Pinterest for Business – Top Tips

In the post 'Pinterest – What is all the Interest?' we looked at what is so appealing about Pinterest.  We are now going to look at ways people are using Pinterest in their Businesses. There are a lot of articles out there on this, so I am sharing the ones I found most useful.

For those of you that are not familiar with Pinterest. Pinterest lets you organise and share all of the beautiful things you find on the web.  It is also the latest social network craze site that is having almost 12 million unique monthly visitors.

Tia wrote '50 Top Tips & Best Ways to Use Pinterest for Business'.

The headline pretty much tells you what the post is about.  She talks through using Pinterest to hold contests, build your brand, grow your community and many other ideas.

Sprout Insights wrote '10 Creative Ways to Use Pinterest for Marketing'.

They break these down into three categories – Indirect Marketing, Integrated Marketing and Direct Marketing.

Linchpin SEO created an Infographic – 'Ideas for Marketing Your Product on Pinterest.com'.

I have included the Infographic below, but please visit the post as there is a lot of other information and ideas of how to promote your business.

Last, but not least, John Brandon on Inc. wrote '9 Tips – Boost Your Business with Pinterest'.

One action that pretty much every article recommends is having options on your website to both share content and also to connect on Pinterest. You can find all of the necessary information on Pinterest's Goodies page.

See you Pinterest! You can find me at www.pinterest.com/staceymyers.

Would love to hear how you are using Pinterest for Business.
 
Leave your comments below!!

Stacey is a coach, trainer and speaker who supports Authors and Aspiring Authors create an online presence through WordPress and Social Media training. Stacey's hands-on style, supportive nature and extensive knowledge make her the perfect go-to resource.

#FollowFriday – No.1 Biggest Mistake People are Making

Examples:

Pinterest – What is all the Interest?

Ok, so I have finally decided to see what all the fuss is about over there at Pinterest.  I only ever started an account as it was a little task we had to do in one of the groups I am in.  I set up a username, but that was about it.  Then every day I was receiving notifications that this person and that person were following me. Great! Every time I received an email I cringed a little inside.  I knew my Pinterest profile was rubbish and that I did only have one board titled 'Other People's Pins', as I did not have a clue what I was doing.

I also had the little voice in the back of my head telling me what I have told many a new person on social media – 'Don't open an account if you are not going to set it up properly, it is like opening up a shop and having nothing to sell'. By this time I was a complete hypocrite.  The articles about Pinterest were swirling round the internet and I had been trying to pretend that this whole thing was not another social media site I needed to know about and that it would just go away.  Well, clearly it is not going away anytime soon.  

There were a few final things in a row that had me finally pull my head out from the sand and start taking a good look at this Pinterest craze.

1. I subscribe to quite a few blogs and practically every blog had at least one article about Pinterest.

2. In my email this morning before I could even look at the real emails – I had to delete, no less than, 28 emails telling me that 'so and so' was now following me on Pinterest. (cringe, cringe, cringe..)

3. In a casual conversation with one of my friends I mentioned that sometimes before I go to bed I might play a game of solitaire on my iPad.  She said, 'Oh, Stacey, really, I would much prefer to have one last check in on my Pinterest account before going to bed, it is much more interesting than that'.

So, I went investigating this craze that had turned my perfectly sane and rational friend into a pinning frenziest!

I logged into my account and stared blankly at my empty boards and wondered what the heck I was going to do with them.  Ahh – YouTube will have all the answers.

The first video I found was this one – short and to the point, it explained what Pinterest was and how big it was getting, but not what to do.

Then I looked around for some that were going to tell me what to do and then this video caught my eye. Pinterest SEO – now we are starting to talk my language.  Thanks Kathy Dalpra! Kathy is a wedding professional that helps other wedding professionals with social media.  Her video is coming from that context but can be modified for any niche.  I personally found it quite informative.

Being the original thinker I am, all I could come up with to make a board about were my favourite books.  I found the Pinterest Chrome extension so that I could 'pin' from any website and off I went, straight to Amazon.  Pinned a couple of books and then was bored of that and went off to find other things to do on the internet that were of more interest.

Not one to give up that easily I went back in for another go and found this little 'how to' video that Beth Hunter made.

I was slightly inspired by her pumpkin board and went off to make a board of my favourite colour – Purple.  It started off well but then I kept forgetting to change the board name when I pinned something and had to go back and change everything around after I had finished, which was kind of frustrating. [A little word of warning for you!]

It does erk me that you have to leave a description for each of the pictures – is that not an oxymoron to – 'A picture is worth a thousand words?'

So, that will give those of you, like myself, that did not have a clue what they were doing an idea of how to get started on Pinterest.  In an upcoming post I will share a few of the hundreds of blog articles out there about how to use Pinterest in your business.  Until then, I think I will stick with my favourite quotes and books. If you would like to check out my exemplary boards you can find me at - http://pinterest.com/staceymyers/.

Would love to hear if, and how, you are using Pinterest.
 
Leave your comments below!!

Stacey is a coach, trainer and speaker who supports Authors and Aspiring Authors create an online presence through WordPress and Social Media training. Stacey's hands-on style, supportive nature and extensive knowledge make her the perfect go-to resource.

Check Your Permissions

Click the image below and you will be taken to a page where you can click on each individual link to each of the sites.  Once there, you can check which apps you have given permission to access each of the sites.  I was very very surprised at the number of apps I had allowed that I never use.

Eran Sandler @erans and Avi Charkham @aviche were the developers behind this great little tool.

Am interested to find out how many permissions you forgot that you even had!

Leave you comments below!!

Adding and RSS Feed to Your Blog

This is a follow on post from 'What is an RSS Feed?. In this video I show you how to put an RSS feed on your own site, using Feedburner.  It is very easy to do, so please do not let the sound of it put you off.

If you have any questions or are not sure exactly what to do, please leave a question for me below or on my Facebook page.

Would love to hear how you get on adding an RSS feed to your site.  
Leave your comments below!!

Stacey is a coach, trainer and speaker who supports Authors and Aspiring Authors create an online presence through WordPress and Social Media training. Stacey's hands-on style, supportive nature and extensive knowledge make her the perfect go-to resource.

What is an RSS feed?

So, what is an RSS feed?

How do you subscribe to an RSS feed?

Diving In

- Practical Tips for Starting Up and Growing Your Home Based Business

We have a guest post today from Cas McCullough talking about her book Diving In – this is the first author I have had on but will be occasionally spotlighting authors and their books. Think about how what Cas had done with her business can be used to promote your book – when I read through the list practically every one of those points can be applied to assist you in creating your author platform.

Starting a micro business from your dining room table has never been easier within the landscape of social media, but it takes more than a Facebook Page to turn your business into a viable and sustainable enterprise.

So, what happens is, people give up. Given the large number of all small businesses that are home based enterprises, and that home based enterprises are the fastest growing economic sector in the global economy, this is a travesty.

After taking on Support a WAHP (Work at Home Person) in early 2011, it became clear to me that there were few reliable and credible resources out there for people who work from home. I had to learn everything the hard way, (including how to write and publish an ebook), but you can get a massive head-start with the help of this book, saving you time and money.

Whether you’re a mum starting-up a small craft enterprise or an entrepreneur planning to be the next Richard Branson,“Diving In” provides practical tips and resources to empower the tiniest business to become a roaring success.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• how to write a practical business plan.
• considerations for working around your family and lifestyle needs.
• tips for creating your elevator pitch, keyword tags for SEO and brand/corporate identity (trust me, these do relate to each other)
• reasons why you need to focus on creating a responsive culture.
• tips for marketing your business online.
• tips for marketing your business in the real world.
• why networking is crucial to your marketing mix and how to go about getting yourself out there.
• why you should be generating publicity and tips on how to do it.
• tips for selling your products and services on and offline.
• the key social media marketing concepts you will need to be a social media success story.
• how to generate content and feed your followers’ appetite for original content.
• how to use social media as a networking tool.
• how to increase your engagement with followers, and generate more shares.
• why “likes” should not be your ultimate goal on Facebook.
• tips on interpreting data so you know when to post and how often.
• how to leveraging your page for sales.

All of these things I have learned through trial and error, reading, researching, formal and informal study. Using this book you can jump-start your home based business, start your success story and save yourself time and money in the process. I look forward to your feedback and, more importantly, on hearing how this book has helped you.

Download a free chapter of the book here!

About the Author:

Cas McCullough started her first home-based business at nine-years-old, making $20 a week selling home-made felt bookmarks and toys for a local craft shop in her home-town of Hahndorf, South Australia.

Cas is an entrepreneur and social media, marketing and communication specialist. With 20 years experience in graphic design, public relations, marketing and communication strategy and research, major event management, media relations, editing and publishing, blogging, speaking and most recently social media, she has lived and worked through everything you need to know to start a home-based business. Cas has also learned from the best in the social media business in order to share the most up-to-date, quality information and resources with other WAHPs.

Aside from her work with Support a WAHP, Cas has a passion for supporting women in childbirth as a doula through her local social enterprise Mumatopia. Cas is the former Editor of Birth Matters Journal, a past President of national consumer organization Maternity Coalition and co-founder of Caesarean Awareness Network Australia. Since 2008 she has also been listed in Who’s Who of Australian Women. Cas has presented at conferences and workshops on childbirth alongside notable activists such as Sheila Kitzinger, and former American talk-show host Ricki Lake.

Now, as a work at home mum, Cas is privileged to be able to explore her two passions side by side: women’s wellbeing and supporting other small home-based businesses.

Are You Missing Out on the Power of Facebook Lists?

The list functionality in both Facebook and Twitter, I think, is being extremely underused.

Lists are a way to organise your friends so you can filter both whose posts you see in the Newsfeed and also who sees yours.  Facebook automatically gives you some lists to use and then you can create your own.

One of the lists you are given is 'Close Friends'.

When people are in this list you get notified every time they post.  It is a great way to keep up to date with what your family and friends are doing.  If you do not want to receive the extra notifications they can be turned off here.

Another way to use this list is to follow people of interest.  Be that clients or people of influence that you would like to keep track of what they are doing.

I personally have my mentors and other people that I would like to learn from or emulate their social media strategy in my close friends list.  This way whenever they post anything I receive a notification of it.

Also, when you click on the close friends list, or any other for that matter, you only see in your newsfeed the posts from the people you have added to that list. 

You could add in here authors that you would like to watch and see how they are interacting with their readers.  The best way to learn is by studying those that are doing it well, and I use the close friends list as a tool to do just that.

The opposite end of that is the 'Restricted' list.  People you put on this list will only see updates you make public.  You can make any modifications to those settings here.

Ok, so now you know the types of people you can add to your list but how do you add them and how do you create a list.  

Creating a new list

Click on the lists on the left hand side of the screen when you are on your home page.

Once that opens you will see all the lists you have available to you.  To create a new list click on the 'Create List' button at the top of the page and follow the instructions to name a new list.  You will then be given the opportunity to add people to your list.

When you press 'Add Friend' to send someone a friend request you have a choice as to which list you to put them in.  You do not need to add them to a list, but the option is there if you want to use it.

The last way to add people to a list is within the list itself.  On the right hand side Facebook offers suggestions based on people you have already added to the list, or you can type in the 'Add friends to this list' box and a drop down menu will appear and you can click on the people there.

I have created a video that walks you creating and using lists.

If you have any questions you can ask them on my Facebook wall.

Would love to hear how you are using lists.  
Leave your comments below!!

Stacey is a coach, trainer and speaker who supports Authors and Aspiring Authors create an online presence through WordPress and Social Media training. Stacey's hands-on style, supportive nature and extensive knowledge make her the perfect go-to resource.

The Numbers are Phenomenal

I have been watching a few videos lately on social media and as we will be using social media to expand your online presence I wanted to share a couple with you.  The number of people accessing social media sites these days is astronomical.  This is where a large percentage of the world can be found, using social media in our businesses is almost not negotiable.

As one of the quotes in the video says:

'We don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how WELL we Do it' – Erik Qualman

Would love to hear your thoughts.  
Write your comments below!!