9 Proven Ways for Businesses to Attract Attention on Pinterest

By now you’ve probably heard plenty about Pinterest — the new social media platform that acts like a virtual pinboard. Pinterest lets users pull photos and other content from the web to “pin” on their own “board,” organizing their favorite online content and making it all easily shareable.

America’s now 3rd most popular social media darling at 104 Million visits in March 2012, behind Facebook (700 Billion visits) and Twitter (182 Million), can also be an attractive proposition for small businesses who want to get the word out about their products.

Source: Experian Hitwise

Why You Can’t Afford To Ignore Pinterest:  

• Pinterest grew to 10 million users faster than any other independent website in history.
• According to Mashable.com, most users are spending more time on Pinterest than Facebook.
• Nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors.
• Daily users have increased by more than 145% since the start of 2012

Here’s What Pinterest Can Do For Your Business:

• Drive a massive and consistant stream of quality traffic to your site.
• Sends quality traffic that can turn into more sales.  In the last six months, the retail deal site ideeli.com has seen a 446% increase in traffic from Pinterest and sales resulting from those visits have increased by 500%.
• Provides a platform to establish your credibility, build relationships with prospective customers, and become a leader in your industry. 

“A Pinterest board is a screamingly obvious setup for an online catalog.

Click a Photo and Jump to a Page where you can buy it.”

New York Times



Here are nine proven ways to attract the attention of your target market, improve your click-throughs, and spread the word about a new product or service:

  

1. Spend the time

Like any social network, and maybe even more with this demographic, Pinterest.com requires an investment in time. Jason White, who owns Quality Woven Labels, says one key is to build relationships with those who are known for quality “pins” at the site. He says, once these movers and shakers get to know you and your business, they will be more likely to post about your product. White says to focus on the users who get the most likes and repins.

  

"All of these repins and likes share a common interest, making it easier to take the conversation to Twitter or Facebook to nurture the relationship," he says. "Like everything else, be real and show your true self. Authenticity is hugely important."

  

2. Keep it simple

The main appeal of Pinterest is that the site is exceptionally easy to use. Everyone has a “board” where they pin images that are all the same size. Hana Abaza, the co-founder and CEO of Wedding Republic, says it's best to mimic Pinterest's uncluttered aesthetic, so she creates boards that are clean and elegant looking. Each pinned photo includes one link back to her site (you click once to see the pin page, and again to see the source site). Abaza says Pinterest dramatically boosted page views. Through her social media efforts she saw a 75 percent increase in traffic, with Pinterest generating most of that.

  

3. Connect your physical presence with your online presence

It’s important to connect the dots between a physical location and your Pinterest page. Becca Bijoch does public relations for the Minneapolis store Creative Kidstuff. Often the physical store will feature online ads and Pinterest promotions. Soon the company website will feature Pinterest buttons. So far, the campaign has yielded about 150 extra page views directly from Pinterest and two direct sales. Not astounding, but that's only after using the site for about 30 days.

  

4. Make sure your business is a match

This tip might seem obvious, but Pinterest caters to those looking for recipes, room décor, and do-it-yourself crafts - those businesses that flourish leveraging high-impact images. If your company sells power sanders, you might not be a good fit. Quality Woven Labels, which makes tags for custom clothing, has been able to use Pinterest to connect with the perfect demographic: independent fashion designers.

Pinterest also has a higher female to male demographic.  Some estimate a 60/40 split.

  

5. Use other social nets to feed Pinterest

The new kid on the block may be getting all of the hype, but existing social networks have one advantage: a vast number of users. Justin Palmer, the online awareness director at Sevenly, a custom T-Shirt shop, says to get the most number of eyeballs his company uses Tumblr and Facebook to point people to Pinterest.

Integrated marketing is key to all you do!

  

6. Launch a daily pin theme

Sevenly has created a daily pin to promote its brand. The idea is to come up with a catchy slogan that is tied to the organization's charity work and memorable enough so that the images get re-pinned. The daily themed pins usually lead to repeat visitors. Sevenly also posts a weekly custom-designed t-shirt, which is often re-pinned by other Pinterest users. Bonus: They come back often looking for the new one.

  

7. Promote more than products

The temptation for any business is to post pins only for products you sell. Giselle Gonzalez is a promoter for Cakestyle, a company that makes wardrobe suggestions for women, and says one key is to post interesting news tidbits, tips, and products from other companies. She says Pinterest users are savvy in spotting a board that is too self-serving and only posts product photos.

  

8. Follow the big hitters

One of the best ways to raise awareness about your company is to start following the big names on Pinterest. This is the proven method on Twitter: When you follow popular figures, and they follow you back, other Twitter users get the message and follow the leader. Sevenly’s Palmer says it’s important to find out who is “pinning” your products and to follow them to see if they follow you back. Most do, he says.

  

9. Selective curating

Pinterest caters to those who love to “curate” or weed out the good from the bad. Presenza, a custom clothing designer, finds unique products beyond their own offering and pins them. The company also uses key phrases on their board like “made in the USA” and “defining confidence” to help define the brand.

Given the current media landscape, PHANTOM POWER is highly adept at reprioritizing marketing initiatives to meet the changing priorities of target audience behavior.  We stay ahead of the trends to get your message heard via multiple channels. 

PHANTOM POWER

Marketing by Design

www.phantompower.co   

Is the Secret to Twitter Success Link Sharing?

When it comes to using Facebook to promote your business or blog, it seems pretty straightforward as to how exactly to use it. Sure, there are always things we can learn to help boost our Facebook fan numbers and interaction with them, but as far as structure goes, it’s pretty simple.

But what about Twitter? What’s the secret to Twitter success? According to this article, it’s link sharing. The article is rather long, but basically what it’s saying is that we have the same basic tool – 140 characters – but it’s exactly how you use those that counts.

A few interesting studies have been published lately that
all seem to point to the same conclusion –
the secret to Twitter success is driving links.

This infographic from Get Satisfaction shows the top reasons why people follow brands. For Twitter, it shows the third reason is interesting or entertaining content – so link sharing.

The article sums up Twitter success as seeing what works best for you. Do you get better results when you do one link a day, link to a video, say something before the link that grabs your followers’ attention?

What do you use Twitter for the most? Getting information, entertainment, interacting with your followers and do you think link sharing is the key to Twitter success?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

How to Measure and Grow your Social Media Reach

Social Reach is the total number of individuals across all social platforms you engage who actively follow (fans, followers, subscribers) your company. For example, a company with 10,000 Facebook fans, 5,000 Twitter followers and 1,000 YouTube subscribers has a total Social Reach of 16,000.

A company’s Social Reach drives the level of benefit for all social media efforts. Most companies are engaged on multiple social channels, but how many social channels are enough? There are no hard and fast rules, but the experts agree that companies should participate in as many social channels as possible - as long as their target customers can be found there and sufficient resources can be dedicated to ensure high-quality execution in all chosen channels.

Jason Falls, principal at Social Media Explorer, explains, “Companies need to prioritize social media channels by how extensively these channels are being used by a company’s target audience. Every company needs to grow their reach - this is the foundation on which to share content over time.”

Andrew Patterson, manager of new media at MLB Advanced Media, says that “the decision on number of social media channels for a company is contextual. What is important is how consistent you are with engaging in a social media channel. You can’t be there one day and gone the next. If you have the resources to be consistent across multiple channels, then by all means do it. But if you spread yourself too thin, you will end up disappointing your fans and followers and jeopardizing your social marketing initiative.”

Social Platforms of Choice

Facebook, Twitter, and the use of landing pages and company blogs are the leading platform choices for brands of all sizes, with a growing number of companies reporting planned integration of YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr and Foursquare in 2011.

Best-in-class companies use three to four social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) vs. the average company, which is using less than two social media platforms. Best-in-class companies also have multiple channels within each social media platform as shown in the next two graphs.

Measuring Social Reach

To measure your company’s Social Reach, you need to measure the number of total social profiles you have accumulated across all of your social media platforms.

Use that initial Social Reach to measure your Social Reach Velocity – your Social Reach Velocity is your ability to grow your Social Reach with social marketing over time.

How are you measuring your social efforts?  What platforms prove most effective for you?  Have you ever considered Social Velocity?


PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co

10 Reasons Why Twitter Is So Popular

I was pondering today why the social networking site  Twitter is so incredibly popular. So I thought I would Google it and read what others are saying about Twitter. Surprisingly I couldn’t find much out there so I wrote down some thoughts and it wasn’t long before I came up with the following reasons for Twitter's popularity.

Everyone seems to love lists so here are my 10 reasons why I think Twitter is so popular.

1. Twitter is so darned easy to use - period. No further explanation is required. 
2. It’s a lot easier to get Twitter followers than it is to get Blog newsfeed subscribers. 
3. Twitter is a complete no-brainer. Absolutely no technical know-how is needed. Just open an account and start tweeting. 
4. It’s an excuse for being a bad writer. Because of Twitter’s 140 character limitation you can be excused for bad judgement grammar and abusing abbreviations. 
5. Twitter makes you feel like you are a part of something greater than yourself. You never have to feel alone again.
6. For the ‘always-connected’ generation Twitter keeps you in contact with all of your ‘friends’ no matter where you are. When you are mobile and on-the-go it’s like a free conference text-messaging service in your cell phone.
7. Having lots of so-called Twitter “friends” makes you feel you are popular. How else can you make a lot of friends as quickly? Where else can you find an audience interested in what you ate for dinner and threw up later?
8. Is there a better way to keep in touch with your favorite celebrities? Twitter is an instant social fan club. You can write to them and they (or their entourage) might respond. You can almost reach out and touch them. Do you feel the love?
9. Similarly, if you follow your favorite a-lister they will probably reciprocate and follow you back. Wow! Is Howard Stern really tweeting?  He really is the King of All Media.
10. Twitter is a great way to pretend being someone’s friend so you can sell them something later. Backdoor marketing for the new media age. 

Perhaps you have your own reasons for Twitter’s popularity. Did I miss anything?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

Twitter... Are You Missing The Boat?

If you tuned into The Apprentice Sunday, March 8, you would have watched the "boys and girls" come up with a new slogan for Zappos. The CEO of www.zappos.com was the judge and selected the "gals" proposal. 

What stunned me, while watching the show, I happened to Tweet @zappos, and got a reply within 3 minutes. What I didn't realize at the time, that it was the CEO Tony Hsieh, sending me a message. 

Whats remarkable, here is a CEO of a $1B company, watching with the rest of us, probably his biggest marketing exposure (and expense) on national TV and he is on Twitter, tweeting to anyone that sends a message. 

How many CEO's of $1B companies do you know, that even know what a Tweet is, actually use it and are using it to their corporate advantage?

So are you missing the boat?

I became a fan of The Apprentice early on in the series. As a marketer I found it interesting to see so many promising young professional spread their marketing wings at the many tasks surrounding such high-end brands.

I saw the Zappos.com Celebrity Apprentice episode. I am struggling as a fan of the show with the Celebrity episodes as these individuals are not marketers and it is so painful to watch them fumble through fundamental marketing challenges.

I’ve seen Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, featured many times before and find his business plan completely refreshing. It is no doubt that his emphasis on customer service and corporate culture is responsible for his huge success as a brand and, ultimately, their sales growth of 1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008. I did find, however, that the show was either edited poorly or the part he played in the “RFP” process was below par. He did not discuss the target consumer at all, rather, broad stroking it; and, although he did mention customer service, I do not feel he placed appropriate emphasis on this core competency given its direct relationship to their success. (Note: I am a loyal Zappos consumer because of their customer service.)

Many companies are looking for guidance with branding on Twitter. To begin with, they need to know how to use Twitter, what it’s all about, who should handle Twitter (marketing sales, PR,) who to follow, etc.

Then to the question: Should the CEO or business owner also have a Twitter profile? This is a great question and one that takes some time and thought. Good social media consultants will tell you that social media marketing requires a strategy – and it’s not necessarily the type of “boiler plate” marketing strategy companies may be used to.

This key question – should the CEO (and other key management) have a Twitter profile to be part of the social media strategy?

Tony Hsieh is a highly visible CEO on Twitter right now (his profile is Zappos.com CEO.) This strategy blends the brand. This is definitely a trend we’ll be seeing more of. Tony even posted a Beginner’s Guide that can be helpful to business owners and entrepreneurs:

http://twitter.zappos.com/start 

It is important to know that while good personal branding involves self-promotion, there’s more to it. The social media world is all about “Give to Get” and engaging in two-way conversations. The value comes from not what you are doing; rather it comes from what you are thinking and sharing. It is about conversations and building relationships; not hard sell marketing, broadcasting or ego-driven tweets.

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

What is The Social Funnel?...

And Why You Need to Build One.

Social media channels increasing the venues of choice for consumers to collect information and connect with brands, presents a strategic opportunity for companies to create a “Social Funnel” above the traditional marketing and sales funnel – where consumers take the lead in finding information and content that ultimately drives brand preference and sales.
 
In Winning the Consumer Decision Journey, McKinsey & Company’s David Court shares that, in the new social and digital age, “the path to purchase and loyalty is now complex, iterative, and dynamic.” In this new environment, creating a Social Funnel allows brands to identify and have access to buyers long before the buying process begins.

The Social Funnel Defined

The Social Funnel is a dynamic collection of consumer activity across social media channels, which sits on top of the traditional marketing and sales funnel. Developing a Social Funnel requires a systematic process of identifying and capturing consumer interactions across a variety of social media channels, aggregating this activity in a social customer relationship management (SCRM) infrastructure, and continually mining this insight to deliver relevant content to the right social profile at the right time. The chart below describes the Social Funnel and its tie to the traditional marketing and sales funnel:

To be effective, Social Funnels need to be tightly integrated with traditional customer relationship management (CRM) systems to create a 360-degree view of a prospect to allow marketers to nurture this relationship over time using a combination of social and traditional, experts agree that this integration holds a lot of potential. “Integrating social deeper into existing CRMs is going to be very popular in 2011 – we expect to see a growing number of brands tying customer records to public social profiles and bread crumbs”, says Nathaniel Perez, head of social experience at SapientNitro.

The integration of social media with the traditional funnel is one of the key priorities for brands in 2011. Although only 6% of companies today report that they fully integrate social with traditional marketing funnels

David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital marketing agency 360i, agrees but tempers things by saying that “we are still early in the process but tying social profiles to CRM systems will be big.”

We see a growing number of companies starting to tie social profiles to their CRM systems. As this process continues to evolve, we expect to see social media becoming more of a critical component throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Systems that support the integration of social with CRM will increase in adoption over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, giving organizations the ability to seamlessly combine data from multiple systems easily and efficiently.

 

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/


Source: MarketingSherpa Benchmark Report: 2011 Social Media Marketing