Toolkit Tuesday - 5/8/12
It seems as if every day a new Social Media tool is introduced that promises to make your life a lot easier, your community-building a lot more effective, and your analytics more precise. There are a lot of great tools out there but it could prove to be a full time job to keep on top of all of them and figure out which ones to test and which ones to forget about.
As a marketing consulting firm we use a number of Social Media tools every day and are constantly testing new ones. To help you select the best and most helpful ones we are introducing a new weekly blog entitiled “Social Media Toolkit Tuesday.” Every week we’ll introduce a few tools that we have tested and that we like (or dislike!). Some are brand new discoveries, others we’ve been using for awhile. But we’ve done the testing, so you don’t have to!
Here are this week’s featured Social Media Tools:
1) PinReach
PinReach is a brand new tool designed to bring analytics and reporting to businesses on Pinterest.
PinReach assigns each Pinterest profile a score (from 1 to 100) based on influence. This number reflects a number of metrics: amount of pins, re-pins, likes, comments, and followers. The data is categorized by which of your pins and boards are the most popular and who are the most influential pinners who follow you.
PinReach lets you see which of your pins and/or boards are getting engagement, compare that to your goals, and adjust. The takeaway here is: keep pinning more of what’s working and re-think the boards and pins that are not performing well.
2) Tweepi
Tweepi is a great tool that helps you efficiently build a Twitter community. Its features enable you to find like-minded people based upon who they follow and who follows them. In addition, you can sort Tweeters according to their location, when they last tweeted, their ratio of followers to following, and more. It also allows you to easily see who you have followed who has not followed you back (you can then choose to “flush” those folks!), and even reciprocate and follow people who you haven’t followed back. The take away: a legitimate, un-spammy way to build a community fast and efficiently.
3) SocialMention
SocialMention is an analytics tool that helps you to find out what people are saying about your brand on Social Media, in real time. SocialMention aggregates phrases that include your brand or business name in Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, then compiles those mentions into several categories:
SocialMention also attempts to measure sentiment, which is an important element that is very difficult to measure. We don’t really use this metric from them, but we do find that their other features, such as Top Keywords, Top Users, and Top Hashtags can be very illuminating.
The Take Away: SocialMention is a good way to dig a little deeper into your company’s Social Media footprint. For a free tool, it is useful.
If you have questions about PinReach, Tweepi, and/or SocialMention: Just Ask Betsy! Email us, subscribe to our blog, or comment below:
In my last blog “What is Pinterest and Why Should You Care” I explained why Pinterest is so popular for users and for businesses. Now, let’s go through a step-by-step process to set up your Pinterest business account.
Create a Pinterest Account for Your Business or Brand
STEP 1: Go to Pinterest.
You will notice that you need to request an invitation to set up your account. Don’t let this dissuade you. I have set up Pinterest accounts for numerous clients and it usually only takes a few hours to receive an email from Pinterest allowing you to create an account.
Once you do receive your invite from Pinterest, you’ll notice you can log in with either your Email address or your Twitter account. For business, I suggest you login with your email account. It is not recommended that you login with Facebook as Pinterest will link to your personal Facebook account - currently Pinterest does not integrate Facebook Business Pages.
STEP 2: Fill in your Pinterest profile
- Add your profile picture. Most businesses use the same image that is on their Facebook and Twitter profiles. Make sure you upload a picture to Pinterest that is 160 pixels by 160 pixels.
- Add a business description. Explain 1) your brand and message 2) what the content of your pins will be about so users visiting your Pinterest account know what to expect. (Pinterest provides 160 characters [about 20 words] for you to do so: make sure you are specific and concise.)
- Link your twitter account. After you’ve added your profile picture and description, you’ll notice 4 icons appear below your description. The icons correspond to Facebook, Twitter, Your Website, and your location. Although it looks like you need to click + to add them, it actually only works this way:
Go to the “settings” portion of your account, in the drop down menu under your page
name, like this:
Once in “settings” you’ll see a similar version of the following:
Pinterest has not yet allowed Facebook Business Pages to link, but it will be coming soon. For now just ignore the Facebook button.
Note: You must have your Twitter account open in another window in order to add it to your Pinterest account.
You’ll also notice the last option “Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines.” While the wording is a bit misleading, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you hide your Pinterest account from the search engines. One of the advantages of using Pinterest for business is to drive traffic to your website.
STEP 3: Creating your Boards
- How many boards and pins should you start with? In order to make sure your Pinterest Page looks professional and complete, you’ll want to create a minimum of five boards, each with a minimum of five pins.
- How to pin: There is a section on Pinterest called “Pin It Button” where you will find a tool that enables you to pin images right from your website, your blog, and anywhere else on the web.
The “Pin It” Button allows you to take any image from anywhere on the Web and pin it directly onto your Pinterest boards. For your blog, pin the image you used in your post, and when someone double clicks on it, they will be lead to the blog post. It doesn’t stop there – YouTube and Vimeo videos are pin-able as well.
- Here’s how to install the super handy “Pin It” button on your browser (note: I use Chrome, but the Pin It Button is available for Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox.)Pinterest will tailor the instructions to the Web browser you are using, and they also provide a video if these directions are still unclear.
Once installed you’ll have this handy tool on your browser bar, here is mine on Chrome:
- How to pin without the pin it button. Go into the “Add” section on the top right.
When you click “Add” you will see the following screen:
When you click “Add a Pin” you are prompted to provide Pinterest a specific URL. Pinterest will gather the photos from the provided URL and you will be able to pin those images.
“Upload a Pin” will allow you to upload any image stored on your computer’s desktop directly onto your pin boards.
- Pin from other peoples’ boards. You can re-pin images from other people’s boards as well. Hover your mouse above the image to see the “Repin” button.
- Add a description to each image. Try to utilize keywords to the best of your ability so that people can find your boards when they are searching for what you do. Equally as important is adding a category to your pins. You want to make sure what you are pinning appears in the right place so anyone searching for pins are able to find your pins and hopefully, re-pin them.
- Add a category and description to each board. The description is very, very important so that your pins will appear in search and will help people find your boards by category. Also, indicate whether your followers can pin on your boards, or if only you can.
- My recommendation is to not allow other people to pin to your boards (unless you are running a fan contest or promotion). You may, however, want to add another “pinner” (Pinterest user) to your board if you have multiple people managing your business account. When you click “Edit” directly underneath your board you’ll be met with the following screen:
STEP 4: Add Pinterest Buttons to Your Website
There are two Pinterest buttons for websites:
The Follow Button will allow someone visiting your Website to follow your Pinterest account, just like a “Like Us on Facebook” or “Follow Me on Twitter” button works.
- Website “Pin It button”. On your blog, you may want to add a “Pin It button.” Like the other social sharing buttons your Website may already contain; the Pinterest button allows users to pin and share your website or blog content on Pinterest.
My next blog will discuss pinning tips and techniques and a few of my favorite Pinterest tools.
More questions about setting up your Business Pinterest Account? Just Ask Betsy! Subscribe, or leave a comment below:
Recently I’ve been getting a lot of these kinds of questions from my clients:
- “What is Pinterest?”
- “Who’s using it?”
- “Should my business be there?”
- And the most frequent one: “Another Social Network to worry about…really?”
What is Pinterest? An easy way to understand Pinterest is to think about it in a “real world” way, perhaps like this:
Imagine your business or brand is a store. In addition to the merchandise you sell, you have a wall where you have placed corkboards. (In this scenario, the bulletin board wall is your Pinterest Account). These corkboards tell your customers more about your company than just the merchandise hanging on the racks does.
For instance, you have one board where you have pinned photos of your products being used by real customers, another board shows your customers some of the places you get your inspiration from, such as tear sheets from magazines. You have a board with photos of your "back room" employees so customers can see who is behind your business; you have a board full of testimonials from your customers, etc.
Every time something good happens, such as when you receive a great testimonial, you print it out and pin it to your testimonials board. When you add a new service or product, you add a photo of it and how to use it, when you find something that inspires you; it gets pinned on your “inspiration” board. And so on.
So, Pinterest allows you to do a better job of conveying your story to your potential customers. But what is the real value of Pinterest for business? Why should you care?
Who's Hanging Out on Pinterest: A very important target market for thousands of businesses
- Approximately 70% of users on Pinterest are female
- 50% of all users are between 25 and 44
- 50% of users have children
- 28% of users have a household income of $100,000+
Is Pinterest Popular? It's the fastest growing website on the Web
- On average, users are spending more time on Pinterest than on Facebook
- 104 million total visits in March; putting Pinterest behind only Facebook and Twitter in terms of activity
- Pinterest has 2.2 Million daily active users and 12 million monthly active users – and growing daily
Can it Help My Business? Early adopters are getting great ROI
- Website owners are seeing a huge uptick in referral traffic from Pinterest which is great for SEO on your site
- Good for overall online visibility because it's indexed by the Search Engines
- It's free to set up a business account
- Right now there is no advertising, so it's a lot less noisy than Facebook
- In terms of e-commerce, Pinterest is generating up to four times the revenue per click as Twitter and 27% more than Facebook
- Also in terms of e-commerce, visitors from Pinterest are spending 70% more than visitors referred from other sites.
For average folks, Pinterest is just really fun to use, it's simple, and it's intuitive. (I've spent many an evening pinning my boards while watching TV).
If you feel your business would benefit from testing Pinterest, stay tuned. MY next blog help you set up your account, get started on Pinterest, and much more!
The data on Pinterest came from the following sources: Mashable, comScore, Shareaholic, Convertro, and Hubspot.
Have more questions? Just Ask Betsy! Subscribe or leave a comment below:
What is a Facebook Interest List?
Facebook continues to roll out new features (the big one is Facebook Timeline) and Interest Lists are one of the latest. Interest Lists are Facebook’s way of de-cluttering your newsfeed. You will now be able to categorize the Pages and people you “like”, “follow”, and “subscribe to” into different groups.
For instance you may put a friend who is a chef, Ben and Jerry’s, and Starbuck’s into one Interest List called “Food.” If you select that Interest List, you will see all the updates from those Pages or people you have put on those lists. Your newsfeed, in turn, will become the news you most want as opposed to irrelevant or unwanted status updates.
Facebook’s Interest Lists should already appeal to Twitter users who use Twitter lists and are used to segmenting the news they receive. Many people would rather stick with Facebook (even with the changes) than move to another social network. News aggregators for the iPad, iPhone, and Android such as Flipboard and News.me are also on the rise and you can see why Facebook would like to keep you on Facebook even for your news. (Facebook calls Interest Lists, “your personal newspaper.”)
How do I find/create a Facebook Interest List?
After logging into Facebook, you will see “Add Interests” (“Interests” if you’ve already created a list) on the bottom left-hand side of Facebook’s homepage.
If you do not see this option immediately, click the “More” option.
When creating new lists, a wizard helps you pick from your Liked Pages, subscriptions, friends, and members of categories such as Art, Entertainment, Games, etc.
If you have liked a business or organization's Page on Facebook you can add that Page to an Interest List directly.
The top news or “stories” from each “Interest” you subscribe to occasionally appear in your primary newsfeed without clicking directly on the list.
To create your own Interest List, simply click + Create List.
You can choose from Liked Pages, Subscriptions (people who you’ve subscribed to already), Friends, and basic categories that Facebook provides for you.
After you’ve chosen who or what will be on your Interest List, you can select your privacy settings (if that makes sense).
First, create a name for your Interest List, and then decide whether your list is available to the “Public”, “Friends”, or “Only You.”
If you want other Facebook users to see your list and even subscribe to it, make it “Public”.
Your Interest List will now appear on the left side of the screen when you log into Facebook. If you would like to add to your list, click the list and you can add. Facebook will also suggest relevant people or pages you can add to your Interest List.
Interest Lists are still brand new, so we’re yet to see if they are a Facebook main-stay. In the meantime, Interest Lists are a great way to focus on the people and Pages you love without all the other distraction that can clutter up your newsfeed.
(Second and Third Image Courtesy of Facebook Newsroom.)
Still confused? Just Ask Betsy! Subscribe or leave a comment below:
The Anatomy of a Facebook Timeline Facebook is replacing Business Pages with Facebook Timeline for Business. In order to help with this transition to Facebook’s latest change I’ve broken Timeline for Business into a few simple steps.
Your Facebook Timeline will be the first page the public will see (fans and non-fans) so you’ll want to make sure it’s visually striking and conveys your business’s or brand’s story.
This is an example of what Facebook Timeline looks like:
To see this Timeline live click
here.
____________________________________________________________________________NOW, FOR YOUR BUSINESS’ FACEBOOK TIMELINE!THE ANATOMY OF A FACEBOOK TIMELINE:
1) Cover Photo
Think about an image that tells your brand story. It’s a very large horizontal photo (850 x 320 pixels). Do you have a photo or a group of photos that you love? If you don’t here’s an article on 19 great resources for
timeline creators. You can get really creative with this: to add neat effects try
TrickedOutTimelines.
2) Profile Picture
This is the place for your logo or an image that conveys your brand. Keep in mind width is now 180 pixels, height 180 pixels and Facebook will auto-adjust this to 125 pixels wide by 125 pixels high.
3) Views and Apps
Facebook “Tabs” are now called “Views and Apps”. You can have up to 12 of them, but only 4 are visible without clicking and now you have an image to represent each of them 111 x 74 pixels)
Of these 4 “Photos” are static but the remaining three tabs are interchangeable (the other 8 tabs are hidden but users can access them by hitting the expand option).
Here are some examples of Views and Apps that businesses are using on their Timelines:
- Blog
- Coupons
- Contact Us
- Countdowns
- E-Commerce
- Events
- FAQ
- Contests
- Twitter
- Foursquare
- Galleries
- Google+
- Job
- Maps
- Newsletter
- Offers
- LinkedIn
- PayPal
- Pinterest
- Polls
- Email Capture
- Share Button
- Testimonials
- YouTube
- Chat
To make your own custom apps or re-size the apps you already have on your Facebook page, try Tabsite.com – they have an easy and great free version for just getting started!
4) About Section
If you are a local business, company, organization, or institution you’ll ned to provide Facebook the following:
- Name of your Facebook Business Page
- Your Business Address(es)
- Telephone Number(s)
- Hours of Operation (optional)
If you are a brand or product:
What would you like Facebook Timeline to say about your business or brand? Only the first 150 characters (approximately 15 words) will display directly on the Timeline Cover Page. Think of this as your business or brand’s core value statement. Don’t worry: Facebook users will have the ability to expand the about section to view more of your business’s or brand’s description, if you want to say more.
5) Milestones (appear as updates in your newsfeed, by date)Timeline has created a new feature called Milestones allowing you to fill in the gaps from when your business or brand was founded and when you joined Facebook. This is where we can go back in time and add images with captions to indicate significant events in the history of your business, such as:
Milestone Ideas:
- When your business launched
- Your first partnership
- Your first sale
- Expanding or opening a second location
- Your first hire
- Forming a new division
- TV or magazine appearance
- Important press
All of these events in your business’ history create your Brand Story.
Start with the year your business was founded and the location where this occurred. Provide a story (optional). Think about what you want to say about the concept or inspiration for your brand or business’s inception. Keep in mind the first 255 characters (approx 25-30 words) will be visible. Facebook users can expand to read a further description. Last, but not least, provide a photo, video, or link of this important milestone in your history!
You can add as few or as many milestones as you like, and you can change them later on, too. Try to really tell your brand story so Facebook users can interact with your entire history.
You can also go back and delete any posts that you don't want to appear (ones that didn't get good engagement, for example).
Still confused? Try
Facebook Help for more assistance or give Be Visible Associates a call.
I manage many different Facebook Pages for my clients. For one client in particular (a consumer packaged goods company) every now and then a status update generates comments that really touch my heart. I want to share some them with you:
“Fill in the blank: All I want for Christmas is ___________________________.”
- Peace of mind and a good woman who is truly ready to settle down with one man!!!
- World Peace!!!!!
- For my kids to have Christmas. Can’t afford it this year. : (
- A job.
- My parents back.
- A girlfriend.
- A job. Not working sucks.
- Happiness for all for one day, even if impossible, still want that most.
- To have my dad back on earth again. To tell him I love him again.
- My health so I could spend and enjoy my grandkids and kids.
- Just for everything to be OK.
- For my kids to be happy.
- All my family together with all differences set aside.
- For my son to get his cochlear implants and be able to hear me say “I love you.”
We received many more comments similar to the ones above, too many to list. These comments are a little snapshot of what is going on in people’s minds right now in this country.
Every week I speak to business people who are facing the same dilemma. They keep hearing that they should be using Social Media* for Business, but they have no idea WHAT that really means. Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Blogging? And even if they did know HOW, they don’t know WHEN they’d have the time for it.
And even if they knew when, the biggest question of all is WHY?
There are as many answers to How and What as there are different kinds of businesses. But the answer to WHY? is always the same**:
To Increase Revenue
This is the first in a series of posts that address just this issue. I will attempt to answer the question WHY? for different types of businesses.
BUSINESS TYPE #1: BUSINESS DEPENDS UPON REFERRALS, NOT MARKETING
“Our business depends on referrals for all of our new clients. We never market or advertise. Our stellar reputation is why people choose us. WHY should we use Social Media?”
Imagine this Scenario:
One of your current happy clients tells a colleague how your company has done a fantastic job for her. The colleague writes down your name (or your company name). Remember, your best clients aren’t walking around with a stack of your businesses cards, as much as you wish they would!
The colleague (this person could be your dream client!) has no other choice but to do a Google search for your company in order to find your contact info. What will she see? Get into the head of that potential client and perform that same Google search for yourself. What appears on your screen is pretty much what she sees.
Is your website the only listing on the page? Does it tell your company’s story in a way that the potential client will see value in hiring you? Is there anything else appearing on the screen that conveys the message that you want this client to see?
If your answer is NO, then you have a wonderful opportunity: Social Media (I use the term loosely) is the way to increase your business profile on the web and moreover, make sure that your story is told in the way that will make a potential client sit up and say “This is exactly what I am looking for!”
Research shows that people use search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) more often than any other research tool as the #1 source of information gathering in preparation for a purchasing decision (even when they have been referred!).
And it’s only natural. Everyone wants to get a little bit more information about a company before they pick up the phone and call, and the Internet has made it possible to research quickly and easily. I’m sure you’ve done it yourself.
What we don’t know is how many potential clients have searched for your company after having been referred and DID NOT CHOOSE YOU because your Internet presence did not convey that your company provides exactly what they need.
WHY? Because Lost Opportunity results in Lost Revenue! That’s Why! Now…HOW, WHAT and WHEN are easy! Let’s talk.
*I use Social Media as a catchall term for content marketing, blogging, and using Facebook, Twitter, etc.
**Disclosure: every now and then I do work with a client that does not have a revenue producing agenda, but instead is looking for pure visibility in her or his field.
A frequent question that I get from many of my clients (with a lot of trepidation) after they have decided that they do want to have a business blog, is this:
“What in the world should I write about?”
Regardless of what your goal is for having a blog, my advice is, don’t try to come up with ideas out of clear air, especially if you are just getting started. Here are some great tips for getting blog ideas:
Answer Your Most Frequently Asked Questions
Think about your clients and customers. What questions do you hear over and over again? These questions are fantastic ideas for blog posts!
- For larger brands: Talk to customer service and your salespeople. They are the ones that are interfacing with your customers, and believe me; they know what your customers want to know. Social Media is also a great resource as well, and becoming more important all the time. See what your customers are tweeting about and asking you on Facebook.
- For smaller businesses: It’s very likely that you interface with your clients and customers every day. Listen carefully and you’ll probably hear the same questions over and over again.
Ask Google!
Ask Google the questions your customers are asking you. Google is an incredible tool for research. For example: Let’s say you have a business selling Oriental rugs, and customers frequently ask you this question: “How do I tell if an Oriental rug is authentic?”
Type that into Google and see what comes up.
I bet you’ll find tons of blogs and articles addressing that very question, some even written by your competitors. Is the information out there correct? Would you agree or disagree? Remember, what you see on Google is what your potential customers see on Google. Make your blog post the most concise, easy to understand, and truthful answer to the question. All the years of honing your skills and developing your expertise will enable you to share your knowledge just enough to make people understand that not only do you know what you’re talking about, but that you talk about it in terms that they can understand.
Set up Google Alerts and Twitter Searches for the topics that are important to you and to your customers and clients.
Read what is circulating around the Internet about your industry, your competitors, and your customers. You will discover gobs of content that you will agree with, disagree with, and that is sharable. (If you share content, be sure to attribute it to the original author). You’ll also probably see a lot of forums pop up. They are best for finding out what questions people ask a lot. Use Forums for ideas.
But how can you be helpful without feeling like you are giving your assets away for free?
- For larger brands: Share how people can use your product or service to get the best results, address issues that come up a lot. Even unhappy customers respond positively when they know a company actually cares about their experience.
- For smaller businesses: Answer your “frequently asked questions” in a fashion that that gives value to the reader without being a “How-To”. Here are some examples:
- Interior designer: Why Home Staging Helps Houses Sell Faster
- Hair Salon: What is the Right Cut for your Face Shape?
- Event Producer: What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Live Tweeting at an Event?
Blogging is not nearly as scary when you understand that you don’t have to create your content in a vacuum. Listen to your customers, read what your competitors are writing, and in a very short time, you’ll find that your mental idea engine will start running on it’s own.
More tips to come including using Keywords effectively and how to get your blog posts noticed. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
“Why Do I Need a Business Blog?” It’s a question I hear over and over again from new clients, and I don’t blame them for asking! What’s a “blog” anyway? Some people hear the word “blog” and immediately think of The Huffington Post or Perez Hilton.com. With that in mind, it’s easy for me to understand why many businesses find it hard to understand why they should blog. If you fit into this category, read on:
3 Steps to Decide if your Business should be Blogging:
1. Start Here: The first place to start is Google, the largest Search Engine. Perform a Google search for your company name. What do you see on the first page of results? A few listings for your website? Some local directory listings you never signed up for? Anything else? Anything on the second page?
2. Now Do This: Perform a Google search for each your top 2-3 competitors. What do you see on the first page of results? On the second? On the third?
3. Next, Think About This Scenario: A coveted potential client has been referred to your company and has also been referred to two of your competitors. You have no idea this client is in buying mode (in spite of the fact that you have reached out numerous times). The client immediately goes to Google to research your company and each of your competitors. He or she is going to see pretty much exactly what you just saw in your Google search.
Does that make you happy?
Today’s business-to-business buyers have the ability to find out a lot about your company before you even know that they are looking! Their first stop might very well be your website (and your website must do a great job of conveying your company’s value proposition within 7 seconds, but more about that later). But what is most important is that they are going to be looking for more than just your website to help them decide if you are the right choice.
A blog will help your company convey value to potential clients in a way that you control. Moreover, you can easily achieve a much more impressive presence on the Web than you have right now. And, when combined with other Social Media efforts, you have a very powerful mix – one that your competitors may already be stirring!
So, how do you figure out what to blog about?
Stay tuned!