What Color Are You?

We have all heard about the connection between colors and emotion; purples and violets are relaxing, red is passionate, yellow is bright and friendly, blue is serene and cool, white is pure, and so on. Pink, in North American culture, is widely considered a feminine color, however, it was originally targeted at male babies as it was declared too strong of a color for females.

Did you know that a red "click me" button on a website generates more response than a green one? Joshua Porter, over at Hubspot, conducted an A/B test* using the two colors and was able to determine that overall conversion rates were much higher when the color red was used (read the article here if you want to know more about it).

KISSmetrics published this popular infographic demonstrating the effect that colors have on customers. I love this, as it gives me insight into many brands and why they choose the colors that they do. Additionally, it helps me in considering what colors I choose to use in my business practices and how I react to colors on a personal level. Notice that it says North American Consumers? I would love to find something similar showing how shoppers in other countries and cultures react to color.

Original article and Infographic can be found here.

*What is an A/B test? Click here to read all about it.

The Science of Social Media

Well, you've finally set up a social media page for your brand, but now how do you get the most out of it?

Well, for starters, be present. Social media sites require constant monitoring in order to allow the business to react quickly to any changes that can occur within the site due to tagging, commenting, messaging, or in the unfortunate event that the site becomes a victim of a hacker.

Next, make content dynamic and interesting, and reinforce loyalty by interacting with your fans in a professional, yet fun and friendly manner when given the opportunity; being engaged with fans and customers in a variety of ways will help to keep them interested and loyal to your brand. Share information with your online fans that cannot be gained elsewhere, for instance, by offering special sales or promotions. Give them sneak peaks to new merchandise before arrives it in your store, or announce a contest that is only available to online users.

Every social media platform is different, and choosing the right one, or ones, for your business is dependent on a number of factors. For instance, a landscaper or an artist may find themselves highly popular on a site that is primarily based in images, such as Pinterest or Instagram, whereas a musician or a writer may have a broader reach on a site like Twitter, YouTube or Facebook. This is not to say that a business shouldn't explore multiple social media opportunities, as many factors such as demographics and customer preferences will also come into play.

For more reading on this topic, I highly enjoyed this article and infographic written by Kristin Piombino from Ragan's PR Daily. It contains all sorts of tips and tricks to gain the best response from Pinterest, Google +, Twitter and Facebook.

Original article and Infographic can be found here.