Pump Up Your Digital Footprint: NCI Launches HealthFIT Sherpa, A Social Media Marketing Solution

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On the heels of successful roll-outs of DesignSherpa in the design market and CommunitySherpa in the apartment community market, Network Communications Inc. (NCI), a leading publisher and provider of online media services to local businesses across the U.S., announces a new turn-key social media program to improve search results, increase referrals, enhance client retention and deliver measurable results for health and fitness businesses. HealthfitSherpa advances NCI?s commitment to leveraging social media tools to deliver fresh and interesting web content and increase a company?s bottom line.

?Social media marketing requires expertise, management and focus. NCI has successfully created over 1,000 social media programs for local businesses in a variety of industries. HealthfitSherpa will now serve the health and fitness industry, which has natural communities ideal for this type of client and community engagement.?

As an extension of NCI?s Digital Sherpa business unit, HealthfitSherpa is a fixed-cost monthly subscription service for health, fitness, beauty, wellness, medical/cosmetic, spa, nutrition & diet, and related businesses. Businesses receive a custom-branded blog, Facebook and Twitter presence, content-creation, network administration support, as well as detailed reporting and analytics.

Dan McCarthy, NCI?s chairman and CEO, an early adopter of social media in marketing, says, ?We believe that the core of a powerful social media program is content. But we also recognize the challenges that the social web presents for many small to mid-size businesses. They clearly understand the importance of adopting a social media strategy for their business, but the idea of creating a blog or social identities across multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter and for their communities is daunting. At NCI, we have taken our content-driven process and skills that are already in place for our more than 25,000 customers, and have developed a way to help them execute their social media marketing?simply, affordably and effectively.?

Bill Pryor, business development director for HealthfitSherpa, notes: ?Social media marketing requires expertise, management and focus. NCI has successfully created over 1,000 social media programs for local businesses in a variety of industries. HealthfitSherpa will now serve the health and fitness industry, which has natural communities ideal for this type of client and community engagement.?

To find out more about HealthfitSherpa, visit http://www.healthfit-sherpa.com. To better understand NCI?s approach to social media marketing and to gain additional perspective, you can also visit Dan McCarthy?s personal blog, ViralHousingFix.com, where he shares some foundation principles and observations.

About Network Communications, Inc.

Network Communications, Inc. is a leader and innovator in the design and development of social media marketing programs for local businesses. Social media service groups include Community Sherpa, Digital Sherpa, Design Sherpa and Broker Sherpa. NCI is also the leading publisher of printed and online real estate information in North America. The company was acquired by Court Square Capital Partners in January of 2005. Its magazines are read by over 12 million readers in over 500 markets and deliver more than one million leads to advertisers each month.

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