Did You See That?
Hey friends! We’ve got some awesome new articles coming your way this week. We’re covering Time Lightbox’s piece on Chicago Cubs official photographer and PhotoShelter member Stephen Green. Plus, we’ve got stories on verifying your Instagram, making the most of Facebook Live and how to bring your sales and marketing teams closer together.
Do you have ideas for next week’s roundup? Want to learn more about visual content marketing, marketing tools, social media platforms or something completely different? We’re all ears! Leave us a comment, send me a note at danielle@photoshelter.com or shout out at us on Instagram @getlibris.
Roundup:
Meet the Chicago Cubs’ Official Photographer
TIME Lightbox
By Bianca Silva
For the Chicago Cubs and all their fans, winning the World Series was about more than just coming home with the Champion title – it was about making history. Whether you tuned in at home or were lucky enough to watch from the stands, everyone will remember the exact moment the score turned from 7 to 8.
For the Cubs official team photographer, Stephen Green, this was also a pivotal moment. He had been photographing the team since 1982, and now the weight of capturing that winning moment was on his shoulders. Bianca Silva interviewed Green for a piece in Time Lightbox to get a deeper look at what it means to be the Cubs’ official photographer.
Check out this fascinating quote from Green about shooting for the team with a uniquely “Cubs” perspective:
“The story of each game is not as critical to me as the story of the team during the year and making iconic pictures of the players during the whole season. Obviously, if we are in a situation to have a walk-off or dramatic ending, that’s important and that has to be captured. But just because somebody hits a homerun in the third inning or a double-play in the seventh, that’s not what I need to capture. So I have the freedom to kind of wander around the ballpark. I can really follow the light and look for really compelling pictures that way.”
How We Got Verified On Instagram With Less Than 400 Followers
By Shopify hosted on The Stock Room
There is always something new to learn in the land of social media. This article from Shopify is a quick and easy read about how Shopify was verified on Instagram with only a few followers, little engagement and only a handful of posts. The trick? Building your following elsewhere first before trying to tackle your following on Instagram.
The point of being verified by Instagram (which is a manual feature that a moderator at Instagram needs to approve) is to ensure to audiences that you are who you say you are. Verification checks are only for public figures, companies and brands. Shopify’s advice is to build your following on parallel platforms such as Twitter so that when you apply for the verification check on Instagram, Instagram has other platforms to rely on to ensure your Instagram is the real deal.
A verified badge means Instagram knows you are who you say you are and wants to help it’s users build trust that they are in fact are following the real @shopify_stockroom, not some imitator who could end up spamming you with illegitimate content you weren’t looking for.
5 Takeaways from the 4th Annual Sports Fan Engagement Conference
Front Office Sports
By Will Baggett
Front-office digital, marketing and communications teams gathered at the Sports Fan Engagement Conference (SFEC) in Atlanta this month to share ideas and best practices for engaging fans. The conference covered marketing and social media strategy for sports teams. In this roundup, Will Baggett reviews some interesting talking points, like Brand Fan Experience = User Experience Knowledge + Memory & Emotion (you’ll have to read on to learn more), as well as tips for successful storytelling and how to keep your fans engaged.
He shares examples from some of the top performing pro and college sports teams on how they run their social and marketing campaigns, as well as some outside the box ideas that took off on social media, like this example about Clemson’s football coach, Dado Swinney.
Who could forget the viral video of Clemson’s Dabo Swinney dancing in the locker room following a huge victory? It’s nothing short of a marketer’s dream to have live content featuring a coach named “Dabo” performing a then-wildly-popular dance called the “dab.”
According to Clemson’s Jonathan Gantt, who has long since earned his Tiger stripes, this level of access is not a rite of passage. It has to be cultivated and earned over time.
Don’t waste your content; leverage it to help your sales team
Professional Planner
By Anthony O’Brien
How do we further bridge the gap between our marketing and sales teams?
Take a look this this article by Anthony O’Brien for some more great tips on how you can engage your potential prospects by putting some great content in the hands of your sales team.
Giving your sales agents a voice through content, will encourage them to buy into your thought leadership programs. They might even have a crack at writing a blog or creating some video content themselves; either way it will be a win-win for your firm and your salespeople.
We found this article to be especially relevant because our team is trying out one of O’Brien’s tips. We worked with one of our Sales Development Representatives, Kyle Wagner, to create a signature video with a personal feel. We’re excited to see how the results play out.
Check it out!
13 Steps to Live Stream Video the Smart Way
Content Marketing Institute
By Josh Brown
Marketers are focusing more and more on video and Facebook Live, but it’s important to have a plan for these tools before you start implementing them. Brown’s article walks through all the questions your creative team should think about and answer before launching a Facebook Live campaign.
One tip is to know your purpose for going live (to generate leads, improve sales, etc.) before you start broadcasting.
Going live without knowing why is a recipe for disaster. Your broadcast will likely be clunky and disjointed, which can do more harm than good to your brand. Even if you get lucky and have a successful broadcast, you’ll have no true understanding of why it went well — and you won’t be able to replicate the results.
In Case You Missed It
Here on the Libris Blog, we shared a feature on how to get ready when the spotlight is on your brand. Plus, we hosted a webinar on the Baltimore Ravens’ visual storytelling strategy, covering everything from social media to interactive content to the team’s website redesign.
