Pinterest is the New Rising Star of the Social Media World

You may or may not have already heard of Pinterest, but it is taking the social media world by storm and I’ve got to say, I love it!!  The social networking site is invite only which I think kind of makes it even more appealing and almost exclusive for your brand.  I think the site is very much tailored towards women which is probably one of the reasons why I like it so much, I have only been on the site for 15 minutes or so and already I have found so many inspiring things.

The site is styled as a mood board for photo sharing where users can manage themed based images and videos, particularly beneficial if you are a designer, baker, wedding planner, chef, hairdresser, makeup artist etc as the site would act as a great platform for showcasing your creations and allow people to comment. If you really wanted to amplify your work, you could integrate it with other social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube to give yourself a bigger social media presence, not forgetting to also link it through to your company website or blog so you can review the level of traffic from the site.

Like with all social networking sites, you must engage with your potential customers and not just use it as an opportunity to shout and spam about your product or service.  Instead, why not start a competition, e.g. cupcake designs, best outfit, best hairstyle and talk about which ones you found particularly inspiring as a way to build relationships with potential customers.  You could also include photos of where you work, the surroundings etc as a way of engaging with people.  Think about the ways in which your brand can be linked to everyday life and interests of your target audience, i.e. for a makeup artist, you could create pin boards for day makeup, evening makeup, Hollywood glamour etc. What type of pin boards will enhance your brand image?  Read previous post, Your Social Media Plan for more inspiration on how to do this.

I have also just read that the site beat the likes of YouTube, Reddit, Google+, Linkedin and Myspace for a percentage of total referral traffic in January according to a study. (Mashable) So, even more reason to get on the site and request an invite! 🙂

Design a Facebook page that your fans will “like”

Ok, so you have decided to use Facebook as part of your social media plan.  You have devised a strategy to incorporate the site in the best interest of your fans, taking into account all of the vital ingredients that were featured in the previous blog post (Your social media plan). You have your monitoring tools at the ready!  Now all you need are the right tools to help you design your Facebook page to look super professional and exciting!

Here is one I have used previously with great results!

ShortStack

ShortStack is really good for those businesses that can’t really afford the web designer price tag, particularly beneficial for small businesses.  The site allows business owners to design their own custom Facebook tabs, which are essential for promoting engagement with people who are potentially going to be advocates for your brand.

The tabs can have all sorts of purposes.  Here are some of my suggestions….

Comptetitions/Sweepstakes

Competitions are a great way to boost interaction and increase traffic to your page. ShortStack has a number of tools that can be used to design your competition page to fit in with your brand.

The site allows you to create a custom competition entry form (you need one of these in order to comply with the Facebook Guidelines)

ShortStack also allows it’s users to set up voting for contests and a countdown so that fans know exactly how much time is left to enter.

And best of all!  The smaller companies can do this for FREE! 🙂

An ‘Information Hub’ For Fans

The reason why people will visit your business Facebook page is to ultimately gather the latest information about the services you have to offer and to get a rapid response.

The main area of your fan page should feature your company logo so that people can easily find you.  However, people respond better to a person rather than a brand which is why you can tailor your ‘information hub’ to do just that!

For example, if it was my business, the tab would be titled “Ask Jade” with my profile picture in the tab and I will be there to answer questions and queries ASAP and provide my fans with exclusive information regarding my company which can only be accessed via the page.

The most engaging fans will receive coupon codes/free gift for their participation.

 

 

Your social media plan

When creating your social media plan, remember that creativity is key in order to grab the attention of your audience.  Does your social media strategy tell a story?

The creative aspect of your plan will incorporate the key benefits  of your company/brand and how your audience can benefit from using your service.  You should add topics for discussion which will entice people to engage with you, thus creating excitement about your company and building relationships with people who are potentially going to be advocates for your brand.

Give your brand a personality 

This is where some companies get it wrong.  Your social media plan shouldn’t consist of blasting people with sales messages, this will only alienate people.  Over the years, people have learnt to switch off to sales messages, instead why not think about what your audience will like.  What can they relate to which will tie in with your brand??  Get into the mind’s of your key target audience and think carefully!  How old are they?  What do they enjoy?  What would interest them the most? (also refer to my blog post “What is your social media strategy?”)…. Now, include this into your social media plan!

If you want to learn more about the ways in which you can “humanize” your brand on Facebook, then take a look at Aaron Lee’s post, “7 tips to humanize your brand on Facebook”

Here’s what I did…

I used to work for a wholesale corset company and they wanted to go down the retail route and sell their corsets through their own website.  Their main objective was to reach the first page of Google for the search term ‘corset’ and ‘corsets’.  At the time, I had no real idea of how to use SEO, so I decided to try achieve this through the use of social media and blogger relations focusing on burlesque, curvy ladies and anything to do with 40’s and 50’s pinup glamour and that’s when my 50’s pinup character was born!

I created a pinup character called Paulina and had a vision of what she would look like, wearing the corsets from the website and she would be the ‘face’ of the social networking sites and blog.  So we had her designed by a graphic designer and gave her a real personality!  including the retro lingo i.e. “Hi guys and dolls”.  Every two months she would change her outfit and be re-designed accordingly which again gave a reason to chat to people across the social sites, i.e. “Hey everyone, I’ve changed my outfit for the winter…I’m now polka-dot Paulina” and “How do all you dolls like my new blonde locks?  I dyed my hair for the Summer season” etc

People loved Paulina, she was even mentioned in some of the popular blogs, such as Old Hollywood Glamour , 100% People and Oola la Vintage blog.

Over a period of 3 months, the website was promoted to the first page of Google and Paulina gained many friends 🙂

The best social media monitoring tools

A regular topic for discussion on the LinkedIn social media groups is “which are the best social media monitoring tools”.  This brings me to my next post and the monitoring tools that have worked best for me.

Before implementing your social media plan of action,  it is imperative to first ‘listen’ to your audience or market and the overall perception of your company/brand.  However, with so many people now expressing their views on social networking sites, it could take much time and effort to ‘listen’ effectively without the right software.  That being said, there are now several monitoring tools available that help you cope with engagement, measurement and metrics.  Here are two that I have tried and tested.

Hootsuite

As the social dashboard has just reached 3 million users,  Hootsuite is one of the most popular monitoring tools.  The dashboard integrates social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, WordPress and Foursquare.  It provides you with stats based on brand alerts and suggests advice on how to improve brand visibility.

Like anything, it works best when you pay more i.e. for the VIP package.  For the smaller companies that can’t afford the hefty price tag, there’s a ‘Basic’ option for free and a ‘Pro’ option priced at $5.99.  However, it only gives you a free month trial on the ‘Pro’ option and requires you to enter your credit card details first…which I dislike!

After using Hootsuite I have found that the dashboard is fairly easy to use and allows you to add as many social media profiles as you like, although the reporting element is fairly limited which is why I feel that the ‘Pro’ option would best suit a small business or for self promotion.  The price for the ‘Enterprise’ option jumps up to $210 and is still quite limited on the reporting aspect with only 10 free reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sprout Social

I really enjoyed using this social dashboard and still use it for monitoring my personal networking accounts.

Again, like Hootsuite the monitoring dashboard integrates with Twitter, Facebook Fanpages, LinkedIn, Foursquare and other networks where customers are engaging with brands.

I particularly like the simplicity of use and the metrics system which is available to use without an additional cost.

The web application offers three different plans ranging from “Small Biz” to “Deluxe” that all provide a free month trial… without adding any card details, which I think is a huge plus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few other social media monitoring tools that the big PR/digital companies are using at the moment:

Radian 6 – Popular

Sysomos

Brandwatch

Meltwater

Brandchats

Useful tools for monitoring the news online:

Addictomatic

Topsy

Trace Buzz

Tweetreach

Why use social media for business?

This is a question which I think everyone should ask themselves before jumping on the social media bandwagon.

All too often in my experience working in digital PR I have had companies say “let’s set up a Facebook page” without really understanding why they are doing it, other than the fact that everyone else seems to be.  This type of approach will most definitely result in a big fat FAIL and here’s why….

Lack of Engaging Content

If your’e not really sure why you want to set up your Facebook page then your’e not really going to have an idea of what content to update it with…lack of engaging content = lack of interest = zero customers who potentially could be advocates for your company/brand.

Companies that take this approach (and there are a lot of them!) will often run out of things to say on Facebook and ultimately be left with a blank page.

What does this say to potential customers who search for the company and find that their last update was nearly 2 years ago??

Create a Social Media Plan

To avoid this from happening to your company you must create a social media plan answering the questions, why, who, what, when, how and deliver a social media strategy which will engage with your target audience across the most appropriate channels.

If you would like any further tips please comment and I will be happy to help! 🙂