KISS

Social networking media has become the latest buzz in e-marketing. Every entrepreneur who is aware of the trends is eager to capitalize on the dramatic public relations coup which results from effective use of such media as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. According to the latest news, the most effective of all of these systems may be – Pinterest? What in the world is Pinterest? Have you even heard of it?

Here is the breaking news....

There IS a “new kid on the block”. Pinterest has been in development for a number of months, is currently in Beta testing – and already, it rivals, even beats Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ in some cases. Actually, it overlaps / interacts with them, but Pinterest takes a bit different approach. Rather than posting conversation, users create “pinboards” on their preferred topics, then pin pictures, videos, and screenshots on the appropriate board. (A “board” is, in reality, a collection of “pins” on a common topic.)

Pinterest allows members to follow other members, or to follow topics. Pinterest, unlike competing social media venues, allows you to “filter” the “stuff” from your contacts, ignoring that which is not of interest to you, yet noticing everything which meets your chosen criteria.

In designing your pinboard, you find ways to showcase your products in action, rather than trying to turn the board into an online catalog. For example, if your company rents formal-wear, your pinboard might show elegantly dressed people dancing, dining, etc. If your product line consists of Motorcycle Accessories, you’ll want to show still and action photos – maybe even videos – of bikes some of which prominently display your products. It is up to the individual marketer to find ways of showcasing their products without blatantly commercialized marketing.

The stated goal of Pinterest is to “connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting”. A well designed pinboard will cause viewers to fall in love with the lifestyle in which your products function – and by extension, they will fall in love with your wares.

In a nutshell, Pinterest can’t be utilized directly to market your product, but thoughtfully designed pinboards will whet visitors’ appetites, and they will come looking for you. Add a few friends whose sites, tweets, Facebook “likes”, etc. offer your links, and they will find you.

Where does Pinterest fit with Inbound and Outbound Marketing?

We explored the topic of Inbound vs. Outbound marketing in a recent blog post. In that article, we commented, “There is actually still a need for some “Outbound” promotional work, as that is often what prompts those inbound searches.” Reference: Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing - What's the Difference?

Pinterest offers a new and better way to do some outbound marketing – right in the midst of an inbound market. In a very real sense, websites with several pinboards are much like a business with several physical billboards. Viewers, though, will “find” your board because they are interested in the topic – so they are not just bored “passers by”, but rather enthusiastic, inbound visitors! And what a billboard you can offer! It will be far more effective than some metal and plastic, painted object in front of a physical store.

In a sense, you could say that Pinterest offers a forest of signboards, but they are welcome, and the passers by are there “on purpose”. You are, in essence, assisting inbound viewers in finding what they really love. Rather than creating a clutter of competing (and often offensive) billboards, junk mail, or e-mailed spam, Pinterest offers an opportunity to interact with others who share a common interest – anywhere on earth – and to readily cross link to “share the love”.
The result is well informed, enthusiastic shoppers who are eagerly searching for your site.

In addition to interesting items that you post, other members have the option of pinning items to your boards, and of linking your boards to their site. They can even embed individual “pins” from your site in their blogs or websites. Pins can be shared through email, Facebook, or Twitter, as well.

Rather than creating unsolicited and unwanted outbound advertising, the Pinterest system enables you to transform your advertising “poster” into a community project. Like minded enthusiasts will actually help you to build your pinboard. Your site will benefit from the efforts of others, many of whom you don’t even know – and from their enthusiasm for a shared common interest.

An extra benefit of this delightful tool is the cost – or rather, the lack of cost. You pay nothing to set up a pinboard. There are some rules, but no fees. Any costs that you may incur are strictly at your discretion. Pinterest could very well prove to be your best marketing tool, and at the same time, it may well be the least expensive.

Visitors will actually help you to build your board!

Yes, it seems almost too good to be true – but visitors will WANT to visit your board – and they will want to help you to make it better. If you do a good job of presenting the joys and pleasures of life with your products – and especially when you attract “pins” from other participants – visitors will also want to visit your store! At that point, “Voila!” curious tourists will have been transformed into inbound customers – just be certain that you are prepared to deal with the traffic.

We should emphasize that Pinterest does not replace the other social interactive networking media. Rather, it capitalizes on them, blends them, and utilizes their strengths – while offering a scope which has been lacking in the others. While you are adding social networking media to your repertoire, DO NOT NEGLECT Pinterest!

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There has been a lot of buzz over the past few months about the terms “Inbound Marketing” and “Outbound Marketing”. What's the big deal? Marketing is marketing, isn't it?

If you think this is just another set of overused buzzwords, maybe you need to have the meaning of the terms clarified. Both forms of marketing have been used from the dawn of marketing, itself. In simplest terms, “Inbound Marketing” is a customer looking for a something to buy. From the perspective of the merchant, when a customer comes to the marketplace looking for his product, that customer is “Inbound”. In contrast, Outbound Marketing may be illustrated by a vendor walking through the marketplace, shouting catchy slogans to attract customers – who in many cases aren't actually seeking to buy his wares – yet, if his efforts are successful, some of them will purchase his product.

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Everyone who has a website wants it to be visible. Isn't that why we have websites? In most cases, being visible on the World Wide Web means ranking high in Google searches. Just to define this problem, a recent Google search for the key word phrase “cellular phone” produced nearly instantaneous results – of 788,000,000 items! That's right. Searching for that single keyword phrase delivered Seven Hundred Eighty Eight Million hits! What are the odds that a potential buyer is going to click on a link to the one that ranked (for example) 245,999,991? We must be realistic: Landing on the first page of a Google search is a major victory – and appearing on page 100, or on page 597, or on page 788,000 are all equally worthless results.

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In this series, we have looked at various aspects of SEO and successful web marketing, yet we have hardly scratched the surface. We noted the ugly side of SEO (low quality, digital spam), and Google’s assault on low grade “content farms”. In examining the Panda algorithm, we’ve touched on ways to improve your articles in order to avoid “a Panda attack”. We have discussed 'Writing for Search Engine Optimization: the ABC’s of SEO', and we’ve talked about SEO for human consumption…

Have you noticed? Thus far, everything which we have discussed has been primarily about text. Interesting, informative text is essential. Without it, SEO does not exist. Well written text is the reason that people even DO internet searches. The “bait” which keeps readers coming back is information, well presented through thoughtful, informative, properly written articles.

Writing for dummies?

The truth is that your readers are no dummies! Figuratively speaking, you might succeed in selling them a box of sawdust dressed up as breakfast cereal – but if you do, you may be certain that most of them won’t be back for seconds! Reading dry, “unflavored” text, with no value added can be somewhat like munching down on a bowl of sawdust! Choosing the best wording is helpful, adding good sub-headings improves it further, but text can only go so far.

To reiterate this concept: Useful, informative text is absolutely essential to success in 21st century internet marketing, but if you have the best of written articles – unembellished – you will quickly discover that good text is not good enough!

This IS the 21st century!

We have previously noted this, but it bears repeating: in order to be successful in SEO / internet marketing, you must remember that you are writing for human consumption. Oh, yes, we should further define that – make it for 21st century human consumption!

In case you haven’t noticed, children are growing up – even in the developing countries – with a steady diet of colorful images. Such images are presented in print, TV, movies, video games, and computer / internet interactions. Your developing audience grew up with it, they expect it, and they quickly become bored without it.

For that matter, even “old fogies” such as this author find pictures, slideshows, and videos much more interesting – even more informative – than plain text. Although I consider myself something of an intellectual, I’ll admit that an informative article which is enhanced with good illustrations, still photos and videos definitely grabs my attention.

Since we have been discussing Google’s “Panda”, I should tell you that the Panda likes pictures, too! That’s right; Google’s algorithms seem to be designed to give your articles a better ranking when they include pictures, slideshows, and videos (or links leading to such). Either that, or pictures cause folks to linger a bit longer, resulting in better ranking.  While we’re on that subject, links, in general, are useful in raising your search ranking.  (We should note that Google isn't publishing details on their algorithms.  If they did, "Black Hat" operators would immediately compromise the search / ranking process.)

Panda likes pictures!

Two brief notes:

1. Links are not universally good.
2. Google updates the algorithm every few weeks, so you have to scramble to really stay on top – but those topics are too complex for this article. We should reserve them for another time.

Tags: spam, content farms, search engine optimization, SEO, links, algorithm, panda