Grow My Company

10 steps to better Pinterest marketing

I'm no expert Pinterest marketer, and for that matter, neither is anybody else. It's just too new on the social media scene. But I have noticed some things that make sense if you're interested in using Pinterest to market your product or service.

1. Use great photos in your own blog posts so people will be encouraged to pin them:
   Pinterest is a visual marketing tool, so your images are especially important. This is true whether you’re pinning your own or another’s content. Good quality pictures are more visually appealing and will capture more interest, which will likely make them more apt to be repined. You want your content to be shared, right?
   
   
2. Choose clever names for your boards:
   Sure, “Food,” tells users what that board contains, but “Fabulous Food is just catchier, and you definitely do want to captivate your followers.
   
   
3. Carefully select your board cover photo:
   That cover photo has the potential to generate a lot of intrigue, so choose it carefully. It should instantly relay the board contents and be visually appealing.
   
   
4. Tag ecommerce items with price tags:
   I recently read that pins with tags enjoy up to a 40% spike in sales. Adding a price tag is easy. Simply add a $ sign before the price in the caption, and the price will be displayed. So if you’re selling goods online, don’t keep buyers in suspense. That won’t generate more interest. Let them know upfront what your widget costs and drive interested buyers to your site.
   
   
5. Narrow your board topics:
   When my own social media tips board reached the point where I couldn’t quickly find the one that I was looking for, I knew it was time to create social media tips category boards, i.e. LinkedIn Tips, Facebook Tips, etc. Although you can’t nest subcategories within a main category on Pinterest, you can reposition boards, so it is possible to keep related boards near each other.
   
   
6. Follow others:
   Pinterest is a social network, and the whole point is to connect, communicate and share. If you’re not following others’ boards and only pushing out your own material, you’re missing out on opportunities to find great new content that you and your followers might enjoy.
   
   
7. Repin enthusiastically:
   Share, share, share. The more great content you find, the more valuable you are to your network.
   
   
8. Control your home page feed:
   Few Pinterest users create all the boards they need at first. Most people generally build new ones to suit their evolving needs. When you follow a person, you automatically subscribe to all their current and new boards that they create. This sometimes floods your own home page with a bunch of pins that don’t interest you. But that’s an easy fix. Simply go to that person’s profile page and unfollow the boards that are unappealing to you. Problem solved. That person keeps your subscription, but your home page feed is free of unwanted content. Do this regularly to maintain a valuable and interesting home page feed.
   
   
9. Create a board with offers exclusive to Pinterest users:
   Talk about an easy way to track Pinterest leads! Create a board with exclusive offers that people can only find on Pinterest. You can also do the same on Twitter, or Facebook, or YouTube…
   
   
10. Create a contest:
    Take advantage of Pinterest’s tagging feature by encouraging users to repin your content on their own boards with tracking hashtags, and develop a criteria to determine the winner. Or you could use the hashtag feature along with a theme and have people exercise their creativity when pinning content to their boards. Again, you would then have to search for the hashtags, review all the entries, and determine the criteria for a winner.

Pinterst is the hot, new social media, and we're still discovering its marketing potential, but there are plenty of built in marketing opportunities for clever business people.

 

 - Christine Pilch Mancini

 

 

 

 

 

Marketing essential: give your clients what they want

One of the primary rules of marketing is to give your customers and clients what they want. And I try very hard to focus my efforts in that direction, so imagine my surprise when I learned that I was overlooking a critical use of Pinterest!

Here's how it happened. One of the conversations I had at PodCamp Western MA 4 was about the content that I share on my social media channels that my followers like. The person I was speaking with mentioned that she loved how I share so many infographics on Twitter because they're visual and it's easy to get the gist of the info quickly. I thanked her, and then our conversation flowed into Pinterest use, and she mentioned that she loves infographics there as well. 

Interestingly, I had been deliberately not posting infographics on Pinterest because I disliked the clutter aspect in my own home page feed, and I said as much to her. Then she actually asked me to start pinning the great infographics I find there, because, as she said, "This might seem like clutter to you because it is your business, but it's a learning experience for me!"

Lesson learned. I have now started sharing interesting social media infographics that I find on Pinterest. Followers are free to follow or not follow that board if they find the content clutters up their own feeds.

The best thing though is that I listened to my potential referrer and client. She is now receiving the valuable content that she likes, and this makes me a more valuable resource.

Are you giving your clients what they want? When was the last time you asked them?

 

 - Christine Pilch Mancini

PodCamp Western MA 4 wrap-up: Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Where else can you get 5 custom social media and/or tech presentations/discussions, lunch, a t-shirt, a cool swag bag, meet new friends, catch up with old ones, and learn more that you expected for just $30?

PodCamp Western MA 4!

What a day it was!

This was my 4th PodCamp Western MA, and I'll admit that I was a bit sceptical that I would learn anything new. I've been at this social media stuff as long as anybody, and I'm a seasoned speaker and trainer. I pretty much expected that I would be there sharing, and reconnecting, but not really learning.

Was I ever wrong!

I started the day at my friend and fellow PodCamp organizer, Morris Partee's Augmented Reality session. Morriss reviewed some of the most popular apps, and I offered one of my own favorites, Historypin. It was a fun session for all and quite enlightening for many of the attendees who didn't understand the potential for things such as NY subway assistance or finding a restaurant by scanning your locale with your smartphone. 

Next up, I went to another friend, Lesley Lambert's Pinterest session. I'm a pretty enthusiastic Pinterest user, so my goal was to support Lesley, and I'm thrilled that she had a packed room full of inquisitive people who wanted to learn how they can use Pinterest personally and to promote their businesses. She successfully drove home the point that Pinterest is a major driver of traffic to blogs and websites, so businesses should take notice. Lesley's slidedeck is here if you'd like to take a look.

After a very tasty lunch I attended a session that I requested, Davd Pakman's Podcasting How-To. David hosts a thriving political podcast that is syndicated on hundreds of radio and cable TV stations, so he knows how to do this right. He started with the basics of equipment and went right trough to promoting your podcast and growing a following. I couldn't tweet out my notes fast enough. If you're interested, his slidedeck is here.

Next up, I co-presented a session about Optimizing Your LinedIn Profile with Christine Parizo. The room was full of a variety of people. Some were seasoned social media users, others were beginners, and some were students. Everybody shared a common desire to improve their profile to position themselves for hire, be it employment or consulting gig. I received several emails, tweets, and LinkedIn messages over the last couple of days from happy people, so I think I did a good job for them.

I wrapped up the day with a session created in true PodCamp spirit. I was standing with Lesley Lambert reviewing the PodCamp session board, and nothing really struck our fancy, so I said to her, "How about if we grab a room and discuss productivity tips and tricks? Let's share ideas about what we're using that is making it easier to do our jobs and get through our days." Lesley grabbed a sticky and posted this on the wall, and 5 minutes later we had about 20 people ready to share ideas. Ron Miller started chatting about how he is using Evernote, and Lesley told us about how she combines Evernote and Dragon dictation to write her blog posts in the car. That flowed into talk of tools to schedule tweets, apps to backup data in the cloud, a cool app that helps your create lists on the fly, and also something to help you keep track of client time and easily invoice. Next we moved into Gmail productivity tips, lots of other things, and we wrapped up with discussion about solving one of a blogger's major challenges, finding royalty free and low cost photos that won't get us into copyright trouble. 

Interestingly, throughout this session, nobody left, but we gained several additional people who came looking for us after reading the tweets that were coming out of our discussion. You see, one of PodCamp's rules is called, the rule of 2 feet. Anybody is free and encouraged to leave any session at any time, and the session leader is not allowed to get hurt feelings. 

I look forward to PodCamp every year, and each year it goes by way too fast! I come away with new acquaintances, fresh ideas, and plenty of inspiration. If you have an opportunity to attend a PodCamp in your area, I recommend that you give it a shot. All of them are different, and in Western MA, our goal is to keep it small, (cap of 150 people,) and create an environment where there is room for spontaneous sessions like the one I described above. Other PodCamps run throughout a whole weekend with all time blocks pre-scheduled. That's fine too, but I think I prefer our format. We do PodCamp pretty well here in little ole Western MA!

 

- Christine Pilch Mancini

 

Pinterest wish list

I signed up for Pinterest in the summer of 2011, and I've been using it enthusiastically since just after the holidays. I guess I'm about as much of an expert as anybody because it's so new.

I really like it, as I'm a visual person who has been scrapbooking and clipping things from magazines to stick in binders for many years. Pinterest is right up my alley.

There are a few things that Pinterest could do right now that would greatly enhance usability, for me at least:

1. Create private boards. Just like my private links stored on Delicious, sometimes I'd like to be able to be able to save something for future reference without letting the whole Pinterest world know about it.
2. List followers chronologically. Seriously, Pinterest, how hard can this possibly be? Facebook does it with Likes on Pages, Twitter does it with followers. Why not you? It's a time-sucking pain to have to review my whole follower list to find new people that I may want to follow reciprocally, especially if I know them personally.
3. Create boards that anybody can post to. This would fit well with contests and other marketing initiatives. Facebook did away with the old requirement that only fans could write on a Page's wall. How about lifting the requirement that board owners must assign permission to individual users to pin to a specific board that they want shared? 

 - Christine Pilch Mancini

Social Media 101: covering the basics in early 2012

I can't tell you how often people ask me what they really should be doing to cover their bases these days from a social media perspective. Often these conversations start something like this:

"Should someone like me really be on Facebook?" with a wrinkled nose," That's not really my thing."

"Not really your thing?" I counter, "What do you mean? Marketing yourself and your company isn't your thing?"

"Oh, then what should I be doing?" is a common follow-up question.

Social media is constantly evolving, and there is no mix that is right in every situation and every company, but what was once the essential 3: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, has expanded to include YouTube, Google+, and Pinterest these days, depending upon what you are selling.

There are plenty of others too, but let's go through the current recommended basic social marketing hexagon, one-by-one.

Facebook:

Everybody should have a personal Facebook account, if for no other reason, to educate your friends and family about what you do. Sure, your cousin and college roommate likely know that you're a lawyer, but can they tell a friend what kind of law you practice and possibly refer business to you? Believe me, all my Facebook connections know exactly what I do, and yes, they do refer business my way.

It's a common and legitimate concern to worry about mixing personal and professional connections and have clients see vacation and family photos, but Facebook has extensive privacy controls that utilize lists, and a single account can satisfy an infinite variety of people in your life by simply controlling what they can and cannot see. If you need assistance setting this up and understanding how to use these controls, I would be happy to help you.

A Facebook Page for your firm is another no-brainer. Anybody can do create one. Facebook offers step-by-step instructions. Just fill out all the requested information completely, upload your logo or photo, post some content, and invite your personal friends to like the page. That's all you have to do to get started, and there are lots of ways you can use that page to market your firm later.

You might also find use for a Facebook Group within your business. This space could be used to collaborate and share information with specific people. Unlike Pages, Groups can be private, where non-members can't see content, or secret, where nobody outside of members even know that the Group exists.

Facebook ads are another possibility. Since Facebook collects lots of information about its users, it is capable of extreme targeting with its advertising. This is not a no-cost option, but it is worth exploring at the right time.

Twitter:

Twitter seems odd and uncomfortable for most users when they first check it out. How can anybody market in 140 character bursts? Well, Twitter is very much about developing relationships, which are likely the lifeblood of your firm, so sign up and start talking to others in your geographic area. Yes, you can discuss your field of expertise a bit, but don't preach, and above all, just be friendly. If you need help getting a feel for Twitter, give me a shout.

LinkedIn:

You're a professional right? Well, a LinkedIn presence is expected for all professionals these days. In fact, LinkedIn is so powerful that often your LinkedIn profile tops your own web profile in search results. Let me also assure you that LinkedIn makes it really easy to find your competitors, so if you're not there when a prospect searches for you, you just might lose business to competitors who do take this platform seriously. Can you afford that risk?

Sign up and go thorough the process of building a 100% complete profile. Be prepared to spend a couple of hours gathering and inputting all of your information, and go way back throughout your entire career and school days. Most everybody in your past is a potential referral source, aren't they? The best way for them to find you is to identify yourself with all of your past jobs and education. Don't skip sections, but do use action words and proper grammar and spelling. This 24/7 web-based resume is not the place for typos and tense issues. If you don't have the time, patience, or inclination to write a proper bio for yourself, I would be happy to help you. In fact, one of my clients currently hears from at least 2 recruiters per week because of the profile that I created for him.

YouTube:

YouTube is a no-brainer for professional service firms that want to position their lawyers, accountants, etc., as qualified and knowledgeable experts in their fields. Grab your iPhone, Andriod phone, Flip, Kodak Zi8, etc, light yourself, get an inexpensive lavaliere microphone, and start talking. Do a few takes if you need to and edit to whatever degree you are able. Or hire someone to do this for you. It may be a bit pricey to hire a professional videographer, but there are also plenty of multimedia college grads who are unemployed and/or need to build a resume. They would likely work very reasonably. Have them come in and shoot a dozen videos at a time that they can take back to their studio and edit for you. Then use your videos on your blog and website in addition to YouTube.

Google+:

I must admit that I am still not a big G+ fan. I find it somewhat redundant and can't break the feeling that it's just another social media that I have to check, so I neglect my account. There is one feature that I use regularly though, Hangouts. Hangouts allow up to 10 people to videoconference, unlike Skype, which only allows multiple parties to videoconference within the paid model. I am currently working with a group of 4 others planning PodCamp Western MA 4, and we haven't had a single in-person meeting. All planning is being conducted within a private Facebook Group and weekly Hangouts.

There are a couple additional nice features that are worth mentioning. On Google+, updates are editable. How many times have you posted on Facebook and wished you could change something retroactively? Google + is also integrated with many of Google's other products. I especially like its integration with its Picassa free photo app. And I love that all of the photos I take on my Android phone are automatically uploaded to my G+ account. That's free automatic photo backup! If you have additional favorite features of Google+, please add them in the comments below.

Pinterest:

This blog covers marketing for essentially professional service firms, but I do plenty of marketing for other kinds of companies that have products to sell. And, let's face it, your service is your product. The true marketing potential of Pinterest is still being discovered and tested, and its core strength is in its visual advantage, so its value to you may not be as readily apparent as the above tactics, however; I like Pinterest because it displays the human side of me and helps people get to know me, so they feel better about reaching out to me. Remember too that Pinterest will climb in search engine rankings as it becomes more popular, so it will help you to populate that critical first page of search results with your own content.

In closing, it is important for you to understand that there is no cookie cutter social media strategy that suits everybody. However, the above includes what I am finding especially useful in my own and my clients' social media toolbox lately. What are you using that I haven't mentioned?

 

 - Christine Pilch Mancini

 

Photo credit: Best Design Options

What the heck is Pinterest, and why should I try it?

I recently read that said Pinterest was the hot, new socia media that is currently exploding. And I'll admit that I'm hooked! A friend recently asked me on Twitter what it was all about, so here goes...

I joined several months ago, but I've just started really using it since the holidays. It took me a while to get the hang of it. Why would I want to save a bunch of photos? Well, Pinterest is a great place to save things that are visual, like recipes, makeup tips, hair styles, home decor... are you get any ideas now?

I've been a huge fan of the online bookmarking site, Delicious for years. I stopped using my browser bookmarks when I discovered it. Why save something on my hard drive when I can save a link on Delicious and have access anywhere in the world that I can get on the internet. I liked the ease of using categories, I liked that I could save private links, and I liked that my library was easily searchable, unlike browser-based bookmarks.

But text links weren't especially helpful when I was looking for an idea for dinner, for instance.

Photos are though.

Hello Pinterest!

I love to cook, and decorate my home, and dream about building a new one some day. I like to travel, and organize my life, and read. I like gadgets, and wine, and martinis. These things are very visual, so when I save pictures and look at the relevant board, it's easy to find my inspiration.

Here's the key, the pins (pictures) link directly to the webpage that contains the recipe, or description, or houseplan, or book, or whatever. So the pins are my visual guide to finding what I'm looking for and clicking over to it quickly and easily. Pinterest makes me more efficient.

Another really cool thing about Pinterest is its viral component. You subscribe to other Pinterest users and see what they pin to their own boards on your homepage, much like looking at your Facebook newsfeed. When you see something you like, you can repin it to one of your own boards. So Pinterest is a giant sharing site. 

I've found wonderful new websites through other user's pins that I would have probably never seen before. I'm especially fond of food, and food is really visual, so when I see a pin of something that looks intriguing, I check out the recipe and save it to my own food board if I want to make it sometime. The original pinner is credited when you repin something, so your followers can easily find new people who share similar interests or tastes, and they can follow everything those users pin or specific boards that interest them.

I'll continue to use Delicious to save industry article links and such, but for anything visual, Pinterest is my new online bulletin board.

Now how can Pinterest be integrated into marketing? Well, I haven't used it in any client camapiagns yet, but I can think of a couple ideas where it might be useful. Pinterest could be used in a contest where people pin something on a board that is open to others' pins in addition to your own, or perhaps users could be challenged to find a board with the most pins about a specific theme. Since popularity on Pinterest is likely indicative of how well a product will do, you could also test new products there and observe how quickly they go viral, meaning how quickly they are repined by others.

This is how I use Pinterest now, and I'm sure it will evolve over time. How are you using Pinterest?

One more thing, Pinterest is open by invitation now, so if you want an invite, just send me an email:
Christine at GrowMyCo.com

 

 - Christine Pilch Mancini