Web Marketing Strategy Update

1. Use a Pinterest Business Account

Basic consumer Pinterest accounts and business accounts are vastly different. Business accounts have special features. It is important to note, at this time, you are unable change a basic account to a business account. You will be required to create a business account and slowly transfer the information over. Eventually, you can deactivate the original account.

2. Prepare your Website Properly

Embed the “Pin It” and “Follow me on Pinterest” on your company website, blog, etc. You should also be certain to add Pinterest buttons on all social media channels. You want people to be able to share your photos and information as easily as possible.

3. Be Aware of Copyright and Source

In the coming years, copyright will become increasingly punishable. Businesses will be the easiest targets with the deepest pockets. It is imperative to source all photos and pins properly. Give credit where credit is due and use watermarks to protect your own images.

4. Be Active

Your business will not expand quickly or maintain a positive reputation if you are not an active member of the community. Do not forget to like other photos, share pins and to say thank you to those who repin your photos.

5. Pin Indirectly rather than Strictly Directly

It is important to engage your Pinterest audience in a number of areas in which they are interested rather than specifically the products or services you provide. This is the time to be creative and create an in-depth brand to which many people are able to relate.

6. Choose Content Appropriately

You should pin content that is appealing to your target audience and content that will encourage them to like, share and repin.

7. Use A Call to Action

Do not forget to encourage your audience to engage, share and to visit your website. Pinterest is a valuable tool for generating leads.

8. Cohesion is Key

Be certain your content is in line with the direction of all of your social media activity. You do not want to confuse your audience or to build an audience that is not actually part of the target audience of your business.

9. More than Photos
Go beyond simply posting photos. A number of businesses have creatively and successfully used Pinterest to generate hundreds of thousands of potential new customers and clients through Pinterest campaigns.

10. Setup Pinterest Analytics

Pinterest has finally debuted their version of analytics for all business accounts. You will be able to learn which pins are engaging the most people and to develop the most effective Pinterest strategy through this tool.

To learn more about how Pintertest can help your business, visit ActiveInternetMarketing.com.

Related articles

• 7 ways to get traffic from Pinterest
• 15 questions brands should ask before getting on Pinterest
• 5 Best Practices for Brands on Pinterest
• 9 Pinterest Tips for Business Profile Pages
• The State of Pinterest: What Content Marketers Need to Know Now
• New Pinterest Strategies to Increase Your Exposure
• Pinterest Analytics: Shows You What Drives Traffic to Your Site
• Pinterest Web Analytics

Negative comments in a public sphere do not immediately seem like a positive thing for a company. But by using the right response strategy, it’s possible to address online complaints effectively and productively.

1. Be Patient

When complaints come up, it can be easy for you to lose your patience with your customers. They frequently view situations differently from the way you view them, so it can be difficult to accept complaints and criticism. Still, customer service is a vital part of doing business, and the social media sphere is a great place to promote your company’s appreciation for the customer. Be patient with complaints and do what you can to address them.

2. Answer No Matter What

When using social media sites, it is absolutely vital for your company to be social. That means acknowledging and responding to complaints of all types. Unless you are a major company that gets hundreds of negative comments on your social media feeds every day, you should work to address every complaint that comes up among your social media followers. Even if the complaints seem unreasonable to you, you should work to satisfy the customer.

3. Contact Them Privately

In dealing with people who are upset on your social media pages, it is best to contact them privately, in addition to any public response you may post.

In your private messages, you should keep in mind that reacting in a negative way will likely cause the individual to post your message in a public setting, making your issue even worse. In order to avoid that, make sure you are consistent in your public and private messages, but try to get into more specifics with the customer in private. That can help you minimize the attention given to the issue and also help your company provide a satisfactory solution.

4. Respond to the Original Post

On the social media page, you should always post some type of response to the initial message. Sometimes your response can be straightforward, acknowledging the individual’s complaints and asserting your company’s dedication to high-quality customer service. Sometimes, it may be appropriate to a bit more light-hearted with your response, such as by humbly addressing the mistake with some type of self-deprecating joke. In cases in which you feel the general public would probably view the complaint as unreasonable, you can even poke fun at the original post, although you should be very careful not to offend users with your response.

5. Let the Community Respond with Complaints

When you post a response, you should also expect other members of the community to chime in with their own messages. This can be a good way to turn a negative situation into a positive. Even if other users respond with more complaints, you can work with the group to identify suitable solutions to their issues, and you can demonstrate your company’s commitment to customer service.

6. Remove as a Last Resort

Of course, you should always keep in mind that your social media page is your domain. If things get out of hand, you can remove posts from disgruntled Facebook followers.

This option should be used as a last resort. Removing posts when they present reasonable complaints is not a good idea because it tells followers that your social media page is not a truly authentic forum. With social media, you sometimes need to take the bad with the good.

That said, it is also important to maintain a respectful atmosphere on your social media boards, so it makes sense to take down posts that involve inappropriate material.

Toby Gonzales is the Revenue Manager for FBiFrames.com. He enjoys helping businesses implement their social media marketing plan.

Related articles

• 7 Reasons to Proactively Plan for Social Media Complaints
• 13 things to know before a social media crisis
• Help Us Help You: One Company’s Social Media Rep Explains How To Get Complaints Resolved
• Making the Transition to Social Media Customer Service [INFOGRAPHIC]

Facebook is a funny thing these days. What was once used for college kids to stay connected and then for adults to look for old school pals or connect with family across the globe is now a major marketing tool.

The marketing potential of Facebook is truly enormous and if you know how to use it correctly, it really can do great things for you. From boosting brand awareness to increasing leads, Facebook marketing is all about your reach. You see, it’s not enough just to have likes; you also need to be sure you are engaging with your followers.

Do you want to get more activity on your pages and your posts but you don’t want to resort to having to buy more likes? If that’s the case, you can expand your Facebook reach with some pretty simple steps…

It all begins with understanding EdgeRank, the tool that Facebook uses to measure engagement and reach. Facebook doesn’t come right out and tell people how to build EdgeRank, just like Google doesn’t come right out and tell you all the factors that make up their algorithms or people would abuse it.

However, just like Google, Facebook does give us a pretty good idea of what factors go into building your EdgeRank. There are several tactics that are known to be helpful in building engagement and increasing your reach — here are some things to consider:

Who is your audience?

Really, when is the last time you asked yourself who your true audience was? If you don’t know your audience, you won’t know how to give them content that they really appreciate. If you want to speak to them, you have to know who they are so take time to know your audience.

Remain on topic.

When fans like your page, they usually do so because they expect a certain type of content. When you veer off topic, you’re going to lose them. It’s one thing to post now and then on a related or similar topic but you go too far off base too often, you’re bound to lose your following.

Be Engaging.

When you want your audience to engage, you need to engage back. Like their posts, comment on their posts and be sure to answer questions and tag those who are engaging with your posts. Show that you care and appreciate and they will care right back.

Have great content.

You’ve heard it a million times- content is king. But the truth is, when you have great content, people are much more likely to engage with that content and to share it with friends. You gain a greater reach when readers share your content so give them something sharable to work with.

These simple steps will help you increase your reach on Facebook, getting more engagement and more from your page. Do you have any tips to add?

Related articles

• On Facebook’s EdgeRank
• Facebook Knows Something The Publishing World Doesn’t
• How To Improve Facebook EdgeRank Using This Hidden Feature
• Spamming Your Way to Visibility with User-Generated Pages
• Make Content Marketing Work: 3 Tips to Activate Your Top Influencers
• Dramatically Raise the Value of Any Piece of Content with These 27 Tactics
• Why All Marketers Worth Their Salt are on Facebook

Social media has become the gathering place of the modern world. Less than a century ago, cities, towns and communities were smaller and families were larger; people gathered in marketplaces to buy, sell, gossip, debate, worship, and interact. This meant that your product or business, if it was good, was guaranteed success if the customers liked it. “Word of mouth” was really the best (and only) form of marketing available.

That hasn’t changed; instead it is the platform on which people communicate that has changed. Understanding the mechanisms of social media can help you build your brand and get people talking about it, virtually and physically!

Be visible on all the major social media platforms

Make sure that you don’t only have a Facebook or twitter account, but that your business is also visible and easy to engage with on multiple platforms. Most young people use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, YouTube, and many more several times a day. It is also important to realise that different social media platforms are used for different kinds of communication. You can use Facebook to post more content-rich material, while Twitter is for short, sharp announcements and links.

If you spend enough time on these sites you’ll learn that different kinds of language are responded to on different sites. Twitter is known for sharp witticism and debate, so if you package your marketing in such a way, you are likely to attract more followers there. Make sure that your accounts are linked, i.e., post links to Facebook on Twitter, and make sure tweets appear on Facebook. This is so that potential customers can choose to follow your business on more than one platform.

Pinterest might be the more appropriate platform for a specific post, (if you want to show off excellently photographed products in a beautiful space), whereas Facebook might be the best platform to get followers to comment on them. Or, if you put an ad on YouTube, you might want to disable comments on that site, but allow comment if you post the link on Facebook.

Engage with your followers

Nobody likes feeling ignored. When you reply to complaints made on your Facebook page, followers are more likely to trust your brand. You can also use the platform to get your followers to tell you where they would like the brand to go. Get them to vote on their favourite colours or shapes for future products. It’s a wonderful way to do marketing research, as you have direct access to people who use your product, and most people enjoy feeling included! Tweeters love being retweeted and they will continue to engage with you if you engage with them. After all, being retweet can potentially get them new followers and it also shows your current followers that your brand is popular and talked about.

One Golden Rule

Never engage in antisocial behaviour on social media sites, even if you are simply responding to a rude commenter. When followers post insensitive material you can easily block them, but you can do your brand an incredible amount of damage if a rude comment goes viral.

Louisa Theart writes for Regs to Riches; which provides business tips, especially for small business owners.

Related articles

• Elisabeth Michaud: Social Media Maverick
• Top Most Powerful Women in Social Media 2013
• Are You The SOcial Media You Use?
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: How to Respond to (all) Social Media Comments
• Social media for Chickens an introduction