Pinterest is rising in popularity and is currently third in line in communication and sharing, right behind Facebook and Twitter.

In January 2012 it was reported that the site had 11.7 million users, the fastest in history to pass the 10 million user mark. The site averages about 11 million visitors per week, the highest percentage of those visitors are females.

Pinterest is very popular with Moms!

Recipes are very popular, do it yourself projects, crafts, fashion and parenting are all very high ranking in top shared content.

The IPad is the choice of device for Pinterest users and most are busy on Pinterest at night (after the kids are asleep, after home from work, etc.)

Users can save, upload, and manage images by “pinning” to their pinboard. The pin is your image, a recipe you have for extra cheesy macaroni for example, is pinned to your board, other users may repin your recipe to their board and so on.

Retail companies are hopping on board the Pinterest wagon as means to advertise.

Think about the possibilities for clothing retailers, a quick and simple way to see what your customers are pinning on their boards gives a quick interpretation of what styles they are planning to buy.

In turn the marketing strategies and style trend analysis provide valuable feedback and this information can be collected and sold as marketing analysis, bringing even more worth to Pinterest. As of February 2013, Pinterest was valued at $2.5 billion.

On top of all the financial value and advertising, Pinterest users have fun pinning and sharing information.

Shouldn’t your business find a way to use this genius slice of social media?

Orangehat is helping others just like yourself use these fast growing far reaching tools.

We can help you too. Call us for a free website analysis, find out what others are doing and how well these strategies are working for them.

What are you waiting for?

Give us a call today at 800-788-8596.

Believe it or not there are many businesses out there don’t have a website and don’t use Internet for advertising. Say What????

In these days of push a button technology it seems rather extreme that anyone would even dare think of being without a website and all it has to offer for the business.

The Internet is here to stay.

Using the Internet for marketing your business is becoming vitally important to the success of your business.

The Internet reaches a wide audience quickly. Through the Internet you can increase awareness of your product, and you can increase interest in your brand very quickly with the right marketing strategies.

You can target a specific audience using the internet. Have a product that is specifically designed for a teenager? Using clever strategies to personalize your message to your targeted audience.

An undecided internet shopper may look at your product, go away and come back easier than when making trips back and forth to a store. With online purchasing the convenience makes it that much more popular.

Marketing your website using the Internet is relatively inexpensive. For very little investment you can create quite a marketing campaign. Your business becomes more visible.

Offering incentives online such as promo code discounts, shopper rewards, or free shipping are all ways to generate business on your website.

Let Orangehat perform a free website analysis. If you are not fully using your website marketing strategy to its greatest potential you are losing money!

Let your website make more money for you.

Call Orangehat at 800-788-8596

Content marketing is a marketing strategy

This form of marketing involves creating and publishing media content to acquire new customers.

This informative content, useful or entertaining, can be presented as news, blogs, videos, white papers , ebooks, graphics, case studies, guides, systems Q , photos, forums, press releases, etc..

Content marketing is especially developed on the web so that it differs from advertising, which is traditionally displayed as advertising through the means of banners and images on websites.

Businesses write about real scenarios often using storytelling on their sites, then distribute the new information to the different social networks. They then can engage in a real conversation with their community of fans or customers. Building Trust and Loyalty.

Content marketing is not focused on the sale , but simply communicates with customers and prospects with programs that promote elements of brand equity. Many online marketing campaigns will feature social responsibility, cultural heritage, and their ability to innovate.

This marketing channel is distinguished from advertising that must sell (spot, banner advertising , product placement ) and sponsorship that brings visibility.

Content marketing sends a relevant message about your product or your service at the right time, to the right people. Subtly done, it will directly improve performance and reader demand (potential prospects).

By creating great content, you can create more openings for a sale, generate traffic to your website, promote your brand and educate customers and prospects about your offers.

Follow these six tips to maximize your marketing efforts:

1. Say goodbye to the promotion – Do no promotion. Promotional materials are neither exciting nor inspiring. promotion is anti-marketing content.
2. Be relevant – Content that is not relevant or does not provide a strong interest in the player,  will not bring any success. when you write content, make sure it will be useful to the reader.
3. Fill empty – Content marketing must answer a question or a problem. A really useful information can even be used at the conclusion of the sale.
4. Think editorial quality – A poorly written thought can be misinterpreted and can also damage the reputation of the company. Take the time to make sure that your content is presented in a thoughtful way and has no error, the substance and form.
5.  Follow your goals – Keep your objective in mind. No need to waste your time and resources to create content not going in the direction of your goals.
6. Provide evidence – You create content related to your business goals, so it can move to the subjective. Make sure that each piece of your content is created or supported by evidence, quotes, stories, statistics, studies.

Writing and publishing articles can generate targeted traffic to your site over a long period of time. Write articles belonging to the theme of your site and submit them to the digg-like or article directories. This allows your items to receive a very high visibility.

In the best case, your articles will be published all over the Internet by other website owners and blogs that need content for their own sites, blogs or newsletters. Writing  articles also helps to build backlinks (links pointing to your site) and build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Advantages:

• This strategy is good for SEO.
• Blogs and websites that cite your articles have a common or related subject are so good backlinks.
• This is a great technique if you prefer quality over quantity.

Need help with your Content Marketing? Orangehat are the experts and we are here to help your business grow. 

Call us today 800-788-8596

Tags are taking a leap forward

Many search engines out there are still using the old way to tag content throughout the Internet using traditional SEO. Bing is now making it much easier to markup content using “Bing tags.”

In the 1990s, tagging was used to categorize articles, but lately, the search engines have been doing the job. However, tagging needs to be done if the search engines fail to do the job.

Now Bing is making an effort so that it is possible to “tag” a person in a blog post or a webpage. This will make a site’s content more visible and is great for content marketing.

Bing! Tagging uses social media

Bing tagging is going to be visible to the public and this will able people to socially tag a page and then share it on FaceBook and other social sites.

The tagged pages will then be shared with others that are logged onto those social media sites. You can share them with all of your friends, or even individual friends depending on the page that you found over the internet through the help of Bing.

It will also be possible to see tagged pages from friends and will display their names on the tagged sections.

Bing is integrating this so more and more people will be attracted to use this feature, and use the search engine.

Only public Facebook profiles will be able to take advantage of the tagging features.

Find out more information about Bing tags at Search Engine Land.

800-788-8596

Everyday on FaceBook , Twitter, or any number of social newsfeeds, a post from a friend, a real estate listing, and even maybe a commercial finds its way into the eyes of a consumer. It’s free to sign up and easy to start posting pictures with descriptions and videos. With the number of people on social media being so astonishing, it’s easy to jump aboard.

Now, just about every business is flocking to social media, but– Who owns the content? Are businesses getting the most from their efforts? Are businesses investing into social media the right way?

How to use social media the right way.

Social media is a great tool to utilize in online marketing, however don’t just post something with out linking back to your website! Some businesses may not have a website and if that is the case, they are putting all their eggs into one basket, and that is just not good strategy.

Use social media to compliment a website!

A successful company focuses on building value, so why give FaceBook your valuable content?  Another thing to consider is that FaceBook approves and denies content after it’s been posted, and it’s true that they do not approve of certain products.

A website should be the central hub for any business’s online presence… Social media is the billboard linking websites to the world. As a compliment, traffic is funneled to your branded website giving more opportunity to engage users with:

• Trust building
• Product galleries
• Opt-in e-mail subscriptions for newsletters and product announcements

Use more than one platform!

Social media is widely used today by billions of people around the globe, and just about everyone that uses social media has a FaceBook and Twitter account, but there are many social media as well as social bookmarking sites to use as well.

Orangehat and its users’ content are submitted to over 20 different social media and bookmarking sites. This is beneficial in two ways:

1. Immediate traffic generation – great shared content linked to your website is like candy!
2. Search engine optimization  – increases links, mentions, Likes, Followers, etc. Very positive signals for the search engines and often results in higher rankings.

The dangers of using social media the wrong way.

Every single day, especially on FaceBook, brands and businesses are posting some awesome content, and while it may even work for generating a lead, the problem here is putting all the eggs in one basket. Of course, the likelihood that FaceBook will file bankruptcy or have a sitewide failure is not very high, but it is a possibility.

Just think what would happen if the switch was turned off? Every single company with only a FaceBook profile will all the sudden be facing a loss of online activity!

No more sharing, no more conversation, nothing…

Pinterest is a fast growing social sharing community.

One year ago today Pinterest was hardly worth mentioning and known to a very small number of people. Now, the content sharing service accounts for nearly 25% of all social media web traffic. While FaceBook is overpowering the market in sheer numbers, Pintrest is coming up as a reckoning force when it comes to driving eCommerce. The site is popular for sharing content that often features random accessories, clothes, handbags, apartment decor, recipes and their ingredients. The shape Pinterest has taken and steep rise in traffic makes it a ripe ground for eCommerce driven websites to gain traffic and more conversions.

From the chart above, we can see the rapid growth of Pinterest, receiving it’s boost starting in February, 2012. This is significant because there are older platforms that are now falling short of Pinterest. These social media sites have earned loyal followers over the years, but now the popular giants like Twitter and StumbleUpon, just are not delivering what they once were. The Pinterest train is gaining steam and doesn’t look to be derailing anytime soon. Now is the perfect time for eCommerce businesses to jump aboard!

Pinterest in eCommerce

A recently conducted survey by BizRate Insights shows some very interesting results from 7,431 online shoppers. Nearly 70% of those surveyed told BizRate that the pinup site is used for inspiration and keeping up with the latest trends, making it even more attractive to eCommerce as a part of their daily SEO. Pinterest carries a lot of Domain Authority and using the site to engage shoppers will help websites earn authority through social sharing and linking.

With the amount of traffic Pinterest has, the nearly perfect Domain Authority scores, and the trust of its users, why would any eCommerce site pass this up? With the rapid rise of Pinterest in 2012, the following year will only improve. So integrating a Pinterest strategy now will set your online shop straight for 2013.

So you’ve probably heard, FaceBook will let you promote your posts

You probably also have heard that FaceBook is charging a premium of $7! Well, not quite, it’s only $5 and it’s quite effective. Although this move has received a lot of criticism, I on the other hand am giving praise to the idea. Most of the nay-sayers are the average FaceBook user, getting overly excited and ready to torch, or troll in some circles, just about everything! But just like anything out there, only one way to find out what FaceBook post promote is all about…

So I tested FaceBook Post Promote!

I wanted to use a post that would be attractive, but not flashy attractive or a hard promotion. So, I chose to use the FaceBook post promote on this article about affiliate marketing. I selected this article because it has links that are embedded with my affiliate code and that way, I have a shot at making some money off of this test. I posted a screenshot of the promoted post along with the results and a quick recap.

FaceBook Post Promote Statistics:

• Total Reach 1,047 people saw this post in the news feed
• The $5.00 Paid Post reached 978 People and GB has roughly 650 Likes
• 9 People Liked the post
• 3 New Likes from friends of fans who saw the post
• 2 People shared the post
• 2 People actually followed the link to the site

Anyone that does paid advertising should find this pretty valuable. I feel like if my post was a high converting product or a really cool niche, it would have performed much better. Still, the fact that my post about affiliate marketing brought me new fans, generated some engagement and gave GuruBloggers some recognition– to me, that’s $5.00 well spent.

This is my first paid post, but by no means will it be my last. I see too much potential in this new FaceBook post promote feature for engaging fans and getting the message out there. Perhaps next time I will put more thought into what is promoted, but the FaceBook Post Promote is a win to me.

Find out more about FaceBook Post Promote from FaceBook.com

SMB budgets in 2012 have seen a large increase in digital spending.

With the massive amount of money spent spreading the message, it would seem that the recession we’re in is a myth! Perhaps it is true that consumer spending has taken a hit, but here are some juicy statistics from the BIA/Kelsey SMB Digital Conference in Chicago that reveal some interesting trends with online marketing.

Small business marketing expected to increase 40%  digitally in next 12 months

 This preliminary chart is from the BIA/Kelsey annual Local Commerce Monitor Survey that talks to 300 small businesses. A 40% increase is an outstanding prediction on the growth of small business marketing taking to the digital channels. With the slow improving economy and with the ever increasing media dominance of the consumer, the Internet is driving all marketers to show more focus on the digital realm.

 Small business marketing has nearly doubled using digital media channels over the last 5 years.

An increased audience fragmentation is solely due to digital marketing . I remember the days that you could just put an ad in a Yellow Pages book and attract a nice share of the market. Not the case today, small business marketing plans must promote media buys across multiple channels to get the same audience as they did in the past. Are you?

Small business marketing budgets show SMBs will spend one third on digital media

It is predicted that in the US, the total local ad spend  to be more than $130 Billion in 2013. BIA/Kelsey estimated that in 2010 SMBs spent about 20% of their budgets on digital marketing equating roughly to $5 billion. This means that 30% of small business marketing dollars in 2013 should be somewhere around $9 billion. Don’t get left behind and let your competition have a leg up!

Facebook is dominating the small business marketing digital landscape

It’s free, easy to setup and use, and has over 900 million users! FaceBook is dominating the landscape now and small business marketing has grown tremendously since FaceBook’s conception. There are so many success stories of SMBs taking advantage of FaceBook’s network and the trend is increasing each and every day.

You need a digital small business marketing plan

There is no doubt that the landscape of small business marketing is changing and with these revealing numbers, digital marketing is here to stay. Are you prepared for 2013?