What is Pinterest anyway?  Why should I use it for my business?

These are some of the Pinterest related questions I’ve been getting asked lately, so I wanted to share some insights with you.

First, what Pinterest is:

Our good friend and Boulder Blogger Beth Hayden, of Blogging with Beth, stated it well in her recent guest post on Copyblogger, “56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest“:

…you can create online collages (“boards”) for different topics you’re interested in, and then add images and videos to your boards by “pinning” them (the equivalent of using glue sticks on old-school vision boards, but faster, slicker, and considerably cooler.)

This is how I’ve been explaining it: Pinterest lets you coordinate things you want to share (images, blog posts, videos) into specific topics that folks can follow. 

For instance, if you were putting up recipes, you could create a series of boards such as “Appetizers”, “Entrees” and “Desserts”.  If someone is interested in all 3, they follow your whole profile.  If they only care about Desserts (can you blame them?), they only follow that specific topic (board).

And, later on, when you decide you have a new topic, let’s say “Movie Munching, Done Yum“, you just create a new board and you now have a place to pin all your tasty treats.

Second, should you use Pinterest for your business:

Again, we turn to Beth’s fabulous guest post, in which she gives stats:

Pinterest has nearly five million users, and is rapidly growing. Nearly 1.5 million unique users visit Pinterest daily, spending an average of 15 minutes a day on the site.

These stats are changing as we talk and as Pinterest rapidly grows (even though Facebook is giving them a run for their money by introducing FriendSheet).  And the key reason to get in there now is to benefit from the traffic, as Beth wrote:

Think those inspiring vision boards don’t result in referral traffic to websites and blogs? Think again. In January 2012, Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and Youtube — combined.

But we should be clear about how to use this great social media site for your own business. Pinterest’s site states on their Pin Etiquette page not to self-promote (or at least don’t make it the only reason you are there!):

Notice the words “try not to use Pinterest PURELY as a tool for self-promotion”
(My feeling is they know you are going to promote yourself a bit,
just don’t make it the only reason you are on their site)

So, how should you use Pinterest for your small biz:

Really, it is no different than I’d tell you for marketing anywhere:

• Start by making sure you understand why to be there: It’s about building community, not just about shouting out sales
• Make sure your audience is there: Right now, the highest demographic is 25-54 yr old females with some college education – this is changing rapidly – new research shows 60/40 female to male, but women will probably remain one of the top demos, if not the top
• Let others talk about you: Make it easy for them to pin what you write on your blog:
  
  
  
  For instance, feel free to Pin and share this article - at the moment, I am using a WordPress plugin called Pinterest “Pin It” Button By Phil Derksen there are also share options at the top and bottom of this post
• Pinterest is a Social Media site – it is for being social: Join the conversation, reply (Re-Pin) what others have added
• Pinterest likes images and videos: Just like we’ve known about blogs, email newsletters, and other social sites
• Pinterest is also a Marketing Tool: Like all tools, you have to use them effectively to benefit
• If nothing else, get over there now and secure your name so no one else takes it: Mine is pinterest.com/uniquethink

There is always more, but for now let’s look at someone doing things right on Pinterest.

Here is a healthy example for you.  Mashable.com writes this about Whole Food’s organic approach to Pinterest:

To make a lasting connection, the goal is not to promote the shampoos, strawberries and steaks that are sold in the actual stores but to communicate the lifestyle that the Whole Foods team aspires to…

In other words, like all online social media, it is not just about selling or bragging, it’s about building a community by sharing like interests and valuable insights.

I found this great video where this woman discusses using Pinterest to Promote Your Products (the right way):

Megan Auman of DesigningAnMBA created this video and I agreed with most everything she says (She even refers to Pinterest as a Tool, just like I always tell folks: Tools are there to help you, but you have to use them!).  So, wanted to share it with all of you.  It is WELL worth the 21 mins and, since it is free, it is a cost-effective way to learn about Pinterest!!

However, there were a few additional things I wanted to make sure  you knew about, so please watch this informative video and read Beth’s blog post on Copyblogger, but also take the following into account.

Important Action steps:

• Choose Your First Followers Wisely: When you sign up, Pinterest will force you to tell it what your interests are and then will auto-assign users for you to follow.

• No one mentions this and it can make a big difference.  For instance, I just picked something generic like Art, when I first signed up.  Now, I get a lot of folks who do beautiful Tattoo art, but they aren’t really my audience nor am I theirs

• Check Out What Others Have Done: Before you begin pinning away and creating boards, take a look at what other people have created.  It will help you determine your board names and how to categorize things (Beth’s blog post and the above video also give great insights – take advantage of this info)
• Make sure you have rights to images you post!

• Add the Pin It! button to your browser: You are going to want to add this very easy to use tool, so you can add to Pinterest on the fly – watch this short video to show you how easy it is:

I hope this helps to get you started.  There are two more things:

Beth Hayden is about to release a book on Pinterest, you can pre-order it from Amazon now: Pinfluence: The Complete Guide to Marketing Your Business with Pinterest – I do not get any kind of affiliate fee from you buying the book, but I did get to read some of it, while she was writing it, and it is filled with helpful and important information about using Pinterest for your biz (especially the copyright chapter!!!).

You currently need an invite to join Pinterest, I can easily give you one.  This could change at any time, but if you haven’t gotten one yet, let me know.  I can send you one.   I tried to just use the form on the site, but it took longer than when I asked Beth to just send me one.  So, feel free to email me if you need a Pinterest Invite.

And, if you are already using Pinterest and want to share your page, comment below and include a link.  We’d love to see what you are up to!

Have you been setting the right tone with your online presence?  There is no better time than now to review what your profile pages have been telling folks about you…

That’s right, I’d like to encourage you to review what you have been saying about yourself, your company, your products… on social media sites and elsewhere online (as well as offline: i.e.print ads, brochures, and business cards).

Here is my February Marketing Tip: Update Your Online Presence (NOW)

• How old is that profile picture? And does it reflect your biz well? (Yes, my sister – in the background – and I are adorable at the local kid’s pool, but does this make sense to use for my Business Profile image?  OK, that is a little extreme, because I never really used this image, but let me ask you how current is your business head shot?)
• When was the last time you reviewed your bio?
• Are there still sites that have your old logo?

These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself. It’s time to get things in order.

If you want to know what other people are saying or thinking about you, remember, you can control some of that by making sure your own message is clear, current and there is continuity across the web.

There are plenty of places where you can’t control what is said about you, but there are also lots of places where YOU get to control the message.

Take action and make sure your message meets with your current objectives:

1. Think about all the places you have posted profile content and go back to each of them, now
2. Make sure your message and imagery are up to date
3. Create a spreadsheet: List everywhere you have used your head shot, bio, logo, product shot(s), tagline and other marketing materials

Why create a spreadsheet about your online presence?

• Keep your online presence consistent
• Know where you have changed things, when you last changed them and what changes were made
• It will also help you to delegate this task to someone else (if not now, in the near future)!

Start with the obvious, such as your own website, Facebook (both profile and business pages), LinkedIn, Twitter, Google + and Google Places.  And, while you are at it, if you haven’t already, set up an account on the current social media must be present on site: Pinterest (if you need an invite, email me for one).

Then, think about places you are listed in: Like industry directories!!!

True Story: One of the reasons I did this for myself was I found an old directory listing that was 5 YEARS out dated.  It was so out of date that it didn’t reflect my current goals and services at all!  I had to change it immediately.

What if you can’t remember where you’ve been?

Don’t worry if you can’t remember all the directories and social media sites you’ve signed up for, there are ways to try to find them.

First: Do a Google Search for yourself.

This is a great place to start, because if they are ranking you well with an out dated profile, that is the first place you want to update!

How to Get Them All?

Let’s face it, you may not get to everyone of them this week, but you can always add more later. For instance, I just remembered that there is a page on Constant Contact that still has my old logo!

Now I can add it to my list of changes I need to make, and have it noted for the next time I change everything.  Actually, this is a good example, too, because in this case, I have to have Constant Contact make this particular change for me.  So, that info will go into my notes, as well!

Are there other sites that have put up your logo?  Don’t forget about them, too.

Oh, and remember to review your offline marketing material, too!

Do you have a suggestion on how to find, organize or update profiles?  Come on, I bet you do!  Share it with us all, please, by commenting below!

OK, this is just the start.  Google+ for Business is launching today, are you Ready?

I am going to try to provide you links to all the important info you will need.  I’ll be updating this as I find more info:

Here is the link to add your Google+ biz page, but you may get a message stating that you can’t add it yet. They are still rolling it out:
http://plus.google.com/pages/create

I was finally able to add my UniqueThink page late this afternoon:

https://plus.google.com/111476411237813850866/posts

So, why do you want to be on Google+ for your business? Because they will be tying it in with search results!

Things you may want to have, to create your initial page – You can add your company from your Google Places, if you have that set up:

• Your company icon
• A short description of what you do
• Business Hours
• Images – I put up some screenshots of WordPress Websites that UniqueThink has created, then went and added comments to describe each project

There is definitely more you can add, but that is what you’ll need right away.  You can then share with your connections from your profile page and start adding status updates.

You’ll also want to know about Google Direct Connect, which conveniently ties Google+ Pages with Search Results – however, they aren’t releasing this to the small guys, yet:
http://mashable.com/2011/11/07/google-plus-direct-connect/

This is the first post I found about the launch of Google+ Pages (for biz):

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-pages-connect-with-all-things.html

Definitely read this page, as it will help you get started.

Next I found this link to two pages you want to add to your circles:

Google+ Your Business:
https://plus.google.com/115200251016762857369/posts

Google+ – not sure of the difference, but both were created today:
https://plus.google.com/101560853443212199687/posts

Next up, the Differences between Google+ Pages and Google+ Profiles page from Google:
https://www.google.com/support/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713824&topic=1710599

Here’s a link to some of the Google Folks:

Dennis Troper – The Google+ Project:
https://plus.google.com/102648148748642147788/posts

He  announced the Muppets will be doing a hangout this afternoon (so you know he’s connected, hee hee).  Here’s the Muppet’s video announcing their involvement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YWVcemZSGk

Yonatan Zunger Chief Architect, Google+:
https://plus.google.com/103389452828130864950/posts

I’ll be adding more, as I find them.  Come back for more!
Please share ones you find, by commenting below!!!

Facebook has had a lot of controversy about their Privacy Policy, over the years.  So, this time they are trying something new.

They are asking YOU to give your feedback as they create a more interactive and easier to understand version of the newest Facebook Privacy Policy.

Interestingly, they announced it quietly, on the Facebook Site Governance page, with a post called:

A Privacy Policy Re-imagined For Users Like You

This post talks about what they are doing and why, as well as asking for user feedback.

That post then leads you to a new ‘test’ Privacy page called Data Use Policy, which looks like this (and notes it is not the official privacy policy and gives a link to the current one):

There are a couple of things I noticed: They talk about how it is going to be more interactive and visual, but right now, I found myself getting pulled off the privacy policy and sucked deeper into Facebook.

For instance, I saw the words Video and thought the videos were going to talk about the Privacy Policy changes.

When you click the Videos link, this is what you see (a bunch of words/links, but no video screens):

I am sure they will be improving on it, or I hope so, at least!

When I first landed here, I thought I’d see video screens to view, so I began to scroll for them.  Then, I realized FB was just providing links to the individual videos.  Why not put screen shots of the videos up?

Even Worse: They gave the video titles like Learn More 1/3, which don’t tell what the videos are about.  But I clicked and this is what I got:

These videos are 9 months old, blurry (cloudy), hard to view (even in full screen mode), and not well labeled. The other thing about these videos is they have been there for some time with other users seeking help to find out how to view them better, but Facebook has not offered any solutions, yet.  Maybe they are going to redo them, as they redo the Privacy Policy Interactive Page?

MORE CONFUSION? The videos weren’t about Privacy Policy, but Privacy Settings.  Though important, this led me off the subject of the actual content of the privacy policy… was that their intent?

Like all things Facebook, are they just trying to get us deeper in, forgetting what we came there for and, oh, yeah, it just happens that I got to see more Facebook ads, while all this was going on.  But, where were we?  Yes, that’s right, the content of the Privacy Policy…

So this is where you come in, take a look around (but word of caution, stay focused on the new ‘test’ Privacy Policy content) and let them know, (and me, too, by posting a comment below) what you like and or want to see them change in it.

This could be our opportunity to help shape not only Facebook’s Privacy Policy, but that of all the Internet.  After all, if they DO get it right, others will follow!

What do you think, are they doing things right?  Which parts work vs. which need to be changed?  And, most importantly, are you able to stay focused on the new Privacy Policy or did you end up deep within the belly of Facebook?  Share your experience!

Facebook Biz Pages were finally given the facelift we have all been waiting to see.

But how does it all work?  And, what do you need to know?

There are a lot of new features and I am still exploring them.  Here are some quick things to be aware of:

Switching between Pages & Profiles:

This is a biggie, and long overdue, you now get to switch between being your personal profile and your company biz page admin.

This sounds great and mostly is great, but there are several limitations.  For instance, when I become the Admin for UniqueThink, I can’t go back to my very own personal profile page and see my own content.  Instead I get the message you see below:

This may not be a make or break thing, but I had gone over there for a reason and couldn’t accomplish what I wanted until I switched back to the personal profile, grabbed a screen shot (below under Photos) and then switched back to being the Admin for the Biz page.

Likes, Comments and NewsFeeds:

You can now LIKE and even comment on other businesses from your Facebook Page, and follow them on a NewsFeed.

What you can’t do with Likes & Comments: You still can’t Post to, Like, or add comments to someone’s personal profile page, even if they are already fans (followers) of your biz page!

Here are two examples of how I was hoping to use it, but can’t:

1. Birthday Coupons: I was hoping if a fan (follower) had a b-day that biz page admins could go to the fan’s personal profile page and offer them a Happy Birthday coupon.
2. Contests and Giveaways:  I was looking forward to (but disappointed to find out I can’t) email the winner  of a contest.  Instead I have to switch back to being my own personal profile page than go over to the winner’s personal profile and let them know they won, as me, not as the company offering the promotion.

Maybe I am missing something, maybe someone else has a better solution, so please share, if you do!

[UPDATE: I found out part of the reason why they don't allow you to do what I had hoped, it's against Facebook's Promotional Guidelines (RULES).  Did you know, you can't email someone who won a contest from your Facebook page, because you aren't allowed to run a promotion on your wall?  There are a lot of rules that we all need to be aware of, but they are confusing!  I'll be writing more about it, as I find out more.  But for now, begin to educate yourself, by reading the Facebook Promotional Guidelines!]

Photos:

You now have the ability to have 5 photos at the top of your page, like profiles have had since Dec.  This is a great way to highlight your current work or a line of products. This was one thing I was really looking forward to having on the biz pages.

What you need to know about images:

1. Size and Cropping: It looks like it still does the same sizing and cropping that the profile page does.  So, if you are trying to get something ideally sized and centered, in those five image boxes, then make each of the 5 individual images 97 x 68 (I wish I could remember where I read this sizing first, because I’d love to give the person who shared that sizing with me the thank you they deserve.  I’ll try to come back later and add it!)
2. Rotating Images: Unlike the profile images, which stay fixed in place, these pictures seem to rotate between the 5 images.  This means you can’t control the order in which these images appear.  You can control which 5 images appear, by clicking the X when a new one is added, though.

Here is an example of what I had hoped to be able to do, something like I did on my personal profile page:

Unfortunately, if I tried this type of thing on my biz page, the letters would get jumbled each time someone clicked.  From what I can tell so far, the H would not stay in the left most position.  The fact that these images are randomly selected makes it hard to be as creative as I’d hope.  But I am still excited about the possibilities of using these image spaces.

Wall View:

You can now view the wall two ways:

1. Admin Postings: You only view what the biz page admin wrote
2. Everyone: This view shows other peoples’ comments, as well

NOTE: The posts with the most comments will show higher up on the page (instead of appearing in chronological order).

Email Notifications And Posting As Admin:

Admins for the page can now get notified when someone posts a comment!  Hurray!  And, it looks like you don’t have to do anything, it is defaulted to send them to the admin email.

Plus, there is another setting (also set as the default) that allows you to post as your Biz Name, even if you enter the page as an individual (profile mode).

Friends Who Like You:

If someone comes to your Biz Page, they will see which of their own friends already like your biz page.  This will encourage them (hopefully) to also LIKE your page.  This will appear on the right sidebar of Facebook, under the Admins List.

Navigation:

Similar to the Profile page, Facebook has moved where the tabs are to underneath the Page Profile Image.  Not sure how I feel about this move, as before it was easy for people to see there were additional tabs, but now they have to seek them out.

Business Page Profile Image Size:

They had to go and change it again!  This time it has gone from 200×600 to 180×540 – so you may have to adjust your image to fit appropriately.  Maybe they made it shorter, so you could see the nav items better?

Anyway, I am sure I will have more to say about the new Facebook Business Pages, so follow me on mine at https://www.facebook.com/UniqueThink.  And, I am sure you guys will have things to add about the new changes to these Facebook Pages, so please share what you find out!  Comment below so we can all learn, thanks!

Facebook’s blog announced the top social media site is rolling out a series of cool improvements to their photo features, however, I wonder if it will be enough to really compete with Flickr.  And if the improvements are going to be  the correct ones to get professional photographers over there to use the system.

Though I do think the images look nice and for sharing photos with friends, folks will be happy:

Of course, I like to think about how it can help on a business level.  I know there are advantages to having photos on my own Facebook biz page, though the ones up there right now are mainly my portfolio of websites.

But which biz can this effect the greatest?  Professional photographers.

It seems many professional photographers currently use Flickr, to gain more exposure for their images.  Dave Taylor of AskDaveTaylor.com noted in his SEO class, at Boulder Digital Arts, that many photographers use Flickr for links back to their own site, in addition to having folks stumble onto their work hosted by Flickr.  Since Flickr is considered an authority site on the subject of images, it makes sense that a link back to a photographer’s site would be worth a lot.  So it is a good idea.

Likewise, Facebook does weigh heavy as an authority site.  With 500 million users around the world loading pictures all the time, they are already one of the world’s largest photo-sharing sites.  However, is Facebook implementing the correct toolset to meet the needs of the photographers?

The list of features includes:

• High Quality Images (high resolution or high res) – it used to be the images couldn’t be over 720 pixels (which is usually fine for viewing on the web). Now they are allowing up to 2048, which they state is for the viewing experience, but is really for the next item on the list – downloads

• Download of Print Quality images – You can now find a picture on someone’s Facebook profile or page and download it to your computer.  If it is at the higher resolution, you can get a beautiful print of it!

Downside: It doesn’t state how you can turn off the allow for downloads – so if you are a professional photographer, it could be a problem having folks download your work.  It leaves a lot of copyright questions open

• Better Viewer – they have installed what is referred to as a Light Box (basically, your page content gets grayed out and a black frame appears around your image).  This makes looking at the pictures the focus, as the rest of your screen is set back behind the light box.

• Simpler Uploader – they state the new uploader will be easier to use for bulk uploads, but also note that it may take longer if you are uploading the high res images

• Bulk Tagging - in one article it sounded like they have added a face-recognition software to allow the system to recognize the faces in pictures, but it also makes note of adding tags through thumbnails, as a bulk option.  So, not clear yet on that feature.

Professionally, I still wish my Facebook biz page would allow me to go onto someone’s page or profile and make a comment under my biz name.  If I want to comment on a photo, it has to be from my personal profile page. So if a client adds pictures from an event, for instance, I would have to comment from my personal account.  And, I’d rather do it from my biz account, as that is the one I want them to then follow!

Though there are some interesting new features, I wish they’d work on some old issues about the overall system, first.  And, I am curious about the whole copyright issue of having these high quality images available for instant download.

What about you?  Are you excited about the new photo features in Facebook?  Will you use them on your biz page or are you more interested in them for personal use?

If you are using images on your biz page, will the new toolsets encourage you to come up with some cool downloads of image based materials?  If so, please share a link to what you create!

—

Here are links to some of the articles I read on this subject:
Mashable: Facebook Upgrades Photos: Look Out, Flickr

Huffington Post: Facebook Updates Photos: High-Res Uploading, Bulk Tagging, Lightbox Viewing (PICTURES)

Facebook Blog: More Beautiful Photos

InsideFacebook.com: Facebook Allows High Resolution Photos, Bulk Tagging, and Makes More Improvements to Photos

A new study shows that the largest growing demographic on Facebook is… grandma and grandpa.

Today, an article, entitled “Older Adults Nearly Double Social Media Presence [STATS]” appeared in Mashable & stated:

A new study from Pew Internet found that between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking site usage grew 88% among Internet users aged 55-64, and the 65 and older group’s social networking presence grew 100% in the same time frame.

Why do you think so many of our elders have recently joined social media sites?

I spoke with my own mom about it.  She said it was originally to see photographs that my sister was posting.

And, we’ve had some fun family exchanges.  While commenting between my siblings about our most recent gathering, my mom posted a memory I had forgotten. It was delightful to retrieve that memory!

Another time, when I mentioned the Buskers on the Pearl Street Mall (in Boulder, CO), my mom asked about them.  Instead of just telling her myself, I encouraged friends to tell about their favorite Busker.  It was a great conversation, because not only did I get to find out which street performers my friends recommend (Zip Code Man won hands down), I got to share with my mom a bit about my town, and about my friends.

But I get the sense she’s also hearing too much about her kids and grandkids, that maybe she wishes she didn’t know.

There’s also those awkward moments of remembering its not just one person you are speaking with, but also all of their friends. Though I didn’t speak to her about it, I recently saw a post that she commented on to one of my nephews.  After her sweet comment, one of his friends joked back, “Your gwamma woves you”.  Though I know it was in jest, it might have stung at them both.  I hope not!  But it’s hard to have conversations with multiple generations and their friends, all at once.  The humor, alone, is different.

So, the question is, will this be a lasting trend?

Will our aging parents, who were hoping to keep better in touch with us, get disappointed or will we all find a way to connect better despite the age gaps.  And, if so, will it mean the younger generation either sensors what they write or embraces the wise elders into their online tribe.

There is a lot we can learn from folks who have been through all we are going through, but the question is does Facebook, and the other sites, provide a venue for extending conversations across the ages?  Or will it make the generation gab wider?

How do you feel about the idea of sharing your online world with your entire family?  Has it been helpful in making you closer, despite age/humor/location differences?  If you are over 65, have you felt welcomed?  Or maybe you use Facebook just to find old friends, and save the family connections for phone calls and in person visits.  Please share how you are using social media, across the age differences (no matter what age you are), by commenting below…

DO YOU SQUIDOO?

Well, it was bound to happen, wasn’t it?

Any of you who have spoken to me personally over the last year – about ways to increase your online exposure – have heard the advocation of building a lens on Squidoo.

“get in now and get the advantage, because – for some reason – the search engines love it!”

That is what I said and that is what I meant.

If you listened and built a lens in the last year, you probably saw 1st page (maybe even first place) organic listings on Google for your lens. I did on one of my own, but as of now it is no longer up that high.

Like all good things, eventually the search engines fall out of love and rankings start to slip. Or they change their algorithm and the thing that made magic is gone.

Today is that day…or so it seems.

I was reading my Twitter comments and saw this post by Ed Dale about his blog post on the subject. People are noting that their squidoo ranked sites are slipping out of favor on Google.

We all knew it had to happen sooner or later…but I still think it is a worthy tool.

After all, even the overpopulation of MySpace hasn’t rendered it useless. It just changed the game, a bit.

Think of it this way, the more places you have fresh content – of interest to your audience – the more likely people are going to get ‘repeat exposure’ to your ideas, services, and products.

And that is a good thing.

So I still suggest you Squidoo. Now is a good time, with all the publicity around the slap.

People who have not visited before will be exploring it, to see what they have been missing.

They may just come across your lens as they search their favorite subjects on Squidoo…

Do You Squidoo? If so, share your lens here: