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.

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It doesn’t matter why you are posting a YouTube video, whether you are a business or an individual; the point is that you want people to view your video. If you are a business owner, you want as many people as possible to see your video promotions so that they will be driven to your website and buy your products.

If you are an individual, you may have a video that you believe to be cute, funny or strange and want to get as many YouTube views as possible. Individuals who have posted videos in the past with a large number of views have become instant celebrities. Maybe this is what you want?

If it is, what are some ways that you can drive people to your video, sometimes multiple times?

There are some mechanical, technical suggestions that will make people want to view your video (or continue to view it once it has started):

• Keep the camera steady (some people get motion sickness when watching a video that constantly shakes or moves)
• Avoid quick movements and zooms
• Hold the camera lens parallel to the ground or horizon (a slanted picture is difficult to watch)
• Think about the story you want to tell – make sure you ask why anyone would want to spend precious time watching your video
• Edit your video if it needs it, and do not make a video that is too lengthy for your story – keep it short and sweet.

How to Grab the Attention of Your Audience

Once you have created your video, create a title that will grab people’s attention. Use YouTube editing capabilities to choose a thumbnail for your video that people will look at and wonder what the rest of the video is about. This is a powerful tool, especially when you are using YouTube views!

Next choose how the video is categorized. Think about your potential audience and place it carefully in the correct category. Employ SEO ideas with tags in a succinct, yet informative description so that a search will send your video near the top of the search engines.

Once these things are in place, the idea is to promote, promote, promote. You can do this via blogging or email. In addition, bookmark to your video or post it outright on social networking sites such as Facebook, Stumbleupon, LiveJournal, Ning, Buzznet, Delicious, Flickster, Flickr, Google+, Pinterest, and Orkut to name a few. Facebook in particular has been a boon to people who want their videos to go viral (and a pain to others who didn’t want that to happen at all!).

The most watched videos are, of course, the ones that are the most entertaining. If your video is boring, people will stop watching it in the middle, will not revisit the video and will not send friends to see it. Even if you choose to buy real YouTube views, it won’t help your video get as popular as other videos that are truly inspirational, entertaining and well-thought-of.

Getting the word out initially about your video is easy if you are already an active member of the YouTube and Facebook communities. If you are a business looking to use this as a video marketing tool, be sure to mention your website multiple times and always have a text version of your website that is visualized at some point on your video.

Using keywords strategically is also very important. Think of it this way: When you go to a search engine and type in keywords to find information, what are you hoping to see in the search list? As a business, you have to think backwards and think of what keywords potential customers will type into that search engine box that will help find *you* specifically.

With a little thought put into production and promotion, YouTube videos can be a gold mine, whether you choose to buy YouTube views, engage in promoting the videos yourself through social media, blogging and SEO, or combine all of this together.

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It’s one thing to make a mistake because you didn’t know was a mistake – it is something else entirely to make a mistake, when you should have known you were making it. And unfortunately, it appears that this is often the case with social media.

Social media evolved so quickly that many Internet marketers learned the basics and immediately lost sight of them as their strategies became more complex. Here is a quick review of 7 essential social media tips that you already know but don’t act on.

1. Social, Social, Social

It is amazing how many Internet marketers tried to take the social out of social media. Managing multiple social networking sites is difficult to say the least which is why leveraging automation is commonplace. While certain tasks can easily and effectively be automated, you can’t automate being social. There are certain things which will always have to be done manually.

2. Your Primary Presence Should Always Be in Your Control

Facebook Fan Pages, Pinterest Boards, and similar social media assets have become key pieces in a variety of online marketing strategies. While they are important assets to leverage, it is important to ensure your primary online presence is always 100% in your control. This is the only way to protect your long-term future. For example, starting a private membership area on Facebook is a “neat” idea, but there is no guarantee Facebook won’t change their rules and leave you out in the cold.

3. Create a Social Media Policy

To minimize the risk of you or your staff from making a mistake on your businesses social media account, it is important to create an official social media policy. This minimizes the risk of inappropriate information accidentally being shared with the public. The three areas of emphasis should be security/proprietary information, public relations, and human resource issues.

4. Create a Detailed, Repeatable Process

The fundamentals of a successful social networking campaign rarely change. To truly leverage social media it is important to create and document a detailed, repeatable process. Not only does this allow you to test different strategies to determine what is most effective, but also allows you to identify any tasks which can be automated.

5. Develop Clear Goals

As with all online marketing strategies, it is impossible to gauge your results without clear goals. A common problem is deciding what metrics are most important to track. The most important metrics vary from one type of campaign to the next. Only by developing clear goals can you determine which metrics are the most valuable to your efforts.

6. Your Strategy Must Continually Evolve

The way people engage on social networks is continually evolving. To keep up, your social media strategy must evolve as well. The biggest mistake you can make is assuming that anything online will remain stagnant – especially social media.

7. Stay in Context of the Current Conversation

To ensure your social media message is accepted by your potential audience is important to stay in context of the current conversation. For example, you don’t want to start promoting a health product in the middle of a conversation about Harry Potter. Best case scenario, you get labeled as a spammer – worst-case scenario your profile gets banned from the site.

Developing and implementing an effective social media strategy is only as difficult as you make it. Simply following the basic tips and guidelines will create a solid foundation for your social media strategy to grow. The key is not only knowing the basics, but also making a conscientious effort not to forget them.

Knowing which email marketing service to choose can be difficult with all the options available. That’s why the crew at EmailMarketingPlatforms.com did the hard work for you. Stop by to see for yourself.

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When it comes to your SEO efforts, this year is going to be about diversification. Long gone are the days where you could throw up 1,000 crappy backlinks with the same anchor text and expect to rank. To help you become a better SEO professional, here are five ways you can start diversifying:

#1 Your Anchor Text

No longer do you want to think about your “anchor text” most of the time. If all of your incoming backlinks have the same anchor text, how is Google going to perceive this? It’s not going to look natural, right? While it’s okay to build backlinks, try to get the good links. I know it’s been said a million times, but the good and natural links with random anchors are going to be so much better than low-grade blog comments and forum signatures.

#2 Watch Your Links

With so many different types of links out there, don’t just focus on one skill set. Instead of attacking guest posts, try to mix it up a bit. Try to get social media links, resource links, charity links and more. I think you get the point here. The more diversified your links are, the more natural you’re going to look to the search engines. It’s also going to help your website in terms of SEO because if you think about it, what happens if those types of links become useless?

#3 More Than SEO

In this Facebook and Twitter world, there is so much traffic out there that doesn’t come from search engines. Whether it’s Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or a popular website, you shouldn’t focus solely on your search engine efforts. Remember, if you’re looking to get linked from a popular site, it’s so important that you have something of quality. If you’re just making yet another tech blog that is no different than the rest, why should someone link to it?

#4 Don’t Be Boring

Try to switch up your point of view once in a while. While visitors may be coming to your blog to see what you have to say, it doesn’t hurt to get a few more contributors to jump on board. Even if you don’t have the money to pay them, offer them other incentives such as a backlink, a chunk of the advertising money, etc. Here, you have to be unique. By changing up your voice, you could reach different visitors.

#5 Spend Money Wisely

If you’re running a business that has the money to spend, don’t just start throwing it around like candy. Instead, be sure to learn how split test and work with ads. If you haven’t already done so, there are so many great tools and resources out there that can teach you the art of PPC. Sure, you’re probably wondering, “Hey! This has nothing to do with SEO!” Well, as we all know, SEO is a patient game and the longer you work at it, the more benefits you can receive. IN the meantime, for those that don’t have a lot of SEO power, there may be no choice but to turn to something such as PPC. While there is nothing wrong with PPC, just make sure that you’re testing, getting the right audience and getting the most for your click.

Kathy is from How Much Is It Going To Cost? where you can find out what all kinds things in life such as a spa treatment or a fireplace will cost you.

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