Community usually refers to a social unit larger than a small village that shares common values. This is exactly what social media platforms have created: a community. 

According to Wikipedia, Social Media is employ web- and mobile-based technologies to support interactive dialogue and “introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities, and individuals.”  Social media to most today, is defined by Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, blogs and YouTube. These platforms are very common today and have millions of people participating worldwide. Brands who use these outlets are trying to communicate with their potential and current customers. 

Facebook pages have a few unknown features that you might want to look into in order to maximize your page. Since the forced change of Timeline for all pages and accounts, some of the major features have been changed. Many of these changes have happened without user knowledge so here are a few tips. 

Twitter, to some brands, might seem completely unnecessary. But is it? In actuality Twitter is a great way to hit tons of people at one time with a quick, short and sweet message. Twitter is now allowing brands to promote their account as well as specific tweets. This can help with the number of impressions as well as gaining more followers. 

Social media can be a tricky animal if you don't know all the rules of marketing your brand correctly. If you want people to know specific information about your brand, social media is the best path to go. Each platform has a different direction when it comes to delivering the content to the users but regardless, that information is important! 

We recently helped kick off the The YMCA and JCC of Greater Toledo October membership campaign using Facebook as the main driver. This has proven to be a good time to push deeper into Facebook because the Presidential Ad Campaigns have limited broadcast ad inventory and driven the prices up.

Facebook has changed a feature - yet again. They have now developed a 'want' button. Users can not only 'like' something but also 'want'. 

Everyone experiences a variety of negative comments online, whether it is on a social media site, blog, review site etc. The effect of the comment depends on how you choose to respond to it. Ragan.com has a few articles that explain the importance of how to answer a comment or question made online and the proper way to do so. Here is an article from Ragan about 5 Ways to Handle Negative Facebook Comments. Now just because this article is about Facebook, does not mean that the points do not apply to any other medium that allows comments. The content is still very relevant to any forum online.

Have you noticed the big change on Twitter lately? Twitter now has a new header - you can create a "cover photo" in addition to your profile photo. The similarity between Facebook and Twitter now is that the header and cover photo are like mini billboards within social media. Brands can use the header to showcase a larger image rather than just their logo as their profile picture. 

Is your YMCA’s traditional marketing to build membership not as successful as it used to be? Why? Your new members are savvy online researchers. In fact they are Google search experts now. Google search has given them the ability to research instantly where they are going to be spending their money on workout memberships. It’s time to follow their eyes to the Internet and be sure that your YMCA can be found easily inside Google and other search engines.

Do you have a YMCA Twitter account? Does your Twitter have a standard background?