I’ve found a great infographic from social media expert Dan Zarrella which summarises some studies he’s conducted on click through rates (CTRs) on Twitter links.

He’s given out some really valuable information which could help to improve your Twitter interaction rates so I thought it would be useful for everyone to have that info in text format rather than a screen consuming image!

There are results from quite a few different studies in here so I’ve just picked a few I think are the easiest to implement straight away:

Tweets between 120 and 130 characters have highest CTRs

Zarrella looked at over 200,000 Tweets containing links and found that the tweets with the highest CTRs were between 120 and 130 characters long, just shy of Twitters maximum 140 character limit.

I found this kind of surprising given the attention span of users on sites like Twitter – I figured the shorter the better but Tweets of this length could indicate that a link is more attractive when it’s accompanied by a short piece of text.

I’d guess that a comment or introduction to the link gives the impression that there actually is a human behind the Tweet and it’s not just a bot throwing out links.

Place links quarter way through your Tweet

In the same study Zarrella found that, out of the 200,000 Tweets, the highest CTRs could be found in the Tweets that presented the link around 25% of the way into the text.

So it if we make up a quick example (ignore the text, it might not make sense), Zarrella is saying that a Tweet formatted like this:

“Love this post [link link link]. Really informative article from @Serchen, everyone take a look.”

Would work better than a Tweet formatted like this:

“I’ve found a really informative article from @Serchen. Everyone take a look, I love this post [link link link].”

Mentioning other users and putting ‘RT’ gets a higher CTR

The result I found most interesting was how CTRs increased when Tweets contained certain words of phrases.

Tweets containing the terms ‘via’, ‘retweet’, ‘please’, and ‘check’ (as in ‘check this out’) had a higher CTR. As did Tweets containing mentions like @Serchen.

I made the assumption that Tweets that were essentially asking for Retweets (or begging for, if you’re cynical), would be perceived as slightly more spammy than those simply presenting information, but apparently not!

On a side note, I think the @mentions point is really important to implement because not only can mentioning other users instigate conversation, it can also add a little more personality to your Twitter and gain you more followers. (See more on Increasing your Twitter Followers).

(Note: Zarrella doesn’t specify which study this information came from, but if it was the 200,000 Tweets one then it’s a safe bet to say his results are pretty accurate.)

Schedule Tweets – CTRs higher on weekends

Another result that I found quite interesting is that Tweets posted over the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) had a higher CTR than those posted throughout the week. It’s quite a significant rise too.

I figured most Twitter users would be using a mobile device of some sort and would have Twitter ‘on the go’ if you like. Either that, or those working on computers would be checking it throughout the day, but, again, apparently not! (This is why I love Zarrella’s studies).

I want to show you the graph as well so you can see just how significant the jump is for CTRs over the weekend:

This result is a good argument in favour of scheduling Tweets and using third party tools like TweetDeck or HootSuite. As long as you’ve got the content it only takes 2 minutes to schedule some Tweets so by the looks of things it’s definitely worth experimenting with.

Tweet in the afternoon – 3pm is good

If you are going to Tweet at the weekend, better make sure it’s after 2pm as CTRs seem to peak at 2pm, 5pm and 8pm. Unsurprisingly CTRs significantly dipped at 4am and 7am, but apart from that it looks like you could generally achieve a 0.5% CTR majority of the day.

There are a few more findings on the infographic but I thought these five would be the most useful, and like I said, the easiest to implement. You could even be really literal and write a Tweet 120 characters long, with a link 25% of the way through, ask for a Retweet and schedule it at 3pm on a Saturday. Let us know if you give any of these techniques a go!

If you want to see the full infographic you can find it here: http://danzarrella.com/infographic-how-to-get-more-clicks-on-twitter.html

We’ve already covered how you can use Pinterest.com as part of your online marketing strategy, so I thought it would be good progress to take that idea one step further and give you some tips on how you can connect Pinterest together with the rest of your social media accounts, as well as your website.

Although it might seem like a bit of a basic concept, if you’ve got a good grasp of what all the different settings do and how you can create appropriate links to your account then you’ll be able to asses which ones will benefit your social media and marketing efforts.

Connecting Pinterest.com with your Facebook Page

The biggest and easiest way to connect your Pinterest account and your Facebook account is to activate the ‘Add Pinterest to Facebook Timeline’ feature within the ‘Settings’ tab of your Pinterest profile.

Once activated, this feature will share any pinboards you follow/create, pinners you follow and most other activity on Facebook. However, there’s a slightly different way for you to share out your repins as this isn’t done automatically.

You’ll notice in your Settings that there’s another Facebook option called ‘Link to Facebook’, this actually does a couple of different things. The first thing it does is post a link to your connected Facebook account on your profile, the second thing it does is allow you to share repins quickly.

You can see from the picture that when you go to repin something you’re given the option to tick a box and share it to Facebook (and Twitter). You won’t get this option if you don’t link your accounts. It might not be auto-posting but it’s not exactly an inconvenience.

Connecting Pinterest.com with your Twitter Profile

The same option is also available to Twitter and is accessible in the same way. Activate the ‘Link to Twitter’ setting and you’ll get a link to your Twitter account on your profile as well as an option to share our individual repins from the repin screen (above).

Unfortunately, there’s not a way for you to Tweet out entire pinboards without just Tweeting out the link, but again, it’s not too much of an inconvenience to copy and paste the link if you’re happy to do it that way. You also don’t currently have the option to auto share your follows etc. as you can with Facebook’s ‘Add to Timeline’ option, however, I would image both of these will be options in the future.

Connecting Pinterest.com with your Website

There are a couple of different buttons you can use to connect your Pinterest.com account to your website, and even an image you can download for things like email signatures.

The ‘Follow Button’ works in a similar way to Twitter’s Follow button and subscribes users to your pins and pinboards. Once they’ve clicked the button they’ll see your pins on their homepage. Theres a few different types of button you can have as you can see from the picture and clicking on each one brings up its individual code. Pinterest.com says that they’ve been designed in those sizes to help webmasters incorporate them into headers and sidebars.

The ‘Pin It Button’ is a little more complicated as it allows you to specify a particular image on a page that you’d like to pin. You need to fill in the form in order to generate the code (I’ve filled in an example so you can see how it should look).

If you have multiple images on the page that you’d like to make pinnable there’s an advanced option which brings up a longer, more customisable bit of code. Although, webmasters/developers will probably step in at this point, so if you’re just the marketer or content manager then I’d guess it’s not your job to make sure this works.

The ‘Pinterest Logo’ is the final way for you to connect your website with your Pinterest.com account. There’s two different logo’s for you to choose from and the beauty of using an image is that you can link it to whichever part of your account you want.

Like I mentioned earlier, buttons are probably a better idea if you want to get followers but if you want to link to your account from your email signature or from a newsletter then using the logo and pointing it to your profile could work really well.

So those are the main ways you can connect your Pinterest.com account to your website and your social networks. If you want a little more detail on how you can use Pinterest.com for marketing check out our post: Using Pinterest.com as Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy.

If you’re jumping on board with social media marketing for 2012 then Twitter.com will definitely be one of the sites you utilise.

As of September 2011 Twitter has over 100 million active users from different countries and industries around the world and it’s not unreasonable to believe that some of them will be interested in what you have to say.

If you either already have a Twitter account or are only just introducing Twitter to your business, the tips below will help you maximise your Twitter account and increase your Twitter followers for 2012.

1. Give and you shall receive

You can’t expect your followers to engage with your Tweets if you don’t engage with them.

The best way to engage with Tweets publicly is, of course, to Retweet. Not only does it show you’re interested in the topic, but gives the Tweeter a little ego boost as you’re recommending it to your Followers. Adding a personal touch like a short comment (providing you can fit one in) is an even better indicator that you’ve truly read and engaged with the post.

If you can convince your Followers that you’re genuinely interested in reading and sharing their stuff then they’ll be much more likely to pay you the same respect and Retweet your posts, thus promoting you to a whole new list of potential Followers.

2. Stick to a couple of topics

With business, Twitter followers are largely based around industries and related topics so it’s important that you know your industry, and more importantly, stick to it.

Chose just one or two topics to Tweet about so you know that once you’ve hooked your audience, you won’t lose them on a random tangent. The more you can confidently discuss a topic, the more knowledgeable you appear to your followers (hopefully you do actually know something about your industry, too!).

As a result, this should encourage trust in you as a knowledgeable source and Followers will be more likely to share your information via Retweets, again, exposing you to a new group of potential Followers.

3. Make the most of the ‘Lists’ feature

If you really want to refine the audience of your Tweets you should start putting together lists of people you would class as influencers in your chosen field.

This is a great way of having a list of respected content to Retweet from reliable sources. This could in turn encourage them to Retweet some of your posts if they begin to recognise your name and associate that with an expressed interest in their posts.

It’s also handy to observe the people in your lists to see how they interact with their Followers, the kind of content they post, the level of discussion, frequency etc. This can give you a good idea on how a highly successful Twitter profile is run (although obviously their position and fame in their industry will give them an advantage so don’t get disheartened if you can’t quite reach their level).

4. Remember to Tweet on a regular basis (but not too much)

It’s likely that you’re followers will come from various countries with differing time zones so bear in mind that not everyone will see the Tweet you send from the UK at 10am (for example).

There’s no set limit on how often you should Tweet (whether that be a Retweet or otherwise) but general rule of thumb is around a handful of Tweets per working day. But only if you have the content, don’t Tweet for the sake of it or your Followers will be able to tell and certainly won’t Retweet.

You can schedule Tweets at out of office hours that will hit other time zones though so make the most of that feature so as not to miss out certain groups.

5. Twitter isn’t all about Retweets – Get talking

Retweets will likely be the best and easiest way for you to gain more followers due to the time they take up but if you’ve got the man power then you should definitely try and engage in conversations.

Make the most of Twitter’s #Discovery tab and search for and join in with discussions related to your industry. By searching for particular topics you’ll find like-minded users who will be more willing to not only participate in discussions re those topics (as they already are), but will also be more inclined to Follow you as a result of your shared interest.

If you’re looking for more influencers to Follow yourself, then the #Discovery tab is also a great tool for providing you with an infinite list of potential Follows.

You wouldn’t be blamed for getting carried away when it comes to using social networks as part of your marketing strategy. The sheer number of different social networks and online networking sites suggest your company is probably already signed up to at least 2.

While the social interaction with current customers is certainly important for your brand, there’s also a world of potential customers that haven’t found you yet and could benefit from seeing more personalised sites like your social profiles.

This is where SEO comes in. I want to look at the SEO benefits that the new Google+ Brand pages have and what kind of things you can do to help optimise the page for potential customers searching for the services/products you offer.

The way that I approach SEO for social profiles is to look at them as if they’re web pages on your own site. What’s the purpose of the page? What’s your page title? Your meta description? Your content? Etc.

I’m going to break it down into sections using the Serchen Google+ page as a shameless plug example.

Page Title/H1 Tag

Google hasn’t specified what weight is placed on certain elements of Google+ pages with regards to SERP position or PageRank so (just to clarify) I’m not telling you that stuffing this bit of information with keywords is going to get you ranked well.

However, if you’re describing your services in this space (which is what most brands have done) then the likelihood is you’re going to mention certain products that can serve as keywords in Google. (Remember, Google will crawl your Google+ page as it would a regular web page).

You can see from our Google+ page that by simply describing our company we’ve inadvertently got ‘online advertising’ and ‘technology industry’ as keywords visible to Google.

Non SEO tip: This is the first bit of information that visitors to your brand page are likely to read; it’s at eye level on the page and it’s directly below the largest visible text. 

Meta Description

When Google displays your Google+ profile in search results it uses your ‘page title’ mentioned above, as well as your About Us section, as a meta description (at the time of writing at least).

Google call this a snippet and it works in the same way as an ordinary search result, which means that if any of the words in that text match a search query, they’ll be highlighted on SERPs.

Again, no keyword stuffing, but this is a great place to describe your services and your industry so that visitors to your page find it useful and users finding you in Google will know what they need to about your company. (And of course Google will crawl the text for keywords).

Dofollow links

As far as SEO’s are aware, all of these links are dofollow’s (for now at least) so make the most of them and be aware of anchor text. I’m sure you know that adding other social sites and pages of interest makes you more accessible to visitors, just make sure they’re relevant (you don’t want your visitors leaving your page to visit a site about puppies your social manager thinks is cute).

Content

As always, content is a great way to optimise any page for search results. Google will of course index your posts so keep up with the optimised content I’m sure you’re already well rehearsed at writing.

I’m sure it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be duplicating this content! Keep the content on your social page unique, as opposed to copying articles from your website, or you could end up fighting yourself for rankings, linkbacks, etc.

Hashtags and Trends

Another thing to factor in with Google+ is hashtags. I’m sure Google would kill me for saying this but Google+ hashtags work in the same way as Twitter hashtags; you tag your stuff and people can find it by searching for the tag.

While this wont have a huge effect in your search rankings, if you’re a big content writer it can be super useful for people finding your content using the Google+ search box.

The same applies to Google+ Trends. Trends (again, like Twitter trends) shows the most discussed topics on Google+ every day. If any of these trends apply to your content you can make the most of the increased traffic by tagging your posts.

WARNING! Please, please, please ONLY tag your posts with trends if they’re relevant! I cannot stress this enough, there is really nothing more spam-tastic than tagging your posts (this goes for Twitter too) with irrelevant keywords. Do not do it!

Individual Google+ Profiles

Similar techniques for all of the above can apply to your individual Google+ profile, if you want to optimise that too. Many Google+ brand pages and profiles are ranking highly in SERPs so if you put a lot of emphasis on your social profiles id definitely make sure you do a quick SEO check and cover all bases.