The short answer to this question is that Pinterest is not going to be a helpful resource for every business. What may surprise many small business owners, though, is that Pinterest can be a helpful resource for any business.

While these two statements may sound like a contradiction, in practice both hold true individually:

Pinterest is not going to be a helpful resource for every business.

Many businesses will find that the amount of time that would be required to use Pinterest effectively as a platform for marketing their business, generating new valuable leads, or engaging their existing customer base is not going to provide sufficient return to justify their efforts.

Pinterest can be a helpful resource for any business.

Pinterest can be used effectively for any business who wants to use it, as a way to self-promote, to engage with their customer base online or, ideally, to do a combination of both.

While some businesses naturally lend themselves perfectly to the Pinterest platform – think restaurants, landscapers, yoga instructors, etc. – some industries will require a bit of creative thinking in order to create Pins that effectively promote feature products, services, or other content on Pinterest. However, Pinterest can be a useful platform for businesses that may not typically be thought of as “Pinterest-worthy.”
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When Instagram first launched in 2010, the photo sharing application service quickly gained popularity, growing to a million users in only two months. While Instagram has been offering advertising spots to businesses since 2013, a lot has changed in the last year for Instagram business users. For one, Instagram Stories have grown in the last year since it was first released to over 150million daily users. Plus, Instagram now offers insightful tools for businesses, including updated business profiles, useful data and analytics, and the ability to turn posts into ads directly from the Instagram application.

With more than 400 million daily active users on Instagram right now and an abundance of new opportunities, if your business isn’t currently using Instagram to grow your brand and reach customers, it’s time to start.

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Many business owners recognize the power of social media and the ways that maintaining an active presence online can benefit their business. From developing and promoting your company’s brand, to the ROI opportunities social media presents for lead-generation, most businesses are taking steps to develop a solid social media marketing strategy.

LinkedIn was built to be a professional online networking tool, intentionally designed to connect professionals with one another and companies. But LinkedIn seems to be one of the trickier social media tools for businesses to use effectively. That may stem from a misunderstanding of what LinkedIn actually offers to businesses in the first place.

What does LinkedIn offer to businesses?
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The answer to this question is yes, but. Yes, as a business, you should be using Twitter. But it is not enough to just blast out tweets. And if you’re not using Twitter astutely, you’re wasting your time. If you’re not tweeting at all, you’re missing out on an opportunity for creating a level of engagement with your clients that no business should pass up.

As a marketing platform, Twitter is very difficult to use for lead generation. If you’re just looking for the biggest “bang for your buck,” Twitter alone is not going to give you the kind of ROI you are wanting to measure. However, as part of a comprehensive social media marketing strategy, Twitter can be an incredibly useful tool for engaging with your customers.

And when you’re engaging with your customers, encouraging brand loyalty and sharing relevant content, that inevitably leads to quality lead gen.
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For businesses, social media is often mistaken as strictly a communication platform. In actuality, social media can be a great tool for your business to not only communicate with customers and leads, but can build relationships with your client base to generate a culture around your business.

And this is possible regardless of whether you sell a product or a service, if you’re B2B or B2C, if you’re in manufacturing, sales, software development, or any other industry, social media can benefit your business.

At its core, an active social media presence for your business allows you to:

• Communicate directly to customers, clients and leads
• Receive invaluable feedback from your customers
• Direct traffic to your website and improve your SEO
• Create and broadcast a brand for your business
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Should my business be on social media?

Yes.

But we are a B2B business, not B2C. Should we still be on social media?

Yes.

But my industry doesn’t really seem to fit the norm of what I see on social media; we’re not particularly flashy and we offer a very niche product or service. Should we still be dedicating resources to maintaining a social media presence in that case?

Yes. Absolutely, without exception, the data shows that embracing social media and maintaining an active social media presence is beneficial for all businesses, in any industry, across the board. The landscape of social media has changed drastically in the last decade, and these days the opportunities for lead generation and conversions from an active participation on social media are too great for any business to ignore.

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Too many businesses still aren’t convinced that publishing blog content can have the return on investment they are seeking from online marketing efforts. Many think that due to the nature of their industry, a blog isn’t the right tool for them or they expect their time and efforts will be wasted.

The bottom line is, that kind of thinking is just not supported by the data. Publishing valuable content online has tremendous and proven results for businesses seeking to grow.

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Your small business has been growing and thriving thanks to the stellar service you’re providing and the unique way you go about doing it. Word of mouth has probably been extremely helpful in growing your business, and you’re seeing a great customer return rate.

But now, you’re ready to expand your marketing efforts to reach more people. Clearly it’s time to invest more effort in an online marketing strategy, but knowing where to start is difficult.

If you’ve ever Googled “how to market my small business online,” in all likelihood you have fallen down the rabbit hole of strategic marketing blogs. It’s easy to spend an entire day researching online marketing only to walk away more confused and overwhelmed than before you started.

To make things a little easier, here are 3 smart steps for marketing your small business that are easy to get started on right away. Dip into online marketing with these proven methods and see how even these small steps will noticeably benefit your small business.

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Email marketing is a frustrating endeavor. Writing a good email is simple; lots of us fire off emails all day long to partners, clients, customers, bosses, and coworkers. So it is easy to assume that sending out a successful marketing email is only a matter of making a clearly communicated point and then blasting it out to as many contacts as possible.

But if you want your emails to land in inboxes and to actually entice the recipient to open, read, and respond in some way, you’re going to need to refine your tactics.

Whether you are reaching out to long-time customers or to people you think may be interested in what you have to offer, the goal of any email marketing campaign is to convince someone to engage with your business. With a clear goal in mind of what you hope to achieve, use these tips before you send out your next email campaign, and see better results from your efforts.

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Whether you are structuring a brand new website or want to optimize your existing one, as a business it is imperative that you have a visually appealing website that gives an idea of who you are and what you provide.

At its core, a website should be a resume for your business, including details of your products or services, a background of your business, and contact information. If designed well, your website will act as the most effective member of your sales and marketing team.

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