Brad Wester, Author at St. Louis Social Media ConsultantsSt. Louis Social Media Consultants

Pinterest SEO: How to Pin Your Way to the Top of Google
November 12, 2014 No Comments

You want to get more traffic to your website. You know how beneficial it is to be on the first page of Google, but you don’t know how to get there. Optimizing your website is complex and can be overwhelming, but there is another way. You can use Pinterest SEO to pin your way to the top of Google.

Let’s take a look at the Google Search Results for “picture frames diy”.

The first organic search result (not paid for) is a Pinterest Board!

This personal Pinterest Board is sitting on great real estate. It’s above several companies including American Frame, Lowe’s and TV’s DIY Network. The only search results that are listed above it are paid advertisements from Hobby Lobby, Amazon and Michaels!
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Why Failing is a Good Thing
September 30, 2014 No Comments

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending my second TEDxArch event. If you haven’t had the chance to attend a TEDx event yet, make sure to keep an eye out for their upcoming event on December 6, 2014. During their recent event, Rocio Romero offered some advice for when things don’t go your way, why failing is a good thing.

“Failing is a gift…If I’m not failing, I’m not innovating.” – Rocio Romero
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My 3 Favorite (FREE) Social Media Tools
September 12, 2014 No Comments

Social media can be confusing, frustrating and most of all…time consuming. There are thousands of social media tools available to help you overcome these inconveniences. The next problem is finding the best social media tools to solve your needs. Below are my three favorite social media tools. These tools are among my favorite because all come with free plans, which can be upgraded to paid plans if you’d like more features.

Buffer:

Buffer is by far my favorite social media tool on this list. Buffer is ideal for quickly sharing content across multiple social media platforms. Buffer allows you to set a content schedule, which can be different for each social network/each social account. While reading an article you can quickly share to buffer through internet browser extensions or mobile apps if you’re using a mobile device. When sharing to buffer, you can quickly choose the social networks/social accounts you’d like to share the content through, then select when it should be sent. Select “Add to Queue” to start building a content list to be sent at the times selected in your content schedule, “Share Now” to share the content immediately or “Share Next” to set the content at the top of your Queue to be shared at the next time in your content schedule. Buffer also has some basic social media analytics available. Buffer made it on my 3 favorite social media tools list because of how much time it saves me!
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What Small Business Owners can Learn from this Injured Pup
September 8, 2014 No Comments

This morning Mashable posted this adorable video of a dog with 2 broken legs adjusting to vertical life. I don’t think it’s possible to find a better video to watch on a Monday. It’s guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. It also shows how willing this pup is to adapt – and that’s a skill all small business owners need to learn.

If you’re a small business owner, you already know how difficult it is to stay up-to-date with the quickly changing social media usage policies, updated Newsfeed algorithms and all the new social media platforms being created almost every day. To consistently stay in front of target audiences on social media, you need to keep an eye on your social media data. This data enables you to see how effective your social media posts are. If you start to see a downturn in the number of views and the engagement your social media content is receiving, it’s time to try new things and adapt. You don’t need to start guessing at what will work though, take some time to look at your social media data. Find which posts are more successful and see what is different about those. Do they include images? What time were they sent? What hashtags were used? Try to identify what could be making those posts more successful and use that information to make future posts more successful.
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Top 5 Instagram Hashtags
September 5, 2014 No Comments

Use these Top 5 Instagram Hashtags to increase reach and engagement.

(as of 9/5/2014).
1. #love
2. #instagood
3. #me
4. #tbt
5. #follow
Are you participating in Throwback Thursday (#tbt)? If not, you may want to consider starting next Thursday.
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Using social proof generated by social media to boost in-store sales
September 2, 2014 No Comments

It’s easy to see how social media helps drive sales online. It’s a linear path; users see your social media post, click the link and head to your website, find what they want and then purchase. Okay it’s not that simple. People don’t usually buy right away and the process varies, but it’s easy to understand how social media can drive online sales. It’s more difficult to see how social media helps drive in-store sales.

One way social media can be used to increase in-store sales is by providing customers with social proof. “Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation” – thanks Wikipedia. So what does that really mean and why does that matter? Let’s take a look at what Ashley Furniture is doing and why it’s working.

Ashley Furniture is very active on social media. They have accounts on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Twitter. They’ve recently brought the social media experience into their stores by adding tags of the Pinterest logo onto their top pinned products. Now when you are walking around the store, whenever you see an item with the Pinterest logo attached to it you know it’s a popular item. There’s a few reasons why this is going to increase sales.
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Introducing Our New Social Media Control Panel
February 13, 2014 No Comments

Request a Demo Now!

Our social media marketing campaigns include use of our new social media control panel and start at under $10 a day!

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Our new social media control panel offers content scheduling/review, a stats tab for website and social media analytics and a feeds tab to assist with content curation.

Click on the Facebook or Twitter tabs to view your scheduled content. We schedule content 7 days in advance, allowing you plenty of time to review the content before it is posted. These tabs can also be used to quickly add content to the schedule or send a post right now!
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How a Florida Restaurant is Rocking Social Media without Posting a Single Update – Successful Restaurant Social Media
November 13, 2013 No Comments

Yes, this Florida restaurant has posted before, but they’re not actively posting. In fact, they’ve only posted once on their Facebook page in the past year, yet it maintains a steady stream of fans posting photos, comments and reviews…and all but one of the reviews are positive, tough to achieve in the service industry.

How do they do it? Well, it’s all because they identified and solved one problem almost every company has with social media.
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Do I need Social Media Marketing?
October 7, 2013 No Comments

Social media isn’t just for high school kids. It’s not just a time waster. Nor is it just about posting photos of the toasted ravioli you had for lunch. Social media has become a daily source of communication, information and entertainment. Are your customers on social media? Absolutely, and you should be too.

Facebook alone has 59% of all internet users in North America as active users!

All around the world there are people on social media reading and posting updates. They’re looking at pictures their cousin took when he was on vacation in Clearwater Beach, Florida. They’re congratulating a friend on finishing the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. They’re telling all their friends and family about how much they love Kaldi’s Coffee.
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When lying becomes a part of your social media strategy…the story of the Chipotle Twitter Hack
July 26, 2013 No Comments

You may have heard of the Chipotle Twitter Hack. The “hack” was a part of their 20th anniversary marketing campaign, which includes a 20-day long treasure hunt called “Adventurito,” which features 20 days of puzzles.

“We thought that people would pay attention, that it would cut through people’s attention and make them talk, and it did that,”

– Chris Arnold, a Chipotle representative. (During an interview with Mashable).

Yes, it got people talking – I won’t debate that. Roughly, 4,000 new followers on hack day vs. 250 new followers on an average day and 12,000 retweets on hack day vs. the on average 75 retweets per day. And of course, people like me who are writing blogs about it.

But does that make it worth it?
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