Recently Pinterest announced that it was going to launch Buyable Pins, a button that lets users buy products displayed on the social network’s mobile app. Pinterest has previously been a second thought social media platform – something used more by magazines or tv networks to share their DIY ideas. But with Buyable Pins, Pinterest has now become extremely relevant to retail businesses. Think of the purchasing power this gives to consumers, they can buy something directly from the phone app, as they see it in real time in their suggested feed of pins. No click through (and consumer drop off) needed.

With this exciting news, we thought it was important to highlight this social media channel. Here are 7 things you can do to increase your visibility on Pinterest. For a more in depth look at each tip, head over here.

1. Include price tags
2. Use pin it for later links
3. Show pins to newsletter readers
4. Find popular group boards
5. Promote your presence
6. Drive traffic with blog boards
7. Track pins from competitor domains

Everyone has a few tasks in their life or job that elicits a huge groan. Hate laundry? Dishes? Billing? Data entry? We each have duties that we would like to avoid all together, but it’s just not likely. So how can we get through these burdens quickly, efficiently and relatively pain free? Here are five suggestions. 

• Distract yourself. If you can pair a manual undertaking to a mental one – you can often trick yourself into ignoring the manual one, or at least not focusing on how long you have been doing it.
• Take pride in perfecting the mundane. There is pride in good work. Do it because it feels good when it’s done and you can be proud of the work you have completed.
• Cut it into small chunks. You can do anything for 15 minutes. Set a timer and go as hard as you can for a short duration. Then come back later to complete it. Doing something for 15 minutes, 4 times in a day is a lot easier to swallow than a full hour of something you hate.
• Do the work at your lowest energy point in the day.  We often think that we need to do tedious tasks when we have lots of energy to burn, but in reality, some of that work will just drain that natural energy away.
• Reward yourself. It’s not a bad thing to have some bonus to look forward to at the end of the project. Be it 15 minutes of free time to finish a tv show, or a few bites of candy, it’s a bit of incentive that will keep you focused.

Summer has officially arrived! And Summer fun means events, fairs, festivals, and lots and lots of activities. So how do you stand out amongst the crowd in order to market your event? The Social Media Hat has 10 tips to promote your event that are really quite valuable. My favorites? Create a messaging calendar and stick to it! Also – create your own hashtag for the event and get other people to embrace it. For the other 8 tips – head over here.

If you are looking to expand your current market, sometimes the traditional and online marketing methods might not work. Sometimes your product needs a bit more visibility and credibility and that’s when you look towards influencers. There is a reason why big companies pay millions of dollars to celebrities to promote their products, because it works. Now, you don’t have to worry about shelling out big money for a big celebrity. Sometimes, you simply have to find someone who has an expertise and follower base online.

Let me explain the term influencer: this is an individual who has the ability to influence the opinions or buying decisions of your target audience, largely thanks to their social media following. And why would you need an influencer? Well, rather than having to rely on your existing audience to promote your product or brand, you get access to a much larger audience via people who are already popular with your potential customers.

Forbes came up with the following formula on what makes a good influencer and as you can see – it’s not just about the amount of followers a person has:

Influence = Audience Reach (# of followers) x Brand Affinity (expertise and credibility) x Strength of Relationship with Followers

Sound like something you could use? Then head over to this econsultancy article to find the tools and suggestions on how to find your next influencer.

Facebook recently started offering free Bluetooth Beacons to businesses in order to increase usage of it’s Place Tips feature. Place Tips essentially allows businesses to push notifications to smartphones about a place that you have entered. These notifications could be things like menu options, specials, or experiences or photos that your friends have shared at that locale previously. Technology wise, it’s pretty simple. You place a small little “beacon”, or essentially a device the size of a deck of cards, in your business and it transmits a signal to smartphones that are in the vicinity. Simple in action? Yes. Simple in use? Not quite.

As I suspected, this new tool is getting mixed reviews online. Most marketers seem to think it is pretty cool and might be helpful for push marketing, especially to boost purchases since you are already in store. I’ve already seen a few case studies that mention upticks in sales when used appropriately. 

That being said, it seems as if many consumers find the push marketing a bit creepy. In a world where privacy has become a hot button for most consumers, this type of location based notification based is seen as too invasive. Some of the other drawbacks? The Place Tips feature is only available in limited geographic areas and for limited devices (Apple iPhone only at this point although Android is “in development”).  

I think Place Tips needs at least 6 months or a year of progression before we find out whether this will be a larger part of digital marketing in the future. While other companies have been doing this previously, no one as big as Facebook has taken it on and it certainly hasn’t become a well known marketing option. I personally am a little wary of anything that makes consumers feel like they don’t have privacy, regardless of whether it actually does. I think we have a long way to go before Place Tips becomes acceptable or ubiquitous. I have seen big companies like Google come up with the next best new thing every quarter and it just dies a slow death of unuse. Google Wave anyone?

As marketers we often make assumptions about what our customers already knows, or how they move through the sales funnel. But how often have you actually watched the process? When was the last time you took a look at your SEM strategy? Pick 3 hacks from the below list to focus on and see how your digital ROI can improve dramatically.

1. Be your customer
2. Get tag management
3. Implement interview projects
4. Cut SEM bloat
5. Embrace innovation and failure
6. Optimize email
7. Steal ideas from other industries
8. Clean up ad to landing page messaging for consistency
9. Plan evergreen content and campaigns
10. Capture bouncing visitors

Of these, I can’t stress enough the importance of #1. I have met so many marketers who have never taken themselves through the buying process to see how each step effects potential customers. Some of the hurdles that stop a customer in their tracks can be so easily solved internally if we just put our minds to it. For more information about the steps above, head over to Forbes.

Most people change their content based on a range of demographic and geographic data. But did you know that age plays a huge part in your content strategy? Social Media Today created a very informative infographic that highlights some of the differences in how generations consume media. Go check out all the details, but I have posted a few highlights here.

• Amongst all generations, late evening was the most popular time to consume media. Try to post between 8pm and Midnight.
• More than a quarter of Millenials use mobile as their primary device for media.
• Generation X uses Twitter to share content 70% more than Baby Boomers.
• The top 4 most consumed types of content remain consistent across all generations: blog articles, images, comments, and eBooks. They also all share the least consumed content: white papers.
• All generations agree that 300 words is the sweet spot for content length.
• The generations do not agree about their favorite genre of content. Make sure to consider your audience when creating genre specific content.

Let’s talk PR. It’s an underrated part of marketing and often overlooked in small businesses. And yet, it’s very budget accessible – I’m talking free! In the beginning stages of a business, it’s one of the best tools to get your business name out there. Later in your business life cycle, it can renew your brand, bring back old customers, bring in new customers, or start a word of mouth revolution. Today Inc.com shared 9 valuable tips for conducting PR outreach. Here is a quick summary of the dos and don’ts, but I suggest you head over and read the details as well.

5 Dos of PR Outreach

• Research before pitching
• Ease into things
• Introduce yourself
• Come prepared
• Offer something in return

4 Dont’s of PR Outreach

• Send mass emails
• Pitch and ditch
• Spam contacts
• Fail to consider timing

In other words, make your PR contact feel special, as if the announcement was tailored to them. No one wants to feel like they were told a unique story, along with 500 of your other contacts.

Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. Are you tired of hearing it yet? Earlier this week we had Mobilegeddon and it seems like every marketing article these days threatens that business is over if you aren’t optimized for mobile. Yikes. Drastic right? Well if you aren’t as mobile ready as, well, everyone says you should be, here is so good news. According to eMarketer, smartphones and tablets make up 60% of the time spent on retail content, but only 13% of the sales. It appears most people like to browse their favorite retail stores while waiting in line at the bank, or waiting in the car, or waiting just about anywhere. But when it comes to the actual purchase, people still want to do it the old fashioned way – in front of a desktop computer. So if you learn anything from this stat, prioritize making your website as mobile friendly as possible first (both in content and shopping) and then work on the mobile purchasing aspect second.

Stagnaro Strategic Marketing has spent many years assisting clients in event marketing. After each event we ask our team – how did we do? It’s oftentimes a tough question to answer. If ticket sales increased year over year – what can that be attributed to? Was it the extra print marketing? The digital marketing? The social media? Was the event bigger? Could it be word of mouth? And so on. Adding metrics to the event planning is the key for seeing a 360 degree view of the results at the end of the process. MarketingProfs just published a great article that teaches how to do just that.

The six tips for driving ROI and metrics are:

1. Use the Same Playbook and Scorekeeper
2. Engage Your Audience: Collect Consumer Data
3. Lead Capture Best-Practices: Don’t Waste Your Investment
4. Post-Event Analysis: Benchmark Your Data
5. Event Follow-Up: Time Is of the Essence
6. Debrief; Rinse, Repeat

Get more details for each tip here.