Instagram: New 'Likes' and Comment Control

Instagram announced more changes yesterday, with a range of comment control features that are intended to make the social media platform a “welcoming place for everyone.”

As seen in Tuesday’s blog from Instagram co-founder and CEO, Kevin Systrom, users now have the ability to like individual comments and—as the feature rolls out throughout the week—you may notice that each comment now has a heart next to it.

As Systrom wrote, “Liking lets you show support and encourages positivity throughout the community.”

From a social media marketing point of view, this is a great time-saving and engagement-building feature. Some Instagram comments certainly call for an individual response, especially when it comes to customer service queries. However, when you simply want to acknowledge a comment or show your appreciation to a fellow user, you can now tap the heart icon in much the same way that you’d give the thumbs-up on Facebook, double tap an image or ‘like’ a tweet.

The photo-sharing platform has also introduced a way of turning comments off on any post, allowing the image to stand on its own and removing the opportunity for cyberbullying and offensive remarks. Trolls, zero. Instagram, one.

Users can also now remove followers from their private accounts, without blocking them and without notification. As Systrom added, “In the past, once you approved a follower, there was no simple way to undo that decision without blocking them. Going forward, if your account is private, you can remove followers by going to your list of followers and tapping the … menu next to any person’s name.”

There’s more. Another addition to Instagram comments is the ability to anonymously report self-harm posts—connecting people who may need help with helplines and organizations that can offer support.

Making the internet a more welcoming place, taking on online harassment and adding another way to engage with fellow users, we are all in favor of Instagram’s latest changes.

Released this week, the new features should now be available to you. Engage and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting, Laura and Jenny

SEO Work For Aric Becker Photography

It has been such a pleasure to work with Maui photographer Aric Becker in recent weeks. 

He is an excellent sports, commercial, editorial and portrait photographer, who relocated to Maui from Seattle in 2013. 

For Aric and family, a move across the Pacific brought about plenty of changes, including the need to start his established photography business again from the ground up.

Golfer Jordan Rodgers, shot by Aric Becker on Maui in April, 2016.

When Aric approached us to inquire about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for his website, www.aricbecker.com, we were excited to help him continue with the growth of his Maui business.

For those who may not be familiar with SEO, in short, it is a way of combining a range of creative and technical techniques to improve organic (unpaid) search engine rankings. The goal is to increase the visibility of a website, rank higher on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing and, ultimately, to bring in more site traffic and paying customers.

At Cake Media, our client work will always begin with an informal chat and we met with Aric several times over coffee to discuss our services, strategy and to examine the existing content on his site. Once we had a clear idea of what he wanted and how we could help, we delivered a bespoke proposal, outlining our plans for increasing SEO.

Aric is great at getting out there, shooting a wide variety of subjects and cross-marketing on social media. His easy-to-navigate site already had a wealth of high-quality visual content, including shots from portrait sessions, editorial work and photography from local sporting events such as The Maui Invitational (basketball), The Hyundai Tournament of Champions (golf) and the NFL Pro Bowl (football).

However, after completing a full audit of Aric’s site, we knew that we could be of assistance in several areas. 

We started with Jenny working on the technical side of things, including research, development and implementation of keyword strategy, adding and/or optimizing URL slugs, title tagging and more.

Meanwhile, Laura began work on content development. Creating unique written content is something that we love to do and It so important to have fresh, error-free, readable copy with relevant keywords on your site. It offers an insight into you and your business, makes for a much better user experience and, done the right way, will drastically improve your search engine rankings. 

After interviewing Aric, we rewrote his Bio to tell the story of how he became a photographer.  He has a great story by the way, you can check it out here.

We also created a new FAQ page, where site users could easily discover the answers to any immediate questions. This also gave us the opportunity to work in more relevant keywords, to tell prospective customers more about Aric's work and, of course, to encourage users to spend longer navigating around the site.

Then we began the process of working back through Aric’s blogs, dating back to January 2015. We increased the length of the posts, edited the spelling and grammar, added in more background information and—you guessed it—worked in those all-important keywords.

As with any SEO project, this is not a fast process and requires plenty of updates and staying on top of keyword trends. We'll be revisiting Aric's site many times in the coming days and weeks to analyze the effects of our work and to adjust aspects of our strategy accordingly.

Do you need help with SEO? Don't know where to start? Get in touch with us today and we can help!

Thank you for visiting, Laura and Jenny

Facebook Ads for an Exciting New Client

The popularity of adult coloring books has surged in recent years and today, you can find them on the bestseller lists of almost every bookstore and online seller.

These coloring books—filled with beautifully intricate black and white illustrations—have provided a form of art therapy for many adults, offering a new way to relax, be creative and to meditate and practice mindfulness. 

We are privileged to be working with Maui artist Matthew Smith, who has recently released his own adult coloring book, titled Color Me Buddha—Express Yourself to De-Stress Yourself.

The illustrations in Smith’s book are stunning and, as seen in Color Me Buddha:

“His motifs bring to life mythic struggles of man versus beast that will rouse your creative muse. The exquisite details Matt weaves into each of his creations reels you back to a place of solemn contemplation with images of animal strength and feminine grace, before finally drawing you toward the serenity of a tropical garden awaiting your personal touch of color. Let your creative energy flow to reach a place of harmony and meditation as you enter the world of Color Me Buddha.”

Here at Cake Media, we have been providing marketing support to Matt in the shape of Facebook Ads—developing optimized ad sets to raise awareness of his new book, pushing targeted users towards the Color Me Buddha Amazon page with a clear call to action and continuously watching the data and adjusting accordingly to ensure we get the best return on investment.

In addition to our skills with Facebook Ad campaigns, we offer a number of creative and marketing services, including; graphic design, content creation, SEO and social media management. 

You may want us to help you from the ground up with every facet of your online marketing, or even just one aspect of getting your name out there, like our work for Matt with Facebook Ads. Whatever your needs, feel free to call us today!

Published by Beyond Words, you can view Color Me Buddha here!

Thank you for visiting. Laura and Jenny