7 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

By Bryden McGrath
Published May 2, 2013
Is your company’s social media as stale as last month’s bread?
Would you like to get more people-to-people interaction and begin a real conversation with your audience on social media?
No matter your company’s industry or size, you can encourage these deeper connections and improve your social media engagement.
Here are some tips to help you encourage people-to-people interaction, whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare or Instagram.
Your company is only as good as your hardworking employees—so don’t be afraid to highlight them.
SEOmoz uses Facebook photo albums to highlight their employees.
The SEOmoz Facebook Page does an excellent job of this. Two examples in particular really jump out.
The “Then and Now” photo album: Employees provided photos from their youth along with recent photos of themselves. This is a great way to show fans the human side of SEOmoz. Plus, the baby pictures are adorable.
SEOmoz does a wonderful job of featuring employees, like in this “Then and Now” photo album.
The “What are Mozzers listening to?” photo album: All it took was snapping photos of employees with their headphones on and asking them what they were listening to. The result is an inside look at company culture.
The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Facebook Events and invites their fans.
The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Events for both their games and promotional events like player meet-and-greets.
Is your company holding an event that’s open to the public?
Then create a Facebook Event so followers can RSVP and add it to their calendars. This is a feature that is often overlooked by businesses—even many professional sports teams don’t create Facebook Events for their home games.
To get your juices flowing, here’s a short list of the types of gatherings where a Facebook Event could be perfect:
SeminarsWebinarsOpen housesCharity eventsConferences
In the example below of the 500px Facebook Page, they use Facebook to feature their fans.
For the photographers who are lucky enough to be featured, it means tremendous exposure to the Page’s almost-300,000 fans. As for everyone else, this type of post makes them feel part of a community with the possibility that they could someday be featured.
As a photo-sharing service, 500px is a natural fit to share user content on their Facebook Page.
Social media gives companies the ability to easily recognize their customers and fans.
Depending on your company’s niche, there are numerous ways to feature your customers and fans. For example, you can highlight contest winners or encourage users to submit their own photos and videos.
Get creative by using video to connect on Twitter.
You can use Twitter Vsnap to send personalized videos. Vsnap is a tool that allows you to record a video message with a maximum length of 60 seconds. Use this to send a personal video message to a follower on Twitter.
Every new follower Vsnap gains on Twitter is sent a personal video message through the service.
Making these short video messages personable is easy. Look at your target’s Twitter bio to see if something interesting jumps out and use this to craft your message. Or say thanks to someone who shared your content or became a new follower. Or answer a question someone has about your company.
Businesses have already found several creative uses for Twitter’s Vine app, which allows you to take 6-second video clips.
These short videos can be fun to watch and encourage viewers to connect with you further.
Your Vine videos don’t have to only be about your products. Here are some other uses your company might want to consider to connect with your audience:
A tour of the officeIndividual Vine videos for different teamsEncouraging customers to Vine about your business
Let people know who’s tweeting.
Have you ever noticed companies who include the initials of the person tweeting at the end of each tweet? Or companies who include the Twitter handle of the person(s) tweeting in their bio?
Both of these strategies are a great way to make a branded Twitter account feel a little more human and the interactions more personal.
Time
lets you know who is responding to their account on Twitter. The TIME Twitter account includes information on who is authoring the account’s tweets in the bio section.
Be part of the conversation.
Don’t ignore people who take the time to tweet to your company.
The Whole Foods Market Twitter account makes it a priority to respond to tweets.
Sometimes just acknowledging a tweet can make someone’s day—potentially making that person loyal to your brand for a lifetime. If you take the time to tweet, take the time to respond to complaints, compliments and questions in a timely manner.
Use humor to make your followers laugh.
Old Spice is known for their quirky marketing and branding, and it shines through on Twitter as well.
You never want to force it, but humor can be an effective way to make your company seem less robotic. And with the constant stream of information on Twitter, breaking it up with a laugh is always appreciated.
Create and share Google+ Circles your followers will find useful.
One Google+ feature that is sometimes underutilized is the ability to share Circles.
Your company can become a resource for users looking for more people to follow related to your company’s industry. After sharing the Circle on Google+, you can copy the link and share it in a blog post or on Twitter.
This is an example of a recent Circle featuring almost every speaker at SMX West.
Furthermore, this allows your company to connect with the people in the Circle you’ve created and build your audience. They may see the Circle you’ve made and decide to share it on their own profile.
Here are some examples of the type of Circles your company could create and share:
Industry leadersSpeakers at conferencesFavorite writers
Get active in the right Google+ Communities.
Google+ Pages are able to take part in Google+ Communities like any other user: Pages can create, join, moderate and participate.
Chances are there’s already a Community that fits your company’s industry. If so, join the discussion. If not, make a new Community and invite others to join.
To learn more about Google+ Communities, check out this article from Mike Delgado.
Use Google+ Hangouts.
With Google+ Hangouts, your Page can start a video chat with up to nine people. This is a great opportunity to connect with your audience.
This Google+ Hangout with chef Nigella Lawson isn’t just solid content; it’s a fantastic way to have followers interact with The New York Times Google+ Page.
This New York Times
Hangout featuring Nigella Lawson is a perfect example. It features a host—Lawson—and three home cooks who wrote in describing how they fared making Lawson’s pasta recipe and why they wanted to be included in the Hangout.
LinkedIn Company Pages can feature up to three groups on their page in an effort to have more people join the group(s).
Much like Google+ Communities, participating in LinkedIn Groups is another opportunity to join the discussion in your company’s industry and answer questions. As an added bonus, more professionals in your field will see your company.
This is a great opportunity for you to get more visibility for your company and to interact with people who may be interested in your products and services.
Your company’s Pinterest boards don’t have to be limited to just company pins. Collaborate with other users to give your account a more personal feel.
For this style challenge, Home Depot invited others to pin.
To invite other Pinterest users to pin to a specific board, go to the board and click Edit. Next to “Who can pin?” type the users’ names or their email addresses (Note: in order to invite someone, you must be following at least one of that user’s boards.) Click Save Changes.
Once the invited users accept your invitation, they’ll be able to pin to the shared board. However, you can always remove the user and remove their pins. Moreover, invited users cannot change a board’s title or description.
Pinterest is just as much a community as any other social network. So remember to make the time to interact with other users by commenting on and repinning their pins. While you’re at it, follow users’ boards that fit your company’s industry so you have a fresh stream of related content every time you login.
Use Foursquare to leave tips.
When a Foursquare user visits a location page, they’ll also see tips from other users.
If your company has a location (or multiple locations) on Foursquare, leave tips at your own locations to show users the personable side to your company. These can be simple, or perhaps even offer an inside joke.
Leaving tips at other businesses in your area provides a way to offer your authority on your industry. Best of all, Foursquare users get insightful tips and tricks.
For example, maybe you own a travel agency and leave tips on the feedback you’ve heard about particular attractions. Or maybe you own a food website and leave tips at popular restaurants.
You’ll find fun facts from the History Channel in the tips section of several landmarks.
In the above image, the History Channel provides some fun facts.
Again, you’ll be actively adding to the community.
Use Foursquare to create interesting lists.
Creating lists of places based on a general theme can help your company be seen by more people on Foursquare.
Lists are something Foursquare users appreciate because they act as a resource that’s easy to save. For instance, your company could create a list of its employees’ favorite lunch spots. Or the list could be the best places for company outings.
The Travel Channel has some food tips galore from Adam Richman.
Travel Channel has a list with the places Adam Richman has visited on the show “Man v Food Nation.” Over 8,000 users have saved it.
If you do decide to create a Foursquare list, login using the desktop version of Foursquare and make it from there. Compared to doing this on your phone, it’s much easier to find and save places to your list with more screen real estate.
Creating a hashtag and encouraging users to submit their photos is a smart way to stand out and be personable on Instagram.
The NBC News
Instagram account recently asked users to tag their winter storm photos with the hashtag #NBCNewsPics. After the weekend passed, they chose four of their favorite user-submitted photos and featured the photos as a single image. In the description, they gave credit by including each user’s Instagram username. By creating a hashtag, NBC News encouraged users to submit content AND was able to feature their favorite user-submitted photos.
Featuring user photos in this fashion on your company’s Instagram account adds to the community. It also shows that you’re on the social network to contribute more than just your own photos. There are several examples of companies doing this, including those in industries like journalism, sports and travel.
The easiest way to feature another user’s photo is through the use of third-party websites like Statigram and Webstagram. Both websites have the option to repost underneath all photos. Before reposting, don’t forget to obtain permission from the user first.
Use These Tips for More People-to-People Interaction
Use these examples to inspire your social media efforts and you’re sure to increase your social media engagement as you connect with more people in your community.
What do you think? What other strategies do you see companies using to connect with their audience on a deeper level? Leave your questions and comments below.
About the Author, Bryden McGrath
Bryden McGrath is a social media strategist at Portent, Inc. in Seattle. He also has a background in news and music journalism. Follow him on Twitter @Bryden13. Other posts by Bryden McGrath »
http://www.jretechnology.com

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Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/jretechnology

7 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

By Bryden McGrath
Published May 2, 2013

Is your company’s social media as stale as last month’s bread?

Would you like to get more people-to-people interaction and begin a real conversation with your audience on social media?

No matter your company’s industry or size, you can encourage these deeper connections and improve your social media engagement.

Here are some tips to help you encourage people-to-people interaction, whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare or Instagram.

Your company is only as good as your hardworking employees—so don’t be afraid to highlight them.

SEOmoz uses Facebook photo albums to highlight their employees.

The SEOmoz Facebook Page does an excellent job of this. Two examples in particular really jump out.

The “Then and Now” photo album: Employees provided photos from their youth along with recent photos of themselves. This is a great way to show fans the human side of SEOmoz. Plus, the baby pictures are adorable.

SEOmoz does a wonderful job of featuring employees, like in this “Then and Now” photo album.

The “What are Mozzers listening to?” photo album: All it took was snapping photos of employees with their headphones on and asking them what they were listening to. The result is an inside look at company culture.

The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Facebook Events and invites their fans.

The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Events for both their games and promotional events like player meet-and-greets.

Is your company holding an event that’s open to the public?

Then create a Facebook Event so followers can RSVP and add it to their calendars. This is a feature that is often overlooked by businesses—even many professional sports teams don’t create Facebook Events for their home games.

To get your juices flowing, here’s a short list of the types of gatherings where a Facebook Event could be perfect:

SeminarsWebinarsOpen housesCharity eventsConferences

In the example below of the 500px Facebook Page, they use Facebook to feature their fans.

For the photographers who are lucky enough to be featured, it means tremendous exposure to the Page’s almost-300,000 fans. As for everyone else, this type of post makes them feel part of a community with the possibility that they could someday be featured.

As a photo-sharing service, 500px is a natural fit to share user content on their Facebook Page.

Social media gives companies the ability to easily recognize their customers and fans.

Depending on your company’s niche, there are numerous ways to feature your customers and fans. For example, you can highlight contest winners or encourage users to submit their own photos and videos.

Get creative by using video to connect on Twitter.

You can use Twitter Vsnap to send personalized videos. Vsnap is a tool that allows you to record a video message with a maximum length of 60 seconds. Use this to send a personal video message to a follower on Twitter.

Every new follower Vsnap gains on Twitter is sent a personal video message through the service.

Making these short video messages personable is easy. Look at your target’s Twitter bio to see if something interesting jumps out and use this to craft your message. Or say thanks to someone who shared your content or became a new follower. Or answer a question someone has about your company.

Businesses have already found several creative uses for Twitter’s Vine app, which allows you to take 6-second video clips.

These short videos can be fun to watch and encourage viewers to connect with you further.

Your Vine videos don’t have to only be about your products. Here are some other uses your company might want to consider to connect with your audience:

A tour of the officeIndividual Vine videos for different teamsEncouraging customers to Vine about your business

Let people know who’s tweeting.

Have you ever noticed companies who include the initials of the person tweeting at the end of each tweet? Or companies who include the Twitter handle of the person(s) tweeting in their bio?

Both of these strategies are a great way to make a branded Twitter account feel a little more human and the interactions more personal.

Time lets you know who is responding to their account on Twitter.

The TIME Twitter account includes information on who is authoring the account’s tweets in the bio section.

Be part of the conversation.

Don’t ignore people who take the time to tweet to your company.

The Whole Foods Market Twitter account makes it a priority to respond to tweets.

Sometimes just acknowledging a tweet can make someone’s day—potentially making that person loyal to your brand for a lifetime. If you take the time to tweet, take the time to respond to complaints, compliments and questions in a timely manner.

Use humor to make your followers laugh.

Old Spice is known for their quirky marketing and branding, and it shines through on Twitter as well.

You never want to force it, but humor can be an effective way to make your company seem less robotic. And with the constant stream of information on Twitter, breaking it up with a laugh is always appreciated.

Create and share Google+ Circles your followers will find useful.

One Google+ feature that is sometimes underutilized is the ability to share Circles.

Your company can become a resource for users looking for more people to follow related to your company’s industry. After sharing the Circle on Google+, you can copy the link and share it in a blog post or on Twitter.

This is an example of a recent Circle featuring almost every speaker at SMX West.

Furthermore, this allows your company to connect with the people in the Circle you’ve created and build your audience. They may see the Circle you’ve made and decide to share it on their own profile.

Here are some examples of the type of Circles your company could create and share:

Industry leadersSpeakers at conferencesFavorite writers

Get active in the right Google+ Communities.

Google+ Pages are able to take part in Google+ Communities like any other user: Pages can create, join, moderate and participate.

Chances are there’s already a Community that fits your company’s industry. If so, join the discussion. If not, make a new Community and invite others to join.

To learn more about Google+ Communities, check out this article from Mike Delgado.

Use Google+ Hangouts.

With Google+ Hangouts, your Page can start a video chat with up to nine people. This is a great opportunity to connect with your audience.

This Google+ Hangout with chef Nigella Lawson isn’t just solid content; it’s a fantastic way to have followers interact with The New York Times Google+ Page.

This New York Times Hangout featuring Nigella Lawson is a perfect example. It features a host—Lawson—and three home cooks who wrote in describing how they fared making Lawson’s pasta recipe and why they wanted to be included in the Hangout.

LinkedIn Company Pages can feature up to three groups on their page in an effort to have more people join the group(s).

Much like Google+ Communities, participating in LinkedIn Groups is another opportunity to join the discussion in your company’s industry and answer questions. As an added bonus, more professionals in your field will see your company.

This is a great opportunity for you to get more visibility for your company and to interact with people who may be interested in your products and services.

Your company’s Pinterest boards don’t have to be limited to just company pins. Collaborate with other users to give your account a more personal feel.

For this style challenge, Home Depot invited others to pin.

To invite other Pinterest users to pin to a specific board, go to the board and click Edit. Next to “Who can pin?” type the users’ names or their email addresses (Note: in order to invite someone, you must be following at least one of that user’s boards.) Click Save Changes.

Once the invited users accept your invitation, they’ll be able to pin to the shared board. However, you can always remove the user and remove their pins. Moreover, invited users cannot change a board’s title or description.

Pinterest is just as much a community as any other social network. So remember to make the time to interact with other users by commenting on and repinning their pins. While you’re at it, follow users’ boards that fit your company’s industry so you have a fresh stream of related content every time you login.

Use Foursquare to leave tips.

When a Foursquare user visits a location page, they’ll also see tips from other users.

If your company has a location (or multiple locations) on Foursquare, leave tips at your own locations to show users the personable side to your company. These can be simple, or perhaps even offer an inside joke.

Leaving tips at other businesses in your area provides a way to offer your authority on your industry. Best of all, Foursquare users get insightful tips and tricks.

For example, maybe you own a travel agency and leave tips on the feedback you’ve heard about particular attractions. Or maybe you own a food website and leave tips at popular restaurants.

You’ll find fun facts from the History Channel in the tips section of several landmarks.

In the above image, the History Channel provides some fun facts.

Again, you’ll be actively adding to the community.

Use Foursquare to create interesting lists.

Creating lists of places based on a general theme can help your company be seen by more people on Foursquare.

Lists are something Foursquare users appreciate because they act as a resource that’s easy to save. For instance, your company could create a list of its employees’ favorite lunch spots. Or the list could be the best places for company outings.

The Travel Channel has some food tips galore from Adam Richman.

Travel Channel has a list with the places Adam Richman has visited on the show “Man v Food Nation.” Over 8,000 users have saved it.

If you do decide to create a Foursquare list, login using the desktop version of Foursquare and make it from there. Compared to doing this on your phone, it’s much easier to find and save places to your list with more screen real estate.

Creating a hashtag and encouraging users to submit their photos is a smart way to stand out and be personable on Instagram.

The NBC News Instagram account recently asked users to tag their winter storm photos with the hashtag #NBCNewsPics. After the weekend passed, they chose four of their favorite user-submitted photos and featured the photos as a single image. In the description, they gave credit by including each user’s Instagram username.

By creating a hashtag, NBC News encouraged users to submit content AND was able to feature their favorite user-submitted photos.

Featuring user photos in this fashion on your company’s Instagram account adds to the community. It also shows that you’re on the social network to contribute more than just your own photos. There are several examples of companies doing this, including those in industries like journalism, sports and travel.

The easiest way to feature another user’s photo is through the use of third-party websites like Statigram and Webstagram. Both websites have the option to repost underneath all photos. Before reposting, don’t forget to obtain permission from the user first.

Use These Tips for More People-to-People Interaction

Use these examples to inspire your social media efforts and you’re sure to increase your social media engagement as you connect with more people in your community.

What do you think? What other strategies do you see companies using to connect with their audience on a deeper level? Leave your questions and comments below.

About the Author, Bryden McGrath

Bryden McGrath is a social media strategist at Portent, Inc. in Seattle. He also has a background in news and music journalism. Follow him on Twitter @Bryden13. Other posts by Bryden McGrath »

http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Boost Engagement on Your LinkedIn Company Page

By Mike Delgado
Published April 18, 2013

Are you leveraging your LinkedIn Company Page as best you can?

In a recent LinkedIn study, 50% of current company followers stated they are more likely to purchase products and services from a business they engage with on LinkedIn.

This means that an active LinkedIn presence could help your business. And you’ll likely want to improve engagement on LinkedIn.

Here are five simple ways to boost engagement with your LinkedIn followers.

Aside from studying what your competitors are doing on LinkedIn, you should spend time in the groups where your target market is engaging. You’ll want to find out what interests them there.

Which “manager’s choice” article is getting the most attention this week? What discussions are getting the most likes and comments? Take time to analyze and read what’s engaging your target market. All of these discussions will help you discover topics and ideas to post in your company stream.

Furthermore, you can search for specific topics in groups to quickly see what type of questions and issues are drawing the most engagement. Simply go into a group where your target market is active and click on the Search tab. You’ll then see the box on the left-hand side where you can search for posts by topic.

Use the Group Search feature to find the most engaging content on a given topic.

Create a log of what types of topics, questions and challenges are being discussed by your target market.

You can also dig deeper to find the most engaging discussions month-over-month by analyzing the group’s activity data. Simply click on the More tab in a group you’re part of and select Group Statistics in the drop-down menu.

The Group Statistics link will provide you insights into demographics, group growth rate and activity by month.

Next, click on the Activity link in the chart navigation to see trends in engagement, as well as what months received the most comments. This insightful look can help you figure out trends and what topics might be more interesting at certain times of the year.

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Once you know the periods with high engagement, go “back in time” by scrolling to the bottom of the group discussion stream and click on the Go to Archive link. This can help you find older posts with high engagement.

If you scroll to the bottom of group discussions, you’ll find a Go to Archive link that will help you see older discussions faster.

Tip: Groups are also a great place to “test” status updates to see what type of engagement they receive before adding to your company stream. Not sure whether a certain post would be valuable to your followers? Add the update into a group first to see what type of interaction you receive.

Recent data from LinkedIn reveals that posting status updates in the morning is the best time for businesses to engage followers. That said, it’s also important to schedule posts throughout the day to increase post visibility and engagement with those logging in later in the day.

This is why you should use a tool like HootSuite to automate LinkedIn posts when you’re not able to manually update. Automating your status updates in LinkedIn allows you to schedule posts on weekends or late at night when you’re not working on your LinkedIn company account.

HootSuite is a free tool that allows you to schedule posts for your social media channels.

Using HootSuite to schedule posts doesn’t mean you should schedule a bunch of posts and never log in to check metrics. You should still check your engagement metrics for each post to see what content is resonating with your followers and dig into your Page and follower insights to see what’s working and what’s not.

Tip: Create a spreadsheet to log days, times, post impression count and engagement stats. This will help you figure out what days/times are giving you the most reach. This will also help you figure out what topics are getting more or less engagement.

Now that you can add images and files to your LinkedIn company status updates, there is no excuse not to test out pictures and files along with your text updates. As you know, images make your status updates “pop out” in the stream, and this can help you get more eyeballs and engagement on your status updates.

Add images to your posts help you get more attention and more engagement with your posts.

Interesting links with status updates can help you pull in hundreds (if not thousands) of clicks to a URL you are promoting. So take advantage of driving relevant traffic to a blog post you’ve written for your target market.

Number of likes and comments can signal high engagement, but the click-through data can provide even more insight into what’s engaging your audience. (Note: Engagement stats listed in example above are not real data.)

Aside from testing images, files and links to interesting articles, you should also explore using contests to gain more followers (and potential clients).

London-based Reconverse started up a LinkedIn page to reach out to the human resources community. Even though they had less than 200 followers, their first status update below helped them gain 1,431 likes, 124 comments and 87 followers because of the shares and virality of the post.

Test out a fun contest to see how many likes, comments and shares you could receive even if you don’t have many followers.

This simple status update also helped them attract 15 delegates and 4 new supplier clients for their events. And their second “contest” status update (offering an iTunes gift card) received 318 likes, 11 comments and 12 requests for more information about Reconverse events. Check out the full Reconverse case study to learn more.

Tip: Use LinkedIn’s Targeting feature to craft specific status updates for select audiences that are following you. For example, use a targeted update to reach out to non-employees only with offers and contests.

One simple way to increase engagement on your LinkedIn company profile (and attract new followers) is simply by promoting a link to your LinkedIn Company Page on your website and email signature line. This will inform fans and potential clients about your LinkedIn profile, which can help you establish credibility and more followers.

In fact, Wild Apricot added their LinkedIn product reviews on their homepage, which increased conversion rates by 15%. You see, adding product reviews from real customers (via LinkedIn) adds more credibility for products. This helped them increase leads—not to mention new followers for their Page.

Wild Apricot displays reviews of their products on their homepage, which boosts conversion rates on their site and increases LinkedIn followers.

By promoting LinkedIn recommendations on your website, you’ll gain more followers and engagement on your LinkedIn Company Page. If you’re going to do this, make sure to get approval from the person who will be featured on your home page.

Tip: Test long vs. short product recommendations on landing pages (or pages that you want to boost conversion rates on). You may also want to test type of recommendation based on the visitor coming to your page (e.g., first-time visitor vs. frequent visitor).

LinkedIn Recommendation Ads allow you to promote your products and services to your target market. These ad campaigns can help you increase engagement with your Company Page by bringing in more traffic and product recommendations. And each time someone recommends your product, it is automatically shared with that person’s followers (which can bring you even more traffic and recommendations).

Recommendation Ads allow you to showcase a product or service with a specific target market. AT&T now has 104 people recommending their AT&T Networking Exchange product.

Hewlett-Packard used Recommendation Ads to gain 20,000 new followers, 2,000 product recommendations and 500,000 viral updates in just a few weeks.

Increase Your Company’s Engagement on LinkedIn

If you follow these steps consistently over time, you’re sure to increase engagement with your audience on LinkedIn. And they will be more likely to purchase products and services from your company.

So how are you engaging followers on LinkedIn? Do you find these tips useful? Please share your questions and comments below.

About the Author, Mike Delgado

Michael Delgado is a digital marketer who loves writing about Google+, online brand management and social media. He's the author of circled.us and the Social Media Community Manager at Experian. Other posts by Mike Delgado »

http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Products

By Mitt Ray
Published April 22, 2013

Is your business on Pinterest?

Or are you still unsure how to use Pinterest to effectively promote your products or company?

In November, Pinterest launched business pages with their new terms of service. This update lets you use Pinterest commercially.

You can promote your products, generate sales and leads and use it for other commercial purposes without any worries.

But first, you may want to convert your personal profile into a business account (or if you don’t have a personal account, just start fresh with one for business).

Here are some tips on how you can take advantage of this update and use Pinterest commercially to promote your business.

A great way to drive sales is to create boards where you pin holiday products. This could be Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Mother’s Day or any other day that is of significance to your audience.

You can use Pinterest to show your audience that you’ve got what they need to celebrate.

The first thing you need to do is create a board based on that holiday and label it with a board name, description and category.

After that, you can begin pinning relevant products from your website to this board. You could also upload the images directly to Pinterest, but in this case make sure the image leads to a landing page on your website where people can make a purchase.

Write a good description to let readers know how they can use your product during this holiday. You can also add the price.

Rearrange your holiday-themed boards so that they’re at the top of your profile page during the appropriate season so they stand out (and don’t forget to add a good cover image).

You could also add a board widget to your website to help promote the board.

Like Argos, promote your products for festive occasions.

A good example of a holiday board is Christmas Gifts for Her, which can be found on Argos’ (a UK home and general goods retailer) Pinterest brand page.

On this board, you’ll find pins of products from their website for Christmas, along with detailed descriptions and labels, which all ultimately lead to a landing page to buy the item. This is a great way to market their products on Pinterest.

Check out the board to see how well it’s been done.

Another creative way of using your Pinterest brand page is to promote your products using a theme. This could be a theme around colors, designs, materials, ingredients, locations or anything else that’s interesting and can be categorized.

After you choose a theme, create several boards based on that theme.

For example, if you choose the color theme, create several boards where you plan to pin products of different colors. Label them accordingly, with different color names and arrange them side by side, so users know that the boards collectively form a theme.

Once you have set up the boards correctly, start pinning products of that color onto that board and add a good description (make sure you mention the color here too). This is a creative way to market your business, as people can easily find products of their favorite color.

This method is also good for search engine optimization (SEO), especially when you mention the keyword (color) in the board title, board description and pin description.

Displaying your products around a theme can increase engagement and drive sales.

A company that is promoting its products around a theme on Pinterest is Debenhams, a chain of stores in the UK.

On their Pinterest page, they have several boards labeled with names of designers like John Rocha, Betty Jackson and Jenny Packham. They also have each designer’s photo set as their board cover.

On this board they share clothes and accessories created by the designer. Fans can visit that board to check out the creations of that designer instead of visiting the website and browsing through hundreds of clothing items and accessories. This can help generate traffic and increase sales.

You can also promote your products in a similar way. Just make sure you choose a title under which you can group many of your products together. And don’t hesitate to experiment with different methods and themes. If something doesn’t work, you can always delete the boards and pins and create new ones.

People like popular products. When they know that a product is selling well and everyone else is buying it, they want to get a hold of it before they miss out. This is one of the reasons why there’s the Amazon bestseller list and the option to look at the most popular products on online stores.

Once your products reach that list and are easily visible to your website visitors, they are likely to sell even better.

You can take advantage of this same idea on Pinterest too and list your most popular products.

First, create a board with a title and description to tell readers this is where they can find your most popular products. After that, pin some images of your most popular products here and add descriptions. You could also add the rank of the product.

Make sure you write everything about the product—include the price, whether the product is a limited edition and add a call to action asking users to check out the product or buy it.

Also make sure you update the board regularly. Remove products no longer available and replace them with hot new items.

Create a bestsellers or a top-sellers board and pin your most popular products to it.

Top 40 Best Sellers is a board on Gourmet Display’s Pinterest brand page, where they pin 40 of their best-selling products for food and beverage displays. This is a great way to further increase the sales of these products.

The board has a good name and a well-written description, which instantly tell you what the board contains. The pins have both an attractive image and a good description and they lead to a page where the product can be purchased.

Another way to use your Pinterest page is to generate leads. First, create some quality content (such as ebooks, white papers, reports, case studies, etc.) that is gated with an opt-in form on a landing page.

Then add a short description about the content on the landing page along with an attractive image that is also the cover image of your file. After that, pin this image onto a board where you share your premium content. Write a brief description about it with a call to action that asks people to visit your website to sign up.

This will increase your landing page traffic and will help generate more leads, which can be used to increase website and blog traffic and drive sales later.

Using your brand page to generate leads can be easier than trying to push sales.

An example is the Free Marketing Resources board on Team MarketingProfs’ brand page, where you will find pins of their free marketing resources. Here, instead of directly marketing their services, MarketingProfs asks its followers to download their marketing materials for free. Many of these resources can only be accessed by providing an email address.

This is a great way to generate leads from potential customers who can be marketed to later. It’s a lot easier than trying to get them to buy your products or use your services right away.

The ultimate goal of your campaign is to generate leads and sales for your services and products. In fact, it would be nice to start generating sales as soon as you set up your brand page, but on Pinterest you want to take your time doing this.

You need to build an audience first. And after you gain followers, you can start promoting your products.

On Facebook and Twitter or other social networks where you share posts every day, you might be able to promote your products more than once daily. But on Pinterest, the best way to promote items is to create a dedicated board where you pin the products you want to sell.

Remember, you want to pin your products only once because if you do it over and over again, you’ll appear to be overpromoting yourself.

When you first pin one of your products, you want to get as many initial likes, repins and comments as possible. This will add social proof to your products, encourage users to check out the product and increase the likelihood of more direct shares in the future.

So focus on building an audience first by sharing content regularly and then pin your products to your page.

Focusing on building an audience first will make it easy for you to drive sales later.

On The Gracious Pantry’s Pinterest brand page, you will find a board called Gracious Pantry Cookbooks where Tiffany McCauley shares pins of her books. Many of these pins have been repinned several times. The number of times the book has been repinned and liked can be found right below the pin.

These numbers add social proof, encourage users to visit the site and repin the cookbook right away. And when she pins something new to this board, she will automatically get repins and likes because she has already built an audience. The board currently has more than 15,000 followers.

So focus on building an audience first and share your products after you have achieved this.

Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business

As you can see, there are several ways you can highlight your products on Pinterest. Have a look to see how other businesses are using their Pinterest accounts and figure out which your audience might like best. Choose the boards that will work best for you.

Have you been using Pinterest brand pages to promote your business? What’s worked for you? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

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