Image centric social networks are rapidly gaining market share due to their high engagement levels.

Everyone apparently loves an enticing photo.

Pinterest has become the social media network to watch after growing over 4,000% in the last 6 months. At an average of 88.3 minutes per visitor it ranks third on engagement behind Facebook and Tumblr and well ahead of LinkedIn (16 minutes) and Google Plus (5.1 minutes).

Pinterest is a social network with a simple premise: Users share photos that they find online by “pinning” them, the equivalent of “liking” a status on Facebook or giving a +1 on Google. Users have to download a toolbar that can be used to pin items from any Web site. The photo and information then appear on your Pinterest board, and users who follow you can see your collection of photos and even re-pin them if they like them. The simplicity of this system does not lend itself to obvious marketing strategies, but there are a number of ways that you can use this growing social network to promote your business:

1. Share Your Products

The most obvious way to use Pinterest for your business is to pin your own products to share with other users. There are a few ways that you can leverage this strategy for the most benefit. Since you can create several boards, it is best to group your pins into product categories for specific customers, such as items for moms, kids, artists, and others. Doing so creates a virtual product catalog of interest to these consumers or for gift ideas for these groups. You can also create a “best of” board, showing off your most popular products.

2. Add to Gifts

When you create an entry for your pins, you can add a price tag. When you select this option, you can then add a link, pointing back to your Web site. Items added in this way are automatically included in the “gifts” section on Pinterest, which is a virtual catalog of gift ideas. Be sure to select your best photos for pinning, and include an evocative description.

3. Highlight Services

Not every business sells products. Pinterest is still a useful marketing tool for these businesses. If you provide a service, you can create a kind of visual resume with Pinterest. For example, if you design Web sites, you can pin a screenshot of a home page. If you are a graphic designer, you can pin samples of your work. If you offer other services, such as consulting or writing work, you can use Pinterest to share photos that inspire or that share a message about your work. For example, financial consultants could pin to photos that represent client goals, such as financial independence or financing education. Non-profit groups can share photos of the clients they are helping.

4. Maximize SEO Efforts

When you pin your products, you have an opportunity to maximize your SEO strategy and to drive trafic back to your site. You create quality backlinks whenever you or other users link to your products. When you write descriptions, you can use your targeted keywords, which will attract your target customers and encourage them to visit your site. You can share your pins on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter, encouraging more links to your products. All of these efforts will help to drive more traffic to your site and to increase your search-engine ranking.

5. Offer Added Value

Savvy social-networking users can easily identify a profile that is designed primarily to market products and services, and they are likely to avoid these profiles. Offer other users more reasons to visit your profile by offering them added value. Pin to other products and services that will benefit them, but that also complement your own products and services. For example, if you create custom wedding gowns, you can link to other bridal accessories or to beautiful wholesale fabrics. If you are a Web designer, you can link to useful tech gadgets.

6. Offer Exclusive Content

Encourage users to interact with you on Pinterest and to visit your Web site by offering exclusive content. You can hold contests by asking users to re-pin your items for each “entry.” The more items are re-pinned, the more buzz you will build around your products and your site. You can also offer exclusive discounts or other promotions by using a QR code or other tactics.

7. Engage with Users

Pinterest is a social network, so take the time to form relationships with other users and to build a community around your brand. When you see that users have re-pinned your items, comment and thank them. Follow other users, and this will encourage them to follow you in return. Ask for customer feedback by encouraging them to re-pin their favorite products in your catalog. The more you can do to encourage customer interaction, the better relationship you will have with them.

With the number of Pinterest users growing rapidly — as much as 4,000 percent in the last six months — the site is quickly becoming a dominant player in the social-networking field. Finding ways to leverage this site to promote your business is important to your overall marketing strategy.

Source: Marketing on Pinterest

How About You

What other ways have you been able to use Pinterest to promote your business? What has worked for you?

Share your ideas in the comments!

About the Author: Bridget Sandorford is a grant researcher and writer for CulinarySchools.org. Along with her passion for whipping up recipes that incorporate “superfoods”, she recently finished research on culinary schools in Colorado and New York culinary schools.

Read More:

Search engines like Google are like racing car mechanics, constantly under the hood tweaking their complex code engines to maintain their relevancy on a web that has moved from stiff, static and slow to dynamic, social and real time.

It is said that Google makes up to 500 changes every year to its search algorithms to ensure that it delivers fast smart search results that keep people typing “Google.com” into their web browsers and continue to pay for its paid search advertising.

Companies with websites that didn’t change in years are slowly realizing that they need to have an active presence on the web by creating and publishing content that attracts customers, begs to be shared and Google will find.  These changes to an increasingly dynamic web is leading to the rise of digital agencies that can partner and guide customers through this maze of choices, change and confusion.

In this video interview I chat to Andy Jamieson about his company “Switched On Media” which has won several awards recently including ranking 9th in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and 3rd in Smart Company Fast 50 for 2010.

He talks about the “Three P’s” behind their company’s success that he and his partner Scott Ennis started only 5 years ago.

The 3 Pillars of Digital Marketing

We  look at how the rise of  social media over the last few years is transforming how companies should market themselves and we discuss the 3 core pillars of digital marketing.

1. Search
2. Social Media
3. Content

We investigate how that can be applied to marketing a business successfully where increasingly buying decisions start with an online search or from information that was shared by a friend or colleague .

Watch the video to find out the keys to a successful “Search  and Social Digital Agency” as well as some insights into what you should be doing to get found online on a  social web.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Key Topics

• The importance of optimizing your website and blog for search engines (SEO) so that your business can be found online. What is the percentage of “Organic” (earned) search results versus “Paid” search results (Google Adwords) with getting those important clicks to your website or blog
• The synergy between search and social and why it is important to be investing in both
• The fastest growing market segment in digital
• The importance of Google’s ‘New’ social +1 button for search results and why it is integral for Google’s future
• The value proposition of PPC (Pay per Click) for marketing campaigns on Google and Yahoo
• The importance of ROI (Return of Investment) for social and PPC campaigns
• The tension between traditional and digital marketing
• The role of the digital agency in educating their customer in the value proposition of the marketing strategy
• The emerging importance and role of “content marketing’ in the marketing mix
• Why sharing and engaging with content should be valued
• Why content is important for search and social
• What are the 3 P’s behind the “secret sauce” of Switched On Media’s success

Is your company stiff, static and slow or is it dynamic, social and real?

More reading

50 Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics

21 Power Tips to Get Your Blog Content Shared on Facebook and Twitter

12 Principles of Social Media Marketing

What is a Facebook “Like” Worth for Your Business

Google gets more Social and Copies Facebook’s “Like” Button

Google Becomes More Social and It’s Hurting Your Business

Image by Danard Vincente

Have you ever Googled your name or your companies brand and viewed what shows up on the first page of the search results?

Do you like what you see?

A friend of mine said that when she enters her name what she is finding is that what ranks highest in the Google search results is not positive or glowing but a critical comment that was posted by someone else on their website that is out of context and doesn’t show her in the best light.

You are pitching for some new business or applying for a new job, but don’t think that you or your company won’t be searched online prior to that meeting or that interview! I know I do and it is sometimes my first impression and we all know how important that is.

Like it or not this is not an unusual or infrequent event that only happens when all the planets align once every 100 years.

Your persona has evolved beyond the personal and purely physical and you are also now a digital and online netizen that is found by a mathematical algorithm that is served up for all to view to every corner of the globe by an unforgiving and uncaring computer server that sits quietly in the dark in a data farm in the backwoods of California.

The reality is you can unplug and try and hide but your privacy is now gone and your online assets are there for all to see.

So how can we make an impact on the all knowing and pervasive force we call “Lord Google” so that we can show ourselves in the best possible light online?

Well there is hope and to start growing your online social media assets we first need to understand the rules of the game.

1. Understand The Rules of The Game

Google has hundreds of algorithms (mathematical equations) that it uses to sort the mountains of noise and data that blasts across cyberspace every day. If you take the time to view what appears on the first page of a search you will generally find there will be the top social networking platforms in the results such as LinkedIn and YouTube and others and maybe even Twitter (displays as “Realtime Results” on Google).

Some basic rules that you need to know

• Google likes fresh up to date data over old news
• Google likes well known social media websites with lots of traffic such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Slideshare and Flickr
• Google likes Blogs because they have the promise of  fresh up to date data that continues to make Google relevant
• Google now likes “RealTime” data  and Twitter is in this frame now

Knowing these rules means that you now have the basics to start the process of displaying and presenting your online assets with some control and optimization.

Some more resources:

10 Facts Reveal The Importance Of Ranking High In Google

5 Key Factors To Rank High In Google

2. Be Proactive

Don’t allow your personal or corporate brand to be determined by some else’s post or article on a website or blog that you don’t own, go out and put your articles, videos and presentations out there and tell other people about it.

Being proactive means we are now taking advantage of the rules of the game as determined by Google and other search engines and posting continual fresh data on the major social networks and on your own online social media channels, blogs and websites.

You need to open these social media accounts as a minimum if you are serious about your online brand being an asset you are proud of

• Start a Twitter account
• Open a Facebook Account ( A page is better as it is more open to Google’s crawlers)
• Register a LinkedIn account and make it public

I would also highly recommend that you also have a blog (and post once a week), and maybe also create a channel on YouTube and make your presence felt on Slideshare and Flickr by opening an account. (by the way they are all free)

Some More Resources:

5 Tips To Build Your Personal Brand With Social Media

3. Start Sharing

Share your content, Tweet it, email it and post updates  on Facebook. Also as a minimum if you have a blog put in a Facebook “Share” button and “ReTweet” button at the top of your articles so it makes it easy and reduces the friction for others to share your great content.

Some more resources:

12 Principles Of Social Media Marketing

4. Persist

These activities will not make a change in 24 hours or even one week but as you continue to participate your digital and social online assets will slowly but surely grow and become an online brand that you are proud of.

How are your online assets looking?

Image by Punk

Online video has become mainstream, it wasn’t a decade ago.

I remember drawing up a business plan and having meetings with the major distributors of video in the late 1990′s because I had this dream of  being able to distribute video on the Web to people on demand. There was a problem, the internet was too slow and waiting for a video to download was measured in multiple hours and not minutes.  

Fast forward seven years and YouTube launches in 2005 and is sold to Google a year later for $1.65 billion. Online video is now mainstream. Since then we have seen it become available in high definition and on mobile phones as we not only have the fixed line networks delivering high speed internet but 3G mobile networks are now providing broadband to mobile devices such as the iPhone and the iPad.

The Rise And Rise Of Online Video

So with the rise of online video on demand anywhere and everywhere, progressive and smart marketers are starting to use online video to sell and market in ways that were not even imagined.

• Zappos uses 50,000 two minute online video reviews of its products to improve conversion rates of its online stores shopping basket by up to 30%.
• Gary Vaynerchuk uses a video blog to grow his personal brand and increase his family company’s wine business from  $4 million to $45 million in just 3 years. (read about it here in the article “9 Secrets Of A Successful Online Video Marketing Strategy“)

How You Can Use Online Video For Marketing

Online video can be used for marketing your brand in various ways including:

• Increase brand awareness
• Content creation
• Position the company as a thought leader
• Improves your SEO also known as “search engine optimization” (move you up the rankings of a Google search and maybe even get you on page one where 90% of all clicks to search results happen)
• Improve views to press releases by 500%
• Improve call to action responses for event registration, whitepaper download, webinar sign up and product service/trial

The Challenge

The challenge though is that making online videos that produce positive marketing results and look professional and don’t diminish your brand can be time consuming and the learning process can be lengthy. It is a whole new  skill set that needs to be learnt and optimized.

There are companies though that take your hand and provide you with the tools and the expertise online that make it easy for the “lazy” marketer to self create online professional videos that significantly improve conversion rates for emails, websites and sales campaigns.

The Lazy Video Marketers Solution

One such company is Visible Gains that provides you with a software platform and resources that that make it easy for you to make your own online marketing videos. Here is a short 2 minute video interview with Visible Gains CEO, Cliff Pollan that outlines what they can provide for the video marketer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what does Visible Gains provide you?

1. Video editing software that creates the professional videos in segments that can be interchanged for different target audiences
2. Non linear navigation that reacts to user input
3. Clickable elements on and around the video that allow the user to download supporting content and connect to company individuals
4. Online Tutorials
5. Analytics and Reporting that shows the video opt-in rate, engagement profile and  conversion rates

So if you want to accelerate your  online video marketing program it is maybe worth checking out Visible Gains and by the way they also provide a free trial.

I look forward to hearing about your online video success stories.

Here are some more resources:

• How Zappos Plans To Use 50,000 Online Videos
• How To Create And Promote Your YouTube Video In 8 Simple Steps
• How To Video Blog Your Way To Success
• What Is The Secret  Of Success For YouTube Stars
• Who Are The Top 5 YouTube Stars?
• 32 Lessons For Online Video Social Media Marketing Success
• 9 Secrets Of A Successful Online Video Social Media Marketing Strategy

Image by blentley

I heard a really scary story the other day. One year ago a company placed an order for a Yellow Pages print advertisement for a fee of $90,000 for the year after being persuaded by the account manager to place the order for the ad. The marketing managers comment to Yellow Pages was that he would keep count of the number of leads that it would produce and 12 months later the results are in and the grand total was “two leads”.

That equates to $45,000 cost per lead!!

Now I don’t know about you but that acquisition cost per lead is a touch expensive and I would love to know what the effectiveness of $90,000 spent on the following would yield in leads and sales.

• Search engine optimization program that would ensure key words and phrases that are used for finding a company appear on page one of Google. (Nearly 90% of all clicks through to a website are a result of a website being on the first page of a search engine results page)
• Google adwords campaign that places paid banner ads driving traffic to a companies website or special offer landing page derived from keyword searches on Google that appear in the right and top areas of a Google search result page.
• Facebook targeted banner ads that are demographically and highly targeted and funnel traffic to the website for capturing leads and enquiries
• A full time content creation position who creates and promotes the company’s thought leadership with blogs and online videos that educates and promotes the companies brand 24/7.

I also wonder – “does he still have a job?”

This story displays the challengers marketers face to educate and inspire leaders and CEO’s of organisations to take them from the wilderness of analog traditional marketing to the promised land of an increasingly digital savvy audience and the leverage of the social web.

So here are some of my ramblings and resources that you may find useful on educating and evangelizing to baby boomer CEO’s and senior management who struggle with the generational shift to a digital world.

1. 5 Creative Ways CEO’s Use Twitter - This article looks at some of the ways CEO’s use Twitter including “Following the Alpha Geeks”
2. Social Media and The CEO – Video Interview With Greg Savage CEO of Aquent – Greg kindly spared his time to chat with me about his companies experience with social media marketing and thought leadership on a personal and corporate level. (by the way through a corporate restructure he now heads up Fire Brand Talent globally)
3. 7 Ways To Get The CEO Crazy For Social Media Marketing – Some observations and suggestions form some of my readers
4. 10 Simple Questions To Assess Your CEO’s Marketing IQ – A list of questions that assess the digital literacy and readiness of an organisation
5. 12 Key Findings On Social Media’s Impact on Business and Decision Making By CEO’s and Managers –  Including “Younger respondents are more likely to read a company blog and to query the Twitter channel vs. older demographics”
6. How CEO’s and Executives Socialize Their Brands – A look at the role of CEO’s and how they are changing some organisations including Zappos and E.L.F.
7. 40 Reasons Why The CEO Still Uses The Yellow Pages And Not Social Media – A fun post with some serious insights
8. New Harvard Study: 30 Key Findings on How The CEO Engages With Social Media – Including evidnece showing that professional decision-making is becoming more social,  traditional influence cycles are being disrupted by Social Media as decision makers utilize social networks to inform and validate decisions.
9. 14 Ways A CEO Can Benefit From Social Media: A True Story- An insight into a global brand management firm STC Associates by the CEO, Sophie Ann Terrisse
10. 6 Questions To Ask The CEO When He Says Social Media Won’t Work For His Company – Questions to ask the the CEO to provide context and relevance to the chasm between personal use of the digital world and how it is not often applied to a corporation.
11. 9 Ways To Convince The CEO To Use Social Media and Enter The 21st Century – Some simple tactics to employ to educate and exhibit to the CEO the fast emerging digital universe.
12. 28 Reasons Why The CEO Is Afraid Of Social Media – A fun post listing the basic fears that senior management and CEO’s have with new and emerging technologies

So what is your CEO experience?

Image by Walking Geek

In the past marketing was easy. You advertised in the yellow pages, you sent letters and catalogs using direct mail, cold called and you placed ads in trade magazines and local newspapers.

If you were a larger company you used television, radio and national newspapers. It was known, comfortable and expensive.

The arrival of an increasingly digital economy and new media is chipping away at the familiar and known and replacing it with marketing platforms, channels and tactics that didn’t exist 5 or 10 years ago that companies and marketers are still trying to get their heads around.

The ageing “baby boomer” CEO’s and senior management are afraid to embrace it because it is new and scary.

The “Scary” New Media

We now have Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, email and search engine marketing and they all reach out to different demographics and markets. Musicians trying to get a break and get a record or DVD deal in the past had to engage an agent to help to secure a record deal with a music label. They then waited and prayed that the agent and the record company would work on their behalf. Their future was in some else’s  hands.  Today they are going direct to the market themselves without those intermediaries in between them and their audience making their own YouTube video and going to straight to the market themselves. This web trend is called “Dis-Intermediation”

A Musician’s Case Study

An example of this trend is Kate Leahy who with a budget of $20 and with some creativity and hard work made a YouTube video from her bedroom in outback Australia and marketed herself to the world (without an agent or a record label) and ended up touring Europe for 4 months and performing at shows across 4 countries only 3 months after producing her video “The Life Raft“. Kate made a stop-motion video using over 900 compiled photos that  took her an entire month to produce but it was done on time and she didn’t go over her budget but she had control and she was able to do it herself.  If you are passionate and committed you can achieve amazing things.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Insightful and Revealing Cost Saving Comment

The cost of lead acquisition is also another reason to use the new digital media for marketing as it reduces the cost of those sales leads. A recent comment on the article “The World Is Hanging Up” by the Johan the marketing manager for the telecommunications company Telefonix.co.uk in the UK revealed that after tracking and counting the cost of acquiring sales leads that Web and Organic new media marketing was the most cost effective lead generator.

• Exhibitions cost per lead  - 1,500 pounds
• Telemarketing cost per lead – 900 pounds
• Pay Per Click cost per lead – 150 pounds
• Web/Organic cost per lead – 30 pounds

The Survey Results

So where is the smart money being spent by the top companies to make the best use of their marketing budget? StrongMail have released the results of a survey of 925 marketing and business leaders showing that the top 4 investments companies are making in marketing are

1. Email marketing is the top area of investment growth (65%)
2. Social Media (57%)
3. Search (SEO & PPC) at 41%.
4. Mobile comes in at 4th at 35% and you will continue to see mobile marketing continuing to grow strongly in the future as smartphones and high speed wireless networks and apps continue to grow strongly.

So this is where the smart money is going. Where are you spending your marketing dollars?

Image by Truthout.org

We are seeing the social web continue to evolve as the access and interface to the internet moves from geeky, private and desk bound to intuitive, social and mobile.

Facebook’s web traffic has now surpassed Google, the Apple iPad provided a mobile computer that is always on and easy to use and Apple iPhone apps have started to become ubiquitous and even available for online shopping on the go while you commute to work. Tradesmen are even taking iPads onto work sites to source information and products rather than wait till they get home. People want “Lord Internet” on the job and on the go, they want it now in real time.

What are some of the major trends in social media and technology that will be felt with more impact through 2011 and beyond that you need to be aware of so that you can take your life and business to the next level and not become an extinct species that is struggling for relevance and survival.

1. Mobile

Mobile phones were something that you used for making a phone call and sending an SMS…. that was it but no longer! The smart phones have now become the web in you hand. This has emerged in just the last 3 years with the introduction of the Apple iPhone leading the charge with a design that took technology from the geeks by designing interfaces that are natural  and intuitive with a usable interface that put technology power in the hands of the masses. The high speed mobile and wireless networks have also evolved to provide the backbone to distribute the data including video and images. It is transforming industries such as music, book publishing, online shopping and newspapers. Mobile makes it even easier to share with your friends with Facebook and Twitter apps at your fingertips.

Actions to take advantage of this trend

• Develop an iPhone app for your business that makes your customers lives easier and provides information quickly and easily. Domino’s developed an iPhone app that made it easy for it’s customers to order resulting in $2 million in sales in just 3 months.
• Start planning now to create a iPad app that provides interactive and rich interactive content that is compelling and addictive so your customers keep coming back. iPad apps will move on from being just fun to a serious productivity platform.
• Develop an iPhone app for your online store to make it easy for customers to buy on the go with a few easy clicks.

2. Social Media Integration

Integration of the social web into everything we do online is continuing to develop and mature. The silos of private and public data that were hidden from view are now being made public and shared instantly and seamlessly in real time. Websites and blogs are including Facebook share and Twitter retweet buttons. Comments are now being accepted as normal and vital for feedback and crowd sourcing of ideas and problem solving. YouTube videos are being embedded in websites providing both instruction and education as well as entertainment. In essence you need to be constantly thinking about how you can continue to integrate your social media channels into your website.

Actions to take advantage of this trend

• Create a blog for your website
• Add Facebook and Twitter share buttons for content areas of your website and blog
• Set up a video channel on YouTube and think of creative ways you can use video for educating, entertaining and instructing your customers and emed these videos in your website and blog.
• Integrate social features and functions into your online store

3. Social Web Democracy

Digital trust, democracy and comfort have been created by social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. People that were previously afraid of technology are now using it with confident assurance and competence. The technology is easy to use and quick to setup. The aging baby boomers are now Facebook fiends that are adopting technology with glee. This  is moving the power into the hands of the individual not the faceless corporation or the nanny state government bureaucracy. The tools now exist for your business or personal brand to not rely on third parties to disseminate and distribute information. The tools, technology and power are available today.

Actions to take advantage of this trend

• Create a personal brand that provides you with power over your career and business instead of allowing PR, marketing and recruitment agencies to be your only owner of your brand. This doesn’t mean stop using them it means that you need to start the journey where you can talk and communicate directly with your clients instead of through a third party.
• Start advertising on Facebook with a banner ad that targets your customer demographic and locations. You don’t need to ring a magazine or an Ad agency you can take control of this yourself
• Start taking control of your own marketing by creating content that is compelling for your customers and start engaging customers with your website and blog.

4. Location

The mobile revolution with its permission based “opt in” location technology is providing businesses with new tools that can provide real time marketing offers and vouchers that will deliver offers to consumers. Foursquare led this and Layar is adding an augmented reality dimension to this landscape but don’t forget Facebook’s “Places” feature as they have the data and the market already in place.

Action to take advantage of this trend

• Start playing with Foursqare, Layar and Facebook “Places” and start thinking about how you could use this for your business

5. Google’s Social Search

You may not have noticed it but Google is continuing to ensure it is relevant in a social web world as it it continues to refine its search capability. You can now search on  Google for Twitter updates including live and archived tweets as well as search blogs and videos. Twitter updates are even appearing in mainstream search along with videos.

Actions to take advantage of this trend

• Create social media accounts on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter that will appear on Google search
• Actively use the accounts so that Google will start ranking your social media channels in its search engine

So how can you use these trends to your advantage and how are you currently involved?

Blogging can be fun if you are passionate about your subject but it can be frustrating if the analytics show that you have no traffic to your blog or website. That means that no-one is reading your insights and is appreciating your writing. It is a little lonely. It is like writing a book and it is just sitting on the bookshelves.

So what are you doing wrong?

Here are 10 possible reasons you are not getting traffic to your blog.

1.  You have just started

This is where patience and persistence come in. You will not have thousands of people  turning up the next day to read your blog if you have only just started blogging. It is a journey of many steps and this where your character will be tested as you build traffic one step at a time one blog at a time.

2. Your headlines suck

If you write a headline that doesn’t meet  some of the basic principles of headline writing that gets readers past your title on Twitter and reading the link that is attached then you need to learn the basics of headline writing. This post may get you going in the right direction “How To Write a Mind Blowing Headline For Twitter So People Will Read Your Blog”

3. You are not posting frequently enough

Do you just write an article when the mood suits you?  If you want people to become regular readers of your blog then you need to be consistent. Have you noticed that Magazines come out every week or every month. Newspapers come out every day, hail, snow or shine. Post regularly and consistently and you will build a loyal readership.

4. You have poor search engine optimization

Google will send readers your way if you have optimized your blog for search engines You need to learn the importance of the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This post may help “5 Key Factors To Rank High On Google”

5. You have very few Twitter followers

Twitter is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your blog or website. If you have a lot of Twitter followers then you can send out the Post headline on twitter to your loyal tribe and tease and tempt them with a great headline that makes them click on your link to your post. For more on this check out “How To Get 46,000 Twitter Followers” and “How to Get Targeted Twitter Followers”

6. You have poor content

You are writing posts that people are finding boring or irrelevant.  It is not hard to change that if you are listening to your audience and helping solve their problems and maybe even entertaining them

Here is a post that may help “30 Inspiring Ideas To Develop Content For Your Blog”

7. You are not focused

If you are writing for everyone and posting stories that are about everything you need to get focused. Write articles that are specifically about one industry, topic or niche. Know your market and stick to it. Don’t go off topic.

8. You are not distributing your content to other social media platforms

One of the strengths of social media is its power and leverage to get your content out to other platforms and channels where your audience is hanging out. So put your videos on YouTube, post your articles to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and don’t forget others like Technorati and Digg. Use you blog as a homebase and distribute  and leverage your content to your social media outposts. Go to where your potential audience is. Facebook has over 600 million users, now that is an audience.

9. You are not engaging with others

Comment on other peoples blogs go out an interview top bloggers or successful people either online or in person. Ask to be a guest blogger. Take advantage of the other people’s networks.

10. You believe in  miracles

There are no miracles it requires constant learning and focus. Go and read about other top bloggers and they will give you the information you need to to know to be the best you can possibly be.

The challenge for any blogger personal or corporate is to continually come up with content that brings the readers and viewers back to the blog. The corporate blog should not be about “selling” it is about educating and solving your customers problems. Do that and they will keep showing up to learn more and to find out how they solve those day to day challenges that life and business brings.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that content is not just text, it is any type of media and includes images, video and audio and all types of reincarnations of those such as PDF’s, eBooks, Powerpoint presentations and these can all be published onto social media platforms, such as YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare to name a few. You need to think like a publisher!

So how do you find the inspiration to develop and publish content for your blog. Here are 30 ideas to get you moving.

Blogging whether it is for your personal passion or for the corporate blog is quite often a journey that has its highs and lows. Sometimes we need to find that inspiration to write that next post or optimize the blog so that maybe one day you will be able to monetize your expertise and content and retire to the Bahamas.

This post started with an article earlier this year on “30 Tips To Make Your Companies Blog Rock” and I had quite a few comments by readers and so added more tips on more keys to making a blog successful. I then added to that post with some ideas from readers and more of my own with a post titled “50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog“. This was further enhanced and grew to a blog post “69 Secret Tips To Make Your Blog Rock”

In short and not to labor the point any further here is an even bigger list that may inspire you in your blogging journey.

90 Tips To Make Your Blog Rock

1. Write about industry News – whats happening this week, this month

2. Read and develop content on industry Trends – where is the industry going, what are the emerging hot segments

3. Find out about your customers Pain Points – Write posts that provide solutions for your customers problems

4. Write about customers successes – Write up a case study about a clients successful project, they will often let you publish their name

5. Publish content on what not to do! – highlighting where something hasn’t worked (the names shall remain anonymous of course)

6. Create a video blog post by interviewing a successful client – this can a powerful providing authentic evidence of authority and credibility for both you and the client

7. Write articles for the different types of customers that are relevant for each of  your vertical markets

8. Brainstorm blog post topics with colleagues and management and create a list for future reference and planning

9. Subscribe to the top industry blogs in your market, both company blogs and personal blogs for ideas

10. Look through your latest news releases for ideas

11. Sign up other staff to write on topics in your industry or market that they are passionate about

12. Develop a series of how to blog posts

13. Turn the “how to” blog posts into short videos

14. When you have a great idea, go straight to your “add new” button and write the headline and save it as a draft or write it down before you forget it.

15. Include a great iconic image at the start of the blog that catches the eye

16. Case Studies are always popular to write about and not just your own

17. Place Powerpoint presentations on your blog by posting  and then embedding links from Slideshare

18.  Run polls and surveys on your blog

19. Create great headlines that catch people attention and makes them want to read the rest of the article

20. Add credbility banners such as how many subscribers, number of hits, blog grade and any awards

21. Provide “share this” buttons to Facebook and Twitter as a minimum

22. Implement “subscribe” buttons via RSS and Email

23. Write in bite size chunks and use bullet points so readers can quickly and easy consumption

24. Break up large blocks of text with iconic and interesting images

25. Take screen shots to place in your post using Software like Snagit to highlight points .. a picture is worth a 1000 words

26. Be yourself even if it is a company blog.. be authentic.

27. Optimize your blog for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

28. Promote and distribute your posts on to other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

29. Make the blog easy to find on your company’s web page with a large bannner or button

30. Have fun, mix up the types of posts and add some humour occasionally.

(Gini Dietrich from Spinsucks.com contributed to the list with the following eleven additional tips)

31. Ask your readers what they want you to write about

32. Let your readers pimp their own blogs in your comments section (we’re going to do this on Thursday of this week)

33. Ask questions

34. Create contests (which goes along with your poll/survey idea)

35. Install the SEO All In One pack on your WordPress blog

36. Use StumbleUpon to increase your readership

37. Create content for “Associated Content” by republishing your blog posts there (it helps with readership and news outlets will republish your content on their sites)

38.Comment on other blogs and news articles to show your thinking/expertise, but also link people back to your blog

39. Make sure, when you use Twitter to promote your blog post, that you’re tweeting about it more than once a day

40. Subscribe to SmartBrief newsletters, RSS feeds, and Google alerts in order to find ideas for new content (that’s how I found this blog!)

41. Post and link your content on the Delicious social bookmarking site. (This will again help spread your content by placing it on a highly trafficked site)

42. Try your hat at a guest blogger or two, this could add credibility to your site , especially if the person is influential in his or her space. Courtney Wiley of  iNgage Networks also made this suggestion

43.In the meta tags for your photos, make sure the labels/words are what you want them to be – search engines can’t “read” photos, only the labels/meta tags. Dave Heinrich from WebTechUniverse.com also contributed with this tip which is vital and I do this with every image in my posts

44. When people write a comment actually take the time to email them directly and thank them for the comment and if they ask a question, then answer it. You will find that this will create a WOW factor and spread the word about the blog. If you took 10-15 minutes a day to respond to 5 comments via email you would make great impact on over 1,500 people during a year who would each spread the word to potentially 1000′s more. This could be the making of a tribe!

45. Comment appropriately on the top blogs ranked by Google on the major key word or phrase you are trying to optimize for SEO. This will create a a link back to your site and linking is key to increasing your own rankings with search engines

46. Write a blog post listing some important bloggers in your industry (such as the top 5) and point out how they make their blogs successful and you might find they return the love!

47 Interlink to other posts in your blog when writing a post especially those that are relevant and have been successful (this again is great for SEO)

48. Outsource content development for sections of your blog that are appropriate such as ‘resource’ sections.

49. Update an original post that provides more value to your readers (this post is an example)

50. Take readers comments and include and promote them in your blog  (like we have just done)

51. Take a selection of your best blog posts and make an ebook out of it. Then distribute the ebook on the Amazon Kindle Store and Apple iBookStore. This will find you new readers for your blog. And you can monetize it in a whole new way by charging a dollar or two for your ebook. (Thanks to Vikram Narayam )

52. Collaborate with other Twitter users within your niche to promote each others content

53. Make sure that everyone within your company has their own Twitter account and promotes the blog and company social media accounts on that account

54. When speaking or presenting, record it on video and upload it to company YouTube channel. It will be a constant resource for clients as well as adding to your websites SEO.

55.  Make excerpts of  key points on the video and turn them into short blog posts.

56. On your YouTube channel make sure you have optimized the video for search engines through tags, key phrase in the description as well as the link to your blog in the  description section.

57. The SlideShare account where you have uploaded your PowerPoint presentation should also be optimized for search with your blog or website URL in your public profile

58. The Slideshare account should also have your top keywords and phrases in the  ”Public Profile” about section so that search is optimized.

59. Keep most blogs short with no more than 400-500 words as most people don’t have much time and will be only spending a minute or two on your blog (average time on this site according to Google Analytics is 1 minute and 39 seconds)

60. If embedding a video in the post again brevity rules with the rule of thumb now at a 1-2 minute video

61.  Take each post and post it on the New Digg (20 million visitors a month), it is quick and easy to do and will take you only a minute or two (it involves copying the URL and pasting it to Digg, add the headline and choose the section then hit

62. Take the results of your polls or survey and turn them into a blog post. A lot of people want know the results as over time the blog post is buried in the archives

63. Use a twitter app such as SocialOomph.com (Professional edition) to schedule tweets your posts on a regular basis. Another software application you can use is MarketMesuite.com which allows you to personally brand your scheduled tweets.

64. Collaborate and communicate with other successful bloggers in your niche especially those that enhance and add to your skill set (they will encourage and support you)

65. Implement an email acquisition strategy that includes a pop over form that hovers over the screen for first time visitors (offer free eBook or video tutorial as an incentive and a gift for people giving you their name and email address) . One platform that provides this is Aweber.

66. Another email subscriber tactic includes a suggestion to refer a friend to join the email list

67. Place a video on your Facebook fan page inviting visitors to subscribe.

68. Link to your blog on your Facebook fan page

69. On your email subscriber form don’t ask people for their life history keep it short and only ask for name and email address

70. On LinkedIn  Make sure your Profile is public with Your Blog, Website and Facebook pages entered in your Settings (Profile Section) where you are allowed 3 website URLs

71. On LinkedIn make sure you have blog widget loaded (this is at the bottom of your LinkedIn Home page by clicking on the +Add an Application Button) this will then display your blog and the 3 latest posts in a window on your home page for all visitors to your profile

72. Add the Twitter feeds application using the Tweets add on in the same section this will promote your blog posts when you tweet them

73. Promote your Slideshare presentations on LinkedIn using the Slideshare Presentations again in the +Add an Application button (remember your optimized Slideshare account will have your blog URL which will drivetraffic to your blog)

74. Get the latest information and ideas by creating alerts using Google Alerts on your favourite topics. For me that might be something like “Social Media Case Studies” so that any new content on the Web that fits that phrase will be fed to you by Google, either as it happens or daily. (Suggestion maybe create a separate dedicated email account eg alert@jeffbullas.com so that it doesn’t overwhelm your personal or business account

75. Hire a copy writer to hone your content for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that your key words and phrases that are important when potential readers and clients go looking online find “you” and not your competitor on Google’s search engine results page

76. Video interview successful people in your industry and then make it easy for them to share the interview with their network (this will surprise you as to how powerful this is in leveraging and spreading your content)

77. Run Ads in the sidebar such as  Deck ads.  ( you can make a few thousand a month off  ”The Deck” ads.if the traffic volumes are significant)

78. Bundle up the best blog posts about about your niche and turn it into a PDF book. You could sell the PDF for lets say $19. (37signals who took its own experiences as a web startup and published them on their corporate blog and monetized that over 2 years into a $750,000  revenue stream by publishing and then repackaging it)

79. Take the PDF and turn it into a paperback at a print on demand publisher Lulu.com. You can sell the paperback for $25 and they make a few more thousand a month on royalties. (37 signals book “Getting Real” was published from the PDF source material  and the paperback is currently ranked the 2nd best seller on Lulu)

80.Take the content from the book and produce a conference series. You could hold a few conferences a year and make about $50,000 per conference. (37signals has produced about 5 of these conferences) So if you add this all up:

• $100,000 on The Deck ads
• $350,000 on the “Getting Real” PDF
• $65,000 on the “Getting Real” paperback
• $250,000 on the “Getting Real” conferences (before that they were called Building of Basecamp).

Total $765,000 over a few years off the same content repackaged in a variety of ways.

This content was simply about insight and ideas about how they run their business.

So there it is, over $750,000 from Blog entries, PDF, paperback, and conferences.

How could you adapt this model to your industry?

81. Take the content, expertise and network contacts that you have developed from your blog and produce a Webinar. Social Media Examiner have done this successfully twice and  have registered up to 2,000 people online and made over $900,000

82. Mount a video camera in your car if you are in an industry that involves getting out and about such as real estate and make a video blog while you are “on the job” (but not driving of course). Ian Watt from Vancouver does this and creates short video blog posts talking about the industry he is obviously passionate about.

83. Turn your blog content into an online course and publish it and sell it using applications such as wiziq.com, odijoo.com, litmos.com

84. Offer a premium paid newsletter for a low cost of $1.99. An example here is that a restaurant could offer a monthly newsletter with recipes for seasonal foods or a Gym could offer a weekly newsletter with keeping fit and staying healthy.

85. Use Alltop to promote your content.

86. Put a big button on your blog that invites and makes it easier for people to do “business” with you such as investing in your blog or collaborating in joint ventures..

87. Join as many Facebook active Facebook fan pages or groups relating to your blog topic as possible

88. Monitor your brand with Google Alerts or Tweetdeck so that you can thank people that publish your content and protect your brand from misconceptions.

89. Offer consulting services in your area of expertise that are highlighted and prominent on your blog.

90. Finally don’t give up “Persist” and your blogging journey may surprise you!

Image by Belfegore