What’s so hot about Pinterest, that it has even the traditionalist internet users, who shy away from trying something new, wanting to try it out? In a web space already cluttered with numerous social networks, and dominated by the BIG TWO, will a new social network really command enough attention?  Only time will tell if Pinterest will have the wherewithal to create its own space in what is increasingly looking like saturated social space on the World Wide Web.

But there is also no doubt that Pinterest has begun luring social media fans with its concept and the features that it has on offer. Let’s take a look at what this social media platform is all about and what we can make of its features.

Here we go.

Pinterest in a Nutshell

Pinterest takes its name from a pinup board. The team behind Pinterest has made a virtual pinup board that helps organize all those inspiring and interesting images that you find on the World Wide Web. As it’s a social media platform, you can even share these images with your friends. In Pinterest parlance these images are called ‘Pins’ that can be added to a ‘Board’ customized and themed to suit your needs and requirements. You can create a ‘board’ on any and every topic that you can think off, without any limitations.

Pinterest can be called a voyage of discovery through the use of images. You can browse the pinboards created by other users who share similar interests and passion as yours, which helps you discover new things about your shared passion.

What you can do with Pinterest?

This is the key question isn’t it? Users no longer are happy just with a presence on a social media platform. What they are looking for is a way to practically use it to improve their lives in some form or the other. And Pinterest does help them do that in many different ways. If you are a photographer, you can build a whole portfolio with the help of Pinterest. If you are an architect, you can create a Board that has pictures of your best work. If you are a housewife, you can create a shopping list of things that you need to buy for your home through the week. The options are literally endless. At the end of the day, if don’t really have any clear purpose in mind, just pinning pictures of the really interesting stuff that you come across, not only on the internet but also in your daily life, is reason enough to use Pinterest.

Using Pinterest

The purpose is all well and good, but is it usable? Two words – It is. Here’s how you can pin stuff in Pinterest. It offers you something called the ‘Pin It Button’, in the form of a ‘drag and drop’ browser extension. So, in your travels through the web, if you come across an image that you like, all you need to do is click on the button and choose the pictures that you want to add to your Board. You will also be able to add some interesting text describing the picture. What’s more, the image doesn’t necessarily have to be from the internet. You can click a picture and use the Pinterest iPhone app to add the image to your Boards.

Taking a cue from the ‘Retweets’, you can even ‘Repin’ images that other users have posted on their boards.

The Social Perspective

Ok, so what’s the social angle to Pinterest? Well, it works on the belief that if you do something together, it is more fun. If you are pinning something on your Pinterest board, you are a Pinner, and you can find different Pinners to comment on their Pins or Repin an image that you like onto your board. You could even follow a board that you find interesting and get any new updates on that board. If you want to follow somebody on Pinterest, you don’t need to take permission of the Pinner, as it’s an open network. Also, as a Pinner, who is also on Twitter and Facebook, you can share your pins with the friends and followers on your respective networks on these two social medial platforms.

It’s not only about Pictures

Yes, the focus is on pictures, but you can pin videos also. You can even buy gifts on Pinterest and it’s also a great way to promote your small business. If you own a small business, it makes perfect sense for you to try out different avenues to ensure better and highly effective branding. Much like other social media platforms, a presence on Pinterest, will help you get in touch with people, who are not only looking for the kind of products and services you are selling, but also share your interests. It’s a win-win situation for your business.

The spotlight is now on social media buttons that can be integrated into your website or blog. These buttons help visitors share the content on your site with friends, family and colleagues. As webmasters begin to unearth the hidden potential of social media and its use for business promotion, more and more websites are displaying such buttons.

A website must be developed to compete against the best in business; it needs to cover all bases and make sure that it uses every marketing tool available at its disposal, to promote its information and products and services.  Social share buttons have emerged as a new tool in the intensely competitive world of online promotion.

A one-click shortcut

As a website owner, you might wonder as to why integrate a social share button. If visitors want to share your content or link with somebody, they can always logon to Facebook, Twitter etc and do it. Why have buttons on your website? Yes, your website visitor can do this, but they won’t. Why would they waste time and effort in going through the whole process, after all, you aren’t paying them for it, are you? What social media buttons do, is that they offer a ‘shortcut’ for your visitors. All they need to do is click on a particular button, and they are done. They wouldn’t mind doing that.

Impact your marketing efforts

You want your website content to be seen by the maximum number of people. And for this to happen, you are using numerous online marketing tools and techniques. Using social media buttons will make your marketing efforts even more worthwhile. You will give relevance to your site content, by enabling users to share it across various social networking sites. If you get your buttons and content right, there is a good chance that your social media button will leave the kind of impact that you are looking for.

Promotes a Culture of Engagement

Unlike some of the more overt online branding efforts, integrating social share buttons on your website is a way of branding, but one that is not ‘in your face’. When visitors come across a social media button placed on a particular page, they are given to understand that you want to interact with them at a certain level.  For you, customer engagement is more important than just selling your products and services. This is one way of ensuring that your prospective customers see you as a credible and professional merchant, whose content they wouldn’t mind sharing with the people they know.

A word about the different Social Media Buttons

Some people are consumed by the benefits they see in Facebook and Twitter when it comes to social media buttons. No doubt, these buttons help share content and links, quickly and conveniently, but you must not forget that there are other social media buttons available. Take for example LinkedIn. If you are offering the kind of products and services that are targeting working professionals, this social media button might be better suited for your needs. Stumble Upon, is yet another button that can be used. It’s a popular social media platform, which means your content can be seen by many prospective customers. Google +1 is a recent entrant in the world of social media buttons, and helps people recommend the links and content that interest them.

There are plenty of options available. So, the best way to go about it will be to use a combination of social media buttons, which you think can effectively market your site.

With the addition of social search features on Google; and the use of 'social signals' for ranking regular search results, it’s time that you used the tremendous potential of social media sites to improve your organic search engine results. 

The level of contribution by social sites for determining search engine rankings is up for debate, but there is no doubt that social media does influence these rankings in some way or form. So this gives rise to the question – How does social media play a role in search engine rankings? A clearer picture can help you optimize its potential to enhance your search results.

It's important to understand that your social content goes a long way in complementing your search results.

"Shares and Likes"

With the massive market penetration of social media sites such as Facebook; it was, but time that the Google Algorithm factored in some core elements of these sites.  So, Google has now integrated 'shares' and 'likes' into its algorithm. Recent studies indicate that the ‘shares’ feature on Facebook, carries more weight than the 'Likes' feature. But then again, this can be debated till the cows come home. So how do you, as a business, make use of this development?

All you need to do is make sure that the link to your site, or your site content, gets a fair amount of 'shares' and 'likes'.

"Going all a – Twitter"

Tweets count. Yes, when it comes to search engine rankings, tweets matter. But not just any tweets. There is a catch. Search engines give due importance to the 'social authority' factor.  To put it simply, if the tweets are from a person who is well regarded, they count more, than tweets from a less authoritative person.  The key here is 'quality'. If the tweet is relevant and makes sense, it’s going to contribute effectively in terms of search results.

If you want your business to make use of this social media site, it’s important that you make sure only the right people 'tweet' about it. Such tweets are more likely to be 'retweeted'.

Showing Respect

The key to making the best use of social media with respect to organic search results, is not underestimating the intelligence of the search engines. Don’t make use of low brow tactics to improve rankings through Twitter and Facebook.  All the 'shares', 'likes' and 'tweets' need to be done by the public rather than the business.  Let’s just say that more 'shares' from different people are likely to get better results, as compared, to a large amount of ‘shares’ from the same people.

As the sphere of organic search results gets even more competitive, you need to find newer and better ways of improving your rankings. The impact of using social media on rankings cannot be denied, but you need to keep working on your social network marketing strategies for optimum benefits. For now, understanding and using the influence of social media on Google Search results can be termed a ‘work in progress’.

MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube…it was easy to keep up with online marketing without confusing the senses some time ago. Now, due to increasing copiousness of social media possibilities with social media and blog sites popping up on a seemingly daily basis, internet marketers can just be overwhelmed trying to keep up with them all. Do you really need to do that? It’s the same answer that you’ll give for: When opportunities increase, do you try to get them all or pick up the right ones?

The vast and motley social media platform has everything to offer you. You just need to apply your senses to search what favors and makes most sense to your business. Even before that, you should be fully convinced in the first place relating the worth of social media for your business. While the benefits of social media marketing are great, it’s even better applying in a down economy when your marketing budget has heavily crashed. A whole lot of social media sites is scattered over the net that takes time and energy but no cash to invest. Interactivity in social media marketing finds interesting ways to communicate beyond the traditional marketing techniques. Besides, those social media sites that rank well in the search engines get you the added bonus of enhanced search engine visibility.

As a bottom line, with social media marketing you are able to say you get what you can’t from print media, radio, or television, things like:

1. Great money saving (or not spending at all!)
2. Tremendous growth in visitor traffic to your site
3. Fast-spreading link popularity of your website
4. Rapid increase in brand awareness
5. Increased search engine rankings
6. Connecting to huge masses
7. Benefit of building an online community
8. Knowing customers’ views

It’s in the nature of internet marketing that it requires every online business and marketer to keep up with its continuous learning system. In order for you to keep up with it, there are three components of it that you need to know about and work upon as needed in order to be successful in web marketing of your business.

You web identity and presence can be enforced with online marketing methods of SEO, Pay-Per-Click, and social media marketing. Internet marketers would deal with driving traffic to your site as one of the most challenging tasks.

SEO is oriented to increasing site traffic in a planned, organized, variable, multi-process approach where the techniques involved will deliver results in the form of higher site rankings in a gradual yet progressive way. If you have established yourself as an online business owner, you have SEO as a good consideration as you don’t want a real-time marketing boost to fade away soon but you want a timeline process to handle your marketing that’s one time but will have an effect to last for long and assurance to get you to the desired level of branding and publicity with return of investment.

PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is another approach which will need you to bid for your website placement on the front page of search engine for the keywords (related to services) that you want. This surely guarantees easy visibility and thereby results into more traffic from the very beginning. However, it stops just like it starts. Once the search engine gets higher bids than yours, your site gets out of the front page scene. Your investment here sums up with having to pay for every click made to access your site. More traffic would mean more spending, but then this is what you wanted. Quick in driving the traffic, it’s good as one-time investment for those who have just started with their online venture and want immediate bulk attention for their quick publicity and branding. A declining business can also get benefits by it as it pulls visitors to your website that my build up the sales again.

Social media marketing, the third approach, can go parallel to whichever previously stated marketing you choose. It would involve promotion of your site through blogs, forum participations, and social media networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. A wider brand awareness and market penetration is what you can achieve by it.

Internet marketing is a serious process and you have to take every aspect of it with flexibility and with a sense to foresee your business progress while applying any single strategy or integrating many of them.