Feed: Content Factory - AggScore: 76.6

Guide To Marketing With Pinterest

It’s very likely that you have a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page set up for your business (and if you don’t, for the love of Pete, do it now). You’ve also probably heard of Pinterest but are thinking that you don’t have time to devote to it and that it’s completely unnecessary as a social media networking strategy. Well, the good and the bad news is that you can’t afford not to set up a Pinterest account for your business.

Pinterest is now the third largest social network behind Facebook and Twitter (for now, anyway), and the traffic stats are insane. According to Mashable, Pinterest sends more traffic to websites than Reddit, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. And as you’ve seen in your Google Analytics (you do check that, right?), those sites are nothing to sneeze at – with the exception of Google+, that is. You can hawk a loogie at Google+ any day of the week as far as we’re concerned.

It may seem like Pinterest came out of nowhere with guns blazing, but it’s actually existed since 2010. The fall of 2011 was when it really started blowing up. No one knows why exactly it’s one of the biggest social media trends right now. There was no crazy acquisition and no major redesign. Here are our theories:

• Instagram has become almost as popular as YouTube videos of people falling down. It was recently purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, and it’s now available as an app for Android, making it that much more marketable. Instagram makes it easy for just about anyone to take awesome photos and share them, so the focus on images makes Pinterest even more relevant for users.
• The focus is on what is shared, not who is sharing it. When you’re friends with someone on Facebook and they post something funny or interesting, you don’t like it because you like them necessarily, but because –  well, because you like it. Pinterest focuses on what is being posted. It’s less personal than a Facebook share or a retweet, but that turns out to be a good thing.
• Cell phones have amazing cameras in them now, making it super easy to feel like you’re a hotshot photographer. People simply love sharing the pictures they take.
• It’s simple, and it looks clean. While there are, of course, ways to make your Pinterest boards and pins stand out from the rest, it’s pretty difficult to make them look bad. Facebook pages and Twitter profiles, on the other hand, can start to look pretty ugly if you don’t know what you’re doing.

To get started, create your own Pinterest account and start experimenting as part of your social media networking strategy. Simply request an invite and it’ll guide you through the process. In our opinion, it’s one of the easiest social media setups we’ve seen.  It gives you an option to connect it to either your Facebook account or your Twitter account. Go for the Twitter account, as you can’t connect your Facebook page to your Pinterest account. Don’t worry – you won’t start automatically tweeting what you post on Pinterest.

Follow People

Once you’ve created your Pinterest account, find some people to follow. Simply click on “Find Friends” (it’s a drop-down in the top right-hand corner, below your picture). Then, find your Gmail contacts who are already using Pinterest. You’ll be surprised to find out how many people are already on there.

Create Boards

To see examples, you may want to check out a few boards created by other people, but the concept is pretty simple. The important thing to remember is that the boards do not have to directly relate to your business and should not be all about you. Here are some examples:

• Web humor
• Infographics
• Favorite brands
• New products

You should really infuse these boards with your own personality. It’s a great opportunity to show that there are real people behind your branding. People dig that. The cool part is that you can easily edit both board names and content, so if you set something up and then realize the next day that it looks dumb, you can totally go in and change it. You can also keep adding boards to your heart’s content. In fact, we recommend doing so. We’re particularly fond of old black and white photos that are in the public domain, like the ones that are in this blog.

What To Pin

Now that you have a few boards, it’s time to start pinning things to them. You can share any sort of content that has an image attached. This includes:

• Blogs
• Infographics
• Products
• Fun pictures
• Quotations

You should have a combination of the following:

• Uploaded original photos, both from your own website and from other websites (give them props, of course).
• Images of your products with descriptions and prices attached. A typical product image probably isn’t going to work, because a picture that is 300 pixels wide will be too small to pin. Choose the largest product photos you can from the appropriate URL on your site.
• We just mentioned this, but it’s worth reiterating. Infographics are great to pin. Pinterest does not limit the vertical length, so awesome infographics are good. They’ll take up space, and people will be more likely to notice them.

Interaction

Like any other social network, interaction is key when it comes to Pinterest. Don’t just pin images from your site and be done with it. Here are the four ways to interact on Pinterest:

1. Follow other users’ boards.

2. Repin other users’ pins.

3. Comment on other users’ pins.

4. Like other users’ pins.

If you really really like something, like it! You can be a bit pickier about what you want to repin, because you want to keep your boards looking spiffy. You also don’t need to comment on the pins of others if you don’t really have something to say.

What To Write

While Pinterest is obviously visually based, you should also pay close attention to what you’re putting on your profile and on your pins. Pinterest is actually a great opportunity to utilize your keywords and say something awesome in the meantime. Here are some things to remember:

• Pinterest gives you 500 characters, but it’s pretty tacky to use all of them. Try to keep things short, sweet and descriptive.
• Use hashtags to further categorize your pins and make them easy to find. Just like Twitter, you should do some research to find out which ones are the best to use. The hashtags are hyperlinked, so when a user clicks on one, they’ll find all the other pins that use it.
• If you take an image from a site and want to send users to another site, you can change the URL. Be careful with this one. You don’t want to confuse users, and you don’t want to use other people’s images without crediting them.
• Use SEO keywords in your descriptions and your profile. Google is now incorporating social networks into its algorithm, so this is an awesome opportunity.

Now that you have everything set up and you’re wasting hours pinning images when you should be writing a blog (which is totally what we did while writing this), it’s time to use Pinterest to its full potential. You’ve probably run Twitter and Facebook contests before (if not, get on the stick), and Pinterest opens up a whole slew of new ways to engage your customer base. Here are a few ways you can run a contest on Pinterest:

• Have users create a board showing your products and have them choose the one that looks best.
• Have users take pictures of themselves along with your product, or have them show a creative way that they’ve used your product. For example, if you have a hot sauce company, have users post pictures of food that they’ve put that hot sauce on. Choose the most creative photo.
• Create a campaign that tugs at the heartstrings, like a “cutest baby” contest (if you have a business that has anything to do with that).

As you would with any contest, choose a prize that people actually want to win. We’ve all seen one too many iPod Shuffle giveaways in our time. Gift cards are always good, but make sure that they’re worth a decent amount. Contests are one of the most popular social media trends for a reason so go to town.

Tools To Enhance It

There aren’t nearly as many neat tools for Pinterest as there are currently for other social media networking sites, but as Pinterest grows in popularity more will most definitely come out. Here are a couple that we’ve found:

• PinReach – Similar to Klout, it determines what your total influence is on the network. Klout hasn’t quite caught up to Pinterest yet, so it’s definitely worth it to pay a visit to PinReach to see if you’re headed in the right direction.

• PinTics – Similar to HootSuite, PinTics allows you to manage multiple Pinterest accounts. HootSuite hasn’t quite caught up to Pinterest – and frankly, the current interface probably isn’t up to it even if they tried – so for now, this is also one that’s worth experimenting with.

The Content Factory is Hiring New Writers!

The good news is, business is booming for our web content writing services. We’ve recently had several clients refer us to other companies in need of awesome content, and we need to hire new people to keep up with the demand. As far as problems go, this is a pretty good one to have.

We’re currently in need of a few more landing page and SEO article writers. Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Previous experience with content writing for the web, magazines or news outlets.
• The ability to put an interesting spin on dry topics — we aim to create landing pages and SEO copy that people actually want to read (and share).
• People who take pride in their web content writing work. Our editors are meticulous, and substandard copy isn’t going to sneak by.
• Timely delivery of projects. Our SEO article writers meet their deadlines — it’s a critical part of what we do. If you can’t consistently meet deadlines, you can’t work for us.

There’s a reason The Content Factory is quickly making a name for itself in the web content writing industry. Without divulging too many proprietary secrets, attention to detail and exceptional wordsmithery are two of the secret ingredients we use when crafting our web copy.

Why you want to work for us:

• We’re easy to deal with.
• We pay on time, every time (via PayPal or check twice a month).
• It’s contract writing work, and you can do it from anywhere.
• You can work whenever you want — as long as you meet deadlines, we don’t care if you keep vampire hours.
• We’ll make you a better writer (honestly). Our editors have written for national magazines and are experts in all aspects of web content writing. We always send our writers a list of edits that we make to the content, so you continually improve.
• There’s a ton of work to be done.  This is the sound of opportunity, and it’s knocking.

Want to join our team of web content writing experts? Send an e-mail detailing your content writing experience to Kari DePhillips at karilee@contentfac.com, and we’ll get back to you right away. We’re looking to hire landing page and SEO article writers immediately (if not sooner), so please apply only if you’re available to start soon.

Online PR eBook Excerpt: How to Pitch the Media Like a Pro

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s around to hear it, does it make a sound? That’s a less important question than this: if you spend lots of time pitching reporters to get free PR, but they never open your emails or read past the first line, are you wasting your time?

Yes. And if you’re a business owner, chances are good that you don’t have much time to spare – so the goal is to be as efficient and effective as possible. In order to pique the interest of reporters, this should carry over to your pitching strategy.

Here are the 9 things you should do when pitching anyone in media:

1. Pay attention to your subject line. You’re probably competing with at least a dozen other people for the placement, so going generic isn’t going to do you any favors. Keep it short, snappy and clickable (more on this below).
2. Get to the point. You have about five seconds to hook the reporter from the time that they open your email – assuming they’ve even gotten that far (see point #1). In general, keep your pitches to two paragraphs or less.
3. Try not to trip over any of the names you drop. Have you won an award in your field? Be sure to mention that you’re “an award-winning blah blah blah” toward the beginning of your pitch – this will help differentiate you from all the losers who have no awards to their title. Likewise, if you’ve recently been featured in the Wall Street Journal, drop that name like it’s hot while linking to the placement.
4. Answer any questions the reporter has. There are exceptions to every rule, and the exception to the two-paragraph rule occurs when you’re going into detail while answering questions the reporter asked. Here’s the thing: real experts can break down complex subjects in a concise manner that even a layperson can understand, so try to do that whenever possible. Waxing poetic won’t get you any bonus points or extra coverage (in fact, it’ll probably just land you in the trash folder). Reporters are pretty good at sniffing out BS, and you should never waste their time (or yours) by pretending to be an expert – you could burn your chances with the reporter for good.
5. Cite statistics like it was your major. One of the quickest ways to a reporter’s heart is to do their work for them, like finding statistics related to the story they’re working on. Give hard numbers, percentages and links to additional sources of info. In short, make yourself useful. More often than not, the reporter will thank you by including you in the article.
6. Don’t ask any questions. The quickest way to guarantee that you won’t get placement is to email the reporter with a bunch of your own questions. Who’s doing the investigative reporting here? Not you. Reporters are too busy and too underpaid to answer questions from people who aren’t their editors or managers.
7. Keep it cool, man. Nobody likes getting emails that reek of desperation, and nobody likes responding to them either. Don’t send an 800-word response to a 50-word query (which would break the 2-paragraph rule anyway). Don’t follow up with reporters who have never emailed you back. Don’t use too many exclamation points – you should never be so happy or excited that you include more than two exclamation marks per email.
8. Link to your website. This may seem obvious, but link to your website. How else are you going to expect the reporter to link back to your site? As stated above, it’s always a good idea to link to your site (using favorable SEO anchor text) at some point in your pitch.
9. Prepare to get quoted. With every pitch, you should always be aware that there’s a possibility that the reporter is going to copy/paste pieces of your email into their article. As a result, you should be very aware of what you say – make sure your info is 100% correct.

The second most important part of your pitch is the first sentence. It has to hook the reporter, lead them to believe that you’re an expert and get them to read on to the next sentence.

The most important part of your pitch is the subject line. The subject line of your email determines whether or not the reporter is even going to see the first sentence you spent so much time working on. Blow the subject line and it doesn’t matter what magic you wove into the pitch itself, because the reporter’s never going to see it.

Examples of bad pitch subject lines:

• HARO Response
• HARO Response – Your Name Here
• Responding to Your Query
• I Saw Your HARO
• Questions About Your HARO
• Your Business Name Here

Examples of good subject lines:

• Award-Winning (Insert Subject Related to Query Here, assuming you’ve actually won awards in the field)
• The HARO Response You’re Waiting For – (but then you better make sure you live up to the hype)
• HARO Response – Impressive Expert Title Here

Fortunately, there are a variety of resources that you can turn to that will help you get your pitching on point. Namely: Google. There’s almost nothing that you can’t teach yourself with enough Google searches, and you shouldn’t be afraid to look things up. Google will take you to wonderful places, like this website about writing perfect email pitches and this page detailing the key ingredients of successful subject lines.

This is an excerpt from TCF’s upcoming e-book Online PR 101: A Complete Guide to Marketing Your Business Online.

Top 10 Tips From Women Business Owners

Google “tips for women” and guess what you get. That’s right – page upon page of fashion, dating and weight-loss advice. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to Zumba off a few pounds or snare your own Peeta Mellark, if you’re like the women who work here at The Content Factory, you likely have loftier ambitions. Ambitions like starting your own business, for example, or turning the business you’ve already founded into an international success. Recently, we asked women business owners to give us the inside scoop on their success. If you’re looking to join their ranks, follow the business-savvy tips below. 

1. Donate your skills. “Advertising is expensive,” says professional photographer Catherine Fiehn, “but the easiest way to get good PR is by donating your services a few times a year to a charity.” At Halloween, Catherine has the local kids come in for a low-cost photo, and the proceeds are donated to charity. Because it’s for charity, the newspapers print the notice for free. The result? A ton of new customers, some of whom are stopping in for the very first time. We recently went to a RAINN benefit and we do pro-bono PR work for Dress For Success Pittsburgh. Not only do we feel good about helping out great organizations, but we’ve also made some great connections as a result. Check out the awesome professional photo we got for free for attending the RAINN fundraiser compliments of Front Row Monthly.

2. Be grateful. Sharon Armstrong is an author who owns her own consulting business. “I’ve had my own business since 2000,” she says. “My best tip for success is to remember to thank those who help you grow your business. Never forget! And thank folks in a personal way, if possible.”

3. Keep moving forward. Thursday Bram, owner of the consulting firm Hyper Modern Consulting, says, “Remember that success is always within reach. No matter what happens, there is always a way to work around it, to turn a problem into an opportunity or even to take a deep breath and power through. This isn’t to say that if something isn’t working you should keep banging your head into it, but you can and should always keep moving forward.”

4. Pipe up and promote. Marketing maven and owner of The Idea Is {In} Jyoti Peswani is all about getting your name out there. “Don’t be afraid of self-promotion in the social media era,” she says. If you’re hesitant to toot your own horn, balance it out by giving something back to your audience. That, she believes, is a reward in and of itself.

5. Put your social skills to work. Janice Costa, founder of Canine Camp Getaway of NY, says, “Do everything you can to build a sense of community with your customers. That might happen through a joint charitable effort, a Facebook page, a blog or newsletter or simply by involving them in some aspect of your business.” Contests are another great idea. “Building a community of clients provides value that goes far beyond whatever you are selling,” she says. “It also makes business a lot more fun!”

6. Aim higher. Jamie Yahne owns Glitzee Glee, an online dinnerware store. Jamie believes that it never hurts to ask a question or to attempt to go after something that you really want. To gain exposure or build relationships, she says, “you should reach out and try to take any opportunity that presents itself. Most of the marketing opportunities I’ve had and the business relationships I’ve built happened when I didn’t think I had a chance but asked for the opportunity anyway.”

7. Set a firm schedule. Respect your schedule, says Stephanie Di Biase, owner of Ways & Means, Inc., or no one else will. “If you are too flexible and available, you become a vendor versus a partner with your clients – and you end up working seven days a week. Set a firm schedule where you have some dedicated “unavailable” time. People respect you more when you respect your own boundaries.”

8. Give employees room to grow. Lily Liu is the founder and CEO of PublicStuff. She believes in creating environments that allow employees to feel that they “own their work.” That way, they become leaders in their field of expertise, and they’re motivated to achieve success every day. She says: “I strongly believe that truly engaged employees will go above and beyond their duties and produce better work, because they know how important their role is to the company.”

9. Make each convo count. April Harter, owner of WordPop Public Relations, believes that every business connection should be meaningful, both online and off. “If you’re going to take the time to attend networking events or set up a LinkedIn profile,” April says, “follow up with those you meet. If you take the extra step to follow up with people, you will establish more meaningful connections.”

10. Join an active business network.  We all “join” business groups, says Julie Legrand, founder and president of Off The Ground, but sometimes it’s more of a token gesture. Julie believes that when you become an active member “by attending conferences, participating in discussion boards and volunteering for committees, more people will know who you are.” In her experience, those people will go out of their way to help you. “Great national women’s groups to get involved in include ‘Make Mine a $Million,’ NAWBO, WLE and WEBENC.”

So there you have it. Ten tips, by women business owners and for women, tips that can help you  become a business maven yourself. Do you have some inside knowledge that wasn’t covered here? Give us your recipe for success in a comment below.

Top 10 Social Media Networking Faux Pas

This is a different kind of social media blog. Most give you tips on how to use social media and hip you to the latest social media trends. I’ve decided to be Negative Nancy and list the biggest mistakes that we’ve seen people make. We manage accounts for a variety of clients and when they hire us, they often have the following issues before we start managing them:

1. Automating Your Social Media Networking

One of the biggest social media trends we’ve seen is automated social media feeds. Setting up feeds can be convenient, but they end up looking spammy and don’t promote interaction. Fans and followers want to know that there’s a person behind the updates, so automation can make a company seem cold and unreceptive to feedback.

Examples:

• Connecting social media sites together - Connecting your Facebook and Twitter accounts together might seem like a good idea, but what it results in is a bunch of Tweets filling up your Facebook page. When it comes to Facebook marketing, always be aware of what your wall will look like – not just what’s coming through everyone’s feeds. Seeing hashtags on Facebook looks all wrong and it makes you look like you don’t have control of your brand marketing.

• Automatic social media blog updates - If it begins with “Check out our new blog” and cuts off part of the title in the update, no one will want to read it. Sites like Twitterfeedseem like a great solution but they generally end up looking stale. When you launch new content on your site, take the time to send out a proper update manually on social media sites. It doesn’t take long and more people will take notice!
  

  Would you give your baby automatically fed content? We didn't think so.

2. Ignoring Bad Feedback

Ignoring bad feedback won’t make it go away and it can do irreparable damage to your brand marketing efforts. Social media provides an excellent opportunity to find out what customers and clients really think. If you ignore negative feedback,  those individuals will continue to badmouth the company and even go to other forums and social media outlets to voice their concerns. This can quickly become a PR nightmare. A simple tweet responding to the feedback, for example, can go a long way and can even work to your company’s advantage in the end. On the flip side, if a customer or client feels like their concerns were heard and their issues have been resolved, they may even say something nice about the company for all to see.

3. Not updating enough on social media networking sites

Don’t just set it and forget it. We’ve seen many companies set up social their social media networking accounts like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and then let them sit there. It’s important to update regularly and develop targeted campaigns.

4. Updating too much

No one likes the desperate person at the party. The point is to mingle and leave on a high note, not to talk about yourself the whole time and linger around too long. On average, we update 1-2 times a day for our clients on Facebook and Google+ and 7-10 times a day on Twitter. If you update more often than that, people are going to stop paying attention and stop inviting you to parties.

Don't scare everyone away from your social media party.

5. Not interacting enough

It’s up to you to reach out to potential and existing clients/customers and other businesses that you may want to network with. They don’t always come to you. Especially when it comes to marketing with Facebook, the best way to increase the amount of people who like your page and interact on it is to make the first move.

6. Being overly self-promotional with your brand marketing

Don’t you get annoyed when your personal friends and followers do nothing but post pictures of their own puppies, kids and expensive home renovations? Well, it’s even more annoying when a company posts only about itself. Many companies only share content from their own site and this is a huge mistake. It’s important to send out updates that are just plain interesting because it gives your social media networking accounts a personality. Especially if you’re trying to build partnerships with other businesses, it’s crucial to engage with them on social media and share content from their accounts.

7. Putting the wrong person in charge of it

Many companies make the mistake of pawning off social media networking responsibilities to an intern or a relative who doesn’t really know what they’re doing. Managing social media is a lot like singing – everyone thinks they know how to do it but very few people can actually do it well. It’s worth consulting with a company or individual who manages social media professionally to find ways to improve your efforts.

8. Sloppy updates

Unfortunately, we do live in a world in which people are just waiting for you to screw up, especially when it comes to social media networking. Misspellings, bad grammar and dead links are all totally noticeable, not to mention super easy to fix. People will totally call you out on that stuff too. If you do make a mistake (we all do sometimes), catch that stuff and edit or delete the post.

9. Being all work and no play

Some of the most popular updates we’ve posted have virtually nothing to do with our business operations. One of the main reasons people use social media networking sites is to have fun. Did your office just get a fish? Post a picture of it. Was everyone watching an especially funny YouTube video today like this one? Share it. People like that stuff (literally).

10. Not staying up on social media trends

Virtually any business can benefit from maintaining a social media networking presence. We’ve seen so many businesses put off social media efforts and it’s a huge mistake. It’s free to maintain them and even if you make a few mistakes in the beginning, you’re getting your name out there. Social media is an essential part of your brand marketing strategy.

Our big advice is to do some research, even before hiring a professional. Thinking about hiring a professional or purchasing programs to make your social media networking efforts easier to manage? Check out our social media blog and read up on the cost of social media marketing and why social media networking should be at the topic of your to-do list. Any big mistakes you’ve seen other companies doing that really grind your gears? Leave them in the comments below.

How To Link A Website – Get Backlinks and Give Them In Return

Top 10 Tips For Using WordPress

We’re not web designers (nor do we play them on TV), but we know what it takes to make a great website using WordPress. Thankfully, we been lucky enough to find a ton of great web designers who know their stuff and they’ve shared some of their best WordPress tips:

1. Keep it simple – Coco Channel said it best when she said, “Always take one thing off before you leave the house.” The same thing goes for WordPress. Before you publish your WordPress site, take one thing off of it. Do you really need that sparkles and kittens banner? No, you do not.

“The most important fact is simplicity. Don’t choose complicated and busy templates; stick with clean and visually appealing styles,” Gariella Vivaldi from Etc-Ecc says.

2. Make it pretty – Before you invite people over to your virtual home, it’s important to make sure the place looks good.

“Don’t overuse color, always think that less is better, especially since color can be tricky and become a bit tacky. Take your time when choosing the template and designing it, make sure it answers your needs,” Vivaldi said.

3. Don’t slow it down – You don’t have much time these days to capture the average user’s attention. The more you have on your website, the longer it’s going to take to load and the faster people are going to bizzounce from it, and no one likes a high bounce rate.

Jill Chongva, the owner of Smart Website Diva says, “I’ve seen too many…people with far too many plugins with scrolling, rolling and fancy gizmos. It distracts from your content and overuse of plugins can also make your site run slower.”

Brian Grady from Gorilla says, “The bottom line is to start with a solid site — let the user get in, get what they need and get out without a hitch.” If you make your site easy to navigate, users will be more likely to come back for more.

4. Use keywords when building it – WordPress gives you tons of opportunities to use keywords, and if you’re not using ‘em you’re wasting opportunities to get more search traffic. Once you’ve done a bit of keyword research and downloaded some plugins, there are tons of ways to make your WordPress site SEO-friendly, from the All-In-One SEO pack to using keywords in all of the content you put on it.

Ian Knight from 7Krown says, “I create WP users using keywords – instead of using your real name or ‘admin’ try using a keyword instead. This is better for SEO and also adds an anchor link back to your site using the keyword.”

5. Use plugins – They’re free and easy to use. All you need to do is get your Google on and find out which plugins are best for your blog. Sexy Bookmarks (yes, it’s really called that) and All in One SEO are our personal faves.

David Backes from Anvil Media Inc says, “If you can think it, there’s a plugin for it! Type the feature you wish you had into Google with “WordPress plugin” attached to the end, and then see what comes up. Odds are you can easily customize your site with minimal development.”

Dotty Scott from Ask Dotty recommends “All in One SEO,” “Robots Meta” and “Google XML” sitemap plugins to optimize help your site for SEO.

6. Design without the designer – If you do a little research, you can find programs that will do some of the work for you.

“Utilize sites like Themeforest.net which host thousands of premium WordPress templates that serve as the basis for your design,” Jillian Koeneman from FreshLime says.

7. Permalinks – Another great tip for using WordPress is to change the permalinks to include keywords. When you launch a blog, WordPress is automatically set up to have a URL that has the number of the post in it. Instead, you can change it to include the title of your blog, which is great for SEO.

John Hutchison from Formic Media says,”Change your permalinks to SEO friendly url’s by putting “%postname%” into the “custom” box in the permalinks options.”

8. Ask a professional -It’s OK to ask for help and there are some great web designers (like the ones mentioned in this blog) who will set up your WordPress for you, whether you want to set it and forget it, or if you just need help setting a few things up.

“Start with a professional, paid-for theme…I advise the non-designer to use professional themes…freebies aren’t always the best bet,” Jessica Kupferman from Your Digital Stew.

9. Socialize it - Even if your content is awesome, it doesn’t matter if no one is there to read it. We mentioned it earlier and we’ll mention it again. A great tool for social networking management is the Sexy Bookmarks plugin.

“There are a ton of these plugins out there, I personally use ‘My Social Links Bar’ for most of my sites. Find the one that looks best and works the best for you, customize it, and place it on their ASAP. Without social media, very few people will find you, much less follow you,” Howard C. Davis from Paradise Web Design.

10. Let People Know That It’s Not Just Another WordPress Site – Sites that say “just another WordPress site” are the last picked for dodge ball in the eyes of search engines – and your readers see it that way as well. Luckily, it’s a quick fix.

“Always remove anything in the footer that tells people that your site is made with WordPress. It gives the site more of a professional look, like you have paid lots of money for it, plus the footer is a great place to add your own address details for local search optimization,” Ally Piper from Marketing in Bloom.

Do you have a site built with WordPress? What are your best tips for using WordPress? Share in the comments below.

How Much Do Pro Social Media Management Tools Cost?

Since the birth of The Content Factory back in October 2010, I have been managing Twitter and Facebook accounts for our clients in addition to running the business with Kari DePhillips. Needless to say, I was getting a bit burned out. Thankfully, we recently hired a new social media marketing manager, Caroline (who Kari lovingly refers to as Caro). We’re very lucky to have her. It’s freed me up to do things like shower, sleep and, of course, blog.

The only tough part about passing the social media management baton over to Caroline was that I didn’t want to just throw my Hootsuite at her and tell her to get on it. I wanted to stay on the Twitter accounts in Hootsuite and work closely with her on social media strategy. We’ve had Hootsuite since the inception our web PR company and generally we’ve liked it. It was originally one of our favorite free online PR tools and then they started charging for multiple social media accounts (which we weren’t exactly jazzed about, but we think it is absolutely worth paying for).

Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts with More Than One Team Member

It seemed simple enough to add an additional team member to the account, but we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to be a huge expense to do so. We liked Hootsuite, but we wanted to see what else was out there. We didn’t want to miss opportunities to save money and become more efficient when it comes to using Twitter for marketing our clients.

We knew what we were looking for. We don’t use these social media management programs to manage posts to sites like Facebook and YouTube. We just wanted it for Twitter, because we’ve found that updating any other social media accounts from these types of programs results in updates that look automated and spammy. You know what I’m talking about, I’m sure. We simply needed a social media management program that was good for monitoring keywords and allowed scheduling.

New social media management tools come out all the time, so I decided that I needed to get my Google on – and boy was I disappointed. Sure, there are plenty of blogs and sites out there that review social media management programs and do a great job of explaining what they do. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to find out exactly how much all of it is going to cost.

Hootsuite vs. CoTweet vs TweetDeck – How Much Do They Cost?

We found three social media management tools that fit our basic criteria: Hootsuite, TweetDeck and CoTweet. We are going to break down the cost, customer service and capabilities of each program:

How Much Does Hootsuite Cost and What’s Their Customer Service Like?

Hootsuite makes using Twitter for marketing simple. It was our first choice, not only because we’ve been using it for so long, but because the Hootsuite dashboard is tough to beat (call us superficial, but we’re suckers for a pretty interface). If it was clear that the cost of adding an additional team member to all accounts was going to be under the ceiling we had set at $150/month, we’d have looked no further.

Customer Service: Hootsuite does not take customer service calls, at all – not even if your account is on fire. In order to get in contact with Hootsuite, you have to complete a Help Desk request. When I did this originally, someone responded within four hours. That isn’t bad, but if they took customer service calls, my question probably would’ve been answered in about 10 minutes. They informed me that it would cost $15/month to add a team member and gave the impression that it didn’t matter how many accounts we were managing, it would stay the same.

The Cost: For one team member and unlimited Twitter accounts, we were paying $5.99/month, which is a great deal. Unfortunately, it was very confusing to figure out what their pricing was past that. I couldn’t figure out whether they were going to charge me an additional $15/month per account or $15/month for an unlimited number of accounts. We manage an average of 10-15 social media clients on a continual basis, so there’s a huge difference between $15/month to $100-$150/month. The other option was the unlimited $1500/month plan. Straight talk: that’s more than my rent (I live in Pittsburgh, and my apartment is on the nicer side).

What’s disappointing is that while we think Hootsuite is worth paying for, as luck would have it, every time we upgrade, something bad happens to the program. Either message scheduling goes down temporarily or reports are running slowly. We understand that these things happen, but at the same time it doesn’t seem fair to pay more to get less.

How Much Does CoTweet and What’s Their Customer Service Like?

The CoTweet website is clean and it looked like this program had it all from scheduling to keyword monitoring, which is does. But of course, there’s a catch. I was immediately put off by the fact that not only was no pricing information available on their site whatsoever, but if you fill out information, you get a free trial. I’m not new to this game — next thing you know, they tell you that someone will be calling you. Still, I kept an open mind, until I talked to a sales guy who sounded like he couldn’t sell Frank’s Red Hot to a bowl of nachos in a frat house (a call that I actually had to initiate, no less).

Customer Service: Trust me — I know how tough that job is. I was actually in phone sales for five years straight (no small feat, right?), but I just don’t know how this guy got hired. Here’s how part of the conversation went (consider this an America’s Most Wanted dramatization version). Let’s call him Chip.

Me: Hi Chip! I wanted to find out about maybe switching over to CoTweet from Hootsuite. I need a program that schedules tweets and allows me to monitor for keywords, but also allows me and one team member to manage 10-15 Twitter accounts.

Chip: Ah. Well, for $1500/month, you can get an unlimited package and have unlimited users. You can keep track of stats, etc.

Me: We’re a small company. Is there something in between free and $1500/month?

Chip: Well, there isn’t really anything in between.

Me: Ok Chip, thanks for your time. It doesn’t sound like CoTweet has what we’re looking for.

Chip: Well there’s one that lets you manage five accounts with five team members.

Me: Ok. How much does that cost?

Chip: $600/month

Me: Ok Chip. Thanks for the info!

I gave the poor guy my e-mail address, but I thought, geesh, don’t tell me there’s no mid-level plan when there is one. Especially when for $600/month, all you get is an extra PDF report. Not gonna cut it. For $600/month, CoTweet should have the wit of Chelsea Handler combined with the work ethic of a child laborer trying to feed his entire family with one paycheck. And, it needs to make me guacamole and margaritas every afternoon as well.

Cost: The only reference I have here is my conversation with Chip. As a follow up to our call, he sent me a lackluster PDF that didn’t really give me a whole lot more information than the website did (or he did in our conversation, for that matter). From what I was told, it was $1500/month for the Enterprise Edition (unlimited users, unlimited accounts) and $600 for Flex Five program, which to quote the PDF he sent me, “gives your team all the capabilities and integrations of the Enterprise Edition for a price that scales to your budget,” whatever that means.

TweetDeck

We love that TweetDeck allows you to schedule, monitor keywords and manage multiple Twitter accounts with multiple team members. For a long time, they didn’t allow tweet scheduling, which is why we never looked into it before, but now they do and at first glance they seemed to have everything we needed.

The only downside, and in the end the only reason we didn’t decide on TweetDeck, was the fact that the Hootsuite dashboard blows the Tweetdeck dashboard right out of the water. TweetDeck has one long stream of everything, so with 10-15 Twitter accounts, it looks like a bit of a hot mess. I mean damn, can a sister get some tabs for easy sorting?

If you only have 1-3 Twitter accounts to manage, TweetDeck is a simple, straightforward and effective social media marketing tool. Unfortunately it’s not really designed for social media management companies.

Customer Service: We knew exactly what we were getting so there was no need to call or e-mail them, which is a plus. As far as ongoing TweetDeck customer support goes, you can contact them via a number of Twitter accounts, depending on what the issue is. Sounds like a great idea, especially considering that it’s a social media management tool.

Cost: Free

CoTweet vs. Hootsuite vs. Tweetdeck: Which is Best?

When all was said and done, we went with Hootsuite. It’s reasonably priced and we heart the Hootsuite dashboard (have we mentioned that yet?). If you manage multiple Twitter accounts, it’s your best bet.

What tools do you use to manage multiple Twitter accounts? Have you had similar or completely different experiences with CoTweet, TweetDeck and Hootsuite?
Want to know what other things cost and exactly what you get for your money? Check out our recent posts, where we break down the cost of social media marketing and answer the question, “How much do copywriters charge?”

By Joan Barrett

6 Ways to Shine in the Social Media Spotlight

Let’s be honest, no one starts social media marketing just to stick with the same 50 friends or interact only with their original 100 followers. As much as you love your Aunt Mildred’s enthusiasm for your new business or your old co-worker’s dedication to your new venture, at some point you’re going to want to branch out to new customers. You want as many people to know about your business as possible, but sometimes you may feel like you are grinding your wheels in the mud of the same-old-same.

Online PR is a little different than traditional public relations. It’s still important to reach out to your customers (they’re paying the bills, after all), but the ability to connect and interact with customers on a personal level is what sets the social media marketing apart from traditional marketing. It may seem a little complicated at first, but these six tips will keep you on the right track:

1. Avoid the sales pitch. Successful social media marketing is not about flashy salesperson gimmicks. Instead of focusing on the sales, zero in on the person – you. By being honest with your company’s intention and how your products/services can benefit customers, they’ll appreciate seeing the person behind the title.
2. Be indispensable. Another common misconception about online PR is that it must be utilized at all times. Updating on the hour, every hour, is a good idea – but only if you have something valuable to say. Post links to interesting and relevant articles with thoughtful commentary, and you’ll start to be viewed as a resource instead of a vendor. 140 characters can go a long way!
3. Stay visible. Many companies have multiple social media accounts, but unless you’re telling people about them, they probably have no idea. Don’t wait for your clients to find you. Use online PR to its fullest and feature the links on your website, e-mails and blog – you’ll get much more attention when you’re easily visible. While basking in your popularity, take the time to make sure your spelling, punctuation and grammar are on point. Web content writing is about communicating clearly and effectively (and you won’t do either if you’re distracting people with your lack of attention to detail).
4. Reply to people who comment on your posts. You have interested, vocal customers and you are…not saying anything. This is the quickest way to lose their interest (or develop a bad reputation, if you don’t respond quickly to negative comments). Social media marketing is about connecting in ways that were once impossible. Answer their questions and jump in discussions about your company on blog, and do so on a regular basis. Updating once a week or checking for blog comments every few days doesn’t allow for the real-time interaction people have come to expect.
5. Update often. Letting the cobwebs grow on your accounts will make your customers looks elsewhere. After determining your content prerogative, don’t be shy. Keep the content fresh like a Summer’s Eve commercial – this includes your blog, too.
6. But don’t update too often. An easy mistake is to flood your social media accounts with updates every few minutes. Space them out (especially for Facebook, think every couple of days instead of every couple of hours), unless you want to specialize in serving spam to your network.

With social media marketing, questions are answered faster, problems are fixed sooner and new ideas are created. This means that you need to respond quickly, or risk falling behind. Keep on top of new trends, and try to be among the first to break important industry news whenever you can – eventually, your online PR efforts will pay off with an increase in fans, followers and site traffic. You’ll also get more backlinks than you’ve ever had before, all without having to pay an Indian company to spam random blogs.

If you think this sounds like a ton of work, you’re right. There’s a definite learning curve with social media marketing and online PR, which is why many companies opt to outsource the job to experts. If you’re interested in learning more about what The Content Factory has to offer (and how much we charge), check out our recent blogs: How Much Does Professional Web Content Writing Cost? and How Much Does Social Media Marketing Cost?