Let’s look at some numbers:

It’s been around for two years. But in the last few months, interest in Pinterest, the social media site that lets you “pin” images onto a virtual corkboard, is off the charts.

Before you start groaning because it’s one more program to learn, check out these stats:

–From December 2011 to January 2012, unique visitors to Pinterest.com increased by 155 percent.

–More than one in four users earns more than $100,000 a year.

–The site registered more than 7 million unique visitors in December, up from 1.6 million in September.

–It’s pulling more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined, according to one study.

–Research shows that many people are spending more time “pinning” than they are connecting with their friends on the almighty Facebook.

Why should businesses pay attention to Pinterest?

By putting the “Pin It” button on your pages, all of your pins will include a link back to the source, such as your website or blog, a great way to revive interest in old content.

–You can connect Pinterest to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, which means you don’t initially need a huge number of followers on Pinterest to start picking up steam.

–You can create boards around topics that tie into your products and services, being careful not to overtly promote.

–Users admit that Pinterest is absolutely addictive. That’s because, unlike other social media sites, it’s filled with millions of colorful, captivating photos and a clean design that pulls you in.

In case you’ve been living in a mountain cave in Bhutan for the past couple of months, Pinterest is a relatively new social networking site that allows users to create online image collages, then quickly and easily share those collages — called “pinboards” — with other Pinterest users.

It’s fun, easy, and catching on like wildfire right now.

Part of Pinterest’s appeal is that it’s beautiful. Enter the lovely world of Pinterest, and all the troubles of your day-to-day life just seem to slip away in a stream of perfect little black dresses, baby otters, and cherubic children who never seem to get dirty or mouth off to their parents.

Because it’s image-based, the core of Pinterest is overwhelmingly positive. I like to think of Pinterest as Facebook without the whining.

Yes, Pinterest is beautiful. And yes, its users love it. But don’t let all the hearts and flowers fool you. Behind those lovely images, Pinterest is fast becoming a heavy hitting marketing tool for brands and businesses … like yours.

Let’s take a quick look at why this is, and then we’ll get into 56 specific Pinterest tactics you can use to your own marketing advantage.
What is Pinterest and why should I care?

Once you’ve got a Pinterest account, you can create online collages (“boards”) for different topics you’re interested in, and then add images and videos to your boards by “pinning” them (the equivalent of using glue sticks on old-school vision boards, but faster, slicker, and considerably cooler.)

Pinterest has nearly five million users, and is rapidly growing. Nearly 1.5 million unique users visit Pinterest daily, spending an average of 15 minutes a day on the site.

Think those inspiring vision boards don’t result in referral traffic to websites and blogs? Think again. In January 2012, Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and Youtube — combined.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how beginner, intermediate, and black-belt Pinterest users are using it to grow their businesses and connect with their customers using these appealing online collages.

Here are 56 powerful ways I’ve come up with to incorporate Pinterest into your content marketing mix …
Pinterest marketing for beginner pinners …

Make sure you feature your business name on your profile for maximum exposure. Use your business name as your username, or change your profile name to your business name after your profile is set up.
Add a paragraph about who you are and what you’re interested in to the “About” section on your Pinterest profile. It will show up right under your photo, and will be one way that users can find out more about you.
Connect your account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Not only will it help you gain followers, but making this connection adds social media icons under your profile picture that link to your Facebook and Twitter profiles.
Don’t forget to add your website URL in your profile, too!
Pin lots of stuff. Pin content steadily, instead of in huge bursts, to maximize your exposure and engagement.
Come up with creative and interesting board names. They get shared whenever you pin something, so make them enticing. But be creative — you need to keep your board names short. There isn’t a lot of room for long descriptive titles.
Tag other Pinterest users in your pins by using “@username” in your descriptions. Network with other professionals and vendors in your field by using this feature. Not many people are doing this yet, so it’s a great way to build your following and stand out.
Comment on other people’s pins. Just like with tagging, this feature hasn’t really caught on yet, so use it regularly to really engage with other users. Obviously, use the same good manners and common sense you would when commenting on a blog or other social media site.
“Like” other people’s pins to give a thumbs-up when you want to recognize great content.
Pin from lots of different sources, instead of just from one or two sites. Variety is important on Pinterest.
Mix pinning your own unique finds with doing lots of “repinning,” which is repeating someone else’s pin to your followers (just like a Retweet on Twitter). The person whose image you repin gets notified via email, and they also get a credit on your pin, which increases their following.
Feel free to pin your own blog posts, but don’t over-promote. Follow the usual etiquette rules of any other social media site, and don’t be the boorish one at the party who only talks about himself.
Pin videos! Pinterest has a special section just for pinned videos, and there are far fewer videos than images on Pinterest at this point, so use them to distinguish yourself. Any YouTube video is easy to pin.
When you pin an image, add a description under it. Be smart about these descriptions — a good description will stay with an image as it gets repinned all over the Pinterest world. If the image is something from your own site, definitely use your business name in the description.
After you pin a new image using the very handy Pinterest browser bookmarklet (a great tool in its own right,) use its built-in social media prompts to re-share your pin on Twitter and Facebook, too.
Use Pinterest’s embed option to publish pins as content in your blog posts and website pages. Note: As Pinterest is catching on, you may need to tell your users that they need to click on a Pinterest image to get to the original source. When I tried this last week, a reader wrote to me and asked, “Is there more to that Pin thing? Or is it just a pretty image?”
Get the Pinterest iPhone app, so you can repin on the go, pin from your camera and add a location to your pins so others can find your images.
Optimize your website content for Pinterest sharing (Part One): Use images in every single post you write, so your post can be shared on Pinterest. When you find yourself getting lazy about this, remember –- not using an image in your post means no one will pin it. And remember — the prettier the picture is, the more it will get pinned. The images that appeal to Pinterest members are powerful and emotive, so keep that in mind when choosing your pictures. That combination tends to work well for your blog readers, too.
Optimize your website content for Pinterest sharing (Part Two): Consider watermarking your images, or adding text to them. If you’re using your own images on Pinterest, one of the best ways to help your image stand out is by adding a clear description to the image itself, or adding a watermark with your business name. Make sure it’s clear, but that it doesn’t block out the main subject of the photo.
Create seasonal or holiday boards that relate to your brand. Example: New Year’s Resolutions, Fourth of July, etc. Users love these.
Add a prominent Follow Me on Pinterest button to your website to advertise that you’re a pinner!

Pinterest marketing for intermediate pinners …

Search for new images to pin (or for trends) by using Pinterest’s search function. The search bar is in the top left of every Pinterest page.
Use keywords in descriptions of pins, so pinners can find your images and boards when they do their own searches.
Make sure you’ve got a Pin It! button added to the footer of each of your blog posts so your readers can quickly and easily share your content on Pinterest.
Your Pinterest page has its own RSS feed! Find your Pinterest feed by clicking on the RSS symbol under your profile photo, then use it anywhere you can use a feed (Facebook, LinkedIn, for syndication on other sites, etc.) Advertise your Pinterest feed to your readers and ask them to add you to their RSS feedreaders.
Got a WordPress site? Feature your recent pins in a widget in your WordPress sidebar by using a Pinterest widget.
You can add contributors to any of your boards. Use this feature to engage your staff and let them contribute to your Pinterest presence by using adding to your company boards. Your staff will love this, and your boards will be richer for it!
Want to find out who’s been pinning your stuff? Go to: http://pinterest.com/source/yoursitehere. For an example, check out Copyblogger’s source page. Look at your site’s page often to discover which posts and images are resonating with Pinterest users. Use that information to shape your content strategy.
Add prices to your pins to create your own Pinterest shop. To add a price to a pin, type the $ or £ symbol followed by item’s price in the pin’s description. When you add prices to your pins, they may be featured in Pinterest’s “Gifts” section.
Create a board that tells the story of your company and communicates your core values. Make this board available to people as part of your sales process.
Consider creating “thank you” boards for current or past clients that send special appreciative messages. Could you create a holiday thank you card? Or one that celebrate the launch of a new client’s big project with your company?
Pin tutorials on your boards. Need to walk a client through how to use your products or services? Or do you want to create free how-to videos to use as promotional materials? Pin your videos and presentations on special “How-To” or “Tutorial” boards. Anything you teach your clients can be made into a tutorial.
Watch for trends. Click on the “Popular” link on your Pinterest home page to research what’s catching on with pinners, then integrate those trends into your content strategy.
Be yourself. Pinterest is all about personal expression, so don’t be afraid to pin stuff that represents who you really are.
Create a special board to highlight your company’s team members. Use the description under each photo to write a bio of each person.
Show behind-the-scenes photos of your company. People love knowing how you make things!
Become an information curator for your niche. Gather the newest and best resources on your boards. Become a trusted source of information on Pinterest, and your following will grow by leaps and bounds.
Integrate your Pinterest account with Facebook’s timeline feature, so you post content in both places at once.
Highlight old content on your blog so that people can repin your archived posts. The LinkWithin tool will add a footer to your blog posts that features images and links pulled from old content, giving people the opportunity to pin previous articles.
Thinking about freshening up old photos, or going back through your blog archives and adding photos to those text-only posts? Now is the time! Remember — the prettier the picture, the more pins you will get.

Pinterest marketing for black-belt pinners …

Find out when you’re getting the most repins, likes, comments and referral traffic by regularly analyzing both your Pinterest profile and your site traffic stats. Test out pinning on different days of the week and times of day to maximize traffic and audience engagement.
Connect your clients who use Pinterest by introducing them to each other. Recognize your best pinners by sending out a weekly “Best of Pinterest” email that includes spotlighted boards and pins from your clients’ profiles.
Create moderated boards for your fans to express their support for you. They can add videos, blog posts and photos from your events.
Do you have a number of different ideal client personas? Create a separate board to represent each client persona, then use those boards during your sales cycle and embed them into your website pages so people are clear about the kinds of clients you’re trying to attract.
Create boards for the classes and webinars you teach, and use them as supplemental material for your students. You can use the boards during your class or presentation, or send your students home with Pinterest boards to explore after class. If you’re teaching a live class or workshop, include pictures from the actual event.
Create boards for referral sources, affiliates and strategic partners, and let them add to the boards. Engage with the partners so they know they are included and appreciated.
Allow your best customers or star students to join in on certain boards and pin ideas and suggestions about how to use your product, or themes that go along with your products and services.
What could be better for showcasing how awesome your business is than creating a dedicated testimonials board?
Use Pinterest boards to tell client stories. Turn boring written case studies into powerful visual stories.
Check out your VIP clients’ boards to get ideas for special thank you or holiday gifts.
Create quick-start guides or owner’s manual boards for your products. Or if you’re primarily a service provider, create a “How to Get the Most Out of Working with Me” board with ideas and suggestions on maximizing your service relationship.
Create boards for conferences that you attend. Carry cards with instructions on getting invited to post on that board — conference attendees will love this!
Create beautiful, visually interesting coupons, and add them to your boards.
Your clients will be blown away if you create special boards just for them that include resources and ideas tailored to their individual situations. This will really make your company shine is done regularly and well.
Offer exclusive Pinterest promotions. Create pins that give special promotions for following you on Pinterest.
Run a Pinterest contest. Invite your readers to pin links and images from your site that inspire, motivate, move or entertain them. Then judge the winners by creativity or ingenuity and offer a juicy prize. Offer to promote the winners’ Pinterest boards on your site as part of the contest.

Pinterest is a beautiful (and effective) content marketing tool

Pinterest is not only picking up steam in social media circles, it has become a proven source of traffic for blogs and websites, quickly surpassing current favorites like LinkedIn and YouTube.

While lots of folks are flapping their jaws about the impressive statistics of Pinterest, some companies are quietly using this fabulous new tool to pin their way to better customer engagement and a visually interesting, personally appealing brand.

My advice? Take a long, hard look at including Pinterest as part of your 2012 content marketing plan.

And start making your social media strategy more beautiful, one little pin at a time.

But I may be wrong. Pinterest is easy entertainment. I can see that it is going to grow a lot and we’ll see other reasons for small business owners to incorporate Pinterest in their small business marketing strategies.

Anyway I found this very interesting guide to Pinterest for small business marketing from Business in Blue Jeans. (found it on Google plus by the way) and decided to post here.

Welcome back! Last week we covered the basics of Pinterest, a new social media bookmarking site that’s taking the online world by storm. This week, I’ll cover ways to use Pinterest in your marketing, what to pin, and how to get your stuff into Pinterest without being obnoxious about it.

The first thing I want to address is the issue of how to use Pinterest for business marketing. Marketers have gotten a bad reputation on social media. Plain and simple, there are folks out there who get it wrong and blanket social media with advertisements that feel a lot more like demands than the conversation that social media is intended to be. And that group of marketers have given marketing in general a bad name, because their advertisements and “in your face” commercialism have, at least according to some, ruined sites that others found to be pretty enjoyable on a personal level.

So let’s talk about how to avoid that with Pinterest, because Pinterest is one of the coolest, most enjoyable sites out there right now. Let’s not ruin Pinterest with a bunch of marketing junk! Instead, let’s join together to bring quality content and a higher level conversation to Pinterest that enriches the community, instead of transforming it into a much less-appealing, commercialized marketplace.

1. Don’t be all business. Create boards that are business-oriented, but also create boards that are personal and let people get to know you. Also, bear in mind that Pinterest does not want you using the site for self-promotion, as they tell you in the rules.
2. Don’t be spammy. Whatever you post, post it only once. Don’t repeat-post on Pinterest. See Rule #1.
3. Be a part of the community. Don’t use Pinterest just for marketing and SEO. It’s great for those things, but if that’s the only reason you’re there, you’re missing the point. This holds true for every other social media site, by the way. Join in the conversation. Use the comments field on pins to engage in dialogue with other users.
4. Contribute in multiple ways. Maintain a new pin to old pin ratio of anywhere from 5:1 to 10:1, just make sure you’re both repinning and adding new content.
5. Don’t be the only one pinning from your own site. Make your blog more “pin-worthy” by creating fantastic content, using amazing images in your blog posts, and adding a “Pin It” button on your site (in WordPress, you can use the “Pinterest “Pin It” Button” plug-in, or the “Social Discussions” plug-in, which includes Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). The “Pin It” buttons make it easier for people to pin your stuff and the quality content makes it more likely they’ll do so.
6. Use the Pinterest-provided “goodies” to let people know you’re on Pinterest. Pinterest provides “follow me” buttons and all kinds of other cool stuff for free here. You can also use plug-ins in WordPress to display your latest pins, which makes it more likely you’ll build a following on Pinterest.
7. Display your pins. You can install the “Super-Simple Pinterest Widget” plug-in in your blog to let people see what you’ve been pinning. This also helps to build your Pinterest following. You can also connect your Facebook presence to Pinterest. Connecting all these social media platforms really helps you to build a tribe. I’ve gotten to know people on Pinterest in a way that I haven’t known them on Facebook or Twitter, and vice versa.
8. Pin first, tweet second. Pin cool stuff to your Pinterest boards, then tweet about the pin. This serves the purpose of expanding your Pinterest following while also delivering your web site or blog content to both social media platforms.
9. Check your web analytics. Pinterest will give you great data. Facebook, not so much, because clicks go through a script filter before heading to your site. On Pinterest, you’ll know exactly what pins sent people to your site. That’s great information!

That’s it for now on the Pinterest front. More next week. Got more ideas about how to use Pinterest? Share ‘em!

We plan to do a different one every week, so why not get your Google plus account and join us?

You can get to know  dates and topics at Marketing Hangout

Add to the list: Info-product creation
Web show creation
General goofing off
Birthday/event celebrations
Topic discussions
Organization officer meetings
Screen-sharing for trouble-shooting or tech support
Screen-sharing for tutorials or walkthroughs
Bible study or book reading clubs
Client meetups
Project planning and brainstorming
Customer appreciation and feedback
Watch YouTube videos simultaneously with friends and family (everyone holds the remote with play/pause abilities)
Teaching/tutoring
Slideshow presentations
Script rehearsal
Homework study groups
Private counseling or addiction recovery with accountability partners
Cooking classes
Puppet shows
Collaborative jam sessions
Trivia games or charades
Interviews
Yoga sessions
Poetry slams, improv, or stand-up comedy
Angel/tarot/star/akashic/card readings
Circle of intention or prayer circles
Distant healing/Qigong
Live karaoke
Subject-specific Q and A’s
Coffee breaks/water cooler get-togethers
Flow/business/awakening/life coaching
Product unveiling or announcement
Debate
Toastmasters
Phone conferences
Brand promotion
Travel show (especially for mobile)
And if the United States President can have a hangout, then so can you!

So why does Google+ – in my opinion – work so much better for smaller businesses than Facebook? Why can unknowns become known so much easier on Google+? There are a couple reasons. Let’s start with the most important: Google Search. Of course, like all social media platforms, Google+ has its very own search feature. But what makes this feature fundamentally different from Facebook is how it is utilized.

For instance, I want each of you reading this to go into Facebook’s search engine and type one simple word: “photos.” What you will find are pages that have this keyword within the title of the page, maybe someone named “photo,” and four relevant photos from your friend’s recent posts. You won’t even see every page relating to photos or content, you’ll just see the ones who thought to put it in the main name of the page. One thing you won’t see is a photo from an unknown content provider, the very thing you would want someone to see – if you are looking for exposure. What you will see is the very thing your News Feed should have produced in the first place: content from your friends – which is hidden and tucked below at the very bottom.

What you have here is a very closed system. Putting friends first, not content. This makes it very hard for individuals or brands that are not known commodities to reach new followers. Now I want you to type the same word “photos” into Google+’s search engine. What you will find is exactly what you searched for: photos.

You will see two different options, “most recent” and “best of.” Most, if not all of the search results, are from individuals the current user does not know – if these posts have been posted publicly. Also, right from these search results the user can then add individuals or pages to their circles. They can click “best of” to see which content is getting the most engagement and visibility, and if you agree with the magnitude of engagement a particular post has acquired you can add right from these results as well. This is how the unknown becomes known: putting content first.

This is virtually impossible on Facebook, which relies on a one-to-one friend network to expand word-of-mouth endorsements. Because of this, Facebook provides a virtual speed bump for the rapid expansion of content that might deserve the added visibility.

Google+ is a search-first social network. Facebook is a friend-first social network. Just notice when you first type something into Facebook. Friends popup first, and you have to scroll down with the arrow keys or cursor to get to search results as opposed to friends. On Google+ it’s the opposite, a keyword search appears first before individuals in your circles.

The next reason Google+ increases the ability to rapidly expand your follower base is “Shared Circles.” Getting in a shared circle can be an additional way to gain followers and grow visibility for the content you produce. Because the framework of Google+ makes it much more appealing to add individuals you may not know than Facebook, an individual might not hesitate to add a shared circle containing hundreds of individuals relating to their interests. Getting in one of these is usually a gift that keeps on giving. Also, relating this back to Google+ search, people can find your shared circles without even following you beforehand – again, if it is shared publicly.

So if you want to grow followers and increase engagement on the content you produce: first create great content, second post it publicly, and third do it on Google+. Facebook sucks.

Browse YouTube through Google+. Click the YouTube tag in the upper-right of your screen.

See What Another Google+ User Sees When Viewing Your Profile. Click the Profile icon at top-center of the screen, then type the person’s name in the ‘View profile as…’ text box.

Mute a Post. Click the down-arrow at the top-right of any post that isn’t your own, and select Mute this post. This will keep the post from reappearing each time someone comments on it.

Disable comments. Click the down-arrow at the top-right of any of your own posts, then select Disable comments. Doing this will keep people from commenting on that particular post.

Lock Your Post. Click the down-arrow at the top-right of any of your own posts, then select Lock this post. When you click this, it locks that post to your profile. It cannot be shared by others.

Share an Entire Circle. Click the Circle tab at the top of the screen, then click the Circle you would like to share. The Circle will then fade to gray and show more options. Select Share and decide who to share it with, then add your comments like a normal post.

Add People from Suggestions. Google+ suggests people to Circles in a list at the right labeled “Suggestions.” Add as many as you’d like!

Invite Friends to Google+. Under the list of ‘Suggested’ at the right is an option to invite friends. Click Invite friends and type in the email addresses of those you’d like to invite.

Control Who’s Included in ‘Public’ When You Share. To do this, click the Gear icon at the top-right and select Google+ settings. Locate ‘Who can interact with you and your posts’ under ‘Who can comment on your public posts?’ Select this and choose your preference.

Change How and What You Receive through Notifications. Click the Gear icon, then select Google+ settings. Scroll down under ‘Receive notifications’ to configure your notification settings.

Save Your Profile, Including Circles, Pictures, and Videos. Click the Gear icon, then select Google+ settings > Data Liberation.

Connect Your Twitter and Facebook Accounts to Google+. Click the Gear icon, then select Google+ settings. Click Account overview at left and find ‘Connected accounts.’

Make a Google+ Page. It’s different then a personal profile, but you can manage it all the same! Click Create a Google+ page at right and begin!

Add a Manager to a Google+ Page. From the Google+ Page in question, click the Gear icon, select Google+ settings, and select Managers from the menu at right. Enter in one or more (up to 50) email addresses under ‘Add managers by email.’

Promote your Google+ Page. From the Google+ Page in question, click Spread the word at right.

Add People to a Google+ Page VIP List for a Google+ Page. Under Circles, select all the people you’d like to be VIP’s. Click and drag the bundle of names to the default circle labeled ‘VIP.’

Play a Sound When a New Chat Message Arrives. Click the down-arrow next to your chat status, and then select Settings. Check the box next to ‘Sounds’ (requires Flash).

Customize Who Can Chat with You. Click the arrow to the right of Chat > Privacy settings. Select the drop-down box and click Custom.

Make Your Chat Status Invisible. Instead of being online, offline, or busy, simple set your status as “Invisible.” Click your status below Chat (it will either read “Available” or “Busy”). Then select Invisible. You can go visible any time you’d like.

View a List of All Your +1’s. Click the Profile button at the top, then click +1’s under your profile name.

Search For a Name in Your Circles. Click the Circles button at the top. Type in a name you’re looking for in the search box at the far-right.

Upload Pictures to Google+. Click the Photo tab at the top-center (next to the Profile tab). Then select Upload New Photos. You can name and create photo albums.

Add a Short Description of Yourself Under Your Name. Click the Profile button, then click Edit Profile at top-right. Add a brief description of yourself next to “Introduction” to set you apart from others.

See Your Updates Instantly. When logged into your Google account, the menu bar appears at the top Google applications. The account name is shown at the right. When there are updates to your Google+ account (such as comments), a red box will show next to the name, with the number of updates.

Add a Profile Picture. Click the Profile button at top-center, then click Edit Profile. Under the default profile picture, click Change photo. Be sure the photo you want is saved in an easy-to-find location on your computer.
See Photos from Your Circles. Click the Photos button at top-center, and then select Photos from your circles from the menu at left.

Lock Your Picture Albums. Click the Photos button at top-center, and then select Your albums from the menu at left. Click the album you’d like to lock, and click Limited (Locked) next to ‘Visible to’ just above the pictures. Click the checkbox next to the lock icon and click Save.

Use Basic Photo Editing Tools on Your Pictures. Click the Photos button at top-center, and then select Your albums from the menu at left. Find the picture you’d like to edit, then select Creative Kit at the top-left of the window.
Delete a Photo. Click the Photos button at top-center, and then find the picture you’d like to delete. Click on the photo, and click Options at the bottom left. Select Delete from the pop-up menu.

Sort People in Your Circles by their First Name. Click the Circle button at top-center, and then select the drop-down menu by ‘Sort by’ at top-left. Select First name to sort.

Have Your Profile or Page Show Up in Google Search Results. Click the Profile button at top-center, then click Edit Profile at top-right. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Profile discovery. Check the box, and click Save.

Prevent Others from Downloading Your Pictures. Click the Gear icon at the top-right and select Google+ settings. Select Google+ at left, and scroll all the way down to ‘Photos.’ Select the appropriate option.

Chat Off the Record. Chatting off the record disables Google’s ability to save a chat conversation to your account. While chatting, click Actions > Go off the record.

Navigate Quickly from Post to Post. When looking through your stream of posts, use J and K on your keyboard to scroll up and down from post to post.

Mention Someone Specifically in a Post. To mention someone in a post (along with a link to their page), simply add ‘@’ or ‘+’ before their name.

via

Lowell Area Consultant says it is more evident today than ever, the 21st century is a visual world and YouTube is a the center with 490 million users.
Online video is on of the best tools when thinking about social media marketing and small business marketing. Every business should be using more online videos. They also should be looking at the possibility of producing web shows and have them streamed to traditional tv through the over the top boxes.

via

-
-
-
-
-
-

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

-

-

We told you to create your Google plus business page

We did an episode of our show on how to use Google Plus for business

We talked everywhere about the Google Plus hang out feature

and talked more on Google plus possibilities

and then we told you the content inside Google plus was getting indexed in the search engines.

Well, today your presence or lack of presence on Google Plus is impacting your findability- Yes, people that may be looking for something you offer might not find you or even worse find your competitors.

Google released Search plus Your World where results from Google Plus will show first.

Look what happens if I search for the word photography. This is a topic I discuss on Google Plus

Google Search Plus

Look on the right side and see suggestions from Google Plus

Now look when I do the same search when I’m not logged in. Google thinks I’m a new search

Google Plus

If you are not already seeing Google plus results in your searches go here: Google and upgrade.

Again, it is time to put hands to work and work on your Google Plus profile and create a Google plus business page. Fast.

Did I mentioned it is also extremely fun and a lot more relevant that Facebook if your business is around a topic that people have a irrational passion for? Like photography, crafts, nutrition, self-improvement etc? Try typing thing you are passionate about inside Google Plus.

If you are one of our social media agency clients, don’t worry, all is taken care for you.

Check our BuzzBooster Marketing page to see an example and don’t forget to add us to your circles.

Since content from your Google Plus page can be indexed by Google you need to have one.

Since you can have groups/circles based on topics of interest you should have one.

Since you can use the feature Hangout to have meeting with prospects, clients and showcase products, you should be using Google +

Don’t forget to populate your page with good content as you should do in any social media environment.

Don’t forget to add a Google + button on your site and to promote in other social environments.

Google understands business and I believe many more features will show up in the near future that will allow us to market our businesses better.

• Don’t forget that YouTube is a social network too.
• videos with thumbnails generate 19% more views
• video is an engagement object
• YouTube has grown 250% year after year.
• Growth of 300% tweets a year coming from YouTube
• Each tweet results in 6 new viewers
• Video moves business
• if the video comes from someone you trust, you are more likely to watch until the end.

Let’s upload some videos and get more views on YouTube folks!

click on image to see it bigger

The social media effect

Take a look on this infographic how social media and good content can impact a business.

You can see that not only social media marketing is a process it has a huge potential of reaching your target market in a very unique way.

You need to worry only about creating good content

Now Blip Tv and Dynamic logic have provided some data on the viewership of Web TV series.

According to the research, cable TV is seeing viewing drop off in this particular demographic (Blip.tv viewers) of around 9% compared to six months prior and that same demographics is watching around 26% more online video (via PC), 19% more on mobile devices and 18% more on video consoles.

Running real-time “live” social media campaigns is one way marketers can effectively use social networking to generate positive buzz for their brands, according to [pdf] a new report from WaveMetrix. Results from “Q3 2011 Benefits and Limits of a Social Media Fanbase” indicate that both Domino’s Pizza and Burberry have achieved impressive results from live social media marketing campaigns.

A brief review of each campaign follows.
Domino’s Takes Manhattan

In July 2011, Domino’s Pizza put up a billboard in Times Square streaming live comments from their customer feedback forms. Although comments are vetted for bad language and appropriateness, Domino’s maintains that they are otherwise unfiltered and that both negative and positive feedback will be streamed. This move is part of a global effort to improve the pizza brand’s image, following the controversial YouTube video in April 2009 showing Domino’s employees tampering with the food.

WaveMetrix analysis of consumer reaction to the new billboard shows that they perceive it to be a “brave” and “respectful” act. This is especially true given Domino’s previous experience with social media, but the brand is now using it as a tool to appear more open and honest. WaveMetrix analysis also shows that it is not just Domino’s Facebook fans who praise the new strategy, but also other internet users who are not all Domino’s customers, suggesting far-reaching engagement.

WaveMetrix analysis indicates that 12% of consumers reacting to the Times Square billboard say it is a “brave” move, four times the 3% who call it “foolhardy.”
Burberry and Twitter Get Exclusive

Burberry partnered with Twitter during this year’s London Fashion Week in September 2011 and introduced what the two companies are calling a “Tweetwalk.” Backstage photos of every look were taken at the Burberry Spring Summer 2012 show and shared with the brand’s Twitter followers right before the models hit the runway.

WaveMetrix analysis reveals that Burberry’s Tweetwalk show, which ran alongside its catwalk show, generated overwhelmingly positive buzz, before, during and after the show, with consumers impressed at their “bold” use of social media and appreciating the fact that they were seeing the Spring Summer collection before even those sitting in the front row of the show. Twitter users described their enjoyment at this feeling of exclusivity and expressed their excitement and anticipation about seeing the new collection.

Almost four in 10 (38%) consumers commenting on the Tweetwalk discussed feelings of exclusivity, while 30% of posts about the Burberry brand or products focused on exclusivity.
Beware Backfiring Social Media Ads

While live social media campaigns can produce dividends, other report data indicates marketers considering negative, mocking or even charitable social media promotional campaigns should first carefully consider how consumers may react, as a poorly designed social media campaign can create the wrong type of online buzz.

The top benefit of social media marketing: The number-one advantage is
generating exposure for the business, indicated 81% of all marketers, followed
by increasing traffic and building new business partnerships.

Business owners were more likely to use
social media marketing (90+%) than
employees working for a business (81%).

About one in two
marketers found social media generated qualified leads

61.62% of marketers
who have been using social media
for years report it has helped them
close business. More than half
who spend 16 or more hours per
week find the same results.

Improved search engine rankings
were most prevalent among those
who’ve been using social media for
years, with nearly 80% reporting a
rise (and most reporting a strong
improvement).

Source: White paper source

In this webcast you will learn:
How to build a business with real repeatable
income and equity.
How You Can Become The One (& Only one) Independent Marketing Advisor in Your Area.
How to have a ready-to-go business with at least 11 different revenuw models in it.
How to have continuity revenue, your own coaching group, expert status, and an instant line of products and events to sell!
…and so MUCH more!

The speakers were all employed by different social media agencies talking on what they were doing and the audience was composed of small business owners most with less than 10 employees. By the look on their faces, it was easy to see there was some disconnection in place.

One common strategy to attract Facebook people to like a page was to give something like an Ipad a day as a giveaway. Just on this the investment on the devices alone was around $24 thousand a month. Were there anything in place to convert those Ipad winners into buyers? Not really but the number of people liking your page will be really high.

Lots of people seeking free stuff with no intention of buying now or ever, not necessarily a very targeted audience seems to be a good thing. What is the use of having thousands of people like a page if they are not potential buyers? None. Not for a business.

It seems that is not clear to marketers that every action in business needs to have a clear path to profit since that is what business is all about. Even engagement needs to lead to increased level of trust and at some point to sales.

Another popular strategy is the use of infographics. Don’t get me wrong, I think this one can be very useful, but I couldn’t help but laugh when the speaker pointed out that it does bring a lot of traffic to a site while the bounce rate (number of people that visit that page and leave without doing nothing) goes over 90% and conversion rates are below 1/2 percent.

Again, if it is not going to bring targeted prospects, I’ll not build a list, they will go away without looking at anything else and they won’t ever buy, why would this traffic matter?

For big dumb companies that can afford to spend a lot of money just to be more visible and claim they are popular this makes sense. For the small business owner where money spent needs to bring results in the form of hot prospects and profits, these strategies are a waste of time. They may be cool, but they are not money well spent.

It depends. Companies that need awareness for their brand need a page (even if they are ran by 1 or 2 people like ours)

Facebook pages offer tracking so you can understand your audience better and conversion.

Pages allow multiple admins to update the content.

Facebook pages allow you to customize tabs, create lead capture pages, show products and even sell.

You can use sponsored ads to promote the page and bring more people.

If these factors are not important for you, then the subscribe feature may be better for you. Less work and maybe more interaction.

Here is a comparison chart:

To allow subscribers click on edit profile and then on family and friends.

Below is an article by Mashable showing you how to benefit from the subscription feature:

When Facebook launched its Subscribe button on Wednesday, many were quick to note its implications for journalists, celebrities and other thought leaders. The new feature allows for users to follow public updates, and these are the people most often broadcasting their ideas.

Yet there’s more the average user can get on board with than meets the eye. The release came with a slew of additional features — including a more customizable News Feed and increased privacy — that users have been wanting for years. The trouble is, there are so many moving parts in this product launch. Users are now presented with a number of options, and they’ll need to dig deep to understand which pieces to take and which to leave.

We hope to make that process a little easier for you. Here are some key points you should know based on what type of user you are:

Super Users & Celebrities

If you’re kind of a big deal, you likely already have a Facebook fan page to update your followers on what you’re up to. The launch of the Subscribe button leaves you with two options:

1. Keep the fan page and continue to maintain two separate Facebook presences: profile and page. This strategy’s main pro is that pages are optimized for marketing. Profiles can’t be updated by multiple admins and fans are more acclimated to updates with an on-brand feel. Perhaps more importantly, profiles don’t have Facebook’s analytics tool Insights — and “they probably never will,” says Vadim Lavrusik, journalist program manager at Facebook and former Mashable community manger.
2. Do away with the fan page and merge your page likers into profile subscribers. By deleting your fan page, you will lose all page content. However, your likers will automatically be subscribed to your public updates. The biggest advantages? Profiles are easier to update via mobile than pages and people are prioritized over pages in search.
With either of these methods, you’ll have direct messaging capability (from your profile to your page likers or from your profile to your subscribers) and neither has a limit on the number of people who can follow your content (subscribers or likers — though profiles do have a limit of 5,000 friends).

Journalists & Artists

The Subscribe button is arguably most beneficial for journalists and artists. Though, in a sense, they’re public figures, these types of Facebook users likely aren’t well-known enough to justify a fan page.

If this sounds like you, the first thing you need to do is actively opt-in to allow subscriptions to your profile. You can then choose to allow subscribers to comment on your updates and control your notifications.

Another change to note is that when you unfriend someone, they stay subscribed to your public updates. This is important if you’ve been accepting friend requests from people you don’t know who want to follow your work. It can be uncomfortable to friend someone without knowing them personally. The Subscribe button allows you to unfriend these people and still reach them via public updates.

Finally, when composing updates you want your subscribers to see, be sure to set the privacy to Public. They won’t see it otherwise.

Parents & Teachers

The relationships parents and teachers should have with their kids and students on Facebook has always been a touchy subject. The Subscribe feature can help to make crossing the Facebook connection threshold less awkward.

Users can subscribe to others without enabling others to subscribe to them. This means teachers can allow their students to follow their public updates about school and classes without actually friending them (and accessing more personal information). That way, students can continue to update friends about their lives without worrying what might pop up in their teachers’ News Feeds.

For parents, this feature may work the other way around. Instead of asking your son or daughter what that Jaime So-and-So they used to hang out with is up to, you could subscribe to Jaime, whereas friending her might be uncomfortable. The feature could also be helpful if your kids aren’t OK with you watching their every virtual move. Brace yourself for a sensitive conversation at the dinner table.

Students & Average Users

For the occasional Facebookers who mostly use the service to keep up with friends and post photos, here’s the bottom line: You never have to see your Aunt Suzie’s FarmVille updates ever again. But, you can still see her photos, videos and status updates if you’d like.

Before the Subscribe button launch, it was either all or nothing when it came to blocking a person’s updates from your News Feed. Now you can control what types of updates you see from a person and how often. That means you can skip the virtual sheep without missing out on engagement notifications and puppy albums.

As of now, the feature is only available for tailoring updates from non-friends that you’re subscribed to. The Subscribe button, and this feature, will be rolled out to friend pages in the next few days, Lavrusik says.

Conclusion

As the virtual world grows, relationships and the ways we’re connecting with others are changing. The Subscribe button addresses issues about the depth of connection the term “friend” implies on Facebook.

Some critics say the feature goes against Facebook’s nature — that it was built on “friending,” not “following.” It’s important to note that the News Feed algorithm weights updates from friends as well as private posts more heavily than public ones. In addition, the Close Friends list Facebook rolled out on Tuesday makes the updates from your strongest relationships more prominent in your News Feed, and you can enable notifications specifically from friends in this list.

With the number of new social networks gaining speed, Facebook is and should be making changes to stay competitive. What’s important is that it doesn’t divert too far from its core. In this update, Facebook is only giving its users more options — which the majority may or may not take advantage.

Online videos connect customer, prospects and companies on an emotional level.

Online videos are about storytelling. Storytelling is a key component in marketing today.

In order to get more views to your videos it is important to understand you need to be authentic, real, transparent.

Don’t try to make perfect, produced videos. Better to be real.

Spread the word: It is not enough to add your video to your site or just upload to YouTube. You need to share. Use all channels you have in order to do that. Facebook, Twitter, your blog, newsletter, postcards etc.
But pay attention: Send them first to your blog. Wait 2 days and then send them to YouTube or other video sharing site you use.

It helps to have a contest or a give away every now and then. It does attract more people to your videos.

Your audience can help you get there. Release the videos to them first. Make them feel special and ask them to share.

53% male 47% female

Medium age: 33 years old

47% are married

Median income: 74,000

69% at least college educated

Evenly split: East, West, South, Midwest

71% emplyed

15% student

64% considered themselves techie savvy

What not a lot of people know is that we also helped Robert organize the event that would promote his new book, lead to a teleseminar and the sales of a new program.

Here are a few steps that helped this launch be so successful:

We started working a year before the event because Robert at that time had not a strong presence in social media environments. So this presence was created over some months and we also asked Robert to start a web show called Quick Sustainable Wealth TV. All profiles, forms and Calls to action led to a leads capture page in order to build a list coming from social media environments.

Of course, Robert invited marketers for the event that have a strong presence online and as JVs they helped promote the event.

For the event, because there were quite a few technological components, many guests and many things could go wrong, we made sure we had some rehearsals to cover all possibilities.

Livestreaming has some limitations at the moment. Companies don’t record the sound of guests or cohosts. image of guests is pixelated, Cohosts don’t get the sound through their speakers. If cohost has the show page open, there will be echo.

All guests received detailed instructions ahead of time and constant communication.

So we decided to have Robert on camera and all guests coming through a phone line. This proved to avoid some problems, improve some quality issues and the attendees enjoyed the results. We this option we also guarantee less stress and unforeseen problems the guests could have.

Instead of having everyone go to the Ustream show page, we created a page for the event where we embedded the livestream, added a chat so people could interact during the whole 3 hours of the event and ask questions and added a banner leading to the book that was going to be promoted during the event.

In the back end, we had 3 people monitoring sound, chat and answering questions.

After 1 hour and a half into the event, a storm came by where Robert lives and the lights went out for a minute. Robert had a power source on and we didn’t lose the video but we did lose the audio. The assistants kept talking to people on the chat, everything was back in less than 5 minutes and we lost less than 20 people because of this glitch. We are talking about an event that was attended by thousands. One guest didn’t show up and another came in a different time than the one set but these didn’t cause the event to miss a beat. We had different option ahead of time to deal with some unforeseen possibilities.

The event was a huge success and Robert is now a pioneer in this type of launches. Yes there have been some product launches using livestreaming but all guests and host are in one location. In this case, each guest was in a different location.

The success was not only because of the caliber of all guests and the quality of information, follow-up with the list before, during and after the event but because of all the preparation, tests and rehearsals before the event.
We are looking forward to the next one.

So:

Under 30
Facebook 77%

30-39
Facebook 76%

40-49
Facebook 77%

50-59

Facebook 84%

60 and over

Facebook 84%

1. Respect Quora culture. They expect expertise, so give good answers with the best sources of information.

2. Quora is designed for individuals. Your focus should be on building an expert profile. You can use to address questions from users of your products.

3 Don’t promote too much.

4. It is ok to give your case studies as examples as long as they are relevant.

5. Don’t pitch to the media on Quora.

6. If you are an affiliate, disclose that please.

1. Raise your profile

Using your own profile the right way can be the gateway for potential clients, employees and industry partners to contact you.

The more complete your profile, the easier it will be for people to find you through search engines. Make sure your summary is complete and include a photo of yourself to increase your credibility. Add skills to your profile to highlight your expertise and make it easier for other users seeking certian abilities.

Related Stories
How Small Businesses Can Harness the Power of LinkedIn

You can remind people who you are by keeping your profile active with regular status updates.

2. Create a company page

Increase the visibility of your business by creating a company profile. Company profiles give members an opportunity to view information about a company and should include a description, number of employees and the industry it operates in. Develop your company profile with a logo, locations and add a feed from your company blog.

3. Grow and monitor your network

Import your existing contact lists from your e-mail client to find out which of your contacts are already on LinkedIn. LinkedIn automatically recommends people you might know based on your details and existing contacts, and you should regularly scour through your existing contacts for people you might want to connect with.

Offering to connect with a variety of people is a great idea because it shows customers you are online and gives you an edge on the competition who is probably not engaging customers in the same way.

4. Get recommendations

Recommendations are the most looked for feature when viewing a new profile and are a great way to secure new clients.

Recommendations enhance your professional credibility and create a great impression on people reading your profile. Ensure you request LinkedIn recommendations from happy customers willing to provide testimonials. Satisfied customers are the best source of new customers.

5. Engage with your connections through LinkedIn Groups and Answers

Join a small business group to engage with like-minded people who can provide you support and answer business-specific questions. Joining groups that are related to your industry or other small business matters is also a great way to make new connections. Whether these connections are local or international, having a wide and diverse group will serve you well.

Potential clients can find you through groups, as the group members have the ability to directly message each other, even if they aren’t directly connected.

Answer questions from connections in the ‘answers section’ of LinkedIn without self promotion, and ask contacts questions to get a feel for what customers and prospects want or think. People can vote for the answers they think are the best, and the week’s top experts receive a profile badge and are shown on the Answers homepage, giving you the chance to be an expert in your field.

6. Recruit the right people

Use LinkedIn’s search tools to find people from a pool of passive candidates who might be best suited to your business’ key roles. Change your status to “hiring” and post the job listing to your LinkedIn groups to attract relevant talent. A LinkedIn premium account will enable you to send direct messages to prospects with whom you are not connected.

LinkedIn recruiter, a specialized product for companies, allows you to regularly hire from and engage with a network of passive candidates.

7. Improve productivity through LinkedIn mobile

Accessing LinkedIn through smartphone apps enabling you to update your profile and search for others on LinkedIn to help recall and connect with business acquaintances at events and conferences.

You can use the LinkedIn mobile application to pull up background details of the person you are meeting on-the-go, putting you in good stead for a great introduction and conversation points.

No videos no ranking. It is like giving business on a silver plate for your competitors.
and you are leaving your company out of consideration when people are researching for a solution you offer..

Now, if you are using video marketing here are a few tips to optimize your videos.

1. Focus on entertaining your audience. Fun works but don’t force it.

2. Clearly demonstrate your product or talk about your services.

3. You need to build up friends and subscribers on YouTube to leverage the reach of your videos.

4. Measure and improve metrics. Use insights inside YouTube for that. They track likes, dislikes, embeds, tweets, video replies and attention span

5. Aim to rank not only on YouTube but also in Google’s main web results.

6. Add url at the beginning of the description.

7. Use voot.net as a tracking tool.

8. upload a transcription to YouTube. Some services for you to dot this: Dotsub and Automatic sync.

9. Don’t forget to tag your video. Use relevant keywords. Use adjectives as well and separate by comma. YouTube allows 120 characters.

10 Use the annotations features for call to action: like this video, subscribe, go to.