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Monday, July 29, 2013

Study Your Competitors' Twitter Bios

A Twitter bio reveals a lot to the world about your competition. Study the keywords your competitors use to describe their business and services on Twitter. Search those keywords in a Google search. Where does your primary competitor’s company rank in the search engine results for those keywords? Where do you rank? Is your rival sponsoring ads on Google for keywords relevant to your business? These are all important pieces of information to be used to determine how effective your search placement is working for you.

In addition, review the external links in your competitor’s bio. Do these links go to corporate websites or Facebook pages? By analyzing the links you can get a sense of the relative importance the company places on these links and the information they provide.  Compare your competitor’s links to your links and try to determine where you have advantages and disadvantages.

For a marketing strategy to be worthwhile it must take into account how other companies in your sector are attempting to do the same thing. With a little persistence you can get a clear picture of the keywords being used in your industry and how effective they are.

The nice thing about this technique is that your competitor’s bio will point you in the right direction to get started.

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

 


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Friday, July 26, 2013

Social Media News For The Week Of 7/26/13

6 Small Businesses That Are Doing Social Media Right

This excellent article offers six examples of companies properly leveraging social media for success. The examples, taken as a whole, support all the basic principles of social media marketing. Engaging your audience while providing them quality content, which is relevant, knowing your target market, and being personable, are all important facets for a social network marketing campaign to succeed. Full Story Here:

 

Don’t ignore customer service on social media

A powerful tool is available to any business to stand apart from their competitors on social media. The tool is customer service; simply make the effort to respond to customer issues, which may arise in a timely manner. According to Desk.com, only 44 percent of top online retailers respond to complaints on Facebook within a day, failing to meet the expectations of their customers. This article contains a useful infographic regarding customer service and social media. Full Story Here:

 

Does Your Social Media Drive Transactions?

This is the all-important question businesses must ask themselves. Vision Critical has produced a sample survey to help companies find the answers to their return on investment questions and how to stay ahead of an ever-changing social media marketing environment. Full Story Here:

 

How social media is transforming customer behavior

Social media is contributing to a change in customer behavior patterns. The fast-paced lifestyle brought about by technology and, by extension, social media has raised the bar significantly for customer expectations. Consumers expect answers to their questions and issues nearly instantly, certainly measured in hours or minutes and not days. Also the assumption is that customer service is always available 24/7. Full Story Here:

 


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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Hashtags For Restaurants

#yourcity

When you add your city name as a hashtag to your tweets, you’re targeting people in your area.

#restaurant

When users are seeking out a restaurant in their city, many will not only search for the term restaurants, they’ll also combine their search with the aforementioned city name.

#TypeofCuisine

If a famished tweeter is searching for “Pizza in Chicago” they just might stumble upon your tweet.

#Vegan or #Vegetarian

If your menu includes dishes for vegans and vegetarians tweet about it.

#GlutenFree

This is a popular item these days. If you have gluten free dishes let it be known

 

Lastly, do some reconnaissance on your competitors. What hash tags are they using? If you want to compete effectively add these hashtags to your tweets.

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Value of Hashtags

Hashtags are an incredible way to promote your brand, attract new customers, and engage in conversations around your niche. Hashtags moved into common usage on Twitter and recently Facebook added the feature.

Now that Facebook has hashtags, it won’t be long before they become ubiquitous.

Lots of people monitor hashtags. That means they are tracking everything that’s said on Twitter around the hashtag in which they’re interested. For example, they might track a hashtag for #Naples or #ACService or #boating. If you include any of these hashtags in your tweets, people who track those hashtags will see your tweets.

Creating a hashtag is simple. You just put a pound sign in from of a word or group of words. For example: #SalsPizza. You can do it with any word. There are no restrictions.

Searching for hashtags is equally simple. Just type the hashtag you’re looking for into the Twitter search bar. If you’re looking for the #Florida hashtag, enter #Florida into the search bar.

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


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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Using Images In Social Media

The old saying holds some truth, a picture really is worth a thousand words, or can be. The rise of image-oriented social media sites like Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest is proof of such statements’ validity. In turn, these image-driven networks have influenced other social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to make some changes. Facebook even went so far as to purchase Instagram outright. All of these social sites have increased the amount of space allotted to images, and brands have begun to embrace the power of the photograph.

This visual trend on social media has provided businesses with a beneficial boost to their posts. Here are some facts and figures from Boot Camp Digital: On Facebook, a photo gets seven times more likes and ten times more shares than a link. The links that receive the most retweets on Twitter are images. Every second there are 575 likes and 81 comments on Instagram. Between October 2012 and March 2013 the number of users on Pinterest grew 4000%. The data supporting this phenomenon goes on and on. For brands, social media marketing is being transformed into visual social media marketing. But how best to leverage images on social media? Here are a few tips:

 

Show them what you do

Using images in social media gives you the opportunity to show off your company and its products and services. It doesn’t have to become a product catalog, but you can showcase the best you have to offer, in circumstances that you control. Let the audience get a feel for your excitement when you launch new products. If your company provides services rather than products, feature shots or videos of your business in action.

 

Make it interesting

Boring, badly framed or dimly lit pictures will not grab anyone’s attention. Neither will shaky, poorly edited videos. Don’t be intimidated; there are many photo-editing tools that are designed to be easily used by everyone. Instagram can be particularly helpful in the area of photo enhancement. Focus on your main subject and make sure it is framed large enough in the picture. Remember that the photo needs to inspire people to click on the thumbnail. Also, if your budget allows, you can always hand off the job to a professional.

 

Let people see who you are

People forget names all the time, but usually remember a face. Show your audience that your company is made up of real people. This can go a long way toward developing a comfortable customer relationship for the long haul.

 

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


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Monday, July 22, 2013

Quiver Quest iOS Game Using OnFast

Quiver Quest, a game app recently released in the iTunes store, is using OnFast to manage its promotional efforts. With OnFast, game creators Ovilius Studios, can post promotional blogs and images across a range of platforms including Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, and to their website. The postings can be conveniently scheduled in advance with OnFast’s scheduling tool. This way, Ovilius Studios can concentrate on what they do best, creating awesome games that are uniquely demanding and visually appealing. 

 

Quiver Quest is a non-frantic, puzzle-based physics game that tests a player’s archery skills in fun and challenging ways. Available now in the iTunes store.

 

Quiver Quest Website 

Purchase Quiver Quest game on iTunes

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Friday, July 19, 2013

Social Media News For The Week Of 7/19/13

Twitter Leads Fortune 500 Social Media Surge

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research has released the results of their study of social media use by Fortune 500 companies. The research found Twitter usage among the 500 has surged by over 70 percent since 2012, with 77 percent having an active Twitter account. Facebook use is up 4 percent to 70 percent usage, or 348 companies. Corporate blogs are on the rise with 171 companies, or 34 percent, actively blogging. Full Story Here:

 

In Business, Everybody Uses Social Media For Work; The Question Is How

Business use of social media is goal-oriented, according to Forrester’s B2B Social Technographics study of social media use. The research found that business decision-makers prefer LinkedIn for business purposes over Facebook. 48 percent use LinkedIn for both business and personal purposes, and 26 percent for strictly business. 42 percent use Facebook for primarily personal reasons and 37 percent for both business and personal usage. Full Story Here:

 

Social Media Automation: A Beginners Guide for Small Business Owners

Small business owners are confused about social media marketing. They see large companies successfully leveraging the medium and they wonder why it doesn’t measure up to their expectations. Social media marketing success cannot be measured in raw numbers, such as new leads for the month, in the small business environment. However, ignoring social is not the answer either for small companies. This article provides good advice about how to automate social media marketing without seeming “spammy”. Full Story Here:

 

It’s time for social media to grow up

Having a clearly established social media strategy for business is much more than having set up accounts on social networks, planned content for six months, and engaged with your audience. A social media strategy should have a sense of what the purposes are for the efforts and how they fit into the goals of the company as a whole. Full Story Here: 

 

 


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Thursday, July 18, 2013

LinkedIn Changes Update

Change seems to be one constant feature on social networks. Sometimes the change can just be a small tweak to the look and feel of a site or maybe a few new welcome features. Or they can be in the form of a major makeover, as in the case of the changes that have been rolled out on LinkedIn recently. The site looks completely different, with a much greater emphasis on visual content. This is in keeping with the trend across other social networks as well.

Included in all the changes is an updated Privacy Policy and User Agreement, the addition of a tagging capability for users, easier navigation, and the appearance of sponsored content. LinkedIn has also eliminated the Answers section, a popular feature, but only with a small minority of users.

 

Profile Multimedia Gallery

LinkedIn has replaced Apps with an easy to use gallery for the sharing of images and videos in the profile page. The profile will also support PowerPoint presentations, pdf, and mp3 files.

 

Sponsored Content

In keeping with developments at other social networks designed to increase revenue, LinkedIn is now presenting sponsored content to its users.  Agreeing to receive such promoted posts is part of the new network Privacy Policy and User Agreement.

 

New Site Navigation Tool Bar

An important component of its updated look is the new tool bar for users. Site navigation is grouped together in the easy to use bar and all new messages, notifications, connections, or comments are clustered together on the bar as well.

 

Tags

Reflecting popular practice on other social sites is the new tagging capability. LinkedIn users can now tag either individuals or organizations in their status updates. Whoever users tag in a post is then notified in an email notification.

These new changes to LinkedIn come about as a result of the network’s efforts to grow and prosper alongside their social media competitors. The competition among social networks is helping to drive an enriched user experience for all.

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


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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Ask Questions

Are you missing an important opportunity to listen to your followers and gain valuable insights?

Reaching your business goals is very likely dependent on a thorough understanding of your customers and prospects. Why not simply ask them for their input? You can easily use your social media presence as tool to gain an understanding of your customers’ needs and experiences. Asking questions will encourage this important resource to get involved and give you the reliable feedback to act on.

Get started today with a 30 day free trial at OnFast.com.


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Monday, July 8, 2013

Keep it simple

Write as you speak and your blog post will come alive. Here are a few suggestions that you may find helpful.

First and foremost, keep it simple.  You don’t need 3-4 syllable words to get your point across.  Structure your blog post so that it is easy to grasp. Use bullet points and sub-titles where appropriate. Try to offset your text and make it pleasing to the eye. Don’t go long.  To hold your readers interest keep your posts short, easy to understand, factual and to the point. If you are offering directions organize them into simple steps and number them. Lastly, and most important, include a picture.

Taking the time to make your post simple will win you friends, readers and repeat guests. Remember the old axiom: “Less is more.”

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


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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Political and religious posts could backfire on you

Having an opinion is fine, but expressing views that might be contentious, will be considered radical or insulting to some of your business’s audience.  This is especially true if your posts insinuate that people that don’t share your beliefs are wrong.  Controversial posts are not a good idea when your intent is to promote your business.

Ask yourself this question: Do I want to risk alienating a large number of followers and potential customers if they don’t agree with me?  Probably not.


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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Blast Messaging

Most people tend to check their social networks at the same time every day.  For that reason, the majority of their messaging goes out at the same time too.  Followers don’t want to see their timelines spammed with message after message from the same source! What’s important to you at the moment may not be of interest to your reader. A more methodical thought out approach to social media and blog posts will produce better results

You should space your messages out for maximum impact.  It’s far better to post messages at intervals throughout the week than it is to post one after the other at the same time.  Blast messaging is not effective.

One important feature of OnFast.com allows business posts to be scheduled in advance. Visit OnFast.com for a free 30-day trial and try this feature for yourself.

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


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