Pinterest On the Brain

Pin This – 7 Great Articles About Pinterest

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Pinterest On the BrainYou may have noticed your Facebook and Twitter feeds got a little more cluttered the past few months with people sharing their most recent “Pins” – pictures of recipes they want to make, clothes they want to buy, and places they want to stay.

But Pinterest isn’t just for annoying your friends and followers – I’ve talked to several marketers whose clients are getting great traffic referral by sharing their website’s content on Pinterest. So here’s a collection of 7 great articles I’ve been reading the past few weeks that all address the newest kid on the social media block.

 

 

 

7 Pinterest Articles to Check Out

  1. The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing – Some great info here from Hubspot.com about what Pinterest is, some suggested ettiquette, how to set up an account, and 13 creative ways to use Pinterest for marketing. I think the best tip is #10, “Use Hashtags”. You can integrate Pinterest into your existing social media strategy and use the same hashtags that you are currently using on Twitter and Google+.
  2. 13 ‘Pinteresting’ Facts About Pinterest Users – An infographic from Mashable.com that shows some interesting stats about the social network’s users. Namely that the majority are women (68%), the biggest age demographic is 25-34, and half have children.
  3. Why Pinterest Matters to Us Social Media Marketers – Chris Abraham admits that he didn’t get Pinterest at first. But he sure does now – check out his very good ideas of how to create influential visualizations that will capture the interest of your audience.
  4. Pin Your Way to Popularity: How to Generate Traffic with Pinterest – As much fun as it is to pin pretty pictures from all over the internet, as a small business owner, it needs to have a practical application as well. Carla Young writes about seven suggestions to use Pinterest to drive business and traffic.
  5. How Can Non-Visual Brands Harness Pinterest? – Because sometimes it’s just fun to watch video. So check out the first 2 1/2 minutes of this clip from PRDaily with the staff from ePrize at the NASDAQ studios in New York.
  6. 6 Ways to Drive More Pinterest Engagement – Once you’ve established a presence on Pinterest, you need to interact your new followers. Social Media Examiner brings you 6 ways to engage your fans. I especially like #2, which suggests adding one of your followers as a board contributor.
  7. The 10 Commandments of Using Pinterest for Business – A fun, super cute infographic about best practices. Number 10 is so important – ‘Research & Measure’! Remember to check your analytics for new traffic from your efforts.

So there you have it; my favourite Pinterest articles from the past few weeks. Have you been busy pinning all of your interests? Have you used Pinterest for business yet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Facebook left menu - Facebook Interest List

Organizing with Facebook Interest Lists

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A few months ago, Facebook introduced ‘Interest’ lists. If you know me, you’ll know that I love lists; I have them for everything from steps to achieve clients’ goals, to what to pack for a camping trip, to just plain keeping my entire life in order.

Facebook Interest lists are great for two reasons. First, they allow you to organize the pages that you already like into lists, so that you can quickly and easily browse through those pages’ updates. And second, you can follow lists that other people have created, which probably include pages that you’ve never heard of before.

Facebook left menu - Facebook Interest ListYou may have an Interests section on the lefthand menu of your Facebook homepage; if so, click on “Add Interests”.

 

If not, the easiest way to add the Interests section is to click in the white box at the top of the page that says “Search for people, places and things” and enter the name of a page that you would like to add to an interest list. Once you are on that Facebook page, click on the drop-down arrow beside “”Message” and select “Add to Interest Lists” (see below). Then click “+ New List…”

Later, once you’ve created Interest lists, this is one way that you can add additional pages to the list.

 

Facebook Interests

A box will pop up; click on “Pages” on the lefthand side. Then start scrolling through the list of pages that you like and click on each page that you want to add to the list – a check mark will appear on each page that you have selected. Click “Next”, then add a name for the list and select who can see the list (public, friends or just you). Click “Done” and you are finished!

Now go to your Facebook homepage (click the Facebook icon on the upper lefthand corner) and on the lefthand menu you will see “Interests” with your newly created list. Click on the list to view updates from only the pages within the list, instead of your entire newsfeed.

To add a new Interest list, click on “Add Interests” on the lefthand menu and then follow one of the suggested lists, search for a list by keyword, or create a new list of your own.

And there you have it – how to organize the Facebook pages you follow using the Interest list.

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Click here to add my “Marketing Pages to Follow” Interest list. And if you have your own Interest list, feel free to post it in the comments section.

Writing for Web – Why are you writing a tome?

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TomeIn case you didn’t know, a tome is a very large book, often part of a larger series of books. Exactly what a blog post should not be. And yet every day I see these huge long posts that make my brain want to crawl under a rock and take cover in the fetal position.

The problem is that writing for web is often much more challenging than people think. Because if you actually want people to read what you write (and isn’t that the point?), you need to optimize your content for online viewing. Here are some suggestions to bear in mind:

  1. Use paragraphs. This helps to separate your content into different sections for each unique point or thought, and it also creates lovely white space on the page that is visually appealing to our eyes and brains, increasing the odds that your readers will read the entire post.
  2. Be aware of ‘the fold’. When a person looks at their computer screen, whatever content is visible without needing to scroll down the page is referred to as “above the fold’. It makes sense to put your most engaging points at the top of your post, in order to draw your reader in and give them a reason to scroll down the page to read more.
  3. Use the ‘thesis’ approach. In my university English class, we had to practice writing essays in the following format:
    • Opening paragraph with a sentence about the topic, followed by the three to five points you want to explore.
    • Three to five paragraphs about your topic, with one paragraph per point.
    • Closing paragraph that reiterates the points explored and that summarizes your thoughts on the topic.
  4. Use a list. See, I’m following my own advice already. It doesn’t matter if the list uses bullets or numbers; the point is that a list organizes your points in an efficient way and encourages you to write more succinctly.
  5. Write succinctly. People read online content much differently than books or magazines. Generally speaking, your audience is probably looking to find information quickly. So help them out by writing short sentences, omit unnecessary adjectives, and strive to write good content with less words.
  6. Consider splitting your post into a series. If your post is longer than one and a half pages in a Word document, I would recommend dividing your content into sections, and then posting each section as part of a larger series.

What suggestions do you have for writing online content?