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nerdsies · 6 years ago

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Promposal Headcanons

aka Projecting Because Nobody Asked Me To Prom And I’m Still Salty A Week Later

Davey debated for two weeks about asking you, and then spent another week devising the perfect promposal. He didn’t want it to be cheesy; no balloons, no poster, no chocolates. Something simple, charming. It has to be perfect. He eventually asks quietly, with a hot chocolate and a muffin before first block. The bell rings while he’s asking, and you give him a quick, but no less enthusiastic, yes before running to separate classes.

Jack asks with a sketch of the two of you dressed to the nines and PROM? scrawled above it. As an answer, you display it on the inside of your locker door.

Race gets a flash-mob. He knows the sophomores are doing a dance unit in Phys Ed, so he enlists the help of one of the classes. The song of choice? “You Belong With Me,” a song the two of you have made fun of for all of high school. He choreographs the routine himself, and it ends with every sophomore in a row, jazz hands and bright smiles, with Race walking smoothly down the centre with a sheet of paper that simply reads, “PROM?”

Finch asks over the morning announcements. The usual announcers give him the mic after their routine announcements, and he can barely hold it, he’s shaking with such excitement. “Well, seniors, prom is just around the corner! And a little birdie (hehe) told me that (y/n) doesn’t have a date yet...what d’you say, (y/n)? Let me take you to prom?” Thankfully, you had a study block and were sitting at your locker, otherwise you would’ve killed him out of embarrassment.

Albert asks with a text. It’s nearly midnight, and your phone buzzes with a “u up?” You answer with a simple “yeah” and his reply is immediate: “Wanna go to prom with me?” At first you think it’s a joke and don’t respond, but he sends a follow-up: “c’mon, princess, don’t leave me on read.” You eventually agree, not entirely convinced he’s being sincere, but the night before prom he says he’ll pick you up at six.

Smalls comes up to you at lunch with a closed fist. You expect it to be another dumb prank, but he insists that you play along. He’s written PUSH on the back of his hand, so you press the word. He sticks out his index finger, on the side of which he’s written TWIST. You do, and the other side of his finger says PULL. You pull his finger and his palm opens to reveal the word PROM? It’s the best promposal you’ve ever seen, so how can you say no?

Romeo gets you a singing telegram. He asks the choir to help by singing a terribly cheesy parody of “I Can’t Help Falling In Love.” Honestly, it’s pretty cute. Each member has a white rose, except for Romeo, who has three pink ones. Each white rose was thrown at your feet at the end of the song, but the pink ones were handed to you with a flourish and a wink.

Specs asks you in person. He’s upfront and honest about it, no nonsense, nothing cheesy. “Will you go to prom with me?” He nervously cleans his glasses with the hem of his shirt when he asks.

Mush catches you after school one day. He and some of the other boys stand excitedly outside the front doors, poster in hand. You read the poster out loud as you get closer: “I always get MUSH-y around you...be my date to prom?”

Elmer...forgot to ask you. He got too nervous and kept putting it off, and somehow managed to convince himself he had asked. He texts you the night before asking what colour your dress is so he can buy a corsage that matches. You send him a confused reply, causing him to realize he never did it in the first place, and he officially asks you. Luckily, you already have a dress you can wear.

Katherine writes her promposal into the school paper. She had written a piece on prom: do’s and don't's, suggestions, warnings, a quiz for what kind of dress you should wear. For those who read the fineprint at the end, they would see: “That being said...(y/n) (l/n), will you go to prom with me?’ It was the perfect amount of private and public.

Sniper asks with a poll on his Instagram story. Other people would vote as a joke, but he only cared about yours. When it finally comes in under “Voted Yes,” he can’t stop grinning.

Henry goes for traditional. He brings you a box of chocolate after school and asks if you’ll go with him.

JoJo can’t gather enough confidence to ask in person, so he texts instead. “Hey (y/n) so...ok I know I should do this in person but I couldn’t find u @ school today! Okay that’s a lie we have physics together but that’s besides the point. So. Do u want to go to prom with me? Let me know!”

Crutchie ties small balloons that spell out PROM to his crutch and waits excitedly at your locker for you. Unfortunately, the balloons keep getting tangled, and you get there just as he’s trying to pull them into the right order. He apologizes and assumes you understand what he’s trying to ask (you do). “I just...popped by to ask you to prom.”

Buttons writes you a note in class. It’s pretty standard, in a joking way. He’s written PROM? at the top, with YES and NO written next to blank squares. He drops it on your desk on his way to hand in his assignment, and you leave the reply on his desk when you “go to the bathroom.” His heart leaps at the check-mark beside YES.

Blink leaves clues in places he knows you’ll find them: a P in your locker, an R in your bag, an O in your pencil case. He gives you an M after school, grinning widely. He feels very clever for coming up with such a mysterious promposal, and he hopes you feel the same. Honestly? You kind of do.

Tommy Boy goes for a classic show-off promposal: spelling out PROM on the roof of his car with Hershey’s kisses.

dinner/dance hc’s are on their way!

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sciencespies · 5 years ago

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9 ways today's society is like the one that filled Earth with garbage in WALL-E

https://sciencespies.com/humans/9-ways-todays-society-is-like-the-one-that-filled-earth-with-garbage-in-wall-e/

9 ways today's society is like the one that filled Earth with garbage in WALL-E

More than 10 years after it was released, watching Pixar’s film WALL-E today is a chilling experience.

The backdrop of WALL-E and EVE’s robot love story is a dystopian society where humans have abandoned Earth to their trash and left robots to clean up while they cruise space.

When the much-loved animation came out in 2008, it was a bittersweet warning to use less, move more, and stop staring at the damn screen.

But we obviously didn’t heed it too well, because as of 2019, we already have an uncomfortable amount in common with the futuristic humans aboard the Axiom spaceship.

The one thing the film’s creators were way off on? The timeline. WALL-E is set in 2805 (humans left Earth in 2105), but according to some key measures, we might not be that far off in reality.

Here are nine signs we’re going down the same path as the humans in WALL-E.

1. We can’t stop buying stuff

Thanks to technological and social advances, every day more people are moving out of poverty and into the consumer class. We’re also living in a more peaceful time than ever before. What do we do with all that extra time, energy, and money?

We consume.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

The average US household now owns 300,000 things; 10-year-olds in the UK have 238 toys – but only play with around 12 of them. We shop so much, we increasingly have to rent off-site storage units. And then every few seasons we throw it all out and start again.

With the internet opening up new avenues for consumption – shopping on Instagram, influencer-inspired buying, and now even publishers telling us what to buy – it’s not hard to imagine how our desire to buy new things is overwhelming the planet.

The Buy n Large tagline “Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space!” playing on loop in WALL-E could easily apply.

We never see the humans of the film before they leave Earth for the Axiom, but based on the waste and omnipresent advertising they leave behind, it’s safe to say they liked to shop, too.

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So is there a way to keep shopping and avoid that fate? Probably not – in the United Nations’ (UN) draft Global Sustainable Development Report 2019, researchers argue that this consumerist system isn’t compatible with protecting the planet.

“Economies have used up the capacity of planetary ecosystems to handle the waste generated by energy and material use,” the report explains.

2. We’re drowning in our own waste

The major plot line of WALL-E is that Earth has been overrun with garbage, making it unsuitable for plant or animal life. The WALL-E robots were tasked with cleaning it up, while humans enjoyed a five-year off-planet cruise (which, spoiler alert, ended up lasting centuries).

While we may not have city-sized trash mounds today, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem with the waste we’re spewing out into the environment.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

Pollution is already one of the leading causes of death worldwide, killing 9 million people each year and predicted to get worse. A World Health Organisation study last year found that 93 percent of children on the planet are now breathing in polluted air.

With plastic waste and rubbish choking our plants and animals, and human-induced climate change increasing ocean acidification and forest fires, the planet is becoming a less friendly place for life – even our own fertility rates are dropping.

And it’s only going to get worse, with China soon refusing to take in any of the nearly 4,000 shipping containers of waste the US sends each day for recycling.

3. We’re dominated by mega companies

In WALL-E, society has become dominated by a mega conglomerate punfully called Buy n Large, or BnL. By the time Earth is abandoned, BnL has become so omnipresent, it not only covers cities with its advertisements and discarded products, but also owns the spacecraft humans leave on. It also has the power to declare global emergencies.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

Today, there are just a handful of megacompanies that have huge power of the rest of us and our futures, capable of driving fake news, opioid crises, and covering up climate change.

In fact, just 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

And while the whole space thing might sound futuristic, don’t forget retail giant Amazon not only sells billions of products to consumers all around the world, its founder Jeff Bezos also owns Blue Origin – an aerospace company that aims to help facilitate ‘private human access to space’.

(Blue Origin)

4. We’re lonely, despite being more connected

Humans are more connected than ever before thanks to technology, and yet we also report feeling more isolated than ever. In many parts of the world, we’re having less sex and birth rates are dropping. Twenty-two percent of millennials say they have “no friends”.

This type of empty connection is mirrored in WALL-E, where the robots are more human than the humans are.

On the Axiom, humans have digital screens perpetually beamed in front of their faces that allow them to video chat, but we don’t see any intimate family groups. No one touches (until WALL-E and EVE come along), and we don’t see couples together, or parents with children – toddlers are raised by AI in classrooms.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

5. Obesity is on the rise

Okay, this one’s obvious – one of the most striking things about the humans in WALL-E is that they’re all fat. Just look at how the Axiom’s captains have changed since the mission launched.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

To be fair, space reduces muscle mass and makes you puffy.

But we’re not on a dissimilar path of weight gain. Obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1975 and are still increasing.

In the film, it probably has something to do with the fact that people no longer walk. Even as babies, they use self-driving hoverchairs to get them around.

That isn’t so far fetched – with self-driving car technology moving out of the lab, and people more sedentary than ever before, it’s not hard to imagine us all sitting back and letting technology drive us around.

And then there’s this photo, taken in Walmart in 2015:

(mlevid/Imgur)

In fact, BMW has already made something that looks suspiciously like the WALL-E chair, their ‘personal mobility concept’ vehicle i-REAL.

youtube

6. We can’t stop staring at screens

I’m not just talking about social media here, but also Netflix, YouTube, Hulu… While we do use technology to connect with friends and family across the globe in ways we couldn’t in the past, the average adult today consumes five times more information daily than a counterpart in 1986.

We’re also watching close to eight hours of TV a day. Our binge-watching has even become an environmental issue.

The humans in WALL-E are just a small step up from this, with their screens now projected in front of them all the time – giving them 24/7 access to ads, entertainment, and shopping.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

In one telling scene, two friends are chatting to each other online but never realise they’re actually right next to each other. Another woman only realises there’s a gigantic pool on the cruise ship after her screen is interrupted by WALL-E getting in her way.

Sound familiar?

7. We feel useless

In a crucial line in the film, the Axiom’s Captain B. McCrea tells the autopilot “I don’t want to survive, I want to live.” Up until that point, the only thing he’s done himself is read out the morning announcements.

The rest of the humans on board don’t seem to work at all. They’re purposeless – their roles replaced by technology and their home planet destroyed. Even back on Earth, WALL-E was left behind just cubing up waste and moving it from one place to the next.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

Many of us don’t feel much more productive. A 2015 poll in the UK revealed that 37 percent of Brits think their job is meaningless. And scientists have predicted that roughly half of all jobs will be replaced by technology – not centuries from now, but in the next 20 years.

On top of that, we often feel powerless in the face of the climate crisis, with our best attempts at action dwarfed by the negative impacts from industry and government.

8. Going to space might be our only chance of survival… if you can afford it

The Axiom wasn’t taking people offshore as a humanitarian act – it was a ticketed, luxury cruise. There’s no mention of other evacuation missions from Earth, so if we assume the Axiom is all that’s left, what happened to the humans who couldn’t afford a ticket?

Probably the same thing that will happen, and is already happening, to those of us who aren’t rich enough to be protected from the worst effects of climate change.

Going to space is one option for human survival if our planet becomes so hot that it’s no longer habitable. But even with reusable rockets, space is expensive, and there won’t be room for everyone.

9. There’s still hope

As depressing as the film may be, there’s still hope for humanity. Life starts to bloom again on Earth. The antics of WALL-E and EVE wake up the passengers from their mindless scrolling. Captain B. McCrea fights back.

(WALL-E, Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

And there’s hope for us, too.

Yes, the outlook is bleak, but the science is clear – we can turn this ship around. Every degree of warming we can avoid will save lives, will protect ecosystems.

Perhaps the biggest difference between us and the humans in WALL-E is that we’re not useless – yet. We might feel it, but we still have a role to play in stopping the coming climate crisis.

In turning around our mindless consumption. In remembering that we vote governments in to serve our interests, not to protect the status quo. And we shouldn’t be scared to vote them out.

This is why we’re striking today. There is no news worth covering that could possibly be more important than reminding society that we still have a voice, and we still have power.

This article is part of ScienceAlert’s special climate edition, published in support of the global #ClimateStrike on 20 September 2019.

#Humans

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cclhappy · 2 years ago

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Crowdsourcing

The term "crowdsourcing" refers to the practice of soliciting contributions from a large number of individuals using digital mediums such as the Internet, social networking sites, and mobile applications (Hargrave 2022). A quick example would be Waze, a navigating app developed by Google. Waze encourages drivers to report accidents and other road occurrences themselves so that all users always have the most up-to-date information (Chang 2018).

Value of social media crowdsourcing

1. Since crowdsourcing engages the public in which it seeks inputs and ideas, it is both communal and competitive. Crowdsourcing could, therefore, lead to the formation of a fandom or media coverage for a product or service (Livescault n.d.). This is essentially buzz marketing, where the purpose is to increase the amount of positive word-of-mouth that may be generated for a certain campaign or products (Caveney 2020). Conversations like this may take place either online or in person and may dramatically boost website visits, social media followers, and, of course, potential customers.

An excellent example is Lego. In recent years, to develop new products and novel storylines, Lego had launched a site called Lego World Builder where it allows fans to propose new characters, shows, story world, design and literally any ideas (@GoldenNinja3000 2021). To further facilitate ideation communication, Lego has a discord channel specifically for Lego World Builder. For those chosen ideas (10,000 votes to qualifies), the creators get 1% royalty on the revenue (Mike 2020).

2. Next, we all know that each consumers have their own specific needs. Consumers data are crucial in the sense that it allows businesses to personalize communication and pitch the right products to consumers (Barker 2019). Wouldn’t it be great if business can have another FREE source to collect consumer information besides conducting marketing research. Yes, that is crowdsourcing. Starbuck’s My Starbucks Idea platforms is a great example. This platform didn’t merely invite consumers and enthusiasts to express their thoughts and recommendations for improving the company's beverages, but it also went beyond, creating fandom, communities, discussion threads, which ultimately drove customers loyalty (HBStudent2016 2015).

From this above we can see that to participate in this platform, users must sign up. Subsequently, demographics information, emails, and perhaps telephone number could be obtained in the process. The information could help Starbucks with their targeting, knowing which mediums to reach consumers and most importantly, the customers’ preferences (Zote 2019).

Even a simple poll like above can also provide great insight into customers preferences!

The pitfall of social media crowdsourcing

The first downside of crowdsourcing is the confidentiality issue. In order to obtain relevant and meaningful answers/ solutions from the general public, the company needs to disclose certain sensitive information. Confidential information has a risk of putting company at competitive disadvantage, and diminished brand value and reputation if it leads to negative press (Ries 2021). Secondly, there is also the risk of manipulation by competitors. Unless proper crowdsourcing platforms are utilized, or the communities that are providing ideas or feedback could be untrustworthy. For instance, if a company raises a poll on social media such as Instagram, competitors can always buy votes to influence the results (Thieringer 2022). There is a ton of website where one can buy votes on Instagram story poll. Here a link to the full article:

Lastly, there is the issue of intellectual property rights and plagiarism. Ideas contributed by the publics can sometimes be owned by other parties already, so it is important to verify the prospective ideas with the help legal experts. Not to mention, clear agreement articulating the terms and conditions between the idea provider and the idea seeker needs to be present to avoid any infringement.

Source: (Bakire n.d.)

To wrap up, here are some more examples of brands utilizing crowdsourcing on social media:

References

@GoldenNinja3000 2021, ‘How does Lego crowdsourcing work? @GoldenNinja3000 talks us through his Ninjago success story’, Talks For Teens, 29 June, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.talksforteens.com/tech/how-does-lego-crowdsourcing-work-goldenninja3000-talks-us-through-his-ninjago-success-story>.

Bakire, H n.d., ‘The top 5 crowdsourcing advantages and disadvantages’, Herox, n.d., viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.herox.com/blog/972-the-top-5-crowdsourcing-advantages-and-disadvantag>.

Barker, S 2019, ‘Why consumer data matters so much for your business’, Medium, 6 February, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://blog.markgrowth.com/why-customer-data-matters-so-much-for-your-business-2d6f072f16c6>.

Caveney, L 2020, ‘What is buzz marketing? Strategies and examples’, Influential, 17 February, viewed 17 October 2022, <https://www.thisisinfluential.com/blog/strategy/what-is-buzz-marketing-strategies-and-examples/>.

Chang, L 2018, ‘Love Waze’s incident reporting feature? Lucky you, it’s coming to Google Maps’, Digital Trends, 1 July, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/waze-google-maps-incident-report/>.

Hargrave, M 2022, ‘Crowdsourcing: definition, how it works, types, and examples’, Investopedia, 12 September, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdsourcing.asp#:~:text=Crowdsourcing%20involves%20obtaining%20work%2C%20information,others%20perform%20small%20tasks%20voluntarily.>.

HBStudent2016 2015, ‘My Starbucks Idea: crowdsourcing for customer satisfaction and innovation’, Digital Innovation and Transformation MBA Student Perspectives, 31 October, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/my-starbucks-idea-crowdsourcing-for-customer-satisfaction-and-innovation/>.

Livescault, J n.d., ‘6 great advantages of crowdsourcing you can benefit from’, Braineet, n.d., viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.braineet.com/blog/crowdsourcing-benefits>.

Mike 2020, ‘Lego innovation is a great example of crowdsourcing’, Digital Spark Marketing, 29 December, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://digitalsparkmarketing.com/lego-innovation/>.

Ries, A 2021, ‘Top four damaging consequences of data leakage’, ZeroFox, 3 June, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.zerofox.com/blog/damaging-consequences-data-leakage/>.

Thieringer, J 2022, ‘What is crowdsourcing? Definition, advantages & tips’, ISPO.com, 26 August, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://www.ispo.com/en/markets/what-crowdsourcing-definition-advantages-tips>.

Zote, J 2019, ‘How to use social media crowdsourcing effectively’, Sprout Blog, 13 November, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-crowdsourcing/>.

#MDA20009 #Week8

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gosmmmarketing-blog · 5 years ago

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The 5 Minute Rule for Instagram Growth (Instagram Strategy)

Okay. So I have this five minute rule that I've never shared, but it's been a big key in growing my Instagram account over the last year to over a hundred thousand followers. And also, more importantly, it's been a big key to helping me show up higher in the algorithm and build real relationships. So anytime I have downtime, like I do right now, I basically go into my phone and I do this five minute roll, and I do this every day whenever I have five minutes, and this is really the only thing I do actively on Instagram each day to make sure that I'm engaging, building my engagement, building my authority in the algorithm, so that I'm constantly growing my account. But I don't really spend more than this five minutes a day on the platform unless I'm doing a post.

So I'll show you what that is in just one second. So, the five minute rule, if you're excited to hear this, give this article a like and make sure that you hit that subscribe button. If you haven't subscribed yet, what are you waiting for? Subscribe and hit the bell to get notified every single time I post a new article on this channel and I'm going to kind of go through each of the categories that I do this five minute rule in so that you can fully understand the process. So first thing is that it's broken into sections. So the first section that I do, it's called existing audience. So basically, anyone who follows me that day or anyone who engages with my content that day, there's a couple of things that I do to further nurture the relationship.

If you haven't watched my article on owning the Instagram algorithm, make sure you check it out because you'll see in that article the three key factors to owning the algorithm and making sure that you show up in the newsfeed. So, if you check that out, you'll see that one of the key factors is relationships. So that's why this is so important to me.

And this is why I do this five minute roll every single day. So the first thing is, people who comment on my content on my feed or people who messaged me in my DMS or people who follow me, what I'll do is I'll send them a voice message. So I send some people voice messages and just introduce myself and say, "Hello," because sending rich content in DMs is really valuable to the algorithm to say, "Wow, you must actually have a real relationship with this person if you're taking the time to send a voice message." So it's going to actually help you show up in that person's feed more. The other thing that I do is I send article messages to say welcome or I ask questions, and a big thing that I'll do is ask, "Why are you here and what did you want to see from my account and what are you looking forward to learning from me?" And that can help me find great content topics for my Instagram feed.

The next thing I do is polls. I love asking questions on Instagram and using it for data and information on what my audience wants, both for my free content and my paid content. So I'll go on and I'll invite people to things or ask questions. So one of the big things that I use polls for it is, if I have a new opt in or I have a new webinar or masterclass, I'll go on and say, "Do you want to come to the masterclass tomorrow? Vote yes or no." And whoever votes yes, I then go through that list and I send a direct message to every person who voted yes with the link to sign up for the webinar.

And it's a great tool to get more butts in seats for your webinar and basically interacts directly with people, which people kind of get surprised by. The next thing I do is questions. I love the questions feature on Instagram stories. So I'll ask a question and I do this a lot when it comes to figuring out what kind of content you want to see on YouTube.

I'll say, "What do you want to see on my YouTube channel?" And people send me all these ideas, and a lot of the times those ideas then turn into my YouTube articles like today's. This actually was inspired from a comment and a question I got on Instagram. The next thing is, after I post a new photo, and this is still under my existing audience or the audience that's already there following me or just new to following me, whenever, I post a new photo on my feed, I will go in to the previous photo that I posted on my feed and I will like, so I will heart every single comment on that photo until Instagram cuts me off, but I will like every single comment on that previous photo to kind of ding and notify those followers on my account that I have a new piece of content that just went up and it'll grab their attention to come back to my account and find that new photo.

So that's just my existing audience category and that five minutes, that's one thing I do. You don't have to do all of it, but pick one of those things to do every day within that five minutes and you'd be surprised how many of those things you can get done to nurture those relationships. So the second thing is finding like-minded accounts. And this is so important because if you're trying to wait for everybody else to find you on social media, you're never going to get found. I often say, "Don't be the cool guy at the party. Be the friendly guy at the party because no one wants to talk to the cool guy at the party and they're intimidated by them." So you want to be the person who goes out of your way to talk to everybody. So what I will do is I will actually go onto my account and I will search keywords or tags within my niche and I will find new people to interact with.

The other cool bonus factor of this is that if I do this, I'm also finding all of these great pieces of content that I will then save and curate for my own feed or for my story to share later. So it's allowing me to gather content that I really love as well. So I'm interacting, I'm gathering content, and on those pieces of content that I really like, I will heart them and I will leave a valuable comment so that I can get on that person's radar. And I will also interact with people in the comments on that post to, again, expose myself to a whole new audience to help me grow my account faster. So the next thing is hashtags. And I have a whole list in my phone of the hashtags that are relevant to who I want to be attracting and the kind of audience that I know I want to be following me. So I go through that hashtag list every day in this five minute rule, and I basically go in and I search the hashtags on Instagram and I find people, like I said before, to go and interact with and I find content that I can save to use on my account or to share in my stories.

But, most importantly, I use those hashtags to find people that I haven't interacted with yet or that haven't heard of me yet, and I go in and I direct message them or I'll comment on their post or I'll respond to something that they put on their story just to get on their radar to say, "Hey, I'm here. We haven't met yet, but I'm super excited to introduce myself." And when I'm talking about hashtags, I use a tool called Flick, which I explained thoroughly in this article on how I post on Instagram. So we can show you a bit of that right now, but make sure you go watch that full article because that's how I find the right hashtags to be attracting with on Instagram and it's an amazing, amazing tool.

So we'll link to that below. Look at this hashtag tool here, you can see that you can type in anything. It's called flick.tech. It's about $10 a month, $11 a month U.S. and it's really, really good. Now, just like anything, this is going to take you a minute to create these hashtag groups, but it is so worth it because you'll see a huge increase in your engagement. So say I want to look up YouTube articles. And it'll even populate some of the things that come up. So let's say, YouTube articles. And the next thing is, once I build a relationship with people on Instagram and I introduce myself or we start talking back and forth, I won't make time to then follow up with them, a week, two weeks, a month later, and I will make sure that I'm consistently interacting.

So it's not this one time thing, but we actually open a dialogue and that's what happens when you voice message or article message new followers. They know it's a safe place for them to actually talk to you and you have no idea how many of those conversations that I've started with people have turned into paying customers and clients because they know that I'm a real person that they can actually interact with. So make sure that you continue to nurture the relationship and continue to interact with those people, especially if you have a new account.

Really value those new people who follow you because they are the people that are going to be with you in the long run if you value them in the beginning. Now, the next thing is making sure that you respond, like I said, to pretty much everything. When I was first starting to grow my account, everybody got a response and still to this day I have over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram and I still do my best to respond to every single DM that I get. Some of them end up in spam and I don't see them, but I try and respond to every single DM that I get, every question that I get. And I just block out time outside of this five minute rule, like once a week, to go through and answer all my DMs. So, like I said, I'm not on Instagram all day, every day. I have this five minute rule and everything I just mentioned goes into that five minute rule.

I interact with existing accounts that follow me, my existing audience that follows me. I interact with like minded accounts to grow my following. I search hashtags to grow my following and curate content. I build the relationships with people ongoing in the DMs and I make sure that I'm responding to everything in my Direct Messages. And if you have a smallish audience, there's no excuse, you should be responding to everything in your DMS because that's what's going to build relationships and help you show up higher in the algorithm on Instagram.

Now, if you've enjoyed this, let me know what your biggest takeaway was from this article and what you're going to start doing on Instagram. If you haven't followed me on Instagram yet, you can find me @sunnylenarduzzi. Head over there, follow me, shoot me over a DM, and you'll see, I'll respond. If you like this article, I've got a whole playlist dedicated to Instagram growth and getting real results on that platform.

Make sure you check that out here and make sure you check out my article on how to find the right hashtags and how I post on Instagram right here. If you like this, hit the like button below. Be sure to subscribe and share this with your friends or anyone who needs to see it. And I'll see you in the next article. Bye..

#instagram #social media marketing #socialmarketing #instagramtips

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growinstablog · 5 years ago

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Instagram Story Templates That Will Increase Engagement

“Stories are on track to overtake posts in feeds as the most common way people share across all social apps,” said Mark Zuckerberg, showing how Instagram Stories are fast becoming an important part of every Instagram user’s life. In fact, people under 25 years old are spending more time on Instagram because of Stories, specifically an average of 32 minutes every day. Users older than 25 years old, on the other hand, spend an average of 25 minutes daily.

If you need more proof, take a look at these numbers:

500 million people use Stories every day, up from 400 million in June 2018. That’s half of the one billion Instagram users worldwide.

One-third of the most-viewed Stories are from business accounts.

70% of watched Stories are with sounds on.

80% of users follow an Instagram business account.

Instagram Stories are evidently a hot iron that brands, businesses, and bloggers, need to strike. If the stats above still haven’t convinced you, get this: One in five Stories from business accounts results in a direct message.

A direct message from customers is the ultimate form of engagement any business can get. You can build a relationship with your customers, and the best thing is that they initiated it. People often wonder which website is the best place to buy Instagram followers among other things at this stage.

Instagram Story templates

Creating Instagram Stories for your business can be time-consuming, as with regular Instagram posts. To avoid spending too much time on this, there are Instagram Story templates you can use. You can change the pictures on the templates to show your products or to make it more specific to your business.

You may also play with the color combinations and apply filters, but keep in mind that these templates were created by professional graphic designers. Unless you’re also a graphic designer, it’s best not to modify them too much as there’s a reason why the artist made them as they are.

With that out of the way, here are some of these engagement magnet Story templates from Easil:

This or That templates

Regular users on Instagram Stories are familiar with This or That. These are Stories that encourage viewers to take a screenshot and encircle or highlight their choices. Viewers can then:

Image: This or That Instagram Story Template. Photo taken from Easil

Upload their answer as their Story: You can encourage them to post their answers as Stories and include the unedited template so that their network can participate. If you’re aiming for brand awareness, it’s a good idea to place your logo and a brand-specific hashtag somewhere on the template so when it spreads, people will know it’s from you. Ask them to tag you in their Story as well.

DM you the answers: Another way to drive engagement is to ask them to DM you the edited version of the template. You can even incorporate this with a giveaway contest.

There are several This or That templates you can find on Easil or on any platform.

Shout out templates

Featuring other brands, tagging an influencer, or giving a shout out to a customer, are surefire ways to drive engagement to your account. There are a lot of templates you can use that allows you to tag another Instagram account,

Image: ShoutOut Story Template. Photo taken from Easil

The green bar (you can change this color, of course) is where the @mention should ideally be so it’s easily visible. Just place a text/tag over it so it can be highlighted and it will become a live link which means your followers can click on it and visit the other person’s profile. The person you tag will receive a notification, and they can share your content as their Story, further increasing engagement.

Instagram Story polls templates

Instagram Stories with polls work similarly as the This or That Stories, in that viewers are given choices. With the Story polls, however, you only need to add an Instagram poll sticker that viewers can simply tap to vote on their choice. They can also see realtime results, while you can swipe up to see how many votes each choice has received and who voted for them.

Image: Instagram Story Poll Template. Photo taken from Later

With Story poll templates, you can make eye-catching polls that will encourage users to participate.

You can reuse the same poll regularly, making a few tweaks on the template if necessary.

Instagram Stories engagement

There have been a lot of updates and features added to Instagram Stories, and all of them provide a better user experience and make Stories more effective for businesses and brands. Stories drive engagement, particularly these:

Direct messages from followers

Poll participation

Tagged profile or live links click through

Story views

Take note that story views are also a form of engagement, just like any comments and likes on Instagram, and it’s the one that counts the most. Creating attractive Stories is therefore important to increase the number of views and other engagement metrics, and hopefully, the suggested templates above will help you.

https://growinsta.xyz/instagram-story-templates-that-will-increase-engagement/

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j0sgomez-blog · 6 years ago

Photo

Dawn at Quiet Lake in Idaho’s Cecil D. Andrus-White Clouds Wilderness, created in 2015.

By Michael Lanza

How’s it feel to be a conservationist in America today? Does it feel like people who want the government to protect the environment—which is a large majority of Americans—suddenly find themselves losing a war that it seemed we had already won?

These are strange and frustrating times for conservation. We have to wonder: How could so many Americans believe that climate science is bogus—or even a “hoax,” as a certain world leader calls it? How could so many of our countrymen and women applaud as the current White House takes an axe to the agency created four decades ago to protect the very environment we live in? Or buy into the corrupt notion that ceding control of our prized public lands to private interests could, in any way, be in our public interest?

And where do we go from here?

Somewhere along the line, logic got turned on its head. We need to stand it upright again—and we can.

The Bears Ears buttes in Bears Ears National Monument, which President Trump shrank by 85 percent.

The good news is that while we are, in many ways, mired in a war for the future not only of conservation but for the nation’s values—not to mention human civilization—environmentalists do have a much larger army than the opposition. Gallup reported in March 2018 that “62 percent of Americans say government is doing too little on the environment,” the highest that number has been since 2006.

The same poll found overwhelming majorities want more public investment in renewable energy, higher pollution and auto-emissions standards, and stronger enforcement of environmental regulations. Seven in 10 Americans believe climate change is happening and six in 10 want the government to do something about it.

Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Subscribe now to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

But the anti-environmental movement is very well funded—with the climate-change misinformation campaign led by the fossil-fuel industry and related special interests—and has massed its troops in elected positions from Congress to state capitols and local offices.

They are dismantling the protections created over decades to ensure that Americans can breathe clean air and drink clean water, and protect endangered species. They are working to undermine the international effort to combat climate change. They are abetted in their self-serving scheme by a president who embraces no ideology beyond self-aggrandizement, and who has mastered the dark art of sowing division and discord through stoking the fires of fear and hate—all in the service of increasing his own profit and power. And he is enabled by a congressional majority willing to deploy un-American tactics to achieve their goals, like actively preventing some citizens from voting, and extreme gerrymandering of districts so that politicians get to select their voters rather than the other way around.

Lower Yellowstone Falls in the world’s first national park, Yellowstone.

Among many moves to roll back progress on climate change, the Trump administration has taken steps to allow increased emissions of methane—one of the most powerful greenhouse gases—to weaken car pollution rules, and to let states set their own rules on coal emissions (or no rules at all). The administration hires ex-lawyers and lobbyists for polluting industries to regulate those industries—the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse. Trump’s Interior Department under Director Ryan Zinke has rescinded an Obama-era policy requiring that national parks management be based in science.

This NY Times story lists 76 environmental rules Trump is throwing out, and concludes: “All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could lead to at least 80,000 extra deaths per decade and cause respiratory problems for more than one million people.” That story goes on to quote a Harvard expert saying that number is likely to be “a major underestimate of the global public health impact.”

This is what an all-out war on the environment looks like. It’s enough to really piss you off, right?

Climate change constitutes, literally and figuratively, a steadily rising tide that threatens to overwhelm civilization. The science not only continues to affirm this reality, it strongly suggests that we are on a faster trajectory toward increasingly severe consequences than previously thought.

Read about how climate change is affecting our national parks in my book Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks.

Backpackers hiking through a burned forest in Glacier National Park. Climate change has made wildfires larger and more numerous.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned recently that we have until 2030 to slash carbon emissions by 45 percent, and until 2050 to eliminate all carbon emissions. Otherwise, we condemn our children, grandchildren, and generations for centuries to life on a planet undergoing catastrophic climate change.

Many of us followed a long path through the outdoors that led us into conservation. We are motivated by a love of hiking, climbing, fishing, backpacking, skiing, paddling, hunting, birding, and other pastimes that have given us some of the most inspirational and joyful moments in our lives. Pull back the covers on the phrase “conservation movement” and you simply find people who share simple, common values: protecting places in nature that give us a rejuvenating connection to our humanity, and maintaining a world environment in which humans can thrive and live healthy lives.

History will recall this era as a dark time when some leaders showed a ruthless and shameless willingness to destroy the planetary environment that sustains life as humans have always known it.

But we have the opportunity to ultimately record this period as the time that the conservation movement became reinvigorated and rose to the challenges we face today. Many organizations and individuals are engaged and committed to this mission. The technology exists to accomplish this; we need only the political will, and that begins with each of us.

Here are some ideas for getting back on the right track.

The Big Outside helps you find the best adventures. Subscribe now and get full access to all stories!

Backpackers on Clouds Rest in Yosemite National Park.

No. 1 Vote in Every Election

Voting represents the bare minimum effort we are all asked to make as citizens of what has been and could still be—if we’re ready to save it—the nation that leads the free world.

Voting is not a big ask. It’s not a heavy lift. In fact, we should all participate in the democratic process more deeply than merely voting.

The Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park.

We should certainly seek to inform ourselves thoroughly through a variety of legitimate sources in the media and elsewhere. Knowledge and accurate information offer the best protection against the demagogues, charlatans, and liars who employ today’s vast array of communication tools to foment the fear, intolerance, and hate that seem to motivate so many voters now. We don’t need impenetrable walls along our borders—we need virtual windows onto our entire world, through which we can see everything more clearly.

Just as we have a choice in how we drive a vehicle—we can drive it intelligently and with care and caution, or steer it over a cliff—we can use the infinite resources available at our fingertips today to make ourselves better-informed citizens, rather than pawns of the purveyors of misinformation.

But voting is step one on the stairway of democracy. And yet, millions of Americans do not vote—they do not contribute the bare minimum effort as a member of a democracy. Some, including young people and populations already marginalized, only vote occasionally, typically in presidential elections, skipping mid-terms that determine the crucial makeup of Congress and key state offices.

Think of it this way: There are 10 houses on your street, but only the owners of six of them make all the rules for the neighborhood, including how much you each pay to live there (and they charge others more than they charge themselves), because the owners of four houses don’t vote.

Sound like a good system?

If not, then get out and vote and urge everyone you know to do the same—especially anyone who’s never voted or does rarely, including young people. Tell anyone who complains about the cynicism in politics that they have the power to do something about it, beginning with their vote. If everyone eligible voter in America cast a ballot in every election, we’d be well on our way to having a functional democracy.

Plan your next backpacking adventure in Yosemite, Grand Teton and other parks using my expert e-guides.

Sahale Glacier Camp in North Cascades National Park, one of my 25 favorite backcountry campsites.

No. 2 Choose to Live More Sustainably

Yes, it sometimes seems the solutions to climate change and other environmental problems lie far beyond our reach as individuals. But we can all do more to reduce personal waste and consumption, and that exerts a positive collective impact.

We can make choices about lifestyle and family and work circumstances that affect our waste and consumption. A few examples of many possible steps include reducing car trips and driving an economical vehicle, being more careful about electricity and water use, buying food grown and produced as close to your home as possible and planting a vegetable garden, recycling and reusing, and composting home organic waste. Larger steps like improving house insulation and converting to solar create expense up front but pay off over the long term.

The Center for Biological Diversity lists these 12 ways to live more sustainably, but you can easily find much more information on that subject. Some actions are big and costly, others have long-term, significant impacts and save you money.

But the best news about living more sustainably? Instead of making you pissed off, it can make you happier and healthier and improve your life. When I gave my wife a cruiser bicycle for Christmas a few years ago, her attitude toward biking rather than driving local trips swung 180 degrees. Now we frequently ride into town, which creates time together that’s far more enjoyable than driving in traffic and searching for parking—not to mention far better for our community.

Backpackers on the Piegan Pass Trail in Glacier National Park.

No. 3 Get Off Your Butt

Actions speak louder than bitching on Facebook. If you’re truly pissed off, do something.

Volunteer for and donate to political candidates and campaigns you like and respect, who you believe can help our world—or your little part of it—rather than harm it. Or even run for office and be an agent for change.

Find organizations that do work you support and offer them your time and resources. Join a board; many groups are desperate for intelligent, committed volunteers who bring a variety of expertise to the table. I’m no genius, but for years I’ve served on volunteer boards and committees working on protecting and managing conservation and recreation lands, improving public education (smarter kids make smarter voters and citizens), and electing pro-conservation politicians. (I’m on the board of Conservation Voters for Idaho, which has resounding success electing green candidates in a very red state and deserves your support.)

Step up. You might be surprised at how many people would love to have whatever you can give.

Find your next adventure in your Inbox. Sign up for my FREE email newsletter now.

Backpackers in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which Trump cut in half.

No. 4 Do What Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha Would Do

Religious leaders are increasingly joining the rising chorus of people who believe the world’s governments have a moral duty to protect the environment and take aggressive action to limit the severity of climate change.

In September 2017, Pope Francis and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew called for a collective response from world leaders to climate change, saying the planet was deteriorating and vulnerable people were the first to be affected. Other religious organizations are investing directly in projects that protect the planet, such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and forest protection.

As well they should. Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” The Prophet Muhammad said, “Conduct yourself in this world as if you are here to stay forever.” The Buddha said, “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”

Planning your next big adventure? See “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips” and “The 20 Best National Park Dayhikes.”

Bighorn sheep in Glacier. Click photo for 10 Tips for Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.

No. 5 Please, Don’t Give Up or Give In

It’s easy to feel defeated. It’s hard to make things better. And it’s not enough to just be pissed off. Consider how much is at stake. I’m reminded of that every day when I look at my kids.

There are many reasons to be optimistic for our future. I’m encouraged by the efforts of politicians at the state and local levels and businesses committed to a sensible future in an economy built upon clean energy—the only future. California has committed to meeting 100 percent of its energy needs by 2045. Thousands of cities, regional governments, investors, and corporations have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint, motivated in large part by Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the international Paris climate change agreement.

I am encouraged by the energy, intelligence, and determination of today’s young people. They don’t wallow in fear and despair. They aren’t mourning the planet’s future and lamenting that climate change seems so gigantic and daunting a problem that any action feels futile. They are acting. They are educating themselves. They are demanding leadership.

Larch trees reflected in Rainbow Lake, in Washington’s North Cascades.

But those of us in the generations now running the show—who are responsible for much of this problem—have to hand them the tools to help them complete the most important work humanity has ever faced. We have to give them a fighting chance.

If we fail to right our ship, then we will deserve it when today’s children look at us in the fast-approaching future, as the oceans drown cities and starvation and political instability spawn refugee waves unlike anything we’ve ever seen in history, and ask, “What were you thinking?”

I’m reminded of three quotes that speak to the time we live in now. The first has been described as an Aboriginal proverb but also attributed to various sources: “We do not inherit the planet from our ancestors, we borrow it from our grandchildren.”

The second is a quote that has been attributed to the Irish philosopher, statesman, and parliamentarian Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Finally, we might all find inspiration in the words written by a young girl while she suffered through the worst evil the world has ever known. Anne Frank famously wrote: “It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”

We have no other choice. We cannot fail, because failure now means giving up on hope.

Tell me what you think.

I spent a lot of time writing this story, so if you enjoyed it, please consider giving it a share using one of the buttons below, and leave a comment or question at the bottom of this story. I’d really appreciate it.

Read about one great American adventure that’s possible today because of the conservation movement in my story “Why Conservation Matters: Rafting the Green River’s Gates of Lodore.”

You live for the outdoors. The Big Outside helps you get out there. Subscribe now and a get free e-guide!

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

I was surprised how many questions I got about the little dollhouse sneak peeks I’ve shared on IG stories over the last few weeks as I fixed this up with the kids. And then I polled you guys to see if you wanted a post about it, and 91% of you voted yes, so here it is!

You can read more about how these came to be on this podcast from a few weeks back, but the gist is that the kids really wanted super detailed dollhouses to fix up, and we got two of them secondhand on Facebook marketplace to “renovate” together.

This little makeover was lots of fun for us all, since the kids were at the wheel picking all the colors and helping me paint and glue and arrange stuff, and although this technically lives in our son’s room, both kids definitely had a hand in making it over (we have another one that lives in our daughter’s room that we’re also working on together – which you can see below on the left of the photo). The lesson: even tiny houses take a village to fix up.

The quick pic I snapped below shows what this one looked like when we got it (I barely remembered to snap the before photo, hence that dash of white paint on the facade since we had already started painting).

Our son was adamant that he wanted it to be white with light blue shutters and gold trim along the peak (this is the gold I used – be sure to shake this thoroughly for the best coverage). The kid knew what he wanted and was unwavering. Ha! So his vision came to fruition thanks to a whole lot of painting.

We just used simple craft paint from Michael’s and we all pitched in (we had the entire interior and exterior to do). The kids could easily do things like the floor, walls, and exterior house color and I helped with the more detailed jobs, like the trim (I just used a small craft brush). Also we made up a song as we went, which went a little something like this: “Ahh, don’t get paint on the roof! Go slow! Whew! We can do this! Ahhhh, avoid the roof!” Catchy, eh? If you’re super worried you can cover it with plastic and tape it off, but our song seemed to work for the most part.

Oh and that decorative trim around the peak came with the dollhouse, it just broke off and I re-glued it back on with wood glue (this glue works great – I just taped them in place while they dried so I didn’t have to stand there holding them for an hour).

I loved getting to reuse some things we’ve had for ages (way back from our daughter’s first dollhouse), like those topiaries that you see on the front porch. The funny thing is that I found those in the wedding aisle at Michael’s 6 years ago, and they’re actually meant to be place cards (there’s a small wire loop at the top to stick name cards in). Cute miniature things are EVERYWHERE if you look close enough.

As for the “greenery” in the window boxes above, I just bought this small faux plant “mat” from Michael’s (don’t forget your 50% off coupons – they saved me so much money when I was grabbing the acrylic paint, craft glue, and the little faux green mat).

Here’s a Burger-for-scale shot for ya. He was VERY INTO trying to help, but sadly dogs can’t paint very well. Oh and we have since fixed the steps, so I’ll have to share a little update video on Instagram stories about how we did it. Super simple – you just slice thin craft wood (like this) with an exacto knife to make the steps, glue them into place with wood glue, and paint them to match. Truly so easy! Like 10,000% easier than building a human-sized staircase ;)

This is where this dollhouse lives, right in the corner of our son’s room. For those who listened to the podcast about “Operation Acquire Two Dollhouses”, you may remember that I thought this was a much smaller dollhouse (like shoebox sized) and was shocked when it was almost as big as his extra high dresser – and then we picked up the one for our daughter… and… well… it was massive. Ha! But they LOVE them, so I guess it all worked out. Even if dollhouses now make up 8% of our actual house’s contents now.

As for how we fixed things up inside, this is what we started with. All the furniture in each house was collected over two bulk purchases on Facebook Marketplace (we spent around $30 total for enough furniture to fill TWO houses!). This before shot of the back of the house and the furniture isn’t completely congruent with the next after shot since I took this photo on Christmas Eve, and then the kids came down on Christmas morning and had all sorts of furniture swaps and rearranging parties.

But you get the general gist that the floors were wood, the walls were sort of a cream-white color and a lot of the furniture was wood, deep red, green and cream, etc. Once again our tiny homeowner knew exactly what he wanted for the inside: white walls and light blue floors – just like the shutters and trim (this is the exact blue color we used by the way).

We all got to work painting those (again, just with craft paint from Michael’s) and once the floor & walls were dry we had some fun painting the beds gold, adding a pink top to the table and two of the chairs – whatever the kids wanted – we did! And the funny thing is that they both said the sink and the fridge had to be pink like the stove at the pink house! You know I didn’t argue with that ;)

The little pillows were things our daughter already had from a small doll she had gotten ages ago, and even the “bedding” on the two beds were cloth bags I had saved in our gift wrapping closet (one is from Kendra Scott jewelry and it’s the perfect “sleeping bag” size and the other is a plain blue cloth bag that something else came in).

There were a few special purchases that we made with the kids. They had an Amazon gift card and some Christmas money to spend, so after a loooooooong deliberation they decided that two plates of pancakes (you can see those on the right of the photo above) and a little gingerbread making kit (seen below) were the best things to buy, along with this set of pots & pans (you can see them in the photo above on the fridge). They’ve never been so excited to check the mail every day until they arrived.

Oh and that little candlestick has real wax candles! It came with one of the sets of old dollhouse furniture we bought secondhand – and you might remember those round wire chairs from our daughter’s first dollhouse too (originally they were little decorative chairs meant as shelf decor from West Elm years ago).

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

Along with DIYing the greenery in the window boxes, I also made a few house plants from scratch. It was really simple and fun, I just took small clippings from the same faux green mat thing I bought for the window boxes, and I glued them into various small things that look like pots. One was a wood bead (see that one on the top of the toilet in the picture below?) and one was a small white flowerpot I found at the craft store.

I also used a clear bead + a brown flat button to make the little plant you see in the photo below. Just glue the bead and the button together and it looks like a little glass vase sitting on a brown coaster – and then add the small clipping to the bead with another small dab of glue.

Another fun added touch is to dump some colorful beads or large sequins into the bath tub and the sink to create some “fake water.” I found some blue ones a little later on, but already had these pink sequin things from a jewelry kit we had around the house, so I tossed them in and the kids had a lot of fun “bathing” their little dolls and teddy bears in ’em. Much better than them putting real water in their tub and sink ;)

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

The kids also especially like “interactive” additions to their houses, like the rocking horse & rocking chair, which both get a lot of use from their little figures. Our daughter’s house also has a Christmas tree and some tiny fake wrapped presents to go around the base of it – and they LOVE that too. Anything they can weave a story around seems to be a real hit – and stuff that moves like drawers that come out and chests that open add excitement-factor too (they also love that the toilet cover goes up and down).

So that rounds out the tour of House #1 for ya. We hope to eventually share our larger and more detailed renovation of the bigger house for our daughter’s room someday. She wants electricity and all that good stuff, so it might take a while, but hopefully I’ll be back with all the details in the next year or two. You never know how long these whole-house renos are gonna take ;)

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

Psst – To check out how to make a much less detailed dollhouse for younger kids, here’s how we built one, and how we decorated it. And to hear more of the story about how we came across these two dollhouses that we’re fixing up now, you can tune into this podcast (all the details are in the first 10 minutes or so).

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) appeared first on Young House Love.

A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

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sociocosmos · 17 days ago

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billydmacklin · 6 years ago

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A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) appeared first on Young House Love.

A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

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additionallysad · 6 years ago

Photo

A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) http://bit.ly/2Ryn9x0

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) appeared first on Young House Love.

#additionally sad home renovations

0 notes

lukerhill · 6 years ago

Text

A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) appeared first on Young House Love.

0 notes

interiorstarweb · 6 years ago

Text

A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

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lowmaticnews · 6 years ago

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A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

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truereviewpage · 6 years ago

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A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

As for how we fixed things up inside, this is what we started with. All the furniture in each house was made up of two bulk purchases on Facebook Marketplace (we spent around $30 total for enough furniture to fill TWO houses!). This before shot of the back of the house and the furniture isn’t completely congruent with the next after shot since I took this photo on Christmas Eve, and then the kids came down on Christmas morning and had all sorts of furniture swaps and rearranging parties.

Oh and that little candlestick has real wax candles! It came with one of the sets of old dollhouse furniture we bought secondhand – and you might remember those round wire chairs as being from our daughter’s first dollhouse too (originally they were little decorative chairs meant as shelf decor from West Elm).

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) appeared first on Young House Love.

A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) published first on https://aireloomreview.tumblr.com/

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vincentbnaughton · 6 years ago

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A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

You can read more about how these came to be on this podcast from a few weeks back, but the gist is that the kids – especially our daughter – really wanted super detailed dollhouses to fix up, and we got two of them secondhand on Facebook marketplace to “renovate” together).

That photo above and the quick pic I snapped below show what they looked like when we started (I barely remembered to snap the before photo below, hence that dash of white on the facade since we had already started).

We just used simple craft paint from Michael’s and we all pitched in (we had the entire interior and exterior to do). The kids could easily do things like the floor, walls, and exterior house color and I helped with the more detailed jobs, like the trim (I just used a small craft brush). Also we made up a song as we went, which went a little something like this: “ahh, don’t get paint on the roof! Go slow! Whew! We can do this! Ahhhh, avoid the roof!” Catchy, eh? If you’re super worried you can cover it with plastic and tape it off, but our song seemed to work for the most part.

And as for the “greenery” in the window boxes above, I just bought this small faux plant “mat” from Michael’s (don’t forget your 50% off coupons – they saved me so much money when I was grabbing the acrylic paint, craft glue, and the little faux green mat).

Here’s a little Burger-for-scale shot for ya. He was VERY INTO trying to help, but sadly dogs can’t paint very well. Oh and we have since fixed the steps, so I’ll have to share a little update video on Instagram stories about how we did it. Super simple – you just slice thin craft wood (like this) with an exacto knife to make the steps, glue them into place with wood glue, and paint them to match. Truly so easy! Like 10,000% easier than building a human-sized staircase ;)

This is where this dollhouse lives, right in the corner of our son’s room. For those who listened to the podcast about “Operation Acquire Two Dollhouses”, you may remember that I thought this was a much smaller dollhouse (like shoebox sized) and was shocked when it was almost as big as his extra high dresser – and then when we picked up the one for our daughter… and… well, it was massive. Ha! But they LOVE them, so I guess it all worked out. Even if dollhouses now make up 8% of our actual house’s contents now.

You know it super bugs me that I took all these photos like a day before I fixed those stairs, right? #TypeA

You can see it a little better in this photo below, along with my homemade potted plant.

Also dollhouses are not just for girls. So many little guys who come over to play run right up to them and LOVE it.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse) appeared first on Young House Love.

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