How does person ‘A’ get so much interaction, no matter what they post as their Facebook status update, while person ‘B’ could post the same thing and get zero interaction?

What would the world be like if we all knew the answer to that question? It would probably cease to exist as we know it because everything revolves around Facebook status updates! Right?

Tips for writing compelling Facebook status updates which inspire interaction!

I may not know the exact answer to the person ‘A’ and person ‘B’ question, but I do have some tips which will help you write more compelling Facebook status updates which will inspire others to participate.

So here we go.

• Keep your status updates short, but not too short. In today’s fast paced lifestyle, most people use their mobile devices to check their Facebook accounts. Most people I interact with, which have a Facebook account, will use their mobile device 95% of the time. With that said, since most mobile device screens are much smaller than a computer screen, the short, to-the-point status updates will be more enticing and easier to read. Right around 200 to 250 characters would be a good range to be in.
• Share interesting stuff. I’ve read certain status updates that go something like this, “I’m living my life on purpose and am excited for what the future brings!” That’s all good, glad to know that, but does it inspire any sort of interaction? Is there a call to action, a question or an interesting fact that they can relate to? Not really. I approach my Facebook status updates the same way I approach blogging. Educate them, offend them, entertain them, insult them, make them laugh, heck, make them cry, but never, ever bore them.
• Increase your influence. If you’re writing compelling Facebook status updates which offer value, yet you’re still not getting much interaction, you may need to increase your influence by participating instead of just posting. People will be more likely to post, like and share your status updates if you are doing the same thing for theirs. It goes both ways! And don’t be too prideful to share theirs first!
• Make sure your status updates are “public.” A short while ago, I was posting some great updates, yet, they had no likes or comments at all. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I thought my profile had been ‘de-indexed’ or something. Then, I noticed that the updates I had posted were only shared with a few people and weren’t shared publicly. Make sure, when you share an update, that it reads “Public” in the bottom right corner.

I am a frequent reader of Niel Patel’s blog over at Quicksprout, and he shared some interesting facts about the type of content people respond to most. The graph expresses what I’ve always known to be true about conversions….stories sell. People love to hear personal experiences, real life situations. It makes it real for them, and believable.

So don’t be shy. Share personal experiences. People can relate to you that way. Without giving away your social security number, credit card details and detailed information as to where your stash of jewelry is, give your Facebook friends a piece of who you really are. It works!

Also, another helpful tip I learned from Niel, the best time to post a Facebook Status update is at noon on Saturday, eastern standard time. People are hitting their lunch breaks, checking their phones and have a little free time to browse around the ole FB. Might as well put what you’ve got to say right in front of them when they’re looking!

One last thing, Facebook is a gold mine for business owners. Seriously. It is the number one website on the internet, as far as traffic. With a home business, I have made tens of thousands of dollars through my interaction with friends and acquaintances on Facebook. Treat it like the tool it is, try to integrate a few of these tips and you’ll start to have greater success!

And of course, if there’s anything I missed which works for you, I’d be glad to hear it. Leave a comment, or two!

In the beginning days of Pinterest, women were and still are the primary users, discovering and sharing their favorite crafts, clothes and styles. Imagine if your business was offering a product or service to the “stay at home Mom” or “work at home Mom” crowd. Pinterest would be and is a gold mine, and for more than just stay at home Mom’s. It’s a great marketing avenue for many types of business, internet based and ‘brick and mortar’ alike.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is basically a social bookmarking site where users can share images that link back to the image URL. If you’ve ever had a cork board at home with everything important to you tacked on it, that’s what Pinterest is. It’s an online cork board that everyone in the world can see. It’s Flickr on steroids. You can create an unlimited number of “cork” boards, each targeting a different area or topic. Some of the most common topics for the average user are:

• ‘Books worth reading’ or ‘My favorite books’
• My style
• Favorite places
• For the home
• Wish list
• ….and Fitness

When I first visited Pinterest, all I saw were pictures of home decor, clothing models and locations of interest. Most of it didn’t seem remotely interesting to me. However, Pinterest has a nice little search function that allows you to filter the images you see. After searching, I started to see more things of interest and saw its marketing potential.

With that said, I’m going to skip the tutorials on how to use Pinterest. Just know, it’s extremely simple to setup and use. I will instead share with you a few ways I have been able to draw more traffic to my website and increase my exposure.

How to Promote Your Business on Pinterest

In order to promote your business effectively on Pinterest, you must step outside the box a bit more. It’s important to share things that others are interested in, but it’s also equally important to brand yourself by offering something a bit more exciting and different than everyone else. Your creative ability is your only limit.

Infographics

Infographics are a great way to promote your business or product through Pinterest, but on one condition…..that it’s a quality infographic. The kind of infographics that I speak of are those that offer useful and helpful information delivered with style. When I say “delivered with style,” I’m saying, take some time on the graphics. Others will repin or share a quality image over something that was just thrown together. On an infographic, invest just as much, if not more time, as you would on an extremely detailed blog post. This blog post took me over an hour to compose. I’d suggest taking more time on creating a quality infographic because they are extremely viral. Be sure to include your website URL or watermark somewhere on the image to connect it to you.

Here’s an example of an infographic for the home based business industry, found on Wikipedia:

Product images.

If you’re running an eCommerce site, create a board full of your products. If you have several different product types and categories, create separate boards for each category. One of the great features of Pinterest is the ability for others to follow individual boards within your account without having to follow every single pin you make.

Here’s an example of an account that has created different boards for different shirt design ideas.

Here’s a quick tip about product images. Of course, with every pin you have the opportunity to add a brief description. When you add a price within that description, such as $19, Pinterest will automatically add a little ribbon to the top left corner of your pin with the price, letting people know that it’s an item for sale. So when searching through a wall of images, seeing that little price ribbon is helpful in knowing which ones might possibly link to a product that can be purchased.

Link Building for SEO

One of the major factors to getting higher search engine ranking is building quality links to your website. Each pin in Pinterest links to a website URL and is included on a board that is related to the topic of that specific link. So, long story short….take the time to create quality images for your site, include them in your blog posts and pages, and then pin those images to Pinterest. You’ll build links to those pages and posts while drawing more immediate traffic.

Share Your Pins on Facebook and Twitter

Almost every popular site on the web integrates with Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest does as well. In addition to the traffic already coming from Pinterest directly, in your settings, allow sharing to your Facebook and Twitter accounts for added social exposure. Also, make sure that your Pinterest account is NOT hidded from the search engines.

Descriptive Profile

As with any social site, you can upload a profile picture and enter a small bio. Also, below your bio, if you’ve connected your Pinterest account with your other social profiles, an icon will appear, linking to those profiles. And if you’ve entered your website in the same settings section, an icon will appear there for that as well.

You can also create an ad to put in place of your profile picture. However, over promotion can kill your popularity. If you’re going to make an ad out of your profile picture, I would recommend including a picture of yourself in the ad. People respond to people. The more personal you are on your profile, the more your visitors will be able to relate and connect with you.

Conclusion

Of course, the key to marketing on any social site is your tactic. You don’t want to be too salesy, pushy or over promoting. Take time in building your brand and authority on Pinterest, and offer images of value. As you do, you’ll find your images getting re-pinned over and over again.

As of now, you’ll need an invite to become part of Pinterest. You can go directly to Pinterest and request an invite, but if you’d like to speed up the process, shoot me an email here, and I’ll send you a personal invite to join.

Here’s a link to my Pinterest profile as well. Follow me if you like, or follow a board of mine that you may be interested in.

As always, I’m interested in your success promoting your business on Pinterest and would like to hear how you’ve done it. Please share your Pinterest marketing tips in the comments below.

If you have a website that you would like others to find and use, you should be using StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon is simply a way to find content you’re interested in. It’s also a great way to share your content to targeted readers. It’s a social bookmarking site that allows you to search for content relevant to your niche or industry, follow other Stumblers and network. It’s a great way to build links to your site and also a great way to find content ideas for your site.

Enough about what StumbleUpon is and on to what it can do for you. If you’ve ever wondered how other website can get ten, fifty or even a hundred thousand visits in a day, StumbleUpon is one of the ways we do it.

For example, my wife has a website featuring craft ideas, it’s a blog. She shares everyday crafty tips and ideas. Her site gets anywhere between 150 to 500 visits a day. Well, one of her posts was submitted to StumbleUpon the other day and her traffic exploded. I have Google Analytics installed on her site and wanted to share the results with you.

As you can see, the biggest day previous to Tuesday was 322 visitors. The day prior to the StumbleUpon submission her site had 173 visitors. So from 173 to 16,885 visitors is amazing! And that wasn’t the end of it. The next day she had over 5,000 and then 3,000 the next day, and holding steady at around 1,500 to 3,000 hits a day. Not bad!

To use StumbleUpon, sign up for an account. It’s free. You can connect with me as well. We can then share or “Stumble” each others content. You give and you get. Click my name to view my profile, David Allred and then sign up from there.

In the next post, I’ll provide a list of tools you can use along with your StumbleUpon account. The right tools always make things a bit easier to work with.

PositiveAtmosphere.com

The other day I stumbled across a social site called PositiveAtmosphere.com. So far it only has a member base of around 650 people, but has potential. For the most part, the people I have been able to connect with are authentic in their reasons for creating a profile there and interactive as well. Taken straight from the site, “Positive Atmosphere is where positive people connect and empower.”

For those of you looking to find community, mastermind with others, share your insight or simply create traffic to your site, this is another great site for it. With an integrated blog, video and picture uploading and placement of links back to your site, PositiveAtmosphere.com has it. Drop by and be sure to connect with me as a friend while you’re there!

I am always looking for new, exciting and relative sites to check out. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comment section. Thanks!