SEO Blog

I recently read a very interesting article from Search Engine Watch that covered a very hot new topic in digital marketing. In the last year or so, a new social media site has taken the internet by storm. In the last week of January alone, the site generated 21.5 million views. The website is currently the third most popular social networking site in the United States, according to a report from Experian.

Pinterest is the latest and greatest tool being used to connect to other people over the web. The site is a “virtual pinboard”, where users can post all of their favorite images (from recipes to area rugs) to their own personal page. Since a majority of the “pinned” photos are beloved retail products, there is huge potential for businesses to successfully integrate Pinterest into their digital marketing plans.

As the rise of social media continues, it is becoming more and more imperative for companies to establish a presence on those sites. Pinterest is much different than its other counterparts (like Twitter and Facebook) in that its users focus less upon friends, and more upon their personal interests.

Approximately 60 percent of individuals using the site are female, and 55 percent of the women on the site are between the ages of 25 and 44. With so many members of such a sought after demographic in one place, integrating Pinterest into your marketing plan can add to your bottom line.

One of the most successful ways that companies have engaged Pinterest users is by creating their own branded profiles, where they create pinboard albums containing their products and their prices. To create customer awareness of brand products, some companies have held giveaway contests.

Pinterest even makes marketing research adaptable and effective. Testing out a new ad campaign on Pinterest will provide you with quick results, likely measured by the number of “repins” received. By allowing customers to “co-pin” a board, you can gain insightful information into customer interests.

With the evolvement of social media, new doors to reaching customers have been opened. Pinterest’s stunning popularity provides an entirely new, more personal method of reaching customers. The possibilities are virtually endless.

This article was written by Sarah Schwitters, Chief Marketing Strategist at lodestar marketing group. To receive help with integrating Pinterest or other social media into your marketing strategy, contact us at digitalmarketing@lodestarmg.com

I came across this article by Jessica Swanson about generating more blog traffic.  If you take the time to write a great blog, you want to make sure people are going to read it!  Check out this article for some tips.

Imagine that you’ve taken the giant leap to start a blog to bring more brand awareness and exposure to your small business.

You’ve taken all the necessary steps to build your blog platform and now comes the day when you make your very first blog post. You spend hours crafting a post that is educational, inspirational and positions you as an expert in your field. You are as proud of this post as if it truly were your own flesh and blood. And, most of all you can’t wait to share it with the world.

So, you hit “publish” and wait for your readers to react to your nuggets of wisdom. However, the waiting is an endless ordeal.

Why aren’t you generating any comments? Why aren’t people emailing you thrilled that you have shared your expertise with them?

It’s called “lack of traffic” and if there’s no traffic to your blog, no one will ever see it.

So, how can you begin enticing readers to visit your blog? Here are twelve quick ways to generate a flow of non-stop blog traffic:

1. Create Great Content

Obviously, this goes without saying. But, your content needs to educate, entertain, inspire or offer a solution to your readers’ problems. You want to try to accomplish at least one of these tasks with every blog post.

2. Keep Your Posts Short

We are living in an age where short attention spans are the norm. Keep your posts under 500 words so that you don’t lose your ADD readers.

3. Get Your Blog Indexed in Technorati

This is the big daddy of all blog catalogs. Make sure that you go through the very simple process of submitting your blog RSS feed to Technorati.

4. Submit Your Blog Feed to Other Top Blog Catalogs

Blog catalogs and RSS feed catalogs are where readers go to find blogs to read. You want to make sure that your blog is there. To make the process even easier, you can use a service such as SubmitINMe to manually post to the catalogs for you.

5. Entice Your Readers to Subscribe to Your Blog

Offer your readers a free goodie (such as a downloadable ebook, whitepaper, audio class, etc.) if they subscribe to your blog.

6. Let Your Social Networks Know About New Posts

Whenever you post to your blog, Tweet it out to your followers, update your LinkedIn status and let your Facebook friends and fans know about it. If it’s a good post, they will pass it on to their community as well.

7. Get Involved in the Blog Community

Blogging is a social activity. Read other blogs, comment on other blogs and refer to other blogs within your own blog posts.

8. Comment Back

When your readers make comments on your blog, make sure that you comment back to them. You want to encourage a natural back and forth dialogue between you and your readers.

9. Participate in a Blog Carnival

A blog carnival is a blog event that it is dedicated to a particular topic and is published either weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of an article that contains links to other blog posts on that particular topic. Blog carnivals can be a wonderful way to produce awareness around your blog. Read the rules and regulations of the blog carnival and get involved.

10. Offer to Write a Blog Post for a High-Traffic Blog

Research various blogs within your particular industry. Read the blogs, comment on the blogs and interact with the blogger. Once you’ve established a relationship, send them an email politely letting them know that you would be willing to be a guest blogger for them at any time in the future. Include a link to your own blog so that they can check out the quality of your work.

11. Use Your Blog Posts in Your Ezine

Instead of writing a brand new article for your weekly ezine, send out the first few paragraphs of one of your past blog posts. Then include a link for the reader to continue reading the post on your blog.

12. Include Your Blog URL in Your Email Signature

Develop an email signature that you use whenever you send an email. Of course, your email signature should include a link to your blog.

Once you implement these twelve strategies, you’ll certainly notice a spike in traffic and begin generating comments and interaction from hundreds (even thousands) of readers in your particular industry.

This article was posted by Carolyn Berger, Director of Marketing and Operations at lodestar marketing group.  If you need help with your search engine marketing, please contact lodestar at sarah@lodestarmg.com.