Frequency of Posting

The amount of times you post on Twitter could potentially mean destruction to your account. It is not beneficial to tweet numerous times a day. Information is shared immediately on Twitter because the tweets are posted in live time. On Twitter you are able to post more frequently because the feed is constantly moving. About three to five daily tweets tends to find the right engagement most businesses are looking for. However, stats have shown that engagement has been found to decrease after the third tweet.

To make sure your account is benefiting your company and others, keep the tweets prompt and timely. A great time to tweet would be during a break when you know people will be updating on their social media platforms. Do not tweet late at night and try to refrain from tweeting important content over the weekend because your information will be lost in the news feed. Make sure you spread out content throughout the day because if users see the same brand consecutively, they will only read the first post. Yet, frequency depends on the variables, audience, purpose and objectives that are popular at that moment. You have to be able to adapt to the changes you see if you are getting no response back. Test out your tweets and see what works best for your business.  

Check out this link for more information:  

https://business.twitter.com/twitter-101 

Stat Retrieved from:

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-frequency-guide-often-post-0916817#!bgXjGJ

Trending Oakville

Trending.Info is happy to announce that we have launched Trending Oakville. Oakville is located in Southern Ontario and is apart of the Greater Toronto Area. Oakville is on Lake Ontario. Oakville is found in the Halton Region with twelve neighbourhoods. Oakville is constantly growing as a multicultural city. Whether you are coming to visit or find a home, Oakville is a beautiful place to stay. There are many great neighbourhoods, schools and business locations. Oakville has a strong national and international based economy throughout the business world. Currently, the main headquarters are supporting automotive, pharmaceutical, tourism, technology, business services and aerospace sectors. Oakville has over four hundred service areas, shops, restaurants, parks and recreation centers.

Image from Kingco

Things to know about Oakville

Oakville was established in 1857 when the area was auctioned off.

Image from Toronto Public Library

Oakville has easy access to the 403, 407, QEW, GO Transit. Also, Oakville is situated thirty minutes from Downtown Toronto and hour away from the US border.

Image from James Dean Real Estate

Oakville is home to many festivals. Throughout the year Oakville hosts the Downtown Jazz festival, Waterfront Festival, Midnight Madness, For the Love of the Arts festival and the Family Ribfest.

Image from Frankie Fett at Waterfront

Downtown Oakville has the feel of a rich environment with its superb dining, professional services, dynamic retail mix, outstanding shopping and it’s cultural district. Downtown Oakville is loaded with history and heritage.

Image from Oakville Real Estate

Oakville is home to Sheridan college, one of the three campuses that the college has. Sheridan offers programs that involve animation, illustration, music theatre, film and design, business, applied computing, community studies, liberal studies and engineering technology.  

Image from Sheridan College

Oakville was once known for shipbuilding, timber shipment, wheat farming and basket making.

Image from Toronto Public Library

Oakville has some of the largest sports clubs in all of Canada. Oakville is home to the Oakville Crusaders Rugby club which is the largest rugby club in Canada. The club develops players who are as young as 5 years old. The Oakville Blue Devils are considered a professional soccer team. They are apart of the Oakville soccer club which is the largest soccer club in Canada. They have sixty plus soccer fields and a club facility with two star full size FIFA certified indoor soccer pitch.  

Image from Oakville Crusaders

Oakville has many parks and outdoor areas. With over 1420 hectares of parkland, 300 km of trails and more than 200 parks, gardens, playgrounds and off leash dog parks, skateboard parks, sports fields, splash pads, two harbours and 31 waterfronts, there is something for everyone!

Image from GlenAbbey.ca

Oakville is home to two Olympic record holders. Donovan Bailey, who is a retired Canadian sprinter but he formerly held the world record for the 100 m sprint in 1996. Adam van Koeverden, who is a kayak sprinter. He was apart of the Burloak Canoe club in Oakville. Adam has eight world championship medals. As well, he has four Olympic medals; one gold, two silver and a bronze. Koeverden is still competing in many events.

Image from the Breakdown

Oakville is home to a successful and major lacrosse, men and women hockey, basketball, baseball, golf, aquatic and canoe clubs.  

Image from Canadian Golfer at Glen Abbey Golf Club

Information Retrieved from:

http://www.oakville.ca/culturerec/about-oakville.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakville,_Ontario

http://www.oakvilledowntown.com/

Learn How to Drive Business Sales with Twitter

Twitter is a great way to reach a large number of customers that you do not know in a short amount of time. Whether you are a small or large company, with Twitter you are able to access people in your area or people all over the world. Twitter connects your business to your current or future customers. It starts conversations and interest for your business sales.

Getting Started

Image from Shea Bennett

When beginning, have your name or link for Twitter on all your other social media networks so that interested customers can see that you are available on Twitter. Nowadays, to find out quick information many people do use Twitter to find out smaller details because Twitter is fast and straight to the point. Find keywords that match your business and targeted audience. Find one that interests your audience, see what they are talking about and take notice if they are using your keywords or not. Try finding a keyword that is already in use because people will already be searching that word. It is much easier using a current keyword than having to start from scratch. When using your keyword, use a hash tag to make it more searchable. Tweets with a hash tag get at least two times more engagement because there is a bigger chance of more people seeing it than just your followers if they search the same hash tag. Avoid using more than two or three hash tags in a single tweet. Constantly, learn from your best customers. Take notice in their age, income, gender and their interests, because those customers are your targeted audience. If you want to increase your business sales through your targeted audience you have to know who to target.

Increase Connections

Image from PokerStars.com

If you are interested in increasing your connections there are a couple things that can be done. Connect with other people so that they take notice in you. Do someone a favor, retweet one of their tweets or mention them because in return they will do the same thing for you. It will be like free advertising for your business. As well, always respond to the people who respond to you. Make your customers or maybe even your competition realize you are interested in what they have to say. In general, do not focus on your number of followers. Focus on the number of followers who fit for what you are looking for in sales.

Make It Limited or Exclusive

Image from myvolt.com

To be able to drive business sales with Twitter, you must create simple tweets that contain compelling content to create interaction. For small businesses, it is good to promote tweets that give exclusive coupons or new insight. Limited coupons and promotions are a great way to drive sales on Twitter because it drives urgency. When actually wanting to drive sales, Twitter suggests that the use of hash tags and mentions should be avoided because it is a distraction from what you are selling. Twitter has a technique called “flock to unlock,” which encourages your followers to share your tweet. If you get a certain number of retweets then you will unlock the offer to the public. If customers know that you usually have limited deals and promotions it will be more likely for them to check up on your account more frequently and if you are lucky, tell their friends about it too.

Watch the video below for more information on “Flock and Unlock”

Information Retrieved from:

https://business.twitter.com/smallbiz

http://www.maximizer.com/blog/4-ways-twitter-can-drive-sales/

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-sales-tips_b58819

Twitter vs. Facebook Posts

Facebook and Twitter are two different social media platforms that should not be linked together blindly. They have different user bases and uses. The formatting on both sites are different and it does not look professional to combine the two without knowing what you are doing.

The difference of the networks will affect how your post appears when it is linked. Facebook posts are meant to be long term and detailed. Twitter is known for quick updated notices that are short and only seen once. On Twitter, mentions allow users to know if they are being talked about. But on Facebook, mentions do not work. Twitter is not great for sharing Facebook posts because most of the time the Facebook post will show up as a link in the tweet with no descriptive text. Images without descriptions posted on Facebook show up as tweets reading, “I posted a new photo to Facebook.” 

Many users do not realize that if the settings on their Facebook photos are not public, people with access to the link through Twitter will not be able to see the photo. Twitter is more text driven where Facebook is more visual. People quickly lose interest in a tweet when they have to go to open another link to see a post. Also, not everyone has a Facebook account and sometimes the links that are posted on Twitter are not available to be opened unless you have Facebook. With Twitter you have the choice to follow a user back. On Facebook it is different because if you accept a friend you are automatically following each other. 

Twitter and Facebook also have different forms of slang. Facebook is not as "updated" as Twitter is with its slang and abbreviations. Twitter uses more abbreviations where Facebook is more structured because there is a 5000 character limit vs. Twitter’s 140. Twitter and Facebook are set up as different bases for content as well because Twitter asks. “What are you doing?” and Facebook asks, “What’s on your mind?”

In the end, linking your Twitter and Facebook defeats the purpose of having Twitter if it is completely a constant feed for your Facebook. Plus, if people are following you on both networks, they won’t want to continue seeing the same information on both sites, so mix it up. You will lose connections and interaction on at least one of your social media sites. No bonds will form while you are posting on Twitter through your Facebook. Your Twitter account will slowly lose interest because you will not be aware of the notifications you are receiving on Twitter through Facebook. This means that you are are ignoring complaints and positive feedback. It is antisocial and linking Facebook and Twitter defeats the purpose of making connections through a targeted audience. You cannot use one site more than the other.

Tip: post exclusive content on each site to gain more interest in both networks.

Trending Etobicoke

Image from WordPress

Trending.Info is excited to announce that we have launched Trending Etobicoke! Etobicoke is a community to the west of Toronto and its south is bordered by Lake Ontario. Etobicoke is home to other smaller villages and towns. Etobicoke’s economy is based around manufacturing, retail trade and service sectors. Etobicoke benefits from being so close to Toronto and Lake Ontario. Etobicoke is a great area to visit. The community offers a flourishing economy, tourist attractions, numerous parks, a broad history and a multicultural population.

Things to Know about Etobicoke

Etobicoke has a variety of indoor and outdoor sports teams.

Image from Etobicoke Basketball

 The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir can be seen from Highway 427, south of Finch Avenue West. It is a Hindu worship place and a community gathering built with a variety of 24,000 pieces of stone. The stones range from white Turkish limestone, Indian sandstone and translucent Italian Carrera marble. All of which were originally carved in India.

Image from Global Network

James Garden on the Humber river is a very popular tourist attraction. The garden is known for beautiful walkways, waterfalls and streams.

Image from Tie the Knot Pictures

The municipality of Etobicoke was amalgamated into the Greater Toronto area in 1998.

Image from Wikipedia

Our Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper’s Toronto home is in Etobicoke.

Image from Laureen Harper

Did you know? You can visit Etobicoke’s oldest home that was owned by the Grubb family in 1801.

Image from Peel County Archives

Etobicoke is extremely accessible. The community is near the International Pearson Airport, as well as highway 427 and highway 401. Etobicoke has many transportation services like taxis, bus and streetcar stops and subway systems.  

Image from Etobicoke Walkin

South Etobicoke had a larger population than North Etobicoke in the 1800s because North Etobicoke was used more frequently for farming, where South Etobicoke already started some smaller villages.

Image from Etobicoke Life

Actress Catherine O’Hara is from Etobicoke.

Image from Wikipedia

Etobicoke is made up of numerous smaller communities. Alderwood, Eatonville, Eringate, Islington, The Kingsway, The Queensway, Thistletown, Clairville and Long Branch are all apart of Etobicoke.  

Image from National Post

Information Retrieved from
http://www.etobicokedirect.info/about_etobicoke
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/4074066-heritage-bus-tour-of-north-etobicoke-to-reveal-lots-of-secrets-along-the-way-/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etobicoke

Trending Mississauga

Image from Autoshare

Trending.Info is excited to announce that we have launched in Mississauga! Mississauga is located on the shores of Lake Ontario, to the west of Toronto. Mississauga is Canada’s sixth largest city and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. The city is a beautiful, diversifying destination spot in Southern Ontario. You would have to be crazy to skip out on some of the largest festivals in the world, crazy nightlife, superb dining, large shopping centers and lots of sports teams and recreation. Not only is Mississauga a great place to visit, it is a great place to live. Mississauga is supported with a great health care system, many high ranked academic schools and overall a great economy.

Things to Know about Mississauga

Over five million people have visited the Living Arts Center since it opened on October 7,1997.

Image from Kerun Ip

Mississauga is part of the Toronto Mississauga University. It is a satellite campus of the Toronto University in Mississauga. It is the second largest campus of the university.

Image from UTM Blog

Mississauga has one of the largest shopping centers in Canada and has the largest shopping mall in Ontario. Square One Shopping Center has over 350 retail stores and is surrounded by many other restaurants, bars and businesses.

Image from Andrew Hiddleston

Mississauga has more than 495 Parks and is surrounded by 22 km of water. Mississauga also has 11 community centers and 12 arenas.

Image from Doors Open Ontario

Only three mayors have been elected in Mississauga, Dr. Martin Dobkin, Ron A. Searle, and Hazel McCallion.

Image from CTV News

Mississauga has over 9000 hotel rooms available and thousands of places to eat. Mississauga offers great hospitality and cuisine of your choice with their variety of multicultural restaurants and diners.

Image from Ten Resturant

There are over 55,000 businesses located in Mississauga.

Image from Business Times Magazine

Mississauga became a town in 1968 and a city in 1974.

Image from Sam McDadi

Mississauga is linked to the Toronto Transit system and has great bus services of their own.

Image from Bruce Witchel

Mississauga had the largest peacetime evacuation on November 10, 1979 when a 105 car freight train carrying poisonous and explosive chemicals derailed near Mavis road and Dundas street.

Image from Lisa Morrissette

There are seven major highways in or surrounding the city. Mississauga is surrounded by highway 401, 403, 407, 409, 410, 427 and Queen Elizabeth Way.

Image from Blackwood Gallery

Mississauga has more than 170 km of biking trails and 300 more km are on their way.

Image from South Mississauga

Information Retrieved from:

http://www.livemississauga.ca/facts-about-mississauga/

http://www.discovermississauga.ca/

http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/home

How to Engage and Maintain a Loyal Twitter Following

Build your Profile

If you are just starting out on Twitter, you will have to build your profile. However, if you have had a Twitter account for a while, then it is time for a profile makeover. Make sure you use your real name, picture and location. For your image use what people will recognize your company by. You want people to recognize you so they know that you are a real person. Next, change your description, slogan or caption, so that people know what your company is about. This also allows you to make sure that your profile is keeping with the the fast changing trends. Once your profile has been created or updated, you have to find the right people to follow. It is best to follow people who will follow you back and people that have something in common with your company. While you are following people who will help your business grow, it is best to listen and learn while you try and create your company presence.

Use #’s

Use hash tags so that people can search related content to your tweet. This is how you can help spread your presence throughout the Twitter community because people will be able to take notice in you when you hash tag the same content. Hash tags help you participate in Twitter chats. You can either join an ongoing chat through the hash tag or you can start your own hash tag to get a conversation going. It is beneficial to participate in Twitter chats. You learn new things, meet new users, interact with interested people, gain followers and create buzz for your business.

Engage

The best way to engage and maintain a loyal Twitter following is by making them want to read your tweets. Tweet a few times a day to stay visible, constant and to increase engagement. Offer exclusive content on only one social media platform so then people are forced to go to that specific network. Be intentional with each tweet. Ensure that the content shared has a purpose, meets the needs of your followers, offers new information and is supportive of others. Try to make your tweets exciting, inspiring, funny, useful, and creative with a unique tone to emotionally connect to your audience. However, remember to keep the tweet professional and relevant because people like to relate.  It is always nice to provide special exclusive offers to people who follow you. However, it is also a good strategy to engage potential followers by offering a type of discount for a future purchase if lets say as an example your hundredth follower. Show your audience that you are kept up to date with the new trends and technology. In your tweets, try to include one of these strategies; provide updates, contests, links, question and answers, pictures, videos, Follow Friday, polls, or even surveys. You could also try and plan a campaign weeks in advance to spread the word about something new that is coming. Make sure all information shared is based on fact and research. Also, try to write tweets like you are having a conversation, talk with them, not at them. Consider, spreading your tweets out, it will benefit your account. In the end, you should convey the industries message, not the businesses.

Connect

One of the concepts of Twitter is to connect with your targeted audience, which is your followers. You have to regularly connect to your audience to maintain their loyalty to your account. You must value the content they share with you. Use @mentions, retweet and reply to your audience. Retweet what you find interesting and favourite what you like. The tweets you post should contain customer support, both positive and negative. If there are concerns you can always suggest direct messaging or email for privacy reasons to the customer as well. Although, for the most part, ask questions, provide answers, share knowledge and collect feedback. At least once daily try to respond to mentions and retweets. It is also beneficial to respond and thank everyone. People will either respond or retweet your response to show their friends that you have engaged with them. Fortunately for you, you are not just engaging a single follower, you are engaging a much wider audience. Another way to connect with your targeted audience is by pitching new products and business ideas. Not only does it make you excited for the future products, it makes your customers excited as well. Your tweets should never over connect with your community. Do not include empty promises or try and offer more than what your company or product can do. To maintain a loyalty between followers look for allies in the industry whom you exchange information with regularly and support each other. Maintaining a connection through your tweets is the best way to maintain a loyal twitter following.

Prime Tweeting

The times that you tweet benefits your Twitter following. You have to find the best time to tweet for your business. Tweet when people are available to go on Twitter. However, tweet during work hours because that is usually when people will be coming to your business. Try to avoid tweeting on weekends or late at night because the feed moves too fast then. Post most of your tweets in real time too. Try not to automate. Also, avoid tweeting in a consistent row unless you are at a live event. People usually skip over the next couple of tweets if they are written by the same account. Consider writing your tweets at the same time each day so that people who are trying to get in contact with you on Twitter notice that you are online at consistent times. This assists your account when you are not online all the time so you are not expected to tweet or respond to tweets 24/7.

Trending Cambridge

Trending Cambridge

Trending.Info is excited to announce that we have launched Cambridge, Ontario! Cambridge is located in Southern Ontario at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers near Waterloo. Cambridge happens to be merged with the City of Galt, the towns of Preston, Blair and Hespeler. Cambridge is known for being one of the fastest growing areas in Canada. Cambridge is a great place for shopping, festivals and superb dining. The city has great antique shops, a butterfly conservatory, farmers markets, factory outlets, and even a drive through wildlife park. Through the great diversity of a multicultural mix and the active business community, Cambridge has something for everyone.

"A Grand Night" - Colin Carmichael

Things to Know about Cambridge 

Do you love the outdoors? Cambridge would be a great place to check out. With access to the Grand River and the awesome trails, you could have a great day cycling, canoeing, hiking, etc.

Image from treksinthewild.com

Claudette Millar was the first mayor of Cambridge. She was one of the few mayors to be female. She was also the youngest mayor in Canada at the time, age 35.  

Image from http://www.cambridgeweb.net/historical.html 

Cambridge has 99 parks, 140+ sports field and golf courses, over 365 ha of parkland, and 70+ km of urban and nature trails.

Image from Cambridge Recreation Centres

Rob Ducey was born and raised in Cambridge. He was the first baseball player from Ontario to go play for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Image from Blue Jay Hunter by Ian Hunter

The Cambridge farmers market is the third oldest in the country. All the vendors come from within a 100 km radius. The market has a variety of fruits, vegetables, cheese, baked goods and more (yummy). Recently, Cambridge farmer’s market was rated in the top 10 of markets in the country by Best Health magazine.

Image from Healthy Choice Wellness Blog

Cambridge’s location is great for businesses. It is ideal for trade and marketing across North America. Cambridge is apart of the industrial centre.

Image from cambridge.ca

In 1784, Galt was included in an area that was granted to the Six Nation Indians by the British Crown. A first nations land developer, William Dickson named the area Galt after a Scottish novelist and the Commissioner of the Canada company, John Galt. Galt covers the largest portion of Cambridge on the southern side. It was once the largest town in this area before Kitchener.

Image from kings highway.ca

Preston was once identified as “sleepy German town”. This was due to the fact that Preston began in the 1800s when German speaking Mennonites from Pennsylvania wanted to acquire the land. John Erb and his family were one of the first settlers to arrive. HIs family started sawmills and gristmills along the banks of the river. This attracted many artisans, tradesmen and craftsmen. Significantly, the mills also attracted young German immigrants who just arrived in North America.

Image from Virtual Reference Library 

Blairs name was given to the village around 1858 in honour of Adam Johnston Fergusson-Blair. He was the judge of the first Wellington District and colonel in the local militia.

Image from Waterloo Region Museum

Preston and Blair are located on the western side of Cambridge.

Before the name Hespeler, the town was once named New Hope until Mr. Hespeler bought the land. Hespeler is higher up in the eastern part of Cambridge. Hespeler successfully attracted new businesses after World War II but the population somehow stayed the same.

Image from Canada Rail

Information retrieved from:
http://www.cambridge.ca
http://www.visitcambridgeontario.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge,_Ontario