1. Create your blogging strategy. Every blog must begin with a plan. You should first define your blogging goals, whether it is for branding, product promotion, industry news, communication, or sales. In order to be successful, you must stay consistent with your goals throughout the life of your blog.

2. Use a variety of fresh content. It is crucial to keep your blog posts exciting. Include media in your posts to maintain your reader’s attention. Never just promote yourself. Write about what your viewers want to read.

3. Keep it short and to the point. Feel free to keep your blog posts around 200-250 words. These days’ people don’t have the time or the attention span to read a lengthy, drawn out blog post. Most of the time you can say exactly what you need to say in a simple and concise post.

4. Keywords, keywords, keywords! Always include important keywords in your post title, linked within the body of your text and in the tags of your post. Make sure to keep your tags under 10 so that you don’t clutter the subject matter. You can also add keywords within your image alt text to enhance your ranking within search engines. Using your most important keywords throughout your blog post will help tremendously with SEO.

5. Remember to link. Try to find a place to link to the pages with important information on your site, such as your homepage or contact page. If you would like to expand on ideas, you can offer links to other posts that you have written that may support the content of your post. Internal linking is always a good thing. It is also good to cite the authors of any source of information you have used. Those links are greatly appreciated, and will eventually be paid back to you.

6. Communicate with your readers. Add a poll or a survey to your site to find out exactly what it is your viewers like to read. This will help you determine the right content to provide and will encourage readers to not only interact with you, but with each other.

7. Always respond to comments. Your readers will most likely have something to say about the content you post. Make sure to answer their questions, give additional insight or information and provide any additional resources they may need.

8. Find the right schedule. Make sure to post in a routine manner; never too often and not too sporadic. You will quickly find out which time of day and days of the week get the most hits by looking at your site analytics and demographics.

9. Never ignore the numbers. Take advantage of analytics, it will provide you with all of the insight you’re ever going to need. You can track every visit from hundreds of different angles. It will be the best source for learning who your viewers are.

10. Maximize all social media resources. Promote your blog posts on all of your social media channels. This will spread your content and reinforce the information you are trying to share. It also makes it easier for people to find your site.

Best Practices

1. Construct the perfect profile picture. Facebook profile pictures are one of the most important factors in capturing a user’s initial attention; therefore, it is crucial to have a clear, eye catching image that perfectly represents your business and your brand. In order for your thumbnail to contain your brand logo, you must remember that Facebook crops your photo with a 12 pixel border and that Facebook thumbnails are square with rounded corners.

2. Captivating conversations matter!  That means doing more than inserting a post, a link or a picture periodically on the page. You should comment on posts made by fans, answer their questions in a timely fashion, add value to those posts with additional information and encourage more interaction. Make sure people know that you are personally updating the page and it’s not just a feed.

3. Integrate other Facebook entities. The sections on the left side of the page should be intelligently selected with one goal in mind: Enabling your fans to do more and spread the word. Add a welcome page or a mailing list page where fans can add themselves to your email list. You can also add a shopping cart to allow fans to purchase your products directly and securely through Facebook. Ex: Warehouse Skateboards Welcome Page, Join My List & Shop Now.

4. Statistics are extremely important: Facebook Insights allows you to understand which posts are encouraging your fans to interact and engage with you by analyzing trends in your Facebook data. Make sure to conform to your demographics, too. Whatever works should be continued!

5. Make your fans feel special.  Reward fans for participating, let them know you are watching and encourage additional engagement. Make someone a fan of the week; allow fans to link to your Facebook page and website so that they stand out as an extended member of the brand family. Do things that are unique to your Facebook fan page only.

6. Use outside properties to promote the page: Too often enough, people create their business page and never receive the desired audience. Use all of your communication properties to build up your Facebook. Mention your Facebook in your blog, on your website and in your ads. If you prioritize brand promo in front of conversation on your Facebook fan page, expect an inactive fan base.

7. Facebook fans love photos and videos.  Tagging your fans from event photos and videos is just a simple, obvious way to make them feel like they are part of the community. In fact, you should be encouraging them to upload their own photos and videos.

8. Limit the number of posts. No one wants their Facebook page flooded with useless posting, but you don’t want your fans to forget about you either. It is best to post about 3-4 times a day at the most in order to maximize your fan base according to their Facebook timing.

9. Always add variety. It is best to post a variety of different things to add value to your page and keep fans interested. If you consecutively post multiple photos, links or videos than your fans will lose their interest quickly. So make sure to change it up every time or every other time in order to keep your fans captivated.

10. Expand your reach. Facebook is the best way to interact with your loyal customers and prospects. These days a “Like” is just as good as a lead. Throughout our own analysis we have found that one way to obtain “likes” is by simply running Facebook ads.  These ads should target your customer demographic, link directly to your Facebook page,  include an enticing thumbnail picture and creative ad copy.

If you are looking for innovative ideas or have any questions, our expert designers, programmers and marketers are here to help you with your next project. Contact us to move your business to a new level of Facebook success.

I am happy to announce that we recently launched the newly redesigned Wieland Electric website!  The site features a new graphical interface to more closely match their parent company’s website – www.wieland-electric.com.  The new interface highlights the company’s 100^th anniversary and includes unique side menu structure in the Products section.

Sage Island is happy to share several recent projects we have been working on with a new company – HarvesterGear.  We began working with HarvesterGear in June and have developed their logo, business cards, a marketing brochure, tradeshow pieces and most recently their website.

The new website showcases the different products and services offered by HarvesterGear.  It is built in DNN to allow for easy updates to the site and future expansion of product lines as the company grows.  The site features a produce tracking tool that allows consumers to enter a code found on their produce containers to look up information on where the food was grown.  This tracking feature is something that will be required by law in next few years and HarvesterGear is on the cutting edge of offering produce tracking technology.

Sage Island is happy to announce the recent launches of both the ActionSportsNow website and blog.  ASN is a new, quickly growing business headquartered in Wilmington, NC.  ASN is an online database of shops, retailers, camps, resorts and independent contractors who serve the action sports industry.  Sage Island worked with ASN to develop their new website in DNN; the site features a search for action sport retails by industry segment and location.  The custom programmed search was developed based on the unique features offered by ASN.

The newly launched ActionSportsNow WordPress blog offers an online platform for ASN to stay connected with their customers and provide up-to-date industry and sports related news.  The site feeds news into the website, by sport, to offer the latest news to ASN users, no matter what source they are visiting.

We are so excited (and proud) to spread the news about BlueWave Dentistry’s NEW building! We are so happy for them and proud to have been a part of this rebranding experience! Over the past year they have grown in staff and clients and are now located in a brand new building with their new look! They sought out our services last year for help in rebranding and a website creation. After providing logo creative services, we helped them transform the old ‘General Dentistry’ logo into the new BlueWave logo. It is so great to see this logo come to life and take its mark on the new building! Congratulations, BlueWave Dentistry and thanks for letting Sage Island be a part of your rebranding!

Old Logo:

New Logo:

Logo translated on new building:

I am happy to announce that Norco Management launched their new site this week! The website was developed in WordPress and was designed to match their company logo and colors in a fresh, updated way. The site provides an overview of their services and showcases each of their property complexes. They are able to easily upload photos and information for each of property in the content management system.