In the spirit of Halloween, I’ve put together a list of Pinterest tricks, followed by their “treat” (what you can expect from each “trick”) to help you make the most of Pinterest. Let me know if you have any tricks to add to my list:

TRICK: Pin your best blog posts just after posting to your business board on Pinterest.
TREAT: You will reach a whole other audience who will pin (and share) your posts with a direct link to your blog.

TRICK: Have a photographer take images of your recent work and/or work-related happenings (speaking engagements, tradeshows, etc.) and pin them.
TREAT: People are attracted to great photos – especially on Pinterest. The better the work and more creative the image, the more it will engage.

TRICK: When working on a company-wide project that isn’t ready for public exposure (such as planning your client holiday gift giving, for example), create a ‘secret board‘ and invite only certain colleagues to link to the secret pin board.
TREAT: Everyone who is part of the project can view, comment and add to the board without revealing its content.

TRICK: To really get the most from a pin, send a hashtagged post to Twitter where they work just like regular hashtags do.
TREAT: Enjoy more traffic and engagement to your post.

TRICK: If you have a sign-up page for your newsletter, create a “pin” for newsletter sign-up and add it to your company’s Pinterest board.
TREAT: Increase sign-ups to receive your newsletter by drawing in another audience who are on Pinterest.

TRICK: Create “rich pins”.
TREAT: Rich pins add more details to your pin and therefore are more likely to be viewed, read and shared.

TRICK: Confirm your website.
TREAT: This will put an image of you on any pin from your website – great for branding and recognition!

~Amy

The post Social Media: Pinterest Tricks-and-Treats appeared first on Elements.

Most companies – big and small – dedicate a fair portion of their marketing time and budget to social media. According to a study conducted by the Center for Marketing Research at UMass Dartmouth, 88% of Fortune 500 companies are actively using Facebook and 79% are using Twitter.

So now the question is: What is a “like” worth to your business?

Is liking a company on Facebook, for example, really going influence you to buy more from them?

A recent study by comScore and Facebook showed that if the general population and/or your friend on Facebook liked Starbuck’s page, just how influenced were you to make a purchase from Starbucks? At first glance, the study pointed toward evidence that if your sphere of influence interacted with a brand, they would spend more money with that brand – as much as 8% more – and that you would transact 11% more frequently during a month’s time. But, hold on a moment, because in a Harvard Business Review’s article “What’s the Value of A Like?”, they pointed to a logical disconnect that would challenge that previous assumption.

The article asked us not to “confuse cause and consequence” and assume that following a brand led to increased purchasing. When we have positive feelings about a brand, we are more likely to purchase more from that brand regardless of giving them a “like” – more so than non-followers.

The article boldly concluded that “merely liking a brand on Facebook doesn’t change behavior or increase purchasing.” The take-away here is that “social media doesn’t work the way many marketers think it does.”

What we (at Elements) understand is that advertising containing branded content on social media has a significant impact on a decision to purchase. Using this insight, we create more successful, effective social media plans and strategies using a combination of both traditional and new approaches.

The post Social Media :: Is Getting A “Like” Worth Your Marketing Dollars? appeared first on Elements.