5 Pinterest Basics you MUST know!

1) Basically, Pinterest.com is where people, mainly women go to search for visual ideas like design, architecture, kitchen, sinks, gardens, waterfalls, living rooms, deserts, fashion, vacation spots. Anyone can search with or without a Pinterest account at www.pinterest.com. 

2) People can create an account to "pin" items they like. They create categories of "pins" called "Boards". Popular examples of categories include, home decorating or travel or kitchens, or healthy food, or cookies, or evening gowns - whatever you have a passion for.  

3) As an online marketing consultant, I start all business sessions by asking what they want to be known for. (i) If any of their stated items are visual we consider Pinterest as an option for them, I do NOT believe that a business should be on all social media platforms.  So, to see if Pinterest would be effective, we start by searching with their categories or keywords to see if there is activity, ie search results they'd like to be apart of. (ii) Then we see if that business already has visuals on their own website or blogs they could use as materials to start their own Pinterest Boards. If they do, we create their own Pinterest Boards,  I like it when we can reflect their website's categories, like Elmhirst will with their new website and Pinterest Board being Farm to Table and so forth.  Next we create a plan for them going to forward to use appropriate jpegs in their blogs/websites so they can create a "pins" FROM their blog/website. It's critical for a business owner to learn to pin from their blog / website to Pinterest so that when someone clicks on their Pin it takes them back to their blog/website.  (Yes, they can upload a jpeg from their computer, but, it's much more effective to "pin" from their website so they generate referral traffic fromPinterest to their Website.  I have an old blog post, http://sofieandreou.blogspot.ca/2012/05/creating-your-business-pinterest.html which lists the basic elements a business needs to have in their Pinterest account to be effective. 

It's very easy to use, see my blog on 5 reasons businesses use Pinterest, http://sofieandreou.blogspot.ca/2012/06/5-reasons-resorthospitality-industry.html 5 Reasons Resorts/Hospitality Industry use Pinterest. 

4) After the Monday's Chex Newswatch: The 5 O'Clock Show I was asked why should a business use Pinterest and not just let people search on Google to find their website.  One answer is, that large numbers of people are already going to Pinterest to search for certain topics, so, IF your products or services are any one of those items, you are missing out by NOT being on Pinterest.  I do NOT agree that EVERYONE should be on every social media platform, it's a waste of time and resources, they should only be on those where their target market happened to already be searching for things which relate to them. 

5) Pinterest etiquette for businesses.. As Ann Douglas on that same Chex Newswatch: The 5 O'Clock Show rightly said, you should pin your own and "RePin" other's complementary images into your Boards.  See how http://pinterest.com/annmdouglas/ Ann supports her community and is supported right back! That's the key to growing your followers on Pinterest, just like any other Social Media Platform.  (Of course, her quality is outstanding!)  As I said in our first, second and third Social Media spot on ChexTV, you should post/pin 5 times information which is informative and educational and 1 post/pin which is self serving. See http://pinterest.com/powersfineart/, Ken reflects a solid example of supporting your community and they support you back, he is the artist I use as an example for online marketing excellence as an Artist.  Ken has ONE board of his own Paintings which were pinned from his Website, and then he has created other boards full of RePins of artists he believes in.  He stands for wonderful Art.  He supports his artist community and in return, they support him.  He knows if someone is looking for good art, they aren't going to buy his art each time, but, he'll like to be known for supporting excellent art.  It's like buying a car, you go to a car dealership, they're all located in the same area. So, on Pinterest, what visual do you want to be known for, Pin your own, and support complementary visual excellence.

6) On Chex Newswatch: The 5 O'Clock Show interview we didn't get into advance Pinterest uses, and touched lightly on Business Pinterest.  That would be a whole other spot, on how to use it as a productivity this tool within a company and between departments or partners ONLY to share visuals!  For example, Pinterest's new Private Boards enable you can use Pinterest as a place to share visual ideas within a closed group, like your clients or a volunteer group who are agreeing on which visual materials work best. Very powerful!  With Pinterest Business Accounts, you can also set it up so certain employees have access to JUST certain Boards, like at Elmhirst Resorts, their fabulous Chef will access Farm to Table, and their Outdoor Activities director will access, of course, the Activities board (stay tuned, as their new website and boards will be launching shortly!)!

Check out my Pinterest board at www.Pinterest.com/SofieAndreou ENJOY!

3 Non-Profits and How they Leverage Social Media

The greatest reporter, @teresakaszuba from @CHEX5OCLOCK was curious as to how nonprofits leverage Social Media.  So, I did a little digging and found that ONLY 10% of the approximately 85,000 registered Charities in Canada are using Social Media.  WOW! So, we decided to check out some local ones, we focused on one who JUST started with Social Media, one who's been on it for 6 months and one for almost a year.

First we interviewed Jon Law, from newly formed @ECThreePtbo Electric City Culture Council of Peterborough.

They are proud and passionate to be a resource for all Cultural organizations in the area.

It's interesting although @ECThreePtbo JUST started, they're already more than half way to the Canadian average of Charity Twitter followers of 300!  They believe in supporting their community and mentioning Giants who in turn share their story.

Next we visited Heather Grosney with the @CLPeterborough.  Heather, their Communication's Director has definitely got it going on with eBlasts using Constant Contact! Let me back up a moment, she started their Social Media journey mid summer 2012 and already has more than both the Canadian average in both Twitter and Facebook followers/likes.  She has positioned her organization as the go to place for people with intellectual disabilities.  Heather reviews the information and articles she believes her target market would find useful and shares it through Social Media.    She further bridges her traditional contact list of emails with social media! Over 25% of their eBlasts are opened AND because they use a tool like Constant Contact, they can see exactly who opened their eBlasts and which links they clicked on.  Compare this to how often direct mail is opened, it's  more then 5 times more effective.   Constant Contact has a further features which allows you to create Facebook Applications, send out Registration Forms, Donation buttons and more! Click here for your own 2 month free trial with Constant Contact! 

Finally we pulled Maryam Monsef out of the #CollectiveImpact workshop at the Library for an interview.  Maryam wears multiple Twitter hats or handles.  She says you should have one for your place of work  which mirrors your marketing plan and company goals, as she does through @cfgp_ and then have separate one if you have separate passions like she does with @Red_Pashmina, and herself through @MaryamMonsef where she supports local community happenings and people.

 The summary of today's Non-Profit use of Social Media is that Social Media is the place to share your story and support your community.  Paint a picture or your story through images and video, and use social media to distribute that story.  Support others, enlist GIANTs to REtweets your Tweets!

To see the FULL video, please go to http://youtu.be/G5Vr7c7raIk

Thank you, I love working with @TeresaKaszuba and her @Chex5Oclock team!

 

3 Local Business, 3 Different Social Media Approaches

I had the honor of being asked to choose 3 local businesses for @TeresaKaszuba (to feature on) @CHEX5OCLOCK .  So, who did I believe applied superior use of Social Media.   Well, it was a tough choice as there are 100s here in Peterborough, so, we choose three in walking distance of each other, and hope to do this again in a months time with three different businesses in maybe a different area. 

So, the three businesses we chose included a women's fashion boutique, a bakery and a non-profit environmental organization store.   Here the full video coverage, watch the beginning, middle and end to catch all three Social Media spots! 

Our first stop, the clothing store www.TiaStar.com interesting enough started as an online clothing store and then evolved into her new physical retail location, carrying clothes as well as locally made jewellery and other accessories.  It`s defiantly one of the funkiest stores in Peterborough, very New York.   Tia`s style and personality comes through on her store, blog & Facebook   She says the biggest thing that differentiates her is her personal customer service. She is always sharing HOW TO do certain things, like wear a hair band, or such on her blog.  This store owner said she finds her website, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TiaStarOnlineBoutique and her blog http://blog.tiastar.com/ very useful business tools.  Tia`s fashions were used recently in a Strutt 4 Kids fund raiser, Tia posted a photo as the girls were hanging around in her shop. The post of those girls received higher than normal engagement levels, showing her community loves that she supports them, and that people love seeing themselves and friends in posts.  All of her posts are very Photo driven, which also increases her visibility and reach.  More than not, her Facebook posts link back to her blog or website, increasing both her traffic and her website sales.

The second company we visited was http://www.blackhoneydesserts.com/.  Our Bakery and Coffee Shop owners, Lisa Dixon, has two locations, the coffee shop on a busy street and the bakery which is tucked behind the busy street. She first started her Twitter efforts to bring people into her shop. She says it works! She now sees her smart phone and the few seconds it takes to take a photo and upload it as her marketing budget and marketing effort! She loves it. People often come into her bakery,  take a photo of what they are about to purchase, and tweet it.  Lisa says this leads to people dropping in asking to purchase what that last person had tweeted, showing her the photo they just saw mentioning @blackhoneycake.  Of course, as a business owner, she`s thrilled.

Finally,  we visited  @ptbogreenup, these guys were selected because of their online supportive nature.  They are always LISTENING to & supporting their online community.  Matt Higgs from Peterborough GreenUp says they don't listen at 3am and no one expects them to be. They respect and support their online community, they are always retweeting and mentioning appropriate peeps.  They are an excellent example of Twitter excellence. 

He too uses his smart phone as his online marketing weapon!

In summary, all three of our outstanding businesses see that their efforts are noticed and grow when:

1) they use PHOTOs in their posts vs just text.

2) their current followers shares or mentions them.

3) they share photos of their community involvement.

4) they mention or share others`relevant online tweets or articles.

5) they link back to a visual page on their own Blog or Website.

I would like to thank Kevin & Teressa from the @CHEX5OCLOCK show, this was a BLAST.   It was interested to see how shy our cameraman, Kevin, is! KEVIN, good luck in your Iron-Man November 25th!
@TeresaKaszuba I hope we do this again next month and a few times next year, each with three other outstanding companies. You are a BLAST to work with, everyone in this community LOVEs you!