#imm712

According to Trend Reports between 65 and 85 percent of people describe themselves as visual learners (especially younger users). This means that information is easier to digest by viewing an image instead of reading text.

Visual content has become an increasingly crucial part of content strategy, and here the social networking site Instagtam takes the lead. The image-centric network Instagram is the perfect way for interactions to occur between companies and consumers. For example, you can encourage consumers to take pictures of themselves using a product or a service in action. It is a great way to establish loyalty and build brand ambassadors who will gladly spread the word.  Furthermore, some businesses can take pictures of employees at the office or at events – this can help a business come across as being more personable.

One of the examples of brands using Instagram as a marketing tool is Puma. Puma has created a campaign called Around the World in One Click, where brand fans are asked to take a picture of their Pumas in different places around the world (with geo-tagging turned on), using the hashtag #travelingPUMAs. Then users were entered for a weekly draw to win a Puma prize pack.

  The campaign kept the brand active and kept fans constantly engaged. It was also interesting to see just how far the Puma brand has reached (winners have included fans from USA, Spain, Brazil and other countries). By using all the elements of social media (geo-tagging, hash-tagging, overall sharing) Puma distinguished itself as a global brand.

With a good #hashtag, the right type of content and a little bit of interaction with your followers, Instagram allows you to build trust with the social media audience and possibly go viral. Cara Delevingne casted her entire DKNY campaign using Instagram. The model, who has 8 million subscribers used her own Instagram page to promote the upcoming DKNY collection and asked users to submit models entries by hashtagging a selfie with hashtags #CaraWantsYou and #CaraForDKNY.

The model has built a viable commercial brand around herself, which in turn has helped her to secure contracts with labels such as DKNY. The success of this campaign is at the very basics of Instagram marketing: you take your fans and make them the stars.Who wouldn’t want that?

Instagram has quickly become a popular way for individuals and businesses to share pictures with their audiences. Every second 3600 pictures are uploaded on Instagram worldwide. So how to cut through the noise and create ad campaigns that people will interact with? What are the keys to success on Instagram?

Instagram strategic recommendations:

Be true to your brand. Ensure that your images express a clearly defined brand personality and voice.

Share experiences. Offer a view into the world or lifestyle that your brand makes possible through the eyes of the people who use your products and services.

Know your audience. Learn what people love about your brand.

Behance.net, a portfolio-sharing site for creative professionals, is a great addition to any artist or designer’s social media strategy. The creative work featured varies from fine arts to UX Design to stage makeup.  More than simply a large online gallery, Behance is very much a social and career networking site. Users are able to set up their profiles as both a resume and a portfolio, and enjoy access to their page’s statistics and total views. Recently, the site has added a component for collaborative and team-based projects, where multiple people/co-workers can add to a project. There is also a job board section, although most of the opportunities posted are in New York and California. 

Much like favouriting or “liking” on other sites, viewers can appreciate a user’s project- literally, with the “appreciate” button located at the footer of each project. Behance users also have the opportunity to “follow” others and link their profile with more common social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Despite these similarities to other social networking sites, Behance undoubtedly stands out as a unique platform. While it is very much a social network that connects professionals, it is clear that its primary focus is the content itself- images of striking, original creative work. User home pages are always set to feature quality work that is scouted out and selected by the Behance team. When I move through the site, I don’t feel like I’m on a typical social network with all the noise, ads, and passive aggressive status updates. It is unsurprisingly refreshing. 

This is because Behance knows that, unlike the standard social networking sites, it has a niche market and has done a great job responding to the needs of the creative workforce. Portfolio pages can come from established design agencies or young emerging artists. I find the site is beneficial to both types- for young professionals at the beginning of their careers, it is the perfect platform to showcase work. The navigation is sleek and simple, emphasizing the artwork. The platform as a whole is much more creative-focused than LinkedIn, but also more professional than other art sharing websites such as DeviantArt. 

For established artists and companies, the site offers the opportunity to extend their website. To give an example, I’ll reference Bruce Mau Design’s page- the Toronto design agency uses Behance to display work they might not have room for or otherwise is not on their main site. Perhaps even more importantly, Behance’s “appreciate” and following features naturally make the content interactive. Followers are notified whenever a new project is published on the Bruce Mau Design page. This allows them to be more approachable and thereby creates more followers and exposure. The agency also uses the space to post print material and job opportunities. 

When I went to the TTC website to read about the new jewel in its streetcar transit fleet I was expecting a video tour of the new car with a voice over describing and demonstrating its brand spanking new features.  Instead all that I saw were images and bullet point descriptions about the new streetcar and the new payment system.   While the written text and images gave me the basics of what I needed to know, the fanfare leading up to the launch of the new streetcar seemed like a non-event after I read this article. 

 A video would have prepared first time riders for the experience.  TTC riders who are in wheelchairs or who have other mobility challenges could have benefitted even more.  And it would have been so easy.  Simply by seeing someone actually use the ramp to get on the streetcar and disembark from it with close up shots of the blue accessibility buttons.  There is an existing image of a woman in a wheelchair getting off the streetcar but no close up shot.  In fact, we had a closer shot of the passenger with his bicycle in the designated area than we did of the wheelchair on the streetcar ramp. 

There was an attempt at a modest design in the article.  First there was a handheld photo superimposed over a black and white image from the 20th century.  Four additional handheld images followed over older streetcars.  This was a very simplistic way of contrasting the old with the new.   The TTC colours red white and black remained throughout but there was no uniformity with the font style.  This was most glaring when the second header “Our new streetcar” was in plain text on a white background.  It really stood out like an eyesore from the other headers, which were all in white text on a black background. 

Before testing “New Streetcars” section of the Toronto Transit Commission website on usability I would like to clarify expectations. 

The purpose for viewing the content is to collect information. Ideally, the content should be clear, concise, relevant and efficient. Here is the information I would like to find about new streetcars:

As a TTC frequent user, the topic of new streetcars is very appealing to me. I live around King and Bathurst intersection and am very familiar with the frustrating situation when it’s impossible to get on the streetcar during the morning rush hours.  So the most important thing is how much bigger the new streetcars are than the old ones.

As a Torontonian I would want to know about design:  our old streetcars have became symbolic for the city, and the new ones should also have some unique style.

Other useful information I would like to know would be about: comfort, safety, number of sitting versus standing spots, and the streetcars’ utility for disabled people.

And finally, the time when new street cars will come

 Upon entering the website the first things that catch one’s eye are the headline “The future is” and streetcar’s photos, and you automatically start to scroll the page down to see more. Then I scrolled to the first section and there I found general information about the design and capacity.

Next follows information about bike racks and accessibility for passengers with special needs.  After that there is a section “Giving you choices”, which is a bit confusing. It took me several times to read through the section before I understood more or less the information in it.

There are more things I would like to find (safety and timing), but navigation labels are not clear (“The future is”, “Meet your streetcar ride”). That makes my search difficult; I need to jump from one section to another.

 Finally, in the section “New streetcars” I found the information about when new streetcars are coming. In the section “Meet your streetcar ride” I found vehicle specifications, including: seating and standing places, length, width, height, weight, and speed.

So it seems that the TTC will be rolling out (rolling…get it…?) their new streetcars. If I were to advise the TTC on the section of their website devoted to these new vehicles, I’d have the following suggestions:

First thing I see is a cut-away of a new streetcar, followed by an explanation of the rollout schedule by streetcar route. Fair enough. If I’m curious about the new streetcars, knowing when I’ll be seeing them and roughly what they’ll be like are probably at the top of my things to find out.

Laying out the various articles as cards seems fine, but why are there two links to the same content in each card? Is the blue link at the bottom really necessary?

Also…um, okay. In two cases there are NOT two links to the same content, but rather one link to the corresponding content and one link to the another card’s content. Whoops.

What IS the future, exactly? What I mean is, why would I click on a link called “The Future Is…”? Possibly because the suspense is killing me...? WHAT IS THE FUTURE?? TELL ME!! I think probably not. A more informative title would be more useful, and probably more interesting to me in fact.

So if I DO click on the link above, I get a list of the new streetcars’ features. Yes, it’s great to have these on the site. Onboard fare vending machines! Awesome! But why would I look for interesting features of the new streetcars under “The Future Is…” In an attempt to clarify, they add a subheading: “The future is here. View TTC’s ads promoting our new streetcars.” ‘Cause nothing is more appealing than clicking on ads. 

What’s the difference between Looking Inside My New Ride and Meeting My New Ride? Turns out both articles have different content, from “The Future Is…,” but all three have the same purpose: they describe the features and the appearance of the new streetcars. It looks as though there were two interesting ideas for how to display the information, and then a few leftover odds and ends that no one knew what to do with. Hence three separate sections that I think should either be ONE section, or else divided up in a more logical and clearly categorized way. And yes, you may have to choose between the cool photo series and the interactive picture if you can’t figure out a useable way to divide information between the two.

I’m new in Toronto. I hadn’t even heard word ‘streetcar’ before I came to Canada. It’s funny, but actually this term was one of the new things that I’ve learned in my very first days here. On the one hand it could be just ridiculous coincidence. On the other, I see this case as a quite representative example of significant value of Toronto streetcar in the city infrastructure. It has passed almost a month since my arrival. I’ve heard a lot of information about launching new streetcar. It seems like this event is really long-expected for citizens of Toronto. To emphasize the importance of the new transport solution Toronto Transit Commission does its best and advertises own activities in the best possible way. For this purpose a bunch of various promotional material was prepared. There are a new video on YouTube, updated statuses on Facebook and Twitter, special categories and pages on the official site etc. Let’s figure out what is behind the official information provided by TTC. Is site’s content useful? How easily average user can obtain own search goals?