Are you looking for a great, new way to help leverage your social media campaign? Of course you are, that’s why you’re reading this blog!
There currently exists on the web an excellent social media channel that has been around for a while now, yet is starting to become a very vital aspect of any social media campaign – Pinterest. That’s right, the channel that gives people recipes and DIY tips is the next element in an impressive social media campaign. Let’s take a look at why this channel will be important for you, the various advantages of it, and how you can use Pinterest to generate revenue.
Why is Pinterest Such an Important Channel?
Pinterest hasn’t always been on the social media radar as an important channel for businesses. However, it is an incredible channel that can help bring about engagement and revenue for your company. According to Suzanne Delzio at Social Media Examiner, Pinterest currently has 47 million users, and this number is expected to grow exponentially in 2016. Researchers believe this growth will happen going off of past analytics that show users doubling in 2014, and more people are signing up for the social site each day. This means that your clients are likely to be on this channel already, and if they aren’t, they soon will be. While Pinterest has been a site mainly populated by women, the social media channel has attempted to grow the demographic, and reports are showing that the amount of men signing up is growing quick.
As you can see, the platform is growing by leaps and bounds in many different areas and demographics, making it an important channel. You need to make sure you are on this channel soon and well before 2016 starts.
Who Uses Pinterest the Most?
I briefly mentioned above that women use this site the most, but that the amount of male users is growing quickly. However, I am going to give a bit more detail into the users to help you craft an excellent campaign. According to Carly Stec at HubSpot, one-third of users are women, and that number is up by 25 percent. In addition, 8 percent of men inside the United States use the social channel, which is a growth from 5 percent. These numbers are expected to rise, and this means that there will be more shoppers will to buy your products or services. For now, women are still dominating over at Pinterest, and should be a target audience. However, don’t neglect the men who are starting to use this channel, as well.
The Anatomy of a Pinterest Brain
When it comes to Pinterest, you need to know and understand the anatomy of a user’s brain. Just why do they go to the platform and how do they become a shopper instead of a browser? Let’s take a look!
“I’m Just Looking at Various Things.” When someone opens their Pinterest app or goes on the desktop site, they simply start out looking and browsing what is being shared. Many times, they don’t go in with the intention of buying, but, by following a few steps, many do end up doing so.
“Well, This is Interesting.” The next part of the anatomy of a Pinterest brain is that someone has to think the image, idea, or product looks interesting. The more interesting the pin, the more likely that person will be to click on the image and then the link attached, directing them to a site. This can then lead them to purchase the item from the picture.
“I Need to Narrow This Down.” Many times, people who are browsing Pinterest will see a multitude of interesting things, but they want to make sure they narrow things down. This helps them decide which pins to share or which products to buy.
“This is Exactly What I Need.” After narrowing things down, users will end up buying what they find to be exactly what they need. This is why it is important to make your pins stand out. You want it to be the winning pin for the Pinterest brain. Don’t worry; I am going to look at how you can achieve this later in the blog.
5 Incredible Advantages to Using Pinterest for Your Business
Before I get into how you can make incredible revenue with a Pinterest account, I want to look at the advantages of joining. Some people might not be sure that it is a site they can use, but there are some incredible benefits to it.
You Can Reach a Younger Demographic. Pinterest gives you access to a younger demographic, and while you might want to reach an older one, young people can really help your business. You shouldn’t ignore this demographic because you might be surprised just how much revenue you can bring in when you advertise to them. Pinterest is a great starting place for this.
You Can Use it as a Marketing Tool on Your Site or in Your Store. If you have product images or blogs, you can add a Pinterest social share button to your site. This will encourage users and readers to pin anything they find interesting on their own account, therefore sharing it with their friend group. If their friends find it interesting, they will share that pin and so on. This can bring in more people to that product, blog, or landing page, and once there, you can convert them to leads.
You Can Share More Than Just Your Products. When it comes to Pinterest, you aren’t limited to only sharing product images. In fact, you can share your blogs, other landing pages, and also share helpful information from industry leaders. You can create boards for each and every idea you have, helping to keep them all organized, and allowing people to follow the boards they find interesting.
You Can Create a Board that Links to Your Blogs. Do you want to drive more traffic to your blogs? Then create a board and link directly to each post as you share it. Make sure to use your keywords in the pin description and use hashtags, as well.
Pinterest Gives You the Chance to Make Your Brand More Human. This gives you a chance to show your brand in a more human light, which can help people trust you. You can create a board that shows the “daily life” of your company and share images or create an “event” board to show your events. Whatever shows a personal side to your business will help make your brand more human.
10 Ways to Use Pinterest to Generate Revenue
Now that you can see some of the benefits of using Pinterest, I am going to look at how you can use it to generate revenue. I will be referencing a few points from the HubSpot article by Carly Stec I shared towards the beginning of this blog.
Here are some things you can do on your Pinterest account to have a successful presence.
Use Several Dominant Colors in Your Pin. Carly points out that images with dominant colors tend to receive more than three times the amount of shares and re-pins as those that don’t. Make sure you use more than one dominant color, as one won’t be as likely to get as many shares. This will help you stand out and make people look at your pins, and then, as I said, they will share. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Stay Away from Sharing a Human Face. Pinterest is an artsy social channel, which means that people like to see more artistic images than regular. One of the things that people seem not to like as much on the platform is seeing the human face in their images. You can show a person, but consider photos that have the person looking away, with a focus elsewhere like on a book or a cup of tea.
Get Artsy With Your Pins. As I said, Pinterest is artsy, which means that artsy pins are going to be shared more than plain looking ones. There are many ways you can make an image look artsy by adding filters and focusing on different things in the image. If you are sharing a photo of a field, consider one that focuses on a flower with the field behind; just something that looks pretty and artistic.
Bring Down Your Image’s Saturation. Carly also gives another tip for creating a good image to share on the channel, which is to bring down the image saturation. This gives it that Instagram filter feel, which can make people especially younger individuals look at it more. This is something you can easily do with the editing software that comes with your computer or by locating different online places that can help.
Create Infographics that Provide Your Clients With Value. Pinterest is a very visual platform, as you can see, which means you need to have great visual content ready. However, your business might not be one with many visuals. A great way to utilize the channel is to create and share valuable infographics for your user base, encouraging them to read and share with others.
Have a Decent Amount of Pins Already Pinned. In order for people to consider following your Pinterest account or boards, you need to have pins already pinned. This can attract more people because you will look active on the account. If you have nothing pinned, users won’t know if you are a valuable brand to follow. Create a few boards and pin different things to them to start out, and you will begin to see more people willing to either follow you or one or two of your boards.
Promote Your Brand on Pinterest. Promoting on Pinterest is one of the best ways to get noticed. It is rare for people to stumble on someone’s account if it isn’t being promoted. Social Media Examiner points out that Pinterest says that promoted pins can get just as much traffic as regular ones, which helps with organic traffic. While it is still new, this is still a great idea for different businesses. You can join the list to become one of the businesses able to use it by signing up to be chosen to be in the beta program.
Set Up a Collaboration with Other Popular Pinners. You can set up collaborative boards that allow others that aren’t from your business to pin to it. You don’t want to leave it open for just anyone, but you can invite other popular pinners or select people from your business who are also on Pinterest. This can help curate a lot of content from all over and different viewpoints, giving users the ability to get unique, great content from all over.
Create Contests and Have People Create Their Own Boards. Pinterest creates a great opportunity to have contests for your clients. You’ll need to make sure that you follow the rules when it comes to contests, but it can be a great way to bring in more followers and eventual new clients. A great example of Pinterest content is Adagio Teas’ contest that encouraged clients to create a board of their top ten favorite items from the store. Once a user created the board, Adagio said to email the board and be entered into the contest, and everyone who did, received a small gift certificate in return.
Share Your Pins in Your Weekly or Monthly Email Newsletter. When you share your newsletter with your clients, you can start to gain followers by including your pins in your emails. This can help your email marketing and also drive engagement and revenue. You can take a screenshot of your top or best pins from the week or month and then create a link for people to click on. This will take them directly to your pins and account, and get them looking at your other content, as well.
Enrich Your Business and Use Pinterest
Pinterest can really help enrich your business and make your social media campaign impactful. You will find that after you have established a presence that you can start driving excellent revenue. If you need help creating infographics or content for your Pinterest campaign, then contact Express Writers. We can help you create an excellent campaign and give your clients access to great infographics.
Today, nearly every online marketer knows that content is king. Regardless of how pretty and well organized your website or blog is, none of it matters if you don’t have the content to back it up.
How does social media come into play with the need overall for content? Is content really that important in social media? Yes! The answer is yes, content is more important than ever on social media.
April was an absolute storm for updates and changes in the social media world and all of the new changes and rollouts are going to greatly impact who can see what and how content is viewed.
It is a dog-eat-dog world out in the social media world of content. Everyone can write and everyone can tell a story, the biggest thing you must ask yourself is if yours is better than everyone else’s—because that’s what it’s going to take to be heard, to be liked, to be followed. Couple the fact that everyone is clamoring to be heard with the new social media updates and you will see how it can be an uphill battle to get your voice out there.
The 3 Main Features of Facebook’s New Algorithm
What started as a fun place to stay up-to-date with your friends and like their cute baby’s pictures has turned into a mass media market and the perfect platform for promoting your business.
Unfortunately with changes last year to Facebook’s algorithm it hasn’t been as easy to get organic traffic to your brand’s Facebook page, but it is still possible to do. With the new algorithm update that rolled out on April 21, 2015, Facebook has taken it a step further, making it even harder to gain organic traffic and almost forcing brands to pay to promote their business. This new algorithm has some serious updates in store.
Facebook announced it is putting more emphasis on friends and like pages and less on brands. The new update includes the following features:
The content you care about is right on top: Your close friends’ statuses, pictures and anything else you look at consistently is shown at the beginning of your timeline so that you don’t miss anything in the lives of the people you care about most. This goes for pages as well. Pages you consistently interact with will be shown at the top of your news feed.
Less posts from those you don’t: For those without many interactions, friends or like pages, Facebook has relaxed the number of times you can see their posts. Therefore, you can now have back-to-back posts that were previously blocked from coming through on your news feed.
Less non-relevant notifications: Lastly, those annoying likes and comments friends make on other’s pages and posts that you could personally care less about and usually from people you have no clue who they are, will be buried at the bottom of your news feed, or quite possibly not visible to you at all.
So why is content on Facebook more important now than ever before? Because by placing the emphasis on friends and shoving the brands to the back burner, you are going to need every fan you have to help push your content without having to pay for it. Every time your content is shared, all of their close friends will be notified and have the opportunity to read it. Without good content, you are pretty close to dead in the water – or at least looking at a much larger Facebook marketing budget.
What’s New? Hello, Discover from Snapchat
Snapchat has always been a really fun way to see pictures of your niece or nephew or your friend’s crazy weekend out. With the addition of Snapchat’s Discover, storytelling takes on a whole new role with this media platform.
By offering a place to tell stories, users can open up different editions to see what is out there. Popular brands such as ESPN, the Food Network and National Geographic have their own channels where you can watch video. Simply open the channel to view the snap. If you like what you see, you can swipe up and view the whole video, and otherwise you can swipe left to see more.
Because what’s hot today is old news tomorrow, these channels are updated every 24 hours to keep content fresh and exactly what you’re looking for.
In today’s instant gratification world, millennials don’t waste time looking at things that don’t intrigue them. Discover starts with 10 second clips, letting you quickly decide if it is worth your time to check out, therefore not wasting your time watching a whole video of something you really don’t care about.
While this is a really great update and feature it lacks in a major way that other social media platforms don’t have problems with – there is no engagement. While storytelling and content are so important, consumers want engagement from brands. Discover is simply an in-your-face marketing tool where there is no way to interact beyond watching the video.
7 Ways To Get the Best Content Out There & Be Social On Your Platforms
It’s no secret that with everyone and their mother sharing stories and content on social media, a lot gets overlooked or not viewed. So how do you combat that? How do you get your voice heard and noticed in an over-saturated market?
Post pictures. In everything you do, post pictures. No, more than that, post intriguing pictures – pictures that make you want to open the story and read it because you just can’t imagine what that image has in store for you. On platforms like Twitter, that picture may be the only reason someone opens your story, since Twitter only gives you so many characters to explain what you are doing. Therefore, that picture has to speak 1000 words before your actual words are even read.
Share your content everywhere. Put it on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Google Plus and Pinterest. The more places your content is shared the more likely that people are going to read it, love it and ultimately share it. Don’t be afraid to share it more than once either. The more times your content is shared the better chance you have that people will read it and then share it with their friends. Choose different times of the day and days of the week to get the most views out of your content.
Write things that everyone can relate to, not only a small group of people. You don’t have to write about your product for every post, just make sure it is relevant to your product. For example if you are trying to promote new kitchen appliances, it is a good idea to post a few recipes. This way you can bring in people who aren’t looking for a new stove at the moment but just can’t pass up that delicious, home style chicken and dumplings recipe that looks like grandma handed it down through generations.
Use a consistent voice across all social media platforms. Pretty much be the same person on Facebook as you are on Twitter. Your goal is to make everything as genuine and as personal as possible. Having one voice on Facebook and a totally different persona on Twitter will discredit you and ultimately hurt your readership.
Engage your readers. It’s not enough just to have great content; you want your readers to interact. Use a conversational tone in your writing and ask questions that you truly want to be answered. When they are answered, respond! You don’t have to respond to every single person who answers if the responses are overwhelming, but at least respond to a few of them. Let them know there’s a person behind the computer that wants them to be a part of what you are doing.
Stay on top of social media updates and know what you’re up against. Being ahead of the game has never been a bad thing and surely isn’t in the case of the social media content wars.
Lastly, utilize the metrics available across all of the different social media platforms to find out what is working for you and what isn’t. This is a great time to look at posting times and days. A post may hit Facebook at 9 a.m. and perform at its best, but be a total flop on Twitter because most of your followers don’t check Twitter until lunchtime. You may need to schedule different posting times between the different platforms to get the absolute best outcomes.
More Than Anything – Interact & Be Social
Social media didn’t get its name from being a one-sided platform to share information. No, it is the ultimate in brand and consumer interaction and the easiest way to gain recognition is to be present and engaged in your social media postings.
Why is social media interaction so important? Simply put, because it puts a face and a voice to an otherwise unattainable brand. If someone were to leave a less than desirable comment about something you shared on Facebook, ask them why or take their constructive criticism and take the time to thank them for their input and look into it. Not only are you making it personal to that person, but it also shows the thousands of other people that you care about the content you are sharing, you are passionate about your product and you care what the people think about you.
There are thousands of people sharing recipes on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, what makes your stand out? What makes people want to keep checking your site versus others when they are looking for something new to make for their family? Yes, of course your recipes may be better and your writing style may draw a few people in, but engaging with your readers makes them think of you more as a friend and less as a business. Friends always go to friends first when they need advice, or in this case, dinner ideas. So naturally they are coming to your site first.
And then guess what they are going to do? Yep, they are going to share it with their friends and promote it that everyone needs to check you out because you are without a doubt the best choice out there. And you will ultimately gain more followers, likes and retweets all because you responded to a comment or a tweet. A simple thirty-second response can be king in growing your followers.
A Simple Tip: Offer a Lot of Quality Content
Someone who reads the content you share and likes it often wants more. You can never have too much content, but you can certainly have too little! So how often should you share on social media? Well, that depends on the social media platform you are sharing to.
You want to share much more to Pinterest and Twitter than you would to Facebook or Google Plus.
Along with how often you share, how much you write is a big factor as well. Smaller blog posts, while quick and easy to read, often result in a higher bounce rate because they do not engage the reader or keep them wanting more. Blog posts of at least 1000 words are more likely to keep the reader clicking through other posts on your page because they want to learn more and read more of what you have to offer. The more content you have to offer, the more likely a reader is to check back on your blog or website often to see what has been updated.
If you pair good writing and heavy content with these simple steps, your use of social media should be at its peak and you will inevitably gain readership.
Looking for social media inspiration is one of my favorite things to do because I know just how much a little inspiration here can help. One of the latest trends I’ve noticed is food trucks and their absolutely epic presence when it comes to social media. I am going to look at why they kill it on social media and how, regardless of your industry, you can gain great inspiration for your very own social media campaign from these eateries on wheels.
Food Trucks Are Winning At Social Media Content
Food trucks have been part of the eatery crowd for quite some time, but they’ve become increasingly popular in the last few months and years. They are a great place for communities to gather and make great food for everyone. However, they wouldn’t be near as successful if it weren’t for social media. These small eateries, many of which travel to various locations throughout cities or towns, need social media to connect with their fans and let people know vital information. When it comes to social media, food trucks are a great example of how to use it and just what it can do for businesses.
One city that has a great food truck community is that of Austin, Texas, where my own office is located. Here in Austin, we have websites that are dedicated to finding excellent food trucks for newbies, and also giving information to those who need it for their favorites.
And a Few of Our Austin Favorites…
If you’re ever in Austin, make sure to visit a few of these trucks (we recommend it!) If you aren’t heading to Austin anytime soon, you should still take a look at their social media presence to see just what you can learn from them. No matter where they are at, whether in Austin, Texas, such as Cowabunga Burgers or food trucks in Missouri such as Not’cho Ordinary Taco or London Calling, you can find some sort of social media inspiration. Let’s take a look at how food trucks are killing it with social media and just what you can learn from them for your own business.
How Are Food Trucks Doing So Well On Social Media?
One of the best ways that many food trucks are being epic with their social media presence is because they are focusing on their industry and customers. If you take a look at a few of the food trucks I shared above, you will see that they have a strategy that fits their service and their clientele. When you head to a local food truck, take a quick look at the age range of people there, many are Millennials or Generation X, and the business owners know this. In fact, many might just fit into those age ranges, themselves. Because of this, they know that they need to have an epic social media presence that is going to standout from the crowd of food truck businesses on social media.
Now, let’s take a look at a few things you can learn for yourself and your business from these incredible eateries and how it can apply to your business.
The Top 4 Things You Can Learn from Food Trucks and Social Media
There are a few things you can take away from food trucks, besides yummy niche food, and I am going to take a look at a few!
They All Rely on Having Their Location Plugged in. This might not work for every business, but if you are a locally owned or small business, location is everything. It is especially true for food trucks because the instant someone arrives, they will want to check in and let their friends know where they are. This is great because it shows up on Facebook just how many people visited your location while also giving free advertisement to a wide range of people you might not have access to. Take a look at the pages I listed above to see how many people are checking in, and imagine each person has at least 200 Facebook friends. That’s a lot of coverage for practically no advertising cost. Sounds excellent, doesn’t it?
They Keep Things Professional but Personal on Social Media. Food trucks and their social media presences are great at showing how one can be classy and professional while still getting “personal” with customers. This helps to foster a great relationship with people, making them more likely to engage with the social media page and business, as well as continuing doing business with the company. A great way to get “personal” on social media is to let your personality or brand personality, shine through, making people click. This helps differentiate you from your competitors, and can, in the end, instill a high amount of trust in your company from clients.
They Share Updates Their Followers Want to See. When a food truck business owner posts to social media, they know that they have to post content their clients want to see. If they are constantly posting irrelevant information, their clients won’t engage with them and this could end up leading to a failed food truck. However, by posting content that is engaging for their specific audience, they are creating a fun atmosphere that will have people coming back for more both in the social media and physical sense. Make sure that when you are posting content, you are posting something that engages your clientele and that it is something they relate to. This can be various trends within your industry, on the Internet, memes, and so much more depending on your industry. Keep it relevant, keep it interesting, and you will keep your customers.
Using Multiple Social Media Channels. Many food trucks don’t just rely on one social media channel to get their coverage. They understand that people have multiple channels, and, therefore, know the need to be on a few others. The typical places you will see a food truck will be Facebook, Twitter, and possibly Instagram because those social channels work for their industry. When it comes to your own, you will need to see which channels will get you the coverage you need, as well as reaching the demographic you want. You should also keep in mind that various social media channels do have some sort of impact when it comes to SEO, which is awesome when it comes to ranking on the SERP.
Social Media Equals Success for All!
If you aren’t on social media or aren’t posting regularly, now is the time to start. Take a lesson from these excellent food trucks and create content that is perfect for your clients and niche industry. If you need any help creating excellent, engaging social media content then look no further than Express Writers. We provide a wonderful team of trained social media experts that can create content that will drive engagement and organic traffic, helping you rank and bring in amazing revenue. Take a look to see how our services will help you!
How do you successfully get the most views to your social media updates? It seems almost impossible and can be a major letdown when you see someone randomly go viral. Just how does one do that? Did they use a different word than you? Or, did they simply find a magic time to post to social media? When it comes down to it, many people realize that they need to find that social media time sweet spot, but it is, yet again, something that seems unattainable. In this blog, we are going to talk about the various social media networks and when is a good time to post to each.
When Should You Post To Facebook?
Facebook is something we all know as a social site that helps us waste time when we no longer want to be in the office or to pay attention to things going on around us. Many office workers find that they will start to peruse Facebook when they are in a workday slump, especially towards the end of the week, according to Buffer. In fact, engagement rates on Facebook are at about 18% on Thursdays and Fridays – you know, those pesky days that stand in between you and the weekend. This is an optimal time to post your information because it has a higher likelihood of being seen. Buffer also points out that 86% of posts are made Monday through Friday, with a few posts on Saturdays. Buffer does say that another study points out that while actual posting is down on Saturdays, engagement with businesses is up to about 32%. These statistics show that the optimal time to post on Facebook is towards the end of the week.
When Should You Post To Twitter?
Twitter is a hard social media network to pin down when it comes to optimal posting times. It seems more people use Twitter on their mobile devices, which gives them quicker and easier access to view tweets. Because of this, many people will check their accounts multiple times a day. Regardless of this difficulty, Hubspot was able to get a decent amount of statistics together to help find optimal posting days for Twitter. It seems Twitter gets the most views Mondays through Thursdays around 1 to 3PM and the worst times to post are every day after 8PM and Fridays after 3PM. While this is all up in the air depending on your client base, Hubspot also points out that they can truly say what brings about more interaction – posting photos. Here are some fun stats about tweeting photos:
You have a 36% increase in clicks.
A 31% increase in site visits.
A 41% increase in retweets.
A 48% increase in favorites.
A 33% increase in changing visitors into leads.
A 55% increase in leads.
While you’re working to find that sweet spot for timing, know that it is solid fact that you will bring in more views and leads simply by posting a photograph.
When Should You Post To LinkedIN?
Because LinkedIN is specifically used for businesses and business professionals, it is oftentimes used right before the workday begins and right after it ends, according to Entreprenuer.com. Entrepreneur also says that it is often used on Tuesdays and Thursdays around those times. If you make a post during normal working hours, it is less likely to receive views or bring in any clicks and visits. Try posting your LinkedIN material on Tuesdays and Thursdays specifically at around 7-8:30AM local time and avoid posting Mondays through Fridays between 1 and 5 PM.
When Should You Post To Google+?
G+ is yet another social media site that is best posted to in the morning. On the same infographic provided for Twitter, Hubspot says that the usual time people are on G+ is 9 – 10AM. The best time to receive the most engagement on your G+ updates is Wednesdays at 9AM. You will get more interaction and +1’s for posts made on those days. The worst time that Hubspot found for posting on G+ is very early mornings when people are either commuting to work and are too groggy to function fully or in the evenings when they are spending time with their family. An important fact about G+ and demographics is, according to Hubspot, it is growing rapidly with people between the ages of 45 and 54 years old. Keep this in mind as you post to G+ and make it friendlier for that demographic.
Learn Which Times Work The Best For Your Social Media
While these statistics are really helpful, it is wise for you to learn what times work the best for your specific audience. You can give the above a try, but if you notice you have little to no engagement on the suggested times, you should start to tweak it. Try earlier, if that doesn’t work, try later. The times vary for each business and person. Some people have more luck with posts made late at night because their audience is still awake while some have luck with early morning posts.
Either way, you have to make sure you know what your audience wants and when they are online. You can find this out by looking at your analytics, or by simply asking your clients what times they are usually online. In fact, this is an integral part to having a successful social media strategy; your clients can help you improve everything regarding your social media presence. Try these times out and start tweaking until you reach the time slot that works the best for you!
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