Using Pinterest as a Marketing Tool

Posted on April 12, 2012 by

There’s a new kid on the social media block, Pinterest. If you haven’t already joined the pinning revolution and are curious about what all the fuss is about, read on!

If you’d like to learn more about using Twitter for your business, click here.

 

 

What is Pinterest? A Brief Description

  • Pinterest centers around the idea of sharing interests in a visual way.
  • Early research indicates that Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic compared to other social media sites, even Facebook. Though there’s still no concrete information on ROI.
  • After blogger Kate Bryan started pinning her work, she has had more than 10 million page views and has attracted 16,000 blog subscribers. “My top 10 traffic referring URL s are all Pinterest,” says Kate.
  • Content can be easily shared between other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter
  • Although there is no exact rule against it, Pinterst prefers that the site not be used for blatant self-promotion. It’s supposed to be a place to share ideas and interests so keep it balanced.

What’s a Pin? What’s a pinboard? Pinterest terminology

  • Pin – this is the image or video added to the pinboard
  • Pinboard – a collection of themed pins
  • Pinning – uploading and sharing content
  • Re-pin – reposting somebody’s pin
  • Pin It Button – button that can be added to websites to enable sharing on Pinterest. Pins added using the Pin It Button link back to the site they came from.
  • Pinner – you!

Joining Pinterest

  • Go to http://pinterest.com/
  • This is an invitation only site but they’re not very selective, so keep an eye on your inbox
  • OR if you already know someone using Pinterest they can invite you
  • Be sure to register your account with the same email address you use for your business’ Twitteraccount so you can easily share your new pins through your Twitter account, too. Currently, Pinterest doesn’t offer a connection to Facebook business pages.
  • Once you’ve been invited to the party, customize your profile under the settings tab.
  • Make sure your profile is public by checking OFF for “Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines”

Follow the Leader

  • There are two options for following: follow a pinner (everything pinned) or follow a pinboard (a specific theme).
  • Much like running a blog, you don’t want an empty space when you make your big reveal. So create a few boards before announcing your presence.
  • Create boards based on a few core keywords that you already use in your SEO strategy
  • Add the Pin-It Button to your website – this makes it easier to share content and gain further exposure for your brand.
  • Rather than having a multitude of pinboards, it’s better to create a few really well executed ones

SEO & Marketing

  • Whenever possible, include links back to your website and landing pages in your pins to drive traffic back to your website.
  • If you are uploading a photo instead of pinning something live on your website, select a link that makes sense and include that in the pin description.
  • Pinterest allows the use of hashtags.
  • Use Pinterest to display news and events to promote on going workshops, programs and special events

Posted in SEO Tips, Social Media | Leave a comment

How to Make the Most of Your Twitter Profile Part 2: Benefits for Small Businesses

Posted on November 2, 2011 by

Many of our clients are small businesses, who often have never utilized Twitter before as part of their marketing strategy. Twitter is an excellent tool for small businesses to take advantage of for several reasons. First and foremost, Twitter is a free application that in April of this year boasted 175 million registered users (technolog.msnbc.msn.com). Furthermore, most small businesses do not have a budget for marketing, and some do not even have a budget for a webpage, making Twitter an economical alternative. In fact, most small businesses generate revenue through word of mouth only and Twitter really is just a digital manifestation of that (www.nytimes.com).

A great example of this is the gourmet food truck craze in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. Many food trucks are run on a very small budget and rely on their Twitter accounts to let customers know where they are, and what they are serving on a particular day. Other businesses use Twitter as a way to attract customers through small ad campaigns and promotions. In addition, it is a great way for small businesses to keep in close contact with their customers, just as they would in a brick and mortar location. Finally, Twitter offers small businesses an excellent way to monitor what their competition is up to, as well as what experts in their area are talking about.

Getting Noticed

If you are just starting out with Twitter, it may seem like a daunting task to get noticed among the millions of other users. Luckily there are a few relatively simple ways you can start to get noticed by your peers and potential customers.

  1. Find local customers in your area
  2. Find colleagues in your field to follow and strive to become part of that community by following people and, hopefully, being followed back. LinkedIn is a great way to find other people in your own field.
  3. Create simple ad campaigns where you create a contest and offer a prize to the winner.
  4. Don´t forget to ask people to follow you. You can do this by putting your Twitter handle on your business cards and email signatures, as well as including a link on your website if you have one.
  5. Participate in other conversations on Twitter, don´t just Tweet about your business.
  6. Get re-tweeted! This is often easier said than done, however be sure to leave 15 characters of space at the end of your Tweet so that people can re-tweet without editing your original text.

What to Tweet About

Obviously having substantive topics to write about will also help you get noticed on Twitter and can help you build credibility. Below are a few tips on how to generate interesting and relevant Tweets.

  1. If you are new to Twitter and are not sure what people are Tweeting about, or what other users find interesting, take some time to observe conversations before jumping in. Being aware of the popular trends in your area that other users are talking about can definitely help you generate interesting topics for potential customers and colleagues.
  2. Along the same lines, put together a strategy before you tweet. This will help you stay on target and also make better use of your time.
  3. Tweet about products you like, and promote followers products as hopefully they will do the same for you.
  4. Take time to spotlight some of your followers.
  5. Use the forums to answer questions posed in Tweets about topics in your area of expertise.
  6. While it is important to be professional, take the time to let your own personality come through.
  7. Set up a Google Reader account and follow blogs and articles in your field or area of interest. This helps you to stay ahead of the trends in your field and may inspire you to write interesting content for your Twitter account.

How to Maximize Your Time On Twitter

Some Twitter users find that they spend more time than they would like maintaining their feeds. This is especially the case for small business owners who do not have a large staff and end up maintaining their Twitter account themselves. Luckily there are ways to make a big impact on Twitter without spending an excessive amount of time on it.

  1. Have a Twitter strategy ahead of time to plan out your Tweets, and map out how much time you want to monitor your followers Tweets as well as the Tweets of the people you follow. Limit your time each day to what is necessary only.
  2. Look into various widgets or toolsthat allow you to merge other social media applications as well as your Blog if you have one.
    • TweetLater.com: This application offers several free tools, as well as tools that you can purchase.
    • Hootsuite: An application that allows you to schedule your Tweets, monitor what other people are saying about you, track results, and many other tools.
    • Hootlet: A mini application from Hootsuite that allows you to Tweet from any webpage.
    • TwitterFeed.com: Allows you to feed your blog to Twitter and Facebook.

Conclusion

Finally, it may be easy to get frustrated when you start promoting your business on Twitter. It takes time to build your followers and see your efforts pay off. That said, don´t give up! If you find that your efforts are not paying off right away, try other techniques. For example, take time to look at other successful Tweeters in your area of expertise. What are they doing that works? Through enough trial and error, your efforts will pay off.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Taking Your Brand to the Next Level – 3D Virtual Tour and Product Videos by Triple Smart

Posted on October 17, 2011 by

Triple Smart transforms your drawings and models into a breathtaking 3D video. No other form of presentation is more convincing and compelling.

Unlike other traditional architectural rendering walkthroughs, Triple Smart presentations use television style editing, 3D titles, modern transitions, effects and video editing to create a highly persuasive presentation.

Download our Virtual Tour PDF Information Sheet

 

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How to Make the Most of Your Twitter Profile Part 1

Posted on October 7, 2011 by

Making the most of your Twitter account is much more than simply producing Tweets. It starts with creating and customizing your profile, and continues with how you create your Tweets as well as who is following you and who you are following. In this blog post, we will walk you through the process of setting up an attractive and professional Twitter account, as well as some tips and trick to making the most out of your profile.

Creating Your Twitter Account

Optimizing your Twitter account starts at the very beginning with how you create and set up your Twitter profile. If you are making a Twitter account for a business, you should obviously create a profile that reflects the company´s corporate identity. There are several steps to making sure your Twitter profile reflects your company´s corporate identity, the first of which is choosing an appropriate Twitter handle. A Twitter handle is the username you have selected and the accompanying URL for example http://twitter.com/username. When choosing a Twitter handle, try to avoid numbers and underscores as these tend to detract from the name of your brand and look unprofessional.

The next step is to consider when setting up your Twitter profile is to think about branding the look and feel of your Twitter page to match the look and feel of your website and/or other company products. An example of this profile branding can be found in the Twitter page Triple Smart created for White Hutchinson at www.twitter.com/whitehutchinson.

Finally, remember to be as descriptive as possible when describing your business in your profile.  In your bio section, be as descriptive as possible because this is your opportunity to pitch your business to potential clients. And always remember to include your company´s URL address in your Twitter profile!

Now You Can Start Tweeting!

Thinking up interesting Tweets to share with your followers is more difficult than one may think. In order to make this process a bit more painless, it is a good idea to break up your Tweets into some basic categories. For example:

  • Observations: Tweet about what you are doing, thinking or feeling. Obviously if your Twitter account is for your business, you will want to keep things on a professional and not an overly personal level.
  • What you are reading: Post a link to a book, blog post, or news article relevant to your area of expertise.
  • What you are watching: Video is growing more and more popular online, so posting a link to an interesting video in your field is a great idea.
  • What events you are attending: This is a great way to generate interest in events you are part of, as well as events that are relevant to your business.
  • Your company content: Include links to a recent article about your company, publication, or blog post.
  • Someone else´s content: Post links to someone else´s blog article if you consider it to be a helpful resource.
  • Retweet what someone else has Tweeted: Retweet using RT or Retweet at the beginning of the message or clicking Twitter´s Retweet button.

Find People to Follow

A major part of the Twitter world involves following other Twitter users and being followed yourself by these users. There are benefits to both following and being followed on Twitter that help to optimize your company´s use of this social media tool. By following people you will learn more about what they like in regard to your business. Having other users follow you, on the other hand, gives your brand credibility, thereby making it more attractive to potential clients.

There are several simple steps you can take to find people to follow on Twitter. For example, Twitter offers a “Who to Follow” feature (http://www.twitter.com/who_to_follow). This feature uses various aspects from your profile to suggest users that by be of interest to you. You can also simply use the search the search tool, follow people your followers are following, or follow thought leaders in your industry. It´s also a great idea to collect people´s Twitter handles at conferences and events.

There are a couple of important things to remember when following people on Twitter. Do not follow too many people at once. It is best to try and follow no more than 25-50 people a day, because there is a time gap between following people and when they follow you back. In other words, you want to keep a balance between the number of people you are following and how many followers you have. It does not look great for your business to be following many people while you only have a few followers yourself. That said, it is a good idea to remove people who are not following you back.

Attract Your Own Followers

Finding people to follow on Twitter is relatively easy, the trick is attracting followers to your Twitter profile. One of the most basic ways to attract followers is to make your company´s Twitter handle easy to find. If you have a company website, you should also be sure to include links to your Twitter account in prominent places, and consider including your Twitter handle in email signatures. It is also a good idea to make your Tweets useful resources and not simply use them to sell your product. Finally, try to interact with those people you follow who do not yet follow you back.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

YouTube Tutorial – Uploading videos to YouTube improves SEO

Posted on September 26, 2011 by


Uploading your videos to YouTube is a vital component to developing your website and brand. YouTube is one of the largest search engines on the web and a great way also boost your SEO opportunities. Follow the simple Triple Smart tutorial below to learn how to upload your videos on YouTube.

 

Click on the below link to download your PDF YouTube Tutorial
Triple-Smart-Tutorial-YouTube

 

Posted in Social Media, Video | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Is Social Media a Must-Have?

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

The short and sweet answer: definitely! With social media growing bigger and more popular every day, every hour, every minute, you really can’t afford to be left out of the loop.

 

Some, like Erik Qualman of Socialnomics, are calling Social Media “the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution”. We at Triple Smart couldn’t agree more. Not only should you be connected to the social network but, even more to the point, you should be an active member.

Social Media far outweighs word of mouth, think about it…you might spread some news to a group of people in person and eventually the news will trickle down the network. But on Facebook or Twitter you can easily inform hundreds in a matter of seconds. Social Media is the new wildfire of the working and social world.

But is Social Media really necessary for my business? Yet again, the answer is yes. Not only is social media a means of promoting and connecting but it has also become a vital part of company branding. You are able to promote not only what you do but also who you are. This is a vital step in establishing any business, big or small.

We hope you enjoyed the video, courtesy of Socialnomics. Go to http://www.socialnomics.net/ to see more of what Erik Qualman has to say about the subject.

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Off-page SEO Demystified

Posted on August 15, 2011 by

When most people think about search engine optimization (SEO), they think about On-page SEO. This involves making sure that your website´s content is presented effectively to search engines like Google. (See our SEO Guide for more information.) However, Off-page SEO is very important as well in ensuring that your website has a significant presence on the internet and can be found by potential clients.

Off-page SEO Defined

Off-page SEO refers to your site´s overall authority or ranking on the web, which is determined by what other websites say about your site (HubSpot). Other websites refer to your website by linking back to your site through what are known as “backlinks”. Think about all those research papers you wrote back in school, each time you referenced an author you were linking back to their work via a bibliography at the end of the paper. It is the same concept here, so the more backlinks you have, the more authority you have on the internet.

How much authority does my website currently have?

There are some great free tools available that allow you to determine how many backlinks you currently have online. In order to improve you ranking, you will need to have a starting point tOffo compare your progress to. One popular website for determining how many backlinks you have is backlinkwatch.com. This service provides you with a total number of backlinks, as well as detailed information about which websites are linking to your website. Another great website for determining the number of backlinks you have is mywebsiteranking.com. In addition to providing you with the number of backlinks, this report also provides you with other useful ranking information.

It is important to know which websites are linking back to your websites, as not all websites have the same level of authority. The best types of links you c

Posted in SEO Tips | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Google+ Project – What all the Fuss is About

Posted on July 15, 2011 by

At the end of June of this year, Google announced the launch of the Google+ Project. This is the latest attempt of many that this company has made to join the social media revolution. (See our blog entry on the Google +1 Button.) While past attempts from Google have not been all that successful, it seems that the Google+ Project is gaining some steam. So why put so much time and effort into developing a social media application? Google needs a social component of their business now more than ever in order to more effectively target users with ads and search results. While Google has lead the field in applications such as email (Gmail), document sharing (Google Docs) and photo sharing (Picassa), they have lagged in the realm of social media. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter have become veritable giants in this field, and in the realm of Instant Messaging (IM), Microsoft has joined the fray with their purchase of Skype and other existing applications (Dan Grabham, Tech Radar).

From our experience thus far with the Google+ Project, we have found there are several main differences between this application and their largest competitor, Facebook. One of the big differences that Google is touting is their Circles feature. This feature allows you to share different things with different people. According to Google, “Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself, just like real life” (Google+ Project). We have found that this feature is centrally located in the control panel and very easy to use, you simply drag and drop contacts into different circles. While Facebook does have a feature called Lists, where you can group friends into different lists, Google Circles work both ways. So not only can a Circle define who sees your posts, it can also define whose posts you see (A. Copeland, personal communication). Furthermore, the Facebook Lists feature is rather burdensome to set up and not nearly as easy to manage.

Another difference between Google+ and Facebook is the ability to conduct group video chats with up to 10 of your contacts with an application Google is calling Hangouts. While Facebook recently partnered with Skype to integrate video into their chat application, this is limited to one-on-one interactions (New York Times, July 6).

Sparks is another feature Google is highlighting that sets it apart from Facebook. This feature functions much like Google alerts in that it supplies you with lists of information you may be interested that are gathered from the web. So, you can set up a Spark category for recipes, football, movies, or other topics you may be interested in following.

Finally, Google+ integrates other Google applications like Calendars and Picassa, which also sets it apart from Facebook. That said, Google+ is still a bit of a blank canvas without all the extra Facebook apps and games. This may change down the road as more users are incorporated into the Google+ project.

Most of the reviews we have read thus far about the Google+ project have been very positive. One of the reasons for this may have to do with the fact that the application is still fairly simple and uncluttered. After exploring our account, we feel it is exceptionally user friendly, as much or even more so than Facebook. One review we read stated that Google+ was only user friendly for tech savy users (Robert Scoble, scobliezer.com), however, we disagree with this evaluation. Another critique of Google+ stated that, “There seems to be no way to exclude people. On Facebook I will frequently make posts where I show to everyone EXCEPT a certain group or a few specific individuals” (Ask Reddit). This does seem to be a valid point, however Circles does allow you to share information with different groups to a great extent. At this point, it is hard to predict whether Google+ will become the next big social media tool, but we recommend that all our clients and blog followers give it a try. If it does become popular, Google will most likely integrate their +1 Tool (see our blog entry on this subject) into how searches are made, which could affect search engine optimization (SEO) within Google.

Contact us today if you would like an invitation to join the Google+ project, contact us at through our website, www.triplesmart.com or email us at, innovate@triplesmart.com. If you are already a Google+ user, tell us what you think.

Posted in SEO Trends | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Google Font API

Posted on July 15, 2011 by

Today there is an alternative that makes finding and using web-safe fonts much easier.  Google has published a list of 180 fonts (which is constantly growing) which can now be used for dynamic, editable website content.  You can easily browse the list of Google API available fonts, which are fonts will work in the following browsers:

Google Chrome: version 4.249.4+
Mozilla Firefox: version: 3.5+
Apple Safari: version 3.1+
Opera: version 10.5+
Microsoft Internet Explorer: version 6+

When you use a font from the Google Directory, your users will encounter the following in relation to the loading of the text of your pages: Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer will show a blank space before the font is loaded, and Firefox will first show un-styled font. Google provides a loader which makes all browsers behave like Firefox.  The Google Font API syntax allows you to bold, italicize, and underline your Google fonts.

For the first time in Drupal history we are able to use fonts that are visually richer and crisper when scaled and zoomed.  Also, the stylized texts are still searchable, so in other words the sky´s the limit in terms of the design of your website!  Our designers can download the fonts from the Google directory to their computer to use in Photoshop, or other Adobe program, to prepare more accurate mockups of the site so you can really see how the text will look in your site from start to finish.  And because the fonts have all been released under open source licenses, we can use them in any project for all types of businesses!

The sky is the limit in terms of programming your site!  Working in Drupal, our programmers use the mockups prepared with the Google fonts as a reference, they surf the Google font directory for the corresponding fonts, copy and paste the code to embed it in the site, and style the text by using CSS for your different header types, etc.  Drupal is already releasing new modules for Google API.

Finally, using Google API saves bandwidth since it is hosted on Google, so both Triple Smart and your site users will save on speed!  Once your users visit your site the fonts will be cached in their browsers, meaning the fonts will not have be downloaded a second time but instead will load from the cache directly.

Of course, if you visit http://triplesmart.com/fonts.html you will find links to the Google Fonts Directory in addition to a list of traditional ¨web-safe¨ fonts.  Consider using Google fonts in your next project!

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Google +1 Button: A New Dimension to Social Search?

Posted on June 9, 2011 by

Google recently launched what they are calling the +1 button, a feature that allows users with a Google profile to positively rate websites. Many have compared this feature to Facebook´s Like button, and for good reason as the +1 button seems to Google´s attempt to stay ahead of the curve in the world of social media and social searches. The phenomenon of social searches is considered to be a growing trend that is expected to become more prevalent over the next few years. Using Google´s +1 button, users will be able to search for recommended sites, which will be more visible in the search results (The Guardian, 2011).

Currently, Google´s +1 button is in development, but if you have a Google Profile you can elect to be part of the + 1 experiment. If this new social search concept gains popularity among Google users, it may play an important role in how Google search results are prioritized. To participate in Google´s +1 experiment, you will first need to sign up for a Google Profile and then elect to be part of the experiment.

The question at this point is whether or not the Google +1 button will gain in popularity and actually affect SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Last year in 2010, Google launched a related experiment that also dealt with social search called Google Buzz. This application was a response to the rising user of Twitter and Facebook, and allowed users with a Gmail account to share content from other Google applications (like Reader andPicassa) with their Gmail contacts. This application also allowed users to add and share comments about websites with their contacts. However, some users with Gmail accounts were automatically included in the Google Buzz experiment, and as a result had to deal with privacy issues including having their Gmail contacts shared publicly (Daily Finance). This most likely played a large role in why Google Buzz failed to be a success. While there are currently no privacy concerns associated with the Google +1 experiment, time will tell if this application catches on among users and gives the Facebook like button a run for its money.

Posted in SEO Tips, SEO Trends | Tagged | 1 Comment