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Friday, October 25, 2013

Social Media News For The Week Of 10/25/13

Social Media Marketing For Small Businesses: How to Hang Onto Every Fan And Follower

Keeping social media fans and followers through engagement is more important for a small business than gaining large numbers of meaningless ones by not connecting with them. 80 percent of social media users prefer connecting with brands on social networks over websites, according to a report by MBA Online. Social media marketing  is not meant to be one way communication, postings must be followed up with responses to the comments and questions of fans. This is how true engagement and connection take place, which the purpose of the medium. Full Story Here:


Chasing the Wrong Rabbit? Social Media Goals for Small Business

Social media marketing is not meant to be an instant revenue stream for businesses. It is rather a platform for relationship building with customers while building brand awareness for its products and services. Setting up specific goals and objectives which are measurable, achievable, and relevant within a set timeframe should be what every company’s social media efforts strive for. Full Story Here:


Social Media for Small Business: Choose Wisely, Then Execute

Social media and online marketing have not provided businesses with a magic wand of technological success. Instead they offer new platforms from which to promote themselves and connect with a wide audience. Small businesses should carefully spend their resources within a clearly established strategy. Full Story Here:


What Consumers Are Doing On Social Media [Infographic]

Interaction between consumers and brands has increasingly taken place on social media over the last five years and will only continue to do so in the future. As businesses compete for the time consumers spend on social media, it is valuable for brands to know where their potential customers are spending their online time. This informative infographic offers some insights. Full Story Here:



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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Don't forget the hashtag

 

 

Hashtags (words or phrases prefixed with the symbol #) started in 2007 on Twitter and have since spread to Pinterest, Instagram, Google and more recently Facebook. Hashtags ensure that people can categorize content according to their interests and make it easy for other people to find their relevant content.

Visit Onfast.com.

 


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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Social media posters: Do you know these people?

The Chronic Updater

It’s a beautiful day. I’m on my way to work. Going for lunch.  Buying wine at the grocery store. Driving home. I’m home. On and on…………

The Happy Vacationer

Here I am on a mountain. I’m overlooking a valley in Maine. I’m overlooking a lake in New Hampshire. I’m on the interstate heading south. Happy to be home……

The New Parents

Little Joey. Little Joey 5 minutes later. Little Joey eating Cheerios. Little Joey sleeping. Little Joey waking up. Little Joey. Little Joey…….

The Foodie

My vegetable lasagna. Here’s my picture of really green beans. Pizza in a cup. The big steak at the Texas barbeque joint.

The Rage Guy

I hate government. Why do stores close at 6pm? We need more roads. They messed up my burger order again.

 

You get the idea. Hopefully, you are not one of them. Too often social media posts are just too much information (TMI). You can tire out your friends quickly with mundane, irrelevant, and frequent posts.  Be considerate of your followers’ time and keep it pithy, spontaneous, and interesting.

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, October 21, 2013

Set up Google Alerts to find content

With Google Alerts, you can set up alerts for topics and news relevant to your business.  Google Alerts provide a window into what’s making news and what others are saying, including your competitors.

Monitoring online digital conversations can inspire ideas for your posts and introduce you to new content resources.


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Friday, October 18, 2013

Social Media News For The Week Of 10/18/13

For Online Video, Social Media Is The New Hit-Maker And Virtual Remote Control Rolled Into One

Social media-influenced video has now eclipsed stand-alone online video in viewership numbers, according to Business Insider. Social networks YouTube and Facebook along with many other emerging platforms are giving businesses a cost-effective alternative to traditional television advertising and video content distribution. YouTube is still the number one platform for Social TV, but Facebook has the fastest-growing online video audience. Full Story Here:

 

5 Reasons You Should Be Using Social Media To Promote Your Business

The benefits for a small business to market itself on social media are well established. For any company that may be still on the fence about it, social media marketing will build up trust in your brand while increasing awareness of your business. Social media also will drive increased traffic to your website and boost search rankings with improved SEO. Social media provides the perfect platform for keeping track of what is being said about your brand while offering your company a forum for response. Full Story Here:

 

How Social Media Campaigns Will Change In 2014

Social media marketing continues to grow and mature as a promotional tool for brands as we head toward 2014. Google will become a viable platform as businesses expand their circles and share their content on the network. Image-based content shall become even more prevalent and influential. Customer engagement will be a key influence in determining if a brand truly stands out from its competitors. Full Story Here: 

 

Creating a Social Media ‘Fingerprint’ for Your Small Business

Social media marketing has evolved from a luxury to a necessity in the last few years. As this transition has taken, it has also become imperative for brands to establish a clear strategy for successfully leveraging the medium. This strategy can be seen as a virtual fingerprint for the business, across multiple channels. This fingerprint should be an imprint the brand’s character and culture spoken on the medium in it’s own company voice. Full Story Here:

 

 


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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

SEO Keyword Tip

A careful choice of keywords in your social blog posts is a major consideration since they attract visitors who are interested in your products and services. These visitors are not only interested they are motivated in doing business. If you are experiencing a steady increase in traffic to your social sites your choice of SEO keywords is on target.

OnFast.com rates your posts for effective keyword usage. Try it today.


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Monday, October 14, 2013

Don't Let Your Social Media Efforts Backfire

In days gone by, advertising, marketing, and communications were one-way outbound channels and could be controlled by the brand. Brands could regulate what messages were disseminated, to whom, where, and when.

Today with social media, a whole separate conversation among consumers is going on behind the scenes. For the most part, your coveted brand reputation and purchasing influence has been transferred to the whims of consumers.

Through social media channels, consumers can comment and rate products and services either positively or negatively. These trusted testimonials carry a heavy influence with prospective customers. Most amazingly, comments along with video, and pictures can be transmitted in real-time from mobile smartphones to an unlimited audience with little effort on the part of the sender.

Recognizing the perils of negative media, brands are being compelled to be more open, honest and transparent. Seeking to hide or disguise legitimate issues on social networks is likely to fail.

Most important, in today’s social media marketplace you must deal with a negative issue immediately. Assign a skilled, knowledgeable, and empowered resource to monitor and deal with the discourse.

Remember you are dealing with real people in a two-way conversation. Never be formal, or authoritarian with your responses to negative posts. Be genuine and take responsibility for actions within your control.

Above all, your goal is to show you are reasonable, fair, and easy to work with.

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, October 11, 2013

Social Media News For The Week Of 10/11/13

Twitter’s Comcast Partnership Moves It Leaps And Bounds Ahead Of The Competition In Social TV

In the emerging trend of Social TV, Twitter has positioned itself ahead of competing social networks by entering into a deal with Comcast. This partnership is the biggest step taken so far in the convergence of social media and television. Comcast will embed  a “See It” button in tweets by Comcast’s NBCUniversal. The button will take the user to a live program either on a mobile device or a television. To use this functionality users must be subscribers to Comcast’s Xfinity service. Full Story Here:


Tune-In Your Social Media For Customer Focus And Better Business Practice

Social media can be a highly effective tool for small businesses to keep in touch with their customer base and meet their needs. Social media can provide companies with valuable market research information. Listening to your followers, linking all social accounts, and planning a clear strategy for your social media campaigns will lead to success with the medium. Full Story Here:


The Top Twelve Business Etiquette Tips for Social Media

Society functions best when people follow basic rules of etiquette in their interactions with others. The same holds true in social media networking. Businesses must be polite and treat their customers on social media the same way they would in a face-to-face encounter. This article offers guidelines for companies to follow in polite engagement with their fans and followers on social media networks. Full Story Here:


Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media Tips for Small Business Owners

Small business owners should never forget where their attention should always be in all their social media posts. The reader should be the focus point of all postings on social media channels. Never make your brand the point of anything shared in blogs or social networks. Full Story Here:




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Friday, October 4, 2013

Social Media News For The Week Of 10/4/13

The Death of Social ROI - Companies Are Starting To Drop The Idea That They Can Track Social Media’s Dollar Value

Businesses are realizing that their social media marketing efforts can’t be measured in the strict terms of revenue-per-customer metrics, according to a study conducted by Business Insider. The report found ROI tracking use by marketers fell from 17 percent to only 9 percent and the tracking of conversion rates dropped from 25 percent to 21 percent. At the same time investment in social media by firms is up and expected to reach 16 percent of the total marketing budget of companies by 2018. As businesses have moved forward with social media they have learned to concentrate their efforts on audience-building, brand awareness, and customer relations. Full Story Here:

 

Social Media Strategies to Grow Your Business

Frustrations over the lack of measurable returns for a company’s social media investments results when they fail to understand the nature of the medium. Social media is about building relationships between people, not products. Learning who the business’ target audience is and connecting with them will lead to successfully leveraging social media marketing. Full Story Here:

 

4 Businesses That Use Social Media for Growth

While social media is about interaction and connection between people, the end goal for business is to get those people talking about the brand’s products and services. This article provides a few good examples of businesses who have successfully grown as a result of their social media marketing efforts. Full Story Here:

 

Why Social Media is Now The New ‘Word of Mouth’

Social media has taken over the role of ‘word of mouth’ advertising. A successful social media marketing campaign results in a large number of people talking on the medium about a firm’s products and services. The brand’s fans, in a sense, do the marketing for the company. Social media thrives because of the ever shrinking attention span of modern society. Social provides instant gratification in the form of social opinion provided through instant communication. Full Story Here:

 


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Thursday, October 3, 2013

Do I need social media if I have a website?

Companies that have long relied on their web sites as a means of attracting customers are now finding that a website alone is not enough. In today’s marketplace, social media presents a better opportunity for enhancing relationships and expanding brand awareness. No one will deny that the web has become the most cost effective, “Go-To” method for finding answers to problems and identifying resources.  Google is clearly the world’s number one research tool with billions of searches daily. 

When it comes to building and maintaining relationships, finding employees, and researching clients, social media presents far better opportunities. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn should be among your first choices. Social media’s biggest advantage is that it is an open conversation among like-minded people. Your audience can ask questions and leave replies. Most important, your viewing audience can share your posts with people you don’t know but have an interest in what is being said.  If you use social media, your web of influence will proliferate organically and you will win friends and likes. Do it now!


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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A Contest Generates Excitement

If you’re considering clever ideas for a social media marketing campaign to help get your message across, try running a contest to attract viewer attention.

People crave freebies. Have you ever noticed at a trade show how willing people are to enter a contest?  Running a social media contest on your Facebook page or company blog will produce the same results, especially if you include a quality picture of your prize as a visual aid.

Asking people to enter your Facebook contest will get valuable prospect names and addresses. Even small prizes like T-Shirts and gift cards will produce a flurry of activity.

Be sure to make the contest period reasonable and always post the name of the winner. You can purchase custom T-shirts at www.zazzle.com

If you are successful, you may consider offering contests on a regular basis to draw in new fans and viewers.

OnFast offers an easy no hassle way to set up a contest. Try it for free during our 30-day trial subscription at www.onfast.com


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