This week, learn how Google works, the industries that get the most engagement on Facebook, what Facebook’s IPO will be, Microsoft’s stake in Nook and more. You can always visit our links on Pinterest as well.

Social Media

• Facebook’s IPO starts at $28-35. Will you be buying?
• Which industries have the highest engagement on Facebook? Surprising stats on how people love cars (and other industries on Facebook)
• LinkedIn is 4x better for B2B sales than Facebook or Twitter. A look at over 1000 Hubspot customers found 4x more conversion from LinkedIn for B2B businesses.
• Where should you put your content? Should you start with social media, a blog, a newsletter? Read this article from Chris Brogan to create your blueprint.
• Advanced Pinterest Guide. Our latest handbook helps you get started marketing on Pinterest. Our most popular handbook ever! Download for free.

Reading

• The $100 Start Up. Chris Guillebeau’s new book provides a blueprint and inspiration to start your own microbusiness. A must read for any entrepreneur or business person.
• Educate yourself online. We love teaching ourselves…everything. This site provides a comprehensive list of online learning sites. For more learning, don’t forget to check out Sandbox.
• How we will read. My mentor Clay Shirky reflects on changes in publishing and how we will read in the future.
• Curate your way to an effective newsletter. We took this to heart this week!

Google

• How to optimize your website without Google penalties (video tutorial). Recent Google search changes means you should change how you optimize. Learn how in this video.
• How Google works (video tutorial). A great 7 minute video giving a complete overview of how Google search works.

Business

• Microsoft takes a stake of Nook. As the tablet wars heat up, Microsoft jumps in taking a 17% stake of the Nook, valuing the Nook at more than Barnes and Nobles.
• Startup raises 7 million and counting on Kickstarter. We’re big fans of Kickstarter which can help you raise funds to start your dream business.

Have the weather report delivered to your door (or inbox) once a week. Sign up today.

Photo: Brit.

To help you effectively use Pinterest, we’re happy to publish an Advanced Guide to Marketing with Pinterest. In this guide you will learn:

• How to get started pinning photos, videos and products for your business
• Industry specific strategies and examples
• How you can use Pinterest for affiliate marketing
• An overview of copyright issues and legality with Pinterest

Here at 9 Clouds, we’re excited about the “interest graph” and the fact that now we can find others who are passionate about the same things we are. John can find fellow Twins lovers and I can find travel-holics who share photos, videos and inspiration via Pinterest.

If you haven’t tried it out either personally or professionally, nows a great time. Download our free handbook and start pinning! For other guides on Pinterest and other social networks, visit our resource center.

And of course, you can pin this article and follow Scott’s pins and John’s pins too!

Photo: Alfonsina Blyde

To help pick our champion vote on our 9 Clouds Facebook page, or tweet us @9clouds with your winner.

To get your favorite team, or in this case network, on to the next round click here to vote on our 9 Clouds Facebook page, or tweet us @9clouds with your round of 8 picks.

Deadline to vote for the round of 8 is 10 pm CST on Monday. Then we’ll reformat the bracket for the Final 4 and start another round of voting. Now to the field…

To get your favorite team, or in this case network, on to the next round click here to vote on our 9 Clouds Facebook page, or tweet us @9clouds with your round of 16 picks.

Deadline to vote for the round of 16 is 4 pm CST on Friday. Then we’ll reformat the bracket for the Elite 8 and start another round of voting. Now to the field…

What’s most interesting about Pinterest is that it appeals to a different demographic than most social media sites, with its strongest following from 18-50 year old women. This is a great audience for most businesses. But, how does a business use Pinterest?

Three weeks ago we created a Pinterest seminar on Sandbox helping businesses get started with the service. We now opened this seminar up for the public so you can go in and learn too! We received multiple questions from Sandbox members on how to use Pinterest for business and decided we needed to help businesses like yours learn how to use this fast growing tool. Thus today we’re excited to announce the Guide to Marketing with Pinterest. (creative title, huh?)

In this guide, you will learn:

• Step-by-step tutorials on getting started with Pinterest
• Industry specific strategies and examples
• Advanced uses of Pinterest for businesses

Plus you’ll be able to use Pinterest to plan parties, follow fashion trends or keep up with the best online marketing tools or traveling tips (that’s what I’m pinning on my Pinterest page – if you’re interested!)

We hope you’ll enjoy the handbook. Feel free to share it with your friends because it’s free to download.

Happy pinning from the 9 Clouds crew. If you liked this post and handbook, make sure to pin it! Pin It

Then, share your Pinterest boards in the comment section so we can follow you too!

Google Adwords and Analytics

To use Adwords to its fullest potential, it’s important to understand its basic nature. On Google, people actively search for a product. If you are accurate about matching your keywords to your ads, and about matching your ads to your product, you can find an audience that already wants your product without having to create interest in your product. So, when using Google Adwords, remember to accurately represent yourself–you are not doing yourself a favor in buying popular keywords that don’t match your offer. This will help you use Google’s advanced search algorithm to your advantage.

While a sophisticated and accurate search engine is Google’s greatest asset, Adwords’ biggest disadvantage is its lack of targeting capabilities. While you can specify geographic locations in which your ad is shown, you cannot specify demographics such as gender, age, income, or interests. Through mastering the use of keywords and accurate ad text, however, you can find the perfect target audience without using the targeting metrics that Google lacks.

In addition to its accurate search capabilities, Google’s extensive Analytics are a major advantages. With Adwords and Analytics together, you can receive detailed information about the successes and problems in your ads through metrics such as:

• Click through rate (CTR): the number of clicks each of your ads gets divided by the number of times it appears to a user searching your keywords on Google
• Bounce rate: the percentage of visitors to your site that immediately leave
• Pages per visit: the average number of pages are viewed per visit on your site
• Time spent on site: the average amount of time each visitor spends on your site
• New visits: the percentage of visitors to your site who are ‘new’–who have never been to your website before

In review, Google Adwords’ advantages are:

• accurate search results, which benefit you as an advertiser by delivering you an audience which closely matches the keywords you choose.
• excellent and diverse analytical metrics for feedback on ads.

Google’s main disadvantage is:

• the lack of control you as an advertiser has over the demographics of your audience.

Facebook

For some businesses, niche marketing is extremely important, and this is where Facebook excels. Where Google lacks in demographic information on your audience, Facebook is extremely abundant. As we already know, it’s far easier to find an audience already interested in your product than to try to create interest out of nothing. Facebook’s ultra-keen targeting capabilities are perfectly suited to this task.

Facebook’s advantage lies in the fact that Facebook users make available information like age, gender, marital status, location, education, and interests. Facebook can then turn around and offer you as an advertiser this information, so that when you create an ad, you can control exactly what kind of people see your ad. For example, if you run sports camps, you can make sure your ad is shown to students between the ages of 13 and 18 who live in a certain region of your camp, and who are interested in the sports for which you offer camps.

Just as Facebook excels where Google lacks–in demographic targeting–it falls extremely short where Google excels–in analytical feedback. Facebook will tell you only how many times your ad was clicked on versus shown (CTR), where, geographically, the clicks came from, and, roughly, what age the clickers were.

In review, Facebook’s advantage is:

• the massive amounts of personal information its users make available and its ability to make this information available to you.

Its biggest disadvantage is:

• lack of feedback available to you as you manage your Facebook ads.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not directly comparable to Google or Facebook. While the latter are about advertising, LinkedIn is about creating an online presence in a business community. It will not help you market your products or identify potential customers, but it will help you manage your brand identity in the online business community. If you are at all interested in collaboration, finding new employees, or even creating basic and essential networking connections, LinkedIn is the strongest tool to use.

LinkedIn’s capabilities include:

• networking that goes beyond direct connections to let you view 2nd and 3rd degree connections.
• the ability to make your resume, skills, and experience available to those who might be interested in you.
• the ability for you, as an employer, to connect with potential employees and view their resume, skills, and experiences.

Twitter

While LinkedIn is about creating an online presence, Twitter (and Youtube, which will be discussed shortly) is a way to maintain this presence and to continue managing your brand identity. Twitter can help you stay in touch with customers and those interested in your business. As a business owner, you understand the importance of having a good identity with your customers, partners, suppliers, and supporters—often, those in your network will want to stay connected with you and your business’ news, and Twitter is an excellent way to do this.

Twitter allows your customers and fans to follow your business and receive updates about what is happening with your business instantaneously. With Twitter, however, you are limited to 140 characters and one attached image per post.

Youtube

While some argue that 140 characters can encourage creativity, Youtube is another way to connect with those interested in your business. Youtube can take your customers or partners along with you on an exciting trip as you provide a video tour of a new location, or if you simply reach out with a weekly or monthly video blog. Youtube’s versatility allows for an endless variety of creative ways to connect with your audience and to promote your business.

In closing,

There is importance in understanding social media’s strengths and weaknesses, but there is perhaps even more importance in knowing how to utilize those strengths, and how to work around those weaknesses. To continue on your journey of mastering social media for your business, stay in touch with 9 Clouds and check out other 9 Clouds and Sandbox materials and blog posts to see best practices and important tips on using social media.

Are you a small business owner looking to market yourself online? Download our free guide to online advertising.

Kelsey Engbrecht is an intern for 9 Clouds and has been working with Google and Facebook advertising for over a year, teaching herself and learning through experience how best to use online tools for marketing. We’re excited to share her tips on marketing online in our unending quest to improve digital literacy.

We are happy to announce the start of #Weekly9.

The #Weekly9 is simply the 9 links we think you should read this week. Every hour on Fridays on Twitter we’ll share a new link, and we’ll gather them up into one blog post and newsletter. You can also tag any links on Twitter with the #Weekly9 hashtag so other readers can find and read the best of the best every week.

We look forward to you joining us for this little experiment as we try to curate the best online for you. Remember you can stay up-to-date on the #Weekly 9 in two ways:

• Follow 9 Clouds on Twitter
• Subscribe to our blog

Kindergarten hacker

When I made the bold step into kindergarten at Central Elementary and sat on the S in the circle of letters, I also enjoyed my first interaction with Steve: a new Apple II GS computer. With only two 3 1/2″ floppies I could start-up the computer and quickly began exploring new worlds through Carmen Sandiago, Myst, California Gold Rush and Oregon Trail. The adventure combined with Math Blaster and Reading Rabbitt was enough to pique my interest in technology and soon I was trying to code my own baseball card database program.

While I never made it as a coder, I did became an Apple fan. I saw the potential of technology in learning and enjoyed solving problems with help from technology. The beautiful products made it easy to create and express myself with a few clicks on the mouse.

Had Apple just been about the technology however, it would not have inspired the fanatical following it has today. The fandom was a combination of great products with vision.

Vision of the world

Like many of us, I grew up wanting to change the world, to make the world a better place. Traveling around the world confirmed one thing in my mind: the best place to start was in my own backyard.

Steve started in his garage and had a vision of the world. A world where technology could make life easier, more enjoyable and more beautiful. When he started, it’s doubtful he had visions of changing the entire globe. Instead, he and Woz were more concerned about impressing their local computer group and making a splash at a conference in California.

Deciding to change the world is an expectation too great to be fulfilled. A deman so grandiose and undefined that it gives us an excuse never to start. However, if we decide to change OUR world, it becomes more actionable. We can help one person in our community or solve one problem for people in our lives. If we focus on creating a useful product or service for the people we know and understand, we are half-way to being like Steve.

Billed as the “four best days of summer,” I make the annual trip to the county fair where I eat a dozen sticks of chislic (grilled sheep), one large pork sandwich and homemade ice cream. To top it off, a night of bingo with the VFW generally resulting in losing $4-5 dollars, $.50 at a time.

After growing up going to fair every summer, it’s not often that anything at fair surprises me. This summer however, I discovered a new experience: ENDURO!

Enduro is an epic battle where beat-up cars drive around a mud track. When they get stuck or break down, they have to stay right where they stopped. Soon the track is littered with vehicular corpses, acting as roadblocks for potential winners. Only the car that can can keep driving walks away with the coveted title of Enduro Champion.

Some days, it feels like we are on the Enduro track, driving along avoiding roadblock after roadblock. It’s easy to get hit, but just like Enduro, the key to succeeding is to reverse away from the wreck and start driving again. Inevitably there will be crashes, inevitably you will get stuck, but it is always the driver who can escape from the accidents and mud that ends up winning.

When you hit your next roadblock, remember the lessons from Enduro and keep driving. Or remember the other lesson I learned: avoid eating more than a dozen sticks of chislic.