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.

Visual content. What does that include? Well, photos and videos are a good start. Now where and how are you sharing this content? On Twitter? YouTube? Facebook? How about Instagram or Pinterest? If you don't have accounts with any of those mediums - you might be missing out on potential customers or reaching your current ones to keep them engaged. 

I recently was emailing with one of our first YMCA clients, Lake County YMCA.  We have formed a great bond with their entire marketing team and have been able to learn a lot about their needs and wants with their YMCA website over the past year.

Fortunately, we have experienced mild success and growth in this vertical market.  This growth has caused us to re-evaluate our current process; sales, implementation, follow-up and communication to our most valuable asset, our YMCA customer.  I prefer to use words like partner or teammate but for now we will use customer.

This next line is copied and pasted from my email referencing our current Customer Service:

It's currently good, but good isn't "good" enough for us!

This should be your motto with Customer Service and, quite frankly every aspect of your business.  Let’s face it, many people and companies are good at what they do.  But, how many are great?  Great can be hard to quantify but for me, it revolves around effort and interest.

Are you really concerned about your client?  Do you care whether the client received the product or service they were expecting?  Are you on to the next sale and not “servicing the customer” on your previous sale?  Gary Vaynerchuk, aka @garyvee,  mentioned at Hubspot’s Inbound 2012 conference that Client Retention is the name of the game.  And, in order to maintain your client, exceptional and unexpected Customer Service is mandatory!

Do you take an interest in their business but more importantly their life.  I like to form friendships with my business associates.  You don’t have to be intrusive, just let it happen naturally.  Do they like football, do they have kids, do you share interests?  Before you know it, you will have a much deeper bond with your client and may become Facebook friends!  

I believe the phrase “good is not good enough” should apply to many facets of your life.  For your business to succeed in this social, ever-changing environment, you and your business must stand out from the rest.  Your Customer Service is the heartbeat of your success and you should wake up every morning thinking “Good is Not Good Enough!" 

What is the best day to tweet, update your Facebook page, post a blog (if you are only posting once a week) or post within any of your social media mediums? The short answer is: Tuesday.

Facebook has changed the layout of pages several times in the past year. Recently Facebook changed the settings on fan pages, with 5 new features. You can now post a promoted post on your wall, assign admin roles, schedule future posts, new insight features and the "Like" button has been redesigned to become more mobile friendly. Promoted posts are the latest buzz when it comes to Facebook - and causing some issues. You will be able to create a post and promote it for a small amount and see how many more people it reaches. With new changes to the admin section, admins should be able to efficiently manage the page and creators of the page can control how much admins have access to. 

Here are a few Facebook post ideas for YMCAs! Increasing membership and keeping members interested in a Facebook page can be challenging. Post interesting, relative content to keep members coming back for all their YMCA updates. Create interaction with your members on your Facebook page with some of these great post ideas: 

Pinterest is the newest social networking site to hit the internet. Pinterest allows users to "pin" their "interests" to boards that are centered around a theme. For example, let's say you are planning on redoing a room in your house. There is a list of interests that Pinterest has, where the pins are already organized in a newsfeed form. If you have the patience to scroll through the pins, and you click on the "Home Decor" link, then you will find a variety of different "For the Home" decor. There are pins for every decorating taste.