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Pinterest – To pin or not to pin, why even question it?
Pinterest – Why pinning will give your company more than just pretty pictures
I am usually the first to try social media trends amongst my non-social media friends and family. So, I was amazed when 10 of my friends on Facebook had signed up and created many boards before I had even requested an account! Then, once I signed up, I realized this new trend had moved past the personal use to brand use much faster than I could re-pin a photo!
According to Hitwise - the top 10 social sites for the week of February 11, 2012 were Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Yahoo Answers, and Pinterest in the United States. This means that Pinterest beat LinkedIn, Tagged, Google+, Myspace, and Yelp. Why, you might ask, read on…
The Basics:
Pinterest is a social network site for sharing interesting images you find online. Think of it as an image-based social bookmarking tool like delicious.com.
These images, once uploaded to the site, are known as Pins. Users can place these pins on boards customized under a theme. You can create any kind of theme you want…travel, brands I like, inspiration and so on.
The Stats:
Fifty-nine percent of its “pinners” are women between 25 and 40 years of age. Women also make up 58% of its unique visitors. – The Marketers Guide
Pinterest has gained 13 million users in 10 months, 52% have completed some college, average household income between $25,000 – $49,000, most popular categories- crafts, gifts and special events items and hobbies and leisure –Onlinemarketing – trends.com
The Pinterest Facebook app, according to AppData has over 2 million daily average users. The app’s monthly average users has grown from over 6 million to over 9 million in the last month.
Top Two Reasons your brand should be on Pinterest:
- Traffic – In January 2012, Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and Youtube — combined. - Kissmetrics
- SEO – Currently, the source URL for pins are dofollow, so the more pins you receive of images on your website, the more powerful the link and traffic from Pinterest. Be sure to source the pictures from your own company website.
Tops Three Ways to Use Pinterest:
- Promote new products
- Research – understand your consumer
- Run a contest
Examples of brands and organizations using Pinterest boards:
Mashable – Purpose –The staff pins content on the web based on tips and tricks, funny ads and holidays. With over 7,000 followers, they are doing something right
Travel Channel – Purpose- This media company finds a fun way to spin the categorize its boards like “Street Food Around The World” and multiple “Behind the Scenes” boards.
Social Media Club – Purpose – To share technology and social media inspirations. They also have a board for all the local markets logos.
Local brand examples:
Oxiem – Purpose – To gain inspiration and feedback for a new office remodel.
Experience Columbus- Purpose – To promote the 200Columbus Bicentennial Birthday Bash.
Victoria’s Secret – Purpose – To promote in store and catalog products
As you can see from these brands, there is a variety of ways you can use Pinterest.
Share your company’s Pinterest account so we can check it out!
Meet the Author:
Kari Palmer
@karipalmerBrand Warrior
@Oxiem, Past SMC Col Pres.Wine advocate. Passionate about: Bringing brands closer to their customers & learning all there is 2 know about WINE!
5 Actionable Ways to Turn Social Connections into the Network You Need
“Grow your network before you need it.”
Great advice overall but not well received among the struggling businesses and unemployed citizens in a down American economy. But as an entrepreneur, it’s an adage I live every single day. While staying on top of client work, I also see the future of those contracts which will reach a point where goals are reached, lessons taught, and I’m waving good-bye to my graduated students. The hustling begins again. And the only way the system continues to work and income consistently flows is by reminding friends, colleagues, clients, and any contacts I can make that I exist and I can help.
I reflected a lot about the phrase “social networking” this week as I had an opportunity to speak to the Job Transition North Group of the Columbus AMA on Tuesday evening. “Get Social. Get the Job.” was the presentation I gave, and quite the draw it did pull. It’s an appealing idea that there might be a fabulous secret about the Internet that will cure all our financial issues. And in a lot of ways, it’s true. The misconception? A magic recipe and an overnight result.
When I think of social media, I certainly think of acceleration. The tweet beats the press release by length and speed. The news is no longer news because of the punch beaten by niche online communities. The blogger competes with the journalist because they own their platform.
Yes. Many things are faster because of what the Internet is capable of. But relationships, trust, networks, relevance. These are important aspects of a professional’s daily life no matter what they do that still take good, honest, hard work to achieve.
So how do you execute a presence effectively to build that rapport? Staying online won’t get you anywhere. Taking the social and turning it into real, mutually beneficial networking is the only way to be a success. Here are 5 actionable ways to turn your social connections into the network you’re going to need for a prosperous future:
1. Connect with a personal email.
What you have to remember about social media is that it is only there to start the conversation. You can’t continue to grow a relationship strictly in casual, public settings such as Facebook and Twitter. Tweet a follower if they wouldn’t mind forwarding over their contact info. Reach out to someone by way of a listed email address on their website. Ask for an introduction if you see a mutual friend who can connect you. Do whatever you can to have a conversation in a more personal venue and you’re more likely to be remembered and more intriguing than the thousands of other people your connection interacts with on their social networks.
2. Follow the Twitter hashtag for a networking event in advance.
The beauty of networking now is that you can break the ice much earlier thanks to social media. Take advantage of the fact that you can do your homework on the people you’ll be seeing at an event and start a conversation that you can finish in person, tapping into that event’s potential even further than if you’d have had to start fresh with everyone in the room instead.
3. Contact someone you wish to the gods knew who you were.
You can’t just hope they’re going to respond to your tweet. People with a decent following may not have the time to engage everything coming their way. But if you can find personal contact information for someone and make an attempt to connect on a more personal, exclusive level, it’s absolutely worth a shot that they’ll respond. And the good ones always do.
4. Connect those who should know each other.
Everyone wants to be the person who knows someone. And that’s quite honestly the easiest way to get through life. So make it happen for yourself. Introduce the people you know who should know each other and make those growing relationships work in your favor. Before you know it, they’ll be eagerly inviting you to know more of their network in return.
5. Do what it takes to get in their FACE!
If you’ve read my blog, you may have seen an article I wrote about the local online community, Cbusr. In an nutshell, what I said about it was that it’s a network that didn’t fail because of the fact that its members see the real live faces of the people they are interacting with by way of scheduled events. The network also emphasizes the importance of members getting together on their own time, one-on-one. That principle of making real connections needs to be one of the biggest goals about engaging in social media professionally, or you won’t find you’re gaining any traction with your presence at all.
What do you think about social media and how it can help your network? Sound off in the comments!
(photo)
Amy is the Founder & Face of Savvy Sexy Social. She is a social media frenzy working as a social relations consultant, blogger, and vlogger.
The Business of Blogging: Quick Tips from the Pros
On Tuesday, November 15, Social Media Club of Columbus hosted a luncheon program to discuss the who, what, why and how of blogging personally and professionally. Check out the highlights from three blogging pros.
The business of blogging, thoughts from Matt Russo of Blast Brand and Chatterjet.com:
Why should you blog? Many reasons, but above all, blogging gives your business relevance, authority, search advantages and leverage. Here are a few quick tips:
- Know your audience.
- When it comes to content creation, work BIG to SMALL. Define your legacy, culture, vision, plan, tools and, finally, your actions.
- Remember that blogging is not your job (unless it is). – Chris Brogan
- Build online into your offline.
Some blog content tips from Lori Crock, Written Impact and Blog Coaches:
- Search and ask questions to find out what people want to know using Twitter Search, LinkedIn Answers and Quoara. Respond to those questions with insightful, well-researched blog posts to position you as problem solver with those audiences. Keep your topic specific and use interesting links and graphics throughout your post.
- Read other blogs regularly, comment on blogs and use them to inspire you and with ideas about what you will write about. Some blog topics may include: event reflections, book reviews, iPhone app reviews and it is a great practice to regularly shine the spotlight on clients, staffers and collaborators.
- Promote your post through your social media network (everywhere: LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, Google+) and add a link to your most recent blog post in your email signature. Have a post that you think will have wide interest? Consider promoting it using social bookmarking sites such as Reddit, Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon. Use an e-news tool such as Mail Chimp to e-mail out a capsule of recent blog posts to your audience.
- Download your copy of the Social Media Content Calendar Template
B2B blogging tips from Sharon Santino at Leaderpromos:
If you’re a B2B business, a company blog is a great tool to reach out to your clients and establish your organization as a trusted partner that your customers can spend money with and know they’re getting a return on their investment. As you blog, consider the following tips:
- Put a Human Face to Your Business: People don’t do business with companies, they do business with people. Remind your audience that there are real people behind the scenes by using them in your blog. Write a story about an employee or feature them in a photo.
- Celebrate your Community: Show your clients off! If a product or a service purchased from you results in a success, then brag about it! It’s a win-win – your client feels good about being in the spotlight and you can show off what a great job you’re doing.
- Establish Yourself as a Resource: You know you’re good at what you do – now prove it with thoughtful, well-written articles that give great advice that your clients can use.
- Switch It Up: Experiment with videos, infographics and more! Keep it interesting to keep your clients engaged.
- Take the Conversation to Social Media: This is where your clients hang-out outside of work – so go to them. Start and maintain a Facebook or Twitter page so you can chat with them outside of company hours.
That’s it! Good luck and happy blogging!