Get a ticket package before Labor Day and save 20%!

The cost of an individual ticket is $495, while packages of 5/10 go for $2,295/$3,995, respectively (before the 20% discount).

Register online now, or call Anne Hydock at 440-250-7041 or email ahydock@sbnonline.com.

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What: 2011 Midwest Social Media Summit, a one-day conference that shares practical social media applications for your organization.

When: November 17, 2011 | 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Where: Executive Caterers at Landerhaven, Mayfield Heights, OH (Get directions)

Who:

• Dennis Maloney, VP of Multimedia Marketing, Domino’s Pizza
• Jeff Rohrs, VP of Marketing, ExactTarget
• Alan Gaffney, Director of Global eBusiness, Parker-Hannifin
• Rob Campbell, Coordinator, Digital Media, The Cleveland Indians
• Bill Balderaz, President of Fathom Columbus
• Kurt Krejny, Director of Online Marketing, Fathom

Why: Because if you don’t take part in the conversation about your brand, you’re missing out on revenue opportunities.

Cost: $495 per ticket | package of 5: $2,295 | package of 10: $3,995

Early Registration Bonus: 20% off all ticket packages purchased before Labor Day!

Contact: Anne Hydock | ahydock@sbnonline.com | 440-250-7041 | Online Registration

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Update 11:27 a.m.: An online registration page is now available.

1. Start with a question. Opening your blog post like this is effective because it gets the reader to relate to what it is that you’re writing about. For instance, I could have started this blog post with: “Have you ever struggled to write the opening line of your blog post?”
2. State a need or problem. I started this blog post using this method. Stating the problem using a personal tone can communicate that you empathize with the needs of the reader. Even if you don’t use a personal tone, you can still use this type of opening to communicate the need you plan to address in your post.
3. Communicate the benefit of reading the post. If you start your blog post with the end result in mind, you’re telling the reader what they’ll get if they continue to read. This method is effective because it entices your reader to continue to read your post.
4. Tell a story. Stories give your blog post a personal tone and draw readers in with something interesting and relatable. It’ll also make your blog post seem less preachy and more like a natural conversation.
5. Make a claim. Although you’ll need to prove that you can back up whatever claim you make, stating a claim in your opening sentence can be very effective. I could have started this blog post with the claim, “After reading this blog post, you’ll never struggle to begin your blog posts again.”
6. Start with a quote. If you choose to start your post with a quote, select a quote from an authority or from someone familiar to your audience. A quote adds interest to your post and makes readers want to read what comes next.
7. Start with a controversial statement. Controversy is a great way to get people to take notice, but it’s a tactic that should be used with caution.

These seven tips only scratch the surface of the many writing techniques you can implement when beginning your corporate blog post. Do you have any fool-proof ways you start your blog posts? Leave a comment and share your ideas!

Fathom Online Marketing offers services that help businesses compete in all areas of online marketing and advertising. And we’re looking to add a passionate writer / public relations enthusiast to our team.

Our copywriters are jacks and jills of all trades. We create compelling onsite content that gets our clients noticed by search engines while being written with a conversion focus that compels the website visitor to take action. We understand our clients’ branding, as well as their marketing messages. We conduct research while creating much of our content that, in turn, helps us know where to reach out to get our content published off-site. Think we’re a bunch of go-getters? You’re right!

So if you have a knack for the written word, want to learn how to write copy specifically for the Internet, and thrive in a fast-paced environment where every day brings new and exciting challenges … Fathom is looking for you.

We are a nationally recognized search engine marketing and online advertising firm with a need for an exceptional copywriting/PR intern to join our team. If you’re in the midst of earning your public relations, journalism or communications degree and the daily activities below sound like something you would enjoy, we would like you to begin crafting your cover letter for us right now. You will have the opportunity to learn to:

• Create and edit content specifically for the Web
• Conduct research for onsite and offsite content
• Hone your skills in community, consumer and media outreach

Qualifications:

• Excellence in grammar, spelling and English language composition
• Strong attention to detail, with the ability to self-edit
• Experience with organic and paid SEO preferred, but training provided
• Ability to adhere to demanding deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Comfortable using Microsoft Office and HTML
• Ability to write in a variety of styles on a wide range of subjects
• Knowledge of AP Style

Please send us a cover letter detailing why you are our ideal copywriter / public relations intern. Only resumes with cover letters will be reviewed. No phone calls, please.

Fathom’s own Kurt Krejny will join Kathy Breitenbucher of The Pedestal Group and Shon Christy of Christy Creative, LCC to shed more light on the subject.

Did I mention it’s free? Here’s the rest of the essential details:

Date/Time:
Friday, August 5th, 2011
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Place:
Founders Hall, Summa Wadsworth Hospital (directions)

Cost:
FREE! Boxed lunches included.

Registration deadline:
Close of business Wednesday, August 3. Email tbutt@allenandhartzell.com or call 330-335-2521.

Get even more information from our pressroom.

This week, Brittany talks to us about how to leverage Twitter Promoted Accounts to help build your following. She also mentions promoting individual tweets and how you can draw more attention to certain tweets most important to your business.

Listen along and tweet away!

Don’t forget to check back next Friday to learn about YouTube Promoted Accounts! And in case you missed it, check out Episode 1 – “How to Optimize Content for Your E-commerce Site.”

Higher visibility and conversion rates when both paid & organic listings are present
This strategy is pretty straightforward. Often we hear companies want to reduce paid search spend if they obtain a top organic keyword ranking; however, there is the risk of losing prime real estate in competitive search spaces. If your ROI is remaining positive for both, then why would you want to pause your paid campaign? Let both listings support each other for optimal results.

Share top-converting keyword data
Keyword research tools provide part of the data needed to pick quality paid and organic keyword sets. The most actionable keywords and opportunities are the ones that are converting at a higher rate and turning into sales. Make sure to share this information between teams to build new content that can be found organically, and to create new ads for people in the final buying stages.

Use best-performing paid CTAs in organic Title Tag, Meta Descriptions and content
This is such a simple concept, but it can provide a nice boost to click-thrus from your organic listings. Optimizing a page for rankings, traffic and conversions is an art form and can take time, but real-time results from paid search can be applied to organic pages for a quick boost at a low risk. Your best- performing ad calls-to-action can take out some guesswork on writing an enticing Title Tag and Meta Description. Once you find a version that is improving conversion, make sure to tweak your on-page content and conversion funnel paths.

Segment keywords for different initiatives
Paid search provides timely information about specific campaigns tied to highly relevant landing pages. For example, a person that downloaded a whitepaper may be in a different buying stage than someone that is scheduling a demo. Placing these keywords into segments can help create specific organic landing pages that will improve conversion rates. Many times we place all call-to-action funnels on one page and hope for the best. Serving up the best page for these different types of visitors at first entry can drastically increase the chance they convert rather than bounce.

Integrate shopping feeds
On the organic side of search we help our clients manage e-commerce shopping feeds in the major search engines. By connecting this feed to your paid ads, you can make them stand out and get people directly to product checkout pages. Any way you can reduce the number of clicks it takes people to find what they want is important to the conversion funnel. It’s important to stay current with the beta tests Google and Bing continue to roll out for shopping results.

Use internal site-search data to create highly targeted, branded paid ads
A paid search landing page may not always be the best option to get someone to a very specific page on your site when they are looking for information crucial to the buying process. Consider using internal site search data to mine for keywords people are using once they arrive to your site. Finding the right information on large websites can be a challenge… so before people even get to your site search, attempt to serve them up a highly targeted paid search ad to save them time. A good example of this can be for someone searching for technical specs or reviews for a costly product. Once they have all their questions answered and feel comfortable in the product, they are ready to buy!

Google Places and local business extensions
People that are looking for your company in your geographic vicinity can be top conversion prospects if you get them all the information they need. Having an optimized Google Places page ensures the searcher knows your exact location, store hours, forms of payment, and can read helpful customer reviews. Syncing this page with your local paid extensions improves visibility and increases the chances that person will visit your location in person.

Combat negative PR
People are going to talk about your company online whether you like it or not. Disgruntled customers or even cut-throat competitors will threaten your online reputation. Organic search listings and items like Google Suggest can be hard to influence for your brand if others are writing negative reviews and articles. A timely defense mechanism to offset damage is to set up paid campaigns for your brand along with modifiers that are affecting you. Words like “reviews,” “complaints,” “scam,” and “rip off” should be targeted as soon as you see them pop up. You may be surprised at the traffic you can generate to your own properties by placing some creative ads to help answer customer questions for negative PR.

Social media visibility (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube)
On the organic side of search we spend a lot of time helping our clients optimize for the major social channels for both branded and non-branded keywords. Each of the major social channels allows for paid ads that can help increase the visibility of the social profiles. Use paid options to send more targeted traffic to your Facebook page and Twitter profile. Make sure your pages/profiles offer something of value like a white paper or contest to keep your audience engaged and coming back for updates. LinkedIn ads also can be a great way to promote a timely white paper to a specific audience. YouTube also offers nice text- and link-overlay calls-to-action on your videos when you connect your Google Adwords account with a minimal daily budget. Don’t be afraid to spend money to make money! Properly tracking all these efforts will quickly show you what works and what does not.

Test the long-term viability of organic keywords
Paid search allows you to show up quickly for keywords in top positions while you are working towards a top organic ranking. If you are seeing these keywords convert from the paid side, then they are likely good candidates for organic optimization. Take action on these keywords by weaving them into your content and creating keyword-focused landing pages that solve searchers’ problems.

Test lead-capture forms on paid landing pages and apply them to your top organic pages
Learn the qualities of a top-converting paid landing page and incorporate the best elements into your organic landing pages. Tools like Click Tale and Crazy Egg will show you how people interact with your pages. Are people clicking on a graphic without a link and expecting something? Simple tools can uncover usability issues across your entire site to fix in order to improve conversions.

What works for your campaigns?
I’d like to encourage readers to leave comments about the holistic online marketing tactics that have produced results and revenue for their campaigns. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts in this holistic online marketing series!

On Wednesday night users were briefly allowed to invite new members, but that opportunity ended rapidly due to the large response rate. However, Google then tweeted on July 6^th that the service is open to anyone with a Google account. All users need to do is go to plus.google.com to sign up.

In just over a week the service has gained enough traffic to easily eclipse Google Buzz, so it will be interesting to see what happens now that it is open to all users who have a Google account.

So what exactly is Google+, and why are people so eager to access it?

Simply put, Google+ is a social networking service that allows people to interact with friends, share content and photos and get the latest news and updates on one simple platform. It’s Google’s response to the success of Twitter and Facebook, and the company’s attempt to gain some control of the growing social sphere.

In Google’s words, this service is designed for “making connecting with people on the web more like connection with them in the real world.”

The main functions of Google+ include:

• Circles: allow users to organize contacts according to their real-life social connections. There can be circles for friends, family members, coworkers, professional contacts and more. You choose what you share with each circle and customize your profile information depending on which circle is viewing it.
• Stream: a place to get updates from friends, view all kinds of content and have meaningful conversations with people in your circles. You can see content from people who have shared specifically with you, content shared by all your circles, and content from people who aren’t in your circles but are still sharing with you. Your stream is where you make your own updates, too.
• Sparks: brings you stories from all across the Web that are organized into interest groups. You choose your interests, so you get to see the latest trending content for the things that matter most to you.
• Photo Sharing: whether you want to share from your Stream, the Google+ bar, the Google+ photos homepage or your Google profile, you can upload photos to share with anyone in any of your circles.
• Hangouts: allow you to hang out with friends who are currently online using live video chat.

There is also a Google+ Mobile application, currently available on the Android platform, and soon to come for Apple users. If you want to get more information on these functions and the other services available through Google+, check out the project overview here.

We should note that although this feature does not currently exist, Google has revealed that it is working on a Google+ experience for businesses that will be rolled out later this year.

A few people here at Fathom were given invites to Google+. Below are the initial things they like and dislike about the service.

Likes:

• The ability to easily manage updates to Circles so that posts can be shown to some people and not others
• The simple interface
• Easy management of profile visibility
• The “follow” circle which allows you to see updates from people who don’t necessarily know you
• The ability to connect with friends and view their profile, but also keep up with celebrities and other notable people

Dislikes:

• Not enough people involved (yet)
• The check-in feature not being tied to Latitude
• Unreliability of the Android app with pushing updates and notifications
• Lack of ability to control the prioritization of your stream. The post with the latest comment is shown at the top.
• Can be difficult to find people if their Google profiles are not already optimized
• “People search” opens up in a new browser tab

Only time will tell how successful Google+ will be at maintaining interest and gaining a share of the social sphere. Let us know what you think. Does the search engine giant have a winning product with Google+? Or will it fail to live up to expectations, much like the failed Google Buzz?

Here are some quick tips to start your social media and mobile advertising campaigns:

Facebook:
It’s important to note that with Facebook you can advertise your website (through standard Facebook ads) or create a network around your Facebook page (through ads that encourage users to “Like” your page). Either way, Facebook allows for extensive targeting including geography, age, sex, relationship status, interests, and education as well as estimated reach based on the targeting you choose.

Twitter:
The key to building a network on Twitter is to gain followers and to follow the right people. One easy way to gain followers is through Twitter’s Promoted Accounts. With Promoted Accounts, you show up in the Who to Follow widget on the right side of the Twitter panel when there is a relevant recommendation. Recommendations are based on interests you target in the Promoted Accounts settings. You can also target locations worldwide or by country. With Twitter you can also use Promoted Tweets where you can more widely promote your regular Tweets. The same targeting options are available as in Promoted Accounts but with Promoted Tweets, users searching within Twitter will be served a relevant Promoted Tweet in the first position that will stand out with a yellow Promoted By: (your company) box.

LinkedIn:
Because LinkedIn is a business networking site, it may not benefit all companies. LinkedIn advertising allows you to target groups much like you would with Facebook, but you can go even more granular and target specific job titles such as “Director Of ___” or “Vice President of ___”.

Mobile:
Starting a mobile PPC campaign can be very easy. If you’re running successful desktop targeted campaigns, simply duplicate those campaigns and target mobile devices and tablets instead of desktop and laptop computers. Add additional shorter keywords to the mix because this is often what people search with on mobile devices. While some standard landing pages show up alright on mobile devices, having a mobile landing page is a relatively quick and simple way to ensure you’re giving your customers a good user experience. It’s also important to note that ads should be kept short and sweet to stand out on the mobile screen.

So what is this “cone-ing” fad? As odd as it sounds, “cone-ing” is simply ordering an ice-cream cone at a drive-thru and, when served, picking it up from the ice-cream end (the top) instead of the cone (the bottom).

Right now, you may be asking yourself, who in their right mind would do this for fun? His name is Alki Stevens, and he has attracted over 3.5 million viewers in less than two weeks! According to Richard Smith in his Gather.com technology blog entitled “Popular Drive-Thru Fad Hits YouTube”, Alki Steven’s cone-ing video has made it to the top 10 finalists of the Unhatched Viral Video Competition; a competition run by an Australian radio network, resulting in a grand-prize of $10,000 – not a bad pay-off for the disposal of a few 50-cent vanilla cream cones – not to mention the YouTube advertising revenue he is sure to bring in.

At Fathom Online Marketing, we love staying up on the current fads and trends as well! Being an online marketing company, we’ve had quite a few trends sweep through our office: inner-office planking, full-staff Nerf-wars, life-sized Angry Birds levels, burrito-eating competitions (those usually don’t have a positive outcome) – the list goes on. This time around, we couldn’t let Alki Stevens have all the fun. We sent two of Fathom’s finest – Director of Photography Phil Hoyt, and Digital Media Specialist Chad Paul - out to experience the thrill of the video world’s newest (and possibly weirdest) viral trend. Check it out!

If sales leads are important to your business, but you’re not capturing them via your mega-popular Facebook page, what are you waiting for?

Fathom Online Marketing is proud to unveil a custom Facebook contact page offering (PDF). A perfect complement to any of our social media marketing services, some of the highlights include:

• dynamic drop-down menus
• call-to-action strategies (graphics + copy)
• automatic lead integration to Salesforce.com or other CRM software
• recommendations for form placement, data collection, and data validation

See the news release for the full Facebook contact page details or the custom contact page order form (PDF).

Is Twitter just the wrong tool for higher education? Is it time to step back and refocus on other social channels?

While some colleges and universities have become discouraged with Twitter, we found a number of other schools that are seeing amazing results from Twitter. In our new white paper, published today, we talked to schools around the country that are using Twitter to its fullest potential.

Download your free copy of the paper, “5 Powerful Ways to Use Twitter in Higher Education: Accomplish the Amazing in #140charactersorless,” for:

• Fresh ideas on generating interest in Twitter on your campus
• Over 25 of the top Twitter feeds in higher education
• Creative suggestions for integrating Twitter into on-campus events

Kickstart your Twitter campaign with ideas that have seen results within the world of higher education. Continue the discussion on any of the topics covered in this white paper through Twitter hashtag #hetweet.

Catch up on the rest of Fathom’s series on social media in higher education by downloading our white papers on overarching social media strategy and Facebook tips.

A personal profile is what you create when you initially become a member of Facebook and set up your account. Facebook makes it clear in its rules that a personal profile must represent a real person . . . not a business or product. Personal profiles are what the vast majority of Facebook users set up to interact with friends on the site.

You’ve probably seen businesses that have made the mistake of creating a Facebook profile to advertise their company (ever gotten a friend request from a person named “Metroville UsedCars” or some other company name?).  As I said, this is technically against Facebook’s terms of service, and these kinds of profiles that don’t represent a real person can end up getting deleted. Recently, Facebook has created an option for you to change a personal profile into a page if you’ve made this mistake.

You must have a personal Facebook profile before you can start a Facebook page or group. If you’re the owner or representative of a company, it’s a good idea to limit the “friends” you accept on your personal profile to people who you actually know. While Facebook pages and groups are meant to serve large numbers of people, your personal profile is meant to be a more private outlet that you probably won’t want to share with individuals who you don’t know.

A Facebook page is geared more toward marketing and promotion for brands, products, celebrities and public officials. It allows large numbers of people to “like” the page and be updated with information and news from the page administrator, as well as interact with other people who have liked the page.

When you are an administrator of a Facebook page, anything that you post on the page wall will be included in the news stream on the profiles of people who have “liked” your page. In other words, if you have 10,000 “likes” on your page, then every message you post on the page wall will be disseminated to 10,000 people (since it shows up in their news stream, though, not all of them will see it).

While Facebook groups serve a purpose, they don’t allow you as many innovative marketing options as pages do. Groups can be made completely private, and are meant more for closer-knit selections of members who are members of a common organization (think book clubs, employees of a common company, or social organizations, for example).

One advantage of Facebook groups is that they allow the administrator to send bulk email messages to every member of the group, which you can’t do as administrator of a Facebook page. In spite of this, however, Facebook pages still offer businesses the best options for online marketing.

What changes in traffic will I see?

Google’s aim here is to draw people to ads that friends and family have essentially recommended.  It should be no surprise that users are increasingly paying more and more attention to reviews and opinions of peers (hence Facebook’s tremendous growth), so the concept seems sound. If you have useful ads pointed to incredibly relevant content the +1 experiment can only help!

What will happen to my click-through rate?

Hopefully it will go up! One really cool thing that stuck out to me is that organic +1’s will also show up in ads.  So if someone visits your store and “+1’s” it organically, their +1 will show up in in paid ads.  This could definitely bring a better sense of synergy to organic and paid listings. Advertiser’s who are doing everything run should only see increases!

Will this affect my quality score?

Google claims that no, this will not directly affect your quality score.  Although, while they say that quality score is still determined by overall ad performance, +1 could possibly have an effect on your performance or that of your competitors.  Therefore, it might be best to keep an eye out for any changes.

How can I tell if my ad is receiving +1s?

As of now, reporting is not available but once +1 is in full force, you will be able to monitor them through the dimensions tab in AdWords.

Can advertisers opt out of +1 feature?

In short, probably not.  If +1 makes it past its trial phase this will be a default setting so ready or not, users will have access to +1 any advertiser they choose.  However, in order to see +1s, you will need to be signed-in and searching in English.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t see +1s popping up on your ads right away.  As of now, the experiment is a limited release.  That said, if +1 ever makes it off the launch pad, it will be very interesting to see the impact of social input on the top search engine.

Kurt’s talk will follow presentations by two other social media leaders – Shama Kabani, president of the Marketing Zen Group, who was recognized by Business Week as one of the Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25 in 2009, and Albert Maruggi, president of Provident Partners and host of “Marketing Edge.” Shama, Albert and Kurt will cover a number of topics, from using positive comments to build business to driving revenue through group buying programs like Groupon.

What: Free Webinar, lunch and onsite presentation

When: Thursday, March 24 at noon

Where: Frontier Communications
111 South Elmwood Street
Medina, OH 44256
Driving Directions

Cost: Free

Registration: To register or request more information, contact Fred Morey at 216-406-9122

Kurt Krejny is the Director of SEM Best Practices at Fathom Online Marketing. Kurt has over 9 years of experience in online marketing with a concentration in search engine optimization. Using a diverse skill set including traditional marketing, graphic design, usability, website development, and video, Kurt has been focused on getting things done to show results.  With an eye for the future, Kurt is continuously testing and implementing new strategies to help Fathom’s clients maintain a high visibility in all areas of the Internet, while generating a favorable ROI for their online marketing campaigns.

If you’re like most schools or businesses, you already have a Facebook presence, but you’re not seeing the results that you’d like from your efforts. This paper is designed to help you get the most out of Facebook with proven strategies taken directly from some of the top schools in the U.S. Download your free copy to learn how to:

• Use groups to bolster enrollment
• Build a legitimate community through Facebook
• Deal with negativity before it turns into a PR nightmare

Also, by now, we hope you’ve had a chance to check out the first paper in our series, “Why Your School’s Social Media Strategy Is Falling Behind: Lessons from the Sports Guy, an Online Café and the Color Orange.” Throughout the last month, we’ve received a number of comments about how this paper has helped schools across the country with their social media campaigns. If you haven’t read it yet, we invite you to download it for free today.

To stay up-to-date on the latest news about Fathom’s white paper series, follow us on Twitter.

This week’s Fathom Minute includes:
- Fathom Video’s awesome new screen capture software
- Conference room demolition derby
- Canal Road flood
- Recording phone calls
- Search and Social Media
- Kool-Aid Man Mazzone

The problem facing marketers today is that social media is much better at conversations than conversions. Sure, you can measure metrics like follows, comments and views, but these numbers rarely correlate to a real dollar value. On the other hand, conversions almost never come directly through social media.

To find out what social media leaders are doing to measure their results, we talked to several of the top colleges and universities around the country. Download our white paper, “Why Your School’s Social Media Strategy Is Falling Behind: Lessons from the Sports Guy, an Online Café and the Color Orange” to find out what we learned, but briefly, here’s a look at two of the schools we talked to:

Seton Hall University
Goal: Increase incoming freshman class enrollment
Campaign: Class of 2014 Facebook Group – The school invited students from 2010’s incoming freshman class to their own official Facebook group. Through this group, students could meet each other and find guidance as they prepared for college life.
Result: Enrollment increased by 18 percent. The social team was able to attribute much of this growth to their Facebook group through the metrics tool Coremetrics. Through the tool, they found that the conversion efficiency, return frequency and percentage of new visitors were all higher on their website for traffic that came from Facebook than other referring sources. Within the tool, they also found that conversions were much greater for members of the Class of 2014 group than any other Facebook channel. In this case, the connections Seton Hall built through the Facebook group paid off with a higher percentage of applicants following through with enrollment.

Oregon State University
Goal: Correct the misconception that Oregon State is a “cow college” that holds little relevance for modern students.
Campaign: Powered by Orange – students and alumni were invited to submit written and video stories of how they are “Powered by Orange” through a variety of social channels.
Result: The social team measured success by cataloging comments, stories and online participation. By keeping track of all their wins and presenting them to administration, the Powered by Orange team was granted a larger portion of the marketing budget. Today, the campaign has become part of school culture, with Powered by Orange events, billboards and television commercials, all thanks to the anecdotal evidence collected during the campaign’s earliest stages.

What We Learned
We found that the best social strategies tie ROI back to specific goals, rather than measuring numbers for the sake of numbers. While Seton Hall had a numbers-focused goal that could easily be measured through a metrics tool, Oregon State had a more abstract goal that required anecdotal evidence. The biggest challenge to measuring the success of a social media campaign isn’t finding the best analytics tool, but rather establishing clear goals.

Your company’s time is too valuable to waste on social media that isn’t doing anything. Start measuring the success of your social media campaign by establishing specific goals, then determining how your social efforts are helping you reach those goals.

For help jumpstarting your social media campaign that’s been stuck in a rut, download our free white paper today.

Today, we’re proud to release the first in a four-part white paper series that documents our findings. The paper, “Why Your School’s Social Media Strategy Is Falling Behind: Lessons from the Sports Guy, an Online Café and the Color Orange,” is designed to help colleges and universities take control of their social media strategy and start seeing results.

While the examples and stories in this white paper come from higher education, any business trying to make social media work for them can learn from the results presented in this paper. Issues tackled include:

• The problem of measuring ROI in social media
• Using the right social channels to speak to the right audience
• Common mistakes made by social media practitioners

Whether you’re trying to kick start a social media campaign for a school or a business, there’s something in our new white paper for you. Download it for free today.

If you’ve found this white paper useful, help us spread the word by retweeting it.

I bet you never thought of incorporating the KISS method into your social media posts, but maybe you should start. Many social media outlets, especially Twitter, emphasize the idea of keeping your ideas short and sweet. There may just be a good reason.

Facebook– People will scroll right past long Facebook updates. While someone may be interested in what you have to say, they don’t want to have to search through long-winded messages to find your point. In most cases, the point of your update can be summed up in a few short sentences.

Twitter – The shorter the tweet, the better. Shorter tweets make it easier for a person to retweet your post. The whole point of Twitter is to get your point across as succinctly as possible. Try your best to follow that idea.

Blogs– Many successful bloggers find that following the idea of KISS can improve the readership of their posts. By writing a focused blog that dives right into the content, readers can get the information they are after without having to navigate through mounds of excess information.

Videos – While in 2011 Youtube eliminated all restrictions on video length, it doesn’t mean you have to make a video as long as you possibly can. Viewers will not have the attention span to watch a 15 or 20 minute video on your product or service. Keep it simple and just give them the valuable information they actually need. Challenge yourself to limit your videos to a maximum of around four to five minutes, you will find it can help you target your focus more accurately.

I am not trying to say that well-written content doesn’t have a place in social media, but in most instances, what you are trying to say can be summed up in a few short sentences. In an age of instant gratification, people are looking to absorb as much information as they can in the shortest amount of time. Make it easy for them by keeping it simple and sticking to your point. Your reader will appreciate it.

*Image provided by terren in Virginiaon Flickr