Pinterest: How to Drive More Traffic to Your Site With Pinterest

By Michael Stelzner
Published April 26, 2013

Do you use Pinterest for business?

Are you wondering how Pinterest can help your business drive more traffic to your website or blog?

To learn about Pinterest marketing, I interview Melanie Duncan for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Melanie Duncan, owner of Luxury Monograms and CustomGreekThreads. She also does online training for business owners and spends a lot of time focusing on Pinterest marketing.

Melanie shares how Pinterest is a different social media platform and why marketers should use it.

You’ll learn how to create clickable images and calls to action that will lead to increased visibility and sales.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

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You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

How has Pinterest helped your business?

Melanie describes how she stumbled across Pinterest marketing in January of this year, when she started to receive a high volume of traffic and orders to her site.

It wasn’t until she logged into Google Analytics that she realized Pinterest’s potential in terms of bringing new customers and traffic to her site.

You’ll discover how Melanie formed a Pinterest strategy and how it helped her business get more exposure and sales.

Melanie Duncan on Pinterest.

Melanie explains how she first saw Pinterest traffic come from Luxury Monograms. People were pinning things from her site, even before she had a Pin It button. You’ll learn how people can pin from your blog or website.

Luxury Monograms was the first website from which Melanie saw Pinterest traffic.

Melanie explains that it wasn’t just the high-quality product photography that was being repinned, but also the basic product photos. You’ll discover why it’s not all about the quality of the photos and why calls to action are so important.

Listen to the show to find out what calls to action work best and how they can increase engagement by 80%.

Some of the biggest mistakes marketers make on Pinterest

Melanie explains how Pinterest is a very different type of social media platform and that many marketers or small business owners don’t really understand how to use it for their business.

A lot of us start with a personal Pinterest profile. Research shows that 80% of pins on Pinterest are repins. People log onto Pinterest, they look at their newsfeed and repin. They don’t really go out across the Internet and try to find new forms of information to put on the platform.

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is that they don’t create enough original content. You’ll hear what you need to do to make a real difference and get the results you want.

Listen to the show to find out where the opportunity is for marketers.

How to determine if Pinterest is worth focusing on

Melanie shares how a lot of service business owners believe that they can’t be on Pinterest, as it’s only for physical products. You’ll learn why this isn’t true.

Pinterest has a free analytics tool that is available to all business pages now. You’ll discover 3 steps you need to take to have access.

Pinterest has free web analytics for business pages.

Once you have access, Pinterest hooks up the analytics to your sites. You can now track your pin activity, such as:

How many people are pinning from your websiteWhether your pins are being repinned and how oftenHow much traffic is being sent to your siteWhat your impressions are like

It’s a very easy tool to help track how quickly people respond and engage with your content.

You’ll discover the only way to get traffic from Pinterest to your blog or website and why it doesn’t have to be something pretty.

Listen to the show to learn why trending is a great strategy to use.

How to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website

Melanie explains that product-based business owners want to give people information. You’ll hear how Birch Box, a cosmetic brand, created a board for video and how they use it to promote their products.

Birch Box on Pinterest has a board for video with cool tips on how to use their products.

With Luxury Monograms, Melanie created boards that give people ideas on how to use her products. You can blend your products on a board created around a topic where people search for ideas. For example, Luxury Monograms sells a lot of monogrammed napkins, so they also pin beautiful napkin rings from Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma.

You’ll learn how to create teaser content and how it can drive people from the image to your website.

Melanie shares why for her personally, video is more effective on Pinterest than on Facebook. Although everyone has different experiences.

Melanie's videos on Pinterest.

You’ll discover how video appears on the newsfeed and why it stands out from all the static images.

When you want to add text to your images, Melanie explains that you don’t have to be tech-savvy. She uses a free tool called PicMonkey.

Listen to the show to find out what Melanie does that refers the most traffic of any other pins. 

How the Pinterest audience differs from other social networks

Melanie explains how people on Pinterest do something very different from what they do on Facebook or Twitter.

When people are on Pinterest, they are in a very different state of mind. They actively look for products and information to discover. This is a huge advantage for a business or a brand. Seventy percent of people use Pinterest to get inspiration and information on what to buy.

You’ll be surprised to hear what the average order value is on Pinterest, compared to Twitter and Facebook.

Melanie believes Pinterest is very different in the ways that a brand can engage. On Pinterest, people are shopping. You’ll find out why it’s important to add prices to your pins.

Make sure you add a price to your product pins.

Listen to the show to hear why you shouldn’t be afraid to sell or promote your products on Pinterest.

Tips for improving the chance that people will share or click on your Pinterest images

Melanie says that calls to action are a must. You’ll hear what happened when Melanie tested the same pin with and without a call to action.

A Luxury Monograms image with a call to action.

If you want to get people to recirculate your content, you need to tell them what to do. You’ll find out what Melanie has on her images to pique people’s interest.

Users can discover content on Pinterest in several ways. When you first set up a Pinterest account, they’ll recommend people for you to follow, based upon the different general interests you tell them. You’ll always see in your newsfeed the content that people you follow have pinned.

There is also a search box on the top left, where you can search with keywords. Melanie encourages people to use keywords in their captions to help with search results.

Listen to the show to hear why there is no preferential treatment when it comes to search.

Danish Ahmed from Ordinary Words asks, “Should I abandon Blogger and switch to WordPress? I’ve put a lot of investment into Blogger but it looks like Blogger is no longer considered a worthy platform for professionals. Is this true?”

Yes, this is true. I believe that WordPress is where you want to go. Blogger is largely perceived to be the hobbyist platform, whereas WordPress is a more serious platform.

WordPress.org is a much more serious platform than Blogger.

Here are 3 reasons why you should consider switching to WordPress.

It’s the largest, most robust blogging platform, supported by a huge developer community.It’s highly scalable as your blog grows. We use it to run Social Media Examiner.WordPress is something you can install and own your own platform. You can have complete control over it.

I strongly recommend that you make the move. The SEO benefits are pretty spectacular.

Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you.

When I was at Social Media Marketing World, I was introduced to a brand-new product called Demographics Pro for Twitter.

The profile for #SMMW13 group on Demographics Pro for Twitter.

You can put in any Twitter ID or hashtag and it will run a detailed analysis. For example, we put in #SMMW13. You’ll be shocked at the analysis it came up with.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast:

What do you think? What are your thoughts on driving more traffic with Pinterest? Please leave your comments below.

About the Author, Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is the founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, and author of the books Launch and Writing White Papers. He's also the host of the Social Media Marketing podcast. Other posts by Michael Stelzner »

http://www.jretechnology.com

What Marketers Need to Know About the New FTC Disclosures

By Sara Hawkins
Published May 1, 2013

Are you confused about the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosure rules and how they relate to your social media activities?

Do you want to know more about what you need to disclose and how to make disclosures on social media to comply with U.S. consumer laws?

In March of this year, the United States Federal Trade Commission released the first update to the .com Disclosures guide.

Here’s a look at the key points in this update relevant to social media marketers today.

Read the .com Disclosures guide for full details.

First, it’s important to understand the environment in which this guide was published.

With the first release in 2000, the .com Disclosures guide was an attempt to narrow the gray area of how marketing and advertising worked on the Internet so companies could maintain compliance with consumer protection laws.

When the initial .com Disclosures guide came out, we were breathing a heavy sigh of relief having “survived” Y2K.

There was no such thing as an iPhone (first sold in 2007), Twitter was 6 years away, MySpace was on the horizon (2003) and many were eagerly awaiting Windows XP (2001).

A lot has changed since the year 2000. Image source: iStockPhoto.

Even more important, a lot has changed since the research that went in to creating the .com Disclosures guide was done back in the late 1990s. More than a decade of technology has come along and how we communicate now is vastly different than it was 5 years ago, let alone 13.

For the past several years, advertisers were trying to overlay new technology onto guidelines that never projected the platform. And in trying to do what’s right, there have been instances where it has all gone wrong.

While the .com Disclosures guide of 2013 does reduce some confusion, it does not eliminate it entirely.

Before breaking down some of the key points, if you read the guide one thing you’ll likely notice missing is how all of this applies to nontraditional businesses. Bloggers, entrepreneurs and startups, for example, may not consider themselves digital advertisers but, in fact, many are.

It's important to know how this will affect your business to avoid confusion. Image source: iStockPhoto.

In addition, many of the examples presented don’t relate to how many online companies market or advertise their products or services. In my opinion, the biggest disadvantage of the update is it’s still heavily weighted toward “big company” digital advertising and does not provide much guidance for nontraditional marketing and advertising programs.

As marketing, brand, social media, PR and digital professionals, what does the 2013 .com Disclosures guide mean for you? With regard to consumer protection laws themselves, not much. With regard to how digital marketing and advertising programs are executed, there will likely need to be changes.

The .com Disclosures guide is not definitive law. Rather, the guide is just that—a guide. For all the times you’ve wished you knew exactly what the law meant, this is your gift.

Consumer protection laws have not changed and the FTC still maintains oversight of most of those laws.

Consumer protection is to ensure the rights of consumers as well as fair trade competition and the free flow of truthful information in the marketplace. Image source: iStockPhoto.

Truth in advertising laws have applied to every aspect of web and mobile communications since the technologies were developed and as they change. There is no change in the fact that all consumer advertising and marketing must be free from deception and unfair practices.

The guide was designed to offer insight into common consumer advertising and marketing programs that seem to be of greatest concern to the FTC regulators.

Since consumer protection laws apply to everyone who advertises or markets to consumers, so does the .com Disclosures guide. Compliance with the guide is voluntary; however, practices inconsistent with the information provided in the guide can be the basis of corrective action taken by the FTC.

While the FTC has specifically stated that they are not monitoring blogs, websites or individual social platforms, the agency is fielding thousands of consumer complaints daily.

A one-off inconsistent blog post won’t likely be enough to draw the agency’s attention, but a pattern of noncompliance by bloggers may trigger an investigation of a brand’s or agency’s practices.

If you’re working with a brand or agency, pushing their message on your website (whether paid or not), appropriate disclosure will be expected. As a digital marketing or advertising professional, it will be of significant importance to ensure all programs with third parties include appropriate disclosures.

One example in the guide (Example 21) included a sponsored blog post and specifically noted that the blogger, while including a disclosure, should have placed her disclosure differently.

The FTC considers that this blogger should have made the disclosure more obvious. See the Examples section at the end of the .com Disclosures guide for all examples.

While bloggers may be required to place a disclosure in accordance with laws related to endorsement and testimonial advertising, clearly the FTC is including bloggers in this new guide as well.

There are various schools of thought about automating social engagement, but those who use some form of automation will need to review how it’s used and, if necessary, what changes may be needed.

The FTC has made it very clear that the inability of a platform to allow for an appropriate disclosure does not excuse the need for disclosure.

While hashtags allow for easier searching on some platforms, the FTC has not specifically said hashtag use would or would not make a disclosure compliant.

The hashtag is used by many across platforms. Some platforms are adding hashtag trackability. Others are removing it.

The FTC wants to focus on the message, and adding “#” before a word, in their view, is not necessary.

Is it helpful for the brand? Maybe. But remember, the FTC’s focus is consumer protection.

The FTC has clearly stated that if your advertising message and disclosure cannot both be made in the limited number of characters, then that medium may not be appropriate.

The goal of the disclosure is to allow consumers to understand that what they will be reading or clicking on is an advertisement, is sponsored, or involves some type of business relationship that may have influenced the information provided.

In Example 15 of the guide, using the words “ad” or “sponsored” may be sufficient if provided BEFORE the message.

You must make full disclosure obvious on all social platforms. See the Examples section at the end of the .com Disclosures guide for all examples.

For disclosures that are lengthy or unable to fit in a space-constrained platform along with the message, the advertiser may link to a website where the disclosure is clear and conspicuously displayed.

As with all truth in advertising laws, the consumer must know he or she is being sold to before reading something or taking action to purchase. And keep in mind that the advertising or marketing message may require more than one disclosure.

When it comes to digital advertising, there are many variables that play into how a message is delivered. Sites are optimized for different browsers, mobile devices vary in size, apps use different interfaces and yet the exact same information may be shown.

How consumers see the information may impact their ability to determine the truthfulness of the message.

All disclosures should be:

Proximate to the information so the consumer does not have to hunt for itOf at least the same size as the messageIn the same format as the messageAccessible on all platforms usedUnderstandable by the consumer

Check out the full text of the .com Disclosures guide to find out all of the suggestions provided.

Be mindful of technology limitations or quirks.

Many consumers hate pop-ups, so they install blockers on their browser. There are some mobile operating systems that do not read certain scripts. And there are apps that may have limitations depending on whether they are free or paid.

Despite all of these unique characteristics of technology, digital advertisers and marketers must ensure their disclosures are seen by consumers. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to ensure that all providers (be it their own website, social media platforms or blogs) are capable of including an appropriate disclosure.

If a disclosure is included in hover text but a consumer can’t see hover text on a mobile device, this will not be considered a meaningful disclosure. Disclosures that are on subsequent pages on some mobile devices but not on others need to be standardized so consumers aren’t forced to hunt for them.

In today’s online media, it’s not uncommon to find advertising and marketing promotions driven by social media shares or blog posts. While many brand and PR reps want to respect the authenticity of the hired influencer, the fact remains that the advertiser (the brand, the PR company, the digital agency, etc.) will most likely be held responsible if the FTC determines consumer protections were missing and corrective action is necessary.

Bloggers are often unsure what, if any, disclosure is required. Since the consequence will likely fall to the advertiser, the advertiser (whether it is the brand, the PR company, the digital agency, or the like) should feel comfortable providing guidance to any and all parties and platforms about what disclosure may be required and where the disclosure will need to go.

If you want to use a hyperlink for your disclosure, take the time to read pages 10-13 of the guide and seek legal counsel to ensure your link will be deemed adequate.

How many of you have ever clicked on a disclosure link at the bottom of a website? How many have seen a graphic at the bottom of a page you were reading and had no idea what it really meant?

In an effort to be compliant, companies have formed to “help” brands, online companies and bloggers meet FTC disclosure requirements.

Unfortunately, for the average consumer, these custom links or graphics are not meaningful disclosures. If you, an online professional, aren’t always sure what something like http://discl.se/Level6 would mean, then neither does the average consumer.

You can find this example of insufficient disclosure in the .com Disclosures guide.

This is not to say hyperlinks to a disclosure page are always inappropriate. In certain circumstances, such as when a lengthy disclosure is necessary or the disclosure is not integral to the claim, a hyperlink to a disclosure may be acceptable.

For most circumstances that trigger a disclosure, a hyperlink may not sufficiently alert the consumer to information needed to make an informed decision if the link is not accessed.

Relying on hyperlinked disclosures requires the consumer to be sufficiently educated to know they must click for important information.

Read the Guide to Understand “What” Disclosures to Use and “Where” to Put Them

Overall, the 2013 .com Disclosures guide provides insight into what an FTC investigator may be looking for when evaluating digital advertising and marketing programs, claims and promotions.

The FTC recognizes technology is continuously changing. However, enforcement will continue to be scrutinized using traditional criteria, which may not wholly translate to these new and innovative platforms.

While the guide provides detailed insight, what it is clearly lacking is the “when.” It contributes greatly to the “what” and “where” with regard to disclosures, but still leaves advertisers and marketers searching for clear guidance on exactly when one is required to disclose.

What are your thoughts on the new updates to the FTC .com Disclosures guide? Will it make your job easier? Do you think it will be helpful in creating programs for online influencers or working with brand/PR reps as an online influencer? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Disclosure: While Sara Hawkins is an attorney, this article is for informational purposes only and is not to be considered legal advice. If you are in need of legal advice, please consult legal counsel.

About the Author, Sara Hawkins

Sara Hawkins is a lawyer, blogger and doer. No longer happy waiting for someday to find her, she's finding ways to make her somedays happen. Other posts by Sara Hawkins »

http://www.jretechnology.com