Sports Score on Social Media

To some, sports is a religion. Strangers band together to celebrate wins, or to reck havoc when teams lose.

Before the introduction of social media, sports were only available live either on the TV or radio. Of course there were post game updates on networks like ESPN or articles posted on major internet news sites, but ultimately, there were no live updates a decade ago. Now, social media is playing a huge role in how we view sports. Continue…

The End to the Beginning—Election 2016

The 2016 election season has been a whirlwind of emotions. From Kanye pledging to run for president, to Donald Trump actually going through with his presidential campaign. It’s safe to say that these next four years are set to differ greatly from the recent past. Despite the controversies and the social media attacks between the presidential candidates, Americans have taken to the polls, following a substantial increase in the number of registered voters. Texas hit a record high of 15.1 million registered voters, which is two million more than registered Texas voters during the 2012 election. Social media and advertising campaigns can take some credit for the influx of registrations, but first let’s see how they did it. Continue…

Posting Across Generations: Millennials vs. Our Parents

Social media is an ever-changing outlet. Networking platforms have been going in and out of popularity as quickly as Kylie Jenner’s Lip Kits. Who remembers MySpace? I know I do. I would spend hours updating my MySpace layout, thinking I was cool because I knew which codes to put in to make my solid colored background into one that resembled a disco ball. Now that MySpace has phased out, the public has moved on to the more popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. I am now a senior in college, but I began using social media when I was thirteen. Middle school was all about who your top friends were on MySpace, high school was all about being “FB official” and posting funny posts on your BFF’s Facebook wall, and now in college Snapchat and Instagram are the best ways to show everyone from home how much better college is than high school.

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Introducing Our New Marketing Intern!

Hello! My name is Tanner Hertzog and I am the new intern here at HMG Creative. I am about to begin my senior year at The University of Texas at Austin where I am studying Public Relations and Business. I have a huge passion for digital branding, and specifically interested in learning how to handle a crisis via social media. I am so excited to be here at HMG Creative. I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for me to learn even more skills on how to manage a brand online and how to connect with potential new clients. Aside from social media work, this is a great opportunity for me to learn the ins and outs of the marketing/business side of operations in the “real world.” I have learned so much in the classroom, but it’s a completely different situation when you are actually using what you have learned in the workplace.

Prior to beginning this internship, I was running all of the Moody College of Communication’s social media channels. I was responsible for overseeing all the distribution of content, as well as the promotion of our account to current and prospective students as well as alumni. This internship provided me with my first opportunity to manage a brand’s social media network, and I learned a great deal about how to effectively grow a brand online.

When I am not working, I enjoy spending my free time exploring all that Austin has to offer. I am a self-taught guitar player, and was a competitive swimmer for 17 years. I have the competitive attitude in everything that I do, especially in the classroom. I am also an avid fitness guru. I spend a great deal of time working out in the gym, and focusing on a healthy diet.

I am looking forward to providing you guys with some great insight into this industry, and hopefully we both grow together over the next 5-6 months. Please follow me on Twitter @tannerhertzog, and if you have any questions for me please feel free to reach out!

Infographic: Who’s Really Using Social Media in 2015

As 2015 sets in at full force, it’s vital for brands and marketers to have an active gauge on which demographics are using social media. Depending on the type of content you’re promoting, knowing which social media network to use greatly affects the success of the campaign or post. The reason is simple – we all want the greatest reach possible.

To break it down, Adweek lays out each social media network and interaction in a handy infographic. It highlights exactly what age group is using each social media site – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram – in 2015 and what the percent of growth is for each. This early in the year, getting a jump-start on these numbers could greatly improve your social reach as you began to plan campaigns, content, and leverage.
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What Facebook’s Latest Algorithm Change Means for Social Media Marketers

Social media marketers spend their time studying sites like Facebook to determine how the content they post can garner the most visibility. So when Facebook announces a major rollout to the news feed algorithm, the social media marketing world gets turned upside down, especially when those changes mean the current way of doing things has to be drastically altered.

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Maintaining an Online Social Media Presence

Maybe you stumbled upon this post because you check the HMG blog regularly (if so, kudos!). But most likely, you saw one of our posts on either our Facebook or our Twitter linking you here directly—the effects of social media are everywhere. A couple of months ago, we posted a blog post about the importance of having a good web presence. To expand on this, having an online presence across a multitude of social media platforms enables us to have greater reach, interaction and overall engagement. Here are a few brief tips to consider when establishing and maintaining your online social media presence:

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Why Your Facebook Fans Hit the Unlike Button—And What to Do About It

You put a lot of effort into building your Facebook page, so it can be discouraging when people “unlike” you. Strange as it may seem, people take their Facebook pages super seriously. So seriously, in fact, that unliking is often viewed as the ultimate way to show disapproval, even more than negative comments or reviews. What’s the main reason people unlike a brand? Simple, you annoy them.

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Our St. Jude Fundraiser in a Nutshell!

Valentine’s Day has come and gone and The Crew at HMG Creative has put on another successful campaign.  The past couple of weeks have been dedicated to promoting social media interaction, through our Facebook and Twitter channels, in order to generate donations for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. From February 15 to midnight of Valentine’s Day, we were able to:

  • Gain 87 new Facebook Fans
  • 346 Facebook Shares on St. Jude photos
  • 500+ Likes on St. Jude photos
  • 41 Retweets on Twitter for St. Jude tweets
  • 24 New Twitter Followers

Through these efforts, we were able to bring in $300 to donate to St. Jude and we couldn’t be more proud!  Although we did not reach our goal of $500, this is our very first donations-based initiative and we feel confident that this experience will leave us with the knowledge to create an even stronger campaign for the future. Not only were we able to share our love with children in need but we also created an incentive for those who helped us in the final push of our campaign.  Those who shared the St. Jude photo during the last two days were entered into a drawing to win a $100 Apple Gift Card.  We are thrilled to be giving the prize to Ms. Alayna Boyd, student at The University of Texas at Austin! (Who could be more deserving than a poor college student, right?!)

Despite the fact that the “Share the Love” campaign was able to stretch our social media efforts and gain more awareness for our company, what truly matters is that we were able to do all of this for such a great cause.  It is our hopes that through our donations we will be able to further assist the children of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and that they will be able to enjoy their Valentine’s Days for years to come. We thank everyone for all of your help in making this donation possible!