Best websites for syndication

Facebook for Syndication

As we all know Facebook is the most popular website in the world with almost 1 Billion members. The great thing about facebook is that you can have an individual profile which is you as a person and the other side of the Facebook site is the business pages. The busienss pages in Facebook are best used for you to promote. Everyone, or nearly everyone on Facebook knows that a business page can be used to promote blog posts and get tips.

The key to building good content to your Facebook Business page is to make a post or two everyday of information that will be interesting to your followers and at the same time you can post your own blog posts. Using this method of promotion means that you are not just throwing your own pitches at people but adding value as well.

The most popular way to post to facebook from your blog automatically is by using Networked Blogs which is a site that will pull any new posts from your blog and post them to Facebook

Twitter for Syndication

Twitter, much like Facebook is used for conversation between people and as such you can comment back and forth with lots of people abiout your postas as well as their posts. There are very significant things that you can and can’t do on Twitter. Your posts on Twitter are limited to 140 characters and you can retweet or reply to any post so the ideal way to look at Twitter is that you have your own micro website that you own and are posting to and you comment on others streams or copy one of their posts to yours.

To get your blog content to Twitter I have always found that using Hootsuite is the easiest way to send content over to Twitter from your RSS feed or you can manually post it through a simple interface.

Tumblr for Syndication

Tumblr is a site that is a merge between Twitter and Facebook and is very popular. On Tumblr you can reblog other people posts with your own captions, you can write your own posts, and you can follow people so that you have a stream to watch and repost with.

I do love tumblr and use a service called Ping.fm to post to Tumblr

So you see there are a few ways to post content, also known as syndication to other sites so that google will recognize your content as well as showing other people what you have to say and your views while gettling lots of conversation going.

How to Syndicate Your Blog Posts

Here are five ways brands can leverage Pinterest now:

1. The “Follow Me” Button

The simplest way to get Pinterest followers to your company’s Pinterest page is to put a “Follow Me on Pinterest” button on your webpage in hopes that people will click it. Make sure you provide quality content for them to follow. Update it frequently so your boards don’t go stale. It’s also important to remember that a user’s choice to “Follow” may not be brand specific, but board specific. This gives you the opportunity to segment your followers in ways relevant to your business. A well-designed strategy will have you add “Follow Me” buttons in places appropriate to the segment.

Share Your Authenticity

Show your audience you’re a real person. Pinterest allows a business to show its consumers there are really people behind it. You can share experiences, recipes, hobbies, and the like with customers. While this shouldn’t be the bulk of what you’re sharing, it can be a small portion of it to show the person or people behind the scenes of the operation. The more they get to know you, the more they’ll feel they connect with your business.

Link Back to Your Business

Is your business something with visual appeal? If it is, you can pin professional photos of your products or services and link back to your website. For example, if you own a restaurant, you can pin great recipes or recipes you create, both with great pictures, and link back to a landing page on your website. This makes it easy for Pinterest followers to become customers once they notice your picture and are naturally intrigued to visit the link where the picture came from.

Be a Resource for Customers

If you have a service-based business, consider pinning some eye-catching short tutorials and how- to articles. Pin some tasteful photos that illustrate what you’re trying to teach and have them link back to a media story, blog post, or wherever else the educational material might be on the web.

It’s important to meet your customers where they are. If they have a need, fill it. People are much more open to look for new products and services when they have a problem. If you are there to help them fix the problem, they will be much more receptive to what your company is offering.

Share and Share Alike

If you want to promote your business on Pinterest, you can’t make your pins all about your business. You need to focus on more than just yourself. Re-pin interesting things others are doing. Re-pinning something someone else pinned is the ultimate compliment on Pinterest. If you do it on a regular basis, you will have people take notice of you.

There are so many strategies you can use to promote your business on Pinterest. Gone are the days of hardcore marketing. Today people like to feel connected with the people marketing to them. There are a number of ways you can connect with your customers to help get the word out about your business.

5 Strategies to Make Pinterest Work for You

Self-Expression

Pinterest, first and foremost, is a place for people to express themselves. The premise behind the website is for people to create virtual bulletin boards and “pin” what they find interesting to them. They can create as many boards as they like for as many different aspects of their lives as they want. Pinterest allows for a form of self-expression online that other social networks don’t. It is based almost entirely on images. It’s perfect for our visual society. People can express themselves and fulfill that need we all have.

Curiosity

Pinterest allows you to follow other people on the website. That means you can see what they are pinning to their boards. This can be quite fascinating to the Pinterest user. You can learn more about people you already know or people you’re just getting to know. The fact you can see what others are pinning to their boards makes Pinterest quite intriguing to many people. It makes it quite a fascinating place for people to hang out.

Creating Digital Memories

Everyone loves creating memories. Pinterest boards are like virtual scrapbooks. The user can create several boards for what’s important to them at that moment in time. As with anything in life, the user will change over time so the boards capture a digital snapshot of that time period in their lives, their likes and dislikes, their hopes and desires, for that time when it was created.

Community

Who doesn’t love to see what their friends like? Who doesn’t want a peek into someone else’s dreams for a moment? Want to see what recipes your friends are collecting? Want to see crafts all your mom friends are planning for the upcoming holidays? Want to see what new cars the family down the street are considering? All of that can be seen on Pinterest. It’s a way to get a peek into someone else’s life.

Life Planning

Some people use Pinterest for planning. There are stories of people using it to plan a trip or even plan an entire wedding! Whatever you are planning, Pinterest offers a place for you to organize everything. You can split different aspects of your planning into different boards or put it all into one board.

Escape

Sometimes you just need to escape for life for a few minutes. One reason people love Pinterest so much is because it offers them that. They can hop on and see what their friends are pinning. Or they can surf the web and find things they want to put on their boards. But Pinterest is all about escaping from life for just a little while.

There are a number of reasons people love Pinterest. Whether it’s the community they build, the curiosity they have about others, or just a way to escape and relax, this website is changing the way people interact online. It’s a website that has hit the social media web with a bang and has many adoring fans.

Why People Love Pinterest

Visual Resume – If you’re looking for a job, why not get creative and make Pinterest a part of the process? You can pin photos of the work you do and include links to your online portfolio. This is especially helpful if you’re in the digital arts, education, beauty, fashion, or other careers that require visual creativity. Use boards as a way to showcase your inspirations and what you offer to an employer or client.

For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you can pin a picture of a logo you have done and link it to your branded website. If you’re a beautician, you can pin photos of clients you have made up, as well as the products you use to create the looks. If you’re a teacher, you can link to lesson plans you have created for a creative lesson. Last but not least, you can link to your resume. For creative ideas for this, search Pinterest boards that have done this and find one that you like and use it for inspiration.

Increased Marketability - You can find out what a company wants simply by following the company’s, the human resources, and recruiters Pinterest’s boards. Some companies post boards focusing on human resources and management tips specifically. This gives you insight on the types of professionals they favor or might be interested in hiring. Some companies also post boards actually showing the type of candidate they like working at their company or organization, the exact qualifications they are looking for, and even job boards for the titles they’re hiring.. This is valuable information if you’re looking to work for that company.

Professional Connections - Just like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, Pinterest offers insight into what makes a person tick. Professionals are just like anyone else and use boards to tell the stories of who they are outside of the office. You can follow the “pins” of someone you want to get to know better and use the information you learn as a springboard for conversations.

Job Hunting - Companies, universities, media organizations, and other entities are actually using Pinterest to post jobs and job seeker resources. Since it’s a visual website, a photo will be pinned along with the link. You can check out the Pinterest boards of companies like FlexJobs or educational institutions such as the Coppin State University Career Services Center to find information on recruiters, links to job boards, and other information about job seeking if you’re looking for a job.

Inspiration - Pinterest can help you in so many more aspects than you think in finding a job. You can find many resources on making yourself marketable for a job, how to conduct yourself in an interview, what to wear, and much more. It can direct you to career books and blogs that can enrich your knowledge even further. You can pin the things that inspire you to your board for future reference when you find that “perfect job.”

When looking for a new job, the last place you might think to look is Pinterest. But, it might be wise to make it your “go to” place. Whether you’re looking for a job or looking for tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, what to wear, or anything else career-oriented, Pinterest has it all.

How Pinterest Can Boost Your Career

Finding Your Happy Place and Sharing Your Ideal Self

Pinterest is a unique social network. Gone are the awkward relationship status changes, check-ins at restaurants, or pictures of kids. Pinterest boards are like personal happiness collages. They represent things that the pinner appreciates, that they desire, and that expresses who they are.

While it seems Pinterest is more private without the status updates that Facebook and Twitter offer, Pinterest frees people to be more public about who they really are and who they want to be. The key is the fact it reveals the more ideal self, what the user is trying to be, where their hopes and dreams lie. When you follow someone and watch what they are pinning and see a glimpse of what they want out of life, you might see a nugget of yourself or just learn more about that person. It’s a gratifying experience and a unique connection that other social networks don’t offer.

Simple and Artistic

Whether we like to admit it or not, we like things that are attractive. How each photo is displayed on Pinterest, down to the size it is, is pleasing to the eyes. They are also simple. Without words distracting all over the page, it’s clean and simple to look at. Although there are pictures all around, that simply lends to an artistic look, but not a cluttered look. Even the logo is clean and simple

People like things that are simple. Everything about Pinterest is simple. From the moment you log into Pinterest and start building boards, it easy and simple. Finding content and either pinning it or re-pinning it from someone else’s board is simple. You don’t need technical knowledge. So there are no limitations in that respect. Anyone can do Pinterest and that certainly makes it addictive!

It’s All About Sharing

Much of what Pinterest lovers adore the most is sharing. They follow their friends, celebrities, other people and entities and see what they’re doing. This is fascinating information. They can re-pin when they like what they see. If it weren’t for the sharing part of the Pinterest formula, it might not work as well as it does. The fact users get to take a peek into the lives of others and share in it and even snag a piece of it for themselves if they chose to do so may be what is most addicting about Pinterest.

Why is Pinterest So Addictive?

Content

The core of all Internet marketing is content. The first step in creating a profitable website is compelling copy. It doesn’t stop there, however. The second and equally important step is to promote the content on the website. The way to promote online content varies from marketer to marketer. It typically includes a complex system that with several elements that work together.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technique with strategic methods used to increase their rankings in the search engines. Onsite SEO seeks to provide content in the top slot on search engines like Google and Yahoo for a particular targeted keyword.

Social Media Marketing

Another component of Internet marketing is social media marketing. This is a way to promote content and a website within online communities. These include websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. These websites are all focused on connections and this can be used to greatly benefit the online Internet marketer.

Link Building

Link building is a vital part of Internet marketing. This is the process of creating inbound links to a website from other websites. It’s important to have a variety of websites, both old and new, so there is a wide variety of websites providing the inbound links.

PPC

Pay-Per-Click Marketing is a unique form of online advertising many Internet marketers use. The advertisers’ costs are based on the amount of times a user clicks on the advertisements. Fees vary widely and are often dependents upon the popularity of the subject matter, keywords, and many other factors. Google AdWords is the most popular pay-per-click ad model.

Email Marketing

A form of marketing that many Internet marketers prefer is email marketing. This is a great way to give information out to clients and get a response. This style of marketing includes newsletters and mass emails. Those who receive the email are typically encouraged to take some form of action.

Article Marketing

Article marketing is a popular way for Internet marketers to promote their website. This form of promotion relies on written articles that relate to the type of business the marketer is promoting. The article is then freely distributed and published on many different types of websites.

Internet marketing has become one of the most popular styles of marketing in the last decade. It shows no sign of letting down. This style of marketing takes many complex systems, such as SEO, link building and article marketing, and puts them into play at the same time to create the largest campaign possible for the targeted website.

What is Internet Marketing?

Is Pinterest Right for Your Site?

Although Pinterest is a hot website right now, it’s not going to be right for every niche. As of early 2012, the website’s main users are women, that means if your website is mainly men’s fashions, sports, or scantily clad women, you probably won’t do well on Pinterest. As the site evolves, experts predict male use of the site will, too. It’s still not a bad idea to get involved even if your primary target is males so are ready when male readership increases.

Some reports claim that the site can now bring more traffic than Google+, Linkedin, and others combined. Hard information is scarce and most people are at the very emerging stages of determining just how many visitors the site sends.

Become a Member of the Pinterest Community

There are no shortcuts in building web traffic. If you want to connect with people on Pinterest and get web traffic from the website, you need to be an active participant. You can use it to post pictures that you find pretty, useful, or in the case of food, mouth-watering.

Consistently use the site every day. You can’t expect for good traffic to come from Pinterest if you just show up every once in a while with limited interaction. That is no way to build a following or develop relationships on the site. The only way to really build traffic from the site is to actually use the site itself.

Know Who to Follow

Find people and brands that have similar interests or branding to you or your company and watch them over time. After you have watched them for a while, you can start to gradually engage and interact with them. You can promote them by re-pinning things they post, in the hopes they might notice things you post and re-pin them, too. You can also follow or befriend these people on Facebook, and develop a deeper relationship with them. Get to know them and talk to them. This is the heart of what social media and it is what is all about.

Help Others

If you see someone pin something you like, re-pin it, meaning to share it. If people “like” your pins and boards and “pin” your images, do the same thing for them. This builds a relationship between the two of you. It shows you have similar interests. Re-pinning is the equivalent to a re-tweet on Twitter or a share on Facebook. If you consistently interact with people on Pinterest it will determine if you develop a relationship or not.

In the end, it’s up to each company or individual to determine if their time is well-spent on Pinterest. It could be time very well-spent but the jury is still out exactly how beneficial it is. But there’s no doubt Pinterest is a hot website right now and a great way to get some traffic to your website.

Use Pinterest to Boost Your Website’s Traffic

Add a Pinterest Follow Me button to Your Signature

Wisestamp is a free service you can use to jazz up your email signatures and has added Pinterest to its list of supported services. It’s easy to use so the process is perfect for even the most technology challenged person. The Pinterest Email App makes it easy to add a “Follow Me on Pinterest “button to your email signature without having to touch an ounce of HTML, buttons or anything else. As a second option, Wisestamp offers the option to simply add a Pinteret button beside your other social profile icons.

“Pinterest To Go “

If you can’t bear the thought of being without Pinterest even when you’re away from home, you’re in luck. There is an official iPhone app so you can pin photos you’ve taken or save them while you’re on the go. Android users aren’t as lucky. They’ll have to wait, as surely something will come out soon for their Pinterest addiction. Android users can still access all of Pinterest while they’re on the go, they just can’t upload.

Share Screenshots on Pinterest

Do you like to share screen shots on Pinterest? While you may have your own method of taking screenshots, the website Url2Pin.it gives you a way to share them on Pinterest. Url2Pin.it is a great way for Web designers to easily share their work with Pinterest followers.

The process of Url2Pin.it is easy. You simply enter the website url you want to share, hit the Pinterest button on the right, and a pop up button will appear. You can choose the board you would like to put it on and then write an account of what it is. There is also a Chrome browser extension for it, too.

Find Out How Influential You Are on Pinterest

In social media, it’s almost like you’ve returned to high school. Popularity is where it’s at again. Ever since Klout burst onto the scene, there have been several copycats. Some of them are dedicated to letting you know how influential you are on Pinterest. While this might be fun for one person, it’s invaluable information for brands and companies. It helps them know what they’re doing right and wrong on Pinterest.

Pinclout is free and will tell you your score. While it’s not very clear on exactly how they determine your score, it seems to be based on the total number of pins, repins, likes, followers, friends, comments, boards, and community boards you have. This service also shows how to quickly know what your most popular boards are and how you stack up against the most very popular Pinterest members.

The second option on your quest to determine how great your influence on Pinterest is Pinpuff. You don’t even have to sign in to use this service, you just enter your Pinterest user ID and email address and they will display your score. This service will also tell you how much your account is worth, what your reach is, your activity, and your virility scores.

First and foremost, Pinterest is meant to be a fun social tool. While Pinterest itself has a number of features that keep users busy for hours, there are also a number of tools and websites that can enhance your Pinterest experience even further. By trying a few of them out, you might find Pinterest even more addicting!

4 Cool Tools You Can Use on Pinterest

Not Using Website Analytics

Internet marketing lives and dies by a website. If you aren’t getting traffic or not getting the type of traffic you would like, you need to figure out how to fix it. This would be impossible if you don’t have some sort of tracking mechanism in place to keep track of what is happening on your website.

Google offers Google Analytics and there are many other free and paid type services that will show you where your web traffic is coming from, what pages they are viewing, and how many overall visitors you are receiving. This is valuable information. By not doing it, you are simply leaving out a huge piece of the Internet marketing puzzle.

Not Remaining Timely

Maybe you design or pay someone to design a great website for you. Once it’s up and running, you can’t just let it sit and do all the work. Many marketers think once the website is up, the work is done and that is simply not true. You need to constantly be tweaking the website to make it better and putting relevant content on it to stay up to date. This should be a part of any marketing plan.

Not Using Viral Marketing

The concept of viral marketing as we know it today was unheard of just a decade ago. But today it is a powerful force that should never be overlooked in an Internet marketing strategy plan. There are a number of ways you can use viral marketing to your advantage, depending on the type of business you run. Something as simple as putting a link to forward a marketing email to friend is a great way to use viral marketing that nearly any business can use.

You can also offer incentives for customers to spread the word about your business. Even producing a cute or funny video that has to do with your business and putting it on YouTube has the possibility of some great viral marketing if enough people see it and forward it to more friends. The key with viral marketing is to give your audience high quality content or product so much that they will want to share it with their friends.

Not Having a Clear Call to Action Placed Above the Fold

The moment a visitor lands on your website, you need to capture their attention with a call to action. This should be “above the fold.” That means it needs to be on their computer screen without them needing to scroll down to see it. It doesn’t need to be the product you are ultimately selling. In fact, it’s better if it’s something free you’re offering that you want them to sign up for, such as a free consultation or a free ebook. This gets them in your sales funnel and will help you “hand hold” them as you coax them to buy your product.

Giving Up Too Soon

Internet marketing takes a lot of hard work and time. Although some may claim you can get rich overnight with it, that’s simply not reality. Even the best SEO strategy may not show any results for many weeks or months. Don’t be tempted to quit because your business doesn’t explode with growth and profit in the beginning. Be consistent and continue to take action and your hard work will pay off in the end.

Everyone makes mistakes. There are certainly mistakes that can be made in the Internet marketing business. By avoiding some of the common ones you can get your Internet marketing business off to a great start.

5 Common Internet Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Branding is the new way to differentiate yourself in today’s marketplace. Today’s phenomenon of Pinterest takes this to a whole new level. It looks like Pinterest is here to stay and it’s filled with endless possibilities of ways to brand yourself yet to be explored.

Showcase Your Work

Whatever you do, whether it’s photography, floral arranging, blogging, or graphic design, Pinterest is perfect to display your work in one place and showcase it in a compelling way. It will make you stand out and really make name for yourself. Most people aren’t doing this yet and it gives you a way to be a trend setter.

Pin Your CV or Resume

Believe it or not, Pinterest can be a great ally in your quest to find the perfect job. Gone are the days of boring paper resumes. Today you need to be innovative and visual. Pinterest is just that and more. In fact, Pinterest may give the seal of approval for those trailblazers who experimented and were innovative with their visual résumés when it was still not fashionable to do so. Personal branding is all about standing out and making Pinterest a part of your resume is certainly a way to stand out. The ideal solution might be to create your “resume” as a website and incorporate Pinterest as an element of the website. Or, you can have your entire resume on Pinterest and simply send potential employers there.

Create and Update a Reading List About Your Profession

If you want to show you are passionate about your profession, create a board of your favorite books and books you want to read on your chosen profession. You can leave comments about each book, too. It also goes without saying, if you’re a published author, make sure you include your own books, as well.

Flaunt Your Creative and Innovative Spirit

You don’t have to showcase your own work to show how creative you are. Start a board of things that inspire you. Pinterest can go a long way in underscoring your creative flair. The collection of your boards displays who you are as a person. They speak about who you are and prove you are an innovative spirit.

Support Your Favorite Charity & Non-Profit

You can be an active contributor by pinning quality content for your favorite charity or non-profit organization. If you believe in making a difference as a part of your life, Pinterest can help you in that quest. You should only do this if you truly support the charity or non-profit. But if this is a part of who you are then you should proudly display it on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a great way to show off your personal brand. It allows you to showcase your talents and who you are as a professional. You can use it in many different ways to show what’s important to you and what you are passionate about.

7 Ways to Use Pinterest for Personal Branding