Pinterest For Business

Pinterest is relatively new to the social media world, and you may overlook it as a potential business opportunity. Pinterest has been labeled as something primarily for teenage girls and housewives, but if used correctly it can be used as a social media tool that could potentially generate traffic to your business. Pinterest can be difficult to navigate if you are not familiar with it, but here are a few simple tips to help you get started.

• Make the website whether it is a businesses website or a blog you are trying to promote “Pin-Friendly”. There is a Pinterest widget that can be downloaded right to your webpage that will allow your viewers to “pin” your website to the Pinterest website much more easily. This is a crucial step if you really want to optimize you Pinterest usage.

• Depending on what your business is promoting you want to organize your content. Pinterest allows users to create themed boards and then you “pin” your related content to that board. Organization is key because Pinterest is navigated through how well you organize your content, so if you have poorly organized material chances are you are going to have a low number of people viewing your page.  

• Branding the photos included on your Pinterest account has proven successful. By adding your companies logo to the photos it increases the chance that people will then associate you with that product, rather then just having a link attached to the photo. It also helps because it makes it more difficult for people to steal and copy your ideas which is a real risk on Pinterest. However the brand you include should be tasteful such as a small image in the corner, not an image that disrupts the viewers experience.

• Compared to other social sites like Facebook or Twitter, Sterling says Pinterest users approach the platform with a shopping mindset. To take advantage of that include as much “shopper-friendly” information as possible, describing the product or service featured.

Sources:http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229795

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Page

We all want a job when we get out of college, thats a give in. But how fantastic would it be if the jobs found us instead? Thats what LinkedIn is for! However your not going to get that job with that nice vacation picture from two summers ago. You need to optimize your profile and make yourself look like an asset and that you are worth hiring. Its not as difficult as it sounds, I promise. In fact I have compiled a simple list that will help you get on the right track.

1.) Develop a Keyword Strategy: Attach keywords to yourself that you would like to be associated with, because when individuals or job recruiters are trying to find candidates this is how they will be trying to find them. *However keep in mind that most of the keywords you attach will be in terms of yourself rather than what a recruiter would typically search for. An example would be in your profile you may describe yourself as someone who is interested in digital strategy, but a recruiter would most likely search for digital strategist. Make sure you use this tip to your advantage.*

2.)Have a Professional Picture: This is very important because this is the first thing people see on your profile, and believe me they will make judgments. Make sure your picture is just of you, no cats, moms, ex girlfriends. Make sure you are wearing professional business attire. The picture should only be of the shoulders up so technically pants are optional for the picture, but really you should probably wear pants.

3.)Make a Vanity URL: Yes you are allowed to be vain, but in all honestly a vanity URL can really make a difference. A vanity URL is a customized link that you create that will lead people right to your LinkedIn page. I would recommend putting your name right in the URL, that way if someone searched your name say on Google your LinkedIn page will pop right up. Here is an example of a vanity URL: www.linkedin.com/in/KylieZywicki

4.)Make Strategic Connections: Linked in is not Facebook, the goal is not to have the most connections; think quality vs quantity. The connections you make are very important because they will be viewed by other professionals,recruiters, and possible employers, who you have on your connections list can either make or break you. You want high level established professionals preferably in the field in which you are looking to work.

Sources:http://mashable.com/2013/11/17/linkedin-tips-2/

Twitter Is Not Just For Teenage Girls

If you thought twitter was just for teenage girls obsessed with the latest boy band, I am here to tell you that you are mistaken. 42% of twitter users follow companies or brands. Based on this statistic you can imagine how fantastic of a tool twitter can be for your business. There is a number of ways that you can use twitter in order to increase sales or customer awareness, all of which are extremely simple, perhaps even obvious.

• Connecting with Customers: Twitter is a great outlet for businesses to reach out to current customers as well as find and obtain new and potential ones, this is in fact the most obvious reason as to why a business would want to partake in a social media tool such as Twitter. 
• Customer Feedback: Not only can you connect with your customers you can hear what they have to say about your product and you can immediately respond to them (which they appreciate). You can hear their praise as well as their complaints, and ultimately in the end make a product that best fits everyone’s needs and wants.
• News: You can use twitter to inform your customers of any news or updates that your business wishes to share. You can share any news on current or upcoming sales, as well as any new product information.
• Coupon Codes and Promotions: Twitter is a great way to put your marketing skills to use. Share  any coupon codes with Twitter users in order to increase your sales as well as your overall number of followers. You can also do Twitter exclusives, which are sales only for your Twitter followers.
• Spying on Competition: Most businesses today tend to have a Twitter account and update it pretty regularly, and because they are open to the public means you can check out what your competitors are doing. This can keep you ahead of the game a little bit, and can give you ideas in order for you to be better or at least compete at the same level as them.

In the end all of these tools that you can use on Twitter can help you generate more customers, more sales, and brand loyalty. And who doesn't want all that? All it takes is a little hard work, some followers and some tweets.

Sources:http://askaaronlee.com/10-reasons-why-your-business-should-use-twitter/

Tracking your Social Metrics!

First of all what are social metrics? Basically in it’s simplest terms it is a way to measure social media. This can be useful to individuals or to businesses because it can be used as a tool to recognize where your most of your traffic comes from, and with this knowledge you can optimize your social media to best fit your needs.

There are many items in social media that can be tracked, a few of them are more important then others and can be deemed more valuable.

• Channel Reports: These answer the question are we spending our time and money in the right place. Channel Reports show you the percentages of where your users are coming from.(Examples being Facebook, Twitter)
• Customer Response Rates: This shows how well you as a business or an individual responds to your subscribers or customers. This is important because a recent study showed that 1 in 3 social media users preferred contacting a company via social media rather than by phone. Social media is about connecting with your users, and if your not effectively doing so you are not using your full social media potential.
• Opportunity Response Rate: Sales is obviously an important part of business, but an increasing number of sales is coming from social media. A recent study found that 54% of salespeople can track at least one sale back to social media. Tracking sales and finding sales opportunities is a huge advantage to social metrics.

There are a few popular social metric sites that can help you track all of this wonderful information on your website or blog page and those are google analytics (which I use) and socialmetricspro. They both do identical amounts of tracking and both have easy directions on how to set up an account. I personally would recommend google analytics just because it is more accredited, and has more users, but it comes down to personal preference.

Links to recommended sites:

http://socialmetricspro.com/

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Sources:

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-metrics-ceos-cares-about