May 8, 2012 - Posted by Amy Rose Brown
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By now, we feel safe in saying that Pinterest is here to stay. If you’ve decided that Pinterest is the next step for your business, you may be confused about where to begin – after all, the site is still relatively new, especially for marketers. However, there are a few distinct dos and don’ts of the platform that you should be aware of before you sign up for an account.
Since Pinterest lets you make individual boards for various topics, it behooves you to take advantage of this functionality. Often, those new to the site forget about this very basic function, and instead pin all of their photos to the same board – which isn’t the biggest “don’t” on the Internet by a long shot, but is definitely a huge don’t when it comes to Pinterest.
For example, the Kate Spade New York Pinterest account makes use of this organization to differentiate their fashion pinboard from their travel pinboard, which are both distinct from a third miscellaneous board – all with names branded to match the company’s marketing.
As of January 2012, Pinterest’s user base was still roughly 75 percent female, mostly falling between the ages of 25 and 54. Most social media sites aren’t this heavily skewed to one gender, which means you’ll probably need to adjust your marketing messaging (unless you’re already targeting that particular demographic). That’s not to say that you can’t use Pinterest to reach men, as they do make up a quarter of the site’s user base – but you’re much more likely to see success if you adjust your messaging to match the overwhelming majority of the audience.
Just as your Twitter followers don’t want to see 15 Tweets from you in an hour, your Pinterest followers don’t want to deal with the clutter you create when you pin one photo a minute, every minute, for the entire day. Use your good judgment, and pin in such a way that you won’t completely overwhelm people into unfollowing your boards.
One of the unique features of Pinterest (well, aside from the entire pinboard concept), is the fact that it allows for pinboards with multiple contributors. Some brands have been taking advantage of this to involve influencers and fans in the content curation process. For example, Whole Foods uses multiple contributors on almost all of their boards.
The little icon next to the number of pins on each board indicates that these allow group contributors, as opposed to solely deriving from the Whole Foods account.
Crowdsourcing can also take the form of asking customers to pin photos of themselves using your product in creative ways — a tactic often used by Pinterest marketers in the food and beauty industries, occasionally integrated into contests and giveaways. However, you will want to proceed with caution if considering this tactic. The Pinterest Acceptable Use Policy draws a very precise line between marketing activities and spamming – you’ll want to familiarize yourself with these rules before launching any form of Pinterest marketing strategy.
Have you successfully integrated Pinterest into your marketing strategy? Leave us a comment and tell us about it!
May 4, 2012 - Posted by Amy Rose Brown
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If you expected signing up for Twitter to be the most difficult part of implementing a Twitter marketing campaign, you’re in for a rude awakening: it’s all uphill from there. Even if you have put in the effort, you still may find yourself wondering what’s going wrong – why isn’t Twitter the answer to all your online marketing problems? More often than not, it’s for one of four major reasons:
People don’t use Twitter because they want to sit by and idly receive marketing messages. People use Twitter for any of the following purposes: connecting with one another, being entertained, catching up on news, or asking questions. But unless you’re Disney or Microsoft (or another heavy-hitter), the average Twitter user won’t follow you to hear solely about your products.
Make jokes. Post relevant news stories and YouTube videos. Above all, make sure you actually have something to say before you start wildly tweeting here and there. If you’re going to try to compete with news, entertainment, and people’s friends, you’re going to have to put in some time and effort.
Now that you’re not boring, you need to offer your customers some sort of reason to follow you on Twitter. They know who you are and what you sell. But what do they get by following you on Twitter? Exclusive discounts? A direct connection to a customer service representative? Insight into what goes on behind the scenes at your company? If you’re not offering a tangible benefit to your target audience, they’ll quickly start to wonder why they started to follow you in the first place – and the unfollow with come soon after.
“But how could I be antisocial? I’m using social media!” you say. Well. No. There’s a difference between having a Twitter account and actively socializing with your target audience. Are people mentioning or retweeting you? If you’ve never even bothered to check, start there. Check. Start replying to people who are talking to you. This is the cornerstone of social media: having conversations. Most brands won’t get very far if they put out 140-character announcements, rather than 140-character conversation starters. If you are being social but it’s still not working, then perhaps…
Your loyal customer base: is it predominantly male or female? On average, how old are they? Most importantly: what time of day do they use Twitter? If your customers generally get on Twitter around 6 or 7 p.m. when they get home from work but you’re posting tweets during business hours, this could account for a large amount of what you’re saying falling on deaf ears. Your audience isn’t going to go out of their way to scroll back six hours through their tweets to see what you’ve been saying – you have to come to them.
Why do you think Twitter marketing campaigns fail? Leave us a comment to let us know!
May 1, 2012 - Posted by Amy Rose Brown
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How many websites do you think there are on the Internet today? Go ahead, guess.
If you answered approximately 644 million, you’re correct! With half a billion sites to choose from, how does your blog rank? Is your content compelling enough to get visitors to stick around, or do you bore them to sleep right there at their computer monitors? If you suspect your readers are heading to your site to help remedy their insomnia, it’s probably time to reevaluate your efforts with the following tips.
If you’re writing a blog post, the last thing you want to do is come off as stiff and robotic – after all, this is your chance to humanize your business and connect with an audience. Don’t be afraid to have a personality. Your voice is more than just your writing style. It also encompasses the topics you choose to write about and your tone. So how do you discover a writing voice? The first tip is to start writing the way you talk, since blogging is much less formal than other types of writing. Additionally, if there are bloggers you admire, don’t be afraid to emulate their style (note: this does not mean copying their actual writing or topics, which is plagiarism).
You know the saying: two heads are better than one. If you’re struggling with content creation, brainstorming with other members of your company can help you develop ideas. Consider input from everyone, regardless of role – you never know who’s going to have the next great idea, and it might be the person you least expect. Plus, you’ll have a much more well-rounded effort if you let everyone have a say in the editorial direction.
Examples help demonstrate what you’re trying to explain, so gather up the companies or products that best carry out the concept you’re discussing and feature them in a post. See our previous posts on social media for higher education and viral marketing campaigns. However, you could also choose to highlight examples of the worst – like we did with 2011′s biggest Twitter mistakes and how to embarrass yourself on Yelp. When picking examples of what not to do, it’s important to communicate the lessons learned and what to do differently to your audience – as opposed to simply “naming and shaming,” which your audience may not see as tasteful.
Imagine if the title of this blog post had been, “How to Write a Blog Post” and the first sentence had been, “Blog content should be interesting.” Do you think you would have made it far enough to read this sentence, or would you have already been bored to tears? Even if the rest of your post was full of groundbreaking, thought-provoking content, you didn’t set the tone for that. You want people to laugh, gasp, scratch their heads, or possibly even roll their eyes and groan (if puns are your thing) at your blog post opening – as long as there’s a reaction.
How do you keep your blog content relevant and interesting? Leave us a comment to let us know!
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