Quick Tips: Pinterest for Business

Pinterest is making a name for itself among the top social media channels for business.  No longer is the platform relegated to soccer moms and crafty homemakers! Today, Pinterest has positioned itself as a prominent search engine similar to Google and YouTube and marketers are using the platform to create brand awareness, increase website traffic and ultimately grow their business profiles.  

WHY PINTEREST

With a hyper-engaged audience of over 200 million users under 40, Pinterest represents a huge opportunity.  The social media channel is growing in popularity especially among men and minorities.  Statistically, two-thirds of Pinterest users say they’ve discovered new brands and products from Pinterest features like Promoted Pins and half of all users say that Pinterest helps them find new products to buy.  Pinterest is a go-to channel for mobile users as well with nearly 80% of pinners accessing the platform via mobile technology.  When marketing on Pinterest be sure to bring your A-game because this social media channel boasts big returns!

PINTEREST FOR BUSINESS

Setting up a Pinterest account for business is easy.  Users have three options here.  Set up a solo business account, link your personal account to a business account (you can have up to four,) or convert an established personal account into a business account.  No matter which option you use, the business account status comes with a lot of perks.  

1. FREE business account (this allows you to set up paid advertising on the platform.)

2. Ability to select a business category so “pinners” can find you.  Don’t forget to select “Featured Boards” to add to your profile.

3. Links to business email and website to draw traffic to your site.

4. The ability to claim your website, Instagram, Etsy and YouTube accounts.  Linked accounts mean cross-promotion!

5. Download a Pinterest Browser Button making “pinning” your posts quick and easy.

PINTEREST BASICS

• PINS:  Visual bookmarks that users can collect and categorize.  You can “pin” items while browsing Pinterest or add new ones from your favorite websites.

• BOARDS:  Used to save and organize pins.  Categorized by names you choose.

• REPIN:  Adding a “pin” to your own boards.  When you “repin” the person with the original Pin will also get the credit.

• PROMOTED PINS:  Paid “pins” that a user sees based on interest and activities.

• RICH PINS:  There are four types of rich pins—Product, Article, App, and Recipe.  The process requires a little extra work, but utilizing meta tags and going through the Rich Pins validator can greatly improve pin visibility and boost your business profile.  

WHAT TO PIN

• Pin your best ideas!  Make sure your pin has clear content and is actionable for a specific audience.  When users click on a pin they expect to be directed to a landing page for more info so be sure to link your accounts!

• Blog posts are ideal for pinning.  Pinners want direct links AND information so they can discover and buy new products.

• Use vertical graphics with text overlays.  Pinterest is a visual platform. Make sure your graphics always point back to your brand or business.

• Pinterest allows videos to play right from their platform.  This drives traffic straight to your website instead of linking to another social media channel. Video pins are only allowed on business accounts.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

Eye-catching pins draw in an audience so it’s important to know who you’re targeting.  Is it women, men, both? What age? Does your product have regional, national, or global appeal?  Going in with clear goals helps. Keep in mind that most Pinterest users are females age 40 and younger with household incomes between $50 thousand and $125 thousand dollars.  Millennials are also using the platform just as much as Instagram.  Pinterest makes growing an audience easy through categories, keywords, and hashtags.  Pin consistently (daily) for best results.

• Connect through Categories:  Pinterest is set up similar to a search engine.  Pinners can select categories and the platform will offer up a list of suggestions AND other category suggestions for pinners to explore.

• Connect through Keywords:  Similar to SEO, businesses have some control over the categories their pins show up in through keywords.  While pinning, businesses should ALWAYS include keywords in the pin description. It’s important to also include links back to your website at every opportunity.

• Connect through Hashtags:  Hashtags help your content perform better.  Pinners can find your pins via a hashtag search and hashtags are listed chronologically, so regular business pinners can quickly move to the top of that list. 

PINTEREST ANALYTICS

Pinterest offers a variety of analytics for its users.  The number of monthly viewers is probably the most important stat to pay attention to on your profile page.  Audience Insights is another great way to take that number and adjust content to gain more traffic.  On this channel, businesses should be more concerned with views and saves, and not necessarily likes and comments.   Monitor top pins to know what works. You can filter your “Top Pins” by “Impressions”, “Engagements”, “Closeups”, “Link clicks”, and “Saves”.  Then revamp and repost.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Pinterest is a great option for businesses of all sizes.  It offers a longer shelflife for content because content can be discovered at any time and doesn’t disappear into a newsfeed.  Pinterest users utilize the site with the intent to purchase. Cross-promotion opportunities abound on this platform with direct links to websites for quick and easy conversions.  With pin ready images, share buttons, linked accounts, and the ability to appear in numerous “searches,” Pinterest is an excellent platform to showcase your brand and grow your audience.

Quick Tips: Twitter for Business

Love it or hate it, Twitter is a global social media powerhouse.  With 500 million tweets posted each day, your business can’t afford to overlook Twitter!  Here, your business and/or brand can really shine and show off its personality.  Described as a “microblogging system,” Twitter makes it easy for both mobile and PC users to tweet and retweet short messages and quickly exchange banter.  This social media channel entertains a wide variety of users with audiences ranging from youth and young adults to politicians, researchers, educators, professionals, the news media and more!  Twitter's key demographic includes 18-29 year-olds with a large number of users located outside the United States.  

WHERE TO BEGIN

Unlike other social media accounts, establishing a Twitter profile for your business requires some additional forethought.  Without an official “business” designation, users must quickly establish a “voice” in order to build a following. Twitter has also stopped its “verification process,” so “voice” is imperative.  Will you operate as a strictly corporate account, a corporate led-persona account, a business/personal hybrid account, or a character account?  Determining “voice” early will help your business to develop and cement its personality and ultimately determine business goals for this platform.  

Twitter insiders remind us that within the account profile one should include a brief business summary, a link to an existing website to draw in traffic, and finally, a “pinned tweet.”  Additionally, don’t get too cutesy with the name, your account handle should clearly reflect your business. Once you’re set-up, immediately begin following industry leaders to build your own profile and attract an audience.  Don’t forget to monitor your competition, too!

TWEET WITH PURPOSE

1. Post often, but strategically to gain a following.  Timing is everything.  The lifespan of a tweet is about 18 minutes with 7,000 new tweets sent every second.  Statistics suggest posting Monday through Friday as well as on weekends.  Insiders further recommend tweeting in the afternoon between noon and 6 PM.  Don’t have something to tweet?  Well, don’t let that stop you. Businesses can further build their audience by posting comments on other businesses’ tweets.  These exchanges can draw attention to your brand. Nearly, one-third of users say they can recall specific Twitter posts, so utilize every opportunity to build your audience.  Don’t forget to include @mentions and tag influencers...drive a little traffic their way and watch them reciprocate.

2. Use photos, gifs, videos and polls to engage audiences.  Utilize these media formats to promote your business but also to share your point of view.  Here’s where you can really show your brand’s personality. Like other social media channels, great content begins with great visuals.  Keep in mind that Tweets with a GIF get 55% more engagement, 93% of Twitter videos are viewed on mobile, and Tweets with video attract 10x as much engagement.  Storytelling should be brief but intriguing.  Remember you can always link back to your website, blog or article to share additional info.  Be sure to mix it up!

3. Include RELEVANT hashtags. This is a biggie!  Tweets that contain hashtags receive twice as much attention as those that don’t.  Hashtags help to group subject matter together making it easier for audiences to find trends, industries, and specific topics.  When you use a hashtag, your content becomes a part of this grouping. Similarly, you can search hashtags to seek out groupings that you want to be associated with.  Don’t forget to check “trending” hashtags to use as needed in your tweets and get creative, develop a hashtag specific to your business, but don’t get greedy—too many hashtags are a turnoff.  The keyword here is RELEVANT.

4. Direct Message responses.  You can use this Twitter feature to welcome new audience members, engage in conversation, answer questions, and troubleshoot.  Your businesses’ response should be professional and prompt as if you were helping a customer face to face.  Direct Message is another key way of developing customer loyalty and should not be overlooked.  

5. Live Tweet, Twitter Chats and Interact with Influencers.  With Twitter, it’s not just who you are, but who you know.  Take advantage of Live Tweet opportunities! Look for trending current events and topics, or create your own.  Make sure you grab the right hashtags and then start posting.  Prepare before you begin and then tweet and retweet away. Similarly, you can engage your audience through Twitter Chats.  Address current industry topics and show your knowledge as a means of growing your audience and establishing trust for your brand.  At all times, keep in mind the power of influencers in your field and interact when appropriate, this is another opportunity for @mentions and tagging.  

TWITTER ANALYTICS

After establishing Key Business Requirements, creating content, and tweeting, Twitter offers several opportunities to measure your company’s goals.  Twitter’s At Home feature is like a report card for your business profile.  This feature allows you to track statistics from month to month.  Your Tweet Activity Dashboard gives you important metrics for each of your posts and allows you to discover which tweets are performing best and at what time.  Finally, stay connected to your audience through the Audience Insights Dashboard.  Here you can monitor followers' growth, interest, and demographics.  Knowing the metrics will help you to make adjustments to your social media marketing plan.  

LAST THOUGHTS

Twitter is supposed to be fun!  With a young demographic, mobile interface, quick responses, trending topics, and more there’s a lot of room to play and interact with your audience.  Twitter users are looking for the “next big thing.” This social media channel moves fast so remember to vary your tweets, take advantage of Twitter features like Live Tweeting, @mention influencers, discover new hashtags, and follow your industry’s movers and shakers because Twitter is all about personality.  Success on Twitter is as much about listening to your audience and monitoring analytics as it is about learning the ins and outs of this social media channel.

Quick Tips: Instagram for Business

Serious social media marketers know that Instagram can be a game-changer in the business world.  With 1 billion+ users, Instagram’s mobile-first philosophy allows the company to engage with target audiences to build brand awareness, debut products, drive website traffic, and sell online.  Engagement on Instagram is high, its users are brand loyal and extremely hashtag and trend-savvy. Key demographics for this social media channel are 18-24 years olds, with most users under age 35—all with money to spend.  80 percent of all accounts follow businesses on Instagram, making it worth the time and energy for companies of all sizes to utilize this social media channel!

GETTING STARTED

The Instagram audience is 70 percent more likely to buy via mobile and nearly 40 percent of online users utilize Instagram.  Instagram makes it easy to create and maintain a FREE business profile, but it’s not enough just to set up an account.  While business accounts are automatically set to “public,” allowing billions of potential likes, views, and visits from around the globe, smart marketers build their profile section, do their research and study their competition.  

1. Build Profile:  Include contact information, physical location, website address and utilize business-only options like corresponding buttons.  Be sure to select your category, giving you a leg up in reaching out to potential customers searching for your business type. Make sure you offer clear branding for your company allowing your business to reach new audiences.

2. Research:  Determine who your customers are and who currently follows/buys from you.  Age, socioeconomic background, interests, region, etc. You can gain a lot of infor from audience insights on your other social media channels, too. Keep in mind the under 35 demographic.

3. Study Your Competition:  Don’t be afraid to get nosy.  Various apps and websites exist to help you hone in on keywords and hashtags.  Follow your competitors and take advantage of the “similar accounts” page recommended by Instagram to expand your audience and grow your page followers.  

Each of these points will help you as you set Key Business Requirements and Key Performance Indicators for your business and Instagram account.  Make sure you establish upfront the type of metrics you will follow to measure success.

BUILDING AN AUDIENCE

Unlike other social media channels built around groups and friends, Instagram offers an explore feature, additional search options and advanced insights for business accounts to further build a following.  Here you can see your content rated from most viewed posts, activity insights (like interactions, discovery, reach and impressions,) as well as an audience tab. It’s important to note here that Instagram only measures your audience insights once you obtain 100 followers, so this is an important threshold to reach.  

1. Engage with the right people through the right hashtags. Select hashtags relevant to your product/service/brand.

2. Take advantage of “suggested” accounts.  Follow and engage with these accounts for audience growth.

3. Use the “places” search option to zone in on key event venues, cities, and regions where your target audience can be found.

4. Utilize the explore feature to browse by categories—this one is BIG. Find related categories, influencers, and accounts and tag them in your own posts expanding your audience reach.

5. Capitalize on established connections.  Instagram offers ready-made audience builders through the setting tab.  Choose Close Friends, Discover People, and connect through Facebook options.  

Throughout this audience building process “like, follow, comment” and “message” personal and business accounts to grow your own following.  Statistics show that the more you engage on the platform the more opportunities you have to grow your account.  

CONTENT CREATION AND AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

Now that you’ve found your audience, create content that will pique your audiences’ interest, meet customers' needs, tell a compelling story, entertain, and otherwise build your brand.  Instagram is mobile and visually driven. Audiences respond to aesthetically pleasing photography (think Kylie Jenner,) infographics, and videos. This social channel moves fast and caters to a young demographic, so it’s important to make sure your content is captivating from the get-go!  You’ve researched your audience, tapped into their passions and further established relationships between brand and audience. When it comes to engagement, take advantage of the best Instagram features.

1. Posts:  Compelling images with catchy captions that can quickly tell a story.  Include hashtags.

2. Instagram Stories:  Creative and longer interactive narrative via the stories feature.  Stories run from one image to the next. Use this for product demos, to ask questions, to create polls, share music, go live, and draw your audience back to your website with Call to Action buttons.  

3. IGTV:  IGTV is connected to the Instagram platform and offers new opportunities to connect with your target audience.  The video is in the vertical format, making it eye-catching and different from other social media channels.  Businesses can use up to 60 minutes of video. Apps allow for editing and text options, as well. A great option for how-to videos, to showcase feature products, and hosting FAQs.

AUDIENCE ANALYSIS & INSIGHTS

Finally, evaluate your audience growth and engagement.  Here’s where the rubber meets the road. Are you growing your number of followers, utilizing the right hashtags, consistently engaging with the audience, and posting relevant content for the 35 and under crowd on a daily basis?  Instagram offers helpful Insights to analyze success. Your business account keeps a log of Feed Posts, Stories, Promotions and an Archive allowing you to review your best efforts and explore audience participation allowing you to grow your business.

Quick Tips: Facebook for Small Businesses

Compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing offers new, and relatively, inexpensive ways to grow businesses of all sizes.  So it’s no surprise that companies around the globe turn to social media giant Facebook first as a central part of their marketing plan. The numbers don’t lie.  Facebook touts itself as the most prominent social media channel globally with more than 2 billion monthly average users.  It reaches 20% of the world population with the average user spending at least an hour every day on the platform.  Today more than 65 million businesses use Facebook Pages and more than six million advertisers are actively promoting their company on Facebook right now.  Basically, a large chunk of the world’s buying population is on Facebook, and if your business isn’t—it should be!

BASICS

One of the keys to Facebook’s success is that it’s extremely user-friendly and customizable.  Creating a business page is similar to setting up a personal Facebook profile, but with several additional perks.  Page owners can tailor their business page by adding a logo and cover photo, including vital information in the “about” section, and linking to their company website or other social media channels.  Through the creation of a business page, friends, followers, clients, and potential customers can receive news, updates, and exclusive offers via a simple post. Content creators can (and should) add images or graphics to their posts to further appeal to their audiences, but these basics merely serve as a starting point as Facebook offers so much more!

TARGETING AUDIENCES

Your business can’t grow without customers and great business content needs an audience.  Facebook is here to help! Another feature available via this channel is the ability to find and engage with a target group inside and outside of your page.  Using business.facebook.com, business page owners can explore Audience Insights.  Now, instead of being limited to an audience of friends and existing customers, businesses can obtain demographic and behavioral data about their audience as well as their competitors in order to generate new customers.  Audience Insights can be an important tool in determining the type of content that your audience wants. Business page owners also have the ability to invite people to their page as a way of expanding their reach. Here a personal invitation can go a long way!  Through Facebook Notifications, a business page owner can see the profile of someone who has “liked” a post and then send that user a message to “like” the page and see future posts as well.

ENGAGING CUSTOMERS

Engaging with customers has never been easier.  Similar to a Facebook personal profile, users are encouraged to like, share and comment on a post.  Smart business page owners can interact with customers here, create contests, offer polls and quizzes, “caption this image” post and “fill in the blank” posts.  Another great way to engage customers is to share User Generated Content (UGC) to your page.  People love to see their photos shared on a large platform and, like social media influencers, UGC can grow your brand!  Page owners can also utilize Call To Action buzzwords encouraging current followers to like, share and invite their friends to your page. It’s important to remember that Facebook rates a page’s response time to Messages so engaging with customers quickly is key.  

VIDEO

Video content is king on social media and Facebook has seen great success with its “go live” feature.  Facebook Live videos are watched 3x longer than standard videos and 54% of users say they want to see more video content from marketers.  Statistics like these are good news for social media marketers who are looking to connect with their audience in real-time.  Additional ideas for video use include adding a featured video on your page and utilizing video within Facebook stories.  Marketers can also create Facebook 360 videos allowing for virtual reality as a communication and social interaction tool.  These types of video content can be leveraged through Facebook features like events, promotions, reminders, and links drawing in your audience for a “must-see” presentation.

FEATURES

Business owners can also utilize Groups, the Facebook Marketplace, and the Jobs Board as a part of their overall social media marketing plan.   Through Groups, there is the potential to grow your business page audience and subsequently find new clients and customers through interaction and discussion.  Through the utilization of Facebook Stories, a business page can create still images and mini-vignette videos that capture the attention of their audience, too.  Stickers, emojis, text and CTAs can also be added as well as direct links to a company website. Facebook has also made moving between social media channels easier through its acquisition of Instagram.  Now business owners can connect the two platforms and post both stories and posts simultaneously, saving time. Furthermore, Facebook increased the capabilities of its Messenger service whereby business owners can send automatic messages to subscribers to receive “insider” information and deals thus creating its own “insider” club vibe.  

AD CAMPAIGN

Social media managing tools like Hootsuite and Buffer offer great blogs to help business owners optimize their Facebook Ad campaigns.  Knowing the different types of ads available goes a long way in creating a strategy. Link click ads, video ads, boosted page posts, page like ads, and even Messenger ads are a few great examples of where to start.  Once an ad is created, business owners can then choose a target audience based on several criteria:  people who like the page, people who like the page and their friends, keyword, demographics, and target location among others.  Finally, business page owners can choose the duration and budget for the ad.  

ANALYTICS

In order to measure your business page’s Return on Investment (ROI,) you must review the analytics.  Page owners have an opportunity to review ad performance during and at the end of their ad campaign with Facebook analytics doing all the work.  Business owners have access to in-app performance graphs and charts. This allows for tweaking the ad (if needed) and noting any changes that can or should be made before the next ad campaign begins.  These ready made tools are key.

Facebook has rolled out the red carpet for business owners and marketers over the last few years and even offers tips through its own sponsored ad posts.  Using Facebook’s many options for creating, maintaining and engaging audiences helps marketers to create concrete goals and ultimately measure the success (or failure) of their ad campaign all within one social media channel.  

Identifying KBRs & KPIs for Effective Digital Marketing

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

An effective digital marketing strategy has clear goals and outlines the metrics needed to meet these targets.

• Key Business Requirements (KBRs) identify business goals and expectations.  They outline a purpose and help to map out priorities.

• KBRs are an important FIRST STEP in a digital marketing strategy.

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) determine the metrics you will use to measure how well you’re meeting these objectives.

This distinction is important because in today’s business climate we have access to an incredible amount of data.  While this is ideal, if we’re not paying attention to the metrics that will help our company to meet its goals, it doesn’t really amount to much. For example, monitoring “likes” on a social media platform only helps us move product if we can get the consumer to the website where a purchase can be made. However, if your goal is brand awareness then the “likes” become valuable information. Without these objectives, we’re basically just collecting meaningless stats with no end result in mind. Creating a chart with clear KBIs and KPIs can help. This approach maps out a digital marketing strategy where business owners, stakeholders, and marketers can all see the objectives and the measurements required to reach their goals.