hazelzhang

[hazelzhang]

Had this for snack this afternoon. 😜 high calories but soooo good! Use Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, coconut butter, pine nuts, raisins and dried cranberries. It's so easy to make some beautiful snacks for a home party with these ready-to-bake pastry shells. Try it! Next time I will try to put fresh fruits and nana ice cream in it! 😍#pastry #vegan #dessert #decadent #delicious #whatveganseat #naughty #vegansofig (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

Looks like a Japanese painting huh? #lunch #vegan #veggies #vegansofig #whatveganseat #greencurry #thai #cooking #funinthekitchen #plantbased (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

5 Keys To Successful Digital Marketing

1. Be Authentic And Personal.

Talk and act like a real person, not a programmed robot. Be personal, talk to your customers like friends. Customers are smart. They will tell if you truly care.

2. Know Your Customer.

Know who they are and what they want. Giving them what they want to know is more effective than giving what you would like them to know. Think like your customer. Put yourself in their shoes. 

3. Data Has The Answer. 

Where is your market? How many are you reaching? What type of message do your customers like? Data-based digital marketing has all the answers you need, and in real time. You can use data to decide where to allocate your resources and develop a more efficient marketing campaign than ever before.

4. Do Tests and Be Agile.

Testing is an effective way to understand customer behavior, adapt your marketing methods and improve marketing results. The key is to keep testing. Do it incrementally and iteratively, and do it fast enough. 

5. Be Open to New Ways Of Marketing. 

Everyday you might find things that worked before don't work any more. Every year you will see new terms being created and new forms of marketing being introduced. Don't fear the unknown. You'd rather jump in, be the first wave to try and learn in the process. Your judgement and courage will get rewarded along the way. 

[hazelzhang]

InstaFacts: 15 Intersting Facts You Need To Know About Instagram Marketing

I’m probably spending more time on Instagram every day than talking to my boyfriend (who’s now in dreams on the other side of the world right now). On a normal, not-so-busy day, I will post at least one photo about the food I made or ate at somewhere else, and some random stuff that has made my day when I'm out running.

My obsession with Instagram prompted me to embed my Instagram photos to this blog. You probably saw it already and thought “Oh my, she’s all about food!” Check out the 15s video below I made with some of my photos from 2013. 

I even got to know a girl through Instagram geotag of Beyond Sushi (a restaurant near Union Square that serves the most creative and delicious vegan sushis) ; we met and  became real-life friends.

Her post:The Power of Instagram - 3 girls, 2 hashtags and 1 friend that you did not know on Quora recounted our stories of serendipity.

This is a photo of me(right), Chenyu(middle), and Chloe(left) together at Chenyu’s apartment in East Village. Chenyu and Chloe are both coffee lovers. They too, were met through Instagram, thanks to a common hashtag they both use: #dailycortado.

Like many popular social media platforms, Instagram has become an important marketing tool for businesses such as: gourmet food, bakeries(Yes, Instagram is all about food!), handcrafts, jewlries, health products, and a lot more.

In fact, The conversion rate at which a visitor went on to purchase an item after visiting instagram is 1.08%, right after Facebook(1.85%) and two video content sites vimeo and youtube (both at 1.16%).(Source: Shopify)

Thinking about exploring business opportunities on Instagram? Check out these interesting facts about it!

1. The United States, Japan, and Brazil are the three countries with the most users.

2. The number of monthly active users on Instagram is 200 million (last checked 3/26/14). As of 2014, 16 billion photos have been uploaded to Instagram. Instagram users share 60 million photos per day. 

Via www.viralblog.com

3. 70% of Instagram users check it at least once a day. (That's me!)

Via Buzzfeed.com

4. 83% of all posts contain hashtags.

Via Buzzfeed.com

5. The most popular hashtags are #love,#beautiful,#cute, #me, and #tbt amongst others.

Via Buzzfeed.com

6. Instagram photos with faces get a 35% increase in comments than those without. (btw, the photo of Will Smith and Justin Bieber was the most liked picture of 2013)

Via foxnews.com

7. Instagram photos with blue as the dominant color get 24% more likes than those with high concentrations of red and orange. 

 Via: marketingland.com

8. New York City is the most geotagged city.

9. Most popular day for Fortune 500 brands to post on Instagram is Thursday.

Image source: highlandsmuseum.com

10. 25% of Fortune 500 brands are on Instagram.  

11. 57% of the top brand marketers are averaging at least one post a week. 

12. 71% of the world’s top brands are on Instagram. 

13. Thanksgiving drives the most traffic to Instagram. 

14. 98% of Instagram photos posted by brands are also shared to Facebook. 

Via lonelybrand.com

15. Instagram is more popular than Twitter for smartphone users in the US, projected to rise to 40.5 million users by the end of the year. 

Via Forbes.com

Wanna learn more about Instagram facts? Here are 65 amazing statistics about Instagram: (March 2014)By the Numbers: 65 Interesting Instagram Statistics Check it out!

Source:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/javim2/23-interesting-facts-about-instagram-bw9q

http://blog.getchute.com/2014/04/14/10-facts-you-need-to-know-about-instagram-marketing/

[hazelzhang]

Avocado, arugula, carrot and jalapeño salad, and almond basil sauce. Sauce ingredients: 1/4 cup fresh thick almond milk, 1 garlic clove(minced), 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil, 1 tbsp nutrition yeast, salt and pepper to taste. It's delicious! #raw #vegan #vegansofig #whatveganseat #venganfoodshare #rawfood (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

This is really a Coconut Dream! Ingredients: coconut butter, soaked dates blended into paste with water, coconut oil, coconut flour, almond meal, oat flour, raisins, some warm water to melt the butter and blend. Insanely delicious! It's #raw & #vegan. #vegansofig #rawvegan #dessert (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

Decorated a plant pot at NYU Earth Day street fair, and planted some thyme seeds! Looking forward to seeing it grow into healthy plants! #earthday #gardening #gogreen (at New York University)

[hazelzhang]

Why Should Nonprofits Try Newsjacking And What Should They Do?

You probably have heard of the term “newsjacking”, and see it happening all the time in your Twitter feed, as it’s a hot marketing tactic that a lot of brands are using. Newsjacking, according to David Meerman Scott, who coined the word and has written a book about it, is art and science of injecting your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, and generating media coverage and social media engagement for yourself or your business.

“It’s a science because you use technology to monitor trending topics. It’s an art because you have to weave your story around that topic.”

The globally anticipated Oscar night was one of the most newsjacked events recently. And nonprofits are joining big brands in riding the social media wave during the event. Habitat For Humanity was one of the smart nonprofits that used the newsworthiness of the Oscars to do a successful campaign in support of their work, by creatively weaving its story into Oscar night:

  This Facebook post has all the elements of a great visibility campaign: relevance, timeliness, virality. It was captured by marketer John Haydon in his blog post: 5 Nonprofits that Newsjacked Facebook During the Oscars, and has now become a great example for other nonprofits that want to newsjack for good.

Awards, events, and other celebrations can be powerful opportunities to tie your organization's mission and impact to trending news. Looking through Habitat For Humanity’s Facebook posts, you can see they are alerted to any news/events related to their own messages. Such as this one posted on Women’s Day.

In the blog Newsjacking Tips For Nonprofits, the author suggests that non-profits should take advantage of newsjacking since it is “a quick and easy way to produce new and exciting content – something that is very beneficial for nonprofits. It also can be a useful tool in marketing your organization, and establishing your credibility in a certain industry or topic area.”

Since reaching it’s peak in the 2013 SUPERBOWL (when Oreo posted the famous tweet”Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark”), newsjacking seems to have taken on an AIR OF DESPERATION. Brands all hop on the newsjacking bandwagon, whether or not an event is in or related to their industry or even part of a conversation that makes sense to join.

However, newsjacking isn’t just simply tying your message to some trending news fast enough. It has to be relevant and meaningful as well. Not only the mood of your message has to match the mood of the trending news, but also your post has to be authentic and clearly communicate your intended message. You can learn some lessons from the social media failure of Epicurious trying to sell their breakfast recipe with a tweet tied to Boston Marathon bombing.

A study shows, most newsjacked content EARNS LESS THAN 100 SHARES, which is certainly not enough attention to risk one’s personal or brand-related integrity.

While people often talk about real-time marketing and newsjacking as the same thing, they are not the same. All (successful) newsjacking is real-time marketing, but not all real-time marketing is newsjacking.

"Real-time" marketing is selectively participating in a moment or an existing conversation that can enhance and benefit your brand or your marketing efforts. It’s not just about riding a trending news topic, but more about authentically joining in a conversation that makes sense, contributing by demonstrating your own expertise, and using social media to bring down the wall between you and your audiences.

The difference between real-time marketing and newsjacking is that: newsjacking is a short-term tactic and a marketing tool that should be used cautiously; while real-time marketing is an overall strategic approach that could guide your marketing activities. Here is a graph that breaks down the characteristics of the two:

  As a blog post on Trackmaven has put it: 

Brands shouldn’t be clamoring to find the next “black out moment” or the next royal birth (that’s news-jacking), instead brands need to look for the “real” moments happening now that embrace their overall message for genuine human connection.

After all, if you think it’s time your non-profit tried newsjacking, you should check out the infographic: The Art of Newsjacking. 

It offers tips for how to:

“stay alert” for newsjacking opportunities

choose your angle

promote your message

use good judgement

stay ahead of the curve

stay accurate

Has your organization used newsjacking lately? I would love to hear about it! 

[hazelzhang]

Got home hungry so I made this ugly-looking but super delish nori rolls with carrot in Korean hot pepper paste, kimchi, avocado and wild arugula! So yummy & flavorful! You should try it! Look for vegan kimchi, cuz most store-bought kimchi is not vegan. Also you can skip the loser an hot pepper paste. Just love it! #vegan #vegansofig #latenightcravings #yum (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

A little treat for myself after 6.5km run in the rain.(soaked wet☔️) Banana walnut whole wheat bread and banana with dark chocolate glaze, hazelnut meal and dried cranberries! #decadent #breakfast #yum #vegan #vegansofig #banana (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

Super fast, easy and delicious arugula carrot avocado salad! Arugula, 1 carrot(sliced), 1/2 avocado(diced), juice from 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp cumin seeds, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Toss everything together and enjoy! It's fresh and yummy! #vegan #vegansofig #salad #plantbased #rawfood (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

Banana walnut whole wheat bread😍#vegan #vegansofig (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

Homemade green curry sauce+quinoa+green chili+Bella mushrooms+asparagus+ zucchini+sweet pepper+extra Indian curry powder+lemon juice. #vegan

[hazelzhang]

Always Tweet Like A Person, Not A Business

On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring an estimated 264 others. One police officer was killed by the suspects during the manhunt and 16 others were injured during gunfight on April 19. It was one of the most horrible tragedies last year.

When a tragedy happens, people turn on their radios or televisions to find what exactly has happened, and more and more people go to online news websites or even the social media to get informed. “They also value reassurances and statements of support from sources they follow on social media��sources that include their favorite brands.” 

But when brands try to tie a tragic event into a promotion, things could go astray and tarnish the brand reputation. A related example came from Conde Nast-owned food website Epicurious, which used the Boston bombings after the tragedy to promote two breakfast recipes to its more than 385,000 followers on Twitter.

Those tweets got a lot of complaints and were deleted afterwards. As if things couldn’t get worse, Epicurious then followed up with a copy-and-paste apology to followers who complained:

This time, people were enraged. First of all, their earlier tweets didn’t “seem” offensive. They were offensive. Instead of fully acknowledging the obliviousness of their tweets and offering sincere apologies, Epicurious were trying to shifts the burden of blame onto their readers, who the brand seemed to think were overly sensitive.

Second, it’s not genuine to repeatedly tweeted template “apology”. Those identical tweets did nothing to engage with the audience or express human remorse.

Eventually, they deleted all the apologies, and all that remained on its twitter page was a blanket apology. It sounded slightly more sincere, but it was a bit too little and too late:

What Epicurious did was very inappropriate and lack of common sense. When the whole nation was in grief, they should do nothing but offering condolence and comfort to people. It shows that social media is so vital part to marketing and brand reputation, and therefore should be treated in line with other marketing and PR practices. Social media managers should consider this before they post anything on social media: what would I think if I see this post?

In fact, whether at tragedy times or other times, brands should always think, act and tweet like a person rather than a business. A person is empathetic, caring and engaging, while a business can be mechanical, heartless and distracting.

According to PR specialist Josh Hallett, at tragedy times, what brands should do is to stop publishing immediately. The last thing you want to see is a pre-scheduled promotion or coupon posted right after the tragedy. 

But this doesn’t mean that brands can’t post anything. They just should never try to exploit a tragedy and people’s attention paid to the tragedy, to promote the brand or its products.

A good example in response to Boston Marathon tragedy may be this tweet from Nike Running:

It was well tailored to the brand and expressed only grief and comfort. 

In terms of crisis management and planning, the PR team should involve as much as possible, and work with the marketing team to “set the tone of corporate culture and sensitivity for anyone on the front lines with the public.” When a social media crisis breaks out, the PR team and the management level are responsible, should jump in quickly to respond to it and write a great “last chapter” with thoughtful and meaningful actions. Just like DKNY did. The fashion brand reacted swiftly to a social media crisis and remedied the situation by making a donation of 25K to the YMCA , to compensate their mistake in using a photographer’s works without permission.

This year’s Boston Marathon is coming next week. I hope, while sending social media posts in memory of the tragedy, the big brands can show real empathy to the dead, the survivors and their family and friends, just like any real person should do.

  Source:

http://mashable.com/2013/04/17/epicurious-boston-bombings-tweets/

http://www.prweekus.com/article/publishing-strategy-times-tragedy/1274952

https://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/how-should-brands-respond-to-tragedy-on-social-media_b63291

[hazelzhang]

Hit 1000 km milestone! #nikeplus #runner

[hazelzhang]

Whole wheat pancakes! Add any fruit, nuts or dried berries you like! I added banana🍌, pecan 🌰and cranberries🍒. Top with nut butter, cinnamon and maple syrup, and enjoy! ☺️have this and some green salad or smoothies for a lazy weekend brunch! 🌻💐🌷🌹 (at Hazel's Kitchen)

[hazelzhang]

Buckwheat risotto in green curry sauce, raw cashews, dried cranberries and baby spinach. #vegan #curry #cuisine #chef #cooking #thai #wholegrains #plantbased #healthy #vegansofig #veganfoodshare #whatveganseat (at Hazel's Kitchen)