Matt Siltala will be speaking at the “Social Media” session at SearchFest 2013 which will be taking place on February 22, 2013 at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Oregon. For more information or to purchase tickets, please click the following link.
1) Please give us your background and let us know what you do for a living.
I accidentally got into Internet Marketing back in 1997 when I built & marketed 3 websites for a radio station I use to co-host on (during college where I got my degree in CIS). I found myself creating content, doing link building and even SEO before I even knew those terms existed. I built my own ecommerce sites at the beginning of 1999 that still are thriving and making good money to this day. I have consulted thousands of small business owners in Internet Marketing, and this is how I grew my company to where we are today. We found that friends/people we killed it for, recommended us and we grew. I also got asked to speak at search marketing (and related) conferences starting back in 2006, and because of these opportunities our company has continued to grow. So what I do for a living is a mix. Today I am President & Founder of https://www.AvalaunchMedia.com, a full service digital marketing firm. We do everything from Social, creating & promoting infographics (content creation), web design and programming right on down to PPC. I love taking clients to the next level and not just growing their business, but exploding it. This is one of my biggest passions and driving forces.
2) Can Pinterest be a direct sales channel or is it an awareness vehicle?
I find it great for both, and it really depends on the type of client we are working with. With that said, we work closely with several businesses that use it as an amazing direct sales channel. Pinterest is a social network right, but is sending “buyer intent” type traffic (unlike any other social network out there). For example, on Stumble Upon these are the average stats for a lot of clients: one pageview at 10 seconds on site, where Pinterest traffic is averaging 5-6 pages viewed at 15 minutes spent on site. I think that speaks volumes.
3) What are some good tips for a business who wants to start and develop a Pinterest community?
Best advice I can give is by looking at those who have already created amazing communities and see how they are doing it. I am not saying copy them, but there is a lot to be learned from those doing it right. I find https://www.repinly.com/ really useful for research on all levels. Seriously though, pin often, re-pin even more often and make sure and leave comments to get yourself known! If you have campaigns you are wanting to test out yourself on Pinterest and are wondering about the optimum time to launch, I would suggest thinking about when people are most likely to be pinning. We have found early morning before work (between 5-7 AM) and just after work (again 5-7PM) are some of the best times to launch campaigns because this is when the site is most active. There are a lot of tools out there that helps you find those type of people and communities (which I will be sharing in my presentation too). Bonus tip would be to actively participate in community boards and build your own as well. Community boards can be huge for helping pieces on Pinterest go viral. Finally I will end by saying test, test, test and test again (test = repurpose too). You really start to understand the platform and community when you are in there everyday testing and learning.
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.