Category: SOCIAL MEDIA
Great Resources to Create Beautiful Images for Social
Images play a crucial role in the world of social media marketing. You’ve heard it time and time again: a post with visual content (beautiful images) will garner more engagement than its text-based counterpart. But this poses a challenge: how do you share compelling images multiple times per day on a slew of platforms while maintaining an efficient workflow? It’s a tough thing to manage – especially when quality and cost come into play.
There isn’t one answer, but many. And as usual, the Internet comes to the rescue. Below we look at easy-to-use tools that you can work into your content strategy to create quality imagery while saving time and money. These are 16 of the best image resources we’ve found, and they have one vital thing in common: they make the life of a social marketer a whole lot easier.
Full-service image creators
Canva
For a social marketer, the biggest value Canva provides is simplicity: create striking imagery by just dragging and dropping elements into place. No design experience? No problem. Plug text or photos into their ready-made layouts or produce something from scratch.
Much like Canva, BeFunky is a one-stop shop for graphic creation and collages. Choose layouts based on function: social media headers, blogger resources, and small business templates are among the options. Customizations come quickly and easily with the company’s user-friendly interface.
Design assets
Creative Market
For those who delve deeper into the design world, Creative Market has a massive catalog of ready-to-use fonts, templates, mockups, and stock photos produced by incredible talents. With a vision in mind, finding what you need is a cinch, and even if your creative flow is running dry, Made with Creative Market has infinite inspiration. Not sure where to get started? Creative Market gives out six free products every week to start a collection of assets with.
Free stock photos
Unsplash has a model that’s hard to beat: “Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.” The organization dishes out 10 stunning new photos every 10 days shot by photographers in their skilled community. Finding the right image to accompany a social post can be a challenge so Unsplash is gold for a social marketer. Under the Creative Commons Zero license, you can copy, alter, redistribute, and even use their photos commercially. It’s the ultimate creative freedom.
Pexels
Great photography sparks emotion. Emotion sells. End of story. A great photo can be the backbone of any social post, and Pexels is another valuable site with access to a growing database of free stock photos. At the moment, the company boasts more than 4,500 photos under the Creative Commons Zero license, and they’re adding at least 70 new images per week.
Data visualization
It’s no question that including compelling data in your content strategy is an effective way of engaging your audience. Infogram is data visualization at its finest. The platform makes repackaging information a painless process. Though you can choose from a multitude of options and designs, from creating complex infographics to simple charts, the experience is far from overwhelming.
Creating an infographic from scratch doesn’t have to be an arduous task. If you’re up for the challenge, you can make your own using Easel.ly. Choose from a slew of ready-to-use templates or create your own. The real value is in the drag-and-drop interface and the ease of plugging in your own data.
Photo editor/enhancer
Hootsuite Enhance
Trying to remember the optimal image sizes for each social network is, quite frankly, a pain in the butt. Use Hootsuite Enhance, our new photo editing app, to ensure your images are cropped and sized perfectly for each social network. You can also use Enhance to make your images more exciting by adding filters, borders, stickers, text, or a watermark of your company’s logo. If you’ve run out of ideas or images to post, you can browse through a selection of stock photos in Enhance that are free for commercial use. And in true Hootsuite fashion, you can share images from Enhance straight to the social networks of your choice—including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more—or schedule them for later using the Hootsuite mobile app.
Pixlr
The entire Pixlr suite includes a wide range of tools that come in handy for a social media manager—starting with the web-based photo editor, a free alternative to Photoshop. Pixlr Express functions much like Instagram in that you can apply different color effects to your images and adjust their strengths. It also includes creative overlays, stickers, and the ability to add text. Pixlr’s collection of web-based apps helps beautify your images.
Editing and enhancing photos on the go is a snap (pun intended) using the Snapseed mobile app. You don’t have to be seasoned in complicated photo editing software to easily understand how it works. Swipe up, down, left, and right to create your desired effect. Your smartphone can be a powerful tool for generating original content for your social pages.
Photo overlays
Over App
Over is a powerful tool that goes far beyond just adding text to images—though that’s how it’s best known to the market. Even choosing from preset social dimensions just scratches the surface of the app’s features. With a recent update, it now allows for blending, taking color samples, adding image overlays, and offers striking ready-made artwork. New integration with Unsplash, the free stock photo site also mentioned on this list, means Over is a graphic creations powerhouse.
Phonto, the app that allows you to add creative text to images, is a minute marketer’s dream: import an image, add text, style it, and share. Of course, the real art is selecting the right font and impeccably placing your design. The best part? Phonto won’t cost you a dime.
Visual quotes
Time is on your side with Recite, an effortless solution for creating images from quotes. Sharing quotes is often an effective method for garnering engagement on social. Boasting a straightforward user experience, the process has been stripped down to its core. Just type your quote into the text box, choose from a handful of templates below it, click ‘Create’, and bam! Download or share straight to one of your social pages.
Photo re-sizer
Autre Planete’s Social Media Image Maker
Optimizing image dimensions for each social channel can be a hassle: it’s time-consuming and you have no choice but to keep up with social image specs that are constantly being modified. Autre Planete’s Social Media Image Maker is a convenient resource for cropping photos or graphics to the right size.
Bonus: Download a free cheat sheet to quickly find the best image sizes for every social network and learn how you can use Hootsuite to easily add them to any post.
Annotations
Annotate much? If so, Skitch might be for you. An Evernote product, Skitch provides all the tools necessary to add visual commentary to any image. Use arrows, text, stickers, and a handful of other tools to get your message across on a screenshot or any image of your choice. It’s a helpful app for support or community teams that have to answer complicated technical user questions.
Mockups
Mockups galore! Sometimes you just need an image of your website or app and a screenshot just won’t cut it. Place It offers a wide variety of mockups to showcase the image of your choosing. Upload it right into a template and voila! Download a free low-res version or buy it in a higher resolution.
Secrets of Social Proof … Not What You Think
Social proof is a concept that is as old as time. It has just begun to gain traction amongst online marketers as it explains a lot about the success of some online ventures and the failure of others.
To put it simply:
“Social proof in a social media context is the theory that accounts that have high follower numbers are trusted and followed more often”
It can be used to build trust in a social media environment for your business.
Social proof marketing is not new but often forgotten.
Peer pressure
One of the earliest influences on human development is something we have all experienced…” peer pressure”. When one person within your group of peers pressures you into doing something, you’re not so likely to do it.
When many people within your peer group are pressuring you to do something, you’re much more likely to do it. This will escalate as more people join in.
The world of social media is, as you’d guess, much like the real world. In a social media context, social proof comes into play when web users see that a large number of people already follow, like, share, or commented on a piece of content. The increased activity is seen as something desirable to join in on.
What video are you more likely to watch?
Another view of social proof is the idea that people will refer to the past actions of others when they’re unsure as to what they should do. When on YouTube, if someone isn’t sure they should comment on a video or not, a large number of comments will say to them “Yes, you definitely should.” No, or few, comments will say “No, not worth your time.”
The search below was for “social media advice,” who are you more likely to watch when you look at viewer numbers?
Let’s take a look at a more practical setting that we’re all familiar with… television. TV shows have been using social proof for decades.
Watch a sitcom with canned laughter, or laugh tracks, in the background. When you hear those people laughing you’re more prone to laugh as well, increasing your enjoyment of the show and the chance that you’ll watch it more often.
Examples of social proof
There are a number of excellent examples of social proof on this blog. I’ll summarize them in point form so you can quickly expand your knowledge here before clicking over:
- Facebook Sponsored stories rapidly increase exposure which leads to more likes, and even crossovers with other social platforms due to their recognition – even algorithms recognize social proof.
- A key guest blog on a relevant website can increase sales better than an article in the New York Times, or a spot on CNN.
- Klout is a successful social media tool that actually only measures your social proof.
- Yelp’s entire design is centered around social proof – higher star ratings and better comments are a result of customer reviews. You’re more likely to go when more people have given it a high rating – just like peer pressure.
- Bloggers have been promoting their number of subscribers for years. More subscribers = more trustworthy.
- Endorsements on your website from major news outlets a HUGE social proof. If your blog says “appeared on CNN, ABC, PBS, The Washington Post” along the bottom, expect your social proof to increase dramatically.
- Customer testimonials have been used in commercials for years. Some real, some fake – both are examples of social proof.
These are all more advanced forms of social proof. That most immediate one, and the one that people will see the most often and make the highest number of judgments on, is quite simply your follower numbers.
A low number of Twitter followers leads to few people taking you seriously. Few subscribers on YouTube leads to people thinking that your videos aren’t any good.
What aspects of social proof should you focus on for success?
We just spoke about your follower numbers as a key aspect of social proof, but what else do you need to think about?
Here are 5 points to consider:
1. Positive social proof is better than negative
Negative social proof is the type of bullying behavior that we all resent. To look at the most basic examples in the Twitter images below, which are you more likely to click on? You’ll never truly win people’s trust with negative social proof, just like those schoolyard bullies.
2. Money is less persuasive than social proof
A study in the Wall Street Journal showed that consumers were more likely to make decisions based on social proof than the potential of saving money.
The study, “Your neighbors are already doing it,” was more persuasive than “you’ll save $54/month” when it came to influencing consumer behavior!
3. Use pictures to make your social proof real
Social media is the perfect platform for building social proof as it gives you a nearly limitless number of ways to attach pictures to your social proof. You can post photos with calls to action that breed comments that lead to social trust. You can take comments, with the author’s permission, and post them to your website along with their photo. Your blog posts can be filled with images of success enjoyed by your products or services.
Check out this excellent tweet that shows a brand with a story to tell, and with a picture added for visual impact:
4. Your best social proof may be the stories you tell
Statistics are great for bored, sorry, board meetings, but they are hardly ever going to truly interest people on social media. A compelling story, from a customer with a positive experience, could be positive social proof that increases engagement more than any other thing you do. People understand stories, people relate to stories, and people are entertained by stories – statistics works and are often ignored.
For bonus points, get one of your customers to shoot a video:
5. Influencers: The friendly online bullies
As discussed in the point form notes above, nothing quite equals the positivity of having a respected leader say something positive about your products or services. Their behavior is able to “bully” their users with their positive influence. They’re much more likely to trust your product when someone they trust speaks of it positively.
Social media is an absolute dream for this type of social proof – no more paying celebrities for an expensive commercial, just cut right to the key influencers in your industry!
Social proof is more than an ego
Social proof is something as old as the human race itself, but social signals and social media have made it something tangible for modern marketers to use. Remember the next time you make a push to increase your followers that you’re not stroking your own ego, you’re trying to show the next person that finds your account that you are worth their time and trust.
Can Social Change Theory Create Real Change?
Here you will find simple experiment examples to test a social change theory.
Three hundred households in a California town were divided into two groups. Half were sent normal power bills and the other half had a smiley face on their bills if their consumption was below average, and a frowning face if their usage was higher than average.
The results could not have been more conclusive: within the group with faces on their bills, high users reduced their electricity consumption, and low users consumed even less than before.
Simple enough? The difference was a little yellow circle on a piece of paper, but was it a significant impact?
Nudge Theory rose to global prominence in 2008 with the release of the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Professor Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein. The volume brought the discourse on Nudge theory to the wider public of government, as well as the private sector involved with public health and related fields.
Professors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein cite the smiley experiment as a simple example of their theory that people can be gently encouraged to behave in socially desirable ways. Like shown here, even small incentives can improve people’s behavior. The two call it the nudge theory, quietly shepherding people in the right direction.
They cite many examples of research that raise “serious questions about the rationality of many judgments and decisions that people make”. (Wikipedia) They state that, unlike members of homo economicus, members of the species homo sapiens make predictable mistakes because of the way they are influenced by their social interactions.
Why should society need a nudge in the first place? The research team questions one of the major assumptions of economic theory, homo economicus, which is the idea that humans act in an enlightened and rational way to maximize their well-being.
This argument is the central thesis of behavioral economics, which asserts that emotion is an important factor in market behavior. It asserts that people make decisions on the basis of gut feelings rather than careful analysis of all the available options. Also, they’re lazy. People could save by switching to another power provider, but they can’t be bothered. Professor Sunstein freely admits that he’s no exception; for decades, he’s received newspapers he no longer wants, simply because he hasn’t gotten around to stopping the subscription.
Optimists? Yes, Thaler and Sunstein are optimists. Little things, like other people interfering ever so slightly in our lives, can help to push us along the right path. Nudge theory isn’t just about helping Californians to save energy, it has many applications. Nudge Theory has also found its way into business management and corporate culture. Health- Safety and Environment (HSE) and Human Resources are two areas that have found extensive potential to apply the theory to internal safety or management culture.
In another application, Thaler and Sunstein point out that many Americans are not saving enough for retirement. They state that “in 2005 the personal savings rate for Americans was negative for the first time since 1932 and 1933 – the Great Depression years”. (p115 of their book)
One change they offer is creating better default plans for employees. Employees would be able to adopt any plan they like, but, if no action is taken, they would automatically be enrolled in an expertly designed program (such as social security]. They also propose what they refer to as the “Save More Tomorrow” plan. This is to address the issue of people having the desire to save more, yet procrastinating on actually doing so. This program would invite participants to commit themselves, in advance, to a series of contribution increases timed to coincide with pay raises.
People are still given all the freedom to make their own decisions but they are “nudged” to make a particular decision.
So far, so good – but nudging can also be an intrusion into someone’s personal life. In Austria, people have to opt out of organ donation by specifically stating that they do not want their organs removed when they die. Other countries follow an opt-in system, in which you carry a card stating that you wish to donate your organs. The opt-out method is problematic from an individual moral perspective, but it significantly increases the number of donor organs.
Nudge theory follows the principles of libertarian paternalism. People must be free to make their own decisions – that’s the libertarian bit – but it’s also OK to influence their behavior in a paternalistic way. Freedom and paternalism are not contradictory terms. Displaying fruit at eye level in a cafeteria to encourage people to eat better is a nudge. Removing burgers from the menu, say the theorists, is unacceptable interference. Carrots are a good thing (to continue the healthy eating theme), but sticks are bad. It all sounds pretty simple, but is life really this black and white?
To critics, nudging often crosses into the realm of manipulation. The nudgers say they’re acting in the public interest and trying to make the world a better place, but do they really know what individuals want? Driving to work is not very good for the environment, but it’s considerably more comfortable than a sweaty, crowded subway. Cigarettes will kill you in the long run, but they’ll give you a buzz for five minutes. Shouldn’t people be able to achieve their own balance between short and long-term happiness? Could a well-intentioned nudge overstep the boundaries; could someone end up getting hurt?
In spite of the criticism, libertarian paternalism is the flavor of the month. Richard Thaler, who lectures at Chicago University, is an advisor to Barack Obama’s economics team. Cass Sunstein, one of the country’s most high-profile lawyers, is Head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House. The Democrats have jumped enthusiastically onto the nudge-theory bandwagon because it provides a theoretical justification for state intervention. In a positive way that is, like a smiley on your electricity bill.
Our takeaway?
Our society needs to accelerate many changes. Any social change theories that can contribute must be employed. The Nudge Theory is no exception. A big change is always started with many small changes.
Remember, what we see depends on what we are looking for.
How Facebook Beat MySpace
how we communicate – and might change the face of media – there was MySpace. MySpace was targeted at the same audience and had robust capabilities, and ways to market long before Facebook. It generated enormous interest, received a lot of early press, created huge valuation when investors jumped in, and was undoubtedly not only an early internet success – but a seminal website for the movement we now call social media. On top of that, MySpace was purchased by News Corporation, a powerhouse media company, and was given professional managers to help guide its future as well as all the resources it ever wanted to support its growth. By almost all ways we look at modern start-ups, MySpace was the early winner and should have gone on to great glory.
But things didn’t turn out that way. Facebook was hatched by some college undergrads and started to grow. Meanwhile, MySpace stagnated as Facebook exploded to 600 million active users. In early 2010, according to The Telegraph in “Facebook Dominance Forces Rival Networks to Go Niche,” MySpace gave up on its social media leadership dreams and narrowed its focus to the niche of being a “social entertainment destination.” As the number of users fell, MySpace was forced to cut costs, laying off half its staff this week according to MediaPost.com in “MySpace Confirms Massive Layoffs.” After losing a reported $ 350 million last year, it appears that MySpace may disappear – “MySpace Versus Facebook – There Can Be Only One” reported Gigaom.com. The early winner now appears a loser, most likely to be unplugged, and a very expensive investment with no payoff for NewsCorp investors.
What went wrong? A lot of folks will be relaying the tactics of things done and not done at MySpace. As well as tactics done and not done at Facebook. But underlying all those tactics was a very simple management mistake News Corp. made. News Corp tried to guide MySpace, to add planning, and to use “professional management” to determine the business’s future. That was fatally flawed when competing with Facebook which was managed in White Space, letting the marketplace decide where the business should go.
If the movie about Facebook’s founding has any veracity, we can accept that none of the founders ever imagined the number of people and applications that Facebook would quickly attract. From parties to social games to product reviews and user networks – the uses that have brought 600 million users onto Facebook are far, far beyond anything the founders envisioned. According to the movie, the first effort to sell ads to anyone was completely unsuccessful, as users beyond college and kids sharing items with each other were not on the table. It appeared like a business bust at the beginning.
But, the brilliance of Mark Zuckerberg was his willingness to allow Facebook to go wherever the market wanted it. Farmville and other social games – why not? Different ways to find potential friends – go for it. The founders kept pushing the technology to do anything users wanted. If you have an idea for networking on something, Facebook pushed its tech folks to make it happen. And they kept listening. And looking within the comments for what would be the next application – the next promotion – the next revision that would lead to more uses, more users, and more growth.
And that’s the nature of White Space management. No rules. Not really any plans. No forecasting markets. Or foretelling uses. No trying to be smarter than the users to determine what they shouldn’t do. Not prejudging ideas so as to limit capability and focus the business toward a projected conclusion. On the contrary, it was about adding, adding, adding, and doing whatever would allow the marketplace to flourish. Permission to do whatever it takes to keep growing. And resource it as best you can – without prejudice as to what might work well, or even best. Keep after all of it. What doesn’t work stop resourcing, and what does work do more?
Contrarily, at NewsCorp, the leaders of MySpace had a plan. NewsCorp isn’t run by college kids lacking business sense. Leaders create Powerpoint decks describing where the business will head, where they will invest, and how they will earn a positive ROI with projections of what will work – and why – and then plans to make it happen. They developed the plan and then worked the plan. Plan and execute. The professional managers at News Corp looked into the future, decided what to do, and did it. They didn’t leave direction up to market feedback and crafty techies – they ran MySpace like a professional business.
And how’d that work out for them?
Unfortunately, MySpace demonstrates a big fallacy in modern management. The belief is that smart MBAs, with industry knowledge, will perform better. That “good management” means you predict, you forecast, you plan, and then you go execute the plan. Instead of reacting to market shifts, fast, allowing mistakes to happen while learning what works, professional managers should be able to predict and perform without making mistakes. Once the bright folks who create the strategy set a direction, it’s all about executing the plan. That execution will lead to success. If you stumble, you need to focus harder on execution. Probably get a new President who understands execution – in a more brutal way.
When managing innovation, including operating in high-growth markets, nothing works better than White Space. Giving dedicated people permission to do whatever it takes, and resources, then holding their feet to the fire to demonstrate performance. Let dedicated people learn from their successes, and failures, and move fast to keep the business in the fast-moving water. There is no manager, leader, or management team that can predict, plan and execute as well as a team that has its ears close to the market, the flexibility to react quickly, and is willing to make mistakes (and learn from them even faster) without bias for a predetermined plan.
The penchant for planning has hurt a lot of businesses. Rarely does a failed business lack a plan. Big failures – like Circuit City, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and GM – are full of extremely bright, well-educated (Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Wharton) MBAs who are prepared to study, analyze, predict, plan, and execute. But it turns out their crystal ball is no better than – well – college undergraduates.
When it comes to applying innovation, use White Space teams. Drop all the business plan preparation, endless crunching of historical numbers, multi-tabbed Excel spreadsheets, and Powerpoint matrices. Instead, dedicate some people to the project, push them into the market, make them beg for resources because they are sure they know where to put them (without ROI calculations), and tell them to get it done – or you’ll fire them. You’ll be amazed how fast they (and your company) will learn – and grow.
Boost Your Database Management Skills
Importing or exporting MySQL databases (database management) will likely be necessary at some point if you work with them. Importing a database enables you to transfer data from one database to another, whereas exporting enables you to create backups or share your data. While using the command line to import and export databases in MySQL is a quick and powerful method, some users may prefer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) tool, such as MySQL Workbench or dbForge Studio for MySQL, to simplify the process.
In this blog post, we will discuss four key considerations when working with MySQL databases: why import and export are important, how to export a database using both the command line and graphical user interface, how to import a database using both the command line and graphical user interface, and how to choose the right method for your specific needs. By the end of this post, you will be able to confidently work with MySQL databases using both command line and graphical user interface tools.
Export MySQL Databases using Command line
Using the command line to export MySQL databases is a quick and effective way to create backups, migrate data to a new database, or share data with others. Here are the command line steps for exporting a MySQL database:
- On your computer, open a command prompt or terminal window.
- Enter the directory in which you wish to save the exported file. To save the file to your backups directory, for example, type the following command and press Enter:
- cd ~/backups
- To export the database, use the mysqldump command. The command’s basic syntax is as follows:
mysqldump -u [username] -p [database_name] > [filename].sql
- Replace [username] with your MySQL username, [database name] with the name of the database you wish to export, and [filename] with the desired filename for the exported database. For instance, to export a database named “mydatabase” and save it as “mydatabase backup.sql” on your desktop, the following command would be used:
mysqldump -u root -p mydatabase > ~./mydatabase_backup.sql
- Enter your MySQL password and press Enter when prompted. Depending on the size of your database, the export process may take some time.
- Verify that the export was successful by examining the saved file’s contents. The file can be opened with a text editor.
Export MySQL Databases using dbForge Studio for MySQL
If you’re searching for a simple and trouble-free way to migrate a MySQL database, you can try to export data with the Devart IDE, dbForge Studio for MySQL:
1. Choose Backup Database from Database > Backup and Restore.
2. Configure the options in the Database Backup Wizard window and click Next.
3. Select database objects to back up and click Next.
4. Choose the backup settings. By clicking Backup, a MySQL database can be instantly exported to a SQL file. Click Next to set the log settings and error handling parameters.
5.Choose Open script if you want the SQL file to open after the Wizard closes.
6. Finally, click Finish.
It’s over! Using dbForge Studio for MySQL, you have successfully exported a MySQL database. If you encounter errors during the export process, verify that you have the proper permissions and that the database is operating correctly.
Import MySQL Databases using Command line
Importing a MySQL database through the command line is a quick and effective way to move data from one database to another or restore a database from a backup. Following are the steps for importing a MySQL database via the command line:
- On your computer, open a command prompt or terminal window.
- Navigate to the directory containing the SQL file containing the database you wish to import. If the file is located in backups directory, for example, type the following command and press Enter:
cd ~/backups
- To import the database, use the mysql command. The command’s basic syntax is as follows:
mysql -u [username] -p [database_name] < [filename].sql
- Replace [username] with your MySQL username, [database name] with the name of the database into which you wish to import the data, and [filename] with the name of the SQL file to import. For instance, to import a database named “mydatabase” from a file named “mydatabase.sql”, you would use the following command: import-database mydatabase.sql
mysql -u root -p mydatabase < ~/backups/mydatabase.sql
- Enter your MySQL password and press Enter when prompted. Depending on the size of the SQL file, the import process could take time.
- Verify that the import was successful by inspecting the database into which the data was imported. To view the database and its contents, you can use a GUI tool such as dbForge Studio for MySQL.
Well, that’s all there is to it! Congratulations, you have imported a MySQL database from the command line. If you are receiving import problems, make sure the database is healthy and that you have the necessary permissions.
Import MySQL Databases using dbForge Studio for MySQL
dbForge Studio for MySQL is a powerful MySQL database management and administration tool that makes it simple to import databases. The following are the steps required to import a MySQL database using dbForge Studio for MySQL:
1. Go to Database > Import Data to begin.
2. Choose the necessary import format, enter the database file’s location, and then click Next.
3. Select where you wish to import the file. Set the Connection and Database options and choose whether to import the data as a new table or to an existing one.
4. Click Next and set the import options for the selected file format.
5. Click Next to configure further import options. To import immediately, click Import. Moreover, the import settings can be saved as a template file. Simply click the Save button on any Wizard page.
There you have it! Congratulations! You have successfully imported a MySQL database using dbForge Studio for MySQL.
Comparing Command Line and GUI Tool for exporting and importing MySQL databases
There are two primary techniques available for exporting and importing MySQL databases: the command line and graphical user interface (GUI) tools. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and selecting the most appropriate one for your needs will help you optimize your workflow and avoid frequent mistakes. This is a comparison of command line and graphical user interface export and import tools for MySQL databases:
Command Line
Benefits:
- Faster performance and more control over the export/import process
- Can be automated using scripts or batch files for repeatable tasks
- Can be used on a remote server without the need for a GUI
Drawbacks:
GUI Tool
Benefits:
- Easier to use and more intuitive interface
- Offers visual representation of the database structure and data
- Supports drag-and-drop for importing and exporting data
Drawbacks:
- Slower performance and less control over the export/import process
- Can be resource-intensive and may not work well on low-spec machines
- Requires installation and configuration of the GUI tool
When choosing between command line and GUI tool for exporting and importing MySQL databases, consider the following factors:
- Size and complexity of the database
- Frequency of the task
- Your familiarity with the tool
- The need for customization and automation
- The resources available on your computer
In the end, the decision between a command line and graphical user interface tool for exporting and importing MySQL databases will depend on your particular needs and tastes. By learning the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy, you will be able to select the most appropriate one for your situation and optimize your database administration workflow.
Conclusion
This article explains how to import and export MySQL databases using both command-line and graphical user interface (GUI) tools. We’ve discussed the significance of importing and exporting databases, offered step-by-step instructions on how to do it using both techniques, and outlined frequent mistakes and troubleshooting advice. We’ve also evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each method to help you select the best one for your needs. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned user, by the conclusion of this article, you’ll be able to comfortably work with MySQL databases using both command-line and graphical user interface (GUI) tools.
23 Strategic Ways to Accelerate the Big Picture: Part 1 The Social Media Campaign
Are you interested in learning how to create a social media campaign? Looking for the latest social media marketing tactics? It is not terribly hard to accomplish these objectives. We’ll share with you how the most successful businesses use social media to grow business and brand loyalty. This is a four-part series, with this article presenting the big picture. The remaining three parts will present details on the three most important tactics.
Here are the links to the other Social Media Campaign Secrets series articles:
Part 2 Targeting Customers
Part 3 Listening and Engaging
Part 4 Telling Stories
How many times have you seen companies requesting people to friend them on Facebook? Like farming followers was the name of the game. Sad but true. The truth is that social media marketing campaigns are really about cultivating relationships with potential customers. Fan ‘skins’, by themselves, are of very little value, are they?
Related: 9 Great Ways to Improve Your Social Media Design
What is the importance of social media in your business? Dialog with customers for sure. What about reading your content and remembering? Appreciating your help? Marketing? Building relationships? We believe it is all of these things, but the bottom line goal is relationship building.
Keeping up with the latest in social media campaign tactics is not always easy, but always a worthy thing to do for your business.
Social media has provided marketers with some powerful new tools. They are global, potentially viral and low cost. But they take considerable effort and time. Businesses will often have entire teams dedicated to communicating with followers and will spend a significant chunk of their budget acquiring new leads from the Internet.
From blogging to pay-per-click advertising, there are plenty of ways to establish a web presence. Most businesses will use multiple techniques in order to maximize results; however, as the years go by a new form of marketing has emerged; viral marketing.
Marketing for small to mid-sized businesses is a different animal than it is for big brands. For the former, the cost is always a factor, they insist on measurable results (even if their metric is as vague as “Do we think it worked?”), and creativity usually takes a second place to cost-effective, day-to-day manageability.
And yet …
Whether you are Millifiore Skin Care, Black Tulip Restaurant, or Coca-Cola, the challenges are much the same: To grab prospects’ attention; re-explain quickly and memorably how you make life better, and give them good reasons to buy now.
Here’s the bottom line:
No matter how many zeroes appear on your marketing invoices, there is never enough money to reach the market the way you’d really like to, so all businesses need to experiment with new ways to reach their target markets.
Why social media campaigns are so important
Social word-of-mouth
Social media enables consumers to generate and tap into the opinions of an exponentially larger universe.
While word-of-mouth has always been important, its scope was previously limited to the people you knew and interacted with on a daily basis. Social media has removed that limitation and given new power to engage a much wider set of consumers.
Hyper-informed consumers
Social media is transforming the way that consumers across the globe make purchase decisions.
Consumers around the world are using social media to learn about other consumers’ experiences, find more information about brands, products and services, and to find deals and purchase incentives.
Here’s how to create a social media campaign
Here are 19 action considerations for social media campaigns.
Pay attention
These are the ones you will need most with your campaigns. We believe they are the ones most critical to the success of your social media marketing:
Define target customers
It all starts with knowing who your customers are and knowing as much about what makes them tick as you can. Without this step, most of the other steps become just a shot in the dark.
You might be wondering
This will be the subject of Part 2 of this series. So spent a lot of your time on this action. Keep in mind that you can’t be everything to everybody. Remember that not all customers are alike.
Choose best channels
Once you understand who your target customers are, you’ll need to study which social media sites they use most frequently and to what end. Social media takes a lot of time and energy, so you need to know where your time will be best spent.
Share unique content
Your content goal is simple … be as helpful as you can and/or be entertaining, or else be ignored. If you are going to put in the time and energy, you don’t want to be ignored.
Capture customer hearts in the first 30 seconds
What are you doing to make their first 30 seconds on your platform extraordinary? If you can’t answer this question, you need to start here. First impressions are everything.
Strike an emotional chord
Make consumers feel something. If you want to grab my attention on Twitter, make me laugh. Make me cry. Make me feel something, anything.
Here is a thought to remember
When I have a super busy day and I am replying to tweets on Twitter I have no choice due to the amount of them and time constraints but to choose where and when I am going to respond. It is an easy choice for me. I respond to the people who grab my attention.
These are the people who are nice, who make me feel good. The people who are genuine. The people who make me laugh. Pull an emotional chord.
Don’t send snarky tweets trying to get attention. Most people can see right thru the snark and won’t respond. I ignore the trolls and the folks looking only for attention. Be genuine and offer something of emotional value.
Listen and engage
Listening comes first and foremost to understand what customers are saying about their needs and perhaps about you. Once you have heard, then engage in as near real-time as you can.
This is the third part of this series. It is critical. Just be YOU and be consistent. Remember customers deal with people and not businesses.
As we said previously, social media marketing takes a lot of time and energy. There many good tools in existence that will help in the workload. But keep this in mind … customers take note when it seems they are dealing with a robot. Don’t be that robot.
The big picture … emphasize social
One of your key business objectives is to build relationships with customers. That end game results in customer advocates and trust. This process takes constant attention to being social on a very consistent basis.
Tell short stories and educate
Not sure what content your fans want? Prototype and test your ideas! Try posting different types of status updates, related and not related to your product and company. Also, use your social media insights to see what your readers are engaging with the most, and then deliver more of it.
Many brands build TV commercials and then share them with fans on their social media sites. A great example is with the Guinness ad we discussed in our article on Guinness marketing using storytelling. This technique used subtle messaging with a great story to appeal to fans. The story’s light touch made sharing the story seem less like an advertisement
Just keep in mind
Doing a great job of creating campaigns that tell short stories and have subtle messaging is an effective campaign tactic.
If you’re inexperienced in video marketing, that’s okay. There is a very large variety of articles on the topic, and a good place to learn. But remember the best way to learn is by doing and practicing. Start your video creations with free tools like Vine and Instagram.
Consumers always enjoy good stories and helpful information that educates.
The big picture … partner with complementary brands
Contests and giveaways are standard tactics on social media campaigns. You can overcome this challenge with some creative thinking. Find complementary brands that fit with your objectives … say for contests. You can also retweet content on Twitter and likes Instagram photos of complementary brands that promote something related to your products and services.
Capitalize on major local events
During the Sochi Olympics, Coca-Cola hosted a contest/series called #CokeGames. The gist of it was that they created simple Olympics-inspired games like Bottle Cap Hockey, Coke Curling, and Ice Cube Ski Jump. Then, they asked their followers to play along by filming and uploading short videos of the Coke fan playing the game. The incentive was an opportunity to win a $100 gift card.
Here is the kicker
Your small business could adopt this idea, using any big local event as inspiration. It might be a local seafood festival or perhaps a local hockey team championship game. These local events happen all the time and offer great opportunities for the attention of your brand and therefore your relationship building.
Stimulate conversation with thought-provoking questions
How do you create fan conversation? One great way we have found is through asking fans a thought-provoking question. Use questions that relate to your brand. For example, Internet Explorer asked how people imagine the web in 5 years. Remember that you need to be part of the community and give your answer.
When asked to share their vision of the future, fans had fun sharing their thoughts and others used the Q&A as a way to voice their opinions on IE’s products.
The big picture … show your fans the fun
It’s always appropriate for a brand to show its personality. If it’s a personality that wants to be a little weird occasionally, go ahead and get a little weird.
Skittles is a great example of this tactic. Yes, most of their posts are silly, but it’s working for Skittles.
A typical day’s posts can include observations such as “Really boring pirates carry pigeons on their shoulders” and shots from the page’s ongoing BFF series, in which it posts photos from users posing with their beloved Skittles.
If you’re a product-based company, ask your users to send photos of themselves using your product or service in exchange for a shot at a prize, or for the honor of being featured on the page.
Post fun facts and popular topics
Not all of your company’s posts should be brand-centric, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be branded. Kit Kat posts fun facts and takes advantage of popular topics, but also includes their tagline, “Break Time. Anytime.” on the images they share.
You should always look to tap into a trending local topic, particularly if it relates to your products and services. Find useful creative visual designs to reinforce the message.
Crowdsource ideas
Always use any and all ways to gain customer insights that you can employ. One way to accomplish this is to crowdsource ideas from customers. We have written about two companies that have used this technique very successfully. (See our 2 crowdsourcing articles … one on Starbucks and one on Legos.)
My Starbucks Idea website is at once a crowdsourcing tool, a market research method that brings customer priorities to light, an online community, and an effective internet marketing tool.
Now
Encourage customers to give their opinions and reward the best ideas. It’s a great example of how a business can use social media as a mini–focus group and learn what customers really want.
Use social media as a customer service/ experience gateway
There are many ways a brand can use social media to help manage customer service and experience. Start small, just collecting all inputs, good and bad. And then grow from there.
For example, the Olive Garden showcases their food with “Yum!”-inducing photos to draw attention to their social media as a way to solicit customer service insights. That’s to be expected of a restaurant.
What’s more impressive, though, is that Olive Garden uses their platforms as a gateway to customer service. They encourage customers to chat with their guest relations team about experiences at their restaurant.
The thing to remember
Don’t you think you can follow this model? You certainly don’t have to be a restaurant. How serious are you about customer service and customer insight engagement?
You don’t have to make the social network your main source for support, but you should respond and interact with your fans to answer their questions. You’ll not only boost engagement but also show that you’re human and you care about their opinions and questions.
Create new customer experiences
At the core of Ford’s social media marketing strategy is an effort to give the company’s potential customers a chance to experience the brand and the product in ways they never expected. Before the unveiling of the 2011 Explorer, Ford created a Facebook page that gave its fans sneak peeks at features and video interviews with the design team and chief engineer. And in both campaigns, it’s the customers themselves that are selecting and talking about the new experiences.
Scott Monty’s advice on whether Social Media Marketing is right for your company,
If your customers are there you need to be there too … he also went on to say ‘You need to listen’. Observe how they behave and act similarly.
Respond to everyone
No matter what you do, if you want to build engagement you have to be engaging with all customers and potential customers. What does this mean? Do a great job of responding to most comments.
Tag people in a comment stream to let them know that you’ve responded to their inquiry and/or appreciate their comment.
Analyze, correct, iterate, and learn
Analyze your measurement results, and continuously make corrections, iterate, and most importantly, learn.
Follow the 70/20/10 Rule
Here is an important guideline to keep in mind for all of your social media sites. Follow the 70/20/10 guideline … not a rule, but a guideline. Let us break that down for you. The majority (70%) of content that a social media site page puts up should be brand- and business-building, meaning it’s information that is valuable to your followers. Content shared from other sources makes up 20% and the remaining 10% or less (NEVER more) is self-promotional.
Apply the 70/20/10 rule to your own content mix and generate more interest for your social media and increase your customer engagement.
The bottom line
There are a lot of misconceptions about social media marketing. Just because you read something in a blog post or hear something from a credible source doesn’t mean it is true or true for you and your business.
Always do your research, and continually try to improve. Social media marketing is here to stay, and it can drive a lot of business for you, assuming you are leveraging it correctly.
There is more opportunity to fail in social media than to succeed if we treat it like any other marketing vehicle. Social media requires us to get away from being promotional and sensational and instead treat our customers with special attention. Special attention that means being social, building relationships, and creating trust.
Bottom line, listen more than you talk. You’ll be amazed how much you can learn about your audience when you shut up and listen. Try it!
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Communications Are Key to Building Customer Trust
Improve Customer Engagement to Win Business
Deadly Mistakes that Destroy Employee Engagement
Influence Consumer Behavior Through Personalization Strategies
Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
The Go-Getter Guide to the Best Social Media Campaigns: 11 Tips to Improve
I have been blogging for over eight years now. And post visits are high; the best social media campaigns’ engagement ideas are not in my humble opinion. Imagine writing a tutorial-style blog post.
You explain a series of important steps. You edit until your instructions sound dynamic. You tighten your text.
But you’re still worried. Because your post isn’t exactly sparkling. It’s just a simple how-to.
How can you make a description of 5 or 12 different steps engaging and fun? How can you stop people from yawning when they get to step 3?
Related post: Social Media Platforms … The Magic Every Content Marketer Needs
Turning solid information into engaging content may feel like a struggle, but it doesn’t have to be so hard.
You need to know a few simple tricks to keep your readers engaged and interested.
Let’s explore some post-engagement techniques that should help …
Best Social Media Campaigns … ask Why
The first trick to making boring tutorials sizzle is to tell your reader why he’ll benefit from reading your post.
In your opening paragraph, you sketch a pain-free or sunny destination. Tell your reader that by following your advice he can learn a skill he desperately wants to master. Or tell him how he’ll become happier, richer, or more relaxed by reading your post.
In my post about guest blogging, for instance, I promised to teach you a technique for driving traffic to your blog; and in this tutorial about sales copy, I tell you that your web pages can become as seductive as Apple’s website.
A dry subject becomes easier to digest when you know why it’s good for you.
Best Social Media Campaigns Ever … ask questions
One of the simplest ways to draw your readers in is to ask them a question within your introduction. You don’t have to do this within the first sentence of your blog post, but you should try to do it within your first paragraph.
Let your personality shine
No one wants to be part of a dry conversation. By adding in some humor or emotions, you will keep the conversation entertaining. Just sprinkle a few of these elements throughout your post.
Share examples
Learning how things work in theory can be dull.
Seeing how something works in practice is far more interesting.
Last week, I shared snippets about my guest blogging experience. In my post about seductive web copy, I entice you with mouth-watering examples of Apple’s copy.
The secret to making your examples fascinating is to keep them ultra-short. Only share the details that are critical to illustrating your tutorial.
Keep your pace high and move to the next step.
Social media campaign ideas … create a story
Do you remember how your kindergarten and elementary school teachers used to engage with you? They used to tell you stories to get your attention and keep it. If you can mix storytelling within your introductory paragraph, you’ll get more people to read your blog post.
Social media engagement strategy … use metaphors
Metaphors are your secret seduction technique.
A fresh metaphor can make a dull topic engaging.
Help readers visualize an abstract concept by relating it to something concrete, something they know. In my post about guest blogging, for instance, I referred to the idea of launching a cycling magazine several times.
To use metaphors in your how-to blog post, think about a topic you’re passionate about, such as sports, cooking, or parenting. Pick one theme and look for connections.
Be careful. Switching themes in one post confuse your readers. So pick one theme, e.g. cooking, and make brief comparisons with it throughout your post.
Related post: 11 Updates to Starbuck’s Creativity and Innovation
Use the words “you” and “I”
Those two words may seem simple, but they are powerful. Without them, it’s hard to create the illusion of a conversation. Just think about it.
I don’t know your name, so how can I create a conversation with you if I don’t use the words “you” and “I” while talking to you? It’s nearly impossible.
Highlight problems
When you paint a rose-tinted picture of your how-to, you might still lull your readers slowly to sleep.
You can wake them up by including a few problems.
Problems are like speed bumps – they slow your reader down. They start paying attention again because everyone is keen to avoid glitches, hassle, and mistakes.
Explain what you’ve done wrong or which step you found scary. When you describe the problems, you’ve encountered, and how you’ve overcome them, your tutorial immediately becomes more useful and engaging.
Which are the most common mistakes you’d like to warn your readers about? And help them avoid?
Keep your paragraphs short
Don’t you hate it when you’re having a conversation with someone, and they don’t let you get a word in? It’s like you’re not even having a conversation… By making your paragraphs 1 to 6 sentences long, you will create an illusion of a conversation. Just look at the introduction in this blog post – the paragraphs are really short.
An image is worth 1000 words
Liven up your text with images. Images are a great way to help encourage a conversation, especially an image you use at the beginning of your post. I know when I’ve used funny pictures like this in the past, I got tons of emails from you and saw a higher time-on-page.
As a writer, I feel my words should be sufficient to explain my thoughts and ideas. But simple pictures can make a stronger connection. I recently discovered this:
Darwin first explored the idea of natural selection by drawing a tree. Jack Kerouac wrote his first novel by drawing his concept out as a mandala. J.R.R. Tolkien couldn’t write without first drawing maps and portraits of his characters. Even J.K. Rowling just said that the first thing she did when she started to write her latest novel was to draw a map of the town in which it took place. ~ Dan Roam
And Kevin Cheng suggests in his book See What I Mean:
So long as you can draw a stick figure, you’re well on your way to being able to create simple stories that explain your ideas better than any well-crafted words could.
Are we, as writers, too focused on the power of words?
Use transitions
You’ll probably cover multiple subtopics within your blog post, just like you would in a regular conversation. Make sure the transitions are smooth. Using headings isn’t enough. You need to use sentences to create transitions.
Keep learning: Visual Marketing … 15 Remarkable Content Examples
The truth about boring how-to posts
There are no dull products, only dull writers. ~ David Ogilvy
No topic is dull.
No tutorial should be drab.
Learning new things is exciting. Acquiring new skills is invigorating.
Think about your reader and inspire him with your post. Share your knowledge. Entertain him with your humor.
Make him smile and ignite his enthusiasm.
The bottom line
Blogging is a conversation between you and your readers. If you can’t converse with them, you are just talking to them. And as you already know, people prefer conversations…
The next time you write a blog post, consider creating a conversation. Don’t do it just within your introduction, but continue it through your whole post, just like I have done with this one.
How else can you increase the number of people who read your blog posts?
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on social media lessons from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
6 KLM Airlines Marketing Examples for Winning Campaigns
Starbucks Marketing … 9 Ways They Employ Social Media Innovation
Instagram Stats … Lots to Learn From Current Data
9 Great Ways to Improve Your Social Media Design
In the ever-changing landscape of social networking, you might be wondering if you are getting the most out of your business’s social media design. Here we define social media design as the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
– Edwin Schlosberg
Social media design usually centers on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. Company messages, stories, and helpful information spreads from user to user and presumably resonate because it provides relevant, interesting, and/or useful information. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media.
We think of social media as just another marketing channel when we need to instead think of it as the influencer of all channels.
To improve your social media design, you must improve social networking and customer engagement. We have found 9 ways to accomplish these improvements that we use with our clients:
Know as much or more than your audience … valuable content is essential
It is all about quality … quality is much more valuable than quantity
It is about building relationships … meaning conversation is required. Don’t add to the noise
A picture or image … is worth 1000 words. Visual marketing is growing rapidly
Keep your messages … short, simple, and relevant
Define … specific objectives for your campaigns
Measure your accomplishments … against your objectives. Learn and apply to learn
There are NO shortcuts … it requires time and energy
It requires persistence and patience … don’t give up
We are finding more and more businesses are defining meaningful ways to use social media, even if it isn’t always to sell directly.
“Web merchants view social media more as a medium to build up brand awareness and customer loyalty than as a way to drive immediate sales,” says Internet Retailer reporting on its latest survey of 175 companies that sell online.
Survey participants included 85 web-only merchants, 40 consumer brand manufacturers, 34 retail chains, and 16 catalog companies.
Here’s a rundown of the findings by the numbers:
- 96 percent say social media campaigns are important to the future of their Internet business; 53 percent label them very important.
- 90 percent have a Facebook page, 75 percent are active on Twitter and 54 percent use Pinterest
- 51 percent post videos on YouTube, 9 percent use Google+, and 15 percent leverage Instagram.