Although it might not seem so at first glance, beauty is one of the more dynamic properties throughout history. From thin to plus-size, you can see different representations of what men and women find desirable in different eras. There was a time when “extra” size was especially attractive, because it suggested wealth and prosperity, for example. Today, in a time when social media and the ubiquity of internet access has made multiple forms of beauty very apparent, the people are responding positively to many of the unique results that are emerging.

Hashtag HonorCurves

Let’s face it: up until the last few years, during which social media has exploded as a primary means of business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer communications, you were inundated with images of super-skinny models as the overriding standard of beauty. Although both men and women have to deal with looking at models, and then looking at their own body and feeling subpar; most would agree that this is an issue that especially affects women.

Facebook user Sara Sofia Almeida grew tired of always having to compare her body to the popular mass media images. Using the hashtag #honorcurves#, she sought to have all the people out there appreciate their bodies and realize all the amazing things it can do – swim, run, hug people, love, laugh, and enjoy life. Basically, her body positivity contribution was that you should manage your perception of yourself, and don’t let the media define you. Her post received thousands of likes and dozens of comments; the hashtag itself was created by a young lady name Honorine, and has been used nearly 300,000 times to date.

Hashtag BigFinesBreakTheInternet

Yet another movement that celebrates larger women; the Big Fines Break the Internet hashtag was started to help women feel more positive about their bodies; particularly to help combat the results of studies showing that 54% of women between 18-40 feel dissatisfaction with their bodies. The 2014 survey done by Glamour showed that body negativity was actually growing worse, since back in 1984, a similar poll showed that just 42% of women in this age-range felt unhappy. The cause? Big magazines and social media – which proliferate the message that one kind of body is attractive. #BigFinesBreakTheInternet# is seeking to help change that perception.

Dove Gets Into It

Soap and body care company Dove jumped into the body positivity fray and launched a campaign that may be the largest yet. The #ChooseBeautiful# hashtag caught on like wildfire, when it was revealed in a study that 96% of women don’t choose the word “beautiful” to describe their bodies. This social media campaign has springboarded off the success of the Choose Beautiful hashtag to launch the Speak Beautiful variant, which encourages women to talk positively about their bodies with each other, to help realize their gains in self-esteem and self-perception.

A Celebration of Culture and Modesty

Melanie Elturk is Muslim, and despite that religions staunchly conservative appearance requirements for women, she’s taken to social media to show that girls can be attractive even in conservative garb. Her Haute Hijab movement is big on Instagram, where she showcases herself and other Muslim women wearing fashionable headscarves and other accouterments.

To celebrate your business on Social Media, please contact Blast Creative today.

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How do you measure accomplishment at the end of a day of writing?  Is it pages, words, or time?  Ask yourself that question because it is different for all writers.  The prolific writers, the ones we turn to for advice, even for something as small as a quote, have mostly all spoken about accomplishment.  While Hemingway was in Montana he wrote most mornings, and spent his afternoons fishing for trout or hunting.  Other authors start and don’t finish until they’ve hit some predetermined goal—Steven King’s five pages every day, or the gold standard one thousand words, or Karen Russell’s goal of maximizing quality time spent engaged within her story (she’s not a word robot).     

Why do we listen, then?  Do we plan to copy Hemingway’s write-only-in-the-morning style?  Will adhering to Steven King’s prolific writing style make us as celebrated an author as the man himself?  No.  At least for the most part I believe no.  We listen to them, because being in the room at the desk alone can feel daunting.  For the most part, writing is not a team activity.  It’s just us.  There’s no one to whom the writer can compare himself against but himself.  It’s an activity that entirely self-motivated—unless of course you have a deadline or a job which requires you to write—and the reason we look to other authors for advice is that these are the people who discovered something about themselves.  They all discovered who they are as writers. 

Start easy, start a journal.  Don’t simply walk away when things get difficult—if the right word is not coming, or if you’re simply stuck staring at the screen—keep writing.  You’ll be amazed at the ideas you will find yourself capable at times of the greatest stress.  Those ideas might not flesh themselves out with perfect articulation, but they might be there.  Keep writing and determine the things that work best for you.  Consider the amount of time you need to stay focused every day, or even every other day.  Understanding what will keep you focused, keep you at that desk for those ours or those pages or that word count will, eventually pay off.    

If you need a content writer or a copywriter, please contact Blast Creative today.

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Blast Creative specializes in Roofing Contractor Marketing, we assist roofing companies just like yours to get to the top of the search engines. We are one of the first companies in Billings, Montana to offer search engine optimization as well as Social Media Marketing.

Roofing Contractor SEO Services should consist of more than content writing!  True SEO consists of links, keywords, blogs/content writing, social media and backlinks. You need to be doing all of those things if you want your website to come in the search engines.

If you want to know why your competitor is beating you in the organic search, it’s a simple fact that they are doing more SEO than you! You can’t buy your way to the top of the search engines. You have to earn it, with a lots of White Hat SEO!

Are there broken links on your website? Is your website mobile or responsive? At Blast Creative we do a complete site analyzes and fix what’s broken. We plan out a strategic Marketing and SEO Plan that fits your needs.

If you are a Roofing Contractor in need of Marketing and SEO Services, we are here to assist you. Our program is month to month, there are no long term contracts. Without a contract, we have to deliver month to month.

With so many companies offering Roof Contractor SEO these days, we know that it’s hard to decide what type of Roofer SEO is best for your business. Most monthly services can be quite expensive and you’re required to part with your money in advance with no guarantee you’ll see results.

We not only do SEO for Roofing Companies, but for any company wanting to come up in the search engines, increase phone calls & web leads. If you are looking for SEO Services, please contact Blast Creative today!

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As a business owner, your Facebook page and other social media presences make up your owned media assets, that which is controlled by your and your business’s brand. It is important to maximize the potential for new and repeat business opportunities by making your Facebook truly reflect what you are all about. This is especially true of the images you select and portray online as representative of your company. Here are 5 tips to consider that can help make your Facebook cover photo count.

Tip #1: Make Your Photo Relevant

Making your Facebook cover photo relevant is an important consideration when choosing what to put on the cover. Your cover photo is a way to communicate who you are and what you are about to those who following you. If you are in the business of making widgets, your cover photo should reflect this. Your mission is to keep the idea of your company first and foremost in the mind of any visitor; maintaining relevancy helps you keep that idea before them as customers seek to interact with you.

Tip #2: Make Your Photo a Call-To-Action (CTA)

Your Facebook cover photo provides you with a way to direct traffic to your website. Simply provide a link in the description that appears when a user clicks on the cover photo and you have created another way to bring additional traffic to your website(s). Changes in Facebook’s cover photo policy gives you the flexibility to add more descriptors and create specific CTAs that can

Tip #3: Link Your Cover Photo to Your Profile Pic

Think for a moment how the cover and profile photos look on your current Facebook page. Are they in any way related and do they provide a consistent look and message to someone viewing your page? Use photos on your Facebook cover that provides consistency in terms of message, look, branding or relate to a campaign you may be promoting for your business. If you owned a chicken farm and your company’s logo were an egg, maybe a cover photo featuring a group of chickens in the yard with information about the business would be a good way to link your company brand with what it is you are selling.

Tip #4: Stay on Message

Keep your cover photos topical and relative to your brand and messaging. If you are running sales and specials reflective of a particular season or featuring a product or service, it is certainly advisable to upload a cover photo that highlights this. However, advertising your Black Friday specials or alerting visitors of a huge 20% off sale loses relevancy when the period for such a special has past. Manage your images carefully and be sure to remove those images that may cause confusion or be otherwise false and misleading relative to what is happening to your business.

Tip #5: Let Your Cover Photo Speak to Your Brand and Image

There are many good examples on Facebook of companies who link the messaging in the Facebook cover photos to their brand. Some of these examples are as simple as placing a logo or other recognizable image of the company somewhere in the cover photo. Be sure that any inclusion of your brand image is an organic one and not something that seems inappropriate or out of place, in context with what is being communicated in the image.

Contact Blast Creative today for all of your Social Media Marketing needs!

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According to Pew Research Center, half of young adults 18-29, who use the Internet use Instagram. Even more staggering, half of these users engage with Instagram on a daily basis. If you want to reach millennials, you can’t afford to overlook the value of Instagram. This social media platform is mainly for photos, but don’t feel limited. Using Instagram is a bit different than Facebook or Twitter, and here are some tips for getting the most out of your business account and reaching your customers.

Know Your Followers on Instagram

Instagram has different demographics than Facebook or Twitter. It’s important to know who you’re reaching through this social network platform. Instagram is more popular with teens and young adults, who love visual information. If your product isn’t relevant to them, you could have one million followers that don’t convert into sales.

Do Your Research

Begin your Instagram approach by getting a personal account and using it. Look at your competitors and other businesses that have a large following to see what they’re doing right. Figure out how to tie Instagram marketing into your overall business plan. Make sure you can commit to regular posts to engage your followers. One to three posts every day is fairly common among businesses. Although you won’t alienate your followers if you post more often, they may not pay attention if you post less. Learn how Instagram uses hashtags, to find out what’s trending, gain new followers, and to stay relevant.

Be Authentic

Instagram is very visual, and because it’s growing in popularity, your message has to be creative and true to your business. Comment on other photos that you find relevant and engaging, even if they aren’t your followers. Just as when you’re dealing with customers in your store, you may have to make the first move. Watch coming across as gimmicky and unprofessional, because you’ll lose followers.

Take Advantage of Technology

Use the analytics of Instagram to find out which of your posts get the most engagement. The technology is there to help you use the platform to your benefit. There are programs that let you schedule posts, which means you don’t have to remember it each day. If you post from your smartphone, use a watermark program to protect your photos and identify them. Take advantage of different software that makes it much easier to use Instagram.

How Do You Measure Success?

With any social media network, you only get what you put into it. Know the goals of using Instagram and have a way to measure your success. If you don’t get the results you want at first, look at what you’ve been doing. See which of your posts get the most likes and comments and analyze your photos. Tweak your campaign to see if things improve. If you aren’t getting the results you desire, maybe Instagram isn’t your market, but don’t give up right away.

If you are a business owner in any of these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate, or any business owner and want more information on Instagram or Social Media Marketing, please contact Blast Creative today!

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How does your business use your social media accounts? If you’re like most businesses, you think about attracting new customers, marketing, and branding through Facebook and Twitter. You want to build relationships with your clients and vendors to build your business, but there’s so much more potential to your social media medium. Customers use social media to report problems with a business. How you respond to those complaints will determine if you keep those customers or lose them.

Although you may have phone or email support, most people don’t want to take the time to track down the information and call during business hours. Submitting information through a contact form is impersonal at best, and customers often do not even expect a response because they have no idea who is going to receive the information. Customers want personalized immediacy to their issues, which can be costly for your business to provide.

Why Do People Turn to Social Media?

When your customer gets upset, they want to be heard. If they’re just looking for an answer to a question, they want it now. No one wants to wait which is indicative of the microwave society in today’s world. Social media is more immediate. Expectations for social media is very different from the expectations of email or phone. In a recent study, most people expect your business to respond in 60 minutes or less when they use social media.

Why You Should Care About Answering Your Customers on Social Media

Customer service through social media lets you personalize your brand and the experience of your customers. Instead of going through a phone menu to try and get to a person who can help, your customer asks a question, then gets an answer. It’s a great method to make customers have control and to provide transparency. Potential customers see the transaction and know that you will answer questions promptly. It also encourages more mentions of your brand online, which increases your presence. Not answering questions and complaints may also provide more publicity, but in a negative light. When you provide customer service through social media, you proactively manage your image. Users who reach out to you through social media are more likely to talk about your company.

With social media, follow-up is quick and easy. You can always send a personal note to the customer, but Facebook and Twitter allow you to demonstrate your commitment to providing excellent customer service. It might be overwhelming at first, and you may make some mistakes. In your industry there may be regulatory issues that you have to work around. But the long-term benefits far outweigh the challenges. When you engage with your customers, they will engage with you. If you don’t respond, they will find a business that will. Don’t lose out by ignoring social media. Reply quickly and keep your customers coming back again and again. Contact Blast Creative if you are interested in our Social Media Marketing Services.

If you are a business owner in any of these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate, or any business owner and want more information on Internet Marketing, please contact Blast Creative today!

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I’ve been thrown under the bus so many times in my lifetime by business partners, associates and friends that the tread marks have left excruciating scars and I sit here wondering if honesty, integrity and loyalty exists in 2013! I hate not trusting people, but time and time again I get slapped in the face by reality. I recently read an article on Katie Couric’s website:

Want to know how to spot a liar? Here’s how!

From Janine Driver, body language expert and author of “You Can’t Lie to Me.”

Read more here…

Basically you can never be too sure if someone in your life is being dishonest. But you’d think with the age of the Internet and Social Media, people would try to be more honest, because their reputation is on the line-literally! Edward Snowden is a prime example, his life is ruined and he can’t go anywhere in the world without people knowing him and what he did. Kids in high school and college know all too well how one bad decision can end up online and destroy their lives and yet, here we are in 2013 and people continue to be dishonest, show lack of integrity and loyalty. So color me stupid, people just don’t care and that scares me, what is the world going to be like 10 years from now?

According to Webster Integrity is:

Definition of INTEGRITY

1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility

2 : an unimpaired condition : soundness

3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness

And this is Webster’s definition of Integrity for kids:

Main Entry: in·teg·ri·ty
Pronunciation: in-teg-rt-
Function: noun
1 : the condition of being free from damage or defect
2 : total honesty and sincerity
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided

So you be the judge, is there integrity in the world in 2013? Especially when it comes to business! Has the oil boom and the almighty dollar turned us into a society with no morals, no integrity and no loyalty? In a world where everyone claims to be a Christian, where is God? In Luke 6:31 it says do unto others, as you would have them do unto you! So does that mean I should treat business partners, associates and friends the way that they have treated me. Or how about Exodus 21:24 where it says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? The biggest lesson that I’ve learned in life is that if someone claims to be a Christian or talks about their faith in God and God has led them to this or that, RUN, RUN for your life! I once believed that Christianity, honesty, integrity and loyalty all worked hand in hand, but I am here to tell you that I was wrong.

Loyalty is something I am finding is almost extinct. Does loyalty exist among brands? Is there customer loyalty? What about loyalty among friends? Coworkers? Do we live in a society where everyone is ready to jump ship and no one is loyal to anyone or anything? Personally, I do not believe that loyalty exists in our world in 2013. Loyalty is important to me and I am loyal to others, but sadly it is not a two-way street. So here I am at a crossroads wondering what I should do. Do I change my morals and values? Do I forget about them altogether? How do we live and survive in a world where the existence of honesty, integrity and loyalty are on the verge of distinction?

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