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The forgotten social media business platform, far and away, is Pinterest.  We've seen some amazing data ourselves from clients' Google Analytics accounts showing that Pinterest is a solid web traffic generation source for many different kinds of companies.  But there is even more data out there that not only supports that, but leads us to believe that Pinterest should become a MAJOR part of businesses' social media and overall content marketing strategies now more than ever.  Pinterest certainly seems to be the forgotten social media marketing platform for businesses, here's why:  70% of all pins saved on Pinterest come from businesses.  200 million people are now on Pinterest, as of September 2017. That’s a 40% increase from the previous year.  2 billion searches are made every month on Pinterest.  87% of pinners bought something because of Pinterest.

I get it, it's an "extra thing to do," or it's "in the way" or you feel like you have to "look good on camera" or you don't know what to say or you feel silly or don't know how to hold the phone, or whatever, but the proof is in the data - your business needs to get over the fears, hurdles obstacles and excuses and GO LIVE ON FACEBOOK!.  I also blog and talk about posting on Facebook 3-5 times per day on your business page, and going live not only helps you accomplish that, but Facebook Live videos get 2-3 times the amount of Reach and Engagement as normal posts or video posts.  Don't know how to get started going live on Facebook?  Here are a few suggestions.  1. A weekly Q and A show where you read and answer frequently asked questions about your industry  2. A weekly behind the scenes "did you know" piece about how something is done or made at your company  3. A weekly feature on an employee, co-worker or client where you simply have them say hello and explain what they do at the company Content like this makes your business relatable and humanizes it. These factors make people want to do business with you.  The proof is in the data. Going live on Facebook works as part of your overall content strategy, and you can rip down the whole video and edit it into smaller pieces for future posts!  So it's always time well spent.

Hi WordPress Content Managers! If you're a small business owner or member of a small marketing team that manages content on a WordPress website, than you're who I'm referring to when I say "WordPress Content Managers." Do you know about permalink settings in WordPress? These are the settings that make your URL or "slug" on all of your Posts. These settings are crucial yet often overlooked By default, when setting up a new site, WordPress adds the date to them, and sometimes, depending on the theme or hosting, they can get all muddied up with canonical data. What you need to do is clean them up by removing the date and simply making the URL display the post name.

I've blogged so much about Alexa For Business, Alexa Skills and Alexa Flash Briefing Skills lately - including How to Build Your Own Alexa Flash Briefing, that I sometimes forget the simple, simple basics, like helping Small Business Owners and Small Marketing Teams actually set up their Alexa Enabled Amazon Devices in the first place. I want you to be able to use Alexa and the Echo Dot device in your office to make you a more productive worker, and the first step is setting up your device. This video helps show you how.

What exactly is the difference between posting on your LinkedIn Company Page and your LinkedIn Personal Profile? Do small business owners need to do both? In this special podcast, I talk about a couple key features that any size business should be aware of from a LinkedIn Content Marketing standpoint. The audio is taken from my (every Monday at 9 a.m. ET) Instagram Live Q and A and my (every Monday at 9:15 a.m. ET) Facebook Live Q and A.

In this special podcast, I talk about a couple key features that any size business should be aware of from an Instagram Content Marketing standpoint. The audio is taken from my (every Monday at 9 a.m. ET) Instagram Live Q and A and my (every Monday at 9:15 a.m. ET) Facebook Live Q and A. One business owner asks if his mindset should be different when running Facebook Ads vs. Instagram Ads. Another asks about an IGTV feature, and I break down the importance of posting 1:00+ minute long videos now on Instagram via IGTV. The proof is in the data that those types of posts are working better than regular Instagram posts, leading me to believe that IGTV will be HUGE.

So let's say your business is running Google Ads (formerly known as Google Adwords) as a layer to your digital marketing strategy. But let's say you have a product that is a little more niche than most. Let's say it's a special lighting product for campers. Bear with me, this applies to any business, really. You want to show for as many searches as possible, but you want to only really show for relevant searches. You want to show for as many RELEVANT searches as possible. Why? Because you don't want to pay for clicks that are looking for cheap light bulbs for example. Thus, you're likely to have a keyword strategy that has a lot of exact matches and phrase matches for things like "camping lamps" and such. But you probably also want to weed out keywords like "cheap light bulbs." You can set "cheap" and "bulb" or "bulbs" as negative keywords - as ONE example of likely several that you'd want to include for example. While you probably need to think through your strategy, this video explains HOW to do it. If you need more help thinking through the strategy or looking at data that can help, email me at paul@datadriven.design. Thanks and have a great day!

Welcome to Season 3 of Data Driven Tips! We kickoff with overall episode 150, where I share three solid audio clips from either Facebook Live / Instagram Live Question and Answer Sessions with my audience, or Live Access Sessions for Members of the Data Driven Academy. Question 1: What's the difference between Facebook Ads and Facebook Boosted Posts? Question 2: How to NOT be salesy in your Facebook Business Posts. Question 3: What happened to my ability to post content to my business page via the regular Facebook App on my phone? Why did it go away after adding my page to Facebook Business Manager? Listen in. Thanks, Paul

Big news for all businesses and personal brands out there hoping to get the elusive blue checkmark on their Instagram profile.  The blue check mark signifies "verification" which comes with it a respect level that until recently, only Instagram has been able to dole out to specific profiles.  Now, however, any Instagram account, regardless of how many followers, can request verification.  Warning, it's not for the faint of heart. Seriously, this video shows only the first step. Props to Alex Tooby for her video here, that goes into more detail about what happens after the initial verification request.

"Hey Alexa, help my business" isn't necessarily a phrase you expected to hear when the smart speaker became available on June 23, 2015, and it's still probably not a phrase many expect to hear into the future, but I do.  The same way I've stuck with my Amazon Echo device that my mother-in-law bought me for my 34th birthday back in 2015, I've decided to stick with the idea or concept that businesses can use Echo, Echo Dot and any other Alexa-enabled device to improve their business.  It was when I realized there are these things you can add to your device called Alexa Skills - apps for Alexa, basically - except voice apps - but added the same way you add something from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store - that things changed for me related to my Echo.  I realized I could not only add Spotify and podcasts, but that I could also develop these skills myself, or with my team of developers at Data Driven Design. Boom, then I was in. Alexa For Business: The Data During 2018, 22% of Americans had smart assistants in their home, up from less than 1% in 2017. That’s huge, people. This is the next way to get your audience’s attention.  In 2019, there are more than 50 million smart speaker users in the world; increasing 15% each month. Not only that, but there are now more than 30,000 Alexa Skills, with businesses reporting a 43% lift businesses nine months after launching an Alexa-enabled product, and a 53% a percent boost on average almost immediately after incorporating an Alexa Skill into their current product. 54% percent of professionals surveyed say they’d use Alexa in the workplace to increase productivity.  This video covers the top five ways businesses can use Alexa to increase productivity in the workplace, courtesy of Business.com. Nashville Voice Conference 2019 To learn more in person about how to use Voice Technology like Alexa Skills, Google Home Actions and Podcasting to improve your business, please visit NashvilleVoiceConference.com.