Pinterest has emerged as the runaway social media hit of early 2012 with small businesses from clothing retailers, wedding planners and graphic designers being amongst the swelling business crowd joining the popular social-media site, which lets users “pin” images of items that interest them to their profiles. Presenting an impressively large user base, registering 11.7 million unique US visitors alone in January, this site is being utilised by high end retailers right through to smaller firms and growth in has spiked globally by over 145% since becoming one of Facebook’s new apps less then a month ago.

The essential approach to the site involves the creation of digital scrapbooks that display images under themes using images they like from the Web or from other Pinterest profiles, categorize them in genres and share them with other Pinterest users.  As the site has grown in popularity, so has interest from firms that see it as a chance to boost brand awareness. The great thing about Pinterest for brands is that it’s actually a portal to your content, unlike Facebook which is much more about maintaining a completely social experience within the site itself. This is a great opportunity to use social media a little bit differently, with a complete focus on content first, social interactions second.  While it’s simple for firms to create their own pin boards on pinterest.com, there is the opportunity to make their products even more Pinterest-friendly by adding “Pin It” buttons to their websites and Pinterest Tabs as a Facebook Page integration. So if a user sees a photo she likes online, it takes a simple click to add it to her personal site effectively creating low cost eCatalogues of all products and services on offer.

If you are considering Pinterest may be a great alternative for your business- here are a few hints and tips to make it work more effectively for you.

• Sell your products- the most obvious use for Pinterest from a business perspective is to market and sell your products. By adding a price to your pinned item, you can direct users to your online shop, and your post will be automatically listed under Pinterest’s Gifts section.
• Get personal- one of the obvious advantages of using social media is that it makes it much easier to make your brand personal, and no site is better for that than Pinterest. You can give your customers an inside look into your company by creating a board featuring photos from your offices or headquarters
• Hold a contest- there are a few different ways you can use Pinterest to hold a contest. You can pin a selection of photos, and to participate in the contest, users have to repin your products photos, choosing their favourite. Your products go viral, and you can randomly select one user who re-pinned the product that got the most attention. This also gives you the opportunity to find out which of your products or ideas is the most popular.
• Create a visual CV- a great way for freelance designers and photographers to generate more buzz for themselves. Web designers can post screenshots of their latest work, linking to the live website. Photographers can post their photos with links to their portfolios. Pinterest’s minimal design is a great way to showcase any kind of design-related work.
• Invite customers to your events- if you’re an event planner or a company that holds a lot of events, why not post your invitation on Pinterest? It’s a fast and easy way to ensure that users get all the details of your upcoming events in one place. When it comes to events in general, Pinterest is a great way to share photos and videos from your events, and get your customers to post their own shots as well.

How you choose to promote this to your fans is then up to you. You might want to link to your tab in a Facebook post to ask people to follow you or check content, or you could even make the Pinterest tab a default landing tab. Don’t forget, if you’re looking for custom tabs and apps on your Facebook Page for a more professional look, we do those too. To find out more contact us today!

Despite the near absolute adoption of social media technologies especially within larger corporations, for both internal and external communications, it seems that many are still unsure of the benefits of social media tools and indeed whether the strategy they’re employing is actually working for them. It’s true to say that social media is still in a state of infancy compared to more established marketing/communication methods, but this can only really last so long and as more small business operators begin to realise the value of these platforms it is essential if they want to reach the full potential for their business that they implement a well thought out strategy to their campaign. A  lack of continuity and structure often proves self-destructive, and can damage the potential of creating that reliability and trust that is the essence of what these social media networks are trying to develop.

There are the components of a good social media strategy that can help you achieve what you need to, what you must keep in mind is social media is more about people and individuals than any other form of marketing and it is primarily based on conversation.

 Steps to building a Social Media Strategy

1. Listen to the conversations – who is talking about you and your competitors and what are they saying? Where are they saying it? This gives you the basic roadmap. Market research has always been fundamental to marketing success

2. Analyze the content- from listening to these conversations analyse the content- Identify influencers, gaps, threats and opportunities. How can you effectively divide your time and resources so that you participate in the places that make the most sense for your business? Once you know where the majority of the conversations take place, and which groups you need to concentrate on, you can sensibly allocate your resources for best ROI.

3. Brainstorm and integrate ideas- Based on all the information you have, you should be able to align your social media intelligence with other research and align your goals to the business goals.

4. Set Goals- Listening to the online conversation allows you to tap into what people are interested in right now, what they talk about, and what they like and dislike. This information will give you insights that lead to the goals you should pursue. First, determine your benchmarks so that you know what you’re potentially aiming for and measuring yourself against. Looking at what others in your industry are doing helps you to establish benchmarks and set realistic goals for your business- this may regard improving brand reputation and  building awareness.

5. Define metrics and benchmarks- Examples of Statistics include number of ;  positive brand mentions per week, comments on blog posts, retweets, clicks on links posted on Twitter, visitors to the website, followers on Twitter, coupon downloads

6.Develop a content strategy-  This is to be based on what you have found. Success in social media depends on the quality of your content. Quality content engages people. In social media, people are creating, reading, saving, tagging, and sharing quality content. If you don’t produce the kind of content they value, it won’t be re‐published or shared.

7. Create a tactical plan for implementation and choose the right social media tools- Social Media has matured and most companies are expected to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. However, there may be other social sites you need to include for your business. Bear in mind that each platform requires its own strategy and you need to know where to allocate resources.

8. Create and publish content- Engage in the conversations and facilitate conversations about your brand and your industry. It’s not enough just to push out content. Social media is not just another marketing channel you can use to reach your target audience. Content should be created with a view to inspiring, and participating in, conversations about your brand. Customer engagement can get you through the toughest of times – it’s both a customer acquisition and retention strategy.

9. Measure and review results- What you are going to measure will depend on what goals you have set in the initial part of your strategy. Based on listening and research, you should have determined what actions you need to focus on in social media. Measure what you did and what impact it had, and then you can see what result it had.

10. Adjust activities as needed- Recover any lost ground. When you are executing any strategy, you have to constantly monitor, measure, and assess the results of what you are doing. If in the previous step – measuring and reviewing – you find that you are not hitting your targets or achieving your goals at the speed your desire, it is necessary to adjust what you are doing.

A well‐planned social media program based on listening to your audience will result in deepened relationships with your customers and other stakeholders. By tapping into the knowledge and desires of your customers, your PR strategy and content will be right “on the money” and meet the needs of your audiences.

There are six basics elements to building an effective, persuasive and reciprocated online presence…

Reciprocation - built upon the theory that if you give something as a gift and then ask the recipient for a favour, they’ll respond in kind. A common strategy in complementing this technique is the concept of giving away free eBooks. Here a customer  can download a free eBook if they ‘like’ your Facebook page, subscribe to your blog or follow you on Twitter.

Social Proof – As humans we often look to other people when making decisions. We utilise this ‘social proof’ in social media through indicators including;

• Subscriber or follower counts – Are a lot of people following this blogger?
• Reviews – If you see that a book has over 500 reviews and an average four stars, you are more likely to buy it than a book without any reviews.
• Comments – Blog posts with hundreds of comments suggest that it is a very good (or very controversial) post. You are more tempted to see what’s going on.
• Share counts – If you see an article has been tweeted 1,200 times, you are more likely to read it than an article tweeted 50 times.

Basically the bigger the audience you reach the better your reputation and believability.

Liking- Here we are not referring to the “Like” button on Facebook but rather do people like you and your ‘online nature/ character’? Here you need to consider being;

• Be warm and personable – Whether you’re on LinkedIn or Google+, talk to people how you would interact with them at a cocktail party.
• Give people things they want – For example, if you know somebody is looking for research studies on mobile app marketing, and you come across some information, share it with that person.
• Be polite and funny – have a sense of humour, flaunt it online. People love to laugh, even in professional contexts.

Authority – Why should people listen and be a part of your community. Social media authority can be visible in maintaining relationships with well-known brands for example, if any of your articles have been published in popular offline or online publications, display that content on your social media accounts. Highlight your exceptional achievements in your social media interactions and you’ll have greater influence with your audience.

Scarcity– is another way of saying you have a limited supply of something and when it comes to social media, weave scarcity into your efforts by mastering social media timing. Limit your interactions online, Time your interactions and identify the best times to interact with your social media communities, use deadlines and force people to act quickly by limiting how long a product, opportunity or offer is available.

Commitment and Constancy– This is where it all comes together. During the entire process of connecting with your social networks using the above tactics, you should constantly ask for small commitments. For example, ask people to share an ebook before they download it. Once they download, remind them of their commitment! Push those commitments because most people dislike their own inconsistencies. If they commit to something, they will likely do it.

To be successful in both life and business, you must ask people for help. But first, you have to convince them to comply with your requests.  Social media allows you to do that by giving you the tools to be a connector and persuader, whether offline or online. For help with getting started or assistance in improving your online presence and influence contact socially united today.

With improvements being rolled out daily in the world of Social Media- those of you who are yet to join this ‘new world’ often have two things in common… you have almost no idea where to start and there are a number of questions that you may now feel too embarrassed to ask at risk of sounding ‘social media illiterate’.

Google+

1.) Where do I go to create a Google+ business page?

Visit http://plus.google.com/pages/create to get started, and remember that you need a Google account to set up a page. Find more detailed instructions here.

2.) What is the difference between a Google+ Page and a Google+ Profile?

A Google+ Profile is for people, while a Google+ Page is for an entity (like your business!).

3.) Can I add multiple page administrators?

At this time, no. Until this functionality is added, a workaround is creating a team Gmail email address like yourcompanymarketingteam@gmail.com and using this to create your Google+ page. That way, multiple people on your team have access and management of your page is not limited to one person.

4.) What is Direct Connect?

Direct Connect allows searchers to immediately find a Google+ Page in Google search and add it to their Google+ Circles by searching +brandname. Right now, not all Google+ Pages that apply for Direct Connect functionality are given it, but everyone can and should make their page eligible so they are ready when functionality rolls out to everyone.

5.) How do I become eligible for Direct Connect?

The easiest way is to add your website link to your Google+ Page and add a snippet of code to your site, explained in more detail on Google’s support site.

6.) Do Google+ Pages and posts appear in search results?

Yes, both the pages and posts appear in search results, which is why integrating Google+ into your social media strategy can also help your SEO. Google continues to roll out more ways in which Google+ is integrated into search results, with four new developments in just the past few weeks.

Twitter

1.) Can I change my Twitter username?

Yes, you can! Simply go to the ‘Account’ tab on Twitter, and you’ll see a field to change your username. Doing this will not wipe out your tweets or followers.

2.) Should I follow back everyone who follows me?

There is not an established industry best practice on this, but let’s throw down a definitive answer on whether you should follow someone on Twitter. No, you should not follow back everyone who follows you. However, if that person provides useful or interesting tweets, you should absolutely follow them. Also, keep in mind that being stingy with your follow-backs makes you look…well…stingy. And that’s not a good look on anyone.

3.) What is a #hashtag, and how do I use it?

A #hashtag is a way to organize topics and make them easier to filter in Twitter search results. For example, HubSpot uses the hashtag #HoHoHubspot in holiday tweets to indicate the tweet is holiday related, to make it easier for people to find our holiday content on Twitter, and so they can also tag inbound marketing related holiday content in tweets of their own. Using #hashtags is also a great idea for online and offline events, so people at the event and those not in attendance can follow the conversations happening around the event.

4.) How do I use an @reply?

An @reply is a public message sent from one Twitter user to another. You can do this by putting another user’s Twitter username after @ somewhere within the body of the tweet. A user’s @mentions will appear in the tab @username on that user’s homepage. Again, this is not private, so don’t say anything you’re not comfortable saying to the world!

5.) How do I use a direct message (DM)?

If you need to message another Twitter user in a more private way than the @reply allows, opt for a direct message. These can be sent by clicking the Message link, or typing D Username into the “What’s Happening” field. Think of this as Twitter email.

7.) How do I personalize a retweet?

You can quickly retweet (RT) someone else’s tweet by clicking the arrows on the bottom of that tweet, but unfortunately, this doesn’t let you personalize the tweet. Instead, perform a manual retweet in four steps by copying the tweet and username, replacing the username with an @reply, typing RT at the front, and adding in your commentary.

Facebook

1.) What’s the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page?

As with Google+, a Facebook Profile is for a person, while a Facebook Page is for an entity, like your company.

2.) Oops, I set up a profile instead! Can I transfer it to a page?

Yes, Facebook released a Profile to Business Page Migration Tool this year that lets you do this without losing followers or alerting them of the change. However, your page content and photos are not migrated over. If you have fewer than 100 friends, you also have the option to rename your business page.

3.) When I set up my Facebook Page, can it have more than one administrator?

Yes, as long as each administrator has their own Facebook account. Go to ‘Applications,’ then select ‘Page Manager’ to add someone else as a page administrator.

4.) How do I claim my page’s vanity URL?

First, you need to have at least 25 Likes (fans) for your page. Once you reach this milestone, go to http://facebook.com/username, click ‘Select a Username,’ enter your desired username, press ‘Check Availability,’ and confirm your username once you find the one you like.

LinkedIn

1.) Can I customize the anchor text in the ‘Websites’ section of my profile? How?

Yes, and you should, because inbound links to your website with good anchor text drive more traffic. To do so, click ‘Edit’ next to the ‘Website’ field on your profile, and select ‘Other’ in the dropdown menu to customize the anchor text.

2.) Can I message people on LinkedIn if we’re not connected?

You can only message people if you have a first degree connection with them or you hold a Premium (paid) account. If you do have a Premium Account, you can do it using OpenLink if the user you’re attempting to message allows it.

3.) How can I see who is viewing my profile?

You can only see who is viewing your profile if you let them see when you view theirs. To allow this, click ‘Settings’ and select “See what others see when you’ve viewed their profile.”

4.) How do I activate status updates for my Company Page?

From your Company Page, click ‘Edit’ under ‘Admin Tools.’ If checked, uncheck the box that says “All employees with a valid email registered to the company domain.” Then select the ‘Designated Users Only’ button, and designate who you would like to be an admin under ‘Manage Admins.’ Only the people you designate as admins will be able to administrate the status updates on your Company Page.

Still have more questions? Need assistance to set up your accounts or redevelop them to maximise your business potential? Make 2012 your year and contact the team at Socially United today to arrange your free consultation.