What Is Pinterest And How Does it Work
March 7, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Social Media
Pinterest – What it is and how to use
For quite some time now the top Social Networks we have focused on to start with have been, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn as well as Goolge Plus and Youtube…. But that is changing. We are now adding
Pinterest to the list of the Social Networks a business should start paying attention to.
The reason for this change in focus is due to the popularity of Pinterest growing and its ability to drive traffic —-In the past few months, the number of visitors to this site went up to 11 million; equal to 1/3rd of the Twitter users. Pinterest has been used increasingly for business promotion and to create brand awareness.
How does Pinterest work?
Pinterest is a comparatively new social networking site. It is described as a virtual pin board that functions like a free online scrap book. This photo sharing website allows users to create and share collections of diverse images. These images can be located on the Web or can be your own creations. The site makes an effort to bring users all across the globe together based on their interests. These pin boards can include different media such as videos, images, text and monetary gifts. You can keep updating your pin boards with the relevant links, images and text. You can also re-pin anything you like on your board by hovering over the image. The links attached will help you trace the origin of that image or material.
To get started with Pinterest, you have to set up an account with the site. Without an account you only have the liberty to browse through the activity of the users. You cannot participate in any of it. There are two ways to set up an account. You can either receive an invitation from a friend who is a member of the site or you can ask for an invite from Pinterest. The registration process requires that you integrate the Pinterest account with your Facebook or Twitter account. Users who log in via Facebook should use the “Timeline” format. The sites homepage displays a “Pin Feed” to view activity among boards.
Pinterest is beneficial for marketing different products. Business owners can add “Pin-It” to their websites. This allows users to directly pin items to their boards imported from your website. Integrating you Pinterest account with other social networking sites is regarded as a clever approach to drawing more traffic to your site.
The benefits of using Pinterest
- Pinterest has a simple design and layout that is easy to use and navigate
- Pinterest can drive a lot of traffic to your website
- Pinterest is truly a user generated content site – allowing users to “Pin” your items will help spread the word on who you are
Pinterest is truly a great social site not only for business but also for sharing likes and views. If you’ve not hooked onto it yet, its time you did. Set up your Pinterest account and she how it works wonders for you!
Using LinkedIn – Building a Great Profile
February 8, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Social Media
LinkedIn is a great tool and one that should be utilized by all professionals. Using LinkedIn can help you increase and expand your sphere of influenced and connections and begin generating leads for your business.
One key to using LinkedIn is to ensure you have the best possible profile. Your profile will help showcase who you are and why people should connect with you and do business with you.
This post will provide a few tips to ensuring your LinkedIn Profile is helping you put your best image forward.
Keep Your Profile Public
When you set up your LinkedIn profile make sure it is set to public. This will ensure that people can find you when they search by your name or business or keywords that highlight what you do.
Your Profile Picture
LinkedIn is much different than Facebook, so please don’t use a photo of you and your family or you out having fun. Use a professional photo on your LinkedIn Profile. It may be a good idea to find a photographer that can take a few professional headshots with you putting your best image forward. Remember your photo will be one of the first things a new connection may see.
Make Your LinkedIn Profile SEO Friendly
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term that refers to using the right content and keywords to be found when someone performs a search. LinkedIn utilizes its own proprietary search algorithm that produces results based on the keywords listed in your profiles. If you are a Realtor be sure to include this in your profile and the title of your profile so that if someone is searching for Realtors in your location they have a good chance of finding you.
Don’t Ignore the Skills Section
It is very important that you add all of your relevant skills in the skills section of your profile. You can add up to 50 so there should be no reason to miss your key skills that highlight who you are and what you can do. To add skills, in the Edit Profile area, scroll down below your experience until you find the skills area. Click on add skill and add away!
Be Descriptive When Adding Links to Your Website
LinkedIn allows you to add your website and blog and a couple other links, which is great, but this is often an overlooked opportunity. Instead of labeling this as my website be sure to use your keywords and pick a descriptive keyword rich phrase, like: Homes for Sale in Denver (if you are a Real Estate Agent).
Now, take a little bit of time and make sure your LinkedIn Profile is up to date and be sure to make any needed adjustments to make you stand out.
Designing a Facebook Page
January 20, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Social Media
Setting up a Facebook fan page can get rather complicated these days. There are so many different add-on's and gadgets it can get a bit confusing. In this post we will examine all the different bells and whistles you can add to make your page fun.
You know the basics of setting up your page. You add your logo, some basic information, your website. But now Facebook allows business pages to have apps. There are hundreds of apps now that you can add to your page. You can do some simple things like have a welcome page inticing people to like your page. Or more complicated items like RSS feeds to e-commerce to exclusive promotions to coupons to contests. Anything you could possible want to do on a Facebook and probably some things you've never even thought of.
Coupons and exclusive promotions are great ways not only to get more visitors to your page but also it is an incentive to get them to actually purchase. Plus it will allow you to track just how effective your Facebook page really is.
Contests are also a great way to get people involved in your page. You can offer free merchandise or discounts as a prize. However these can get very complicated to monitor. The apps will help you monitor and select a winner.
You can find these apps generally simple by Googling Facebook business page apps. However, a word of caution. Make sure you select apps that have good reviews and clear instructions. Remember these apps are not made by Facebook, but by third party developers.
SourceOne Technologies has a lot of experience and expertise with Facebook pages and applications that can make them a success. We would be happy to assist you in creating a Facebook page that will achieve the goals you are after..
Facebook apps, when installed properly, can make your Facebook page an interactive hub for your clients. It can also lead to more sales and revenue without you even leaving your desk.
LinkedIn Tidbit – LinkedIn Signal
December 12, 2011 by admin
Filed under Blog, Quick Tips, Social Media
A LinkedIn Tidbit
LinkedIn is a great Social Network to include in your overall Social Media strategy, especially if you work with professionals and do business to business transactions.
Here is a quick video that LinkedIn released this year on how you can use the LinkedIn Signal feature for your networking and research on LinkedIn :
This is just one way you can use LinkedIn as part of your social networking and social media strategy.
What Is Social Media SEO?
October 23, 2011 by admin
Filed under Blog, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Social Media
Social Media and the impact on SEO
In times past, search engine optimization (aka SEO) and social media wouldn't have been used in the same sentence. After all, search engine optimization comprises techniques designed to help boost one's search engine rank placement and social media sites, like Facebook, allow you to connect with your friends or customers in a "social" way.
However, recent changes by both Google and Bing make it clear that these major search engines are looking to social media sites as a way to validate the quality of the content found on websites. Those that make the grade are being rewarded with improved search engine rankings… even in "regular" search.
While there are some differences in the way Google and Bing are using information from social media sites to adjust their indexes, there are many similarities. The search engines are looking at the "authority" of the account holder and placing more importance on any links posted on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
While the links themselves may be "no follow" links, that isn't stopping the search engines from adjusting the indexes and increasing the search engine rank placement for the web pages they point to. In fact, some have said that it appears as though "retweets" are the new form of linkbuilding.
Both Google and Bing are looking at the frequency that a particular link is posted (or re-posted) on the social media sites and are also paying attention to who is doing the posting. If your links are being posted by an individual or business that is considered to be an authority by the search engines, the associated web page may see a boost in its search engine ranking.
This development validates what many marketing experts have believed for more than a year now; Social media's importance is growing in the eyes of the search engines and this trend will likely continue. It's well known that Google places a premium on relevant content and quality sites and pages so it should come as no surprise that they are tracking the number of people who liked your content well enough to share it with others.
Those who would like to take advantage of these new search engine trends are encouraged to make it as easy as possible for others to share their content or the links they contain. Adding a "retweet" function to your website or blog, for example, can dramatically increase the likelihood that your content will be shared by your visitors via Twitter.
If you would like to lear more about Social Media SEO you can request our FREE Report by clicking on the image below:
Twitter can be a Great Research Tool
January 5, 2011 by admin
Filed under Blog, Resources, Social Media, Twitter
One thing that you must do when you are using Social Media in your marketing mix for your business is to stay on top of current news, trends and events as well as what others are saying. You definitely want to make sure you listen for any discussions regarding your products or services or those of your industry as well.
Twitter can be used as a research tool to help you find this information. One way to do this is to use the basic Twitter search found at http://search.twitter.com/ or to use another tool that may make searching a bit easier and more organized for you.
Here are 5 Twitter Search Tools that may help you get the job done:
ReSearch.ly: a Twitter search tool designed to help marketers and businesses in general find the Twitter users that matter most to them. You can search tweets around specified keywords and filter results to show tweets from followers. You can also break the tweets down into segments.
Tweefind: this Twitter search tool sorts search results by user rank. Tweefind search results link the users name for you.
Tweetzi: a Web-based Twitter search tool that lets you see Tweets as they happen – in real time.
Twazzup: an online Twitter search tool that helps you search the news and filter out conversations.
Icerocket: a social media search tool that provides results from Twitter, MySpace, blogs and the Web. Twitter results are hyperlinked to the user's main Twitter profile page.
Get a Social Media Policy for your Business
December 22, 2010 by admin
Filed under Cool Sites and Technical Tips, Social Media, tools
Social Media is something that your business can no longer ignore. This being the case many companies are begining to craft Social Media Policies to ensure that all expectations of Social Media activites and employee use of Social Media is covered.
Creating a policy can be a large task to tackle. We have found a tool that will help you get a jump start on this process. The tool is called Policy Tool and it will walk you through the process online of creating a policy.
This will give you a basic policy to start with. When you are ready to expand this policy we can assist you with our Social Media services here at SourceOne Technologies.
Social Media Tip – LinkedIn
October 14, 2010 by admin
Filed under Quick Tips, Social Media
Today's tip is all about LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business network that is meant primarily for business professionals as a place to connect with one another and market tier products and services in a (B2B) business to business environment.
It’s a great way to connect and network with business owners and people in a mutually beneficial way!
You can add links to your websites, blogs and other social profiles. You can also set up groups that are similar to Facebook fan pages, and you can also have other recommend your services in exchange for you recommending theirs.
LinkedIn also has a lot of authority on Google and other popular search engines. If you currently have a LinkedIn profile, try doing a search for yourself on Google. There is a good bet that it will show up on the first page of results.
That is authority ranking and you don't want to miss out on it!
That ends today’s quick tip
If you are interested in help with your Social Media Campaigns please contact us with the form below:
Social Media Tip – Contests
October 12, 2010 by admin
Filed under Quick Tips, Social Media
Today's tip is all about contests:
Contests are a fantastic way to get a lot of people to join your fan page!
People really enjoy entering contests, especially if they are easy to enter and have great prizes. You can even specifically state that the prize will be awarded when you hit a certain number of followers. This way you can get people post the contest to their wall in order to get more entries, which will help the contest go viral.
That way you don’t have to award the prize unless you reach your target number of followers. Just be sure to keep the target number realistic, otherwise people won't enter because they will feel the contest is a scam.
Another great way to use contests for marketing is to actually give away one of whatever you are selling. If you have your own product, this is even more effective. Your entire contest can revolve around giving away a copy of your product, which will bring a lot of publicity and recognition to the product.
That ends today’s quick tip
If you are interested in help with your Social Media Campaigns please contact us with the form below:
Social Media Tip – Twiter Traffic
October 11, 2010 by admin
Filed under Quick Tips, Social Media
Today's tip is all about Twitter traffic:
Marketing on Twitter is very easy, but you must be aware that it doesn't always yield the desired result unless it is done properly.
Twitter marketing has to be approached in a completely different way than other forms of advertising because Twitter limits the size of posts to just 140 characters.
This means you must keep your posts very short. This means you can’t ramble on endlessly. You have to get to the point and do it in a way that peeks your follower’s interest and get them to click!
It’s a very good idea to read your Twitter page daily and respond to messages that your followers post.
By interacting with them directly, you can establish friendships. This is very important, because your followers can “re-tweet” (RT) your messages to their own followers, potentially allowing you to reach a wider audience.
That ends today’s quick tip
If you are interested in help with your Social Media Campaigns please contact us with the form below:
