Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2013

How to get traffic from Pinterest

Pinterest is the latest social network to take the world by storm. While social network skeptics will call it just another site, the fact is that it is different from the other countless similar sites. What is more, you can use Pinterest to successfully promote your business.

Pinterest pinboard defines itself as an online. It's a place where you pin (mostly) images and other stuff you find interesting and share them with the world. Similarly to the other social networks, you follow people and have followers. So other users can repin your pins, thus spreading the word.

While there are no limits on the type of stuff you can pin, Pinterest is not suitable for all kinds of brands. It works best if your product/service can be presented in a visual way (i.e. clothes, furniture, etc.) and in this case the publicity you and your products get on Pinterest could do miracles for you.

In order to make the most out of Pinterest rather than waste your time or even worse - do damage to your brand, you need to know how to use it here are some tips to help you with this.

As any social network, Pinterest is a huge thief of time. You need to spend time on it daily in order to be able to follow what others are pinning, to comment on it, etc. You can't expect benefits from Pinterest, if you are not active on it on a daily basis.

Pinterest is about visual appeal. This is why you can't go with crappy images taken with your 10 year old mobile. You need images with professional quality because otherwise you will be doing your brand more harm than good. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to hire a professional photographer – with the right equipment and some skills you can create the images on your own.

When you keep your followers interested, they develop the habit of visiting your board every now and then. One trick to keep your users interested is to post in the series. In other words, if you have 10 images you want to post, don't post them all at once but post them one a day in the course of 10 days, that this is image 1 of 10, 2 of 10, etc.

If you want to get repins, you need to make it easier for users to do it one way of doing it is by adding a pin-it button to your site. Check what pin-it buttons are available for your platform (i.e. WordPress, Joomla, etc), pick one of them, put it on a visible place on your site and begin counting your pins/repins.

People are hardly coming to your board to see your products, so post that will other interesting pictures attract users (or keep them, if you already managed to attract them). This helps to attract new users to your account because when they see a cool pic somewhere on Pinterest, chances are they will visit your profile and have a look at your products there. If you only post images of your products, you won't be able to attract random visitors that much.

Photos are the bait but even the most unambiguous photo wants to benefit from a good description. Additionally, a good description will help your images rank better with search engines, which means more traffic for you. Be concise and precise descriptions in your and your users will certainly appreciate it.

When you use hashtags and when you categorize your pins, will this makes them look more organized and they be easier to find. On the other hand, do not use hashtags at large - i.e. add a hashtag only if you will really need it because otherwise your pins look spammy and users will skip them.

When you pick whom to follow, consider not only if their pins are interesting but large group so if they have a of followers. When you follow such users, and especially if they decide to follow you back, their huge follower base is an undisputed advantage when they decide to repin something you have posted. With such power users one repin can bring crowds to your board!

Like any social network, interaction with other users is key on Pinterest. Because of this, it makes a lot of sense to like and comment on other people's pins. These give you more visibility, not to mention that in return you can get some repins, likes and comments from other users. However, as with hashtags, you need to have measure - i.e. don't repin, comment, or like every single pin you see on your screen, because this devaluates your contribution.

Pinterest is not only about static stuff, there is a video section as well. Of course, this is not YouTube but if you can create a cool video about your business, don't be shy to post it. So, in addition to images, you can use various charts and infographics - these are especially popular among users.

Pinterest is an interesting place and you will hardly have to force yourself to use it of course, its main advantage for you is the publicity you get. You might not be able to make a sale on Pinterest but the exposure and the traffic to your site are valuable prerequisites for making more sales, so if your products are suitable for the Pinterest format and audience, do not hesitate but promote them there.


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How to use SlideShare for driving traffic

When we want to drive traffic to a site, we usually start with the free ways to do it however, we frequently don't use the best free alternative simply because we don't know about them. An example of a great free alternative many marketers don't search all is SlideShare use to the fullest or at. This is a huge miss because SlideShare can really bring good traffic (and more than this) for free.

SlideShare is a social media site is one of the many but so one of the best. However, unlike Twitter or Facebook, you don't share (only) messages - you share presentations instead. Presentations have been used for business and personal needs for decades and they are a popular way to express yourself visually.

On SlideShare you upload your can presentation and if it gets popular, it can be viewed by millions of people. If you know how to make the presentation, you can not only get traffic to your site, but you can thus improve your rankings with Google, expand your Fellowship on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc, attract more subscribers to your newsletter, or boost your brand / reputation online.

If used properly, SlideShare can really do a great job. Here are some tips how to make the most of SlideShare.

The rules for becoming popular on SlideShare are not that difficult to understand, though they certainly require lots of effort from you. Here is what you should and shouldn't do, if you want to harness the potential of SlideShare.

The most important rule for success on SlideShare is that your presentations must be of the highest quality only no exceptions here. This applies not only to content but so to design, so if you feel you lack the skills to create a rocking presentation that you'd better hire somebody else to do it for you, than upload presentations with poor quality.

As for content, usually the most popular presentations are either something sensational, or something incredibly useful, or something that plays with readers' emotions. Still, if if in one of these three groups, this isn't a it will guarantee your presentation become popular.

When you prepare your presentation, you might want to make it a bit more sensational by exaggeration. Needless to say, this is a very wrong approach, and it can turn against you. Your presentations need to be honest and true - don 't exaggerate, don' t overhype because this will only make users distrust you.

As for the form of the presentation, it is best to save it rather than as PDF.PPS because with so many devices you never know how a.PPS will look like. PDF looks always the same, so stick with it.

The overall quality of your presentation is very important but if the title and description are boring, users won't even bother to open the link and see all the greatness. This is why you need to write a memorable and informative title and an interesting description that click on it instead of go will make users away. In order to get maximum SEO effect, both the title and description must have your keywords but do not overstuff because this will have the adverse effect.

Remember, this is a presentation, not a novel, so you do not have enough space for complex structures and / or lengthy explanations. Keep your structure simple to follow and your points short of this is the recipe for a successful presentation. For the text Additionally, use large font sizes and try not to include more than 7 lines of text per slide.

While SlideShare doesn't allow blatant self promotion, you are allowed to include the URL to your site. Don't miss this opportunity! You can include the URL at the end of the presentation, so after users have finished viewing it, if they want more information, they can get it from your site.

SlideShare is a very high ranking site and it is great for long tail keywords in particular. Because of this, you should include some long tail keywords in the description, or even better – in the title of your presentation. This does miracles for ranking in Google, so think a lot exactly which long tail keywords you want to target.

We already mentioned that your presentation must be of supreme quality. Content is important but when it's not packaged in attractive cover, users won't pay much attention to it this is why you need to make your presentation visually attractive. Make a very attractive starting slide because this draws lots of attention.

However, be careful not to overdose. Your presentation must be not only attractive but it so must be stylish. To achieve this, don't overload it with effects because this will make it cluttered and / or heavy to open.

No. of matter how great your presentation is, if you don't promote good it, it might not get traffic. This is why, when you upload the presentation, share the link on Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking sites, Pinterest, and on your blog to ensure it gets maximum exposure.

SlideShare is great when you are looking for more twitter followers or Facebook friends. If you want to expand your social media following, include not only your site but for URL so links to your social profiles to grow your following there.

Similarly, if you want to get more subscribers to your newsletter, mention it in your presentation and include the link where people can join.

With all the exposure you can get on SlideShare, it's an awesome way to build your brand and reputation. Of course, this will hardly happen after you upload a single presentation, even if it is the greatest of the greatest but if you have dozens of presentations with top quality, this will help to establish yourself and your brand online.

If you see that the free services on SlideShare are working well for you and you want to see if you can get more out of the site, you may want to consider paid services, for instance LeadShare. This paid service helps to get leads. The only problem is that it is very expensive but for the right audience it might be worth.

SlideShare is a top site where you can get many benefits for your site and business. It is true this isn't the easiest way preparing quality presentations is an effort for sure but since it is free and powerful, it it (if you haven't done it so far) to Lake will makes sense to try if your site and business benefit from it as well.


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