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Pinterest Marketing Tips

 

Pinterest can be a great way to expand your social media presence and market your products. Make sure you are using the Pinterest business account (you can easily convert your account if you need too).  Promote your products using a theme. Think of something that can be categorized, weather its colors, designs, materials, ingredients, or whatever is relevant to your company. For example, say you own a furniture store. You could create different boards around the colors of different rooms.  The goal is to make your boards visually appealing. Make sure to label your boards creatively, while also calling attention to the organization.  This will also help your search engine optimization, If you organize by colors, make sure to put that keyword (color) in the board title, board description, and pin description.

Do your research. Check out the Pinterest boards of big companies in your industry to get ideas. Invite people to pin on your boards, and do your best to gain an audience. Be sure to specify the category of your board under the “edit board” option.

Emphasize your most popular products. Create a popular products board to show your audience what is selling! Pin the images and be sure to include a description of the product. You should also add the price! Tell users how they can get the product. Be sure to link the image back to your company website, or include directions in the description of how to get in touch with you. Keep the board updated and current. Remove products that have fallen in rank or are no longer available.

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Small Business Marketing On Pinterest

If your not sure exactly how to use Pinterest for your business, check out these quick tips to get started!

First off, make sure you are using the Pinterest business account (you can easily convert your account if you need too). Promote your products using a theme. Think of something that can be categorized, weather its colors, designs, materials, ingredients, or whatever is relevant to your company. For example, say you own a furniture store. You could create different boards around the colors of different rooms. The goal is to make your boards visually appealing. Make sure to label your boards creatively, while also calling attention to the organization. This will also help your search engine optimization, If you organize by colors, make sure to put that keyword (color) in the board title, board description, and pin description. Emphasize your most popular products. Create a popular products board to show your audience what is selling! Pin the images and be sure to include a description of the product. You should also add the price! Tell users how they can get the product. Be sure to link the image back to your company website, or include directions in the description of how to get in touch with you. Keep the board updated and current. Remove products that have fallen in rank or are no longer available. Do your research. Check out the Pinterest boards of big companies in your industry to get ideas. Invite people to pin on your boards, and do your best to gain an audience. Be sure to specify the category of your board under the “edit board” option.

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Retweet With Class

As a small business, one benefit to using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms is the ability to connect with your audience in an informal environment.However as a business, it is just as important to remain professional on social media. There are a few simple rules that should be followed when it comes to social media.

Be polite on Twitter.

When you are re-tweeting, credit your source. Twitter’s 140-character limit makes this a little bit challenging, but crediting the author and/or source with a simple ‘@username’ can go a long way. Let’s say you tweeted out a personal thought or opinion about a hockey game. If one of your Twitter followers agreed with you, it is likely they would simply retweet your original thought. Now, wouldn’t you want to be informed that someone supported your thought enough to retweet it?

Give shout outs when your blogging.

When you are blogging, simply include an “article source: (insert original article link) at the end of your post. This lets readers know where the information came from, and it gives credit to the original author.

The beauty of the Internet comes from access to information. In the same sense, the beauty of social media is the added ease and convenience of sharing that information. If we continue to share, and share politely, the social media world will continue to grow and develop in the big-hearted and giving way that it has already.

The Takeaway: Give credit where credit is due.

Article Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/1503106/social-media-etiquette-101-attribution

 

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Are You Paying Attention To Social Media Etiquette?

Social Media is one of the easiest and fastest ways to connect with your audience.However as a business, it is just as important to remain professional when engaging on social media. There are a few simple rules that should be followed:

Is your blogging content original?

When you are blogging, simply include an “article source: (insert original article link) at the end of your post. This lets readers know where the information came from, and it gives credit to the original author.

Use ‘@username’ on Twitter.

When you are re-tweeting, credit your source. Twitter’s 140-character limit makes this a little bit challenging, but crediting the author and/or source with a simple ‘@username’ can go a long way. Let’s say you tweeted out a personal thought or opinion about a hockey game. If one of your Twitter followers agreed with you, it is likely they would simply retweet your original thought. Now, wouldn’t you want to be informed that someone supported your thought enough to retweet it?

The beauty of the Internet comes from access to information. In the same sense, the beauty of social media is the added ease and convenience to share that information. If we continue to share, and share politely, the social media world will continue to grow and develop in the big-hearted and giving way that it has already.

Article Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/1503106/social-media-etiquette-101-attribution

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Stay Current With Your Social Media Strategy

You should be regularly evaluating how your audience is reacting to your social media presence. If you are constantly up to date on your social media progress, you will find it easier to identify your strengths and weaknesses and ultimately improve your social media presence!

  1. Are your friends and followers increasing? It is very important to remember that an increase in friends and followers does not mean that profits will immediately increase too. An increase in friends and followers does mean you are doing something to attract attention, which is a good thing! If the number is decreasing, it is definitely time to change your strategy. You may be sharing content that is not relevant to your audience.
  2. Monitor the engagement of your followers. Are your posts and pictures getting comments and likes? Are tweets getting re-tweeted? Do your events have a significant following of people that will ‘attend’? These numbers can be monitored very easily. Make sure to be aware of them. You can also apply various tools (like Google Analytics) to receive deeper insights. Pay attention to which posts and pictures seem to be the most popular – and ask yourself why.
  3. Analyze what is working for your audience.  If you are seeing an increase in sales, consider what it is on social media that could have been responsible for the spike. In other words, what is your audience responding too? Was it a promotional discount or the free shipping option?

Evaluating the strategy on a regular basis is crucial. Remember to stay current!

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How Do You Evaluate Your Social Media Strategy?

Evaluating the effectiveness of your social media strategy is just as important as the strategy itself. Many small business owners forget about this part – don’t let that be you!

  1. Are your friends and followers increasing? It is very important to remember that an increase in friends and followers does not mean that profits will immediately increase too. An increase in friends and followers does mean you are doing something to attract attention, which is a good thing! If the number is decreasing, it is definitely time to change your strategy. You may be sharing content that is not relevant to your audience.
  2. Monitor the engagement of your followers. Are your posts and pictures getting comments and likes? Are tweets getting re-tweeted? Do your events have a significant following of people that will ‘attend’? These numbers can be monitored very easily. Make sure to be aware of them. You can also apply various tools (like Google Analytics) to receive deeper insights. Pay attention to which posts and pictures seem to be the most popular – and ask yourself why.
  3. Analyze what is working for your audience.  If you are seeing an increase in sales, consider what it is on social media that could have been responsible for the spike. In other words, what is your audience responding too? Was it a promotional discount or the free shipping option?

The takeaway: you should be regularly evaluating how your audience is reacting to your social media presence. If you are constantly up to date on your social media progress, you will find it easier to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

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Why Google AdWords Works

Using a variety of marketing platforms can compliment your marketing strategy.. If PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is one of the platforms you are considering, you’ve probably contemplated Google Adwords.  There are a few elements that make Google AdWords worthwhile.

With Google Adwords, your campaigns are completely customizable. You can target your campaigns to reach the audiences you want too. You have the ability to narrow your audience by the time of day, location, and device type (after all, there is no point in your ads reaching those in England if you are promoting a weight loss seminar in Colorado).

One of the clear benefits to online marketing is that your results are measurable. As a marketer, one of your biggest priorities is determining if your campaigns are working and returning ROI. PPC Advertising through Google Adwords is one of the most measurable online mediums. Adwords provides a variety of metrics that allow you to evaluate what is working and what is not.

By using the right resources in AdWords you can see results immediately. You can monitor the clicks and impressions. In doing so, you can determine if your keywords are working. If you are not seeing the results you want after a certain amount of time, changing or adding key words is simple.

Once you have established your PPC campaign is working, there is not a huge amount of maintenance thereafter (although you should always be monitoring the campaigns and results).

It is no secret that visually appealing ads get results. Google AdWords provides new ad formats, so you have options to differentiate your ads – ad extensions are a great resource as well!!

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Why Use Google AdWords?

Using a combination of marketing platforms is healthy for your business. If PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is one of the platforms you are considering, you’ve probably contemplated Google Adwords.  There are a few elements that make Google AdWords worthwhile.

One of the clear benefits to online marketing is that your results are measurable. As a marketer, one of your biggest priorities is determining if your campaigns are working and returning ROI. PPC Advertising through Google Adwords is one of the most measurable online mediums. Adwords provides a variety of metrics that allow you to evaluate what is working and what is not.

With Google Adwords, your campaigns are completely customizable. You can target your campaigns to reach the audiences you want too. You have the ability to narrow your audience by the time of day, location, and device type (after all, there is no point in your ads reaching those in England if you are promoting a weight loss seminar in Colorado).

By using the right resources in AdWords you can see results immediately. You can monitor the clicks and impressions. In doing so, you can determine if your keywords are working. If you are not seeing the results you want after a certain amount of time, changing or adding key words is simple.

Once you have established your PPC campaign is working, there is not a huge amount of maintenance thereafter (although you should always be monitoring the campaigns and results).

It is no secret that visually appealing ads get results. Google AdWords provides new ad formats, so you have options to differentiate your ads (consider using ad extensions as well)!

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Is Your Facebook Contest Special?

Any company can give out free gift cards or electronics, so that really is not enough to hold the attention of social media users anymore. What is taking your contest to the next level? If you are running a contest, you must make sure your contest stands out among the rest. Here’s how:

Do your users have a reason to keep coming back to your page? Include your fans and contest participants in every possible step of the contest. Brands often do this by allowing the fans to vote on a winner, respond to a question, or  answer a poll. Get creative here and choose what seems most relevant to your brand and product.

Consumers are constantly interacting with social media on their mobile phones. This means it is vital to take advantage of location. Urge users to check-in on social media when they are interacting with your company’s physical location. Offer some sort of incentive such as a discount, a charitable donation, a few points in a contest, etc.  Getting social media users to check in not only allows you to generate more traffic, but also creates a deeper user interaction (physical and digital).

Would other social media platforms be appropriate for your contest? Your contest may be Facebook based, but ask yourself if the nature of your contest could be enhance on other platforms. For example, say you are the marketer for a line of gluten-free butter and your Facebook contest asked users to post pictures and recipes of things they made with your butter. In this case, it would make sense to start a Pinterest board, displaying the recipes.  Using more than one social media platform can allow you to reach a larger audience. The key here is to make sure your second social media platform is relevant to your contest.

The whole concept behind Facebook contests is to increase consumer brand interaction. Remember that anybody can make a Facebook contest, but your goal is to expand that user interaction as far as possible. Think of ways to take your contests to other social media platforms, physical locations, and beyond.

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What Makes Your Facebook Contest Different?

Holding contests and campaigns on social media is more popular than ever, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. Any company can give out free gift cards or electronics, so that really is not enough to hold the attention of social media users anymore. What is taking your contest to the next level? If you are running a contest, you must make sure your contest stands out among the rest. Here’s how:

As we know, consumers are constantly interacting with social media on their mobile phones. This means it is vital to take advantage of location. Urge users to check-in on social media when they are interacting with your company’s physical location. Offer some sort of incentive such as a discount, a charitable donation, a few points in a contest, etc. Getting social media users to check in not only allows you to generate more traffic, but also creates a deeper user interaction (physical and digital).

Do your users have a reason to keep coming back to your page? Include your fans and contest participants in every possible step of the contest. Brands often do this by allowing the fans to vote on a winner, respond to a question, or  answer a poll. Get creative here and choose what seems most relevant to your brand and product.

Although your contest is Facebook based, ask yourself if other social media platforms would enhance your contest. For example, say you are the marketer for a line of gluten-free butter and your Facebook contest asked users to post pictures and recipes of things they made with your butter. In this case, it would make sense to start a Pinterest board, displaying the recipes.  Using more than one social media platform can allow you to reach a larger audience. The key here is to make sure your second social media platform is relevant to your contest.

The general goal of Facebook contests is to allow users to interact with your brand. Anybody can make a Facebook contest, but your goal is to expand that user interaction as far as possible. Think of ways to take your contests to other social media platforms, physical locations, and beyond.

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