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.