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The newest feature on Pinterest now allows you to join as a business or convert an existing personal account to a more professional business profile. Pinterest is a great way to promote your brand regardless of how big or small your company may be. Knowing how to create and maintain this profile will help to gain an even stronger following for your business! Here are some steps to help you get started:

• The first thing that will catch a viewer’s eye is your profile picture and description, so get creative and make sure it clearly expresses what your brand is about.
• Remember to “verify” your account. Once a checkmark appears on your profile, visitors will see that it has been confirmed by Pinterest and makes your account appear more official.
• Create boards that relate to your business personality and the values it holds. Categorize your boards and post interesting, eye-catching photos. Pinterest isn’t simply showing what you sell, but showing people what inspires you.
• Write thoughtful descriptions to go under pins you post to give a better insight into what the picture is of. If you feel that the post does not need a description, include keywords so that your pin can be found in search.
• If you’re out of the office and see something interesting/relevant to your business, take a picture and pin it right from your smartphone. This will show that you are up-to-date and connected with your followers.
• Do you want feedback or want to know what pinners are thinking? Create a specific board for Q&A!
• Include the “Pin It” button to make it easy for people to share your posts on Pinterest. This will also make it easy for them to return to your website or blog.
• Search keywords relevant to your company to see what others are pinning and to get ideas for your future posts. This will also give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t and how to tailor your pins around these observations.
• To find out which content of yours has received the most popularity and has been pinned from your site, check out your source page. You can find this by going to pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com

Many small businesses may not have the financial resources or need to hire a social media marketing management company. Some small businesses may be fully capable of creating social media content on their own time or may have an employee to help with their posts. Additionally, some business owners have the skills and time needed to post content across the Internet. So why would someone who knows how to publish on Facebook and Twitter hire a social media marketing consultant?

Consultants are not only beneficial for getting social sites up and running, but they can help in the customization and the overall strategy behind a brand’s social presence. For example, a social media consultant may help you learn about the different kinds of content you can be posting, what times of the day you should be posting, and even show you new features and techniques to use online.

Think of social media consultants as the marketing professors you never had, unless of course you are currently in school. Consultants can literally show you the ins and outs of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. All you have to do is take notes, learn the technique and apply them on your own time. We’ve created a checklist below that helps business owners recognize if they need a social media marketing consultant.

• Are you using a personal or community page on Facebook instead of a brand page?
• Are your cover photos and profile images set up according to Facebook Guidelines?
• Have you created company highlights on Facebook?
• Do you have app pages set up on your Facebook profile? For example, a Twitter feed, Constant Contact, Events, a YouTube feed.
• Do you know how to schedule posts on Facebook?
• Are you using NetworkedBlogs to help schedule blog posts to your Facebook wall?
• Do you know how to switch voices between your company page and your personal Facebook page?
• Do you know how to edit photos that you post to Facebook?
• Have you branded your Twitter page and updated it to the newest profile layout?
• Are you using a third party application such as HootSuite or TweetDeck to schedule tweets?
• Do you have an optimized brand description on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube?
• Do you know how to retweet, create lists and favorite posts on Twitter?
• Do you know how to create call-to-actions in your tweets?
• Do your tweets consist of shortened URLs?
• Have you branded your YouTube channel and set up sharing to Facebook and Twitter?
• Do you know how to create tags and descriptions for your YouTube videos?
• Do you have recommendations for your work on LinkedIn?
• Do you know how to add apps to your LinkedIn profile page?
• Do you have a LinkedIn company page?
• Is your LinkedIn profile page optimized for search?
• Does your blog have an optimized sidebar?
• Do you have options for sharing your blog posts under each article?
• Have you integrated other social sites to your blog?
• Do you know how to create metatags for the photos in your blog posts?
• Are you using tags and categories to their fullest potential?
• Do you know how to customize certain features within a blog post? For example, the read more tag, captions for images, or inserting videos.
• Do you have an array of plugins or widgets that help you promote the articles on your blog?
• Do you know how to create Pinterest boards or how to repin, like or upload new pins?
• Do you know how to optimize the descriptions for your pins on Pinterest?
• Do you know how to create a product pin that includes the price tag on Pinterest?
• Have you heard on Instagram? Slightly joking…

These are just a few examples of what a social media consultant can help you learn as you start your journey into the social media marketing world. If you have answered “no” to 3 or more of these questions, you may want to invest in hiring someone who can help you learn the ropes.

Luckily, Progressive Media Concepts has just begun offering new social media marketing consulting services to those in need! Learn more about what we can help you do for your business through these specialized services!  Please feel free to leave a comment about what you’ve found is hard to learn to do on a social media site!

There has been some confusion since the announcement about why some people have the new layout and why others do not. Twitter will eventually make it so that this is the mandatory format for all profiles. If you’re interested in getting the new Twitter bef0re it becomes automatic, simply upload a header image. This can be done by clicking Edit, then selecting Profile, Design, and finally Change Header. Once you decide which header to upload, it will also upload the new layout along with it.

Ever since Twitter emerged on the scene as a social media platform, the site has always been known for its 140 character status updates. To transform from a site that is mostly text and then to a site that is becoming more so based on visuals, is quite the switch. Time will tell whether or not these changes will hurt or help the company.

Please feel free to leave your opinions on the new Twitter layout below!

Kovida I.S. is a boutique technology consulting and design firm based in New York City. They integrate scalable, low-cost solutions providing seamless integration between front-end customer portals to back-end operations. From Salesforce.com implementations to design & branding solutions, their boutique NYC-based business helps clients continue to grow. Their specialties include Salesforce.com implementation & integration, corporate identity, branding, and website & marketing-material design & development. We had the pleasure of speaking to Rob Cohan about Kovida Interactive Solutions’ social media marketing strategy, and here’s what he had to say…

Which social media platforms do you currently use?

R: We use popular social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Behance.
However, our most valuable social media platforms are specifically within our enterprise social network. In particular, Salesforce.com’s Sales Cloud CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and Chatter have been most useful.

What value, if any, has social media provided for your business?

R: With the growing percentage of users participating in social media, it is no longer a passing thought. Creating and maintaining an Internet persona has become increasingly important for Kovida I.S. in order to reach out and interact with our peers.

Which social media platform works best for your business? Why?

R: Our most advantageous social media platform has been Salesforce.com’s Sales Cloud CRM system and its collaboration platform, Chatter. By making our day-to-day operations a social experience we have increased productivity and collaboration within our organization, enabling us to better serve our clients.

While Salesforce allows users to integrate other social networks and email service providers (such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail), Chatter’s platform is comparable to all of these. Similar to Facebook, Chatter features a user profile page and uses dynamic logic to recommend important people, groups, files, and records for users to follow and join. Additionally, it pushes updates and news to users in their Chatter feed, so they are always aware of what other projects colleagues are involved in. If users would prefer chatting one-on-one with a colleague or group of colleagues, Chatter Messenger acts like an instant messenger system in that it provides direct interaction with users all within the cloud. Lastly, Chatter also provides users with the ability to securely share files right in their browser with people inside and outside of their organization.

How has social media impacted your business in terms of marketing and sales?

R: In terms of marketing, social media has provided us with the ability to connect with other partners within our industry and showcase successful projects.

Do you have any advice for companies who are on the fence about social media?

R: We don’t believe there’s any reason to be on the fence about social media. It has been made quite clear that social media has become a huge part of people’s daily lives in and out of the workplace. We aim to leverage social media so we, too, can become a part of people’s daily lives.

Is there any social media strategy that you would like to improve or do differently?

R: We believe there’s always room for improvement. Social media is most effective when people actively participate and make it part of their daily work routine. As such, Kovida I.S. plans to execute this belief by consistently providing content on our social media platforms on a weekly basis. We also believe in quality over quantity so we will also be very selective in terms of the type of content we share. We want to make sure that the voice we create is in line with our company’s vision.

Lastly, we believe that the social media platforms we use will also provide us with the right outlet to aggressively market Kovida I.S. in the future.

Thanks, PMC, for providing us with the opportunity to talk about our services and share our insights on social media!

It was our pleasure to speak with Rob from Kovida I.S. about his outlook on social media and the company’s strategies. Rob makes a great point when he mentions that creating and maintaining an Internet presence is key to building relationships with customers and other partners within the industry. It is also nice to see that Kovida I.S. believes in quality over quantity when posting to their social media sites; they are definitely sharing only the best information! To learn more about Kovida I.S., please visit their website here.

M: Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Reddit, Newsletters, Pinterest, and working on Foursquare.

What value, if any, has social media provided for your business?

M: Social media has been the second largest and most successful form of marketing for Bus2alps, shortly following street teaming the students who are currently in their abroad cities. In the last year, the gap between these two has shrunk considerably as we extend our marketing reach beyond the confines of our cities with an office.

Which social media platform works best for your business? Why?

M: Facebook by far has been the most effective. Facebook has provided us with the most seamless and effective way to connect with students who will be heading abroad prior to their trip, and an even better way for us to remain connected for the duration of their stay in Europe. Through Facebook we are able to not only have our fan page, but set up Facebook groups for each study abroad city. Facebook groups help us to create a discussion forum for incoming students to bounce travel ideas and ask our experienced staff for tips and advice on what to do while abroad. Beyond that, there are student created Facebook groups which have given us an outlet to reach the group leaders (group admins) about our tours for them to spread to the rest of their abroad program.

How has social media impacted your business in terms of marketing and sales?

M: Prior to 2009, we used social media but not to its full potential. We were on Facebook, we had the groups, but still relied heavily on in-person sales. In 2009, we began leveraging our fan page, blog, and Twitter in a much broader sense to raise awareness and reel in more sales. Though social media isn’t the only reason for our success, we have gone from a company, who in 2008 took about 2,500 guests on trips, to a company on pace to take 17,000 in 2012.

Do you have any advice for companies who are on the fence about social media?

M: Jump over the fence. Seriously though, keep in mind that just because everyone’s doing it doesn’t mean that you have to do it the same way. Too often I see companies go crazy and make a page for every social media outlet without ever considering the benefit of using Google+ for reaching your market, or how to integrate your message across each platform. Creating everything is not the solution. You need to dedicate ample time to each entity to properly engage and retain your followers. If you do not have the time, or the know how to manage all at once, start small, focus on one or two entities, or better yet find someone else who can dedicate all of their time to managing your social sites. The only thing worse than not utilizing social media is having too much and not being able to maintain it.

Is there any social media strategy that you would like to improve or do differently?

M: There is still a social media learner curve that Bus2alps is undergoing. We have just recently hired a large enough staff to focus and maintain all of our social media entities. This has given us the opportunity to really improve our blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and our overall reach. That being said, there always will be plenty of room for growth with newer platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, which help drive large numbers of followers to our page through various contests and events.

Michael definitely has a wonderful understanding of the importance of social media marketing for businesses that target college students. He brings up a good point that having too many social media sites that are unable to be maintained can reflect poorly on a brand. It’s extremely necessary to utilize the sites that your target audience is using in order to engage them properly. For more information on Bus2alps, visit their website today!

1. Tactics: First and foremost you need to decide who is the audience you are targeting.  As in any aspect of business, it’s important to know who you are talking to.  Once you know your audience and what they like, you can chose which social media websites would best reach them.  Are your customers LinkedIn people, or are would they be more likely to use Twitter?  Choosing the correct platforms will directly correlate with how effective your social media campaign is.  Additionally, it’s a good idea to buy the URL or reserve the names for your different pages.  Other companies may have the same name as you and it would be a shame to lose a domain name to them!

2. Objectives & Accomplishments: Figure out what you want to gain from using social media.  Do you want to reach your consumers on a more intimate level?  Do you want to change your companies image?  Perhaps you just want to sell more products.  Once you define your objectives you can figure out how you want to measure your success.  Set up a timeline in which you would like to see your goals achieved and reevaluate what you need once you hit your deadline.

3. Check the response: Once you set up your social media, sit back and watch for a few things.  Are you getting any response?  Is the campaign reaching everyone you want it to reach?  If so, how well and if not, what do you think is going wrong?  Use programs like Google Analytics and Hootsuite to track your process as well as schedule your posts.  This can make it much easier to see retweets, mentions, and how many of your posts are reaching your customers.

4. Emergency Plan: What are you going to do if someone leaves a negative comment?  What will you do if someone sends you a negative tweet?  What if a crisis occurs that you don’t know how to deal with?  You need to know who is going to deal with situations before they happen.  If someone says something negative about your company or product, for the most part it is not a good idea to get rid of the comment.  People need to see the good and the bad in order to trust a company.  Respond to the issue with dignity and move on.  If a crisis occurs with your company in the press, be sure to have someone ready to deal with the problem accordingly.  Social media is the best way to directly speak to your consumers so having good tweets is just as important as having a good press release.

5. Employees: It’s important to designate people in your company to set up and run the social media accounts.  It may seem like a simple job, but it depending on what you plan on doing it could actually take a lot of work.  The number of people you will need depends on the size of the company.

6. Scheduling: Set up a schedule for all of your social media sites.  It is so much easier to have all of the posts done in advance instead of doing them the day of. Scheduling also allows you to have a predetermined amount of content for each of your platforms, making it easier for your employees while setting daily goals for them to achieve.

A social media strategy can make or break a business.  Be sure to set up a strategy rather than just winging it.  While social media may seem very casual to use from a personal standpoint, it is definitely more than tweeting to your favorite celebrity in business.  If you would take a marketing strategy seriously you should do the same with your social media.

If you find that you do not have the resources to create a social media marketing campaign for your business, do not hesitate to contact Progressive Media Concepts today!

At first glance, this could look scary for companies, however, it actually makes the job of the companies a lot easier.  Consumers give the brands new ideas for marketing and it’s completely free for the company!  It’s whether or not they take advantage of the information they receive and use social media networks to their fullest potential that will help set apart a good user-generated campaign from a bad one.

User-generated campaigns are great for a few key reasons.  First and foremost, they are quite inexpensive in comparison to other marketing campaigns.  The users are basically giving you all of the information you need to create the campaign.  If you get them involved through tweets on Twitter, watching and creating videos on YouTube, or reposting on Facebook, they are doing a large portion of the PR work for you.  If you remember, Doritos did a completely user-generated ad campaign for their Super Bowl commercial.  The viral video campaign gained over 2,000 submissions for the prize of a consumer having their homemade commercial become Doritos’ national commercial.  These submissions garnered about two million votes and one billion impressions in total.  The best part was, even before the commercial was on the air Doritos was getting almost virtually free publicity by giving their customers a voice.  People love knowing that they have a voice.

Also, consumers are more inclined to listen to what a fellow consumer has to say about a product over the company that makes it.  If a campaign is created out of tweets or comments from customers, people will be more inclined to agree with what is being said.  If a product is getting negative comments, the company can then change the way that they market it or do business based on those comments.  Client testimonials can be the hand that feeds, as well as the hand that takes a lot away.  Lastly, people love feeling as though they were a part of something.  #KONY2012 was such a viral success because the campaign was so well done and people felt as though they could actually make a difference.  What Invisible Children did not do was keep up with the viral success in their campaign.  To have a successful campaign a company has to keep fueling the public fire, hash tags work great if they are kept up with.

The consumer market is changing.  Housewives are no longer desperate, they have a voice.  Children are very rarely seen and not heard, and the “Mad Men” no longer need to guess what people want.  If your customers are taking the time out of their day to tell you what they want then it would be a complete waste of your free resources and their time.  So make your life easier and your customers happier; let them tell you what they want and let them do the work for you!

Consumer-generated content is key when trying to promote your products and services to your Facebook and Twitter fans. Potential customers are more likely to trust a message about a product from their peers than from the business itself. This reasoning comes from the idea that companies are just sending messages to sell to customers. When a consumer sees or hears great things about a product or service from another customer, they will be more likely to trust and purchase from a brand.

How can you get reviews on your products and services? There are many methods a company can use to accumulate reviews and testimonials from their existing customers. The easiest and most straightforward way to receive reviews is simply by asking! You may want to make your efforts more creative and run a contest or giveaway based around user-generated reviews. For example, have your social media fans submit their opinions on your product or service for a chance to win a prize.

Another method is to get involved with the blogger world. You can send free products to bloggers who write reviews and host giveaways. Here at PMC, we offer a Blogger Outreach Program, in which the bloggers we are affiliated with write product reviews for our clients.

What do you do once you have a bunch of reviews and testimonials? After you have accumulated a vast amount of reviews and testimonials, it’s time to fit them into your social media marketing strategy! Post them to your Facebook wall or create tweets about them. Additionally, you can create articles or blog posts that feature all of the feedback you have received from consumers. If you have a website or a blog, dedicate a full page to all your brand’s reviews and testimonials. Once you have them all organized, it will be easy for potential customers to learn more about your products and services all in one place. You can take the promotion of consumer reviews a step further by including them in press kits and print material.

If you want to create a trusted brand, make consumer reviews available on the web. Promoting what people have to say about you is always a great way to build a loyal following!

Americans and Chinese alike, as well as every other country participating in the games, love showing that their nation is the best in the world.  There are few ways better to show this than flaunting your physical dominance over others.  However, not all of us are gifted enough to compete, so we suport those who do.  In the past there were very few ways for watchers to support their country in the games besides going to the games, watching them in your own house, and parading your nations flag around.  While these are all still excellent ways to support your country, through social media we are given a chance to directly address our athletes and cheer for our teams.  It allows the world audience to directly take part in the games, enhancing the experience and upping the competition for those who support their country the most.

Social media websites and platforms have been rapidly increasing within the past five years.  Since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, when Facebook had 100 million users and Twitter had about 6 million, the websites’ users have increased over well 500%, with Facebook having about 900 million users and Twitter coming in at 140 million.  Even the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver did just shed a sliver of light onto what could come this year.  Alex Hout, the International Olympic Committee’s head of social media said, “Vancouver was just the first snowflake.  [The 2012 Olympics] is going to be a big snowball” while discussing the impact social media will have on the games.  Through websites such as YouTube, we can relive victorious moments and tragic defeats minutes after they happen and then again years later.  Twitter will allow us to support our country, Pinterest and Tumblr will allow us to visualize our team spirit, and Facebook will allow us to do all of the above for all of our friends to see.

Sponsors will also be able to use these websites to create marketing campaigns for the games.  According to CTV News, companies such as Coca-Cola, Cadbury and Visa have already started using platforms such as Facebook to reach a younger audience.  Advertising and marketing campaigns for these games will be dramatically different from those in 2008 and 2012 because so many people are now using all types of social media.  It’s safe to say that in promotion for the events, there will be no escaping the Windsor family!

There is debatably no larger event in the world that can bring joy and pride to so many people as the Olympics.  It has always been one of the most anticipated and watched event as a global community of humans.  Now, thanks to social media, it will also be one of the most widely discussed events on live time.  When the Williams sisters finish their final set we will instantly be able to show our excitement to the entire world.  Game, Set, Match, Tweet!