Digging into blogging, Pinterest, podcasting and video marketing
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The first half of Week 3 of the Social Media Success Summit offered an in-depth look at two social marketing platforms that I’ve been using for some time: blogging and Pinterest. Later in the week, the focus moved to podcasting and video marketing, neither of which is in my current arsenal, resulting in a very different learning experience!
The Agenda
- How to Convert Your Blog Readers into Customers – Stan Smith
- 4 Proven Ways Your Blog Can Fund Your Business – Leslie Samuel
- How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for Maximum Exposure: Proven Tips and Tricks – Mana Ionescu
- How to Get Noticed on Pinterest – Cynthia Sanchez
- How Pinterest Became a Marketing Game-Changer for Whole Foods Market – Michael Bepko (Whole Foods Market)
- How to Use Visual Content to Get More Shares and Drive More Traffic to Your Blog – Donna Moritz
- Six Reasons Why Podcasting is the Best Investment For Building Your Platform – Cliff Ravenscraft
- Five Proven Methods to Grow Your Podcasting Audience – John Lee Dumas
- How to Build a Successful Podcast by Interviewing Others – Michael Stelzner with Pat Flynn and Lewis Howes
- How to Shoot Better Videos with Less Time, No Budget and No Help – Caleb Wojcik
- How to Use Google Hangouts on Air to Get Real Business Results – Ronnie Bincer
- How to Use YouTube Advertising: A Greatly Underutilized Opportunity – Gideon Shalwick
6 Top Tips
Once per month, write a case study for your blog to remind your readers why they need your services (or product), and promote it 20 times across your social media channels. ~ Stan Smith, co-author of Born to Blog
Find out who has pinned items directly from your blog or website to Pinterest, and reach out to them in a private message. (Please note you need to be following each other to be able to do this.) ~ Cynthia Sanchez
Use Pinterest to tell the story behind your brand, using a consistent look and feel for each campaign. ~ Michael Bepko
Take advantage of podcasts it’s easier to get noticed as a podcaster than a blogger. There are currently fewer than 500,000 audio podcasts, as compared to millions of blogs. ~ Cliff Ravenscraft
The ideal length for a YouTube video is between one and five minutes. ~ Caleb Wojcik
Google+ Hangouts on Air will work better on a wired computer than on WI-FI. ~ Ronnie Bincer
6 Free Tools for You to Try
- Easy AdSense plugin for WordPress – to generate passive income from your blog
- Readability Test Tool – to assess how easy your blog post is to read and understand
- Google Analytics – to track traffic from Pinterest so you can determine which pins are getting the most click-through and what makes them so pin-worthy
- iTunes Store, Soundboard or Stitcher – to list your podcast
One More Tool for You to Try
- Curalate – visual marketing analytics
Learn More
Pratik Mohapatra created this infographic, which is a great summary of Cynthia Sanchez’ presentation:
Here’s some #protips: How to Get Noticed on Pinterest – by @OSPInteresting #socialmedia #SMSS14 pic.twitter.com/yhzGKECY8Z
— Pratik Mohapatra (@mohapatrapratik) October 21, 2014
To get started podcasting, or just learn what would be involved, check out Cliff Ravenscraft’s Learn How to Podcast 101.
If you haven’t already, be sure to read the first two posts in this series, Social Media Strategy, Tactics and Tools and Diving into Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And come back next week for the fourth and final post covering Social Media Success Summit 2014!
Image © vetkit / depositphotos
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Sounds like you’re learning a ton with the Social Media Success Summit. Is it an online event? One of these days I’d love to attend a non-organizing conference and go to one about social media. Right now my plate is overflowing.
I like the case study idea for the blog. I’ve stayed away from those because I’m always concerned about privacy issues. I don’t want my clients or potential clients to feel like if they work with me their lives will be publicly shared. It’s a trust thing. But I get why from a marketing standpoint it’s valuable. Perhaps if I was in a different industry, I’d be more inclined to share those stories. We all love stories of hope and transformation, which is why the case studies are such a compelling idea.
Thanks for sharing all the takeaways. I can see the wheels turning.
Linda, I understand your concern about protecting your clients’ privacy, but I have seen organizing blogs with case studies where the information was presented in a non-identifying way.
Glad to see I got your wheels turning!
I see how others are “telling the story.” I do like the idea, but still not sure it’s for me.
Also appreciate the link to your content curation piece. I’ve been experimenting with a new feature called “What Are Today’s Interesting Finds?” I source out things like new books, products, facts, thoughts, resources, conferences, etc… and create a post around it. So I’m always on the look for things that spark me. When I find them, they go into my blog folder so that when it’s time for that feature, I select from the various items I’ve identified.
I love that feature, Linda. You always find interesting stuff, and it adds a “practical” element to your blog, which focuses mainly on the emotional aspects of getting organized and encourages us to think deeply about issues that might not always come to mind.