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The Power of Pinterest for Small Businesses

Pinterest

Savvy small business owners have long discovered the benefits of social media. In the hopes of maintaining an online presence, they have created an account in virtually every social platform there is. Now, the thought of using yet another social network seems time consuming and daunting. But if you want to make your company’s presence felt, then you need to stay up-to-date on the world of social media.

There are a number of reasons why small business owners should be interested in Pinterest. Here are some of them.

A whole new audience

Today, there are only 500,000 business accounts on Pinterest as compared to 25 million business pages in Facebook. If you already have a Facebook page and you want to extend your reach to a whole new audience, Pinterest can help you with that.

Since users only see posts that are focused on the categories that they’re interested in, there’s a good chance that your audience in Pinterest aren’t the same people who are following you on Facebook or Twitter.

Drive traffic to your website

Recent study shows that Pinterest is more effective in driving website traffic as compared to Google +, Youtube and Twitter combined. It is a great tool for increasing links back to your site. If you rely on your website to fuel sales and marketing, then you should include Pinterest in your marketing plan.

It’s a great spot to advertise

Businesses from all over the world are using Pinterest to market their products and services. Since Pinterest is such a viral, sharing community, this is also a great place to promote special deals and discounts. The key is to create a visually appealing image. Pin a colourful and chic-looking coupon, and include details on the caption. The more captivating your pin is, the more likely will it appeal to your audience.

It is growing

Pinterest is becoming more and more popular. In fact, the photo and video sharing site has more than 25 million members and gets 2.5 billion page views every month. It wouldn’t hurt to jump on the bandwagon.

 

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Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business

BIMS_12.29Over the years, I have seen a lot of business owners who have accounts on almost every social networking site. While there’s no harm in maintaining a number of social media accounts, you may notice that you’re not getting the results you want either.

Because it takes time to do social right, it may be best not to be on certain social networks. How do you decide which platforms are best for your needs? Here are some important criteria to consider that will help you determine which channel is right for your business.

Your target audience

Social media activity varies by age, geographic location, profession and more. Once you have identified your target audience, the next step is to determine where they spend most of their time online. What’s the point of maintaining an Instagram or Pinterest account if your target audience are not there? That would be a waste of time and resources.

Your goal

People who have clear, measurable goals are 50% more likely to achieve their desired results as compared to those people without goals. Without a clear idea of what you want to achieve, your program may not reach its full potential.

Attract new customers, increase engagement with current customers, drive website traffic and increased conversions are just some of the possible goals for your social media program.

Your budget

Budget is a major concern for small to medium-sized businesses. That said, you need to be very careful where you spend your marketing budget. For starters, a $100 budget could cover social media scheduling, advertising, graphics or photos, sharing buttons and analytics.

Metrics

In order to determine if you are achieving your goals, you need to follow up on your social media efforts. Constantly analyze your metrics to help you identify which social channel gives you favorable results.

 

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How Facebook Ads Can Grow Your Fan Page

fcebook ads

Increasing Facebook likes can be a tricky process. With the algorithm changes, Facebook page engagement decreased over time; thus, making it difficult for business owners and marketers to reach their fans.

Since Facebook is one of the biggest and most popular social networks, you should be looking for ways to increase the number of people who like your page. Advertising using Facebook ads is one of them.

Facebook ads are the easiest and most effective ways to increase your likes. If you don’t already have some good Facebook ads strategies, you better get started.

Ability to reach smartphone users

Facebook has about 1.20 billion active mobile users as of December 2014. That’s a lot of people, and the number of users is increasing over time. Because of that, mobile should be your priority. By advertising on Facebook, you’ll be able to reach your audience right at the palm of their hands.

Enhanced audience targeting

There are billions of people on Facebook. That said, you need to make sure that you use at least the most basic of targeting when you set up any ad on Facebook. Otherwise, you’ll end up advertising to the wrong people and waste money in the end.

Facebook advertising allows you to target a specific group of people based on their age, gender, geographical location, interests and more. This gives you the chance to be more precise in your audience targeting. Think about your ideal customer and what they’re interested in. Decide who you want to reach before creating an ad.

Heightened audience engagement

Before, you only needed to come up with great content and wait until you get all the likes you deserve, but all that has changed over the years. Now, you have to promote your content to ensure that your existing and potential customers see it in their newsfeeds.

Your primary goal is to capture the attention of your target audience and get them to engage with your posts. In addition to ads, you need to make sure that your content are interesting because users only see posts from pages they engage with. Build trust with your followers and get them to share, like or comment on your posts.

 

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