Author: itzik

Seeking to make an innovative change, five friends chose to pause their studies to pursue a dream. While studying Computer Science and Image Processing in the PhD program at Hebrew University, they discovered there was a gap between research in the academic world and what was available in the market.

After the discovery,  Zeev Farbman (CEO), Amit Goldstein (CFO), Nir Pochter (CMO), Yaron Inger (CTO) and Itay Tsiddon (Director of Business Development) founded Lightricks.  Shortly after, Eran Yacobovitch joined the team as Lightricks’ Marketing Analyst.

Well known for their photo editing apps Facetune and Enlight, Lightricks is producing the next generation of content creation tools. Founded as a bootstrap company, they needed to ensure their venture was profitable from the start. Launched in early 2013, Facetune was Lightricks’ first app, and at the time of their launch Facebook had just released the Mobile App Install ad objective. An amazing opportunity to acquire new users and capitalize on their paid application business model, Lightricks built a marketing strategy focusing on country- based burst campaigns.

Beginning with no budget, they invested 500 dollars into Facebook advertising. They were able to optimize their campaigns, and reach top ranks in multiple app stores. The duo quickly learned that this was a great opportunity to acquire new users with the best ROI, so they continued to invest most of their profits and scaled with Facebook – a strategy that is still in place today.

Soon, both Facebook and Apple recognized Lightricks’ accomplishments, the company scaled and Facetune quickly became the fifth most sold app in the AppStore, reached #1 in over 128 countries and was one of Google’s best apps in 2013 and 2014.

In March 2015, Lightricks released Enlight, the most powerful suite of image processing tools on mobile that was recently named as Apple’s App of the Year for 2015. Later that year, Lightricks received an investment from Carmel Ventures that allowed them to scale and make their vision come true faster. The talented team is currently working on 4 new apps, all in the field of content creation on mobile.

We sat down with Eran to get the inside scoop on Lightricks, and pick his brain on Facebook advertising strategies:

1.What’s your ultimate mission?

“Our goal is to provide mobile users with all the necessary tools to create and edit mobile content. We’re currently working on four new products, all centered around content creation and editing on mobile. Aiming to empower the creator in everyone, we continue to deploy research grade technology to create an ecosystem of mobile first creativity tools.

2.What do you love about living in Israel? What do you love about the startup culture in Israel?

“Born and raised in Israel it’s hard to imagine myself anywhere else. I grew up in Tsfat, and never thought I would move to Jerusalem. University is what originally brought me to Jerusalem, and Lightricks is what has kept me here. Jerusalem is the perfect place to found a startup in- there are organizations like Made in JLM that help startups grow, and foster communities, and the city itself is calm enough to allow entrepreneurs to channel their energies to their ventures.”

3.How do you use social media to reach your audience?

“We give our users value with our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. We’ve found that Facebook is the most effective platform for our goals, and we use the platform consistently to increase our user acquisition. I love the accessibility of social media. Every user has the ability to contact their favorite brand, and we can effectively communicate with our audience and help them better understand our product.”

4.What are your top Facebook Advertising tips for startups?

• “Test, test, test. Channels, targets, creatives, prices, etc. You’ll never know what will work best. That’s pretty much our marketing department’s motto.”

• “Don’t always settle with the currently available tools. It’s not always the easy thing, but if you have the resources and you think you can do it better, build the tools that fit the way you work.”

• “Be sure to use all available ad types: Image ad, video ad, carousel, and others.”

• “Instagram proves to be a very good channel – check it out.”

• “Keep yourself updated with relevant blogs, pages and users. Online advertising and Mobile App Advertising in particular are very dynamic and ever-changing realms.

5.What’s one thing no one knows about your business?

“Our best hidden secret is our garden. We have the best office garden in Israel, and we invest a lot of time and money in maintaining it. Some of our many plants are tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, passion fruit, and many species of flowers. Each month we send an internal newsletter to the staff explaining a new aspect of the garden to them!”

Read more about Lightricks’ Facebook accomplishments here:

http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/facetune/429375/3

Want to join Lightricks’ team? They’re hiring: http://careers.lightricks.com/

Born and raised in Jerusalem, Yonatan Zimmerman, Co-Founder of ZORE, is no stranger to gun usage. Like all Israelis, was drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces when he was eighteen. He served in a special forces unit, where he spent his days and nights in the West Bank and Gaza.

“During my military service I witnessed friends getting injured. Some were accidents. My best friend took a gun out of storage, thinking that it was empty. He accidentally pulled the trigger and almost shot himself and another commander. This made me think; and I began to wonder how guns could be safer.”

Zimmerman set out to work on a solution for gun safety and gun misuse, and in collaboration with Yalon Fishbein, Zimmerman’s partner, ZORE was born as a way to find safe and effective solutions to this international issue.

Most smart guns embed technology inside the gun, drastically changing the product, and making guns less reliable. ZORE is revolutionizing the industry by adding 21st century technological advantages, without changing the mechanics of the gun itself.

Their main product, ZORE X, an external device, is a patented cartridge that locks to the majority of semi-auto guns. Once the gun is unlocked, ZORE X will be ejected upon charge, offering the quickest way for guns to be loaded. ZORE X connects to owners’ smartphones, and alerts gun-owners by phone notification if any attempt has been made to move or unlock their firearm.

“We believe in guns; if they’re in the right hands. We use 21st century technology to help our customers become more aware and responsible.”

The ZORE team uses Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to connect with their target audience through joining online conversations and forums. Their niche market of gun owners, weapon instructors and journalists, are very active on social media, and Zimmerman explains that it’s a great way to hear consumer feedback, and get free PR about their product. “Social media is a democratic arena, anyone can express themselves and share their opinion”

We sat down with Yonatan and asked him a few questions about his life in Israel, and more on ZORE:

1. How does Israel inspire you?

“In Israel, we experience ongoing terror; we live this reality everyday, so the need for firearms as protection is common. As Jews and Israelis, we value life and safety. ”

2. What is ZORE’s ultimate mission?
“Our goal is to bring 21st century technology to the weapon industry. We don’t want to change the mechanical way guns work, but with cutting edge technology, we can turn the standard gun into a more reliable and safer firearm.”

3. What’s one thing no one knows about ZORE?
“Although everyone on the ZORE team served in elite units of the IDF, we all come from different backgrounds. We’re customer-oriented, and we started our mission with a different direction. Instead of focusing on one problem and building a product specific to its solution, we really evaluated our consumer’s needs and went from there.”

4. What do you love about living in Israel? What do you love about the startup culture in Israel?
“My grandfather dreamed about living in Israel, and I think about how lucky I am to live in this amazing country daily. Israel’s accomplishments in the past sixty years are remarkable! The startup ecosystem here is like a small family. It’s packed with talented, intelligent, and experienced people eager to help one another without expecting anything in return.”

Watch more on ZORE here and support their Indiegogo campaign:

If you’re interested to learn more about their products, fill out their customer questionnaire.

Maybe it’s a bit mad, but the Passover Haggadah and Facebook are basically the same thing.

Besides the obvious fact that they both revolve around a ‘book’ of sorts, they are also storytelling tools which happen to eat up hours of our lives at a time. They even share the same core value of freedom. The Haggadah tells us the story of how the Jews became free from Egypt, and Facebook was created by one of us Jews and offers people an online freedom which never existed before.

While Passover only comes once a year, millions of us rely on social media everyday – and I got to thinking about how much freedom social media truly provides us – personally and professionally.

It’s a hot topic none of us can deny. For the good or bad, social media is in and it’s not going anywhere. Once we embrace the power of social media, there are endless possibilities to how we can use it to our advantage.

Inspired by the Haggadah, we decided to put a social media spin on the famous Four Questions as the Four Sons asked – the wise one, the evil one, the simple one, and the one didn’t know how to ask a question.

1.   SO OVERWHELMING. With dozens of mainstream platforms and new ones being created every day, it’s hard to keep up with the best way to get ‘social.’ How can we stay on top of the game when we constantly have to learn new ways to play?

• TIP:  Focus in on your audience and where they spend most of their time on social media. With your audience at the top of your mind, it’s easy to remove the overwhelm and ensure you stay on the platforms where you need to be.

2.   NO RULES. While there are must-know things across all social media platforms, there are no concrete rules to ensure success. As the social media scene evolves, we must evolve too. Because of the endless ways to communicate and continuous updates, creating your own rules is the first rule of good social media.

• TIP: Social media is all about trial and error. It’s crucial to monitor your insights to determine what’s working for you, and what isn’t. As you analyze this data, tweaking your content and strategy will ensure you are steps closer to achieving your goals.

1.  OPEN COMMUNICATION. Social media isn’t just wise – it’s pretty genius. In just one moment, you gain access to the exact target audience you want, with the chance to reach newer and larger audiences in an instant. Forget passive communication, and take advantage of the direct way to connect with your users.

• TIP: Target specific posts to your audience. Create a few versions of one post – one for loyal users, one for potential leads, one for PR channels, etc. Speaking to them individually offers greater value, and also increases the likelihood that the people who you want to reach will see your post.

2.   REAL-TIME FEEDBACK. Social media allows businesses to meet customers ‘face to face’ and provides a quick way to meet the people behind the screen. Though most businesses don’t take advantage of this gift, social media offers the opportunity to get feedback NOW.

• TIP:  Be active. You have the opportunity to learn key factors about who your audience is, their interests, likes and dislikes, etc. Pay attention to them. Listening to your customers is the number one way to get the answers you’re looking for to create quality products and services people really want and need.

1.  COMMUNITY BUILDING. If done properly, social media is the best way to build a worldwide community of people who share the same values as you and your business do. It’s a stellar way not only for you to connect and engage with your audience, but to encourage ways in which they can join as one community, support one another and feel like part of something bigger than themselves.

• TIP: Find ways not just to give information or value to customers, but to involve them in the process. Asking trivia questions, hosting a giveaway, or running a hashtag competition are all ways to engage your community to connect with your brand and with one another.

2.  FREE RESOURCES & REPORTS. Though we already mentioned that there are no rules in social media, most platforms provide free resources and reporting tools to help you understand if your strategy is working or not. While these tools are commonly flashed right in front of us, understanding how to leverage these insights can be time-consuming and difficult.

• TIP: Check out our new platform made to simplify stats, specifically Facebook Insights. By providing a simple way to actually understand the numbers and content behind your page, it allows for an easy way to optimize your strategy and make the most of social media.

And for the ones who never knew how to ask a question…

Okay, we know. We Israelis don’t really need to ask questions anyway, we know it all – but when it comes to social media, it’s important to understand – and we’ll help keep it simple. Stay updated on all things social media with the team at BOMAH. We empower you to use social media to share your stories, build new and large audiences, and achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

Get in touch with us for a free consultation or to ask us anything about your social media – https://bomah.mhdzn.net/contact

The Power Question to Boost Your Business

By two years old, it’s the only question we have on our mind. Why, why, why? Why is the sky blue? Why do I need a bath? Why can’t I touch that?

Naturally, as we get older, our curiosity weans. We stop questioning the simplicities of life, and instead, get caught up in our common routine flow.

For those of us who aspire to start and run successful businesses or organizations, whether CEO or student, here is a crucial yet simple reminder on why your favorite question at two years old is the most crucial way to boost your business now.

Why ask why?

How do we come up with business ideas? We see a need or feel a lack, and we choose to take action to create a solution for a wider audience. Asking yourself ‘why’ allows you to stay close to the core of your purpose for starting a business. It allows you to touch base with the reason and values where you began your business journey.

As human beings, we share many of the same drives and values – when you share your why, it can connect quickly and deeply with others who resonate with it…and the exact audience you want to reach.

When applying your why to your storytelling strategy, there are two simple steps to take. The first one is to find your why. Take a few minutes answer these questions:

1. What drove you to start you venture?
2. What needs or issues did you see in the world that inspired you to take action?
3. What core values inspired your initiative? What ideals are you passionate about?

These questions are simple. But the answers can sometimes be difficult to find. Putting them on paper can be a valuable exercise for defining your mission and connecting to your core audience.

The second step is to repeat your why to everyone you meet, whether it’s your first meeting with your potential client, or your daily catch-up meeting with your staff. You can never overstate your mission.

From our experience, finding your why is best way to stay motivated, to inspire your staff, to connect with your customers and engage with your followers. Through common ground and shared human experience, you can forge deep relationships that are far more powerful than those created by slick taglines or catchy slogans.

Take the time to find your why. Your what and how will thank you.

To complete the next steps of the BOMAH strategy, remember who your audience is by mapping their ideal locations, demographics, and interests.

To learn more about this step and other valuable social media tips, sign up to receive the BOMAH newsletter or connect with us on Facebook.

With over 22,000 attendees, the Web Summit in Dublin brings together the best and brightest in the international tech community – but with so many people attending and so much digital chatter, it can be hard to cut through the noise and make your voice heard. Attendees range from newer startups, such as HearMeOut, and Zoliro, to big names, like Microsoft, Forbes, and Coca Cola; making it an incredible opportunity to network, influence and engage – if you have the right strategy.

Last year, we collaborated with Breezometer – an air-pollution monitoring app that has since been selected as one of most promising startups of 2015 – and implemented our BOMAH storytelling technique for reaching reach new and larger audiences, which helped ensure that Breezometer stood out among the other Web Summit attendees. We also spoke with Kathy Cohen, Content & Communities Manager at Zoliro, who also implemented some great techniques during the summit.

Here are seven strategies to help you stand out on social media and bring attention to your ideas, your business, and your services.

Before

It starts before the event even begins:

1. Map your audience

To get yourself noticed, first make twitter lists of journalists, investors, and businesses you could potentially partner with. Kathy recommends spending some time researching key individuals you are particularly interested in. These people get bombarded by pre-event requests, so showing that you are actually interested in what they have done, or taking the time to personally connect with them on LinkedIn or mention them in a blog post, makes a huge difference.

2. Engage them in advance

Then, try to get yourself followed by, and to engage with, thought leaders and news outlets – especially local ones. For example, we connected with Simon Cocking, Senior Editor at Irish Tech News, and author of the book ‘How to Crack WebSummit 2015’.

BOMAH CEO Itzik Yarkoni was also added to a Twitter list of WebSummit influencers – proving that you can be an influencer at an event without actually attending

Remember to thank people for every mention and positive feedback:

Not only is this good manners, it actually gets you further exposure by exposing you to additional fans and followers:

During

3. Post Unique Content

During the summit, share personal stories and live updates from the event itself. It is the human story and personal perspective that will allow you to stand out. People want to hear other people, not just get fed facts and figures.  Connect with your audience through your content, and give people who didn’t attend the conference an inside perspective. Here is a photo of a Zoliro rep together with the editor of Event Industry News, which got them further engagement and offered a personal glimpse into the event.

4. Tag others

Engage and tag yourself with thought leaders who you have met or listened to during the event. You will then gain exposure to people who follow them. Kathy implemented this strategy in a very consistent way by Tweeting to all the speakers she planned on hearing and telling them she looked forward to their talk. Each Tweet got some form of response, and was a great way to build connections.

5. Use Hashtags

Tag your uploads with the relevant hashtags, including, of course, #WebSummit. This will help your content reach a larger audience. Engaging with the event hashtag will help you reach all the Web Summit attendees, as well as outside media, and influencers that are not in attendance. Even better, Web Summit Bot is automatically retweeting the most successful posts using the hashtag, so using the hashtag will increase your posts’ reach.

6. Sponsor Your Best Posts

At the end each day, boost the posts with the highest organic reach. If your direct audience found the posts engaging, a broader targeted audience will create an even higher impact for your post. Take the members of your Twitter lists and compile them into a concise, targeted audience for Facebook Ads.

After

7. Follow up with the people you’ve met

It doesn’t end when the event goes home, the initial meeting is just the beginning! Stay in touch, follow, and engage with individuals who you connected with through social, email, or even in person. Kathy plans on creating memes based on the statements of some of the speakers – and then tagging them in the post when they share it online. This, together with conventional thank you messages, is a great way to develop personal connections and leave a great impression.

Follow these strategies and you will find yourself with increased engagement, impact and opportunities by the end of WebSummit 2015. Zoliro’s techniques were so successful that they had three whole days of meetings lined up following the event!

Now, more than ever, people crave human connection. And what better way to do this than by using one of the oldest forms of communication, the story?

But when we talk about stories, we just don’t mean the original inspiration that sparked your venture, or the early years when you used to eat ramen noodles while working on the floor of you parents basement.

That’s important, and it offers your audience a human glimpse into your world.

But when we talk about stories, we are referring to much more. To us, a story is the root motivation that lies behind what you do. It’s the reason you do what you do, and it’s the unique way that you do it. The way people think about you, and the way you describe what you do to people, is your story.

And you will now learn to tell it.Continue Reading…

Who?

Jerusalem Municipality, MASA, and Hebrew University created a one-of-a-kind international Study Abroad program in Jerusalem.

The Challenge

The trio of organizations wanted to encourage and enable potential students to connect with the real Jerusalem on a personal level in order to convey the advantages of study abroad, as opposed to what they might see in the media abroad.

The Mission

To create a personal way to share relevant news about Jerusalem which is inviting for students to join the study abroad program, ultimately re-branding the way students see the opportunity to study in Jerusalem, and the way the Diaspora perceives Jerusalem and Israel.

The BOMAH Way

We initiated a pilot program called Jerusalem Ambassadors, created a network with the younger community with a focus on rebranding the Study Abroad program in Jerusalem. We trained the student fellows on the BOMAH strategy, monitored and managed the program, and assisted with marketing & PR to ensure social media success.

The Results

Utilizing the student community was the perfect way to connect to future students on a personal level; and also offered current students effective knowledge on how to best use social media for storytelling.

• 16 International Students
• 30 Blog Posts (Covering University Life to Politics)
• 60 Social Media Posts
• 4 Major Media Mentions (The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, etc)
• Bloggers quadrupled their page views after participating in the program.

The Feedback

Who?

JAFI, Onward Israel // Onward Israel offers exciting opportunities – internships, service learning, academic study and fellowships – providing a global, cross-cultural experience in Israel and direct contact with Israeli peers.

The Challenge

Onward Israel wanted to engage and share stories with participant’s family, friends and communities. Resources were not available to provide to students, who had stories to share but required structure and encouragement.

The Mission

To implement a way for students to get involved and interested in sharing their stories, and to provide them with the tools to do so. BOMAH was hired to build a new strategy, teach students how to use social media tools, and share ways to manage and monitor results.

The BOMAH Way

We trained a participant from each Onward Israel Cohort who became a leader and was responsible for sharing their experiences and engaging their Onward Israel peers through the use of social media. BOMAH consulted, monitored, and analyzed the fellow’s projects and progress.

The Results

Fellows discovered a way to not only share but enhance their personal and professional connection with Israel. Onward Israel Social Media Fellows engaged their Onward Israel Peers through their social media projects by using photos, blog posts or videos of them or by them. All posts came together in one final project at the end of the summer.

The Feedback

Who?

BreezoMeter is a start up based in real time, location based air pollution levels, which offers personalized health recommendations on what you should do. Quoted from CNBC as one of the 20 of the world’s hottest start-ups of 2014 as changing the way people interact with the world.

The Challenge

BreezoMeter joined one the biggest startup event conferences, Web Summit in Europe, and wanted to create buzz to ensure they stood out as there were 500 attending startups.

The Mission

Build a 5 day event and social media strategy from start to finish – creating buzz, organic PR, and engaging users on social media in real time.

The BOMAH Way

We created a step by step guide in order to connect with relevant audience, engage with social media users, and create buzz at the conference.
In order to organize and maximize the strategy, we created a content calendar based on the web summit schedule. We kept in constant contact with the team and made sure to apply BreezoMeter’s mission throughout. All posted content had direct connection to BreezoMeter’s ultimate goal, which made the startup more tangible and less technical, therefore easily relatable to all.

The Results

Breezometer was able to gain relevant followers on twitter (investors, journalists, and fellow startups) which assisted in the enhancement of online presence in Europe, The United States and Israel. They went from 66 followers with very limited acknowledgement and engagement to 128 followers who actively favorite, retweet and reply to all posts in a 4 day span. We put out at least 10-15 tweets a day for 4 days plus engaged for an hour a day which resulted in 15 followers a day.

BOMAH is currently working to build Breezometer’s storytelling strategy as a result of the success of our 4 day conference campaign.

From the media: A breath of fresh air, with Ziv lautman, CMO

The Feedback