Short and Sweet Blog Posts

There is a reason so few people are reading Anna Karenina nowadays; no one has the time to read anything thats over 1000 words, let alone 1000 pages!  When it comes to the internet and blogging, this fact is especially true.  People on the computer don't usually read page long articles or blog posts.  Make your blog posts three to five paragraphs or about 450 words to hook more readers.  Not only will more people be likely to read the post, they'll also be more likely to share it, widening your audience and gaining future readers.

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Create Polls on Facebook Timeline

Although not as visible as it once was, the option to add a poll to your Facebook brand page is still available! The Timeline changed much of your brand page's layout, and to some marketers it can seem as if they removed the question option all together. Little do some know, the option is simply hidden! In order to add a poll from your brand page, click on the Event, Milestone + option in the top left corner of your status box. A drop down menu will appear with the last option being Question. Click on that option, ask a question and add your poll options. Creating a poll is a wonderful way to engage and get feedback from your fans!

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Check Your LinkedIn Follower Statistics

LinkedIn has just unleashed a brand new feature for company pages. In addition to being able to check and monitor your page statistics and insights, you can now find statistics on your followers. Simply go into your company's LinkedIn page and click on the tab that says Follower Statistics. Here you will find information on new followers and how many impressions your page has been making. You can also find follower demographics that deal with the following categories: seniority, industry, function, region company size, and employee. With this new update, you can have a better understanding of your followers and the activity and trends around your company's statuses!

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Use Klout

Has this question ever crossed your mind: "How many people actually read my tweets?"  Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if you are reaching your audience if you aren't getting retweets or favorited constantly.  Fret not, that does not necessarily mean that you aren't reaching your audience. With a website called Klout, you can measure how effectively you are using your social media.  It allows you to see who your Facebook posts and tweets are influencing.

Klout allows you to see your total amount of retweets, mentions, followers and following.  Klout also allows you to see what topics you are most influential in.  For example, say your tweets about summer blockbusters are read by a lot of people, maybe they have a lot of retweets or favorites.  Klout will show you if your audience is influenced by your tweets.  Get on Klout and try it out!  It never hurts to know how influential you are.

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Change Your Voice on Facebook

As we all know, Facebook is constantly changing.  A lot of these changes have gotten backlash, from their change in format to their constant changing of the "Like" button.  However, one of their newest changes may actually be very beneficial to businesses.  If you have been onto your businesses page lately you may notice a bar at the top of the page that allows you to comment and post as your business or yourself.  This new way to change your voice makes it much easier to switch back and forth between your business and personal profiles.  Could this be the start of a plethora of good Facebook changes?  Lets hope so!

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Monitor Brand Effectiveness

It is important for a business to be able to see their success in order to ensure that their marketing and media strategies are as effective as possible.  With platforms like Facebook and Twitter, it has become quite simple to monitor the effectiveness of a brand.  Here are a few quick tips to track your brand's potency online.

1. Engage your fans- Businesses can't just tell people what they want anymore.  They have to participate and interact with their consumers to make sure that they feel heard.  Build relationships with your consumers to create long lasting partnerships.  The more engaging you are, the more effective you are.

2. Add value to the conversation- Create content through your social media that your customers want to see.  This could be a giveaway or a coupon or just helpful tips about your products and services.  If you give your customers something to talk about they will keep coming back to chat!

3. Check feedback- Don't be afraid of a little constructive criticism.  To be effective you need to know what works and what doesn't.  Make sure you take as much time responding to the negative feedback as you do with the positive.  Use helpful criticisms to advance your product.

These are just a few simple tips to directly view how effective your brand is at reaching your target audience.  Monitoring brand effectiveness is a crucial to any business, and if you aren't social media savvy in this day and age, that could pose a huge problem.  If that's the case, let Progressive Media Concepts help you help your customers!

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Get the Right Connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media website for businesses...so why would you not have everyone in your business on it?  LinkedIn is a professional network that is meant to help create and nurture business to business connections.  You should take advantage of it to highlight the importance of your company as a team.  As the saying goes, "it's a small world," and you never know who may know someone that you would like to know.  Having your coworkers and employees on LinkedIn not only builds their own professional network, it could also greatly widen yours.

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Top Small Business Hash Tags to Use on Twitter

As you all know by now, hash tags are an excellent way to become more visible on Twitter. Hash tags enable your tweets to become searchable by all Twitter users. If you send out tweets that include popular hash tags, you will increase your chances of reaching a larger audience! Some of the most popular hash tags that small businesses can use include the following: #SMB, #SmallBiz, #Entrepreneur, #Business, and #Networking. Of course, you can use any other hash tag that pertains to your brand or message. Don't be shy to create your very own hash tags either!

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