Using Content, Links and Social Media to Improve Your Site’s SEO

Search engine optimization is the process of attempting to improve a website ranking for one or more keywords. The underlying goal is typically to drive greater numbers of targeted traffic to the website, usually with the hope that a certain percentage of that audience will take one or more desired actions. The search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, are designed to return search results that are most useful to searchers, but with an understanding of how the process works, there is a great Continue reading →

Five Simple Tips to Create More Compelling Instagram Photos

With more than 55 million photos posted on Instagram each day, it can be difficult to rise above the clutter. Are your photos getting noticed? Are they helping your brand reach its objectives? If not, there are several things you can do to improve the situation. 1) Take lots of photos and select the best ones. This will help your photography in two very important ways: First, the more shots you take of a given subject, the better your chance of getting that perfect expression, Continue reading →

Is Social Media Doing Your Business More Harm than Good?

Have you heard the experts saying that if you’re not using to social media to help your business, the very existence of your business is at risk? Well, here’s a twist. If you’re making sacrifices in any of the core areas of your business to experiment blindly with Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram — social media may actually be more of a problem than a solution. The truth is that most businesses have explored one or more social media platforms, but most have not achieved Continue reading →

The Five Reasons Social Media Won’t Work For Your Restaurant

Social media won’t save your restaurant from its woes. Social media won’t drive customers through your doors, it won’t cause people to say good things about your food, and it won’t make your chef a household name. I know this is not what you want to hear, but I’m going to tell it to you anyway. There are five reasons why social media will not work for your restaurant: Your Food — Your restaurant is not consistently providing menu items that meet or exceed the Continue reading →

Alex Miranda Helps Westchester Community Build Website Audiences with WordPress & SEO

“The purpose of each sentence in a blog is to get the reader to read the next sentence.” I’ve spent quite a bit of time analyzing that sentence over the past two days, and I find it quite profound. You see, with so many social media platforms and so many streams of information coming at us every day, it’s easy to forget our what our goals are. Sometimes they can be summed up in a single sentence, and we just need to remember to keep them Continue reading →

Westchester Social Media to Shift Focus Toward Non-Expert Social Media Users

Just because you’ve always done something a certain way, does not mean you need to continue doing it that way forever.  On my way in to work this morning, I was thinking about the Westchester Social Media community I’ve been managing for the past couple of years through this website and the Westchester Social Media Facebook page. Using the Dragon Dictation app on my iPhone (hands free, of course) I “wrote” this short blog to outline some subtle changes coming to the Westchester Social Media Continue reading →

Food Photography More Important than Ever Because of Social Media — Q&A With Brannon Conza

It is a well-known fact that one of the most effective ways to increase engagement on social media platforms is through the use of quality photographs. And what better way for a restaurant to show off its offerings than through the use of photography? We’re seeing a surge in the number of Westchester restaurants participating in social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and events such as Hudson Valley Restaurant Week and the Westchester Magazine Wine and Food Weekend has only fueled the interest. Continue reading →

The Time is Now for Westchester Food Businesses to Take Their Social Media Efforts to the Next Level

There has never been a better time for a Westchester food business to ramp up its involvement in social media to take advantage of all the free online opportunities that currently exist. If your restaurant, bar or other food-related business is already involved with social media, now is the time to take things to the next level. If you have been sitting on the sidelines for the past couple of years, this is the perfect opportunity to throw your chef’s hat in the ring and Continue reading →

Yorktown Reporter Brian Howard Named Social Media Editor at LoHud.com

WSM has learned that Brian Howard will take over the newly created position of Social Media Editor for LoHud.com and The Journal News. Howard, who has worked at LoHud for 12 years, has served as Yorktown Reporter since 2006. “We’ve had a social media presence, but (now) a commitment has been made to have someone managing the organization’s social media all the time,” said Howard. “It (social media) can no longer be secondary — it’s a full-time job.” Howard will begin his position Monday, March Continue reading →

Westchester Restaurants, Food Businesses Ready to Take Social Media to the Next Level

More than two years ago, I wrote a column on TwitterProfessor.com about the seemingly small number of Westchester-area restaurants that were using social media to promote their business objectives. At the time, I was only able to find 10 Westchester restaurants that were using Twitter with any degree of consistency, and my recollection is that not many were using Facebook. Last week, I attended the launch of the Hudson Valley Food & Beverage Alliance at the Culinary Institute of America’s Hyde Park campus. The event Continue reading →