We are excited to announce the addition of menus to CityVoter. We have partnered with Locu, an awesome Cambridge and San Francisco-based startup to to give visitors instant access to your menus – the best advertisement there is!

You can access menus from nominee pages for restaurants and bars by clicking on the “menu” link underneath the nominee name. Menus are available on web as well as mobile. Check out some example menus and find something new to try!

About Locu

Locu is an online tool that’s both super easy to use and FREE. You can add and edit menus as well as easily publish them to your website, facebook page and mobile site and all of their partner sites. Now, any changes you make will automatically show up on CityVoter too.

Rheinlander Bakery is a German bakery in Arvada, Colorado that won the title of BEST Bakery on the Denver A-List and also has a large selection of sugar free, gluten free and dairy free pastries. This has helped them build a very loyal clientele that appreciates what the bakery caters for them.  They are Arvada’s oldest bakery and are looking forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary next year! They also specialize in traditional baked goods such as Strudels, and even have “Strudelfest” which is their fall celebration of everything strudel in conjunction with Oktoberfest.

During the contest, Rheinlander Bakery was one of the businesses that received the most mobile votes. Consumers are on their smart phones all day, every day and utilizing the QR posters from the Business Center is a great tool to increase votes and make customers aware of your nomination while at your business. The bakery strategically placed the posters by their two registers to easily bring attention to them while their customers were paying. They also placed a poster on their outside window so passerbys who walked by during afterhours could also vote by simply scanning the window poster.

The bakery has placed in the top 5 in the past couple years, but really ramped up their campaigning this year to grab the number one spot. If a customer was not familiar with the A-List, they educated their customer on it and encouraged them to vote via the poster in the bakery. For those less tech savvy customers, employees were readily available and willing to help them download QR readers for their smartphones.

Not only was the bakery fully engaged during the contest, but they also ran a promotion after they won. Their “Taste of Rheinlander” event is a week long event that runs through this Saturday (September 22) to celebrate their win on the Denver A-List. They also are spreading the word about the bakery’s A-List win by including advertising on their boxes, which helps to bring attention to their win for customers who may not be as familiar with the contest.

Have you used mobile voting to help promote your A-List nomination? Let us know in the comments!

We know that mobile advertising can be a bit like a bad summer movie – over-hyped and unfulfilling (watch Expendables 2 and you’ll see what I mean). If you’ve tried mobile advertising in the past, the experience probably left you disappointed and a little surprised; most people pay a bunch of money for some clicks, their ad budgets vanish, and the promised customers never materialize…such is the business of buying accidental clicks and untrackable impressions.

Want some tips for writing a great mobile ad:

Keep it short and keep it simple! Mobile customers are on the move and have very little time – and we all know that customers these days have tiny attention spans. Here are some examples of ads from businesses, like yourselves, that have seen great results on AdLeads.  With mobile ad copy, less is much, much more.

What is AdLeads:

AdLeads and CityVoter want to provide all CityVoter businesses a special offer on a new way to run mobile ads and attract new local customers. It is a simple and intuitive self-serve platform that allows you to advertise on top mobile apps, like Pandora.  U.S. and Canadian-based businesses can target ads to specific metro areas, cities, states or the whole country to ensure getting the right customers for your business. Smartphone users who are interested in hearing from you will sign-up by providing their contact information – email address and zip code.  It is a great way to acquire new customers and communicate with them.

Check out what businesses are saying about AdLeads:

“AdLeads allows us to connect with patrons who are most likely to visit our restaurant time and again.” – David Liatti, Owner, 61 Local Restaurant, Brooklyn, NY

Christina Stembel, Founder, Farmgirl Flowers, San Francisco, CA says, “AdLeads is a great way to attract potential new customers, and set-up was super quick and easy.”

Get Started:

We are offering $75 in free mobile ad credit to CityVoter businesses redeemable right here. You’ll then receive an email with a confirmation link – click on the confirmation link to create your account, sign-in and create your campaign.

This is a guest post by Hayden Simmons, the head of business development at Pontiflex. If you have any questions about mobile advertising with AdLeads, he can be reached at haydens@pontiflex.com.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Adding the “Vote For Us” Tab to your Facebook Fan Page

Features

The “Vote For Us” Tab features prominent contest branding, up-to-the-minute stats, and a large photo that you can choose in the Business Center. In addition, the Tab will showcase past awards, recent votes and any Voter Deals that you are offering.

Voting

When voting is happening, direct Facebook Fans to your Tab for an easy way to campaign. Voters will see the giant “Vote For Us” button and know what you want them to do. It’s a great way to campaign and will help drive likes to your Fan Page.

Awards

After the Contest is over, the “Vote For Us” Tab will thank your voters and promote any awards that you have won.

Adding the “Vote For Us” Tab

To add the tab, log in to the Business Center and head to the Facebook section. Or, for step-by-step instructions, refer to this article.

Have you added the “Vote For Us” Tab? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Sometimes the power of social media amazes me. I was looking for a winning business from the Boston A-List that is active on Instagram to feature in this month’s newsletter. I tweeted and posted to Facebook asking if any businesses on the A-List have Instagram, and what do you know? More than one winner responded, and they all do such a fabulous job and I decided to profile not one, but two businesses this month.

The first business is Jennifer Phelan Pilates, winner of BEST Pilates on the 2012 Boston A-List. The owner, Jennifer, is clearly very engaged in social media as she responded to both the A-List’s tweet and Facebook post. When I asked her why she uses Instagram for her business, she had some great insight.

“I am no different than my students. I know how hard it is to work all day and struggle to find the energy to make time for you. But I believe that every person with the desire to achieve a balance between physical fitness and mind/body connection is capable of doing so. My goal is to be your motivation.” 

Her Instagram feed (JPPilates) certainly provides motivation for her students and followers. Not only does she post Pilates-related pictures, but she also shares pictures that give a peak into her life and lifestyle. Her photos are varied and include workout clothes, healthy food, her adorable dog, life around Boston, and last but certainly not list her Boston A-List Winner’s Certificate! Jennifer Phelan Pilates has only been on Instagram for several months, but she can already tell that it is going to be a prominent social media effort as it allows her fans and followers to become closer into her life.

Blue Tierra Chocolate Café is the winner of BEST Chocolatier for the second year in a row. While the chocolate cafe has only been on Instagram for a week (bluetierrachocolate), they already have an array of mouthwatering photos. They do a great job of giving Instagrammers an inside look into their business with pictures of chocolate making including the different phases from something simple such as cooking bacon or nuts to the delicious end product. The owner, Jen, can already see the impact that Instagram has on her business. Customers will come into the store requesting products that they saw posted merely hours before.

Jen shared some insight as to why Blue Tierra Chocolate Café uses Instagram, “They say you eat with your eyes before your mouth and this is very true, which makes Instagram the perfect platform for us to promote our products.” Also, as a small business owner, Jen doesn’t have a great deal of time to focus on her social media efforts. Instagram is the perfect tool as it is easy to use and share across social networks which helps her reach consumers quickly and efficiently.

Do you use Instagram for your small business? Let us know your username and some of your best practices in the comments!

Back in February I wrote a post about tips for Instagram for your small business. While this information is still relevant, I thought it is important to revisit the social network now that it is available for both the iPhone and Android, and is more widely used by businesses.

One of the most useful tools to engage with your customers on Instagram, aside from uploading pictures that tell a story about your business, is to utilize the geotagging feature. This is the easiest way to find out what pictures Instagrammers are taking at your business.

The directions below outline how to find out what pictures have been tagged at your business:

• Take a picture and click on “Enable Geotag”
• Click on “Geotag location” and search for your business- Your business needs to be listed on Foursquare for this to work
• Once the photo is posted, click on your business name highlighted in blue above the picture
• Voila! All images tagged at your location will appear

Once you discover users who have tagged pictures at your business, reach out to them! Like their photo, comment on it or even ask if you can share it on your networks. Instagram is a way to connect with customers who you may not have had a chance to before. The great part about this is you can be proactive and engage customers who you know already love your business and forge a deeper connection by interacting with them in the comments section on Instagram. Your customers will appreciate your acknowledgement of their photo especially if you provide positive feedback.

Do you engage with Instagrammers who tag pictures at your business? Let us know in the comments!

This month we are taking a step back from profiling how a winning business promoted their nomination during our contest, and instead we’re profiling a few winning businesses that also have a winning presence on Facebook.

The award for BEST Jazz Club on the Detroit A-List this year went to Cliff Bells. Not only was this jazz club voted #1 on the A-List, but it also has a large Facebook following with over 7,700 fans.  What makes Cliff Bells’ Facebook page so great is that they create diverse and interesting posts that are usually image based. They recently conducted a countdown on Facebook for the unveiling of their new lunch menu, which sparked a great deal of interest among their fans. They took pictures of their new lunch menu and let customers sound off on the new items in the comments. They also run exclusive offers on Facebook such as the week of July 1^st, if a fan mentioned the phrase “Got That Swing”, they would receive 25% off of lunch any day that week. They are clearly engaging their fans and encouraging them to come in during weekday lunch, which is usually a slower time for most restaurants. Posting promotions and specials on Facebook also increases the likelihood that a fan will come back to see what is new.

The winning business in the Women’s Boutique category in Detroit, Flirty Fashions, also does a good job with their social media efforts. They use their Facebook page as a medium to display new merchandise that will arrive soon or just came into the store. By posting pictures of items that are coming soon, they create anticipation and keep their store at the top of mind. Flirty Fashions also has an Instagram account and has a tab for their Instagram feed directly on Facebook. An additional way that they get fans to come revisit their page is by posting pictures from fashion magazines with their opinions on the fashion trends. It is a great way for customers to stay up-to-date on the new trends that are arriving in store.

Just Baked, which was awarded BEST Bakery on the 2012 Detroit A-List also has a large following on Facebook with over 10,300 fans. Their posts are primarily image based and they posts pictures of decorative special order cakes, cookies and cupcakes, which shows off the skill and creativity that this bakery has. They also use Facebook as a platform to promote new products in their bakery like their recently added BIG cookies. They run exclusive promotions on Facebook to garner additional likes and even incorporated a contest on YouTube to increase engagement and offer a free dozen cupcakes. The contest is fun as the video submissions are for the best way to eat a Just Baked cupcake, and gives customers another reason to stop by one of their stores and pick one (or a dozen) up.

What are your best practices on Facebook? Let us know in the comments!

Like if. This kind of post works best if your main goal is to acquire as many likes as you can on a single post. We use it to announce the beginning of a contest or to increase excitement for winner’s announcements. It is a great way to get a quick response from your fans.

Questions. Instead of just posting a general status update, ask a question. This encourages fans to respond instead of just reading the status and moving on. It is also a good tool when posting an article or a photo as a fan is more likely to share their opinion.

Fill in the Blank. We typically ask questions on our Facebook pages to try and get engagement, but recently we created several fill in the blank posts and had a great response. Instead of asking, “Which category is your favorite to vote in?”, we created the post below. They essentially say the same thing, but the fill in the blank style is more eye catching and isn’t something that shows up on a fan’s news feed often. It is also a great way to get users engaged by giving them a chance to express their opinion in a quick response format, and it certainly does encourage more comments than likes.

Images. Calling all restaurants and stores! Nothing works better than posting a photo with a status update for businesses with visually appealing products. Instead of just posting about today’s special at the restaurant, take a picture of it. New merchandise came in that you are excited about? Get your customers to become equally as excited by sharing pictures of the merchandise with them. If you want to switch up the images you are sharing and help forge a deeper connection with your customers, take a behind the scenes picture to give an inside look at your business. Even though Pinterest and Instagram are known as image-centric marketing tools, Facebook can be a great resource as well. Check out this image post from WGBH about the Boston A-List.

Different types of posts work for some businesses while others don’t. Even across our Facebook pages, each city is different in regards to what type of posts elicit more of a response. In order to know posts work best for your business, you will need to do some trial and error to get a feel for your fans and what types of Facebook promotion they respond best to.

What type of posts work best for your business’ Facebook page? Let us know in the comments!

Uptown Dog Cape Cod was very engaged throughout the whole contest, and was active about their nomination on Facebook. They created a Voter Deal in contest and promoted it on their social networks. While Voter Deals are a great incentive to get your customers to vote, it’s also great to see a business reward their customers after they have already won. They created a post that displayed their winner’s certificate and thanked everyone for voting for them with a special “Celebratory Sale”. The limited time sale was a great way to get their customers reengaged after the contest was over and to show appreciation of their support.

On a side note, we couldn’t help but notice that Uptown Dog Cape Cod has a Doggie Birthday Club. If you/your pet becomes a member of this club, your furry friend will receive a special birthday treat during their birthday month! CityVoter is a pet friendly office and we love dogs, so it is always great to see businesses that celebrate dogs as well.

How do you celebrate your success after the contests? Let us know in the comments!

Want to share to Pinterest the easy way? Use Shareaholic for Pinterest!

In the world of blogging, a lot of recent attention has been paid to Google + and Search Plus – Google’s effort to integrate Google + into search results. But with all the hoopla over Google +, content marketers can’t forget about Pinterest, a new kid in town that’s driving traffic and taking names. In fact, Experian’s Hitwise report  just listed Pinterest as the #7 social network, beating out Google+ for share of visits.

Pinterest is a site where you can organize and share images that you find interesting. Images shared on Pinterest are known as pins. Users arrange their pins on boards, customized collections of the pins that often have themes. From wedding inspiration ideas to favorite recipes, you can create a board to collect ideas and images for just about anything.

Pinterest is still invite-only, but if you know any Pinners (chances are you do!) you can snag an invite from them.

You can now add Pinterest as a sharing option on your Shareaholic social media toolset. If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll want to edit your settings on the Shareaholic Bookmarks plugin in your WordPress dashboard. We also recently launched Shareaholic’s Pinterest Extension for Chrome. This means that with a simple Chrome extension, you can collect your favorite findings into a Pinterest Board. If you’re not a Chrome user, you can login to your Shareaholic account and add Pinterest as a service for your current Shareaholic plugin.

The Basics of “Pinning”

To get started with Pinterest, created an account on Pinterest.com. Next, add Shareaholic’s Pinterest Extension for Chrome or add it as a service to your Shareaholic browser plugin. Next time to see a photo you love, click on your Pinterest icon in your browser.

Next, select the image you want to Pin, create a new board, and pin the image to your board.

Continue collecting your favorite images to your board until your digital collage is complete. You can use photos you find from individual websites. Or, you can follow other users with similar interests and “re-pin” the images they post. Doing the later is a great way to create relationships with your blog’s target audience.

How to Use Pinterest for Content Marketing

Like just about any social network, your involvement will come off as much more genuine if you participate first. It may seem like fluffy advice to promote others before you promote yourself. However, few brands have such strong positioning that they will generate a following just by showing up to a new social network. Participating first is how you establish your presence. 

So, if you run a recipe blog, participate by pinning photos of delicious meals shared by others. If your blog is about interior design, show off your taste and curate photos of great design by collecting those shared by others first. Admittedly, because of the visual nature of Pinterest, it naturally lends itself to lifestyle blogs. However, B2B companies or business-oriented personal blogs can drive traffic to their content if their willing to get creative.

• Curate infographics relevant to your industry.
• Collect charts to share statistics for your industry.
• Create more visual content for your followers to share: Don’t list your tips – put them on a visually-appealing slide with a short phrase.
• Include a photo with each blog post – give your readers something to pin.