Tag Archives: social media marketing

Pinterest Marketing: 3 Tips for Attracting Pinterest Traffic to Your Blog

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Pinterest featue in Metro - 27th February 2012

(Photo credit: Great British Chefs)

Have you been enjoying the guilty pleasure of pinning images and creating boards on Pinterest, but wish there was a way you could use it to benefit your business? Pinterest is the hottest social media property out there right now. It’s gained faster adoption by users than any other social media platform. For example, the InQbation blog says, ‘Pinterest Most Successful Startup Company on the Web in 2012.’ Lemon.ly created an infographic that illustrates the statistics related to this fast growing, social media platform.

Here are some Pinterest stats:

  • Over 10.4 million users
  • They hit 10 million unique monthly visitors faster than any site in history
  • Pinterest generate more referral traffic to websites than Youtube, Google+ and LinkedIn.com combined. Source: lemon.ly

If you’d like to get some insight on how you can leverage all of that traffic and re-route some of your ideal audience to your blog, here are five tips for attracting traffic to your blog using Pinterest.com:

1. Find out what kinds of images your visitors like to pin

Jessica Kupferman, of Badass Biz, wrote this guest post on Denise Wakeman’s business blog, ‘Top 5 Reasons You Need to Use Pinterest with Your Blog.’

I like tip #4, which shares a link that you can use to find out if visitors are pinning images from your website: http://pinterest.com/source/yourwebsite.com (replace /yourwebsite with the URL to your blog.) This will give you an idea of what your visitors are pinning (if at all) and what they are not pinning from your site. Source: http://bit.ly/HHV5YJ

2. Discover what gets pinned and re-pinned the most

Rather than link to a specific article, I’m sharing a link to an entire site that is a fabulous resource for learning about marketing and selling on Pinterest.com. Marketing on Pinterest, is a website authored by marketing specialist Jason Miles, and it covers topics such as Pinterest traffic tips, infographics, and he offers a 10-part video boot camp.

His, ‘Pinterest Traffic Tip #18,’ asks, “What content gets re-pinned the most on Pinterest?” He also includes an image that captures the main points of the tip that can be shared on Pinterest. This illustrates how you can leverage Pinterest’s visual focus even if you’re selling information products. You can create compelling visual images, graphic book covers or product shots and share them with your followers.

3. Customize the images you share

If they are popular and appealing, photos and images can be pinned and re-pinned dozens of times. But this can lead to the link to your website getting lost when visitors do not follow the custom of pinning from the source as opposed to simply clicking that re-pin button. Create a watermark of your logo and/or your website’s URL to include in each image you share on Pinterest. This will make sure that those who are re-pinning your image know exactly where it came from and how to get to your site for more information.

This comes from tip #4 of Michael Chizbuzor’s article, ‘Pinterest and Twitter: 16 Marketing Strategies to Drive Twitter Traffic.’ In this post, Chizbuzor writes about using social media to drive qualified, targeted traffic to your website for free.  Always keep his tip #5 in mind when you are doing any kind of social media marketing: Don’t waste your time. Invest your time. Get in, post your pins and get out.

*Bonus Tip: Share other people’s blogs

Ken Pickard has started a Pinterest Blog Roll. In his article on the Empowerment Network blog, Ken shares the concept of sharing other people’s blogs, so that in turn, they will share your blog on Pinterest.com in order to get more exposure and traffic.

Basically, Ken has created a content syndication tribe where the members visit each other’s blogs and share one another’s content. You can read his post and join his tribe, or follow suit and create a special tribe within your niche or network.

Source: empowernetwork.com/kenpickard/blog/pinterest-blog-roll/

Please follow me: http://www.pinterest.com/evelynwrites, and be sure to subscribe to my email newsletter where you’ll get lots of insider tips about writing and marketing online that you won’t ever see on the blog.

 

 

 

 

 

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Guest Post: Social Media: Balm or Bane for Authors?

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photo credit: JupiterImages

Today we’ve got another guest post about how authors can make the best use of social media without feeling overwhelmed. This is a topic that I know many writer’s struggle with including myself, so I hope you’re able to glean some helpful insights from Amy’s article.

Social Media: Balm or Bane for Authors?

By Amy Atwell

How many of you use some form of social media? Facebook and Twitter seem to be the bastions most popular with authors today. But there’s also LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon and more. Social networking is what drives GoodReads, Shelfari and LibraryThing. Even Pandora radio lets you create a profile page and encourages a community of listeners.

Many authors find it all overwhelming. It’s a challenge to find enough time to write fiction, much less post and pin and tweet. So where is the sweet spot? Just how important is social media to authors?
If you’re serious about a long-term writing career, social media will continue to be an important and viable source of promotion and audience building. But, and here’s the key, it’s only going to work for you if—

1. You find at least one of social network that you enjoy.
2. You strike a balance between your online social networking and your writing.
3. You approach social networking with the same imagination and commitment you bring to your writing.

Doesn’t sound too scary, does it?
Here’s why I think it’s important—the Internet isn’t likely to disappear. Millions of people are on it, and millions more are buying smart phones and tablets because they can’t get enough of it. In some ways, our society is growing more fragmented, with less person to person interaction in real life. At the same time, people seek out and savor their interactions on social media.
This is where social media works so well for authors. Most stories have some element of human connection at the core of the story. A hero learning to trust. A heroine returning to confront her hometown memories. A family on the brink of disaster brought whole again.
The readers who love those kinds of stories are out there in social media as squawking and hungry as birds. Keep tossing out birdseed on a regular basis, and those birds will find their way to you. Readers who connect with you and your stories will become loyal fans. They will spread the word for you. Remember the old shampoo commercial? “And they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends…” and so on and so on.

That’s the magic of social networking.

You may be a pantser when you write but plotting or, rather, planning ahead will save you a lot of headaches with social media. Make a game plan for yourself so you can make the most of your social networking. And if you’re not published yet, it’s not too early to get a jump start on this. By all means, start to build your tribe now.

1. Study the different social networks and decide which one(s) best match how you want to communicate with potential fans and fellow authors.

2. Secure your profiles on any (frankly, I would do all just in case) social network you plan to use. Ideally, use your writing name.

3. Find an image and write a short bio so your profiles are consistent.

4. Make a list of the topics you will discuss—and not discuss—on social networking. You want to be personable and friendly in your interactions, but remember anything you say can come back to bite you and your career.

5. Start slowly and blend in. Join in other conversations, repeat items of interest, help your fellow authors. Don’t just pop in and shout about your book.

6. Ask questions! Experienced users love to help newbies.

7. Set aside some time weekly, 30-60 minutes to seek out people to follow and friend.

8. Be gracious. Send thank yous to people who repeat your messages.

9. Tend your social network account(s) daily, whenever possible. Each day you miss, you will lose a bit of momentum. 15 minutes is all it takes, really.

10. Be prepared to adapt as the social networks grow and change.

I’ll mention that Facebook is in the midst of rolling out its new Timeline design. Both personal profiles and business (author) pages are changing. You can read a full article on it on Author E.M.S., the online business resource library for authors.

I hope some of that was helpful. I’m happy to field any other questions you might have about social media—so, tell me, what’s your biggest fear or frustration with social networks?

Visit Amy online at her website, Magical Musings, Facebook, Twitter and/or GoodReads.

 

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Do You Have Klout? How to Measure Your Online Influence

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I have been hearing about Klout.com for awhile, and I’ve been seeing those +K tweets on Twitter and wondering what that was all about. Well, now I have a new social media addiction thanks to my friend, LaShanda Henry of Sistasense.tv. She talked about Klout.com in a the SistaSense Circle group coaching program that I belong to.

Klout is a social media site that measures and identifies your social influence in social media. You can join for free and set up a profile. You give the app permission to link to your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles and then it uses that information to give you a score between 1 and 100. When I first joined Klout back in July I had a score of 38. Today my Klout score is 51–solidly in the middle of the pack.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about Klout yet, but I am learning about how it works and how I can leverage its features to get more exposure online.

One of the fun features is the ability that I mentioned earlier, which is to give people “+K’s,” which is kind of like the “thumbs up,” that the “Like” button on Facebook represents.

You can give people a +K to show your appreciation if they shared some of your content with their network, or if they shared something of someone else’s that you found useful. A +K can serve as a thank you for being helpful to you, or as an encouragement to keep up the good work they’ve been doing, or if they have influenced you in some way. +K is not about boosting your Klout score. It’s just about providing a medium for users to engage and build community around their topics of interest.

  • Here’s how to give your peeps a +K on Klout:
  • Log in to your Klout.com account
  • Type in the Twitter.com username of the person you’d like to give a +K to
  • Now you will see their Klout profile. In the area where it lists what that person is influential about, click on the “see all. . .” link. Now you’ll find a list of their topics and you’ll see the “Give +K” button to the right of each topic.

Once you’ve given them a +K you can then Tweet about it, or post a Facebook status update about it.

So far I’m finding Klout to be fun. I guess if and when I manage to boost my score beyond 51 I will see if it does anything to drive more traffic to my site, or increase my social medial following.

If you’re on Klout and want me to +K you, leave a comment. My Twitter username is @evelynwrites if you feel like returning the favor.

Facebook Boundaries–Separate Your Personal and Business Lives or Mix it Up?

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Now that Facebook has become such a fixture in both the business and personal lives of hundreds of millions of us around the globe, the question of how to keep your business and personal worlds from colliding on Facebook is one that eventually pops up.

Create a company Facebook Page
The first step is to follow Facebook’s terms of service and use a free fan page or company page to do business on Facebook, and use your personal profile for communicating with your friends and family. Yes, the personal profile is far better suited to engaging with your audience, but there’s no use investing a lot of time and effort building up a business following on your personal profile if it will get you shut down. I personally know of at least one author and speaker who had a huge Facebook following on her personal profile and Facebook shut her down completely.

Once you’ve created your company page, the best way to get an initial influx of ‘Likes,’ is to invite your friends to ‘Like’ your company page. But first you’ll want to get a nice supply of posts in there so that they have something interesting to read and comment on.

Segment your friends into lists
If your Facebook profile is anything like mine, it’s a mixture of family, friends, former co-workers, current business contacts and other random people. In order to create some kind of boundary–if that is what you want to do–you can first segment your people into lists. Going forward you can pop new friends into the appropriate list or create a new list. (Google+ style ;-)

On your profile page click on ‘Account’ in the upper right-hand corner of the page and then click on ‘Edit Friends,’ from the dropdown menu that will appear. You will see a friend’s photo on the left and a ‘Friends,’ button on the right. Click on the ‘Friends’ button and another dropdown menu will appear with several lists along with the option to create a new list.

Let’s create some new lists. You may have current customers and clients, colleagues and prospective customers as Facebook friends. You can decide how you are going to divide people up. Give each list a name and then as you go down your list of friends, click on which list you are going to add them to. Be mindful that when you create these lists that Facebook will sometimes send them a notification that they have been added to a particular list. Just be careful what you name your lists and this information is not for your eyes only.

Choosing who sees which status updates
Now that you have placed your friends in lists you can decide who sees specific status updates. When you send a notification about a company event, your aunt Sadie in Buffalo doesn’t need to see that.

When you click on the box on your profile that asks, “What’s on your mind?” you’ll see a down arrow to the left of the ‘Post’ button. When you click on that down arrow a dropdown menu appears allowing you to select which list you want this update to go to.

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of segmenting your Facebook friends into separate lists, or if you are of the mind that you are your brand and that personal and business can mingle happily, then you might want to send a note to those contacts who are interested in your business activities inviting them to join your company page and include a link to it.

Of course, who knows how long these instructions will be valid because Facebook is constantly changing its layout and features, which should serve as a reminder that you don’t own or control your Facebook profile, so always create ways to bring your friends to your blog or website and encourage them to sign up for your email newsletter so that you can stay connected.

Are You on Google+ Yet?

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A few weeks ago I finally got a much-coveted invite to join Google+, which is Google’s shiny new social media platform that just came out of beta in early July. Now anyone with a Google account can join Google+.  I’ve been having fun playing in this new social media space, getting to know the ‘lay of the land,’ and I’ve been having a great time.

Facebook and Twitter were my first foray into social media marketing, so I am considering Google+ from the perspective of how I use those spaces and what additional benefits it might have to offer me.  What I have observed so far is that Google+ so far has been embraced primarily by early adopters—those of us who geek-out on new tech tools and can’t wait to see what the latest tech gadget has to offer.  So, I have been using it to connect with other business people who are using G+ because, frankly, my peeps—that is my friends and family are not yet on Google+, nor do they show much of an interest in joining.

Here’s a quick overview of what Google+ has to offer, so that you can decide it maybe you want to come on over and check it out.

+Circles

On Facebook everyone is your friend, on Twitter everyone is a Follower, but with Google+ as soon as you add someone to your network you place them in one of your existing circles, or you can create a new one to add them to.  Here’s an idea of some of my circles:

  • Friends—yes, actual friends that I know and have established a real relationship with whether or not we have actually met in real life.
  • Business contacts—colleagues, fellow business owners, collaborators
  • Blogs to watch—As a blogger I have certain blogs that I keep a close eye on for relationship building. I put those in this circle.
  • Clients
  • Acquaintances
  • Relatives

+Hangouts

Hangout is a video and voice chat application that allows up to ten people to do a video chat on whatever topic they choose. You  must install a little plugin, and your laptop must have video and a mic in order to participate in a hangout. You can either initiate your own, or visit, http://gphangouts.com, to find a public hangout that you can join.

+Sparks

This is a colossal feed engine that contains feeds from across the Internet on any topic you can imagine. Just type in your keywords and up pops all of this content that you can read and share with the people in your circles.

Google’s +1 Button

The +1 button is separate from Google+, but there is also a +1 button along with your posts. You can think of it as the Google version of Facebook’s ‘Like’ button. Clicking the +1 button means that you think that site is kinda awesome and you’re giving it the ‘thumbs-up’ vote. But another cool thing about the +1 button is that all of the sites that you have clicked +1 for are listed on a page on your Google profile making it sort of like your own de facto social bookmarking site. People can peruse your +1 page to see what you like and recommend, but you can also keep your +1 page to yourself by making it private.

+Mobile

As an iPhone user it’s more than a little bit irritating that the mobile app for iOS is not yet available. But if you are an Android user you can take all of Google+’s features with you on the go with the exception of hangouts , but they may be adding that functionality to the mobile app at some point in the future.

Breaking News: The Google+ iOS app for iPhone and iPad is now available in iTunes

http://mashable.com/2011/07/19/google-iphone-app/

My G+ conclusions

So, for the moment, I’m digging Google+. I use if for business networking, and research primarily. One of my business colleagues shared on G+ that she was going to ditch all of the business contacts on her personal Facebook profile and tell them to look for her on Google+ so that she could reclaim her Facebook profile for actual friends and family. I am watching and waiting to see how things shake out with Google+. I was on Facebook for years before anyone I actually knew joined, so maybe in time G+ will gain more mainstream appeal.

What are your thoughts on Google+? Have you joined yet? What do you like or dislike about the new social media platform on the block? Feel free to leave a comment.