Mat Siltala will be speaking on the “Trending Visual with Instagram, Pinterest & Twitter” panel at SearchFest 2014 which will take place on February 28th, 2014 in Portland, Oregon. For more information and to purchase tickets, please click here.
1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living.
Oh man how far back do you want me to take you? I first got into Internet Marketing when I was working as a co-host on a country morning station in a small market radio in Southeast Arizona. I was going to school for “computers” so of course they thought I could create websites and hired me to create the stations first 3 websites (they had 3 sister stations) so I did that and saw how easy it was (think 1997) to rank with simple tweaks and this is how I “accidentally” fell into Internet Marketing. Fast forward to creating a full service digital marketing agency with over 25 employees now with 3 of the best business partners a guy could ask for (and that takes you to the present where I am President of Avalaunch Media). Growing this company and helping our clients explode their business (and helping them take things to a whole new level) is what I have the honor of doing for a living!
2) How can a business drive sales via Pinterest?
The most important thing is to understand the audience and optimizing for the Pinterest network. Making sure you have rich pins and making it easy to share and be shared on Pinterest is essential (think social media optimization – ALWAYS TEST YOUR BUTTONS). You also must do everything you can to grow a community that people WANT to follow. For example if you are in the fashion industry, don’t just post pictures of your clothing items, make sure and include them ON PEOPLE in REAL SITUATIONS so people can really get a feel for what they are getting. One final tip, make sure your boards are maintained. One thing I hate more than anything is checking out an account that has Halloween boards up top when its Valentines.
3) Please give us some characteristics of “pinnable” pictures.
Here are a few quick ones … taller images get more re-pins. They take up more real estate than horizontal ones. Make images at least 600 pixels. As stated above show products in context. If you are selling a product that can be shown in use (context) then make sure and do this and don’t just show the product shot. I could go on and on, but we created a whole list of these characteristics that can be found over here on slideshare that might make it easier – https://www.slideshare.net/MattSiltala/10-tips-for-marketing-your-business-on-pinterest
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.