So how do you overcome the problem of Facebook filtering out your posts so almost no one sees them? The most important step is to make your posts engaging. If your followers Like your posts or Comment on them, Facebook will not filter you out of their newsfeed. Additionally, it is also very important to post consistently. Posts that are made frequently will engage your followers and avoid the dreaded Facebook filter. The final step is to analyze the results of your social media efforts. It is important to consider a number of factors including how many people your posts have reached and which posts have yielded likes and comments. Continue with posts that include content that encourage follower engagement and drop the topics that go unseen. Our next article will cover what is the best time to post to social media to maximize engagement.
Ever wonder why your business Facebook posts are only being seen by 25 people while your business's Facebook Page has 500 followers? It is because Facebook gives its users the option of seeing all of the posts of the pages they follow or just the top stories. Top Stories is Facebooks way of saying that they are going to pick which posts you will see. Odds are almost all of your followers have their accounts set to top stories. Most users do not even know about this option and even if they set their account to Most Recent, which shows all of the posts in chronological order, Facebook will periodically change it to Top Stories without their knowledge.
So how do you overcome the problem of Facebook filtering out your posts so almost no one sees them? The most important step is to make your posts engaging. If your followers Like your posts or Comment on them, Facebook will not filter you out of their newsfeed. Additionally, it is also very important to post consistently. Posts that are made frequently will engage your followers and avoid the dreaded Facebook filter. The final step is to analyze the results of your social media efforts. It is important to consider a number of factors including how many people your posts have reached and which posts have yielded likes and comments. Continue with posts that include content that encourage follower engagement and drop the topics that go unseen. Our next article will cover what is the best time to post to social media to maximize engagement.
3 Comments
Chicago is one of the world’s greatest cities. It has world-class architecture, a beautiful lakefront and a thriving food scene. It is also arguably the top city in the country for museums. Many people consider The Art Institute of Chicago the country’s best art museum. Our two top science museums, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum, are excellent family-friendly venues! There is also a plethora of other great but lessor known museums. The one problem with all of these great institutions is that they can be expensive. A trip to the Shedd Aquarium can cost a family of 4 over $100. Luckily, for Illinois residents at least, there are free days at many of these museums. The following is a list of the free days at many of Chicago’s museums in 2016. The Shedd Aquarium: January: 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 February: 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29 June: 6, 7, 13, 14 September: 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27 October: 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31 November: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29 The Field Museum: January: 3, 13, 18, 23, 24; February: 1-29 Museum of Science & Industry: January: 4-8, 11-15, 18-22, 25-29 February: 29 June: 1-3, 6-8 September: 6-9, 12-16, 19-23, 26-30 October: 4-6 November: 3, 10 December: 1 Adler Planetarium: January: 4-8,11,12,15,18-22, 25-29 February: 1-3, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 The Art institute of Chicago: General admission to the Art Institute of Chicago is free to Illinois residents every Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Museum of Contemporary Art: The MCA Chicago is free for Illinois residents every Tuesday all year long. Chicago History Museum: Free for Illinois residents Monday through Friday during the months of January and February. Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum: Thursdays are suggested donation days for Illinois residents. You can pay as much as you like, including going for free. Loyola University Museum of Art: Free every Tuesday for Illinois residents. Chicago has several great institutions that are always free: They include: the Lincoln Park Zoo, Smart Museum of Art, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Chicago is a great place to be at Christmastime. There are many great events and activities and with this season’s unseasonably warm, very un-Chicago like, weather, it is a good time to do as many of these outdoor family friendly activities.
1. Christkindlmarket. It is a German Christmas market set in downtown Chicago. There are dozens of stalls selling Christmas decorations, unique gifts, clothing and tasty, but not so healthy, food. The one drawback is the huge crowds. 2. Zoo Lights. The always free and festive Lincoln Park Zoo is illuminated with Christmas lights and holiday displays. There are ice carvings, train rides, animals and adult beverages. 3. Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light. The Museum of Science & Industry’s annual Christmas tree display. This fun museum has over 50 decorated trees representing different countries. The centerpiece tree has over 30,000 lights. 4. Holiday Windows at Macy’s on State Street. One of the few good things that happened when Macy’s bought Marshall Fields was their decision to keep this holiday tradition at this store. Going to Macy’s on State is like stepping back in time to the department stores of decades ago. In addition to the traditional holiday window displays, the lobby is decorated to the hilt and don’t miss the always beautiful tree in the famous Walnut Room restaurant on the 7th floor. 5. Shopping on Michigan Avenue. Holiday shopping on Michigan Avenue is a Chicago tradition for locals and visitors alike. There are high-rise malls catering to teenagers, high-end stores for those who want to dream of an extravagant lifestyle, flagship stores for many national brands and even some discount stores with real bargains. Recently there has been a rash of people having their Facebook accounts hacked. Worried about your Facebook account being hacked? What if someone gained access to all your private messages, was able to contact your friends, and had access to your personal information? What a nightmare! Here are several steps you can take to help prevent your account from being hacked.
1. Do not log on using public computers and if you do make sure it does not save your password. 2. Change your password occasionally. Go to settings and scroll down to password and click edit. 3. Turn on Login Alerts. It will notify you if someone tries to login into your Facebook account from an unknown computer. Go to settings, click privacy in the column on the left, click Login Alerts to turn on this feature. 4. Turn on Login Approvals. It is similar to step 3 but goes a bit further. You can access it the same way as #3 but you click on Login Approvals instead of Login Alerts. This requires a 1 time passcode anytime you login to Facebook using a new computer. Facebook will send a text with that passcode to your phone. In theory if someone knows your password they still will not be able to get logged into your account without this passcode. 5. Be careful about approving friend requests. When someone asks to be your friend, Facebook will tell you how many friends you have in common. It will also tell you how many friends they have. If you receive a friend request from someone you do not know, and they have little to no Facebook friends odds are they are up to no good. 6. Make sure you do not have any viruses on your computer. There are a lot of antivirus software options out there and some of them are free. Pick one and use it. 7. Think twice before you click on a link. Clicking on an unknown link can result in the downloading of a malicious code that can invade your computer or phone, endangering your personal information. Having your Facebook account hacked is no fun and can be embarrassing and time consuming. These steps will not guarantee that you will not get hacked but they will greatly reduce the likelihood that you will. It is time once again time for one of our favorite free events in Chicago: The Chicago Air and Water Show. While there may be a lot of air shows throughout the country, none is better than the one in Chicago. The acts are part of what makes it so great but it is the setting that makes it truly amazing. Watching a jet zoom past a high-rise, barely clearing the roof, at 500 mph is truly and incredible sight.
Our staff photographer went out to the Chicago Lakefront to get some shots of the Chicago skyline. What he did not expect to see were so many beautifully colored birds. Lake Michigan is a main flyway for migrating birds and that makes Chicago a major stopover on their journey. We are not bird experts and our identification efforts by means of a bird book has allowed us to name many of the observed birds. One surprise discovery was of a bird that only lives in Arizona. We were unable to identify many of the birds captured in these photographs and would love to hear from all of you bird watchers out there! Chicago is no stranger to fog, particularly near the lake and while these conditions of low visibility can make for cancelled flights and dangerous travel conditions they can be eerily beautiful. Many residents living in high rises experience the view of nothingness that fog can bring. Visitors can experience this by going to the top of the John Hancock building or the Willis Tower. (aka Sears Tower) It can be a little spooky. Fog definitely can make for some wonderful photo opportunities! Sometimes you can literally see the fog head inland from Lake Michigan.
In little over a decade, social media has risen from something that is not on the radar to an important part of a business’ plans. It is a cost effective and fairly easy way to get your message out to your existing and potential customers. Facebook is still the dominate player but there are several other social media platforms including Google+, that should become an important part of your social media campaign. There are many reasons to spend time on your Google+ page or to hire a social media company to do it for you. The 5 most important reasons are:
1. It is Google. Google is far and away the dominate player in the search market. They have the resources and abilities to make Google+ important. 2. Google+ is one of the biggest and fastest growing social media platforms. It is ranked 5th in the number of unique monthly visitors, behind only: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. It has approximately 120,000,000 unique visitors a month. 3. Google+ pages show up in search results. Not only can your Google+ page show up independently in a search it can also show up at the bottom of your page description in search results. Items that you post on your Google+ page can also show up in search results. 4. Search Results. There have been many studies done and some say that there is a strong correlation between Google+ signals like +1 and number of followers and some say that there is little effect. One thing is certain, social signals will become more and more important to SEO (search engine optimization). 5. Reviews. A Google+ page is a great place to get positive reviews. Your reviews can show up at the bottom of your pages search results, assuring searchers that yours is a well thought of business. Good reviews can also improve your local search placement. Chicago Social Media Marketers offers inexpensive and effective social media campaigns for small businesses, individuals and not for profit organizations. One of the surest signs of spring in Chicago is the return of boats to the harbors. Delight is taken as the first boat is spotted in one of Chicago's many lakefront harbors. How do they get there you may ask. Most boats travel from storage yards to the lakefront via the Chicago River. This requires the lifting of each of Chicago's 27 movable bridges. "The lifting of Chicago's iconic movable river bridges is a local rite of spring, marking the beginning of the boating season," said CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein. Bridges along the Chicago River will lift to allow boat access on Wednesdays and Saturdays from April 18 – June 27, 2015. The bridge lifting begins at the Chicago Yacht Yard at S. Ashland Avenue and the river and continues to Lake Shore Drive. The bridges are raised one after the other. Each lift takes an average of 8-12 minutes given an absence of traffic and mechanical difficulties. While bridge lifts are based on boat traffic, the scheduled starting time for Wednesdays is 9:30am and 8:00am for Saturdays. If you have ever wondered what it is like to go on a boat run this article and slideshow will help you experience this annual event.
Free fan experiences will abound in this years 80th NFL draft in Chicago. The draft itself will take place downtown in the historical Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, expanding outside to adjacent parks.
From April 30- May 2, 2015, Chicago will enjoy three days of celebrating football, football and more football. From "Selection Square" to "Draft Town" there is much too see and do, Here is our 'readers digest' listing of events. Here is the break-down of the rounds: Round 1: April 30: See the prospects walk down a red carpet on Michigan Avenue as they head into the Auditorium Theater. Round 2: 32 former NFL players will be in attendance for both Rounds 2 and 3. Round 3: Selections announced May 1, 2015. Rounds 4-7: Players will be announced outside at an area called "Selection Square" as well as in other outdoor locations throughout the country. What is "Selection Square"? It has been slated as being the epicenter of the draft. It will be located across from the Auditorium Theater in Congress Park. It will feature 32 tables, each representing an NFL team. It is from these tables that the draft picks will be made. What is "Draft Town"? Draft Town is a 900,000-square foot celebration of the NFL Draft in Grant Park. It will include, among other things, music, food, player appearances and autographs, flag football competitions, draft prospect visits, shopping and concessions. As with all public events, security at Draft Town dictates a list of prohibited items. This three-day event will culminate with a concert on Saturday night. What is Free?
There are only a limited number of tickets available for the Auditorium Theater and Selection Square. More information on how to secure tickets will be available soon. The choosechicago.com official Schedule of Events Before the event follow @NFL and #NFLDraft or visit NFL.com/DraftTown. During the event, tag your posts and photos with #DraftTown, Can't make it to the Draft? You can watch it on ESPN/ESPN2 And as always...take public transportation if you can! CTA METRA |
AuthorChicago Social Media Marketers is a social media consulting firm. Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
|