Aug 23, 2012 | pinterest, Social Media, Uncategorized
Pinterest is growing by leaps and bounds and is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media sites around. Here are ten things every business owner should know about Pinterest.
- If Facebook is like passing notes to friends in class, and Twitter is like sending text to the universe. Pinterest is like a bulletin board where you post pieces of visual content sorted into categories. Consider it a scrapbook of your favorite things.
- Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites around. From July 2011 to July 2012 it grew by 5124%, quickly overtaking Google+ and gaining ground on Linked In.
- What is it good for?
Visual content — photos, infographics, maps, and websites. Recipes are very popular on it, as are Decorating, Crafts, Shopping, How to and DIY
- What about the copyright issues?
- There is some potential, but Pinterest is being proactive in trying to address it and I could not find any instances of ongoing issues.
- My advice is to pin content you know you have rights to or are from a reliable source. Pinning graphics from websites is a good bet. Pinning someone else’s facebook content that has been shared and seen repeatedly is not a good bet.
- How can a service sided business use Pinterest?
- Share pins of products you love or that coordinate with, enhance, or complement your service.
- Pin websites that feature handy tips in your field of expertise.
- Use pins to share and show the lifestyle of your target market, cool products, design ideas, places to go.
- Get ideas for other services and products from pins.
- Designers — it’s a great way for your clients to share their design likes and dislikes with you. Thanks for teaching me that, Computer Diva!
- Give your company personality by sharing company culture.
- Pin photos of the team at work and play. When a staff page is a part of a corporate website, its always one of the most popular pages.
Share Employee Profiles, featuring volunteer work, hobbies and personality.
- Pin photos of company events, showing your firm as friendly and fun to work with.
- You don’t need an invite any more. Pinterest has opened subscriptions to anyone who wants one. Simply sign up.
- Use the Pinterest goodies to make pinning easy.
- The bookmarklet lets you add websites to your collections quickly and easily right from your browser nav bar.
- Get the smartphone app to save photos to your account by phone.
- Get Pinterest buttons for your websiteto encourage pinning and following!
- Put a follow me on Pinterest button on your website to link your accounts.
- Add a pin it button on your webpages to encourage pinning of your content. This allows you to determine which image is shown on Pinterest, even if its not one on the page.
- Bloggers take note — always include an image that can be easily found and copied when pinned on Pinterest. I’m sure you’ll always be using only legal imagery, so there should be no problem there. Be on the lookout for visual content and take photos that illustrate ideas or concepts to create a visual library for blogging.
For future reference, I will be adding new links to both my bookmark list and my Pinterest for Business Board. Check back now and then to see what else I’ve discovered!
- Follow my Pinterest List on Sirius Media’s social media page for my latest discoveries about Pinterest. I’ll be adding new finds to this list as it occurs and want to share them with you.
- Check out my Pinterest for Business board on Pinterest.
Watch What Others Are Doing with Pinterest.
The growth of Pinterest is yet another way we share our passions with others online. I expect it to become a significant player in the social media marketplace. Smart businesses will take note and incoporate it into their marketing matrix to get the full advantage of it’s strong market growth.
Apr 14, 2011 | Facebook, Social Media
- Set up a FB Business Page. Although you must have a personal page to create a business page, do keep them separate. This allows you to create marketing content that is separate from your personal life and build your business brand with consistent messaging.
- Tell the World Who You Are. Be sure to complete the entire profile, including business category, description, location, hours on the info page.
- Show Your Stuff. Customize the page with your company logo. Add photos of recent work, products and happy customers whenever you can. Viewing photos is the #1 activity on Facebook.
- Share Successes. Go ahead — toot your own horn. This is the place to let the world know how good you are. Just remember that some clients would prefer anonymity and be discreet when needed. Post updates at least several times a week for best results.
- Start Discussions. Use Discussions to share ideas, brainstorm, discover unmet needs your clients may have, provide helpful tips for troubleshooting, and get feedback.
- Ask Questions This new short polling feature allows you to get input fast. These polls are quick and informal, so go ahead, be a little lighthearted. If the poll is fun, people are more likely to participate and share it with their friends.
- Like Other Businesses. Find other business pages, friend’s businesses and like them from your business page as well as from your personal page. If you’ve done business with them, write an online review of their work.
- Get a Vanity Url. As soon as you have 25 followers for your business page, get your custom name at http://www.facebook.com/username/. This helps build your brand and make the site easier to find and link to.
- Create a Custom Page. Make a page that is styled the way you want it. Under Edit > Apps search for Static Frame IFRAME. Install the app and then link to a customized html page somewhere on your real website. There are other iframe apps, but they don’t work on a secure https connection.
- Laser Targeted Ads. With the new ad features you can target very small market segments to see your advertising by age, income or area.
- Get a Badge. Add social media sharing buttons, or a Facebook badge or a Like button to your website to build followers and be sure your communications avenues intersect.
- Post Regularly. Most importantly, be sure to keep the content fresh. Post several times a week. Share tips in your field, links you find useful, or humor to build followers. Let people know you’re out there.
Jan 17, 2010 | Creative inspiration, Social Media, Taoism
Experience is a riverbed,
Its source hidden, forever flowing:
Its entrance, the root of the world,
The Way moves within it:
Draw upon it; it will not run dry.
via TAO TE CHING – Chapter 06. Experience – ZENGUIDE.COM.
I’ve been thinking recently of the concept of how Twitter and Facebook, sometimes derided as a narcisstic form of communication, offer us flowing streams of observation. Many voices contribute to the stream, and it is always changing, yet always there.
Like a river. Like the Tao.
So now, if we wish it, our life streams can be mirrored in social media. Daily experiences come and go and are recorded. Inspiration, observation and education can easily be shared with others.
This flow has changed the way we experience our glories, laughs and disappointments. Within hours of losing my job last spring, I had many statements of sympathy and support. Plus a network of resources and friends to call on who were not at my last job. It gave me great strength and was empowering.
This week I offered support to friend who lost her mom, another who has family members facing cancer and learned about a benefit for a musician in Chicago I hadn’t met. And was able to help share information on how to share with victims of an earthquake. This did not feel self-centered to me, this feels like community. And it feels strong.
Yes, social media is a great marketing tool, and yes, there are some people who make money at it. But that’s not the point.
The point is creating a real community. The point is the flow of life, not money. The point is being together and helping each other out. The point is to enjoy the river’s flow and if you’re brave enough — dive in. Be embraced by the stream and let it support you. We are all in this together.
May we each be granted the gift of attention.
Dec 22, 2009 | Blogging, Business of Design, Facebook, Social Media
Find fans and friends for your business
You may already be a Facebook fiend or perhaps you have have just heard about it. But did you know that you can now build a page for your business? enIt’s a great way to expand your marketing campaign, 
drive traffic to your website, increase page visibility on search engines and enable your clients and friends to spread your marketing message.
Best of all, it’s free!
Your business page will collect fans who spread the word about your business to their friends on Facebook and elsewhere the web.
Sirius Media created one recently and keep it fresh with interesting design finds, marketing discoveries, promotions and updates about our work. It’s been fun!
You can start building your business page today.
All it takes is some thought, planning and investing a little bit of time to get going.
1 Before you build your business page, gather some information to include on the page: company logo, a link to your website, address, hours, phone numbers, email address, business services offered, and areas of specialty.
2 Sign up for a Facebook account (or use your existing account) then click the link that says “Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business” on the home page or at the bottom of the left hand column on your page. You will be directed to a series of pages to fill in business information gathered in step 1.
3 When the site is ready for content, what do you post? Try to keep information fresh, fun and relevant to your specialty. Here are some ideas:
- Photos of products or services (viewing photos is the #1 online activity in social media!)
- New services or products
- Sales and promotions
- Design updates, whether interior, web or print.
- Community or instore events
- Day to day work updates, comments, insights
- Useful information others might enjoy
4 Once you have the page built, the logos posted, and a few words to share, invite Facebook friends to come be fans of your business page. Post photos, links or videos often to keep them returning to your page and encourage them to share your page with others. That’s how you build some buzz. Use facebook buttons and links on your website and in your email marketing to build the following for your new business page.
5 As soon as you reach 25 fans, sign up for your customized user name at www.facebook.com/username. You’ll be able to signup for a custom url using a name you choose, like www.facebook.com/SiriusMedia, unless it has been claimed already. Don’t let someone beat you to your chosen identity. Claim your online brand on facebook as soon as you can.
If you need help, or don’t have time, just remember that Sirius Media provides Social Media services to get your business going with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any other social site. We can help you figure out what to say, how often and to whom. We’ll help create your page, upload your logo and images, help with starter messages and provide guidelines for future updates.
Oct 25, 2009 | Facebook, Social Media
After Presentation Camp this week, I’ve been poking around SlideShare, a repository for powerpoint presentations.
One of the speakers had mentioned this slide set and I saw it on the top ten list. It is an excellent presentation about how social media has grown and changed the way we communicate.
It is also a great example of one-bullet-point-per-photograph presentation style that is very effective and keeps the focus on the speaker while engaging the audience. It takes a lot of work to find so many engaging photos, but it sure intrigues and entertains the audience. Since the slides are simple, it also keeps the pace quick and flowing.
It is designed by Marta Kagan of brand agency Espresso, whose blog the Secret Diary of a Marketing Genius has lots of great insights. Excellent work, Marta!
