Weekly updates from your Video Girls and Video Guys at Capture the Market about video, social media, & online marketing with a focus towards multifamily housing industry.
The day has finally arrived! Foursquare has added 'Apartment Building' as a category option for Foursquare venues. Adding this category to your venue will help your community display in the results for searches by your target audience! To add the 'Apartment Building' category to your venue follow these steps:
How To Add a Category to Your Venue
Go to your venue. Click on a link or search for your community on Foursquare.com.
Click the 'Edit' button in the lower right corner of your venue information.
Select 'Home, Work, Other' from the drop-down menu in the 'Add a category' section.
Select 'Apartment Building' from the new drop-down menu option.
Click the green 'Add Category' button.
There's No 'Edit' Button?!
If you do not see the 'Edit' button on your venue, then you still need to claim your venue.
We will walk through the steps for How to Claim Your Foursquare Venue on Tuesday, May 3 during our week of "Your Online Presence - Claim it. Own it. Rock it!" You can also email me for instructions at Rachel@CaptureTheMarket.com.
Today is Administrative Professionals Day! Take a moment to thank your administrative professionals today. Administrative Professionals keep the gears of your company running smoothly: keeping calendars and offices organized, managing travel plans, scheduling conference calls and managing the phones, overseeing projects, filing papers, running errands, coveting that red Swingline stapler...
The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) began this tradition in 1952 when organizing Professional Secretaries Week and Professional Secretaries Day. IAAP changed the names to Administrative Professionals Week and Administrative Professionals Day in 2000 to keep pace with the expending responsibilities and the changing job titles of the administrative workforce.
Today, more than 4.1 million secretaries and administrative assistants and 8.9 million people work in various administrative support roles in the United States, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. More than 475,000 administrative professionals are employed in Canada. Data from IAAP's website.
Take a moment to thank your Administrative Professionals for all they do to help your day go smoothly.
Foursquare has evolved to "make cities easier to use" and now offers an Explore tab to help users find specific genres of nearby places. You can now search for 'coffee,' and Foursquare will show you all the coffee places nearby, whether you or your friends have been there, which venues are popular places, and more!
Clicking the 'Explore' option from your Foursquare home page will now take you to the Explore homepage which will automatically display Recommended places in a small area or Trending places in a large area. You can click on the mixer icon in the top left corner of the home page to change the settings: select the search radius (.25 - 10 miles) and specify information sources (everyone, only friends, or only you).
Once you have your search radius and information sources selected, you can search for nearby venues. The more specific your search, the more interesting venues will display. Searching a broad topic will prompt Foursquare to display predictive detailed search options. If you search for "coffee," Foursquare will offer "cafe" and "coffee shop" as search options. The search results will display tips associated with the venue and the following about the venue:
If you have been there
If (and how many) friends have been there
If the venue is popular on Foursquare
Are you prepared for this new Foursquare?
Comment with your thoughts on this new direction of Foursquare: the explore tab, new format for the leaderboard, and specials offered to swarms, groups of friends, regulars, newbies, Mayors, or everyone.
People around the world come together on the 42 day of the 4th month (4/16 or April 16) to celebrate the first "Social Media holiday!"
Cities host swarm parties, businesses offer specials and/or giveaways, and people get involved in their community! Visit the official Foursquare Day Facebook, Twitter, website, or blog!
Foursquare Day is officially endorsed by Foursquare.com. Foursquare has released the official badge and logo for Foursquare Day 2011. Details on obtaining the Foursquare badge are yet to be released. See what Dennis Crowley, the CEO of foursquare, says about Foursquare Day.
Community Events! Seattle is celebrating at Gordon Biersch with specials and giveaways. Learn more on their site, Facebook, and Twitter.
Dallas has businesses offering specials such as Dallas Comedy House offering free tickets (more info here), and the city is celebrating with a Swarm party on Village on the Green with several businesses present and offering specials. Visit here for more information.
Portland is celebrating at Whiffies where for every check-in $1 goes to the Red Cross efforts in Japan. Follow the event on their site and on Twitter.
New Orleans is celebrating at Parlay's with drink specials & Fat Molly's with drink specials and a free shot. Follow the event on Facebook and Twitter.
Atlanta has businesses around the area offering Foursquare specials, and the city is a huge party at the West Atlanta Downtown Hotel on the rooftop pool deck and wetbar area. Visit their site to learn more: Atlanta specials here and the Foursquare Day party here.
Don't see your city in the list above? Search for whats going on in your community here.
Company Celebrations! McDonald's is continuing their participation in Foursquare Day by offering 100 fantastic shirts to crowned mayors in the US throughout the day! Learn more here.
Untapped has created their own Foursquare Day Badge and a worldwide Foursquare Day map where users can share their location and beer of choice. Learn more here.
These are not the only companies getting involved with Foursquare Day. Look around your community for other business offering specials or giveaways this Saturday, April 16.
Let us know, what are your plans for Foursquare Day?
TAA has launched a new website!
Check them out at TAA.org. Below is a screen shot of the new website. You can also see the TAA Lease Contract Overview video produced by Capture the Market!
TAA's world class event, Education Conference and Lone Star Expo, begins today!
Events continue from today until Saturday, April 16 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The Trade Show begins tomorrow, April 14 and ends Friday, April 15. Be sure to stop by Booth #647 to see the new Video Experts' display and video! Use Foursquare to check in at our booth and win a badge!
Visit with your Video Experts at Booth #647
Come by Booth #647 to check out our new display and video. Remember to check in with Foursquare and earn a badge!
Social media impacts all other marketing forms because of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, SEO, and social media to make it easy for people to find you online. In America, 75% of people use social media and spend 15 minutes of every hour online on social media sites. The main ideas behind optimizing your social media engagement are as follows: + Be responsive + Be gracious + Answer questions + Respond to complaints
Walking the fine line between being social and selling can be a struggle. Produce content that is relevant to the needs of your target audience. You should still use coupons and deals such as Facebook Deals/Foursquare Deals, but if you over promote or are too self focused people will lose interest. If you're stumped for content, you can use polls and surveys to see what your target audience desires. Each social media site is unique, and so your content must vary in tone and personality depending on the approach for each social media site. Focus on the content and the lifestyle surrounding your business not just the features. People will share your content because they desire to contribute to the conversation, self-interest, altruism, validation, or affinity with the larger community.
Benefits of Social Media
Generating exposure – 88%
Increased traffic or subscribers – 72%
Improved Search Ranking – 62%
Resulted in new business partnerships – 56%
Generated qualified leads – 51%
Reduced overall marketing expenses – 49%
Improved sales – 43%
*image courtesy of Social Media Examiner
Optimizing on social media does require extensive time and labor. Only 50% of marketers have less than one year experience in social media marketing. Over half of marketers are spending over 6 hours each week (34% for more than 11 hours a week) on social media. Marketers spending more than 40 hours a week on social media have a great focus on video and blogs. 28% of marketers outsource social media tasks with the largest percentage being for design/development (17%).
#1 Focus for 2011 – Video Marketing/YouTube
56% of business are currently using YouTube, and 77% of marketers plan on increasing their video and/or YouTube marketing. For our current clients: Contact me with any questions regarding optimizing your community's video! If you're interested in a custom branded video for your community or a corporate video contact our team toll free at 866-778-7719 ext 1!
#2 Focus for 2011 - Facebook
550 million active users are on Facebook. 92% of businesses are currently using Facebook, and 75% of marketers plan on increasing their activities. 80% of B2C plan on increasing their Facebook efforts. See our previous posts regarding Facebook Business Pages vs Profile Pages and the new 2011 Facebook Business Page!
#3 Focus for 2011 – Blogs
Blogs have always been a strong area for social media marketers, and 75% of marketers are planning to increase their blogging activities. Businesses that link their blog to their Twitter account average 79% more followers.
Let us know! What do you think of social media and inbound marketing? What social media sites are you using? What questions/comments do you have about your experience with social media?
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