. “A lot of people all around the world have a version of it, and a big community of people and bloggers taking photos of themselves with it already exists,” said Massimo Piredda, Digital and Social Media Manager for the brand. “It was obvious for us to join our Le Pliage fans online.”

3. Adopt a selfless hashtag strategy.

User-generated content isn’t just about you. It’s about them: your customers. It’s about how they use your products and relate to your brand. So, while your customers may be inclined to tag an image with #YourBrandName, it might also serve you well to create (and promote) a personal, actionable hashtag that brings the focus back to your fans. Forever 21 uses #FSxME. Similarly, Wet Seal has used #WSonMe and is currently promoting #WetSeal4Me. And specialty retailer Urban Outfitters utilizes two distinct hashtags: #UOONYOU for apparel and beauty, and #UOAROUNDYOU for their music and apartment categories. Each of these brands sees a consistent stream of user-generated content from their social fans.

4. Promote strong CTAs in key locations.

Don’t expect your hashtag to catch fire overnight. To encourage your fans to use your hashtags when sharing branded photos, place strong calls-to-action in the places where your customers are most likely to engage with your content. On Instagram, this might be your bio, location tag, or within the photo caption itself. (You can check out Wet Seal and Forever 21’s Instagram profiles above for inspiration.) Other places in which a call for content can be valuable: on your website, across your social channels, within your blog and throughout your catalogs (both digital and print). For an example of this, take a page from Z Gallerie’s playbook. During their #PagesOfStyle campaign (which runs through July 2015), the home goods retailer reported a 24% increase in UGC after adding explicit CTAs to their social channels (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), website and on the back cover of their in-home printed catalog.

5. Add signage in your stores.

In addition to social and digital CTAs, consider how you can engage your customers at one of the most valuable points of the customer journey: in your physical stores. If you’re in the entertainment industry, why not add messaging around your venues or atop the tickets themselves? If you’re a retailer, you might display hashtags near the register, outside of dressing rooms, or near a photo-friendly installation. Saks Fifth Avenue, for instance, placed #SaksStyle decals throughout the women’s ready-to-wear and contemporary departments in all 39 of their stores to promote their Fashion Week campaign. The decals encouraged customers to share photos of their shopping experiences – and to elevate their status to that of a style icon.

6. Host an event.

Although UGC is an effective way to create awareness around products, it requires that brands place a ton of trust in their fans. What are your customers saying about your merchandise? Is the lighting flattering, or does it just fall flat? What if your competitors’ products are in the frame too? (After all, what are the odds that a user’s #OOTD is 100% made up of your goods?)

Consumers are far less tactical than brands. One way to scale your UGC strategy and control the environment is to host an event. In this way, you can set the scene to your liking – from the hashtag your customers use to the products they engage with. Keep the conversation going by sending your guests home with goodie bags that warrant Insta-fame.

7. Tap into influencers.

Social and digital influencers are viewed as leaders among their social circles, and for good reason. They typically boast large, active followings and beautiful photo feeds. An influencer who posts an image of a product doesn’t just drive awareness; their participation with your brand can inspire an entire community. Consumers who see these images are more likely to join the conversation by submitting snapshots too.

In a recent survey, 59% of marketers reported that they plan to increase their influencer budget in the coming year. But influencer marketing isn't one-size-fits-all. When considering how to engage influencers, be mindful of the following:

Audience alignment. What demographic do they cater to, and what type of content excites their fans?

Digital presence. Make sure that the influencers you choose to work with are dedicated to the same channels that you are. In other words, don’t court a user with a massive Twitter following for an Instagram campaign.

Credibility. Just because an influencer has a good eye and a large following doesn’t mean they have clout within your target community. Understand where they are coming from, and ask yourself whether their background is campaign-appropriate.

8. Design a contest.

One of the amazing things about UGC is that, frequently, the behavior is organic. That's the beauty of UGC. It represents the brand without bias, and that's why it feels so authentic. One way to encourage this behavior is to analyze the kinds of images that are already surfacing about your brand, and to then launch a targeted contest that aligns with, and builds on, those preferences.

Design Within Reach did just that with their Champagne Chair Contest. Knowing that their customers are creative and hands-on, the brand invited fans to build miniature chairs out of champagne bottles (just the corks; no more than two), and to then submit photos of their unique designs. In addition to fueling UGC submissions, Design Within Reach delivered one million impressions throughout their campaign as well as a 238% lift in engagement with those images.

9.  Position UGC as social currency.

It’s simple: Consumers love incentives, from coupons to buy-one-get-one deals. Teens espsecially. A 2014 survey from Forest City Enterprises and research firm Alexander Babbage found that 13- to 17-year-olds are more price- than brand-conscious compared to the 18- to 24-year-old segment. To that end, user-generated content can be a great way to incentivize your customers to participate with your brand. Small offers such as discounts, free samples or the chance to do something unique and unexpected that relates to your brand can be used to drive participation.

Marc Jacobs, for instance, has twice opened pop-up locations in which the only form of currency accepted were social engagements, including UGC. Throughout the initiative, customers were encouraged to “buy” products by tweeting or uploading photos along with a branded hashtag. In a matter of days, the label collected thousands of Instagram images from loyalists engaging with branded goods – 4,300 from February 7th - 9th, 2014 alone.

10. Feature your customers' photos on your website.

By incorporating user-generated photos into the ecommerce experience, brands are helping shoppers to draw connections between images and products, while simultaneously celebrating some of their most engaged fans. This is an excellent way to give customers the social recognition they both desire and deserve (we like to think of it as a virtual “high five”). Moreover, an on-site gallery of user images helps to attract new UGC too.

Since integrating UGC onto their website using Curalate’s Fanreel solution, Sigma Beauty has seen nearly a 4x lift in on-site engagement. Today, the brand receives some 16K photo submissions per month from customers who either share a photo on Instagram (and tag that photo accordingly) or upload an image directly to Sigma's site. “Fans want to be appreciated, and they want to be a part of your brand,” says Amber Mulle, Social Media Strategist for Sigma Beauty. “The more passionate your fans are, the more passionate they are about creating memorable photos.”

Final Thoughts

When it comes to UGC, it’s not just a question of who or what – it’s also how you use it. One of the biggest misconceptions is that UGC can only benefit social teams and digital platforms. That’s simply not the case. In reality, UGC can be a creative, cost-effective and rewarding way to enhance a variety of channels: your homepage, your product pages, your emails, microsites and so on. Your next move is to share what you’ve learned here, and to take action.

1. Remind in-store guests to pin, post and share (but be creative)!

People love sharing photos via social media, but sometimes, your customers need a little push in the right direction. Encourage them to snap photos of your products by setting up creative reminders around your store.

Check out what stores like New York & Company and Team Manila (scroll down slightly) are doing.

These apparel retailers are using hashtag stickers in their fitting rooms to promote social shares, allowing them to increase engagement and exposure at the same time.

Another creative example of a great social sharing reminder comes from Snowflakes, a restaurant in Southern California that sells specialty desserts.

Snowflakes created custom placemats designed to encourage customers to take photos of their food and post them on Instagram.

2. Use social engagement as currency.

If you have the budget for it (and if it makes sense for your business) why not offer discounts or freebies in exchange for social shares? After all, if you’re planning to run a promotion or are marking down items anyway, this tactic could help you get some social shares out of your offers.

A retailer that pulled this off well is OnePiece, a Norwegian clothing brand. OnePiece created an ambassador club called “The Piecekeepers,” and used it to entice influencers to talk about the brand on social media. According to PSFK, OnePiece “handed out discounts to social influencers who connected their social media accounts to its PieceKeepers ambassador system. Once synced, the PieceKeepers platform calculated the person’s following across all their channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn) to determine their total reach.” Members were offered one dollar off for every 500 followers they had, and they were given an additional $20 off their purchases by sharing a hashtagged image of the store.

3. Hold an in-store event and promote it using a special hashtag.

Improve the results of your in-store events by creating event-specific hashtags that encourage people to create and post content. Doing so will not only help increase word-of-mouth, social buzz and traffic, but it’ll also enable you to keep track of mentions and conversations around the event.

What’s more, these hashtags can help you find and compile photos of the event, which you can then use for recaps or promotional purposes.

Consider what Mercedes-Benz is doing for their MBFW (Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week) events. The automaker created the #MBFW hashtag and encouraged attendees and partners to include it whenever sharing photos related to the event. In addition to helping Mercedes-Benz drive engagement, it also gives them plenty of user-generated content to favorite, retweet and re-post.

4. Leverage your window displays.

A good window display showcases your products and entices people to shop in your store. A great window display, on the other hand, does all that and helps make a splash in the social realm.

The next time you’re designing a new window display for your shop, why not inject a social component into it? Don’t just use your display to showcase products. Make sure that it also connects with your audience and encourages social shares. Have a look at Anthropologie’s window display strategy. Its corporate headquarters selects certain themes for their displays, but leaves it up to each local store to come up with their own interpretations.

This enables every Anthropologie store to inject local art and flavor in their window displays, and it has resulted in some really creative windows. Even better, Anthropologie encourages customers to take photos of their local windows and share them on Instagram with the hashtag #AnthroWindows.

J. Crew is another example of a retailer whose window display efforts paid off in a big way on social media. Over the holidays, the brand decided to incorporate some “damn you autocorrect” humor into its window displays by showing a text exchange between a snowman and his friend, where the snowman inadvertently said that he would be “melting” his family. He originally meant that he would be “meeting” them. (Stupid autocorrect.) People loved it and shared photos via Instagram, Twitter and other networks.

Your turn.

We’ve shared some creative social engagement pointers in this post, and we hope that the examples above inspire you to spruce up your own store. Now, it’s your turn. How will you encourage your customers to snap photos of your products and store? Have you tried any of the tactics above?

2. Instagram introduces Layout app on Android for making better collages.

“Layout, an app for making photo collages that Instagram introduced on iOS in March, is now available for Android. The app, which can be downloaded here, arrays your photos in a variety of grids. It's meant to capitalize on the fact that about one in five Instagram users regularly post collages to their accounts, according to the company.”

3. Teen tech habits: 5 trends marketers should know.

Though teens aren’t yet fully independent—still largely reliant on their parents for financial support—they’re already highly influential shoppers. It goes without saying that marketers who get it right with this demographic will surge ahead in their category. But where to start? A crucial step is understanding where and how the 13 to 18 years olds of today like to communicate. Here’s what marketers need to know about teens’ tech habits.

4. Z Gallerie creates social buzz with catalog.

“Home furnisher Z Gallerie … created an integrated user-generated content campaign that leveraged organic excitement on Instagram to drive brand awareness, social visibility and catalog subscriptions through the spring and summer. The company saw a 24% increase in average weekly user-generated submissions, an increase of 10,000 Instagram followers, 99,000 Instagram interactions, 5.6 million potential Instagram impressions and 24% increase in new catalog sign-ups.”

5. Chili's tweaks its food to look better on Instagram.

“Chili's Grill & Bar, catering to the Instagram crowd, revamped the look of its dishes to make them look better on social media. … The social-media preening is part of Chili's push to attract tech-savvy diners. About a year ago, the chain completed a push to outfit all of its tables with digital devices.”

6. How Tumblr is disrupting today’s market.

“Tumblr is especially appealing to young people because it has such a wide variety of content types; users can express who they are with a lot of leeway. … The Tumblr team uses video, user-generated content, creative hashtags, and humor to captivate their target demographic. … The material is funny and relevant to the target demographic – because they made it!”

7. Pitch Perfect 2 rocks a strong social game, from Snapchat to Instagram.

“The movie has more than 300K followers on Snapchat, and its premiere trended on Twitter. The Los Angeles debut featured a Twitter Mirror, an Instagram Instastop, a Tumblr Gif booth and a Snapchat stop. ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars stars helped with reach on Snapchat, sending out scenes from the red carpet, and parts of the event were livestreamed on Periscope.”

8. Summer food festivals lean on digital marketing to boost expansion.

“New York-based food festivals want to attract millennials this summer. So, naturally, they are turning to social media. This weekend, two New York festivals—Harlem EatUp and Brooklyn Flea's Seaport Smorgasburg—are leaning on Instagram and Facebook to take over Manhattan.” 

9. Candie's focuses campaign on Instagram.

“Candie’s will focus its spring/summer 2015 marketing campaign primarily on the social media network Instagram. … This is the first time the brand will feature a fashion blogger in a marketing campaign. The campaign, geared toward millennial customers, will reach over 40 million people through Instagram's user engagement and additional print advertising.”

10. Empower your pins with these 12 simple tips.

Active pinners are 47% more likely to be approaching or in the midst of a major life event – getting married; buying, remodeling or revamping a home; having a baby; and so on. How can you make your pins more helpful to the millions of people who use Pinterest to plan for these moments? We’ve put together a visual guide with 12 simple tips that can help you do just that.

1. #TeamiPhone

A study released in April by the Pew Research Center found that 73% of 13 to 17 year olds in the U.S. have access to smartphones, while 15% only have basic phones. Non-Hispanic black teens, according to the study, are the likeliest to use smartphones, as 85% of those surveyed report they own one. This opens the doors for marketers to create tons of mobile-specific content to reach these consumers. As we’ve noted in the past, Tumblr, whose user base skews younger, is a fantastic mobile touchpoint for brands to engage with fans and potential customers.

Teens are much more partial to one particular type of smartphone, according to research. Piper Jaffray found in the fall of 2014 that 67% of teens (with an average age of 16) have iPhones, meaning that brands need to be mindful of how their content—photos, emojis, GIFs and others—will execute on these devices.

Marketers should note, however, that smartphone use is less prevalent among teens residing in rural areas and in households with an annual income of less than $50,000. For brands looking to reach these teens, they’re better off sticking with desktop-friendly methods of communication. Some 87% of teens surveyed by Pew reported they have access to a desktop, laptop or tablet computer, with teens in rural areas overindexing in computer ownership.

2. All About Instagram

Reports from the media that teens have officially abandoned Facebook (or not) have been circulating for nearly two years. So what’s the deal? Are they on Facebook, or have they moved on? Well, according to the Pew survey, 71% of 13 to 17 year olds report that they do use Facebook – more than they do any other social network.

But just because they have profiles on the social network doesn’t mean they’re particularly active users. In its spring 2015 survey, Piper Jaffray found that Instagram is the most important social network among teens, with nearly one-third of those who were surveyed choosing it over all others. It makes sense. Instagram is the most mobile-friendly of all the social platforms, and it facilitates a major component of the teen experience – the feeling of wanting to show your peers who you are, all while trying to impress them. A 2015 Facebook IQ study shows that 63% of 13 to 24 year olds use Instagram to help document their lives, and 53% credit the platform with helping them define who they are.

In general, social network adoption tends to skew female, and that’s particularly the case with teens and visual platforms. Young women are far more inclined than their male counterparts to use Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Tumblr. Some 61% of Instagram users are girls, compared with 44% of boys.

Though it may seem Tumblr adoption among teens is low compared with the other networks, marketers shouldn’t discount it as a valuable marketing tool. Tumblr adoption is a completely different tale when we split the genders, as 27% of girls between the ages of 15 to 17 are active on the platform.

The takeaway here? Instagram seems to be the holy grail for reaching today’s teen girls. Not only is it a place for them to show off who they are and what they have, but it’s also a place for them to learn and absorb from their peers, helping them further establish their own identities. Marketers can tap into this by integrating this type of deeply personal content in the form of user-generated content onto their feeds. Brands such as Free People and Alex and Ani have mastered the art of UGC on Instagram and receive a lot of positive engagement when they share fan photos.

3. Look Who’s Pinning

As Pinterest recently announced, its platform really isn’t about social sharing; it’s meant for discovery and planning for the future. We know that men haven’t been as reliant on pinboards as much as their female counterparts, so it’s no surprise that teen boys aren’t strong users of these platforms just yet. Just 11% of boys use online pinboards compared with one-third of teen girls, according to Pew.

Older girls and teens who reside in households with incomes of $75,000 or more are the most inclined to use online pinboards. Brands that are looking to make their content discoverable to these demographics should incorporate Pinterest into their marketing strategies. Older teen girls are turning to pinboards at a critical stage of their lives – just as they are figuring out what to do as they enter adulthood. This means there’s tons of content marketers can create to help them navigate the next step of their lives. To that end, your pins should aim to inform, to inspire and to otherwise provide value.

4. There’s Something About Amazon

According to Piper Jaffray’s spring 2015 study, Amazon is by far the top preferred shopping site for teens. It all becomes clear when we consider teen spending habits.

A 2014 survey from Forest City Enterprises and research firm Alexander Babbage found that 13 to 17 year olds are less brand-oriented and more price-oriented than 18 to 24 year olds. Amazon caters well to finding lower-cost alternatives to what these consumers might want to purchase. They still love brands such as Nike, Forever 21 and Victoria’s Secret, but because price is such a big factor for them, they’re more likely to turn to Amazon for something in their price range.

What does this mean for brands? Because teens tend to be more price-sensitive than older consumers, marketers need to do their best to illustrate to this demographic when sales and deals are available. Victoria’s Secret Pink gets this. They do a great job of reminding their Instagram followers when deals are set to expire, or when they can come in and get items at a discounted price. Young women respond with comments like, “I’ll be there tomorrow!”

5. Emoji, GIFs Are the New Lexicon

Emojis are everywhere. It’s nearly impossible to scroll through an Instagram feed without seeing a bunch of them being left as comments. It’s so prevalent in fact, that Instagram recently released the ability to hashtag emojis on the platform. Conversely, on Tumblr, GIFs are everything. Last week, Slate published a debate about GIFs being superior to words as a method of communication.

This is how the teens of today communicate: in images. Spotting another Instagram user post a laughing-so-hard-until-my-eyes-water emoji in the comments section of a photo instantly signifies “This will make you laugh.” GIFs and emojis are quick ways of expressing one’s feelings, and often do a better job at it than words can.

Brands who skillfully master emoji and GIF communication will take their connections with fans to the next level. Denny’s is the prime example of a brand that does this well on Tumblr. The text posts on their blog are far and few between, while GIFs bring life to the page. It’s a hit with the teen demographic, and has really catapulted the brand into a favorite on Tumblr, with some posts garnering more than 18,000 notes within several days.

Take it One Step Further

Today’s teens are unlike those from any other generation. The always-on aspect of their lives makes them unique consumers and communicators who are constantly evolving, signifying that marketers need to evolve along with them. These insights barely scratch the surface of what brands need to know to fully engage these teens. To learn more about how consumers of today rely on visual channels of communication to research their purchases, download our guide on The New Customer Journey.

3. New study shows that Pinterest influences purchasing decisions.

“Pinterest likes to say it helps users plan for the future – when they are getting married, say, or decorating a home or planning a dinner party. Now, thanks to a study it co-sponsored, it can claim far more compelling business value: Pinterest helps users find things they want to buy.”

4. How hotels are monetizing Instagram.

Hotel News Now explains how Instagram represents a huge new monetization opportunity for hotels and how to take advantage. The article highlights how Conrad Hotels uses Curalate to enable users to book their stays via Instagram.

5. The impact of user-generated content in travel marketing.

“According to a study by Chase Marriott Rewards, 97% of all Millennial travelers post on social networks and share experiences with friends while traveling. In fact, 73% post to social networks at least once a day while traveling, and as of today, there are more than 39 million #travel photos on Instagram alone.”

6. 4 small businesses using social media to connect with customers.

Small businesses must work especially hard to reach customers, and some savvy entrepreneurs are using social media to build their brands and own distinct communities. The National Retail Federation lists the success stories of small businesses like Moorea Seal, Photojojo, The Woolery and The Burlap Bag.

7. Why your brand should be on Pinterest.

“By now most brands are aware they need to be on social media, but many never get beyond Facebook and Twitter. By limiting yourself you could be missing out on huge marketing opportunities presented by other social media sites. Pinterest, for example, has emerged as a valuable social network for many brands.”

8. The science behind posting on Pinterest.

“So what is the best frequency for Pinterest? What are the best days and times to post? And what sorts of pins do best when? The Next Web compiled the best of the data that’s out there into one Pinnable graphic.”

9. Tumblr launches campaign against cyberbullying, #PostItForward.

“As marvelous as the Internet can be, there are few corners of it that get nasty. … Tumblr is well aware of this, and it's trying to do something about it. #PostItForward is a new campaign launched by Tumblr to combat online bullying. It takes the form of a dedicated blog on Tumblr – one that focuses on curating inspiring, positive posts and encouraging open communication about taboo subjects like sexuality and mental health.”

10. How influencer marketing improves the reach of Instagram photo campaigns.

“Photo contests and campaigns are a great way for brands to reach consumers where they are with creative and engaging content. However, running a successful photo campaign on Instagram is much more thought-intensive than just posting photos. … The not-so-secret ingredient is using social media influencers to help forge a relationship between brands and consumers on social media.”

1. Marketers need to think beyond “us and them.”

In the traditional marketing model, marketers push out content and cross their fingers that consumers will react. Sometimes people respond by engaging with the brand, or, even better, by making a purchase, but it’s always been more likely that people share their brand experiences and thoughts with peers. In today’s environment, they’re doing it publicly, Brendan said. When a customer has a great experience (e.g. a woman bought a great shirt and feels awesome when she wears it), she’ll celebrate (or brag) by taking a photo and sharing it with friends. Brands should be paying attention to these visual conversations and leveraging them to win customers over.

2. Text reviews are losing credibility.

Consumers view text reviews with a hint of skepticism these days. Because some companies solicit reviews from people, consumers are wary of what may or may not be accurate. Fan photos improve the whole distrust of text reviews. “With fan photos, you’re actually seeing someone enjoying the product in a real setting,” Brendan said.

3. Creating UGC buzz doesn’t have to be so complicated.

Instead of just hoping fans start posting visual content on their own, it’s far more effective to give some influencers a nudge first, says Amber. The Sigma Beauty team sends press kits to certain influencers before launching a new product line, and encourages them to share photos of themselves using the products. This sparks interest in other fans who also want to be featured. It’s a great way to kick off the UGC-sharing dynamic.

4. Achieve legal compliance with unique hashtags.

To ensure the Sigma team isn’t making any legal missteps when relying on UGC, Amber says they go about collecting user images two different ways. 1) Via an upload tool that’s been integrated onto their website. It lets fan know that they can use that system to upload images if they’d like to be featured on the site. 2) By using specific hashtags, such as #SigmaBeauty and #SigmaFX. Because those hashtags are so unique, users who tag their photos with them know their photos might end up being featured on Sigma’s site.

5. Social high-fives go a long way.

When fans find themselves featured on a brand’s Instagram feed or ecommerce site, they get really excited. Brendan shared an example of a shopper who realized that Urban Outfitters had shared her photo on site. After seeing her photo online, she went out of her way to celebrate by taking a screenshot of the UO site on her desktop, sending it to her phone, and then formatting it for Instagram. She didn’t mind spending the extra five or 10 minutes to do this -- she just wanted to share this experience with her friends.

Amber is seeing much of the same from Sigma customers. “Fans want to be appreciated, and they want to be a part of your brand,” she said. “The more passionate your fans are, the more passionate they are about creating memorable photos.”

6. Brands are seeing results!

At the end of the day, user-generated content benefits the brand, Amber reported. “More user content leads to higher page views, which leads to higher purchases.”

2. Bank of America uses Pinterest to guide millennials through financial firsts.

“Bank of America created Better Money Habits (BMH), an online resource to help people understand their money. The site is open to anyone, with a focus on those just starting out – millennials. With the help of Promoted Pins, BMH content reached nearly 6 million people in less than 5 months and generated more than 29,000 repins.”

3. Longchamp appeals to loyalists with Le Pliage Tumblr.

“Longchamp’s Tumblr launched as part of the brand’s promotions for its customizable versions of the handbag, asking consumers to share a photo of a previous purchase for a chance at personalizing their own bag. This contest will allow the brand to reach out to loyalists, rewarding them for their support and enabling them to be part of the brand story.”

4. Why teens [heart emoji] Instagram.

More than half of teens say Instagram helped define who they are, and 33% say they check Instagram first thing in the morning. In addition to these eye-opening stats on teen Instagram usage, MediaPost lists some reasons why teens love Instagram, and in turn, why brands should love the medium to connect with this audience, with perspective from a 17-year-old herself.

5. NFL launches Pinterest pages for all 32 teams.

“With the NFL Draft 2015 kicking off Thursday in Chicago, the NFL launched the team pages to encourage fans to show their support beyond the field. To help launch the content, the league drafted TV personality Kristin Cavallari (wife of Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler) and Bears Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus to produce a series of comedic videos that showcase how fans will be able to interact on the platform.”

6. How to track conversions from Promoted Pins.

“If you’re interested in tracking how many sales your Promoted Pins lead to, you’ll want to implement conversion tracking. Conversion tracking is also very useful when trying to learn which types and styles of content are most effective at leading to conversions.”

7. Toms uses Instagram to give away a million shoes.

“To help celebrate the company's anniversary, founder Blake Mycoskie is giving away a pair of shoes to a needy child each time someone posts a photo to Instagram of bare feet with the hashtag #withoutshoes. The promotion ends May 21, or when the company gives away a million shoes via non-governmental organizations such as Unicef and Save the Children.”

8. Ad Council Calls for UGC following viral success of “Love Has No Labels” video with 100MM+ views.

“Following the viral success of the Love Has No Labels video, which has been viewed more than 100 million times since March 2, the Ad Council is inviting the public to share their stories celebrating diversity and inclusion. In addition to encouraging the public to show how they're putting labels and bias aside, the Ad Council has partnered with social media influencers who will develop content sharing their own stories of diversity and love.”

9. 8 reasons all brands should be on Instagram.

“Instagram is wonderfully simplistic and the most personal of the mobile platforms. It’s full of potential for connecting with a brand on a more intimate level. And if you’re thinking it’s just for millennials, you’re wrong. All ages and brands can benefit from what this app has to offer in terms of marketing. Here are eight reasons why all brands should be using Instagram.”

10. This simple Instagram campaign landed Z Gallerie 24% more print catalog subscribers in 2 weeks.

“Despite the e-commerce boom, print catalogs are still a lucrative business for furniture retailer Z Gallerie. But getting those catalogs into people's hands is tougher than it was a few years ago, which is why the brand started employing Instagram about a month ago to rev up print subscriptions.”

1. Create a conversation.

There’s no “right” or “wrong” when it comes to taking photos. But there is an underlying story, and that’s what an image should show. He says, “You should always be communicating through your image. Whether it be a subtle message of beauty or a visually compelling story of hope.”

Gareth adds, “It's the story that will always make you feel the image rather than just seeing it.”

While an image can spark conversation, a few carefully placed details can enhance its overall reception. Gareth’s image above illustrates this well. Not only is it visually compelling, but Gareth also uses Instagram’s geo-tag and captioning to add invaluable context. From the image, we see a man, we see glass, and we see buckets of sand. By tagging and captioning his photo accordingly, Gareth invites us on an adventure, transporting us to Petra, Jordan and introducing us to a local artisan and his craft.

2. Have a perspective.

It’s easy to take a photograph, upload it to an app, and think great, my work here is done. But Gareth would argue that you’re missing out. Some of the best images, he believes, can be born from the same scene. It’s all about thinking outside of the box and being playful in the environment you’re in.

In Gareth’s words: “Be sure to always approach the subject you're shooting from different angles and distances. Experiment with different framing and interesting perspectives while still keeping in mind that composition makes a good image.”

3. Look to your lighting.

Inside or outside? Flash or no flash? Dawn or dusk? “By studying light and how it affects the way your scene looks,” says Gareth, “you'll get the result you want in an image.” Gareth explains that light can be complex, but there are certain elements to seek out to make your photos shine. “Consider the time of day, the character of shadows, and the color of the light,” he says. “Remember that light is ultimately your tool. The more you learn how to use it the better your photos will be.”

Level Up Your Instagram Game

Learn more about Gareth and 11 other top Instagram influencers in our latest guide: Instafamous! In it, you'll find 25 tips and many more beautiful images to inspire your next photoshoot.

1. Email Capture: Keep Connections Alive Post-Instagram

We’ve established that Instagram is a great medium for identifying influencers, but the lack of a mechanism to collect followers’ information for communication on other platforms has remained a challenge. That’s why we’ve integrated an email capture feature into Like2Buy. Beginning today, in addition to driving traffic directly to your website, you will also be able to capture Instagram fans’ email addresses to grow your distribution list and provide another marketing touch point.

How can you apply this feature? This function will allow brands to send targeted emails with the knowledge that the recipients are definitely Instagram users, meaning they are likelier to engage with UGC, more inclined to enter social media contests, and are mobile-friendly fans. A beauty brand, for example, could send a roundup of user-generated images featuring a line of lipsticks during a given week. That brand could also use that email to encourage new fans to share their own photos for a chance to be featured in future brand communications, or even score a discount off their next purchase.

Whether it’s a weekly email recapping top Instagram posts or a specific campaign offering prizes for sharing photos, Instagram-specific email lists will facilitate relevant messaging to fans.

2. Internationalization: Make Like2Buy a Global Source of Revenue

More than 70% of Instagram users are outside the U.S., so it makes sense that tons of brands receive engagement from fans around the world. Directing international fans to a regional ecommerce site, however, has proven to be difficult. We’ve fixed that by providing brands the option to internationalize their Like2Buy feeds.

Curalate can identify the country that Like2Buy visitors are coming from based on their IP address. If it’s not the same as your brand’s default ecommerce site, the user will be directed to the homepage of the regional website upon tapping on an image. All we need from you to make this happen is a list of your localized websites. With custom internationalization, we can drive customers to localized versions of specific product pages. If the product is not available in a particular region, it’s no problem – we’ll remove that image from the localized Like2Buy feed.

Get Started

Like2Buy has forever changed the way consumers discover products and interact with brands on Instagram. Curalate clients can contact their Success Managers to learn more about or activate either of these new features today. If you’re not currently working with Curalate but want to see a demo of Like2Buy, we'd love to connect.

2. Instagram is the modern storefront, and this means a lot for your business.

“Instagram is the modern equivalent of window shopping. Feet strolling through a fashion district has given way to fingers scrolling down a screen. There’s no commitment or pressure to buy –  just a window into the world of a brand.”

3. How brands can make UGC work for them.

“Many marketers are still hesitant to invest in dedicated UGC programs, thereby missing out on a valuable opportunity to create a lasting impact and make a connection with their target audience,” according to Al Cadena, senior account director at Beeby Clark + Meyler. Cadena addresses the three major issues holding marketers back, and why they should finally let go.

4. Millennials make up the majority of pinners, and they have a lot of money to spend. 

Millennial buyers are projected to spend an annual $1.4 trillion by 2020. They also make up the biggest portion of Pinterest users. This article from Business2Community provides an overview of the millennial generation, their love for Pinterest, and what it means for brands.

5. Targeting teens? Get on Instagram.

“There’s still plenty of room for Instagram adoption among companies. Based on recent research by GfK for Pew Research Center, the platform presents brands with a good channel on which to reach teens. The study found that 52% of US teen internet users used Instagram – the second most popular social media platform among the group after Facebook (71%).”

6. Pinterest’s predictive board picker on iOS and Android cuts repinning time by 10%.

Pinterest’s new predictive board picker feature has been reported to reduce the average time spent on the repin flow by 10%. Further analysis also suggests that the feature is leading users to edit and delete less content.

7. TrueCar's social campaign fosters more than just puppy love.

“When it comes to brand affinity, it takes a lot for consumers to throw companies a bone. Car buying-and-selling marketplace TrueCar helps foster this puppy love by lending a paw to its four-legged friends through its ‘True Love’ campaign.”

8. John Lewis and Cadbury show off first brand results on Instagram.

“John Lewis and Cadbury were among the first brands to advertise on Instagram in the UK and have now revealed positive results from their initial experiments.”

9. Everything you need to know about Instagram's new filters and emoji update.

“Instagram just launched a new update that introduces three new photo filters and the ability to use emojis as hashtags. … After releasing five new filters in December, Instagram says Ludwig and Crema are now ‘the most popular filters overall,’ and it will continue to launch new filters ‘on a more regular basis.’”

10. Instagram launches @Music, its first official content vertical.

“Instagram ... announced the launch of a new official community on its service dedicated to music and musicians that will live under the handle @music. This marks the first time the company has created a dedicated account devoted to a single subject.”

1. Spawn inspiration by doodling.

Finding the inspiration to produce great work can be tough. To get the creative juices flowing, Darryll etches “silly, little ideas into the night.” He recommends that aspiring photographers do the same: “Keep a sketchbook on you at all times. Make notes of ideas and do little doodles of setups.”

While Darryll considers doodling to be a huge help, he doesn’t adhere himself to the sketches when actually taking photos. Staying fixed to a particular idea throughout the process can eliminate the organic feel from an image. Stories often end up telling themselves, and it’s to the photographer’s benefit to let that shine through as often as possible.

The bottom line? Have fun. “If you’re enjoying it, others will too.”

2. Invest time in your craft.

Patience and practice are major factors that determine whether or not a photographer will produce successful work, according to Darryll. People will often tell themselves they don’t have the time to hone their craft, but getting on a repetitive schedule can lead to amazing results. “Spending just an hour or even a half hour each day on something builds into an amazing amount of time doing it,” he says.

Take time during the photoshoot itself, too. Rather than hastily shooting a subject, Darryll recommends building a relationship with it first: “Play with your toys, your food, your cats. Talk to your toys, listen to them and give them their own personalities. Compound interest every day, and you will have the best life story clips of all freakin’ time.”

3. Never get complacent.

Photography starts with the basics, and every photographer should know them. “Learn to use your camera settings. Look at the light, look at the colors, look at the story … and click,” Darryll says.

The learning process shouldn’t end after taking a stellar image, though. “Don’t think ‘Boom! I’m a photographer.’ Even the best photographers are still learning, evolving and adapting their art form. We need to understand it, to be a part of it.”

25 Tips for Taking Stunning Snapshots

Interested in learning more about Darryll’s process? Get his tips and more from 12 top Instagram influencers to learn how you can build stronger connections with your followers.