Social Media Marketing

April 8, 2013

Do You Know Why You Need Social Media Marketing?

Most people looking to hire a social media agency do so because they think they could use more visibility.

Visibility is always a good thing in business especially when you can get it with a small investment, but you should know that there is a bigger reason for your business to have a presence in Social Media websites.

The big reason why you need to use social media marketing in your business is because if you don’t, you won’t show well in search engines anymore.

See that for yourself. Go to Google and type something like: “how to use a wheelchair”

Take a look at the results. Each page brings 10 organic results (plus ads on the side.)

On the search how to use a wheelchair we have:

A video from YouTube – social network
2 results from WikiHow – social site
Wikipedia- social site
Results coming from Google plus – social network

So at least 5 of the results are leading to social media websites and only the remaining 5 are actual websites!

You can try other searches and you will notice a similar pattern.

Google looks for relevant content coming from social media first, then from normal websites.

You see, by not having a presence on Google Plus, YouTube, Pinterest etc., real buyers will have a harder time finding you when they are ready to buy.

Even worse, when they are researching what they need and go to YouTube to check products, and you are not there, someone else will get that sale. YouTube is the second biggest search engine on Earth and it is where people go to research products and services.

Marketing your business online is inexpensive and can be extremely effective when you get the right social media agency to do it for you.

At BuzzBooster you get a company that understands the HME industry (we’re guest marketing speakers at Medtrade!) and in our program you get:

The right online positioning strategy
Google Maps set up
Yelp set up
Yahoo maps set up
Bing maps set up
YouTube Profile Design and Optimization
Two YouTube videos a month
Facebook Business page design and optimization
Daily messages on Facebook
Twitter profile design
Daily messages on Twitter
Pinterest profile optimization
Daily Pinterest interaction
Google Plus Business Page
Daily Messages on Google Plus

And of course we setup, design and optimize the profile pages in all of these networks for you!

All you have do is lift your finger to run the cash register. 🙂

For the next few days you can get this Social Media Marketing Campaign for only $1,500/mo (normal investment is $2,500/mo) – Minimum of 3 months.

Get in touch with us today: 801-842-9765 or buzz@buzzbooster.com

October 5, 2012

Social Media Marketing vs. Search Engine Marketing

Social Media Marketing vs. Search Engine Marketing: Which Strategy Is #1?
When it comes to marketing, businesses have more options than ever before thanks to the reach of the Internet. Instead of being confined to your local town, region or even country, you can sell goods and services to millions of people around the world. Small and medium sized businesses genuinely have the chance to become big operators if everything goes well for them. As far as marketing goes, search engine marketing and social media marketing are two of the most popular strategies. Below, we will look at the advantages of each method over the other as well as discussing how to use both effectively.

Why Social Media Marketing Is Better
With social media, you have the ability to directly communicate with consumers and tend to their needs personally, something which isn’t possible with search engine marketing. Thanks to social media, you can appear to be a benevolent company with the best interests of the consumer at heart. It provides you with a greater level of credibility too as customers can see you interacting with people every single day and they know you have nowhere to hide if your products/services are not up to scratch.

Reputation management is one of the most important phrases in any company’s vocabulary when dealing with online consumers. Social media marketing allows you to quickly respond to criticism, setting things straight and keeping your reputation intact. Keeping a clean slate is essential to the future health of your company. With search engine marketing, there is little you can do to prevent negative comments appearing. Your best bet is to contact a specialist company that can write a host of positive material thus pushing the negative comments down the rankings. The trouble is, this takes time and every minute a bad review is visible on the top few pages of Google, your company potentially loses a lot of customers.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have created tools to further improve customer experience. For example, Facebook allows you to create a community page where your company is discussed extensively. This gives you the opportunity to know more about your audience and vice versa.

Why Search Engine Marketing Is Better

If you don’t already have social media accounts, you are making a big mistake and have a lot of catching up to do. In contrast, you can begin search engine marketing as soon as you establish some sort of presence online. Although social media sites have hundreds of millions of users, this still pales into comparison with the number of people who actively use search engines. An estimated 90% of Internet activity begins with a search. A majority of consumers still use a major search engine like Google to find out more information on a company including product reviews.

If you are clever enough, you can create a website or webpage with targeted phrases to capture your ideal audience. The Keyword Tool that’s free from Google AdWords is a great help because it allows you to find out exactly how many people search for a particular keyword or phrase each month. You receive worldwide and local figures and can also find out how competitive the keyword is. You can then use this information to create web copy that’s search engine friendly.

Even if you can’t get into the organic search results, there’s always plan B which is to spend until you become visible! Paid search listings are not actually that expensive and they allow you to customise your appearance. Admittedly, organic searches are better but a paid search listing still gives you a considerable web presence and is far superior to the majority of paid marketing strategies.

Why Not Have Both?

It’s probably a matter of what your company actually needs at a certain point in time but you’re better off striving to utilise both marketing strategies. There is always the chance that one will not work as well as you would hope so having a back-up plan is always a good idea. Savvy entrepreneurs will look to combine the two and seek to have an equal level of traffic from each in case one falters. Besides, search engine marketing helps your social media campaign via keyword research. If you want to get your social network profile seen, you will still need to include certain keywords.

In a hypothetical scenario, if you only have enough time/money to commit to one strategy, search engine marketing is probably the better option simply because more people use search engines than social media websites and there may well be a higher conversion rate also (though this is debatable). However, if you have even a small amount of money left from your budget each month, it would be a good idea to put it towards a Facebook ad marketing campaign. A little goes a long way in the Internet marketing business when you know what you’re doing.

An article is written by Kate Willer. I like social networks, Google android, mac data recovery and psychology. I’m interested in IT services, computer upgrades, computer repair, different computer apps. Love travelling and skiing.

February 24, 2012

56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest

So if you are interested in Pinterest as a small business marketing tool, here is another great post by CopyBlogger that guides you to use Pinterest as a social media marketing too.

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.