When a business traveller posted a photo of a moldy coffee pot in a hotel room of one of the company’s preferred hotel suppliers, the photo meant that the agent had to act quickly, both to assure the traveller that they would take care of the problem and warn the supplier that such standards were unacceptable.

Travellers, esp. corporate ones increasingly want to control their own itineraries. With a host of access to self-service tools, they are ready to embrace all the corporate and social technological means to ensure self-satisfaction. At the same time travel companies, airline and hotel industries, and other third party suppliers remain focussed in rolling out a plethora of online and mobile tools that must balance the needs and abilities of tech-hungry travelers, while monitoring and influencing their behaviour and maintaining high levels of travel-policy compliance.

Social Media facilitating Sharing and Communication

Social networks have the potential to take off in business travel. They present travel marketers and managers with additional opportunities to engage travellers, help them solve their problems and learn about their needs.

With travelers and travel professionals using social media to find information, many organizations are coming around to the idea that they can harness this collaborative power for use in their own business travel programs.

A March 2011 ASTA study found that Travel Agents named Facebook as their top online networking and marketing technique, with LinkedIn, Twitter and other Industry blogs following the suite. Various North American and European Travel management professionals have witnessed that –

• Social Media sites have the potential to increase traveller satisfaction through real time knowledge sharing.
• Help travel managers understand what is most important to travelers and anticipate their needs
• Help travel managers select preferred partners based on information shared by travelers
• Encourage and improve traveller camaraderie and morale
• Use social media to communicate best practices and reduce business travel costs.

As technology improves and systems become interconnected, new tools will help streamline travel processes, assist travel managers in working with suppliers to negotiate best rates, drive-self service and track and improve return on investment (ROI).

The Mobile Channel is Fundamentally changing Corporate Travel

According to statistics, three out of four frequent US business travelers now carry smartphones, and their use of tablets is on the rise. They are using these tools to manage both, their business and personal lives. They see the ability to make changes in itinerary a lot quicker. Smartphone owners are making heavy use of the mobile web and travel apps. In fact Nearly half (47%) of Smartphone owners in a February 2010 Ypartnership/Harrison Group study said they used their devices to navigate via GPS, and nearly the same percentage (46%) searched for flight schedule and delay information travel apps.

This has led a majority of travel managers to roll out many types of corporate travel mobile tools that aim to enhance the travel experience for business travellers. The applications enable travelers to log expenses and access preferred hotel and rental car suppliers, also check scheduled flight delays. Inputting data through the app could potentially boost approval time and turnaround. In addition to providing convenience and flexibility for travelers, they also see it as a potential source of revenue as a way to sell ancillary services such as food and beverages, upgrades, Wi-Fi access, entertainment and offer additional pre-trip services such as taxis, parking, airport lounge etc.

As the business travel market continues to shift, it is continuously striving to evolve new distribution channels, revenue models, and ways of communicating. Technology and integration, new booking tools, social media solutions and apps thus provide them with greater program effectiveness and opportunities.

For search marketers to compete in a competitive pay-per-click landscape and curtail keyword price inflation, campaigns must evolve with search algorithms that increasingly take into account site-side factors such as landing page relevance.

We all know that Google’s got this “quality score” (QS) thing – that matters. And it has evolved beyond simple auction-based price and CTRs. Adwords uses this on a scale of 1 to 10 to rate how good your ad is while matching to a search query or relevant it is as compared to others ads, and the more it assumes significance, the less you’ll get charged for each click.

Most of the time Google’s quality score bot does a reasonably good job while sweeping its index, but sometimes to make better of your campaign, it needs to be pointed in the right direction. To do that, optimizing your web page semantically and structuring documents logically are useful tactics at your disposal.

Let’s first quickly review the factors involved into quality score calculation. There are two different quality scores Google associates with each keyword in a campaign. The first determines –

• The minimum bid amount using a keyword’s CTR
• The relevance of the keyword to its ad group
• Landing page quality
• Account’s historical performance
• + other factors that are not publicly disclosed

A second score is assigned for an ad’s position in the results and is determined by a keyword’s CTR, the relevance of the keyword and ad to its respective search query, as well as the account’s historical performance. Google applies these metrics to weed out poorly performing keywords, which helps deliver targeted and relevant ads to the search engine’s users while eliminating the noise caused by spam ads and unrelated offers.

Assuming that your landing page loads normally – CTR can be attributed as the single biggest determinant of QS. In other words,

Fantastic CTR = Great QS

How to Improve Your Quality Score

Quality score improves when an account has its campaigns, ad groups, and keywords thematically aligned with each other.

Weed out the Good from the BAD

If an existing account has a history of poorly performing keywords, and even if marketers isolated those keywords, deleted them or simply added them elsewhere in the account, Google while performing a sweep of the account’s history with reassign the same quality score to these previously deleted keywords. Therefore, marketers must adopt various best practices when establishing new accounts, and consider starting from scratch (in a new account)

Carefully Craft your Strategy

Marketers should carefully craft their ads, ensuring that keywords associated with these ads are embedded within ad copy and that ads correlate to their respective ad groups in a tightly bound and cohesive fashion. For this you need to split Keywords into smaller more targeted Ad Groups.

For example, a jewelery retailer with an AdWords account might have one campaign for Fashion Jewellery, with ad groups broken down into various looks as well as keywords with colors or other descriptive keyword phrases. A second campaign might be dedicated to High-end jewellery, with ad groups broken down into colored stones and gold categories as well as keywords with brand or cut types. This strategy not only is favorably looked at by search engines and guarantees improved rankings, but also facilitates management of accounts that are coherently structured and well organized.

Optimizing Landing Pages to Improve Quality Scores

When optimizing (SEO) your landing pages, think of the inverted pyramid.  That means the most important information should be at the top of the page: your title tag, meta description, and the first paragraph of content that are highly prioritized by Google. Besides, the following points will act as a checklist to help optimize your landing page -

• Cautiously isolate variables when adding (or removing) from landing pages.
• Equal landing page creative with scope and quality of offers.
• Match landing page content with ad copy to enable seamless flow.
• Enable quickly loading landing pages because slow loading pages are penalized.
• Remember that only exact matches count, meaning there is no need to optimize for every phrase.
• Seed title tags, and optimize metadata to match keyword phrases in the landing page’s respective ad groups.
• Employ day-parting to focus on seasonally higher-demand conversion periods.
• Entirely avoid pop-ups.
• Use paid content links (e.g., AdSense), but never preceding initial content.

Modify Your CTR

Make sure your ad copy laser-targeted.  Match it to the specific keywords the user searches for, and repeat those words throughout the ad. The ads should make sense and capitalize the first word of each word, excluding prepositions, conjunctions etc.

Following a top-down linear progression throughout their accounts, marketers can succeed, regardless of budget. No one solution-fits-all QS. So determine if campaigns and their respective keywords are consistent in theme with each ad groups within them, if ad copy is consistent with keywords associated with ads, and if landing pages are relevant to ad copy and keywords. You’re typically rewarded with good Quality Score when you strive to build a strong account history with relevant ads that point to good landing pages.

One of the most exciting aspects of the emerging market shifts is that we find ourselves living through an underlying power called the social technology – where collaboration and influence through social networking is said to pilot the biggest impact on organizations in the next three to five years.

CMO’s indicate that many of these strategies involve deepening social relationships between the company and its audiences, engaging with them (without annoying them) and in fact personally participating in such efforts.  However, only 16% of CMOs think that it’s necessary to become proficient at social media themselves to be successful leaders. Further research but also signifies that CMO’s who personally participate in social media will be much better cut at – a) leading the new brand experience, and b) leading a new generation of cross-functional marketing organizations.

So who’s really right? One viewpoint suggests that CMO’s who take on the proactive front lead in employing and ‘engaging personally’ the “whole dimension” of customer engagement strategies can become natural leaders in helping their companies take advantage of social tools and evolve their business processes throughout the entire prospect/customer lifecycle. Yet an overwhelming majority of CMO’s hesitate to personally participate in Social Media.  In a study by Business Insider of 143 top marketing executives from the Fortune 100 companies, only 15 CMOs were identified as having an active Twitter account. While many CMOs use LinkedIn, most do not use social media to interact with everyday consumers. In addition, many CMOs only use social media because of peer pressure instead of believing in the need to personally master social media.

CMO acts as a Chief Steward of the Brand Experience

As the chief decision maker and steward of the brand experience, CMOs must understand how to align social media initiatives with brand-building strategies that result in a competitive advantage. By personally participating, they can use their experience to identify opportunities quicker and provide better guidance to the organization and its partners. CMOs don’t develop media plans without an understanding of their audience and the guidance of strategic objectives, so they should do the same with social tools.

The Three C’s: The Customer, the Competition, and the Company

CMOs must use social media to understand the online social impact of the three C’s: the customer, the competition, and the company.

• Listening to the customer with thy own eyes and ears – Through social networking tools CMO’s can develop a direct line to online customer sentiment, similar to the fashion they do with focus groups and key customers. For instance, Michael (Dell of Dell) and Brian (Dunn of Best Buy) are closer to their customers and thus know what customers like and dislike about their company firsthand. Added to this, Dell also has set up a command center (for market insights) which has a glass wall facing out onto the rest of the office, providing an easy view of large monitors with colorful graphs detailing the online conversations happening at that moment. The functional value of the command center comes from Dell receiving the significance of consumer sentiment using social media listening tools that provide scalable, timely, and actionable insights – Real-time.

• Keeping Pulse on Competition: Rather than wait for traditional competitive intelligence reports, the social CMO should personally follow her competitors on Twitter or “like” his competitors’ Facebook pages to keep up with new social media experiments. For instance, Julia Goldin, CMO of Revlon, follows her competition on Twitter and Facebook because she wants to understand how they engage with consumers through new channels.

• Understanding the company’s social strengths and weaknesses: Collecting data on how positively or negatively customers talk about their brand online, CMO’s can aggregate to get firsthand knowledge of their company’s brand experience. Only then can a social CMO inspire a vision and outline a compelling online roadmap and leverage their current social capabilities. For such, the CMO’s can participate in company sponsored social initiatives on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, or influencer blogs.

Thus the CMO is the perfect champion for using social media strategies beyond marketing because he has the capabilities and opportunity to effect most deeply in his company’s brand-building and marketing efforts.

Tablets offer a different style of browsing, and web owners must improve its experiences, Forrester says.

Forrester Research Inc. predicts that tablet sales will grow from 10.3 million devices in 2010 to 44 million in 2015. And as the tablet market grows, product strategists must nurture both the app ecosystem and the browser environment —as both will be key channels for delivering content experiences on tablets.

In a recent survey of tablet owners by Forrester, tablet users were found to access websites on their tablets more often than they do apps. Consumers driven to find information on companies they want to do business with find websites still as their first preferred point of contact. Although an app can be considered as another touch point for the customers, a website can nevertheless be accessed anywhere, and on any device.

“While people spend a lot of time browsing sites on tablets, the simple truth is that sites weren’t built specifically for these devices. As a result, unintended usability breakdowns hamper most website experiences on tablets today” writes Forrester Research senior analyst Vidya Drego in her recent report. So as the number of consumers browsing sites on a tablet skyrockets, website owners must look to create the right experience strategy, and improve the web browsing experience from tablets.

Five Fixes for Merchants to Enhance their Browsing Experience

For the benefit of merchants Forrester has identified five quick fixes firms can make today to improve how users experience their websites on tablets.

I. Consider Alternatives to Plug-ins like Flash, Java etc: Sites that rely heavily on flash multimedia do not render well on the iPad. iPhone visitors to a site with Flash see only a blank square. Further, while few sites today are completely constructed in Flash, large numbers of sites use Flash for displaying multimedia elements, menus, and some imagery. As a result, merchants should use alternatives to Flash, such as HTML5 for audio and video streaming and JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets 3 for animations.

The Golf Warehouse, operated by Redcats USA was one ecommerce retailer which acted early on this issue. Since the two main features on its home page were based on Flash slide presentations, it promptly created static images to render on devices that don’t support Flash to maintain a better experience on the iPad.

II. Simplifying complex Mouse tail movements : Touchscreen devices do not support mouse actions like hover or double-click. Thus to offer an optimal tablet browsing experience, merchants should also simplify complex mouse movements. Designers should stick to scrolling, panning, and selecting or clicking on elements to enable touchscreen users to get the most from the experience.

III. Increase spacing between interactive elements: Most interactive elements like drop-downs, links, radio buttons, and check boxes were designed for mouse input, not finger taps. As a result, many of these elements are spaced tightly and result in mis-selections or misfiring when controlled via a touchscreen. More space in and around these elements should reduce errors.

IV. Increasing the size of text and other elements of a page: Screen size and resolutionvary in Tablets, and while most allow users to zoom in to better view content and functionality, zooming in repeatedly to see and interact with a site can get tiresome quickly. Drego writes. “Increasing the size of key elements including headlines, category names, navigation elements and body copy can help users quickly scan content without zooming in. This has the added benefit of making a site easier to use from a PC as well.”

V. Avoid fixed page width and positioning: Because most tablet users toggle the orientation of the device among vertical and horizontal views, merchants should steer clear of using a fixed page width since it can effect in content that renders too narrowly or widely for the device.

Forrester Research says following these five tips can help customer experience professionals leave tablet users satisfied with their site. It adds sites seeing increasing traffic from tablet devices should look out for patterns in their analytics data and quickly improve to create the right experiences for its tablet customers.

Unless you’ve been trolling in some ‘Enchanted Woods’ this past 24 hours, it’s likely that you’ve heard about the latest gung ho from the tech world – the acquisition of the photo genius, 12 people, San Francisco based company  called Instagram by Facebook for $1 billion in cash (or stock) .

For an iphone app that only took 8 weeks to build and ship, and which went live less than two years ago this makes for an exceptional rocket ship success story. Till date this photo-sharing smart phone application has been downloaded by more than seven million people who use it to add stylistic filters, frames, and effects to photos, which can – by tapping one of the 16 options – turn a simplistic snapshot of your pet dog into what looks like a weathered Polaroid time-capsuled frame from 1967.

So What are the Key Takeaways for any Start-up from the Instagram Acquisition

In looking through Instagram’s story, and what they’ve masterfully built and practiced, there are 5 clear lessons that we came up with that any new entrepreneur or start-up should look at while building their marketing campaign—

Be Really Good At One Thing

Before Mike Krieger joined hands with Kevin Systom (co-founders of Instagram), Kevin had built a prototype of an idea in HTML5 called Burbn.  This mobile app was supposed to let you: Check into locations, make plans (futures check ins), earn points for hanging out with friends, post pictures, and much more. But when they decided to build a company together – they wanted to “FOCUS on being really good at one thing.” The locations, check-ins, points were all good but felt cluttered, and overrun with features. As they singled out mobile photos as an awesome opportunity, they began to spend their entire efforts solely focused on photos. Basically they went out on a single limb of Burbn, cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. And what remained was Instagram.

Develop the Simplest Solution to what your Customer is Seeking

Instagram is a definite case of exiting a mangled heap of hay rather than having a single grand idea upfront and persisting. In textbook customer development fashion, Kevin and his team learned a lot from developing the experience called Burbn.  Despite feeling like the space was overrun from a slow, relative html5 app, the team pivoted to focus on photo applications. Central to the Instagram principles, was the idea of building a very simple user interface to the application. Cutting down the number of features, and streamlining the user interface to the essential elements, the Instagram team reinvented a “one button” application.

Open the app — Take a photo — With a “single tap” apply a crazy cool filter — drop a caption on the image and share out to all your social networks……

(Instagram geo-tags the location on all photos on its own)

Instagram – a one button application was a solution to their customer’s problem (where the value proposition requires only one button). Instagram focused on a key feature users always want—speed.

Build a Cost Effective Method of Customer Acquisition

If you peek into the employee composition of Instagram, you will find it’s mostly developers with a few community managers. No BIG sales team force (like groupon), absolutely no one in business development. Instead Instagram focused on building the sales mechanism into the product and having people understand and give feedback on the community. The smart research lead then to find the set of influencers that would love what they were doing; those people such as photographers with lots of twitter followers who would really be excited about the applications capabilities. A good focus and continued PR with great ways of capturing, keeping and referring customers was the key.

Leverage on Existing Networks to BootStrap your Own

Instagram didn’t just work to create its own network; rather its principal benefit was that it made easy to post great snaps to other networks such as twitter, flickr and facebook. This meant that the application had value for the first person that used it – not only just making the photo look good; but sharing the way people wanted to share. Another focus was of course the iPhone users and their existing network.

Don’t let the Ocean Waves Distract You

Instagram was launched for iPhone users – and here the focus was important. The team didn’t try to boil the ocean but until recently and stayed manically – yes! That’s the word – manically focussed on Apple iPhone – even to the extent that the web experience is minimalist compared to what’s in the iphone app. Further, iOS was the right choice for two reasons – it had the largest consistent platform at the time of launch and the gaps in the built-in photo experience fit well with the advantages of instagram (better photos, multi social net connection).   The focus on iPhone also let the team keep performance for the user and simplicity of the experience at the center of what they did.

More importantly, Instagram cracked the code where Facebook itself failed: viral growth on mobile.

With greater access to information, more sensitivity to price, and a by the shrug manner to advertising, today’s customers are harder to win and keep. The key to acquiring and retaining customers in this environment is to engage them – to participate in an ongoing, two way conversation that creates for the customers —

1. A deep emotional connection with the brand.
2. High Levels of active participation
3. A long-term relationship.

It is an accepted belief that the real difference in customer behaviour – and profitability – comes from customers who are both rationally satisfied and emotionally connected to your brand.

Behavioural psychologists have long argued that only 30% of human decision and behaviours are actually driven by rational consideration. This means that more than 70% of consumer loyalty and spending decisions are based on emotional factors.

The emotional connection is what customer engagement is all about.

Emotional Connection = Engagement

World’s leading organizations understand one simple fact and that is: organizations that engage their customers outperform those that do not.

So when you consider the premium that fully engaged customers are worth to your organization, a focus on increasing this ratio is a critical part of any growth strategy.

What Steps can your organization take to engage its customers?

To find out, Forrester Consulting conducted a survey of more than 200 business decision-makers – including customer service, support, and marketing professionals on their customer engagement efforts. And we found that engaging customers requires a year-round focus on changing organizational behaviours, processes, and systems to anticipate and respond to your customers’ needs. From the leadership team to the frontline employees, all levels within an organization must commit to making these changes.

• Engagement Activities Must Span all Channels – Of course, the web might be more ubiquitous, addressable, and measurable, but physical locations and interpersonal interactions still matter. The primary customer engagement programs should involve both offline and online touch points.

• Online Engagement Programs are bound to Grow – As companies plan to add technologies such as online customer reviews, mobile web sites, and user-generated content to their portfolios over the coming time, it is of no surprise that such tools offer customers a new way to engage with brands. And when implemented properly, this type of technology also provides a reason for customers to return to a website again and again.

• Honouring Emotional Attachment – Customers are not strictly rational; and the most profitable customer has strong emotional bonds with your organization. Those bonds must be honoured and strengthened.
• Brand Alignment – No organization has a single unified “brand”. There are as many ‘brands’ as there are customer touch points. All must be measured, reviewed and managed.

Instead of focusing on lagging indicators such as stock price, earnings per share, profit, and growth, organizations which concentrate on measuring and managing behavioural metrics lead in their story of organic growth. By individualizing their approach and working with human nature, they unlock their maximum potential and profitability.

At a time when short, punchy content, laden with crispy one liners (private only to copywriters earlier) was charming the readers, boosting their web appetite; Google turned over anew leaf on 6^thAug 2013.

Away from all the earlier modifications to bring out search results, this time Google unearthed in-depth articles which it felt users were feeling deprived of. These in-depth article results are restricted to only broader topics and themes for now and available only on Google.com (i.e., only in the U.S, not in any other country).

How Search Engines changed !

The first week saw a slew of good quality content from top brands and publishers making it to the 1^st page of the searches. We ran a small experiment on five keywords.

Three in depth articles emerged at the bottom of every search page under the heading-In-Depth Articles. All of them shared the same attributes. Most were news publications, which meant they were original, non-commercial, thoughtful and thoroughly researched. Besides, most of the content was considerably elaborate i.e., no less than 2000 words.

It is the 10^th search result, listed after the 9^th organic result (apart from the news).

Even though Google had declared that the results would also contain good articles from lesser known blogs and publishers, it’s mostly the big names ruling the roost until now.

What’s in store for Businesses?

Put the word ‘Business’ in the search field, you’d get three In-depth articles

The results aren’t too inspiring. For someone who really doesn’t know the meaning of the term, the results may lead him/her into multiple directions.

If you refine the search and make it- ‘Business Strategy or ‘Business Plan’, there are no In-depth articles. Does that mean none exists on these topics? Of course not!

One guess could be that Google’s semantic search for broader terms is supposed to work this way only. Since the person searching does not point in a specific direction, Google takes it upon itself and gives a direction to the search. It might also mean that something is underway.

So, if you’re writing elaborate articles as a part of your content marketing strategy, it’s nothing to be discouraged of. Who knows in time, In-depth articles may be available for long tail keywords too.

You can still take a shot! Here’s how

In months or a couple of years from now, it is going to become a very competitive spot.

Sure a lot will depend on your Page Rank and Brand name, but even if you are a smaller publication, a powerful in-depth content can showcase your prowess in the field of content generation.

The main qualifier for the game seems to be the content length (no less than 2,000 words). Secondly, while you follow the usual rules of engagement, try to include a strong Schema markup into your plan.

The markup assists Google in comprehending the elements of your page and pick out particular elements to use in‘Search Engine Result Pages’ or on other platforms like G+.

In fact, Google itself suggests using the following to better your prospects for the coveted position-

• Headline
• AlternativeHeadline
• Image (should be crawlable)
• Description
• DatePublished
• ArticleBody 

Not just good content, but TimelessContent

The hoopla around content generation isn’t a cliché yet, but has definitely gotten very close to it. However, the key to entering the In-depth article slot is timeless, effective storytelling.

Your aim should be to create content that has a long life, that can stay relevant till at least a couple of years.

Compared  to news based or  trend based content, this kind of content is a risk free endeavor. So, even if you miss the slot on Google search page, it can still be beneficial to get you quality traffic over time.

Support your created content with the omnipresent Google suggestion tool, Adwords to see what terms are being searched for. Also, Google trends will help you get acquainted with some hot topics.

Besides, you can always gauge which post of yours is gaining how much popularity on Google Analytics.

Final Thoughts

In 2012, Google had attempted a low-key experiment to shape the future of searches. It was christened the Daily Information Need Study and was centered on digging out information that mostly went ‘unGoogled’.

It was found out that at least ten percent of people wanted more than just fast info. This laid the foundation of including In-depth articles in searches.

Currently, around 60% of results in In-depth articles are 6 months to 2 years old, indicating that Google is favoring those who can withstand the test of time.

Our final tip-create great content and length does affect rankings and conversions. Think like a philanthropist; disseminating good information won’t harm you.

Your readers are ubiquitous. And you have a duty towards them. They’ll be there before your brand becomes a Brand and after it.

It’s all connected!

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
–Napoleon Hill

Looking for a quick rescue from a ‘chocolate making-gone gooey’ situation, tinkering with your forlorn grandfather Piano for the right notes, gearing up for the most effective lower abdominal workout or if it’s about grasping the subtext of an English classic–with a mantra,‘real help from real people in real time’, Google Helpouts is all set to get you sorted.

Call it an avatar of what Google is already known for (providing information), the step is a giant leap in answering people’s queries and guiding them in the right direction.
Udi Manber, the VP of Engineering at Google, broke the news on their official blog on 4th Nov 2013. Google Helpouts is reportedly a unique synthesis of Google Wallet and Hangouts. Simply put, the platform has its roots in video chatting, a la Google Hangouts. It currently lists over 1,000 experts for 8 broad categories namely Cooking, Computers and Electronics, Arts and Music, Fitness and Nutrition, Health, Fashion and Beauty, Home and Garden, Education and Careers.

What it’s got  

Users will get to converse with individuals who’ll sort out their doubts, but for a price. Secondly, you get to pick and choose whose help you wish to take based on their ratings, price, reviews and availability.

Five aspects pivotal to the service are–

a) To easily find individuals having the right expertise, that users need the instant they require it.

b) To be able to book schedules easily and readily depending on the user’s schedule.

c) To have flexibility in the prices, so users can take their pick out of a per minute or a flat fee.

d) To allow users to go over past Helpouts and get notifications for the upcoming ones.

e) To let users share their experiences with friends and other people through Google+.

How it Works 

a) For Users

Helpouts is being projected as a suggestions bazaar for users, where the USP of the product is customized real-time advice/solutions. Therefore, as opposed to ineffective (inexact) suggestions of friends over phone /social networking sites/video chats and unlike one sided video tutorials, you’d get precise solutions.

The service is accompanied with a ‘Satisfaction Guarantee’ policy. If the users aren’t happy with the help they get, their money would be refunded.

Users can offer feedbacks to rate the service they get. This will influence the visibility of the provider, the best ones’ will appear on the top of the lists. Stringent safety measures are in place, so users can stop the video if they find something abusive or harassing. You can watch an introductory clip  and start right away if you’ve got a Google account. Till now it’s only available for Android and Desktop PCs.

b) For Service Providers

The over 1,000 providers are not only individuals, but small/medium/large businesses who have dedicated teams for all the listings.

These listings would vary in cost which is set by the provider of the particular service. The payment can be made according to the task, by minutes or for a set period of time.
The providers’ prominence will largely depend on the quality of service they provide.

All of them are carefully examined by Google and have been included by invitation only.
Service providers in the healthcare section, have been authenticated by a 3rd party. Some of the providers already on board are- Sephora, Rosetta Stone,Weight Watchers, Red Beacon, Home Advisor, One Medical.

It’s also open to providers who are willing to share their expertise for free.

c) For Google

Google will charge a 20% cut for every successful service provided. As of now the payment can be made only through Google Wallet.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Google’s 20% charge does not apply for the health care category due to the complexity of the service, since it involves counseling on a number of things like nutrition, psychology etc., which are apparently immeasurable services.

Google’s also saying that their Healthcare service is in agreement with HIPAA, but is being extra cautious in its dealings due to privacy concerns. Till now no insurance coverage is in place, but Google feels it might become a part of  their healthcare service in future.

Can it withstand the test of time?   

There’s no denying that the platform will have to stand stiff competition from all the free help available to users. Social networking sites, help from personal friends, YouTube tutorials (they have the strongest hold), forums,Yahoo answers, etc. If you are a Twitter/ Facebook user, you’re probably used to taking suggestions from your followers/ friends.

Apart from that, video chatting will heavily depend on your Internet connectivity, i.e., your data rate transfer. Likewise, help, in an outdoor situation will solely depend on your phone Internet speed, which won’t be up to the mark in all the places you’d go to.
We’ve all had our share of Skype and Hangout sessions–once gone bad, forever abandoned.

Also you need a device that can be transferred between the rooms. People don’t keep home PC’s in their kitchens. All these factors can severely cripple its reach and usability.

On the brighter side, it can bring in an unprecedented change, since it places professional help at your beck and call, from the best talent. Secondly, people many a times are reluctant to seek help from their best of friends, relatives or acquaintances out of being embarrassed or judged. Here nobody would judge you, since they don’t know you, but they do know what you’re looking for, quite precisely. Google has been there and done that. It can do it again.

Final Thoughts

If you see the readers’ comments under Google’s official blog where the announcement first surfaced, you’ll see that people are quite elated already.

Quite surely, the aspect of sales must be of concern to Google, but it is definitely not desperate to mint money. The product is seemingly people oriented, targeted towards focused learning.

Most importantly, there is a whole new window of opportunity for those who stay in far flung areas and want to learn something not offered near them.
But, its most unbeatable feature remains the two way interaction, an unstated admission by Google that real help can’t be served only wrapped in search algorithms!

Now LinkedIn intends to catapult all the followers’ into the league of followed, by letting them share the platform with opinion makers like Barrack Obama, Bill Gates, Meg Whitman, Sir Richard Branson, etc.

Simply put, LinkedIn is extending the access of its publishing platform to all its existing users.

Having approx. 227 million users (and growing), with 2 new members joining every second, covering a Geographical reach of 200 nations and territories, available in 20 languages―what LinkedIn’s witnessed is no short of a big bang, in just over a decade’s existence.

And this announcement comes as a defining moment in its evolution.

The Beginnings!

On 29^th April, 2010, LinkedIn allowed its users to follow companies’ profiles and receive real-time alerts on their activities; a close replica of following someone on Twitter or becoming someone’s fan on Facebook.

After approximately two years of this, a major development surfaced.

At a time when Google was going hammer and tongs about original content production, admonishing malpractices, imposing penalties on spammers for hoodwinking the average Internet user; LinkedIn cracked the code to a path breaking invention. It got the most renowned thought leaders of the world on its Network to share their ideas and thoughts through long form content, and allowed all the LinkedIn members to follow their posts.

The announcement was made on 2^ndOct, 2012 and included the likes of none other than, President Barack Obama, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Arianna Huffington, Richard Branson, Governor Mitt Romney, David Cameron, Bill Gates, etc.This elite category of contributors was christened‘Influencers’.These Influencers then began sharing their exceptional knowledge and insights with LinkedIn members. Initially they were 150 in strength, later on they became 500.

The ANNOUNCEMENT  Now

The phenomenal success of the Influencer program saw an average post receive 80-plus comments, 250 likes and 31,000 views; which egged on LinkedIn to extend the service to 25,000 members for now. It would be extended to all its members in the following weeks and months.

The idea is to disseminate the valuable experiences, knowledge and expertise of all its users that haven’t been captured as yet.

Moreover,  if a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, their unique content would be considered as a part of their professional profile and would be shared within their network.

Likewise, members will receive content according to their interests, profile and their network.

Members will also be allowed to follow those who are not in their network as well as create their own group of followers. This will include, sharing images, posts, videos on Slideshare too.

Ryan Roslansky, the Head of Content Products at LinkedIn told USA Today that,”We want LinkedIn to be a place members come to be more effective and successful, not just when they are looking for a job or looking for people. We believe that content is a way to do that.” 

Yes, there are advantages, Something for EVERYONE

The long form content has been around for quite some time to target niche audiences and drive a high level of engagement.

Google’s Indepth Articles is a case in point. It stresses on the creation of elaborate, content on broader topics.

LinkedIn’s publishing platform is also to do with knowledge sharing, but it has a  different perspective.

1)     Everyone gets to share the stage- By putting a pen in everyone’s hand, LinkedIn has truly empowered all its users to contribute, discuss, share their views on a serious platform (unlike Facebook or Twitter). Here’s an overview to LinkedIn’s Publishing platform.

2)     A shot in the arm for the HR - This one goes without saying. LinkendIn draws 55% of its revenue formTalent solutions. HR leaders throughout the globe can now scrutinize the content produced by their prospective employees’ to comprehend them better. As for LinkedIn, it’ll greatly help in growing its revenue.

3)     A surefire way to reach out - Many a times even after producing the right content, things go awry at the publishing stage, as it fails to reach the right audience.With LinkedIn’s stepping in, serving up the content to the right audience gets addressed due to its various distribution channels.

4)     Access to the Analytics - Move over Google’s analytics, Linkedin’s analytics shows you everything (in the form of charts, graphs, etc.) about your followers, on parameters of industries, seniority, regions et. al. This way you’ll able to see how your content is communicating with your audience, to guide you in the right direction.

Final Thoughts

Having started by roping in the big guns, LinkedIn has undoubtedly positioned itself as a niche content contributor on the web. The content running so far on LinkedIn has got rave reviews primarily because it comes from the crème de la crème, heading Industries (and nations).

On the other hand, there are apprehensions about dilution of this rich quality due to an influx of less useful, low quality, self promotional content; an issue Google is still grappling with. To think that all its 277 million users would provide value sure seems like wishful thinking.

But, LinkedIn seems to have one thing going for it―since the produced content would be attached to the professional identity of every user, it’d inspire the members to bring the best out of them.

“When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.”

—Shakespeare (Richard II)

Young, inexperienced, new blood can sometimes achieve what many practiced, knowledgeable, wise ones can only dream of.

Think of Facebook, Netflix or Twitter. Their success has a lot to do with venturing into unchartered territories unflinchingly. Implementation of fresh, out of the box ideas turned entrepreneurs behind these brands into trendsetters.

Here we take an elaborate look on how fledglings can leverage from their rawness and achieve some real feats by breaking existing moulds.

1)    Expertise can hold you back!

Being used to doing things in a specific way can limit your approach to do them differently. Experience teaches you everything, but takes a toll on the audacity required to act. It takes a newbie to question established rules.

Starting out and getting lucky doesn’t happen with everyone. Why? Because going ahead without over-scrutinizing your intent is considered bad planning.

Still, a variety of individuals with no prior experience of the industry did it, from Mint.com to Amazon to Zipcar. They acted upon an idea and got to the finish line first. Who knows how many more experienced players must have thought over those very ideas at the same time?

Reconsiderations or red-tapism, whatever must’ve kept them busy— they lost the race.

2)    Lack of examples before you can be ‘inspiring’

Starting out without having anyone to look up to can be a blessing in disguise. It means beginning with no preconceived notions and no benchmarks. There’s no right or wrong

Hollywood czars knew that providing movies on-demand can be bad for their business, but Netflix’s founders hadn’t a clue. Well, they weren’t from the movie business.

French website zilok.com, is another case in point. The site has revolutionized renting out anything under the sun. People post their possessions and give them on rent to those who need it for a specific duration. Gary Cige, who didn’t know anything about the rental business thought of starting it when on one Sunday afternoon, he couldn’t find a drilling machine.

3)    Going with your gut gets easy!

Ever tried a sport like archery or even Golf?

When you play for the first time, acting intuitively is easy. But it doesn’t remain so when you keep playing it. Soon you’ll start reasoning with yourself and start applying a strategy in every move.

Today’s entrepreneurs stand for, audacious, out of the box thinking and loads of experimentation. They aim to hit the sweet spot where a radical ideology, determination, intelligence, technology and innovation meet.

Trusting your gut isn’t about thoughtlessly taking risks. It is to do with gauging the consequences, assessing the environment, looking for an opportune moment and wasting  zilch time.

 4)    When you don’t know the rules, you’re not restricted by them

Groundbreaking innovations are accomplished by those who are unaware of the rules.

Walt Disney, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg broke the rule that an advanced degree in business was a prerequisite to succeed. In fact, there are new rules in place to conduct business, way different from the earlier theorized norms.

An example could be the trendy boutique-hotel chain owned by Ace Calderwood- Ace hotels, that specializes in inexpensive rooms. Designing a hotel needs a whole lot of specifics to match the industry standards, but Calderwood followed his unique style. He took over old buildings and retained as much of their original flavor as possible. Entrepreneur magazine reported him quoting in 2010,“We didn’t come with any baggage of ‘this will or won’t work,’ and it’s served us well over time.”

Every business functions in an atmosphere of documented and undocumented rules. Many of such restrictions are voluntary and consumed without reasoning.

Final Thoughts

When Richard Branson launched Virgin Atlantic, he knew he was up against British Airways, Pan Am and American Airlines. All of them were established players who went by the rules that 1^st class travelers are supposed to enjoy the finest service, then comes business travelers and then economy travelers with lowest frills.

But Virgin Atlantic shunned it. Branson got rid of the 1^st class, but brought lots of first class services to economy travelers. He introduced things like free drinks for economy travelers, limousine service to the airport, videos on headrests etc.

Entrepreneurs are always surrounded with doubts about the next best step, no matter how experienced they are.

It’s not the risk you wish to take, it’s about your willingness to go out there, achieve, and grow with time.

Imagine the motivation of a famished army, combating on its last legs in the midst of fire and ashes, hollering vengeful battle cries that sends shivers down the spines of their enemies, a couple of millenniums ago (that’s when this book was written).

Sun Tzu’s classic has not only inspired dynasties, military generals, strategists, tacticians, business leaders, politicians, sports persons and managers (fighting boardroom battles everyday)  across the globe, but has also lent them inspiration to surge ahead despite any circumstances.

Here’s a collection of 10 invaluable gems from The Art of War, from a Digital marketing standpoint-:

1) When Able, Feign Inability …

“ The Way of War is A way of deception
When Able,
Feign Inability,

When Deploying troops
Appear Not to be. ”

Inference : In digital marketing, the best way to market is by not appearing to market at all. Engage with your audience in the most natural manner. When you seem most ordinary, should be the time when you really engage in subtle marketing techniques.

2) If Victory is slow, Men tire, Morale sags

“ In War
Victory should be Swift.
If Victory is slow,
Men tire, Morale sags,
Sieges exhaust strength;
Protracted campaigns strain the public treasury.”

Image Credit : https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardofengland/6788829651

Inference :In digital marketing targets must be achieved in a definite time frame. Because morale, like sand, will slip out of your hands unless you achieve your goal in time. Take quantifiable steps in the beginning, like email marketing campaigns, vigorous online advertising and PPC campaigns, assess the results.

Be quick in diversifying. Save protracted techniques for later use; your procrastinations will only make your competitors stronger.

3) The highest form of warfare Is to attack Strategy itself

“ Ultimate Excellence lies
Not in winning every battle
But in defeating the enemy
Without ever fighting.
The highest form of warfare
Is to attack
Strategy itself  ”

Inference :  Sometimes just the trailer of a movie can sell out tickets for the entire show.  Likewise, on a Digital marketing turf start with giving your potential clients a flavor of what you can do for them. If you’re convincing enough, half the battle is won. Aggressive branding techniques via social media advertising and display advertising will come in handy. When they arrive at your site, give them something free, like an ebook/how-to guide, et.al.

4) Five essentials for Victory

“Know when to fight
And when not to fight;
Understand how to deploy
Large and small Numbers;

Have officers and men who share a single will;
Be ready for the unexpected

Have a capable general,
Unhampered by his sovereign.”

Image Credit  https://www.flickr.com/photos/thecosmopolitan/

Inference : Apart from what—when, when not to and how, should be the questions on your mind while crafting a strategy. Choose your target audience wisely. Your whole team should be on the same page with you. A campaign can hit the bull’s eye or can turn into an eyesore, be ready for surprises. As a leader, you’re expected to use your diligence. Cut your teammates and your strategies some slack at times. Breaks can make it blossom!

5) Difference between the victorious and the defeated army…

“ The victorious army
Is victorious first
And seeks battle later;
The defeated army
Does battle first
And seeks victory later. ”

Inference :  To be in winners shoes, do what winners do. Devise a foolproof digital strategy first (work out all the permutations and combinations), so there are no chances of faltering. Be ready with your arsenal of Online Marketing Campaigns, Online Advertising, PPC, Display Advertising Services, Social Media Advertising, Email Marketing, Conversion. Success is a mindset, achieve it before going into the battle. It helps to foresee.

6) The warrior skilled in Indirect warfare is Infinite…

In the 5th chapter ‘Potential Energy’, Master Sun says

“ The warrior skilled In indirect warfare
Is infinite As Heaven and Earth
Inexhaustible As river and sea,
He ends and begins again Like Sun and Moon,
Dies and is born again
Like the Four Seasons ”

Inference :  Digital marketing and branding exercises, pursued indirectly (not so blatantly) and at irregular intervals by deploying diverse tactics is the best way to go about it. For instance, concentrating on Paid Ads, followed by a lull, then a bombardment of highly targeted Email marketing campaign can take your consumers by surprise.
It’s like a Guerrilla warfare—your power and strength will remain infinite, if you concentrate on the diversity w.r.t time and techniques.

7) Skillfully deployed soldiers are like round boulders Rolling down A mighty mountain… 

“ The Skillful Warrior
Exploits The potential energy;
He does not hold his men Responsible

He deploys his men To their best
But Relies on The potential energy.

He sends his men into battle like a man Rolling logs or boulders.
Skillfully deployed soldiers are like round boulders
Rolling down A mighty mountain ” 

Inference: More than the strategy, it’s the timing and positioning that determines your success. In digital marketing, unleashing your efforts at the opportune moment from a strategic standpoint can bring you the right gains.

For instance, if your firm’s already an established brand. To gain further lead over your competitors you may become a thought leader in your field, especially if you’re running a professional practice, selling a pioneering product et.al. It could be done with effective Content marketing, Infographics, etc.

8) There are roads not to take. There are armies Not to attack…

“ There are-
Roads Not to Take
Armies, Not to attack
Towns Not to besiege
Terrains Not to contest
Orders Not to obey ”

Inference: Not every strategy or tactic is meant for you. It might serve your competitors beautifully, but be futile for you.
Someone might need PPC, more than content marketing, since their biggest concern is to get more and more leads. Different strokes for different folks!
In fact, indulging in ineffective activities will not only make you squander your resources, but risk your service or product’s future.

9) In killing an individual, It’s necessary to know him beforehand…

“ In striking an army,
In attacking a city,
In killing an individual
It is necessary to know beforehand
The names of the general,
And of his attendants,
His aides,
His doorkeepers,
His bodyguards.
Our spies must be instructed
To discover all of these
In detail. ”

Inference :  Before you set out to unleash your ultimate marketing missile, it’s best to get acquainted with all its elements (pros and cons) so you’re able to predict your audiences’ response. What would happen if you strike the bulls eye, what would happen if you don’t. You should be aware of every little detail. In digital marketing if you’re considering remarketing campaigns, you should be as accurate as possible in predicting how your audience will respond.

10) Attack according to the soldier’s spirit

“ The soldier’s spirit
Is keenest In the morning;
By noon It has dulled;
By evening He has begun To think of home

The skillful Warrior
Avoids the keen spirit,
Attacks the dull
And the homesick;
This is Mastery of spirit ”

Inference : Have a go at your target when he’s most vulnerable, not when he’s most alert and strong, otherwise you’ll end up wasting your resources. Your natural proximity to your target would matter highly. It will allow you time to strike with precision.

For example, if you’re concentrating on social media marketing and the target appears too tough to achieve, no need to go at it hammer and tongs. Wait for the right time.

Wrapping Up

Whether it’s a marketing or digital marketing strategy, a clear understanding between; what’s achievable, what’s not; what’s worth going for, what not; what’s near, what’s far; is indispensable for charting out a victory path.

In the past, strategies have been essential for sieges, now they’re needed for clutching projects and leading in the market. If you’ve understood the above principles, it’s time to implement them. Because just as war, in marketing too you have to offer baits to lure the consumer.

army

17*24?
Ask this from your website’s visitor & you have cooked a recipe to lose a customer.
Confused. Read below.

Think about answering 17*24.

The updates are largely guided by GDPR and go into effect May 25, 2018.

Written By Greg Finn on April 12, 2018

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced Senate and House committees in Washington, DC, this week, the platform introduced new terms around the use of customer data, tracking and measurement. Zuckerberg reiterated to lawmakers that Facebook will, in effect, apply the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards to its business globally. Not surprisingly, the Terms changes are timed to go into effect on May 25, 2018, the same date the GDPR’s sweeping set of rules governing the handling of consumer data will go into effect.

A new “Facebook Business Tools Terms” consolidates the “Conversion Tracking, Custom Audiences From Your Website, and Custom Audiences From Your Mobile App Terms” and “Offline Conversion Terms,” and the Custom Audience Terms have been updated. Here’s a rundown of the key changes to the terms that apply to any website owner, publisher, developer, advertiser, business partner (and their customers) and any other entity that integrates with, uses and exchanges information with Facebook. Note that Facebook Business Tools encompass a lot: APIs and SDKs, the Facebook Pixel, social plugins such as the Like and Share buttons, Facebook Login and Account Kit, as well as other platform integrations, plugins, code, specifications, documentation, technology and services.

New terms for GDPR compliance

In section 5.1 of the Facebook Business Tools Terms, a note to EU and Swiss data controllers specifically on GDPR states:

To the extent the Customer Data contain personal data which you process subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (the “GDPR”), the parties acknowledge and agree that for purposes of providing matching, measurement, and analytics services described in Paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2 above, that you are the data controller in respect of such personal data, and you have instructed Facebook Ireland Limited to process such personal data on your behalf as your data processor pursuant to these terms and Facebook’s Data Processing Terms, which are incorporated herein by reference. “Personal data,” “data controller,” and “data processor” in this paragraph have the meanings set out in the Data Processing Terms.

What this means: This section clarifies that the Facebook Marketers are considered data controllers from a GDPR standpoint and Facebook the data processor. A third-party data processor is an entity that processes personally identifiable information (PII) on behalf of a controller. A controller is defined by the GDPR as an entity that determines how that data will be processed and for what reason. Both controllers and processors must comply with the EU regulation.

The Terms for using Facebook Pixels and SDKs have also been updated for GDPR. Section 3.3 states:

In jurisdictions that require informed consent for the storing and accessing of cookies or other information on an end user’s device (such as but not limited to the European Union), you must ensure, in a verifiable manner, that an end user provides the necessary consent before you use Facebook Business Tools to enable us to store and access cookies or other information on the end user’s device. (For suggestions on implementing consent mechanisms, visit Facebook’s Cookie Consent Guide for Sites and Apps.)

What this means: Site and app owners must obtain and manage user consent for Facebook to access, gather and store their data. This is a critical piece of GDPR that pertains to any company controlling or processing data on EU citizens, regardless of where they reside.

Requirement to notify Facebook of any actual or ‘threatened’ complaints about personal data

Another important change in the terms that marketers need to be aware of is in section 1.5. The provision states:

You will notify us promptly in writing of any actual or threatened complaint or challenge related to the use of personal data under these Business Tools Terms and will cooperate with us in responding to such complaint or challenge.

What this means: Advertisers must take any user’s complaint (even threatened) about the use of personal data seriously. You must be prepared to report to Facebook, in writing, any suggestion of a complaint or challenge over the handling or use of personal data when you’re made aware of it.

Keep reporting internal

Want to share a case study about your Facebook ad campaign? Think again. Section 2.2.2 of the Facebook Business Tools Terms explicitly states that advertisers are not allowed to share Campaign Reports or Analytics unless they have Facebook’s written consent:

We grant to you a non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use the Campaign Reports and Analytics for your internal business purposes only and solely on an aggregated and anonymous basis for measurement purposes. You will not disclose the Campaign Reports or Analytics, or any portion thereof, to any third party, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us. We will not disclose the Campaign Reports or Analytics, or any portion thereof, to any third party without your permission, unless (i) they have been combined with Campaigns Reports and Analytics from numerous other third parties and (ii) your identifying information is removed from the combined Campaign Reports and Analytics.

What this means: All Campaign Reports and Analytics need to stay internal and include only anonymized, aggregated data. Keep screen shots and charts out of presentations, case studies and social media unless you have permission from Facebook. However, Facebook retains the right to use your unidentified reporting data when aggregated with that of other advertisers

No pixel sharing

This is a change. Section 3.1 of the Facebook Business Tools Terms states:

You (or partners acting on your behalf) may not place pixels associated with your business manager or ad account on websites that you do not own without our written permission

What this means: You may not gather data for ad targeting or measurement by placing your or your clients’ pixels on other sites you may have access to or any other site unless Facebook OKs it. This has been a not-so-secret Facebook marketing tactic for some time. If you currently have pixels on other sites, it’s time to revisit those placements and either get Facebook’s permission or remove them to stay in compliance with the Terms.

Facebook Business Tools Terms

Some of the terminology has also changed with this update. As of May 25, 2018:

• “Sales Data” now is called “Customer Data.”
• “User Information” now means “Contact Information.”
• “Sales Transaction Data” now is “Event Data.”
• “Matched Data” now means Event Data that is combined with Matched User IDs.
• “Unmatched Data” now means Event Data that is not combined with Matched User IDs.
• “Reports” is now “Campaign Reports.”
• “OC” is now referred to as “Offline Conversions.”

Those are the main takeaways that we pulled from the updated terms. There are other changes, but they don’t appear to impact the day-to-day of marketers as much as the above. If you have any other items that stood out, please let us know on social media.

Important note: I am not a lawyer. This article is meant to uncover various changes from the perspective of a marketer. Please take the time to read through the updated product terms for yourself.

Thank you to Greg Finn and Marketing Land for this article

View the Article at Marketing Land Here:

Contributor David Rodnitzky from Marketingland urges agencies and brands to stay alert and aggressive, to avoid being “Blockbustered.”

by Marketingland author David Rodnitzky  May 1, 2018

Google’s partnership with WordPress aims to jump-start the platform’s support of the latest web technologies — particularly those involving performance & mobile experience.

Thank you to Author Michelle Robbins from Search Engine Land

View the article at Search Engine Land Here

Thank you to Search Engine Land for this article.

Though Pinterest is mostly ignored by SEOs and content marketers, contributor Jessica Foster recommends using it for traffic and content promotion before your competitors find out and get in on the action.

“Isn’t Pinterest just for bloggers?”

I hear this question all the time when I mention Pinterest marketing, typically from digital marketers, search engine optimization (SEO) experts and your typical horde of haters.

And my usual response is usually along the lines of…

“Maybe. So?”

After all, nearly every website out there has a blog in some form or another, and putting out consistent content is often the cornerstone of a lot of businesses SEO strategies. If Pinterest really is “just” for bloggers, and nearly every business has a blog, why wouldn’t they want a piece of that Pinterest pie?

Pinterest as a content marketing tool

Having digitally “grown up” in the blogging community, I saw firsthand the success bloggers achieved through Pinterest marketing.

It is a hot topic in Facebook groups and forums when it comes to running a successful blog. Pinterest often ties (and even surpasses) SEO as one of the leading sources of traffic for bloggers.

So how big is Pinterest? Let’s look at the numbers.

According to Pinterest, in 2017 there were 175 million active Pinterest users around the world and 75 billion ideas “pinned.”

Ninety-three percent of Pinners (i.e., Pinterest users) use Pinterest to decide what to buy online, and 67 percent have said they discovered new products because of what they’ve seen on Pinterest.

Over 14 million articles are pinned each day, and 80 percent of Pinners use the Pinterest mobile app to find what they’re looking for.

Pinterest has an undeniable amount influence, particularly when it comes to female users — though about 50 percent of new Pinterest sign-ups were men in 2017.

Amidst all of that, what is really impressive is the sheer volume of content and traffic circulating through Pinterest and how bloggers have harnessed this as a content marketing tool. Here’s a case study to help drive home that point.

Case study: Pinterest in action

I am a big fan of Pinterest now, but initially, I was skeptical. I’m nothing if not a data nerd so, I decided to jump in and take a closer look at Pinterest for a case study, since I kept hearing all these great things about it.

In November of 2016, I published a piece of content for a travel-related site and circulated it on Pinterest through the travel site’s Pinterest account. The traffic and engagement results were impressive! The single blog post got 5,000+ impressions, 3,000+ repins and drove 1,500+ visitors to the website in three months’ time.

This website stopped publishing content and running marketing campaigns in February 2017. Even without further Pinterest marketing, this site continued to receive 600+ users last month (April 2018, surpassing organic traffic) from Pinterest alone, and the account itself gets 3,900+ impressions per day.

This case study is far from the most impressive of examples, while the success of blog post circulation is typically measured in visits to the website, brands can get the added benefit of brand awareness through visual circulation.

Those 5,000+ impressions could very well translate into customers being driven directly to the source, even without a link.

My case study told me even a novice can see real results from Pinterest marketing.

Why haven’t more SEOs and content marketers jumped on the Pinterest wagon?

Good question. Pinterest may be lagging due to a perception that it is for mommy bloggers, arts-and-crafters and people who want to DIY their wedding. If you wander over to Pinterest.com, you’ll see that the majority of the content falls into those categories.

But I think Pinterest is more than that. I believe it’s a search engine.

Although the front page may be full of Mason jars, fall outfits and pictures of kittens, what’s behind the front page and the search box is a different story.

Pinterest displays a broad range of industries and is a source of content for people looking for anything from auto parts to zebra-print rugs. This product diversity attracts all kinds of folks and satisfies queries for a wide range of topics, products and niches.

As a marketing platform, Pinterest doesn’t come naturally to marketers. They are familiar with Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn for content circulation, but Pinterest is uncharted territory. Which is even more reason to get the jump on this strategy before it really takes off in the content marketing space.

How to use Pinterest as a high-volume traffic tool

The “secret” of Pinterest marketing isn’t really a secret at all, as the numbers speak for themselves. The real secret behind it is that bloggers have long been using Pinterest as a source of traffic, while it has been all but ignored by SEOs and content marketers.

If you are serious about driving relatively passive, inexpensive traffic to your sites or your clients’ sites, then this guide is for you.

We’ll dive deep into my content strategy for Pinterest success, and also how to make the most of Pinterest marketing to drive high-volume traffic on autopilot (even long after the campaign has ended).

1. Know if your niche is a good fit for Pinterest

How do you know if your website is a good fit for Pinterest marketing? Look at what’s already there.

Though Pinterest doesn’t have the data to show search volume, you can do a bit of keyword research on your own.

First, go to the Explore feature to see the most popular categories on Pinterest. If your business falls into one of these categories, it’s a safe bet that people are looking for content around that topic.

Second, type your topic into the search box and see what content is displayed. If it is in line with the content you plan to put out, this is further confirmation that sites in your niche are circulating content on Pinterest.

Finally, you will also see topic suggestions underneath the search box. These are listed in descending order so the terms on the left are the most popular topics. These terms will aid your Pinterest SEO strategy.

If all three of these steps bring up a high volume of content related to your niche, you can move forward confidently. knowing your site is in line with what users are searching for.

The key is just to get YOUR content in front of the eyes of Pinterest users before your competitors do the same.

2. Write great content & optimize for Pinterest

As with any content marketing strategy, the success of your campaign depends on the content itself.

Before you jump into Pinterest marketing, be sure that your content is engaging and set up for SEO success.

In particular, your post or page titles and meta descriptions should be SEO-friendly and eye-catching. These elements will be pulled into your Pins, so having them optimized will increase circulation and click-through rate (CTR).

After the Pin graphic, the title and description are what users will see to determine whether they are interested in your content or not — so it must be in line with what they are searching for and match what the Pin is about. Understand what really matters in SEO content so that you can set your Pins up for success.

3. Create a business Pinterest account

The next step is to create a business Pinterest account for the website you are running the campaign for. This will allow you to access analytics on your account.

Having one account per website is preferred, rather than circulating content for several clients through your own Pinterest account. Pinterest has its own algorithm as well, and circulating content from a variety of niches will dilute your strategy and result in less engagement overall.

Be sure to include a link to your website, your location (if applicable), and add an attractive profile image and cover photo to your profile while you’re at it.

4. Enable ‘Rich Pins’

You will then enable Rich Pins for your website. This is what allows Pinterest to pull in your optimized titles and meta descriptions. Setting this up is relatively easy, and Pinterest also allows for different Pin formats depending on your niche. This step is essential!

5. Optimize your Pinterest profile for SEO

Optimizing your Pinterest account is perhaps the most involved part of this process, so let’s break it down into a few simple steps here.

First, go back to the keyword research you did in step 1. Note the most popular categories and topics for your niche, and you may also want to look at competitor Pinterest accounts to see what keywords they are targeting.

If you are skilled in keyword research, those same principles apply here as well.

If you are new to keyword research, I recommend subscribing to a keyword tool such as SEMRush or Ahrefs to get started.

Second, incorporate these keywords into your profile name and description. Make it readable, and avoid keyword stuffing, just as you would with other social media profiles. (It is best to avoid an account name that is very clearly a brand or marketing account.) Rather than naming your account “Best SEO Business, Seattle,” you may want to name it “Blog Boss | Blogging Tips & SEO Hacks.”

This will have a wider appeal while being SEO-friendly.

Third, create boards related to your niche. For example, create a “best of” board for your content and then at least 10 other boards for repinning content (I’ll talk more about this later).

Each board should be named according to the topics you aim to cover.

For example, if your account is going to share content about digital marketing, you may have boards for “social media tips,” “graphic design ideas” and “marketing hacks.”

Include keywords for each topic in the title and description of each board (It is OK to add a couple of keywords to the description in this case).

Add 20 or so topic-related Pins to each board (ignoring your “best of” board for now) to fill your boards. This helps Pinterest’s algorithm see what kind of content you are interested in and will be sharing over time.

Finally, it is recommended that you set cover images for each board, similar to the way I did it on the account above. This makes your account more appealing and easier for users to determine what your content is about.

It is likely that your Pinterest SEO strategy will evolve over time as you receive more data on the success of your Pins. Rework your profile to match the queries of your target audience.

6. Create a Tailwind account

Ready to drive traffic to your site on autopilot? Tailwind is the key to making all of this a reality!

Note that I am NOT an affiliate or associated with this app in any way, but I am a huge fan because this is what brings this strategy all together!

Much like Hootsuite or Buffer, Tailwind allows you to schedule your content (ie Pins) to different boards. Unlike other apps though, it is partnered exclusively with Pinterest, so that the two work together seamlessly.

The most amazing part of this app is that it can run continuously AND optimize posting times for you. It is also where you will find “Tailwind Tribes” to share your content to groups for wider reach.

7. Design attention-grabbing Pin graphics

The graphics you create for your Pins are some of the most, if not the most, important factors when it comes to people actually repinning your content. You simply won’t get the level of engagement you want if your Pin graphics do not entice users.

Even if you fall into a “boring” niche, there are plenty of things you can do to make your graphics interesting.

For example, if your post is “The Top 30 Money Saving Travel Sites,” a good graphic could be an interesting stock photo and bright text overlay. You may even want to add your site logo and uniform resource locator (URL) at the bottom for branding.

Guidelines for Pinterest graphics

Here are some basic guidelines to help you create graphics for your content:

1. Make graphics long and vertical, preferably 735 x 1102 px.
2. Make graphics bright and eye-catching.
3. Include the title of your post or page in the graphic.
4. Keep branding/colors consistent.
5. Avoid too-obvious branding, like large logos or company name.
6. Create two or more graphics per Pin to allow for testing.

For DIYers, I recommend using Canva.com to create your graphics. It has Pin templates you can use. If you are doing this for a client, I strongly suggest hiring a graphic designer to make eye-catching and professional-looking graphics.

Oftentimes, designers will make two or three templates for you to use and edit each time you publish a new Pin. Just swap in a new image and title and you are good to go!

Note that having multiple graphics per Pin allows you to test the effectiveness of Pins over time. You will see which graphics are performing best (in your Pinterest Analytics dashboard) and can revise your templates accordingly.

Once you have created graphics for your Pins, you can add them to your content as the featured image or within the content itself.  The important thing is that, once shared, the Pin comes up with your newly created graphics.

8. Join group boards and Tailwind Tribes

By joining group boards on Pinterest and Tailwind Tribes within the app, you are expanding your reach to other accounts in your niche.

Similar to Instagram’s algorithm for showing content to users that are related to accounts they follow, group boards encourage other accounts to share your content with their audiences and the accounts that follow them.

In fact, the number of followers your account has matters far less than how many eyes you get your content in front of on a regular basis through group sharing.

There are many resources online that outline how to identify and join group boards, but my preferred site is PinGroupie or within Pinterest itself.

To find group boards on Pinterest, you will have to do some digging by looking at the boards of other accounts in your niche. If the board has multiple users associated with the board, this is likely a group board. To join, click on the board description and follow their specific instructions for joining.

You will be sharing your own content here and repinning the content of other accounts in your niche.

Joining Tailwind Tribes is a similar process; you can use the “Find a Tribe” feature to find them. You will want to find groups that appear active — that is, they are pinning and repinning daily.

Once you find a Tribe, take note of their guidelines for posting, as some of them may ask you repin a certain number of Pins per day, for example. The fewer restrictions and requirements, the better.

These group boards will come into play once you start scheduling your Pins via Tailwind.

9. Schedule your Pins (content)

Once your post or page is published, it is time to schedule it via your Tailwind app. You can do this either via Tailwinds Chrome extension or within the desktop app itself.

Tailwind will give you the option to select what boards you want to schedule your content to and when. You can add time slots, schedule multiple Pins at once and schedule Pins from other accounts.

You will want to pin your own content first to your “Best of” board, then to every board that is related to that topic, including the group boards you are in.

As a general rule, 80 percent of the content you pin should be from other accounts, and 20 percent should be your own content. I recommend scheduling at least 30 Pins for each day.

The Tailwind app will circulate your content according to the schedule you set but will also offer suggestions for optimal sharing times. The goal is to be continuously pinning your content to have it appear in front of as many users as possible

10. Keep track of your analytics

Your Pinterest Analytics dashboard will tell you how many impressions your Pins are getting, how many saves, repins, clicks, and more. Knowing the impressions data will help you see what content is performing well and will inform on your future content strategy.

If you have Google Analytics enabled on your site, you will also be able to see how much traffic the source “Pinterest” is sending to your site. This will confirm the success of your campaign.

Beyond the data, it is always beneficial to look at what your competitors are doing on Pinterest. If you see that certain kinds of content are getting a lot of repins and comments, that’s a good indication that you may want to create content that is similar. You may also get insight into their keyword strategy and what style of graphics they are using.

Summary

Pinterest is one of the most robust and affordable content marketing tools out there, though it has been all but ignored by SEOs and digital marketers alike. Bloggers have been using Pinterest for years to drive high-volume traffic to their websites and know with the help of apps like Tailwind, a content strategy can almost run on autopilot.

The key to implementing this strategy successfully is being consistent. Schedule your content regularly, stay on top of the data, and continue putting out high-quality content. Before long, I have no doubt that Pinterest will become one of your favorite content circulation tools for you and your clients.

View the article at MarketingLand Here
Thank you to Marketing Land for this article.