Social media marketing managers are still buzzing about the phenomenon that is Pinterest. It was during that month of January that Pinterest exploded from a casual social network into a powerful new way to distribute information, with more than 10 million registered users. Retailers quickly saw Pinterest as a way to inspire shoppers and drive traffic, but many brands have found it difficult to track, monitor, or understand how Pinterest activity affects their bottom lines.

The ‘Visual’ Community

When our team first started to research the inner workings of Pinterest’s users and community of followers, we immediately thought the group was saturated with women. Conversely, as soon as we started measuring Pinterest’s reach, our hypothesis had quickly dissolved. The secret behind this community is not what is popular within the context of a few followers; it’s actually about the collective as a whole.

Much like Facebook, Twitter and the many other social networks we are currently a part of, images of puppies, kittens and cute kids quickly take on viral capabilities. Yes it’s true that throwing up a picture of the latest male celebrity asking for a ‘Strawberry Banana Smoothie’ (we won’t name names here) will get thousands of repins. The  most important piece of advice we give to our clients is that the users of Pinterest are looking to share and repin creative ideas and advice.

When it comes to going viral, making the popular page is an absolute necessity in the effectiveness of your content. Asking how to do this? We’ve given 5 steps below on how to get get your engaging content out to the Pinterest community.

1. For this step it’s pretty simple, just find an idea of a cool concept or creation that you think would go over well in the Pinterest community. The possibilities are endless; however, make sure the idea is something that you’ve never seen before.
2. Now that you’ve come up with a viral idea, figure out exactly what you want to share. This means what links, description, messaging back to your site, other social media page, blog, etc. Keep in mind if this idea goes viral, every other piece of information that’s included will go with it, so choose wisely and cautiously.
3. Now it’s time to create! It is important to remember to keep the main message of your Pinterest piece as visible as possible as it will be the first thing viewed by the users of Pinterest.
4. Measure twice and cut once. Size matters in the Pinterest world. As long as your content is longer than 2,500 pixels it will be unreadable by the Pinterest users. Anything smaller and Pinterest will magnify the image so that it’s readable on the site (meaning there’s no reason to click through to your page). This forces them to click on your submission, through to your page to view the content. If it’s something that’s worth reading and creative, this is a necessity. If it’s longer than 5,000 pixels, then create a simple 300 x 300 pixel button outlining your graphic. The reason for this is because the “like” and “repin” buttons are at the top of the submission. If they have to scroll too far town to view the entire piece, chances are they aren’t going to scroll up to click on those buttons. For me the ideal image is 600×3000 pixels.
5. Next, send the piece out to Pinerest. Be aware that Pinterest gives very little attention to their URL associated with your content. As long as your piece is remotely similar to the site and looks like it fits it will be just find with Pinterest.

Popular 'Pinning' Categories

Being Popular Among Pinners

Like every other social network out there in cyberspace, there is a certain art on how to become popular on Pinterest.

To gain momentum, we recommend to our clients looking into certain category pages to help get on the ‘popular’ page. Unlike websites within Google, you do not need an established or aged account to get the most attention, but there are some elements that will block your attempts. It is important to remember that every piece of content is placed onto the top of the category pages with the exception of the following guidelines:

• You’ve submitted within the past hour
• You’ve hosted your content on Imgur

Timing Is A lot (but not everything)

As with every social networking strategy, what time of day and which day you send out information is a very integral part of how well a piece of information gets distributed. Pinterest is no different as their users tend to be more active during different points of the day. The goal as a content creator is to get your content onto the site when it is least competitive yet most effective. With Pinterest this time tends to be between 6 – 8 a.m. – 5 – 7 p.m. EST. The reason for this is because the majority of users are either waking up or getting off work to check their Pinterest boards. Since this is the case, you want to submit your content at least one hour beforehand to ensure that it will be visible to the most people at the right time.

Watch What Happens…

After your content has been submitted to Pinterest and gone viral, it is important that you check the popular boards routinely to see if your content has been rehosted on any different sites or blogs. As the creators of the content you are entitled to every visitor that it receives. While it might seem tedious and time consuming, this is essentially thousands of visitors that your brand may be missing out on if you do not follow through.

Pinterest is another dubious social network that seems like it’s here for the ‘long haul’ and if it’s not in your marketing plans yet, it very well should be. Many social media analysts are predicting that Pinterest will double in size and traffic potential through the summer and into the fall. Don’t be one of those companies kicking themselves in a few months because you didn’t get in on the trend. Contact Triangle Direct Media today and discuss with our social media team how we can incorporate Pinterest into your social media marketing strategy.

Many marketing directors and small business owners that are a part of our social media campaigns are looking for the ‘big’ answer which is, “how can I figure out my return on investment (ROI) of my social media campaigns?”

In many of our SEO campaigns, we’ve looked at viewer’s measurement online. We are focusing now on one of the most difficult areas to track, which are of course, social media campaigns.

Start Fresh

Conventionally, businesses use ROI as part of their planning process. The question is simple, “Is this an idea is worth doing?” To find the answer, businesses try to measure the cost of the investment against the anticipated result.

However, when it comes to social media, some businesses approached ROI the wrong way. Social media shouldn’t just be the #1 goal in any business. It should be considered as a part of an overall business plan to reach a certain objective (i.e. promoting a certain product or improving customer relations). There’s an enormous difference between: “We need a Facebook page” and “We need to learn more about our customers through our Facebook page.”

When businesses try to gauge a certain strategy, they should ask themselves 5 questions to help them decide on what to move forward with:

1. How many people are talking about your product, service or topic?
2. Which ways are people are talking about your information (positive / negative / neutral)?
3. How many social media sites (or off-page sources) are working with your conversation?
4. How much reach does the followers or fans talking about your campaign have?
5. With what you are talking about, how much of the conversation is 100% focused on your business?

Once the answers have been compiled, look at the results before diving into a huge campaign or promotion. It might just surprise you that what you thought might work as a way to market your business online, might just not be recognized positively (or at all) on your social media channels.

Give Me a Number!

Many different sites (like Klout, Radian6, etc.) measure general popularity, but it’s difficult to get accurate details and they can easily be manipulated to produce higher ‘scores’.

There are ways to calculate the monetary value of your fans. You can figure out how much more an engaged fan is worth to you – such as whether he or she is more likely to spend twice as much as a casual fan – and compare that to your social-media costs to see whether it was worth recruiting them. But putting a value on your engaged fan in the first place can require surveys or other investments.

Many business owners need to look at social media strategy as an overall long-term goal made up of smaller campaigns and promotions thoughtfully pulled together with focused strategies from the beginning. By realizing the many campaigns that make up their overall social media strategy (and a lot of patience!) they will truly see their ROI climb over the course of 6 -12 months.

That being said — some tech watchers say 2011 was the year of social media, and 2012 will be the year of social metrics. If so, we’ve reached the year of the ‘true beginning’.

Many companies have thousands of fans with the opportunity for over 800 million (the latest tally of Facebook members) potential new clients for organizations promoting their brands on the social media site.  With all of that promise, it is simply wasted if companies don’t engage with their pages and the people connected to them.

We have some simple ideas to help companies get their audience and KEEP them before the dreaded ‘unlikes’ reach epic proportions.

Promote Contests/Exclusive Deals and Offers

Facebook offers you the opportunity to reward your customers and for many companies, they are rewarded in return for being so gracious. If you offer something free to your users occasionally, on the condition that they “like” your page or update, this will not only just increase your growing audience, but it also ups your traffic – your users’ “like” activity will pop up in their friends’ news feeds and provoke more activity.

Take a Poll

If you’re posting a status update asking a question, or constructing a poll, people love to be asked what they think. Giving your followers a forum for their opinions will surely inspire some responses.

Get creative when asking questions. You can simply ask about one of your products you are selling or get personal. Either way, it’s a great method to find additional information about the people who you are marketing to.

Take Action

Don’t be that page that has comments posted from 2011 that still have unanswered questions on their wall. People enjoy giving their thoughts and opinions, but hate being ignored. Reply to the responses posted by your followers. This is one of the fundamental areas (also seen as a ‘no brainer’) but there are actually an overwhelming amount of high-profile business pages that are guilty of not responding to their fans.

Personalize Your Comments

Facebook doesn’t have threaded commenting, but we’ve all seen people addressed as ‘@username.’  It’s one simple step to acknowledging the person who asked a question or offered a response will make that person feel special, and it gives them a reason to post something on their own wall.

Posting Times

Train your followers when to expect new content from you. If you post daily, or several times per week, your readers will naturally start checking your page to see if you’ve posted something new. Plan on trying to post during times when most of your users will be online — somewhere between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in your time zone, when everyone’s at work. Popping up in their news feed when they’re online will guarantee you’ll be on their radar.

Good Deeds

Your page doesn’t exist solely to sell your product.  It serves many purposes, and promoting a cause or charity should be one of them.  This activates your fan base in a motivating way, and it demonstrates compassion on your part.  If you own a pet supply store, encouraging your followers to contribute to a non-profit campaign will push them to impact the outcome of something bigger than themselves – and your company.

Reputation Management

Facebook pages aren’t the place for companies to complain about the economy or changes in the industry.  Keeping your tone light and your topics engaging is crucial to maintaining readership.  However, that doesn’t mean others won’t post negative comments on your page. Address their concerns quickly and professionally, and follow up with the posters off Facebook. Your fans will watch how you react and respond accordingly.

Quick and Concise Updates

Users like Facebook because it allows them to get several snippets of information in a short amount of time. If your updates are longer than 300 characters, your audience will lose interest.

Provide Updates And New Offerings

If your stores have changed, you have new products, or your policies are being restructured, let your Facebook fans know. Your audience will appreciate being ‘in-the-know’, and it may remind them to stop by or place an order.

Treat your audience well by providing what you originally offered when you signed up your business on Facebook. They will be sure to appreciate it and thank you later for the time and consideration you put forth. You may not actually earn 800 million fans, but you’ll garner the ones who are the right fit for you.

For more information on how to grow your fan page on Facebook, contact Triangle Direct Media today and find out how we can help take your social media marketing efforts to the next level with our vast array of online marketing services.

We are quickly moving into a new year, and now is the time when many social media analysts are making their predictions for 2012. We have a few thoughts and considerations to add to the mix.

Content Strategy

Many businesses have been beginning to see the value in this now and we see this trend continuing into 2012. As Facebook and Twitter become more crowded with comments, content strategists will become a more important part of the cycle. Businesses that take the time to review the content before passing it on will become a valuable resource for peer reviewed articles. Brands will become part of the media as they curate and stream relevant content to their followers.

Analytics Information

As social media budgets increase and more time is devoted to these spaces, demand for analyzing all that data will become more pronounced. The problem is we’re still relying on APIs that are flawed and even (as Twitter admits) purposely throttled. Manual tracking is still the most accurate. While many automation tools are promising, it is still very difficult to analyze the data and the trends well enough to structure spending decisions around it. We are hopeful to see progress toward a solution in 2012.

More Departments Involved

Instead of just one voice within a company, many businesses will take advantage of the many parts of their businesses in the social space. For example, expect to see more customer service departments using Twitter with accounts like @name_brandname monitoring the brand with keyword analysis and intervening when needed. These folks will report to a social media strategist overseeing a team of tweeters.  This will happen because customers will demand the scope to change thus changing the way businesses operate.

We all know that Facebook (although breached) was not pulled down completely this month by hackers and we see that users on this social network as well as Twitter are not going away anytime soon, so we are wondering, what are your predictions for next year?

If you are like many people out there you jumped on the blog bandwagon when it was the “hot thing” when instead of twitter and facebook you heard “visit our blog” at blah blah .com all the time.

Well it may be time to pull that old blog off the shelf , crack it open and start writing in it again.   If you don’t have a corporate blog its still not to late.. but I’d start one up now.

This article over on search engine land points to some indication of whats going to be important in the future.. and references to fresh content are all over this article. In fact is the update called simply FRESH? It seems like I heard that somewhere. Anyway head over to this site to read more.

Should you be concerned? Maybe.  According to the article this update will effect 35% of searches vs. 12% effected in the Panda update.

Sploggers, copycats, scrapers, knock-offs, mimeos, ringers… no matter what you call them, they are out there duplicating your content. Almost every website has to deal with them or even their own onsite issues, so we wanted to give some ways to make sure you can keep ranking for your own material.

How Search Engines Determine the ‘Real’ Content

When search engines see two duplicate pages on a site, they mainly look at three different things:

• URL metrics: this is determined by PageRank, link diversity, how many and who are pointing their information back to that page on your site.
• Domain metrics: which domain is more ‘authoritative’ by more sources across multiple sites.  High-quality backlinks are a great way to ‘show’ the major search engines value and trust.
• Link attributions: single links back to your site by the websites that are copying your information may not provide much help, but when there’s many links sending that attribution back to your site, it can be extremely helpful. These links shouldn’t just go back to your homepage though, they need to go to the exact URL with the same content.

How Much Is Not ‘Damaging’

The aggravating issue surrounding this heated debate is that there is no single, solitary answer. The reason for this is simple. The major search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, so if there was a finite number today, it’ll probably change tomorrow. The method to follow is to make sure you are creating your content uniquely. By just changing the small ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘what’ and ‘whys’, you are still running the risk of getting penalized. If you are worried about duplicate content, find a way to leverage your uniqueness in a scalable way.

One way to get this is by user generated content. Ratings, reviews, voting — all of that information is unique to you, so use it to your advantage. Take for example an Amazon.com page. A lot of the content is taken directly from the manufacturer, but Amazon’s unique content comes from all of their reviews and comments thus helping them stay ranked for information that has been duplicated.

Another way is to have some sort of in-house editing department. If you are not equipped (or lucky enough to have in-house writers) you can hire an intern to let loose on your duplicate content. For each page written, they receive compensation based on the amount done. It is important to note that there are inexpensive ways to get the job done.

Explanation of Being ‘Filtered Out’ By Duplicate Content

There are some gray areas with the filtering of content, but what it basically means is that a certain page has been penalized and has no chance of ranking. The other aspect that a page loses is all of the link juice. Essentially, it looks like you are linking from a 404 page. All of the links going to that page as well as out are considered useless.

The most important aspect of what you put out there (even if it’s unique) is to make sure it’s valuable. If you’ve gotten past the duplicate content issues, offer information that is informative to people and try to ensure that it’s quality content. We all unfortunately have to deal with duplicate content issues, whether they are self-inflicted or not. The best way to deal with them if offer up unique, quality content—that is ultimately the only way to keep yourself out of the sandbox and in the index.

Can this be done? Shall we say that real-time can actually be scheduled? We say it can to a certain extent. If you are a small business that has a somewhat scheduled online presence, but are scratching your heads vying for a status update or tweet, then why not put your online marketing strategy to work? We’ve outlined a simple 3 step process to consider when mapping out your social media campaigns.

STEP 1: First look at your online efforts monthly. Which days during the month are you wanting to generate buzz about a new product? How can you incorporate a blog post on that product? How about a press release? Start filling in those dates accordingly.

STEP 2: Next, look at your strategy on a weekly level once the monthly topics are generated. Utilize your links, photos, white papers and other online media to endorse those topics on Monday through Friday.

Note: The Social Media Management Company, Vitrue released a study identifying the days and hours users are most active on Facebook. The results weren’t surprising. The three biggest usage spikes tend to occur on weekdays at 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET. The biggest spike occurs at 3:00 p.m. ET on weekdays. Weekday usage is pretty steady, however Wednesday at 3:00 pm ET is consistently the busiest period. Fans are less active on Sunday compared to all other days of the week. That being said, when planning your daily posts, don’t sweat the weekends! We now have proof to send up to your bosses that those days are not the days when conversations are happening.

STEP 3: Suddenly, you will have a viable outline for the entire month to post on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and your other social networks. Fill in your scheduled posts with real-time information when it comes along.

Coming up with a successful social media campaign strategy can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be an impossible one. TDM has unique strategies for online businesses to get ahead in the status update marathon. We understand that it’s simply not a race and creative, mapped-out efforts trump those that are disjointed.

After looking at the many changes Facebook rolled out last week, it looks like small businesses now are at somewhat of a disadvantage on the 700-million strong social networking site. Many small businesses were relying on Facebook as a free platform to develop a loyal following that might “like” and “share” and “comment” in the hopes that others would see and do the same, and ultimately be converted into a regular customer. Facebook has just made that harder for small businesses, especially if these businesses are new to the social site, have under 500 or so fans, and are not an advertising partner.  I would encourage every small business owner to look at the new changes so they are up-to-date. It’s going to be vital to go out and revisit Facebook to overcome the roadblocks that have been put in place and look at what opportunities are now available.

Initial Changes

Looking closely at the changes, it’s apparent that many of them are designed specifically to benefit developers and enterprise level advertisers. The new “open graph” encourages daily users to post more information about themselves and connect to friends’ information on a whole new level. Facebook is asking massive advertising partners to find ‘key influencers’ and their communities and start creating ‘experiences’ for those communities. Developers can create applications that get users to share even more information around a certain subject and spend more time linked to Facebook. Users will be able to not only play games and buy products but also watch movies, TV, listen to music, read the news, without leaving Facebook.

Facebook has now separated newsfeed and ‘boring’ news in a users’ feed. Because of this separation, Facebook has changed the way everyone receives information to benefit those two important groups. It’s not clear yet what algorithms are used to determine these separations and rank stories.

Here are some of the roadblocks for small business owners:

1. Learn / Re-learn: These changes are going to require small businesses to quickly learn the new system. Get past the inconvenience and dig in. Read everything you can and educate yourself. Change is a constant in social media, and you’ll have to scratch out some time for learning.
2. Study Facebook Insights. This data will help you determine what works and what doesn’t. Learn what days of the week you get the most interaction, what types of posts people like and comment on, what the demographics of your fans are—and start keeping track, either by hand or on an Excel spreadsheet.
3. Find The Key Fans. Small businesses that rely solely on organic growth (your fan numbers growing naturally) may fail in the new system. Identify key influencers in your fan base and begin to learn how to use them (and reward them) for amplifying your messages.
4. Content is KING. Familiarize or reach out to Triangle Direct to help with providing quality content. Develop an actual social media strategy. By creating a strategy and continually providing content on a regular basis, you can successfully increase your online presence — not just on Facebook.

And now for the good stuff! Here are some of the opportunities!

1. Facebook is not the only place to present your business online. Think about developing an online presence other places as well. Do some research and contact Triangle Direct to figure out other channels  and look at what other businesses like yours are doing. Create an optimized blog, set up a Twitter account and use it to search what’s going on there–you don’t need to tweet to be there.  Check out YouTube for ideas on how you can use video.
2. Everyone loves a great party. Social media is great for events, especially with location-based applications. If you haven’t already, start taking advantage of the event piece of Facebook.  Claim your physical venue on Foursquare and learn how to use it. Become familiar with Twitter hashtags for events and experiment using them.
3. The ABC’s of Search Engine Optimization. Discover the power of learning more about SEO. Our proprietary software (SEOtool) is one of the most powerful platforms to solve the onsite issues on any website. If you have an unhealthy site, your social optimization plans may be fleeting.
4. Mad Scientists are not the only ones that conduct experiments. Does posting out to a blog on a weekly basis work for you? How about strategically-placed ads focusing on your competition? Try different things and keep track of what works and what doesn’t. Even though social media is a science, it’s not rocket science. Don’t be afraid to try something different, and don’t be afraid to dump it if it fails.

Remember, “Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.” Bruce Barton

The Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) in San Diego broke its own attendance record this year
attracting 7,318 participants and allowing many IRCE participants to get a sneak peek of Triangle Direct ‘s  latest version of SEOtool.

Triangle Direct Media (TDM), a leader in search engine optimization tools and online marketing strategies, announces its participation in the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE) 2011, taking place June 14-17, 2011 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. TDM will be showcasing the company’s automated SEO technology, SEOTool at booth #225 of the world’s largest e-retailing show, in which every key industry is represented – retail, catalog, manufacturing and consumer service companies.

Stop by the booth (225)  ask for any of the 3 J’s :  Jason – Jason- or John.  Any of them ( or all of them at once )  will be happy to demo SEOtool for you or talk to you about any of Triangle Direct’s  Online Marketing Campaigns.