Developing A Social Media Strategy Part 6 - Talking With Your Audience

After taking the time to plan out and follow your company strategy for social media, it is now time to begin actually posting and engaging with your audience. Up until now you have set clear goals and objectives for your social media campaign, planned your postings in coordination with other company marketing efforts, chosen the social media sites that fit your agenda, and created relevant content that your audience can relate to.

As you begin your postings, stick to your pre-planned schedule. You must be consistent, making sure to post regularly. If you don't provide fresh content people will lose interest in your page. Try to have something new to say everyday. Remember, social media is all about conversation. Your posts should have a more personal feel to them than more traditional marketing. People are reluctant to engage with something that seems to come from a faceless company.

Social Media News For The Week Of 4/27/12

Apple Opens WWDC Registration For June

On Wednesday Apple opened its registration for the annual World Wide Developers Conference. The conference is open to Apple's paid developer program. The conference's importance this year is underscored by the research firm IDC finding 89 percent of developers are interested in software for the iPhone with 88 percent interested in iPad development. Android development interest is down. Full Story Here: 

Businesses See A Positive Effect Of Social Media

The digital marketing agency EPiServer has conducted research which shows businesses are finding positive results from their social media endeavors and are investing more time and energy into social media marketing. Nearly a third of businesses in the UK have set up new social media channels and over half are spending more time on the medium. Full Story Here: 

Getting Traffic to Your Blog

It's all about Content. Here are some quick tips you can use when writing for your Blog:

• Choose topics and issues that are related to your business.
• Post on a regular basis.
• Produce content that appeals to your readers.
• Include pictures and videos where possible
• Write in an easily understandable style
• Be creative and informal.
• Recognize sources of your material
• Include links to your website and source material
• Include a call to action

Practice these suggestions and you will attract more followers.

Written and produced in beautiful Naples, Florida by OnFast.com. Visit our website today to get your free trial subscription to our Social Media Marketing Service.

Posted via OnFast - http://www.OnFast.com

Developing A Social Media Strategy Part 5 - What Do You Have To Say?

After selecting what social media platform to begin with and setting up a calendar to coordinate your overall marketing efforts with your social posts, it is now time to develop content for your audience. The earlier steps you have strategically taken in this development process will pay dividends now. You should have a thorough understanding of your target audience and what their wants, needs, and expectations are in addition to a clear picture of your brand.

As you develop your content, it is extremely important make sure that it is search engine optimized with keywords targeted to your industry. Google Adwords can provide you with that information. Social media content can come in a wide variety of formats. Here are a few suggestions to begin with:

Content Can Be Informative -

 Tips, facts and figures, studies and statistics, news, how-to's and educational help guides.

Social Media News For The Week Of 4/20/12

Poll Results: Why Do You Tweet To Your Hotel?

A poll conducted of readers asked what they would like to see from their hotel's social media content. The most important information a hotel social media site can provide is local info about bars and restaurants in the area that respondents said is hard to find. Full Story Here: 

Financial Advisors Using More Smartphones To Access Social Media

Smartphone use among financial advisors is on the rise. According to a survey 35%, up from 27% last year, use their smartphones for business purposes. 22% use tablets such as iPads as well. Full Story Here:  

Easy to Remember Blog Writing Guide. Five Words that Begin with the Letter "C"

Clear - Avoid Acronyms that your reader may not be familiar with. Write your blog so that your grandmother can understand it. PhD words will only serve to alienate your audience.

Concise - Write in a brief, to-the-point style. Your audience has a short attention span and if they need to dig for your message they most likely will give up before you get your point across.

Compelling - Explain the problem or issue and how your solution solves the problem.

It's Not Hard to Use Videos in Your Social Media Posts

For beginners, try creating "how-to" videos. Ask yourself: "What kinds of things do your customers want to know how to do?"

Successful businesses are built around solving customer problems. Identify some everyday problems that lend themselves to a "how-to" video production. Launch a series of 2 to 3 minute videos that will capture the interest your customers. Differentiate your videos with an interesting well-spoken personality, effective visual aids, and a professional appearing finished production.

Once you create an outline for each of your videos you may find the actual production of your video presents the biggest challenge. YouTube has excellent user aids to help you through the production phase.

The Importance Of Mobile Apps - Part 3: A New Frontier

The personal intimacy of mobile devices has offered users a more engaging experience than they get from their computers. This combined with the ease of use and availability of app stores is making the mobile app into a nearly universal format. Since people interact with their mobile devices and smartphone on a daily basis, a unique opening is presented by mobile apps for businesses to reach their customer base.

Mobile Devices Are Always Close At Hand -

Most mobile device users don't let their smartphones get more than a few feet away from them -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity that has been opened for companies to position themselves, their products and services in front of their customer base. The increased visibility is giving businesses new advantages they did not have before.

Developing A Social Media Strategy Part 4 - How Will You Accomplish Your Goals?

With clearly defined goals and objectives laid out for your company's social media campaign it is now time to determine how that will be accomplished. What platforms will you use? How will your methodology work to bring about the realization of the goals you established? How does the company's overall marketing campaign fit with your social media endeavors? These are all vital decisions in bringing about successful results using social media for your company.

Decide what methods of content delivery will work best for the message you want to get across to your audience. You probably have already formed some opinions on which social network sites are right for your company while you were in the listening phase of developing a social media strategy. In choosing the right social media platforms for your campaign resist the urge to use too many at once, at least in the early stages. Begin with one or maybe two at a time. Give yourself the chance to fully develop your marketing efforts on one before moving to the next platform. Put together a plan for each social media site and coordinate the posts with the company's overall marketing campaign.

Social Media News For The Week Of 4/13/12

Facebook Buys Instagram: Social Media Users React

This past week Facebook announced their acquisition of Instagram, a photo-sharing software firm. The move came about as a result of Facebook's goal of improving the photo-sharing experience of its users. The announcement caused a massive reaction, both positive and negative, across social media. Full Story Here: 

Survey Finds C-suite Cares About Brand And Social Media; Facebook Ranks Highest In Perceived Value To Brand

A survey conducted of marketing executives by Matter Communications found social media to be important in their branding strategy. Respondents to the survey also noted the significance to C-suite executives of their brand perception across social channels. Of the companies surveyed, Facebook is the most valuable to brands. Full Story Here: 

Customer Interview with "Pine Island Pam"

OnFast staff recently interviewed Pine Island Realtor Pam Bieber about her social media usage.  Here are some of the highlights:

About "Pine Island Pam"

Pam Bieber sells real estate in Pine Island, Florida

Visit her web site at www.pineislandpam.com

1.   What has driven the recent growth in the real estate business?

Advances in technology have greatly impacted growth in the real estate business. Buyers and sellers of today are searching on the Internet before contacting a Realtor for assistance.  Also, staying in touch with customers and the ability to provide immediate information via smart phones, e-mail, texts, etc. has made it easier and quicker to do business.

2.    How have your marketing efforts changed over the past 3 years in your business?  

Good old-fashioned marketing in local papers and face-to-face contact is still valuable.  However, today's market requires reaching a larger customer base via use of the Internet.  Buyers and sellers may not physically reside in the community in which a property is located and therefore rely on the Internet for initial information.

A Blog Posters Final Check List

Do you live with the fear that misspellings or typos may slip through? Is your post complete and ready to submit? Here is a short list of things you should check before releasing your blog post:

Is My Title Appropriate?

Evaluate your title. Does it draw your reader's attention and does it accurately represent the content of your post?  Is your title catchy and does it contain SEO keywords?

Proofread, Spelling & Grammar Check

Most word processors have spelling and grammar checks that are easy to use. After the basic checks, consider using the thesaurus to replace simple every day words with richer more descriptive language. Add multi- syllabic adjectives to enrich your content.

At this point, it's best to put your post aside. After a short while, come back to your post and reread it. Is it complete, easy to read, and understandable?

As a last check, ask a co-worker or someone else to read it and give you some feedback.  

The Importance Of Mobile Apps - Personal Experience

In part one of this blog we saw how the combination of the increased capabilities of mobile devices and the reality of them literally being everywhere has made mobile apps important and essential to business. The way users interact with their smartphones and the growing availability of app stores presents further evidence of the importance of mobile apps to the future of business marketing.

Mobile Devices Offer Users A More Personal Experience -

Users interact with their smartphones on a much more personal level than they do when visiting a website via a desktop computer or laptop. Mobile devices become a part of their owner's everyday life. Because people's interaction with their mobile phones is so intimate, the apps they use on their phones become close companions to them, and offer genuinely engaging experiences that cannot be matched by websites.

Mobile App Stores Are As Pervasive As Smartphones -

Although smartphones are dependent on mobile app stores, this is not a problem since the app stores have become as ubiquitous as the phones themselves. Also, the process of downloading applications to the phone is exceedingly simple and not intimidating to users. The ease of use offered by mobile apps has increased their mass acceptance accordingly.

Social Media Marketing for Hoteliers

Posted via OnFast - http://www.OnFast.com

Developing A Social Media Strategy Part 3 - Establishing Your Goals For Social Media

Taking the time to listen in on the conversations about your company and its industry niche across a variety of social media networks should have you prepared for the next step. Before beginning a social media marketing campaign, your company needs to establish clear goals for its coming efforts. What does your company hope to accomplish using social media? Do you have any short-term objectives and long-term goals for the campaign?

Social Media News For The Week Of 4/6/12

Facebook Rolls Out Mandatory Timeline For Brand Pages, Not Profiles

Facebook this past week went live with its mandatory Timeline for brands. The change, at this point, only affects pages for brands and public figures. It is yet to be determined when Timeline will become mandatory for profiles. Full Story Here: 

Brands Should Re-Evaluate Their Social Media Strategy To Take Advantage Of The Facebook Timeline Switch, Says Punch Communications

The new Facebook changeover to Timeline for brands presents unique opportunities for businesses on the social network. The new format gives greater impact to visual presentations. Early industry surveys have indicated that brand pages with less than 10 million followers have seen a measurable increase in engagement since the roll out. Smaller brands with below 1 million fans are reporting increases of up to 60% in 'Likes' for each of their posts. Full Story Here: 

So, that's where Page Rank comes from

PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page (hence the name Page-Rank and Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine. Sergey Brin had the idea that information on the web could be ordered in a hierarchy by "link popularity": a page is ranked higher as there are more links to it. It was co-authored by Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd. The first paper about the project, describing PageRank and the initial prototype of the Google search engine, was published in 1998: shortly after, Page and Brin founded Google Inc., the company behind the Google search engine. While just one of many factors that determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google's web search tools.

The name "PageRank" is a trademark of Google, and the PageRank process has been patented (U.S. Patent 6,285,999). However, the patent is assigned to Stanford University and not to Google. Google has exclusive license rights on the patent from Stanford University. The university received 1.8 million shares of Google in exchange for use of the patent; the shares were sold in 2005 for $336 million.

See full article on Wikipedia

Written and produced in beautiful Naples, Florida by OnFast.com. Visit our website today to get your free trial subscription to our Social Media Marketing Service.

Posted via OnFast - http://www.OnFast.com

Blog Posting in a New York Minute

Keep your blog posts short, succinct, and deal with a single topic or idea. Offer up bite-sized chunks of information spiced with SEO keywords no less then 2-3 times a week. If your blog posts are too long they won't get read. Choose topics that will stir up strong opinions and invite feedback. Consider using appealing pictures and short videos to gain attention. Your audience only has time for short posts with content that is relevant to them.

It takes time for a blog to gain traction. Don't become discouraged easily. Be reliable and maintain a consistent rhythm that your readers can count on.

Keep in mind, if your content is helpful, people will surely return and eventually they will act on you message.

Posted via OnFast - http://www.OnFast.com

Developing A Social Media Strategy Part 2 - Determining Who Your Audience Is

After taking a little time for company self examination you should have a firm handle on who you are and what your company's role is. It is now time to put your ear to ground and find out what is being said about the company in the world outside your office.

Try to find out where the conversation is going about your industry and the niche your business fits into. Gather opinions about your brand and the topics most important to those giving their opinion.

Start by reading all the relevant blogs you can find. Social media sites themselves are a great resource for just listening in on the conversations about your company or its industry. Twitter offers real time discourse on virtually any subject. Search for topics with industry related content. Try Twitter's advanced search which will give you the capability to fine tune what you're hearing and limit it to conversations that are most relevant.