Content marketing is part art with a touch of science.

Creating great content requires a word smith or a creative video producer. The better this foundation is, the more attractive the content is to the viewer and increasing its chances for sharing on the web.

That’s the art part.
So we all know that high quality content and social media sharing and engagement are the driving force behind traffic and conversions. Yet most people don’t have a clear strategy for tracking and analysing performance.
This is the simple science.

Most of us periodically check our Google Analytics to find the number of visitors, or referrals from Google or Facebook, but few know how to use other data available in analytics to maximize their social media and content marketing strategies.

Do you know how to use Google Analytics data to come up with ideas for new articles? Or how Pinterest analytics can help you learn more about your buyer personas, thus helping you shape your message?

In this article I will discuss 6 simple ways to use analytics data to assist with your content marketing strategy.

1. Using long-tail keywords for keyword research

Keyword research is an easy way to brainstorm content. While you might optimize your site architecture with your primary keywords, you also probably know that these should be used sparingly in order to avoid picking up red flags by Penguin.

However, the long-tail keywords you find during your keyword research can still be incorporated into your content. Keyword buckets and competitive research should yield hundreds of potential keywords that can be used as inspiration for content.

If the content is going onto your site, use keywords as the base for article titles and organize them to create a flow for an editorial calendar. High-value keywords can be interspersed with diverse and low-competition keywords, all of which will benefit your site, while allowing you generate large amounts of content and keep to a regular posting schedule.

Start by going to Google Analytics, and pulling a Search report by keyword (Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Overview). Change the number of keywords displayed to 100. Then take those keywords and use them to run a ranking report. Identify keywords that have brought you traffic but you are not ranking in the top 5. Then use those keywords as part of your content marketing efforts.

2. Creating personas 

When publishing content you should always have a target audience in mind, but within that audience you can develop buyer personas that will help you understand who you are writing for and what their interests will be. You want to consider which stage of the purchase funnel they belong to as well as what questions they may want answered.

As you move along your publishing schedule, you will begin to see which personas respond to your content. Perhaps those in your top-of-the-funnel persona comment most on general advice articles, while those toward the bottom of the funnel are more likely to share your latest company updates on social media. You want to be aware of what they are responding to and react accordingly.

You can track social shares with a tool like TrackUr, or of course, Google Analytics.

3. Studying pinterest

When it comes to content marketing, Pinterest is a valuable social media platform. Pinterest is based solely on unique, shareable content, which makes it the perfect pool for brainstorming and testing out ideas.

Determine what category your content falls under and at a quick glance you can see what types of content are trending and getting the most repins. Look at sites like Repinly which tracks the most popular pins and boards on Pinterest to get ideas of what content will perform well on Pinterest, and what you should be pinning to gain your own Pinterest following.

Once you’ve begun pinning you can delve into analytics data with tools like PinLeague, which I use to look at the statistics of images that Iíve pinned as well as what images have been pinned from my website. You can see what images and pins are getting shared and by whom, which can give you insight into your audience demographics and help further develop your buyer personas.

4. Benchmarking real-time data

Benchmarking is also extremely important to keeping on top of your content marketing efforts. These tools can help you grasp the popularity of your content and what direction it should take by providing a range of metrics.

Cyfe is the benchmarking dashboard Iíve found most useful as it allows me to track a variety of metrics on multiple social platforms, and displays that information all in one place for quick, real-time analysis of social followers, visitors, leads and customers.

Comparing this data to a site-specific tool like Pinleague will allow you to better understand what content your audience is responding to, and the better you understand your audience, the sooner you will be able to produce content that is valuable and relevant to that audience.

Cyfe is a tool that i refer to on a daily basis. It allows me to, at a glance, see how all of my sites and clients are performing. I can see traffic trends, social shares, and much more. From this view, I can then investigate if I see a major spike or decrease of traffic. For example, if there ís a spike in traffic and social shares, I will then go to Google Analytics and find the landing page that generated this traffic and social shares. Then, based on the content, I wíll write more content specific to this topic.

5. Sharing site-specific content

Now that you have an understand of exactly what content your audience wants, you can begin to create strategies specific to each site you intend to share it on.

Pinleague will give you an idea of what content is most shareable on Pinterest. If, for example, a company that sells study guides posts an infographic on the college acceptance rates, and gets 10 unique pins and 500 repins, then any future content they develop on college statistics should be accompanied by strong graphics so that it can be easily integrated into Pinterest.

At the same time, fans of their Facebook page might prefer study guide updates or the latest discounts, which reveals that Facebook might be the best site for attracting traffic and conversions. By paying attention to analytics data you can convert them from followers to potential clients to sales.

6. Repurpose content 

Now that you are tracking and investigating the success of your content, you have access to a wealth of data about the performance of your content. Let’s say that one of your infographics gets tons of repins. Why not convert this infographic into a video? Or write an article based on the content for the infographic, or vice versa?

Repurposing content, especially content that you already know is successful and your audience really likes, is an excellent way to increase your reach without taking much of a gamble. Youíd be maximizing your resources to create more opportunities for conversions.

How to get started

So I have given you the theory, now let’s get to practicalities:

1. Set a weekly task for yourself to visit your Google Analytics account and check the performance of your content based on Landing Pages and Keywords. Check out bounce rate, engagement, conversion rate, etc for these so you can determine how your content is performing.
2. Set up a ranking tool. If you donít already have keyword tracking in place, go to AuthorityLabs and create an account. Enter your most popular keywords, as well as keywords that are bringing you the most traffic from Google. Plan on creating more content around keywords that are bringing in traffic but not ranking in the top 5.
3. Set up social media analytics software†to track your social shares and in-depth statistics for Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest. Cyfe is also a great dashboard to set up as an overview.
4. Use the data from all the sources mentioned above to modify your editorial calendar and content marketing strategy.

How do you use Analytics for content marketing? What has helped you maximize the efforts of your content marketing strategy? Don’t be shy….share!

Until now, Pinterest, the world's third-largest social network, has been lacking one big thing: analytics. Users could rack up followers and repins of their content, but there was no way for business owners to find out what had been pinned from their sites, or, in the other direction, how many people were coming to their sites from Pinterest.

But today the company announced that it has introduced an analytics dashboard to help website owners -- whether they're running a small business or a big brand -- gauge the popularity of their content.


The analytics will show how many people have pinned content from your site and how many users have seen those pins. It will also track visitor traffic from Pinterest, and you'll be able to see recent pins and your most repinned content of all time, so that you can get a sense both of what is currently trending and of what is most popular overall.

"We think that these tools will help website owners understand what's working for them and what’s not so that they can create even better pins in the future," writes Tao Tao, a Pinterest software engineer, in a company blog post.

To start using the analytics yourself, first get your website verified by Pinterest and then simply access the Analytics tab on the top-right menu. You can even download your analytics to study offline.

News of the analytics dashboard comes only weeks after Pinterest closed a $200 million funding round that valued the social bookmarking site at $2.5 billion. With Pinterest experiencing explosive growth, brands are taking a greater interest in it than ever before.

As of February 1st, 69 of the world's top 100 brands, as measured by consulting firm Interbrand, had Pinterest accounts. Large retailers are especially eager to capitalize on Pinterest's majority-female user base. Pinterest shoppers spend $169 on average per session, according to RichRelevance, an ecommerce consultancy. Nordstrom, one of the most popular brands, has nearly 4.3 million Pinterest followers, and L.L.Bean has 5.7 million.



































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Even with the huge emphasis placed on permission marketing lately, so many marketers still fail to understand that consumers don’t like to be yelled at.

The paradigm of interruption marketing went out the window long ago and, if you’re not careful, you’ll be going out the window with it.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling cars, advertising a laundromat, or trying to bring readers to your blog — if your social media strategy is to push, push, yell, and push, you’re not going anywhere.

There are five unfortunately popular examples below describing the annoying pushing and yelling that still plagues social media. Are you using any of these tactics?

#1. Automated Direct Messages on Twitter

When someone follows you on Twitter, there isn’t an implicit agreement saying it’s okay to send them a direct message. Twitter isn’t an email list, it’s a conversation. It’s a conversation centered around the concept of giving before receiving. So, that automated DM requesting a LIKE on your Facebook page when you’ve done literally nothing valuable for that new follower is a bit greedy to say the least.

Sending an automated DM to every new person who follows you is bad Twitter etiquette and it’s plainly hypocritical when your Twitter bio brags about how your mantra for social media success is “engagement.”

There’s nothing genuinely engaging about an automated DM you send to every new follower. Don’t kid yourself: It’s beyond easy to spot them too — automated DMs read like an advertisement, have generic messages, and usually aren’t personalized. People catch on with ease. That’s no way to start a relationship with a new follower.

#2. Sending Posts Directly to People on Google+

I’m not sure why every feature on a new social network needs to be abused. As they say, “marketers ruin everything.” That’s a pretty dismal notion, but as a fellow marketer, I have to say we need to be very careful how we use the tools placed in front of us.

Simply because we have an opportunity to push our message to a wider audience doesn’t necessarily mean we always should.

Since Google+ has been growing in popularity, I’ve seen an increase in the number of people using the feature that allows you to share posts directly with people — this sends both a Google+ notification and an email to the receiver.

It’s not a big problem to use this feature occasionally, especially if you’re very selective with who you’re sending the post, but it has the potential to quickly spiral out of control. If you just had a major breakthrough and got published on Forbes or another big name blog, that’s awesome and you should let people know. On the flip side, you don’t need to directly notify people about every new post you publish. This will quickly get your account flagged as spam from a lot of people.

#3. Inviting Everyone and Their Mothers to Contribute to Your Pinterest Group Board

I haven’t seen too many complaints about this yet, but it’s a growing problem. I’ve been getting a lot of invites on Pinterest from random people asking me to contribute to their group Pinterest boards and let me say this:

No, I don’t really want to pin on your Pinterest board. I’ve never met you or had any interaction with you anywhere in the social media sphere.

Group Pinterest boards were definitely meant for collaboration, there’s no doubt about that. However, I doubt the creators of Pinterest envisioned users spamming invites to people who have shared no interactions in the past. If you have relationships with a group of people, collaborating on a group Pinterest board can be a great social media tactic.

The key is the relationship should already exist. If you want to collaborate on a Pinterest board with someone, at least introduce yourself first via a tweet, blog comment, or some other means. Yes, it slows down the process and spamming is easier, but you’re likely to get more people to collaborate if you don’t spam and you’re just being annoying otherwise.

#4. Using Hashtags on Facebook

This isn’t so much an issue of permission-based marketing as it is simply looking like you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you’re a social media marketer at any level and you’re using hashtags on Facebook, there’s a big problem. Of course, most people who do this will say they have their Twitter and Facebook accounts linked.

While I’m not a big fan of connecting accounts, I realize it have benefits in some cases. However, you should be very careful when cross-posting on multiple networks, because using hashtags on Facebook is a shot to your credibility as a social media marketer.

Apart from that, it’s annoying! Hashtags have absolutely no functional value on Facebook as they do on Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest and it really does irk some people when they see hashtags on Facebook. Perception is reality in marketing, so it’s in your best interests to protect your perception.

#5 Sending Mass Google+ Community Invites

This one is unfortunate, because I like to join new Google+ Communities and test the waters. I don’t mind being invited to Communities in principle. What’s annoying is being invited to Communities about pottery, parasailing, breeding rabbits, or climbing trees while holding a baseball bat between your teeth. Okay, those last two didn’t actually happen, but you get the point.

I decided to turn off community invites entirely about two weeks ago, because it just got out of control.

If you insist on inviting people to your Google+ Community, please take the time to target your invites to people who show at least some slight interest in the topic of your Community. For one, it’s simply good manners. For two, it keeps your account from getting marked as spam and subsequently suspended or banned.

What We Need Here is a Little Empathy

I understand we’re all trying to get our messages out there. We want people to see what we’re doing and we want them to love us. That’s a basic human desire and it can definitely be hard to tame.

Let’s pause for a second, though. As humans, we have the ability to step outside our own minds to a degree. We’re able to place ourselves in the shoes of others and feel what they’re feeling — that is the very essence of empathy and at the core of making ethical decisions.

Try this little exercise: The next time you’re sending an automated DM, community invite, email, making a Facebook update, or carrying out any other digital marketing effort, genuinely try to put yourself in the shoes of the person who will be on the receiving end of your message. If you were on the receiving end:

• Would you be annoyed by the message?
• Would you hit the delete button before even giving a second thought to the message?
• Would you want to continue building a relationship with the person who sent the message?

Relationships are built on trust and selflessness, not a constant ring of, “Give me, give me, give me.” Every detail matters in marketing, so I challenge you to take this exercise seriously the next time you’re preparing to send a message to others via social media.



































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Pinterest's motto is that "no matter what you're interested in, there's a place for it here," but Austin Phillips has found this to be problematic for creative professionals using the service who want to find very specific content.

"I started talking with a lot of other designers and creators, asking 'Do you use Pinterest? Do you like it? And the overwhelming response was that they use it, but don't like it because it's too cluttered," Phillips told Mashable. "If you want to find design, photography or videos, you have to sift through recipes and other stuff you're not interested in."

With that in mind, Phillips and his wife Natalia decided to create a new social bookmarking site in their spare time geared specifically towards professionals who focus on "the visual side of creativity," like designers, photographers and illustrators. The end result was The Matboard, a website that launched publicly earlier this week after several months in beta.

The Matboard's mission is to inspire creative professionals with collections of ads, magazine designs, illustrations, infographics and more curated by a community of like-minded users. There are more than 2,000 items currently posted to the site, though a little more than half of those were selected and uploaded by Phillips and his wife. Like Pinterest, these visuals are presented in tiles, or "boards," organized into various categories and the site offers social integration with Facebook and Twitter. But the team has also made a conscious effort to move away from some of Pinterest's design elements, including foregoing having comments show up on top of each picture to reduce clutter.



"I didn't want it to be another Pinterest, that was never the intention," Austin says. In fact, he says he originally had the idea for the site four years ago (before Pinterest launched) while studying graphic design in college, but he ultimately decided to "put it on the backburner" for awhile. A few years later, Austin, a designer, and Natalia, who works in marketing, partnered with a programmer and bootstrapped development of the site.

In addition to serving as a source of inspiration, Austin says The Matboard will help creative professionals build and share visual portfolios of their work, similar to Behance. Going forward, he says the service will start to fine-tune what users see based on the styles of work that they typically browse through to ensure that they only see things that are relevant to them.

Images courtesy of The Matboard





































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Pinterest continues to grow and could soon top Twitter, a social media site that had a two-year head start on the picture-centric pinboard site. According to Pew Research Center, the two sites are neck and neck: 15% of Americans use Pinterest, and 16% use Twitter.

The Pinterest team hasn't been idle over the past year. Pinterest has added pages for businesses, mobile apps, secret boards, and it has a major redesign in the works. But what pinners want most, isn't included in the new design.

On behalf of ladies who pin, here's what Pinterest could do to make its avid users happier (most of whom are female, outnumbering men four to one).

Search Your Own Pins

You can't search your own pins, and that's a problem. According to Repinly, a Pinterest directory that tracks pins, pinners and trends, popular pinners have each created around 35 boards and pinned 2,757 photos on average. Sifting through pins for that perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe that you pinned six months ago can take far too long.

Boards display only the last few pins added, so if you have a lot of pins, like Anilú Magloire's "Home Love" board, ranked No. 1 on Repinly with more than 22,000 photos, good luck finding a specific pin.

Moving Pins

Related to the searching function, you should be able to rearrange pins within a board. Pins are placed in chronological order, meaning the first photos pinned appear at the bottom of a board. While Pinterest lets you choose a photo to feature, and you can change these board cover photos at any time, you only have one option for changing the order of pins: delete and re-pin.

Browse the Web on Smartphones

In an update last August, Pinterest added its own, built-in browser to its iPad app, leaving iPhone and Android without the nifty feature. (On the desktop version, pinners add a "Pin it" button to their browsers so they can pin a photo from any website that hasn't blocked the function.)

On an iPad, pinners type in a web address, visit a site and can pin a photo using the "Pin it" button. If you're using a smartphone, however, you have to take a screenshot with your phone and then pin from your camera roll. For those who pin, this is simply too much work.

Pinterest has not responded to our questions about new features, but testers thus far have posted only complaints about the redesign. Some don't like the bigger photos; they'd rather see more pictures on the screen. And many complain that they can't see who has re-pinned their pins: "Please get me out of this testing phase and back to how it was," Jena Dacres Thiele commented. "Or change it to tell us what pins were re-pinned and when."

In response to comments on the blog, Pinterest has said it will not add any new editing features to the update, and the mobile apps will remain unchanged.

If you'd like to weigh in on future Pinterest features, visit Pinterest's Feature Forum.























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Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr have all warned their users that some of their data might be compromised after a security breach at Zendesk, a company which provides customer support services for all three companies.

In a blog post titled "We've been hacked," Zendesk explains that a hacker has accessed their systems and probably downloaded user info from Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest users.

"We’ve become aware that a hacker accessed our system this week. As soon as we learned of the attack, we patched the vulnerability and closed the access that the hacker had. Our ongoing investigation indicates that the hacker had access to the support information that three of our customers store on our system. We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines. We notified our affected customers immediately and are working with them to assist in their response," wrote Zendesk's Mikkel Svane in the blog post.

All three companies promptly sent a notice to users, explaining the nature of the data breach.

"Twitter – along with a number of other companies – uses a customer support portal called Zendesk. Zendesk recently blogged about a significant security breach. In order to ensure those who may be impacted by this breach are notified as quickly as possible, we are sending this notification to all email addresses, including this one, that we believe could have been involved. Zendesk’s breach did not result in the exposure of information such as Twitter account passwords. It may, however, have included contact information you provided when submitting a support request such as an email, phone number, or Twitter username," wrote Twitter in a message.

Pinterest and Tumblr sent similar e-mails to their users as well.

"For the last 2.5 years, we’ve used a popular service called Zendesk to store, organize, and answer emails to Tumblr Support. We’ve learned that a security breach at Zendesk has affected Tumblr and two other companies. We are sending this notification to all email addresses that we believe may have been affected by this breach.This has potentially exposed records of subject lines and, in some cases, email addresses of messages sent to Tumblr Support," wrote Tumblr.

Tumblr also advises that users review their correspondence with the following Tumblr support addresses: support@tumblr.com, abuse@tumblr.com, dmca@tumblr.com,legal@tumblr.com, enquiries@tumblr.com, or lawenforcement@tumblr.com.

"We’re sending you this email because we received or answered a message from you using Zendesk. Unfortunately your name, email address and subject line of your message were improperly accessed during their security breach," wrote Pinterest in its e-mail to users.

It seems no passwords have been compromised in the hack on any of the three service. However, as always, users are advised to use strong passwords, use different passwords for different services and never to reveal their passwords to third parties.


























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Pinterest has been on our social media consciousness radar for about 18 months when it started to gain traction.

According to a recent study, Pinterest is now used by 15% of USA web users. To put this in perspective, Twitter usage is only 1% higher at 16 percent.

Pinterest launched pages for business, which include the new terms of service, allowing you to use Pinterest commercially. If you haven’t yet converted your business profile into a business page, you can do so by visiting this page and clicking the red button “Convert your existing account” and then following the steps on the page.

Now that the business pages are out, I am going to share four tips on how to promote your business with Pinterest below…

1. Promote your products and services directly

Now that you have agreed to the new terms of service, you can directly promote your products and services on Pinterest without a worry. You can pin images of your products and have a call to action in the description, urging them to visit your site and buy your products. You can also add the price of the product along with the dollar sign ($), as this will get the price of the product to appear on the left corner of the pin. You get a similar effect when you use the pound sign (£), too. This way, people will know whether they can afford the product even before they visit your website.



An example is the board “Top Sellers” on Topman’s (a chain of clothing stores located throughout the United Kingdom) Pinterest brand page. On this board, they share images of some of the best selling products on their website. This is a great way to market their products.

2. Share a lot of content

Now that you’re allowed to use Pinterest commercially – it doesn’t mean that you should stop sharing content. Social media and content together form a powerful marketing tool. Content is one of the best ways to engage your audience and drive traffic to your site through social media. This applies to Pinterest, too – sharing a lot of beautiful images and pictures that lead to quality content can be a great way to engage your audience on Pinterest. Don’t just share the content you create, but what others create too, if you want this method to be effective.



A great example is Hershey’s Pinterest brand page, where they share a lot of images on their various boards that lead to recipes. Many of these recipes contain chocolate. This is a great way for Hershey’s to attract chocolate lovers who might be interested in buying their products—after all, they sell chocolate.

3. Optimize your site for Pinterest

It’s not just enough if you keep pinning, repinning, liking, and commenting on images on Pinterest. You need to also optimize your site for Pinterest to encourage others to actively share your content with their followers. This will help you attract a lot of website traffic.

A couple of things you could do are:

a) Add the “Pin it” button

A study shows that web pages with share buttons are up to seven times more likely to be shared. Therefore, if you add the “Pin it” button to your site, people will be more likely to share the images on your web pages, too. A couple of great places to add this button are your blog posts and the landing pages to your products.



b) Add the follow button

Adding the follow button can be another great way to optimize your website, as people who visit it will be able to easily find you on Pinterest. From there they can check out your page and your pins and follow you if they like it. This can be a great way to get lots of followers.



4. Optimize your brand page

Having a great brand page is the key to getting more followers and developing your very own Pinterest brand. So make an effort to improving your profile.

You can do this by:

Displaying a good profile image

The best thing to do is to display your logo or an image with your company name. It needs to be something your audience can easily identify you by.

Setting board covers and rearranging them

Board covers can make your boards appear attractive. So pick the most attractive pins on your boards and set them as your board covers. Also rearrange your boards so that your most important boards are conspicuous.

Adding categories to your boards

Adding categories to your boards will improve your pins’ visibility, as your pins will be displayed in the categories section of Pinterest and someone browsing through these categories can come across your pins even if they are not following you.

Have a relevant user name

The username appears in the URL of your Pinterest profile; therefore, if you use something similar to your business name, it will be easy to locate your profile when someone performs an online search.

Add keywords to the “About” section

Adding keywords to the ‘About’ section can be a great way to improve your profile’s visibility, as the next time someone performs an online search with those keywords, your profile could be one of the top results – this can aid you in getting more followers.

Hubspot’s Pinterest brand page is a great example of a well optimized page. If you observe it closely, you will notice that their profile image is their logo which makes it easy for their fans to identify the page.



In case they don’t notice it, their name ‘Hubspot’ is their page’s name and user name too. The name also appears in the ‘About’ section which not only makes it easy to recognize the page, but to also locate it through search engines. They have also added other important keywords to their about section.

These are just a few ways to build and promote your brand on Pinterest. Because Pinterest is image based, it gives you the opportunity to create innovative ways to promote your business. So don’t be afraid to try out new marketing methods.
































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After all the buzz and commotion about “this” new site that is taking over social media, you have signed up for it and started using some of its features.

Reading article after article, you have finally convinced yourself to join the new social media site on the rise, Pinterest. That was pretty much my story with my encounter of Pinterest. I joined the site, setup my Pinterest profile, setup some new boards, and went on to repin some of the content on there.

Same with you, you  started the Pinterest journey. Everything is going well and you hit a wall.

Or maybe you are not quite happy with the results you are getting from the engagement you are putting into Pinterest. This can certainly happen after the “beginner” stage has disappeared and you are diving into a more advanced stage. You may be worried sick that you are not using Pinterest correctly and that this social media site is not what everyone said it was supposed to be.

This article is just for you and me who have joined Pinterest for a while and wants to bump up his engagement and get those amazing results the pros are getting!

Make Pinterest your Number 1!

When you have more than three children, you try to love them all equally. But among all of them, there is a favorite child that you love to give the extra for. You love Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinteret; you try to give them all the love equally.

But have you noticed that they all receive mediocre results?

But you are looking for results out of this world on Pinterest! Now is the time to focus all of your energies into one social media site and love Pinterest the most. Engage the most with Pinterest and I guarantee you will love the results that come with it.

You are still stuck on multi-love for social media!

Mention your love for Pinterest all of the time!

Mention to your readers you are on Pinterest! Show your readers that you love them on Pinterest! Talk much about your love for Pinterest!


What are you saying through those three statements?

I am saying that if you are looking to gain more followers on there, they have to see you actually care about using Pinterest.

Add here and there in your article, encouraging them to share the article on their pinterest profiles.

Remember, the more mentions on your blog, the more chances the reader will understand your point in getting them to follow you.

Create Separate Sharing Boards

My special strategy I use on Pinterest is to create separate sharing boards and pin all of the articles I like from around the internet onto specific sharing boards.


This helps me separate my own pinned articles from the pinning of other articles from around the internet.

Now I can go along Pinterest and pin as much as I would like without burying my own articles in the mix.

Add More Diverse Boards

I have many types of boards on my Pinterest profile.  The more boards you have, the better the chance of gaining a new follower or the repinning of one of your own pins.



It gives a very good impression to a new visitor and a very good chance to take your pinterest results to the next level!

Like and Repin Some More!

If you are getting not so great results from the activity you are placing on Pinterest, then your activity could be not well enough.

One way to dramatically increase results and engagement on this social media site is to “like” constantly while you are browsing.



It is so easy to like pins around the site and doing this will let the Pinnner know that you have liked on of his pins.

You may never know if he will follow your boards right back or like your stuff in return.
Repinning is the greater version of liking!


Repinning will generate more buzz and activity back to your profile even more than just “liking”.

Just setup some sharing boards like mentioned previously, and you’re good to go on “repinning” your neighbor’s pins!

Get out of the rut

The rut is a horrible feeling and you just want to get out. Well, you have read an article that will lead you out to the promised land of many followers and massive repins!

Keep up the work you are putting into Pinterest and add some of these techniques into your mix of engagement.



























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Social media marketing is the beckoning and shiny new toy.

It started as clever but simple to use online technology where you could share multi-media content with friends, family and school colleagues. It was fun, engaging and it has touched the social human global psyche.

It happened because the intersection of technologies such as cheap high speed internet, low cost hard disk storage and software that made using social network platforms as easy as writing a Microsoft “Word”  document became aligned at the same time.
Even the older generation found they could use Facebook!

CEO’s, business owners and management initially saw it as a distraction from serious business and traditional marketing. How could you take Facebook seriously when it it was the social network that the son or daughter used it to share their party photos from Saturday night.

What was the point of a a 140 character tweet?

Then the penny dropped.

Large brands realized that the marketing leverage and amplification that the “many to many” crowd sourced global conversations could bring to their marketing strategy was sizable and significant.

Coca Cola changed its marketing strategy from creative excellence to content excellence. They had realized that social media was able to spread their content and ideas with velocity and the crowd could create and share more stories on social networks than they could ever hope to buy.

Small to medium business were provided free marketing tools that they could use themselves to promote their business.

The democratization of marketing was now evident.

Along with this realization many myths abvout social media marketing have been spread that have caused confusion and disillusionment when the return on investment didn’t materialize or wasn’t apparent.

Myth #1. It’s Simple

There are many myths about social media marketing but the biggest one by far is that it is easy and can be done by an intern at lunch time.

For small, medium to large enterprises is it is far from simple because social media marketing does not scale very easily and it requires many resources, skills and processes that until recently were at an adolescent stage of development.

With social media marketing you need to:

• Write, film and snap the images and capture the content
• Edit the content into a creative format that entertains, educates and inspires
• Create it for the different types of media such as video, text (for blog posts), Twitter tweets, Facebook updates, Pinterest images and other major social media networks
• Establish processes that control the publishing and monitoring of the content that is spread globally by many individuals within one organisation that keeps the brand police happy
• Publish it on multiple networks,
• Optimise it for a variety of multimedia formats
• Develop and optimize it for many types of screens including laptops, iPad, iPhone, Android smart phones and tablets so that it renders properly and is easily viewed and consumed
• Optimise the content and platforms for search engines
• Monitor and measure the data you receive to see what works and what doesn’t

It is becoming a deluge of data on many social networks.

So far organisations in the main are using disparate and multiple tools such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Klout that add a layer of complexity and are silos of data and processes that do not lend themselves to the era of big social data.

Help is at hand.

Tools and processes are emerging to make it possible to do social at scale.

Vendors such as Sprinklr, Exact Target, Adobe, Brightcove and Viral Heat are amongst many companies that are developing enterprise class tools that are offering the promise of one stop social solutions platforms that will enable organisations to provide “social at scale”

The Altimeter Group and Jeremiah Owyang have surveyed over 3 dozen vendors that offer the promise of providing the holy grail of “social at scale”. These are revealed in this presentation on Slideshare.

To properly create , publish and manage this social data explosion we are seeing the emerging need in marketing agencies (and major brand marketing teams) for not just “creative” talents but people who understand technology intimately.

It could be that the “Geeks will inherit the earth” in a knowledge and technology driven economy and culture.

Maybe we are seeing the rise of the “Ninja Nerd” who understands technology and the creative process on an increasingly social web.

I look forward to seeing this emerging evolution of social media marketing as it moves from adolescent promise to mature and robust business class platforms and processes.

Myth #2.  It’s Free

Planning , creating content, optimizing for search, publishing to multiple platforms takes time. Time is money.
The professionals with the skills and experience to make social media marketing successful are increasingly in demand and they need to be paid. In a lot of cases the free tools to manage and monitor the data explosion are not adequate to provide the insights needed to manage, sift and sort the data.

Enterprise class tools are not free. Participating on Facebook may cost nothing and tweeting is free but the content and eco-sytem to support a sustained social media marketing effort requires budget and commitment. Professional videos still cost money to produce and edit.

Free tools doesn’t mean that social media marketing is free.

Myth #3. It’s Just Facebook

Many organisations think that because Facebook dominates the social media numbers game with nearly one billion users, that it is the only social media network to consider in a social media marketing strategy.

Facebook only allows less than 15% of your updates to appear in your Facebook followers timelines through its “Edge Rank” algorithms.

If you are a B2B organisation then LinkedIn could be a social network you want to embrace firmly. LinkedIn is also one of the fastest growing social networks.

Twitter can be used to create a targeted group of followers that is expensive and slow to build on Facebook.
The rise of an increasingly visual web has made social media such as Instagram and Pinterest networks increasingly attractive as part of your social media marketing strategy. Some case studies are revealing that Pinterest is more effective than Facebook in driving social commerce. The online boutique store Boticca’s data is evidence of that.

The basics of marketing must not be forgotten in the frenzy of social media mayhem.

Myth #4. Social Media is the “Silver Bullet”

Social media is not your marketing saviour.

You need to have contagious content on your websites and blog that people will want to share on social networks. You need to  relentlessly build followers, tribes and subscribers. This takes commitment and persistence. Don’t forget the role of traditional media such as email marketing.

Remember to continue to optimize  your online properties for search engines. Being found on Google is still a “must do”. If you aren’t doing this then you need to reconsider some of your marketing budget priorities.

Social media marketing advertising is still only $5 billion and search engine marketing spend is 10 times larger at $50 billion plus. Why?…because it works.

Facebook maybe sexy and funky but Google is still king of online and its Google+ network is close to reaching a tipping point in social media consciousness.

What About You?

What has been your experience with social media? Has it been effective? Are you struggling to perform “social at scale”.

What has been your return on investment? Have you been able to measure it?

What other marketing works for you? Has email marketing been important to your tactics?

Are you paying enough attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so people looking for you online can find your in search engines results pages?

Look forward to hearing your stories and successes.



































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Want to get more creative with Pinterest? Now you can, thanks to Bazaart.

The startup has released a free iPad application that lets you collage your pins, as well as those of other users on the network. It’s easy to find, add, resize, rotate and otherwise assemble your collage. You can also add borders to images or select “crop” to remove white space.

The app isn’t perfect: If you have a board with more than 25 pins, you won’t be able to load them all. (Gili Golander, Bazaart’s fashion director, tells me this is a result of Pinterest’s RSS feed limitation, and there’s nothing they can do about it.) The crop button tends to completely erase light-colored images. An “undo” button would be a welcome addition as well. But it’s a nice start.

Beyond collaging, the Bazaart app is also a decent Pinterest client: You can explore other boards, repin items and pull up their source pages — meaning that all of the products pins are also shoppable within the app.

The app’s creators are apart of the DreamIt Ventures accelerator program for Israeli startups in New York. This is the second app they have built atop Pinterest. The first, Pinvolve, lets Facebook Page administrators quickly transfer their content to Pinterest.




































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1. NBC Olympic Coverage

As the official Olympics broadcast network for the U.S., NBC has been preparing for and ramping up its coverage of the games for months. Its Pinterest pins tell this year's Olympic story in chronological order, dating back to May, when the torch was lit in Olympia, Greece.

2. TODAY

NBC's morning television program is covering London lifestyle, athlete interviews and general facts about the Olympic games.

3. 2012 Olympic Games

A great place to access general Olympics and London information and atmosphere, this Pinterest account also breaks down some of the major Olympic sports into their own boards.

4. Shop NBC Olympics

More than just pins of official Olympics merchandise from NBC, this Pinterest account details what it takes to live like an Olympian: motivation, the right diet and lots of training.

5. General Interest

Pinterest user Laura Meredith pins all kinds of Olympic-related content, including fashion accessories, art and food.

 6. Olympic Spirit

This Pinterest board, by Judy Gaines, captures exactly what the Olympics are all about: glory. The photos are dramatic and inspirational — they'll surely give you goosebumps.

7. Olympic Design

User Lauren Milne posts images of Olympic posters past, not to mention typography and graphic design. The colorful art from around the world reminds us of the Olympics' rich history.

8. Action Shots

Amazed by the incredible feats of the human body? Pinterest user Stacey Krenek sure seems to be. Her pins celebrate athletes with action shots and stunning portraits.

9. Paralympics

Although the Paralympics don't begin until Aug. 29, Pinterest users like Ruth Harrigan are getting a head start by celebrating the astonishing accomplishments of physically disabled athletes.

10. Olympic History

Each Olympic Games logs astounding athletic feats, but also paves the way for accomplishments in gender, ethnic and sexual equality. Pinterest user Malinda Nevitt shares some of those moments on her Olympics board; she accompanies many photos with detailed descriptions of historical achievements.

11. DIY/Kids Projects

Kids love the Olympics just as much as adults, so get them involved with fun crafts and games to play at home. Mini-Olympics FTW!

12. Olympics Party

Throw an Olympics viewing party around your favorite sport, but don't forget to entertain accordingly.

13. Olympic Nail Art

It wouldn't be a Pinterest post without some mention of nail art. Show your true colors with a patriotic design — or 10.



The Olympics are comprised of highly visual events. Think of the dust that settles on the floor after a gymnast chalks her hands. Or the rippling back muscles of a graceful pole vaulter. Or the swaying flag above a gold medal winner.

Already, Pinterest users are collecting and sharing powerful images of Olympic athletes and London attractions to celebrate the games. We’ve found 13 accounts and boards overflowing with everything from news coverage to party ideas, and it’s all Olympic-themed.

What kinds of Olympic images will share best on Pinterest? On social media, in general? Where are you accessing user-curated Olympics content?




































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Social media is emerging from its adolescent phase and is rapidly maturing.


Initially social networks had an image problem with some CEO’s and executives thinking Facebook was for teenagers to post the weekend’s party photos and Twitter was for narcisstic attention seekers with a limited vocabulary.


There was also an initial perception that because the platforms were free to use that participating was cheap and easy. Experience has shown otherwise.

Social media, blogging and digital content creation are resource intensive and doing it right takes time and money.

Tools and time saving apps are emerging to help companies to be more efficient and able to manage, control and  monitor social media. These functions and features are also being integrated into Enterprise class software solutions.

Social media has grown up and is now accepted as mainstream by companies including the Fortune Global 100. These companies include Ford, Walmart and BP.

Facebook , Twitter, Google+, YouTube and the fast emerging Pinterest have all been embraced by the top companies as they find ways to leverage their brands globally.

Burson-Marsteller first launched a study in 2010 that looked closely at how companies were adapting to this new media. Here are their 2012 findings

5 Insights into Global Social Media

In 2010 the Fortune 100 were participating on social media but not to the extent they are now. The social networks were used for broadcasting but there was limited engagement. In 2012 they are having constant conversations with their customers and followers and creating vast amounts of  digital content.

What are the top 5 findings from their latest research?

1. Twitter is more than 50% of the Conversations

Corporations, Brands and organisations have realized that  social media spreads stories in real time and at high velocity. In 2012 the Fortune Global 100 are mentioned 10.4 million times per month with Twitter transmitting 5.6 million of those conversations. This represents a growth in Twitter conversations of over 700% in just 2 years.

Gone are the days when PR companies were clipping media mentions from newspapers and magazines and posting them to the corporation via snail mail.

2.  YouTube is a Serious Media Channel

In just one year YouTube use has increased by 39 percent. It is no longer considered a channel for just entertainment but also education and positioning and branding. Corporate YouTube channels are averaging over 2 million views. This growth in conversations and views by customers is making it compulsory for companies to participate on social networks.  The social networks are proving to be a great source of free media attention that is not paid but earned.

3. Engagement is the Norm

Organisations are not just broadcasting but engaging with their customers and prospects. On Twitter 79 percent of companies are engaging via retweeting and @mentions. On Facebook 70 percent of brands are are responding to comments on their walls and timelines.

4. Multiple Accounts are Common

The average number of multiple social media accounts has soared since 2010. The number of average Twitter accounts is now over ten (up from four since 2010)  and over 8 YouTube channels (up from 1.6 in 2010). This is because companies have realized that they need to target audiences by geography, topic and service. The larger organisations now have both the tools and the resources allocated.

5. Companies are Rapidly Adapting to New Platforms

In the last twelve months Google+ and Pinterest have entered the social networking ecosystem. Companies have quickly embraced these channels with  nearly 50 perecent of the Fortune Global 100 on Google+ brand pages and 25 percent on Pinterest.


Infographic source: Burson-Marsteller







































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Social media and inbound marketing techniques have been a boon for marketers. Not only do leads generated through social and content marketing cost half as much as traditional outbound-generated leads (see below), they also close at higher rate (again, see below).




And social media isn’t just about lead generation of course. While prospective buyers are using search and social to research products and services before making purchase decisions, marketers and PR professionals can use those same tools to research buyer wants and needs. And their competition. And…even social media itself.

Which brings us to this post. Wondering which social network is most effective at generating b2b leads? What marketing technique generates leads with the highest close ratio? What the best day of the week is for Facebook posting? Which U.S. city produces the largest share of “pins”on Pinterest?

Find the answers to those questions and many, many more in this collection of 72 fascinating social media marketing facts and stats for 2012.

Social Media / Social Networking

1. The average midsize or large company (1000 employees or more) has 178 “social media assets” (Twitter handles, employee blogs, etc.)–yet only 25% of companies offer social business training to their employees. (Marketingeasy)

2. B2b marketers believe social media is critical to organic search success. Marketers rate social media as the second-most imporant factor (64%) in search, behind only strong content (82%). (BtoB Magazine)

3. Although Facebook is the most important social media lead generation tool for b2c marketers (with 77% saying they had had acquired a customer through Facebook, compared to 60% for a company blog), among B2B companies, LinkedIn was the most effective, with 65% having acquired a customer through the professional network, followed by company blogs (60%), Facebook (43%), and Twitter (40%). (Marketing Charts)

4. The best way to “go viral” is to engage millions of users, each of whom share through small networks. “Online sharing, even at viral scale, takes place through many small groups, not via the single status post or tweet of a few influencers…Content goes viral when it spreads beyond a particular sphere of influence and spreads across the social web via ordinarily people sharing with their friends…the median ratio of Facebook views to shares (is) merely 9-to-1. This means that for every Facebook share, only nine people visited the story. Even the largest stories on Facebook are the product of lots of intimate sharing—not one person sharing and hundreds of thousands of people clicking.” (Ad Age)

5. LinkedIn generates more leads for b2b companies than Facebook, Twitter or blogs. Yet only 47% of b2b marketers say they are actively using LinkedIn vs. 90% on Facebook. (Social Media B2B)

6. One-third of global b2b buyers use social media to engage with their vendors, and 75% expect to use social media in future purchases processes. (Social Media B2B)

7. “Best in class” b2b companies are significantly more likely than average firms to integrate their social media efforts with their email marketing (65% vs. 51%), SEO (61% vs. 49%) and webinars (47% vs. 31%). (MarketingProfs)

8. As for “best in class” practices, 51% of best-in-Class companies use website social sharing tools, compared to 36% of average firms while 49% use keyword-based social media monitoring, compared with 39% of their more average peers. (MarketingProfs)

9. Top executives need to be involved in social media. 77% of buyers say they are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media. 94% said C-suite social media participation enhances a brand image. And 82% of employees say they trust a company more when the CEO and leadership team communicate via social media. (eMarketer)

User Experience

Want more registrations on your website? Consider offering a social login (i.e., the ability for visitors to register at and log in to your site using one of their existing social network profiles rather than creating a new login):

10. 86% of people say they are bothered by the need to create new accounts at websites. (MarketingSherpa)

11. 77% responded that social login is “a good solution that should be offered.” (MarketingSherpa)

12. 21% of “best in class” companies use social sign-in, compared to 8% of average-performing firms. (MarketingProfs)

Lead Nurturing

13. Only 27% of B2B leads are sales-ready when first generated. This makes lead nurturing essential for capitalizing on the other 73%. But 65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing campaigns. (MarketingSherpa)

14. SEO-driven leads have the highest lead-to-close rate (15%) among common lead generation sources. Paid search leads average a 7% rate, while outbound marketing leads (e.g., direct mail, telemarketing) close at a 2% rate. (Econsultancy)

Facebook

15. B2C Facebook interaction is 30% higher than average on Sundays. (Mindjumpers)

16. Though nearly every large charity and university in America has a Facebook presence, less than 60% of the Fortune 500 do. (Mindjumpers)

17. 95% of Facebook wall posts are not answered by brands. (Mindjumpers)

18. Though Facebook continues to add users, U.S. members are becoming less active there. Between mid-2009 and late 2011, “messaging friends declined 12%, searching for new contacts fell 17% and joining a group of Facebook users dropped 19% in the U.S.” (MediaPost)

19. 70% of local businesses use Facebook.The U.S. has the largest number of Facebook users. The country with the second-largest Facebook population: Indonesia.  (Jeff Bullas)

20. Facebook is the leading source of referred social media traffic to websites, at 26%. Twitter is second at 3.6%. (Pooky Shares)

21. Facebook marketing is a specialized skill. For those looking to outsource this function to a professional consultant, expect to pay $500-$1,500 for initial page setup and anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 per month for ongoing content management and curation. (Mack Collier)

22. 52% of consumers say they have stopped following a brand on Facebook because the information it posted had become “too repetitive and boring.” (SMI)

Twitter

23. There are now roughly 100 million active Twitter users (those who log in at least once per day). (Mindjumpers)

24. 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter, and 20% have closed deals. (Mindjumpers)

25. 40% of Twitter users rarely post anything but primarily consume content there. 55% access Twitter via a mobile device. (Mindjumpers)

26. 92% of retweets are based on “interesting content.” Only 26% are due to inclusion of “please RT!” in the tweet. (Mindjumpers)

27. Twitter now has 200 million users, including 8% of the U.S. population. About one-quarter of all users are considered “extremely active,” checking in several times per day. (Jeff Bullas)

28. 55% of all Twitter users use the service to share links to news stories, and 53% retweet others. (Jeff Bullas)

29. 77 of the world’s 100 largest companies maintain a corporate Twitter account. But media outlets are the most active users. (Jeff Bullas)

30. Most professional consultants charge $500-$1,000 to set up a Twitter account (optimized bio, custom background etc.) and $500-$1,500 per month for ongoing management (dependent on level of activity and amount of content). (Mack Collier)

Google and Google+

31. Google’s search engine is used by 85% of global Internet users every month. (MediaPost)

32. Google+ is expected to reach 400 million users by the end of 2012. It’s membership is 63% male, with the largest cohort in their mid-20s. While the largest block of users by country are in the U.S., the second largest is India. However, only 17% of users are considered “active.” (Jeff Bullas)

Pinterest

33. The image-based social network has grown 4,000% in the past six months, now boasts more than 4 million users, and keeps those users engaged: the average Pinterest user spends nearly an hour-and-a-half per month on the site, behind only Facebook and Tumblr. (Jeff Bullas)

34. 83% of Pinterest users are women. In the U.S., the most popular categories are Fashion, Desserts, Clothes and Birthdays. (MediaPost)

35. But in the U.K., the five most popular topics on Pinterest are Venture Capital, Blogging Resources, Crafts, Web Analytics and SEO/Marketing. (Pooky Shares)

36. 22% of all pins come from New York, followed by Los Angeles at 15%. A higher percentage come from Minneapolis (10%) than from San Francisco (8%)–even though Pinterest is based in Palo Alto. (MediaPost)

37. Pinterest is virtually tied with Twitter (at 3.6%) for the amount of referred social traffic it sends to websites. (Pooky Shares)

Tumblr

38. Tumblr grew 900% in 2011 and now has 90 million users. However, just 2% of members account for more than 40% of all traffic. (Jeff Bullas)

39. The five most popular tags for Tumblr posts are GIF, LOL, Fashion, Art and Vintage. The U.S. has the largest share of users, followed by Brazil. (Jeff Bullas)

Mobile Marketing

40. 4.8 billion people now own mobile phones. Just 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Mindjumpers)

41. One-third of smartphones globally use the Android OS. (MediaPost)

42. The number of tablets in use in the U.S. rose from 34 million in 2011 to 55 million this year and is expected to reach 108 million by 2015. (TMGmedia)

43. Mobile commerce is projected to ten-fold from 2010 ($3 billion) to 2016 ($31 billion). (TMGmedia)

44. While three-quarters of b2b marketers are aware of the growing importance of mobile devices, only 23% rate mobile search as either “important” or “critical” to their search marketing objectives. (BtoB Magazine)

45. Just 16% of b2b marketers are producing mobile-specific content as part of their content marketing efforts. (Smart Insights)

46. Although the percentage of visits to b2b websites coming from smart phones has increased nearly 50% in the past year, they still represent only about 1 out of every 24 sites visits on average. (Webbiquity)

SEO and Search Marketing

47. 57% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on their lead generation goals. (Mindjumpers)

48. Though half of all b2b digital spending is focused on search and most websites are organically optimized, only 65% of b2b marketers have ever used pay-per-click advertising. (BtoB Magazine)

49. Search provides the highest quality leads. According to research by HubSpot, “SEO leads have a 15% close rate, on par with the close rate for direct traffic, and ahead of referrals (9%), paid search (7%), social media (4%), and outbound leads (2%).” (Marketing Charts)

Blogging

50. Social media sites and blogs reach 80% of all U.S. internet users. (Mindjumpers)

51. Social networks and blogs account for 23% of all time spent online — twice as much as gaming. (Mindjumpers)

52. “Increased frequency of blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition, according to…HubSpot. 92% of of blog users who posted multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog, a figure that decreased to 66% for those who blogged monthly and 43% for those who posted less than monthly.” (Marketing Charts)

53. The most popular frequency for blog posting is weekly (60% of bloggers). Just 10% post daily. (Marketing Charts)

54. Blogs are the single most important inbound marketing tool. “When asked to rank the importance of the services they use, 25% of users rated their company blog as critical to their business, while a further 56% considered them either important (34%) or useful (22%)” for a total of 81%. (Marketing Charts)

55. B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms. (Social Media B2B)

56. For those looking to outsource, a professional consultant will generally charge $1,000-$3,000 for setting up a blog, $1,000-$3,000 per month for ongoing content development/editing, and ballpark of $200 for a single guest post. (Mack Collier)

Video and SlideShare

57. 52% of b2b marketers use video as part of their content marketing mix. (Smart Insights)

58. Video production costs vary widely, depending on length, quality, type of content and other factors. High-end animated videos can cost $20,000-$30,000, while simpler interview-type videos can be under $1,000. Common 2- to 3-minute videos with a mix of live action and simple animation typically cost $2,000-$5,000. (Mack Collier)

59. SlideShare draws 60 million visitors per month; but most importantly for b2b marketers, it attracts 3X more traffic from business owners than any other social media site. (Jeff Bullas)

Social Demographics

60. On social networking sites, men and women are about equally willing to share their real names (both about 87%), political and religious affiliation, and the brands they like (~77%), but men are far more likely than women to share their physical address (11% vs. 4%), their current location (35% vs. 20%), their phone number 15% vs. 4%), and their income level (16% vs. 5%). (AllTwitter)

61. Contrary to what you’ve probably been told, longer format video may actually drive higher engagement: “different types of content yield different sharing behaviors. Breaking down video behavior within StumbleUpon, videos viewed between two to three minutes found a spike in sharing out to social media, whereas videos viewed beyond four minutes see direct shares increase by five times. Longer, arguably more involved, content may drive viewers to more intimate sharing routes.” (Ad Age)

Inbound and Content Marketing

62. 90% of b2b marketers do some form of content marketing. 26% of b2b marketing budgets are invested in content, and 60% of b2b marketers say they plan to spend more on content marketing in the coming year. (Smart Insights)

63. The most popular content marketing tactics used by b2b marketers are article posting (used by 79% of b2b marketers), social media excluding blogs (74%), blogs (65%) and enewsletters (63%). Just 10% use virtual conferences. (Smart Insights)

64. The average cost to generate a lead through inbound marketing ($143) is about half the average for outbound marketing ($373). (Econsultancy)

65. Small businesses, on average, spend twice the share of their lead generation budget (43%) on inbound marketing as do large companies (21%). Small organiations spend more than twice as much on social media and 3X as much on blogging as their larger counterparts, while big businesses spend three times as much on trade shows and nearly twice the share of their budget on direct mail as do smaller firms. (Econsultancy)

66. More is (often at least) better. Businesses with 40+ different landing pages/offers generate 10X more leads than those with five or fewer landing pages, and those with 200 or more total blog posts generate 3.5X more leads than those whose blogs have 20 or fewer posts. (Econsultancy)

67. 84% of b2b companies are using some form of social media marketing. However, “best in class” companies generate over 3X their share of all leads (17% vs. 5%) from social media as do average performing companies. (MarketingProfs)

68. 90% of b2b marketers are doing some form of content marketing, and b2b marketers spend on average 26% of their marketing budgets on content. The most effective content marketers spend twice as much as their less effective peers on content development, and consider buying stage when developing content. (B2B Marketing Insider)

69. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but content has to be good in order to be effective. B2b buyers say that less than half of vendor content is useful–and vendors who produce such low-value content are 27% less likely to be considered and 40% less likely to win the business. “Good” content is concise, entertaining (includes stories), more educational than promotional, and is contextually personalized. (B2B Marketing Insider)

Media and Online Advertising

70. Most “national” newspapers are still quite regional: the Chicago Tribune gets socially shared at above average levels only in Illinois, the Washington Post only in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland, and the New York Times only in a clump of northeastern states and Hawaii (though the Wall Street Journal is very popular in Arizona). Fox News is most popular in the southeastern U.S. plus Nevada and Alaska, while the Huffington Compost is widely share along the Interstate 35 corridor (Minnesota to Texas), Florida, Oregon, Maine and the rustbelt. (Forbes)

71. Online CPM rates have little correlation with actual advertiser value delivered. Nearly one-third of all display ads are never seen (defined as 50% of the pixels in view for at least one second). But contrary to popular belief, “below the fold” ads don’t necessarily have lower impression rates than those placed high on the page. (MediaPost)

72. Leaderboard (728 x 90 pixels) and medium rectangle (300 x 250) ad sizes have the highest view-in rates. Coupon and directory sites have the highest ad view rates, both over 80%. In contrast, a sponsor’s ads had just a 27% likelihood of being seen on pet-oriented sites. (MediaPost)




































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1. Etsy

"In our neighborhood: a water tower that looks like stained glass by artist Tom Fruin." (Part of the Water Tank Project)

2. Chris Kane

Electrical outlet hidden wall safe -- purchase it for $8.95 on Amazon.

3. Josué Cardona

Bat-ribbon, in memorial of the victims of the Aurora shooting

4. Etsy

"This kitten loves to push his stepbrother around in a tiny, kitten-sized shopping cart."

5. Andrew Firstenberger

"Earth is round (Bangkok, Thailand) by Thanadol Yuiam, via 500px"

6. Rachel VanderPol

An epic Oreo cake

7. Rashida Coleman-Hale

"Easy-to-make and inexpensive felt superhero masks"

8. Panera Bread

"How to easily make your own eggs for breakfast sandwiches."

9. Dave Howell

"Tulip fields, Skagit Valley, Washington"

10. Misty Strickland

Bluejay eye makeup inspiration


You won’t want to miss our 10 favorite Pinterest pins this week. We found a variety of pins ranging from creative and crafty tips to stunning photos of very different cities.

A tiny hidden wall safe disguised as an electrical socket caught our attention (and, it is available online for under $10), as well as the most elaborate Oreo cake we’ve ever seen.

In addition to the whimsical and helpful, Pinterest users also took on a more serious tone this week. We found an array of pins created in memorial of the victims of the Aurora shooting.

People love Pinterest for a variety of reasons: Some enjoy the pretty pictures and others are on the hunt for helpful ideas and recipes. Our weekly top 10 pins feature is a chance for us to round up a sampling of our favorite pins from the different corners of Pinterest and share them with you. All of our favorite pins can be found on this board — for easy repinning. What were some of the coolest things you saw on Pinterest this week?

SEE ALSO: Last Week’s Top 10 Pinterest Pins

Danielle Phillips

House plants

Amie Cherry

"Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii"

Kelly Petersen

"In my dreams ...The perfect backyard"

Kami Arnold

"How to organize a whole house. SO many great ideas!"

Lindsay Hunt

"Blueberry Biscuits"

Ninfa Glenister

"Beach house tree house!"

Cool Mom Tech

"Etch A Sketch iPad case. Awesome."

Shannon Green

"Ha!"

The Pistachio Project

"How to Make Your Own Sunscreen Lotion"

Shirlene Jacobson

"The Dancing House"



































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