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7 YouTube Mistakes To Avoid So It’s All Smooth Sailing

July 6, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

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YouTube Mistakes

The impact a successful YouTube channel has on a brand can no longer be questioned. The social media behemoth attracts over 1 billion unique visitors to its platform every month, and some YouTubers now generate full-time incomes because of this traffic. With success stories of certain channels bringing in six figure incomes, more people have looked at YouTube as a way to market their brands. However, as more people use YouTube from a business standpoint, more methods get mixed up and misconceptions lead to mistakes. These are seven mistakes that you must avoid so you continue to grow on YouTube.

#1: Not Uploading Enough Videos

Uploading YouTube videos at a consistent rate allows your channel to remain active and give your subscribers a good experience. The moment you stop uploading YouTube videos at a consistent rate, you will lose some of your subscribers, and your account’s growth will halt. In order to avoid the stagnation of your account’s growth, you must upload numerous videos at a consistent rate. The amount of videos you should upload depends on your channel and style. With that said, every YouTuber should upload and publish one video every week. Some people may feel capable of uploading and publishing two YouTube videos every week. The more YouTube videos you upload to your channel, the more choices you give your subscribers and potential subscribers. While you give your audience more options, you must ensure value in all of your videos. If the people in your audience do not appreciate the options you made available for them, then they will look for someone else. On YouTube, it is easy for someone to find videos just like yours. That is why your first impression in terms of value is so important for doing well on YouTube.

#2: Exclusively Uploading Short Videos

For some people, uploading short YouTube videos is their style. However, the longer videos tend to perform better on YouTube’s search engine. Longer videos tend to outperform shorter videos because YouTube uses minutes watched as an essential metric to rank its videos. It is better from a SEO standpoint when a visitor watches 10 minutes of a one hour video than it is when someone watches a three minute video from start to finish. Retention rate matters too, but the minutes watched metric is more significant for YouTube SEO.

#3: Bad Audio

The audio of your videos has an impact on how people perceive your channel and brand. If you have bad audio in your videos, people will find it difficult to listen to your videos even if you offer great advice or good humor. The way your videos sound is just as important as the value within the actual videos. If you don’t have any microphone, then your audio is decent at best. I use the Yeti Microphone for my videos, and many of the highly successful YouTubers use the microphone for their YouTube videos and training courses.

#4: Not Asking For Subscribers Or Comments

At the end of every YouTube video, don’t be afraid to ask your audience to subscribe and comment. The best way to get something is to ask for it, but you don’t want to beg either. There is a difference between saying “Please subscribe” and “Please, please, please subscribe.” I have an annotation that shows up during all of my videos enticing people to subscribe, and at the end of my videos, I encourage interaction and subscriptions. I want to make sure the people who appreciated my video the first time can easily get notified about my other videos and have a conversation with me.

#5: Branching Out Too Far On One Channel

As you get more experience with uploading and publishing videos, it will become tempting to branch out and create a broad channel. Creating a broad channel is one of the worst mistakes to make on YouTube. When you make a broad channel, you confuse your channel’s identity which will result in fewer subscribers. Let’s say you upload some videos about sports, some videos about fashion, and some videos about gadgets. It would be difficult to gain an audience what that channel because viewers won’t know what niche your channel fits into. Instead of creating one broad channel, create a series of specific channels with one clear niche. By creating channels with clear niches, it will be easier for you to build a strong following on YouTube.

#6: Not Breaking Your Channel Into Categories

As you upload more videos, you will get into specific areas within your niche. Getting into specific areas within your niche will fulfill specific needs and desires that your viewers have. However, your viewers won’t want to scroll through all of your videos to find the one video they are looking for. You can make it easier for your viewers to find what they want by breaking your channel into categories.

I have a digital marketing channel, but since there are various components that go towards successful digital marketing, I create different categories based on the videos I have done. I have a social media category and a blogging category because I know that some of my subscribers care more about my social media advice and other subscribers care more about my blogging advice. Breaking my channel into categories makes it easier for both of those subscribers to find what they are looking for in a time effective manner.

#7: Not Sharing Your YouTube Videos On Your Other Social Networks

Just because you put a video on YouTube does not guarantee it will get thousands of views let alone a few million. In order to get more views from YouTube’s search engine, you must generate some of the buzz on your own. When I upload a new YouTube video, I always tweet it and promote it on my other social networks. I have even started sharing my YouTube videos with my email list. I share my YouTube videos with the audience I have already built so more people see the video, and as a result, my audience grows.

In Conclusion

YouTube is still a leading social network, and optimizing it for your brand’s growth will put you in contact with a new audience. You can use the audience you already built to jumpstart your YouTube channel’s growth. By avoiding these common mistakes, YouTube growth will be smooth sailing, and the results will be more impactful for your business.

What are your thoughts on using YouTube for your brand? Do you make any of these mistakes with your YouTube strategy? Do you recommend any other mistakes we should avoid on YouTube? lease share your thoughts and advice below.

Case Study: How I Get My Daily Goals Accomplished

July 3, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Get Daily Goals Accomplished

In our busy worlds of goal setting and getting things done are many distractions that impact the amount of work we accomplish. Not only are there more distractions than ever, but not all of the work we do gets us closer to our dreams. To some, being productive seems impossible while other people do it effortlessly.

Since I am a high school student, I am technically considered a part-time writer and entrepreneur even though I have committed myself to those two areas. My productivity is one of the biggest factors of my success because it allows me to properly juggle being a high school student with being a writer and entrepreneur. In the summer, when I get more control over how long I can work on my brand, my productivity skyrockets primarily because of all of the extra time available. Right now, I will provide a case study on how I get my daily goals accomplished. Accomplishing the daily goals allows me to accomplish my goals for the week, month, and year. How am I this productive? Find out now.

Always Have Significant Things To Do Throughout The Day

If you are not taking the time to build your brand throughout the day, then you need to put in more work. I can’t remember a time I got to bed before 11 pm because I always do work for my brand throughout the day. Even during the summer, I am putting in the work for my brand past 11 pm. Of course, if I see the value of my work suffer as the day continues, I stop putting in the work. When I am not working, I am doing research or reading a book to learn more about my niche. If you don’t give yourself many goals, you may find yourself surfing the web or your television. Surfing the web and your television are two methods of escaping boredom.

Many people see procrastination as a temporary way to escape work and boredom. For many people, watching television is more entertaining and less boring than putting in the work. However, if you appreciate your work and give yourself enough work for yourself to do throughout the day, you’ll find less time to procrastinate.

Do I Really Get Everything Accomplished?

I get many goals accomplished in a given month, but in reality, I don’t get everything accomplished. However, the reason I don’t get everything accomplished is different from most reasons. When I don’t get a series of goals accomplished, that is because I give myself so much to do in a given week that even if I work non-stop for long periods of time, I would only get some of my goals accomplished.

I tend to give myself challenging goals to complete in one week that most people would give themselves an entire month to complete. For instance, I gave myself one week to publish a training course that I didn’t even start (I didn’t even have notes), proofread and publish a book, write five blog posts, outline my next course, complete five YouTube videos, and do a few other things. Right now, I am aiming to launch one new training course every week. I may launch three training courses in a month. I may launch five. By raising the bar so high and sincerely believing in my ability to accomplish everything on that raised bar, I get close or even exceed my expectations and do in one week what most people would do in one month.

Wake Up Early

Not only is it challenging for me to remember a time I got to bed before 11 pm, but it is also challenging for me to remember a time I woke up after 8:30 am. I like to sleep for 7.5 hours every day because 7.5 hours is my optimal sleeping time for productivity and high performance. Waking up early is very important because we have more willpower in the beginning of the day to get our goals accomplished. If you sleep too long, try waking up an hour earlier. Then try waking up two hours earlier. If you wake up an hour earlier and go to sleep at the normal time you go to sleep at, then you gain an extra hour that can be used to get your work done. Of course, sleep is important and not getting enough sleep will negatively impact your work, but getting too much sleep isn’t good for your health either.

Attack The Work Right Away

One of the worst things to do is to know that you have work but not do anything about it. People are fearful of starting their work partly because they don’t want to do the work and partly because the work may be complicated. This fear is caused by the uncertainty of not knowing the amplitude of the work being put in. The only way to attack this fear is to start the work NOW so the cloud of uncertainty slowly clears up until the sun of certainty shines through it and eliminates that particular cloud of uncertainty for good.

Small Achievements Lead To The Big One

When I give myself daily goals, I typically give myself 1-2 big goals and a wide range of smaller goals. I tend to get the smaller (easier but still impactful) goals accomplished first so I have the right mindset for that day. Getting the smaller goals accomplished are the equivalent of small wins, and a string of small wins put together will give you the mindset firepower to accomplish all of the more challenging goals for the day. Giving yourself a series of smaller goals and getting them accomplished will boost your self-esteem which is important to being more productive and producing valuable work.

In Conclusion

We all want to be more productive, but going through the same motions we went through yesterday and the day before won’t make us more productive. Being more productive requires a gradual shift that impacts the way we view our work, and possibly, our lives. Investing the time now to be more productive later will allow you to get your goals accomplished in record-breaking time.

What were your thoughts on the case study? Do you have any tips to be more productive? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

What Twitter Has Meant For My Brand [Case Study]

July 1, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

I started using Twitter in October 2011, and for a while, I wasn’t good at it. At all. For several months, I was stuck in the 1,600-1,700 follower bracket. Then, I learned more about Twitter and saw a small gain in followers. This small, consistent gain was big enough to surpass 2,000 followers. As I gained more followers, I took Twitter more seriously. I did hours of research every day to learn how to properly engage with my followers and gain more of them. I learned the difference between any other follower and a targeted follower. Then, I started to gain hundreds of targeted Twitter followers. I decided to create a training course to share my success with others, and now I have over 200,000 targeted Twitter followers. After I hit the 200,000 follower milestone, I took a step back and considered how much of an impact Twitter had on my business. Here is what I discovered:

People Started To Take Me Seriously

While doing a research project for one of my English classes, I came across several comics poking fun at social media experts. I was so busy conducting research about Twitter so I could dominate it that I was unaware of the negative way some people perceive social media experts.

Although I did not know the criticisms social media experts faced, I got some of the criticism in the beginning. Some people thought since I was a teen, I did not have the proper experience or expertise to know much about social media and entrepreneurship. At this point, I had a small amount of Twitter followers, and I can assure you that the number was not big enough to stand out.

Not only did I have a small amount of followers, but I had a virtually non-existent portfolio. I was a middle school student with no social media audience and a blog about Yugioh Cards that got a few hundred daily visitors. When I switched over to this blog, the fact that I had the blog about Yugioh Cards didn’t mean as much, and I started back at square one.

I moved out of square one since then, and I give most of the credit to my Twitter followers. When I started writing how-to Twitter articles, I had a few hundred followers which was in no comparison to some of the other social media experts who had hundreds of thousands of followers. Now when I write a how-to Twitter article and people read it, they know that it comes from someone with over 200,000 targeted followers who has mastered the social network.

My Blog Got A Dramatic Traffic Boost

Increasing my Twitter activity, meaningfully interacting with my followers, and tweeting more often led to a surge in this blog’s traffic. Before Twitter, I struggled to get 50 visitors in one day. Now, I am disappointed anytime my blog does not exceed 500 visitors in one day. Most of that traffic comes from Twitter, and ever since the Twitter traffic jumped, the SEO traffic jumped as well.

My Twitter growth can clearly be seen in my blog’s traffic because there are consecutive months in which my blog traffic more than doubled. The constant doubling of my blog’s traffic allowed my content to reach more people. The doubling was a result of dramatic changes taking place, but now that those dramatic changes have become common practice, the traffic has become constant.

The main reason the traffic has been constant is because I exclusively relied on Twitter. Twitter gets the ball rolling and allows you to interact with many people, but there’s more to success on the web than Twitter. To be specific, the email list is vital. I figured this out late in the game; don’t let that be you. Although I learned about the email list’s importance late in the game, my Twitter audience is still very significant in my growth. Twitter is the main way I get people to my landing pages, and thousands of my subscribers came directly from Twitter. This is a process that I am still continuing to perfect, and the results are promising. When I get a big increase in traffic because of an email blast, I can still thank Twitter for the big traffic increase because my tweets put most of my subscribers on the email list.

More Connections

Many of the connections I have made over the years are directly because of Twitter. Some people organizing events related to my niche find me on Twitter and ask me to be a public speaker for them. I receive similar opportunities directly because of Twitter. I even became a HootSuite Ambassador largely because of my Twitter audience and my passion for digital marketing. When I attend a business workshop, and I want to connect with someone, I mention my Twitter audience which boosts my credibility. As a teen attending one of these business workshops, I can easily imagine some people wondering what type of dedication I have to be attending business workshops as a teen or if my parents forced me to come with them. Mentioning my Twitter audience immediately answers the question some people wonder, and I get more connections from it.

More Confidence

When I surpassed 100,000 Twitter followers, I reached an accomplishment that I aspired to achieve for many years. When I first created my Twitter account, I wanted to be one of those rock stars of some sort with 100,000 followers but only follow family members and a few friends. Although I follow numerous people (at this point, I follow almost 150,000 people), I did achieve my goal of surpassing 100,000 Twitter followers. Following so many people helped me build relationships that wouldn’t have been possible if I sticked with my previous goal.

I had confidence prior to reaching the milestone, and prior to starting my brand, but my growing Twitter audience opened a new door to my confidence that I didn’t even know was there. I now have the mindset that I can do anything in front of me (only if I possess the enthusiasm to accomplish what is in front of me. This is the disclaimer). I have big goals and plans that may seem impossible, but at one time, I thought it would take me five years to surpass 100,000 Twitter followers. I even created a five year plan for it back when I had 10,000 Twitter followers (don’t create five year plans because so many things happen and change in one month). I had to quickly scrap the five year plan because I achieved the same milestone in one year. I now have over 200,000 Twitter followers at a time when I wouldn’t be halfway done with my five year plan. My ability to exceed this expectation led to great joy, and a raised bar. I raise the bar high for myself every day, week, and month. Time to watch television diminished. I still play video games and run, but those are the only two things I do aside from the business. Sometimes, the raised bar becomes overwhelming, and I rarely accomplish everything in a week that I set out to do, but that’s because I raise the bar so high. For instance, this week, I was supposed to take some SAT tests, publish a training course, write several guidebooks, write three blog posts, and create a Facebook ad while going to school and getting all of the homework done (1-3 hours per night), and that is an average week. Setting the bar so high has allowed me to accomplish more than I thought I was capable of accomplishing.

More Sales

Although Twitter does not lead to a massive amount of direct sales (this is because I choose to promote my blog posts instead of my products, but I may slip in some tweets about products), it brings people to all of the places that are responsible for my sales. Twitter is the primary traffic generation for my landing pages which all directly impact the amount of sales I get. People subscribe to my email list to get the free eBook mentioned on the landing page, I send these people a series of emails, and some of those emails are product promotions. Part of success on Twitter is knowing where to take people when you take them off of Twitter.

In Conclusion

Most of the impact Twitter had on my brand was mindset. Reaching 100,000 Twitter followers taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to, and reaching 200,000 Twitter followers verified this belief. Twitter had a significant impact on my brand from a business standpoint, but the right mindset is required for long-lasting success.

What are your thoughts about taking Twitter seriously? Do you use Twitter often or find yourself inactive on the social network? Was there any part of my case study that appealed to you the most? Please share your thoughts below.

10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Advanced Search For Your Social Media Strategy

June 29, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

When I first came across Twitter Advanced Search, I was absolutely blown away. The advanced search makes it easy to find targeted individuals to interact with and/or market your products to. I learned about Twitter Advanced Search a few months after it was made available to the public, and ever since I learned about it, I used it often in my Twitter strategy. The advanced search allows you to filter out specific tweets and accounts based on what you type within the advanced search, but it can look confusing to a beginner. In this article, I will dispel the confusion and share with you 10 different ways you can use Twitter Advanced Search for your strategy.

#1: Search For Certain Keywords

The Twitter Advanced Search allows you to search for tweets containing specific keywords. You have the choice to decide whether a tweet must include multiple keywords (in the advanced search, that option is “All of these words”) or if a tweet contains one of the keywords that you specify (in the advanced search, that option is “Any of these words”).

Since I am a digital marketing expert, I will occasionally search for tweets about digital marketing to strengthen my knowledge. When I search for these tweets, I use Twitter Advanced Search to find all tweets with one or more of the following keywords: Social media, digital marketing, and blogging. Retail stores can search for keywords based on what they sell and then interact with people who sent relevant tweets. With hundreds of millions of tweets getting sent every day, it won’t be difficult to find a series of tweets with the keyword(s) you are looking for.

#2: Search For Specific Languages

One of the concepts few people recognize is how many timezones and languages fill up our planet. When you are used to hearing the same language in your neighborhood, your community, and in your every day life, it can be difficult to acknowledge that people talk and speak in other languages. On social media, it is easier to understand this concept, but there is an important connection between someone’s language and our brands.

Want to know why language matters for our brands? Here is an example. I am a blogger who writes blog posts in English. If you are with me at this point, then you are most likely read and speak English like it is second nature. However, there are some people who don’t understand English. If you don’t search for the specific language that you use to communicate with your audience, then you risk coming across someone who speaks in a different language and won’t understand yours. If one of my visitors has neither spoken nor read English in his/her lifetime, then I know it is practically impossible for a relationship to build. How can a visitor appreciate my content if that visitor does not understand the language I am using? Searching for a specific language prevents you from running into this problem. If you are an international brand with locations in different countries, then this won’t apply to you, but for most of us, the language a person understands impacts whether that person could possibly appreciate what we do or not.

#3: Search For Tweets Mentioning Certain People

Twitter Advanced Search allows you to see a bunch of tweets that mention other people. I use this feature to find people who interact with other social media thought leaders. Why is this important? Well, think of why a Twitter user would meaningfully engage with a social media thought leader’s tweet. Twitter Advanced Search follows up with tweets from people who all share a passion for social media and engage with other tweets about social media. These people are, by definition, people who interact with other social media thought leaders.

As a digital marketing expert, I want these types of followers. If these people see my tweets, then they will engage with my tweets all the same because I am passionate about digital marketing and send numerous tweets about my niche.

Brands can use this feature to see what other users say about their competitors. If certain users express frustration that your brand could fix, you can offer your services as a solution. Successful products and companies solve other people’s problems. You can build a successful brand solely around solving other people’s problems that the other brands couldn’t or wouldn’t solve.

[Tweet “Use The #Twitter Advanced Search To Discover Your Targeted Audience. http://bit.ly/1FL7IiK”]

#4: Search For Specific Tweets Posted By Specific People

The feature of getting a list of tweets from a specific group of people allows you to create a temporary Twitter list filled with your favorite (or least favorite) tweeters. When I am in the mood for a good laugh, I will use Twitter Advanced Search to search for the tweets posted by humorous accounts. I use this feature more often to learn more about digital marketing. I will type social media thought leaders’ usernames and then see a variety of tweets all about digital marketing, social media, and other tweets along those lines. If you find yourself using Twitter Advanced Search solely for this feature, it would be more advisable to create Twitter lists instead.

#5: Search For People By Location

Since my business is on the web, I don’t always use this feature. Retail stores and restaurants would benefit more from this feature because they could locate Twitter users close enough to stop by (and hopefully make a purchase). The advanced search also accounts for keywords, so if a restaurant was using Twitter Advanced Search to find ideal customers, that restaurant would search for a nearby location and then keywords like “food, hamburger (if the restaurant offers hamburgers), restaurant (maybe competing restaurants will show up. Your restaurant can say, “Come give us a try” but in a meaningful, non-sales-y way). For bloggers and web based businesses, you can search for people by location when you host an event or envision yourself hosting an event in a particular part of the world in the future.

#6: Search For Recent Tweets

Twitter Advanced Search shows an array of tweets written from the first days of Twitter to today. You should only opt to see the most recent tweets. If you own a restaurant and are looking for more customers, and you see a tweet written a few years ago in which a nearby individual wanted to know of a good restaurant, then that person’s past needs may no longer be relevant. So many things can happen in a few years. Maybe the person found a restaurant. Maybe the person lived somewhere else during that tweet and moved nearby after the tweet. Maybe that person is already a customer (you don’t want to tweet to a loyal customer asking them to give your restaurant a try).

I always search for tweets within one week, but depending on your brand, you may find it better to search for tweets posted in the past three months. Try it out and see what works for you.

#7: Search For Positive Tweets

When I look for people to follow on Twitter, I look for people who actively engage with other social media thought leaders. However, not all of these tweets are positive, and I don’t want to follow someone who I know is very likely to not appreciate what I do. When I do these searches, I make sure these are positive tweets. Some people like to express how much they enjoyed an article, and those are the only types of tweets I see when I check in the Positive option in Twitter Advanced Search. If people positively react to the leaders within your niche, and you provide value in your niche, then these people will positively react to your tweets, but only if these people see your tweets. I get these people to see my tweets by following them, and many of these people are highly likely to follow back based on their follow ratios and because I tweet digital marketing advice.

#8: Search For Negative Tweets

You can search for negative tweets about your competitors and look for common patterns. These common patterns will detect where your competitors fall short, and your brand can become the solution that leads to you helping others while making a profit. Successful brands try their best to help others, but some customers fall through the cracks. Searching for negative tweets allows you to find the customers who have fallen through the cracks. With this knowledge, you can fill up those cracks so more customers can find the advice or product they are looking for.

#9: Search For Questions

Some people will have a question about your niche, but not everyone who has a question gets an answer (FYI: if you want your question answered, the first step is to ask the question in the first place). Some people will ask their questions on Twitter, but not all of those questions will get answered. You can be the person who answers other people’s questions about your products and similar products within your niche. Some people may ask about your customer service or someone else’s customer service. When you provide your meaningful answer, the person who asked the question will be grateful for your reply, and that’s one of the ways to build a relationship between you and a potential customer.

#10: Search For Retweets To See What Is Popular

When you search for retweets, you will get an idea of what is popular within a certain niche. If you look for patterns, you will discover what patterns you can use to make your tweets more desirable so more of your followers retweet them. If you only tweet desirable tweets, then people will come back to your profile often to read your tweets. When someone reaches this stage of the relationship building process, it will be difficult for that person to forget about you.

In Conclusion

Twitter Advanced Search is one of the most sophisticated search engines on the entire web. It effectively filters the billions of tweets on the web and allows you to find the exact tweets you are looking for based on keywords, people who get mentioned, people sending the tweets, language, emotion, and other essential filtering methods.

Do you use Twitter Advanced Search? Has it become a vital part of your business? If you did not use Twitter Advanced Search before reading this blog post, do you plan on using it now? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Start A Successful Pinterest Board

June 26, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Are you leveraging Pinterest for your brand’s growth? Pinterest is increasingly growing in significance and user base, and some brands rely on Pinterest for their overall social media strategy. While the results for each of these brands differ, some brands have gone viral on Pinterest and tapped into new audiences. Many brands go on Pinterest with an aspiration to achieve the same success.

Becoming successful on Pinterest requires a plethora of successful boards. It takes time to create successful boards that generate massive audiences, so instead of focusing on creating multiple successful boards, focus right now on creating one successful board. If you can create just one successful board, then you know what it takes to create multiple successful boards that generate massive audiences.

All you have to do at this point is know how to create a successful board and then create it. Content factors into the value of a board, but there are other factors that impact the experience the people in your audience have when they visit your board.

#1: Keep Your Board Fresh With New Content

When people visit your board, they want fresh content. If the last thing you pinned on your board was from a year ago, then that board won’t be attractive enough to keep someone’s attention for a long period of time. All successful boards do an excellent job at keeping people’s attention over a long period of time over a series of encounters. That means a first-time visitor who enjoyed your board then must still enjoy it a week later (because the content is fresh, relevant, and valuable).

How do you keep a board fresh with new content? One way is to schedule your pins in advance with ViralWoot. You can schedule up to 100 pins per month free of charge, but then ViralWoot has rates that apply if you wish to schedule over 100 pins per month. At this rate, you could schedule three pins per month free of charge. Three pins per day is sufficient for making one of your boards successful, but that same number is insufficient if you want to make multiple boards become successful.

Remember that you want multiple/all boards on your profile to become successful which also requires more work on your part. If you want to have 10 successful Pinterest boards, then you would have to schedule 30 pins per day for all of those boards (or send some of them directly from Pinterest, but if you publish too many pins at one time, you will annoy your followers). That adds up to 900 pins per month which takes a significant amount of time and requires a paid ViralWoot account.

When I came to this realization, I quickly got overwhelmed. I send over 100 tweets per day, write 5,000 words on a bad week, do videos for upcoming training courses, write books, and go to school. Scheduling hundreds of pins per month would be nearly impossible for me to do on my own. I couldn’t possibly do it all by myself.

Then came the contributors.

I knew I couldn’t do it all by myself and didn’t want to pay people to put pins on my boards. The logical solution was to invite people to contribute to my boards. I recently started to implement this strategy, and now some of my Pinterest boards have hundreds of contributors which completely systematizes my Pinterest strategy. New pins get added to some of my boards every day without my involvement. For some of my boards, I simply moderate everything that gets pinned to make sure none of the content is inappropriate or irrelevant (so far, that has never happened. My contributors are the best). At one point, I gained over 1,000 Pinterest followers without pinning anything new on my account. All of the contributors helped update my boards and keep the content fresh.

Why would contributors be so eager to pin on my boards without getting paid? The answer is the exposure. I have over 10,000 followers on all of my boards, and when someone accepts my invitation to become a contributor, that person gets over 10,000 followers to interact with overnight. I give people to power to share their thoughts and ideas on a larger platform. Many of the people I invite take me up on the offer and pin valuable content on my boards. I aspire to have several boards on my account with over 1,000 contributors, so if you want in, let me know.

#2: Optimize Your Pins

When you allow contributors to pin on your boards, you must recognize that not all of the pins that appear on the group boards will be created by you. While this is a great way to systematize Pinterest, you must occasionally publish your own pins. When you do publish your own pins, your pins must optimized to do well on the platform.

The first thing that comes to mind in a pin is the picture. It does not take much time to discover that not all pictures on the web are created equal. While some of the pictures look nice, others are duds, but just because a picture looks nice does not mean it is properly optimized for Pinterest.

The first thing to note is the height of the picture. If the picture you choose is a square, then it will show up on Pinterest as a square. If the picture is 800 pixels by 800 pixels, then it will get reduced to 600 pixels to 600 pixels when it goes on Pinterest. The problem is that although the picture may look nice, it isn’t tall enough. Pictures optimized to do well on Pinterest must be tall enough to take up the entire screen and have little to no background. This explains why pins of lengthy infographics perform much better than the average pin.

The pixel dimensions are just a nice, random fact if you get pictures from Google Images (you can’t change the pixel dimensions unless you use some type of photo editor), but if you create your own pictures, then you have the power to choose the dimensions of that image. Creating a picture may sound difficult at first glance, but creating your own pictures is surprisingly easy with Canva. Canva lets you choose from their pictures, text, and backgrounds to create a picture that you would be proud of. You can also upload pictures from the web that you have permission to use or your own pictures to Canva. The best part from a Pinterest standpoint is that you can customize the size of the image so it is optimized for Pinterest. An optimized picture has a width of 600 pixels and a height of thousands of pixels. Remember that the taller your image is, the more you must add to the image so the background does not take up too much space. You also have the power to specific the color of your background and the colors of various parts of the image. Make these colors bright colors because bright colors perform better on Pinterest than dull colors.

After the picture is another part of the pin that not as many pinners consider when optimizing their pins. The other part of a pin is the pin’s description. Here is how you would optimize a pin’s description:

200-300 characters is the sweet spot with 250 characters being the ultimate sweet spot. Don’t focus on the 250. If your pin is 233 characters or something along those lines, then your description is fine. Remember, people on Pinterest want details.
Include 1-2 hashtags. Hashtags help you get found on Pinterest because they generate traffic from Pinterest’s search engine. They also lead to more engagement, but if you overuse hashtags in your descriptions, your followers will have a tough time reading your pins’ descriptions. If a description is tough to read, your followers will get confused, and confused followers never stick around.

#3: Make Your Profile More Attractive

If people really enjoy one of your boards, they will wonder who created the board, but they won’t be wondering for very long. It is easy to discover who created a group board.

With that said, the way you present yourself affects how people think of your board and brand. That’s why colleges are increasingly asking for students’ social media accounts in the college application process. That’s why there are job interviews. That’s why event organizers ask a potential public speaker some questions before hiring the public speaker to speak at the event. That’s why the first impression is so important.

On Pinterest, your first impression is your profile. You need to have a good picture of yourself that looks professional. In your bio, list your top credentials and hobbies with nothing but commas (no conjunctions, period at the end of the sentence, or anything like that. Your bio should be a sentence fragment with no subject or verb). The hobbies are just as important as the credentials because people get to know you on a more personal level (this connection helps strengthen the relationship between you and your followers). Making your profile attractive gives you a good first impression which will entice your followers to become returning visitors who frequently like and repin your pins.

In Conclusion

Pinterest continues to grow as the days go by which makes now the perfect time to take it seriously. The key to thriving on Pinterest is to know how to create a successful Pinterest board and then make one of your boards become successful. You would do this by having contributors, optimizing your pins to perform well, and bolstering your profile.

Do you think more people should take Pinterest seriously? Which tip about creating a successful Pinterest board did you like the most? Do you have any additional tips for creating a successful Pinterest board? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

4 Ways That Anyone Can Use Social Media To Drive Leads

June 24, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Social media is the most effective tool to make connections, grow an audience, and give a greater meaning to what you do. Experts have used social media over the years to completely transform their businesses and spread their messages. Despite so many people using social media to level up their businesses, other people find themselves stuck. They don’t know how to leverage social media as a lead generation tool.

If you fit into the category, then the first step towards generating leads is to know how to generate leads. If you want to know how to generate leads, then you are at the right place. This article will discuss four of the methods that you can use to generate more social media leads right now.

#1: Create And Promote A Landing Page

One of the most effective ways to generate leads is to have your own landing page. Upon creating your own landing page (I use Optimize Press for mine), you will quickly discover that creating a landing page does not guarantee more leads. The only way to get more leads from a landing page is to get people to see the landing page. I get people to see my landing pages by promoting them across my social networks.

Most of the subscribers I get from my blog come directly from landing page traffic that I get from my social networks. Before I created a landing page, I only had 300 subscribers. 150,000 visitors only led to 300 subscribers. In short, my blog was poorly optimized for getting subscribers. Then, I created multiple landing pages and started to promote them across my social networks. The result was a massive increase in subscribers. I quickly went from only having 300 subscribers to gaining well over 300 subscribers every month.

After you create your landing page, the next step is to promote that landing page. As mentioned before, promoting the landing page on Twitter alone led to a massive increase in subscribers. However, the way I promoted the landing page is another story. Twitter is the type of social network that people go on for a short period of time to see what’s new, and since so many people tweet on Twitter, it is easy for the timeline to get filled up. As a result, most of your followers will miss your tweets and not engage with them.

One way to solve the problem is by pinning a social media post to the top of your feed. That way, that post promoting your landing page will automatically show up on the top, even if you post something new. Facebook and Twitter have this option enabled on their platforms. Here is an example of a pinned tweet:

The tweet was sent before 2015, and yet it still appears before the tweet I sent a few minutes ago. This tweet has significantly more engagement that most of my other tweets because of the added exposure of being a pinned tweet. Most tweets and Facebook posts have short half-lives (when that half-life is over, the tweet or Facebook post basically gets little to no impressions for the rest of its existence), but when you pin a tweet or Facebook post to the top of your feed, that tweet or Facebook post has an infinite half-life which means people will always see it.

The tweet also has more engagement than most of my tweets. While most of my tweets get a few thousand impressions, this tweet has over 20,000 impressions. That means over 20,000 people saw that one tweet. Of course, the engagement isn’t where I want it (only 3% of those people engaged and only 1% clicked on the link), but those are the percentages that many tweets on Twitter generate.

How could I possibly get 300 subscribers every month on Twitter when the pinned tweet only has 275 clicks? The answer is that I constantly tweet about my landing pages. I send one tweet every hour about one of my landing pages. This is how I get numerous people to visit my landing page every day, and this is how I get my subscribers from Twitter. While the pinned tweet gets the most engagement for my landing page, the other tweets I send on a daily basis are just as important.

#2: Interact With Your Individual Followers

Have you ever heard of the saying, “Ask and you shall receive”? It seems as if the more we ask for, the more we get (don’t abuse this power). When I interact with my followers, I will occasionally ask if the follower got a chance to download my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter. I may also ask about the Productivity Rubric or another free eBook I offer called 27 Simple Ways To Get More Blog Subscribers (I like the number 27).

I started implementing this tactic in March 2015 and saw great results from it. Some people said they received the book and went on to say how much they enjoyed it. I asked these people what they liked about the book the most and if the conversation allowed, I asked if a particular follower had the chance to grab another one of my free eBooks. I would become a part of dozens of these types of interactions every day, and the numbers show for it. I got over 110% more subscribers in March than I got in January.

How many interactions does it take? Well, take a look at how many interactions I had in January compared to the number of interactions I had in March:

Here are the statistics from January:

Now you will see the significant increase in interactions in March:

The trend is an increase in interactions that gained momentum as I asked more people whether they got a chance to download my free eBook or not. When people said they never heard about it and expressed interest in the eBook, I included the link to the landing page in the next tweet I sent to those people. Many of them ended up subscribing.

Interacting with your followers is not just important for generating leads, but interacting with your followers is also important for your overall success as a brand. Your audience buys your products, reads your blog posts, and spreads the word about you. Taking the minute or two to interact with several people in your audience will strengthen the relationship between you and the people in your audience. This relationship is important for your success.

#3: Promote Your Landing Pages On Social Media Group Pages and Forums

Social media group pages and forums about your niche are great places to promote your landing pages because both of these platforms consist of numerous people in your targeted audience. Not only do you get to promote your landing pages to your targeted audience, but the platform is already built for you. If you become a member of a Facebook group page with over 10,000 members, then that’s over 10,000 people who can potentially become leads. If you post on a forum with 100,000 members, then that’s 100,000 potential leads.

Social media group pages and forums work well because members constantly come back to interact with other members. Just as an audience keeps your brand alive, the members of a social media group page or forum keep that social media group page or forum alive by building a community on the platform. This means many people will see what you post in the social media group page or forum, and that can lead to massive traffic.

Before you take the plunge and post a link to your landing page, see how the community interacts and responds to certain posts. You want to make sure describing your landing page and then posting a link to that landing page would go well amongst the people in the community, but you also want to make sure you are not violating any rules. Some social media group pages and forums will suspend users who over-promote themselves or promote themselves in any possible manner. The rules and consequences vary by social media group pages and forums.

#4: Use Reddit

Reddit is a hit-or-miss tool in which promoting yourself can work wonders, but you don’t want to over-promote yourself. A typically Reddit post can get anywhere from no engagement to thousands of upvotes. One of the posts I put on Reddit resulted in no leads. Another post I put on Reddit got me over 500 leads in just 24 hours. The leads I gained that day did not carry over far. Within a week, I was back at my normal lead generation rate. You can think of Reddit as the spike in traffic that doesn’t last very long but allows more people to know about you. I wouldn’t rely on Reddit for lead generation, but it is an underrated tool that can either lead to zero results or wonders.

In Conclusion

If you want to generate more leads, then you must create a landing page and promote that landing page as often as you can on your social networks. Tell one follower about the landing page. Then tell another follower. Post a link to your landing page multiple times per day on your social networks.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any stories with using social media to generate leads? What tips would you recommend? Please share your thoughts and advice below.