Technology 600

May 24, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

The story behind Instagram

The June 2013 issue of Vanity Fair included a story about the start up and sale of Instagram, The Money Shot, by Kara Swisher, pages 76-82. If you like business stories, read the whole thing. Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger, and sold to Facebook for $1B. If you simply don’t understand Instagram, here are the two turning points that answered my question about why people use it:

“Instead of doing a check in that has an optional photo, why don’t we do a photo that has an optional check in?”

and

On a beach walk one day, Nicole (GF) told him (Systrom) that she would be reluctant to use the app he was working on because her pictures would never be as good as the ones a mutual friend took. I (Systrom) said, “Well, you know what he does to those photos, right?” She’s like, “no, he just takes good photos.” I’m like, “No, no, he puts them through filter apps.” She’s like, “well, you guys should probably have filters too, right, then?” I was like, “Huh.”

Filed Under: Images 770, Instagram, Marketing examples

March 31, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

Six steps to eliminating a behavior

Found some notes on my desk that need to be processed and today is not the day to process this note all the way into an article. These are six steps that “society” has followed in the path from “bad habit” to eradication via public policy. (Heard this in the Yale Politics of Food course; major professor Kelly Brunell; specific lecturer for this content TBD.)

Prior examples: alcohol, illegal drug use, tobacco.

Proposition: We may be following a similar pattern with food and obesity.

Condemnation
Medicalization
Self-help
Demonization of the industry
Demonization of users
Social movements and activists

Filed Under: How to 680

March 16, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

How can I use Pinterest? Q&A

Dear Karen,
Thank you for the invitation and information you are offering. I write, and edit.

According to Marketing on Pinterest, Pinterest’s prime users are 25-34 years old and mostly use it in the areas of fashion and crafts sharing.

I am not a Pinterest expert, but I wonder how it could be a marketing tool for me?

All best,

——————–
Specifics from your profile below the numbered bit.

I suspect you’ll be pretty good at seeing how your trade can be mapped into Pinterest.

I can show you how the various elements of the Pinterest application can be used to drive traffic to whatever website you point the pin at.

While the bulk of the American users may be younger women, that is only the core. Long tail rules apply. I haven’t worked on the published numbers enough to understand what the 80/20 rule means to the rest of us. More men use it in Europe.

Fast Company, last month, put Ben Silberman on the cover (CEO of Pinterest). They described Pinterest as being the first new form of search since Goggle, and a radically different way TO search. Google can’t solve for “mother’s day gift.” I suspect Pinterest is going to put a huge hole in traditional SEO work.

I have myself seen a Pinterest board in the #2 SERP position for a term I want to own. Not sure how much attention you pay to SEO and so far, I haven’t heard any understanding or acceptance from the professional SEO people I know.

Specifics for your situation:

Re-write and update of Warm Heart Worldwide website, photographs and narrative to build public relations collateral and fundraising materials.

Every picture on that site could be on Pinterest, adding a bit of SEO to the captions. The fundraising plea could be on every board, without being too pushy.
See Using Pinterest to Raise $
Better yet, search on “charities in Pinterest” and follow whatever results look most interesting to you.

Non-fiction and fiction writing for general and academic readers. Blog writer.

I have a story that I haven’t used in the class yet about a fiction writer who is sharing / tracking / developing her next book through / using Pinterest boards; increasing engagement with her fan club.
Suspect the same would work for non-fiction.

Ongoing research to adapt writing to the social media environment.

QED.

Coaching professionals in a variety of fields in ESL.

Search for ESL in Pinterest
Your board could be one more on that set, and possibly better or more helpful or at least different. I don’t know enough about teaching ESL to know if those boards are useful. (I do know enough about children’s clowning to recognize that most of the “clown” pins were not young-child friendly, and that indicated a wide-open market.)

My “Free Spirit, Tough Mind” tutoring approach engages both right brain (intuitive) and left brain (logical) learning styles.

Couldn’t find anything about this and suspect it’s proprietary to you.

Consultant on French Renaissance literary research.

Looks like this topic’s pretty bare in Pinterest, which means an interesting board would be a goldmine.

Filed Under: Content marketing 658-8, Pinterest

March 15, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

Pinterest for Realtors

My Realtor-client Gerry Fiks, of Real Estate Services NC, and I attended the Tech Tools for Realtors conference at the Raleigh Realtors Association yesterday. I was disappointed, to say the least, that Pinterest got almost NO attention. The speakers focused on smart phone apps and Facebook.

I expect I’ll be working with Gerry more in Evernote and DropBox, both great ways to share information and files without sneaker net. However, both of those applications require protection. You can’t share with “everyone.” I came home and pinned my notes. Now, I can share what I learned about technology in real estate marketing with Gerry, as we decide what apps he will start using. He can add additional pins to services he learned about in the classes that were scheduled into the same time slot.

Pinboard showing Tech Tools for Realtors.

Tech Tools for Realtors. Geeky Girls lower left.

Both he and I will also be able to share the list of tools with other Realtors. He can use the list to collaborate, so that both sides of a transaction are using the same tools. I can use the list to educate my own clients, and show Realtors who come to me for ideas about using Pinterest in their Real Estate Marketing how to highlight their expertise.

If you know about more tools that belong on this board, let me know in the comments below, or @mention the account: @Gerry Fiks (You have to be following the board for Pinterest to show you the name).

Filed Under: B2B 658.8, How to 680, Marketing examples, Pinterest, Real estate 333.3

March 8, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

Pinterest for a Local Newspaper

When people ask what I do, I say “Pinterest marketing.” The other evening, I met someone who was adamant that Pinterest had no place in local news marketing; that readers went to the newspaper’s event listing via Google and that Pinterest was only useful a source of craft ideas.

I didn’t argue. I don’t push string.

The business of a local newspaper is to drive traffic to its advertisers. Newspapers use stories as reader-bait. Some local newspapers are famous for stuffing their articles with the names of townspeople; others use the slogan “relentlessly local.”

Readers visit the newspaper website for information about what’s going on in town this weekend. This particular newspaper website maintains a top-ranked listing in the Google SERP because of the backlinks accumulated over time and the huge number of stories they have run featuring on the keywords of city and town.

Local news by Michael Avory (avorym)) on 500px.com--how local newspapers can use Pinterest to drive traffic

Local news: Man keeps up with the local news on a Roman street wall by Michael Avory

Pinterest won’t contain the most timely information, but on the other hand, it’s GREAT for sharing information that has a long shelf life. Local feature stories, in particular, have enormous shelf life, much longer than stories in the state and national papers. Grandma will still be interested in the twin’s softball activities long after the dust has settled on the latest international security threat.

Pillar articles about local points of interest (in my town, this is the railroad museum) never outdate and instead, accumulate traffic and visitors over time.

Newspapers can EASILY use Pinterest to expand their internet reach, driving traffic directly to the newspaper home page and from there, to advertiser’s links.

The newspaper website may own the top SERP position for events listings. Who owns the top listing for RR Museum? What if people don’t know to search your town for that story? What if people who collected railroad images would visit your town if only they knew you had a RR museum?

I watched a coffee shop crumble many years ago, back when allowing indoor smoking was up to the business owner. Every time someone complained about the atmosphere, the owner would survey the patrons to learn that most of them wanted him to continue to allow smoking. By the time the state law changed to ban smoking in commercial spaces, it was too late. All the non smokers had gone to the new coffee shop on another corner. They didn’t come back.

It’s good that a local newspapers’ readers know to search in Google for the local events listing. However, that paper is missing out on traffic from people who are searching in Pinterest for stuff that the town offers, but isn’t provided in a way that these searchers can find.

Don’t assume the way you use Pinterest is the way everyone uses Pinterest.

Filed Under: Content marketing 658-8, Marketing examples

February 14, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

Hydraulics on Pinterest

Example board for Hydraulics on Pinterest

This is an example of the types of content found on Pinterest for the keyword “Hydraulics.” Created for a demo for a demo for Central Hydraulic, a supplier of hydraulic equipment and repair parts.

Pinterest Boards about Hydraulics

Heavy Equipment

Girls and tools

Hydraulics

Construction Equipment

Instruction

Fishing Vessels

Verde Classics (excellent CsTA in the description)

Diesel Generators Nepal This is a board on a business account, linked to a site about diesel generators in Nepal. 1100 follows at this writing. Not bad for a pretty obscure topic. (See user accounts at the bottom of this list.)

Pinterest Accounts with Heavy (pun intended) Hydraulic Content

Related Fluid Power

Liebherr Group

Power Equipment Direct

Platypus Marine

Ronstan (including Anderson Winches board)

Custom Dredge Works If this were my board, I’d dress up the presentation a little bit and adjust the board cover pins to show a more cohesive presentation across the account. However, “hydraulics” is a “slow field” in terms of graphic design sophistication. You only have to outrun your fellow hikers, not the bear…

R + L Carriers

This is a GREAT account for the heavy equipment trades!!!!! Their account description: We’re a global freight transportation provider that loves what we do. We’re about shipping, small business and all things trucking. Join us!

Rock and Dirt

Another great account. Excellent management of images on the board cover pins to make every board look attractive, and to give a cohesive look to the entire account.

Pinterest Users

Jithu Varghese: His account links to a site selling Diesel Generators in India and Nepal. The range of other images he’s pinning may be personal interest, and/or may be pin-bait to attract viewers to his account, where they would then see (and possibly be interested in) his diesel generators. Just like you might see something on an end cap in the hardware store on your way to buy what you came in for…

Filed Under: Marketing examples

February 14, 2013 By karentiede 1 Comment

Outrun the Bear

Two hikers on a trail came around the bend to find a great big mama bear with a cub up the trail. Mama Bear sees them and starts moving toward them. One hiker sits down, yanks off his boots, and puts on his running shoes.

European brown bear and cub by Peter Cairns

The other hiker says, “What are you doing? You can’t outrun the bear!”

The first hiker says, “I don’t have to outrun the bear…”

If you’re in a trade with a lot of sophistication about graphic design and photography (weddings), yes, you have to outrun the bear and your Pinterest account will need to be stunning.

If you’re in a trade that hasn’t adopted high-end graphic design and formal product portraits (most heavy industry, agriculture, most services except dentistry and spa/appearance), home improvement, business advising), you simply need a bigger and marginally better footprint than everyone else.

Filed Under: B2B 658.8, Content marketing 658-8, Marketing examples, Pinterest

February 14, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

WSJ Real Estate Section

Section D of the Friday Wall Street Journal has great real estate coverage, with lots of articles about how agents stage and sell VERY high end homes.

However, the WSJ is an expensive paper, and if you’re not reading it for business and stock market information, it can be a lot of money and content just to get the real estate news.

(The Friday paper also has a GREAT crossword puzzle, with lots of fun and tricky clues, and movie and TV reviews that align with my taste.)

Here’s how I manage what would otherwise be an overwhelming influx of paper and information: buy a 3 month subscription, which is about $100.00. Then, I put my subscription on vacation hold Saturday through Thursday every week. The new account management website makes this pretty easy to do.

If the paper on arrives on Fridays, a $100 subscription will last two years. I read about high-end real estate around the world over the weekend and don’t feel bad about not keeping up with the rest of the paper.

Filed Under: Content marketing 658-8, Marketing examples

February 13, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

Vertical Pins: How Embarrassing

Everyone says, “make tall pins.” I say it in class. I show examples of tall pins when I teach.

I wrote a post about creating “before and after” pins that stack vertically because they are more visible than side-by-side images (which look better in a blog post).

I repinned rugs for exposure.

I got traffic.

I wasn’t happy with how my “Rag Rugs, Hand Made in America” board looked, but it was my work and it was colorful.

And one day, I realized that I could rotate most of my rugs 90 degrees and make tall pins.

OMG. I am embarrassed.

Red Rag Rug pins, showing the difference between horizontal and vertical image alignment.

The longer the rug, the worse it looked before the rotation, and the better it looked after. Seascape was so bad before I removed all of its horizontal pins across my account before I thought to write this post.

The round rugs will take a slightly different approach. I haven’t finished processing and uploading them.

Here’s another example of the difference between vertical pins and horizontal pins of the same images:

Gold rug pins, showing the difference between vertical and horizontal image alignment, and cropping a round rug to fill the space.

In this set, I have zoomed in on Red and Gold Spiral and cropped it to a rectangular shape so it fills more of the image space. Will probably do this will all of the spirals; not sure about the triskeles (triple spirals).

I will be deleting the horizontal pins over the next few days. By the time you read this, the boards will all look different and only the screen shots will document my lesson learned.

Filed Under: Content marketing 658-8, How to 680, Images 770

January 28, 2013 By karentiede Leave a Comment

Board Ideas for an Artist’s Business Account

Pinterest is a perfect tool for marketing art of all kinds. Many creatives take to it like ducks to water, but a few of my friends have a bit of trouble understanding what else they can pin besides their own work.

The point is to share yourself and your view of the world as an artist. You can share images that inspire you, tools you use, places you go to refresh your idea bank. Feel free to share parts of your personal life, and/but be aware that your art account represents you as an artist. For example, some potters do very well sharing recipes and food information. However, if you’re a painter but not a foodie, you may not want to dip your chip into the great flow of food ideas.

No-one will notice what you don’t pin; they may notice if you pin images that don’t strike them as artistic or representative of who you are.

So here is a list of board ideas for those people who get a little stuck understanding how Pinterest can work:

Your art
Painting a day
Color (a board for each; a board for different types of combinations)(A search on boards about “red,” for example, will show you that artists think about “red” differently than non-artists.)
Texture
Line
Tools
Other people’s art
Rooms decorated with art (particularly for the functional artists)
Gardens / garden art
Dogs and/or cats, in images that reflect you as an artist (some consistency recommended)
Humor that reflects you as an artist (lots of stuff is funny in Pinterest and I don’t want to share that I think it’s funny with my buying public)
How-tos (Videos can be pinned from YouTube and Vimeo)
Books that reflect some element of you as an artist (I leave my taste in murder mysteries off this list)
Gadgets and technology
Local places you get inspired
Quotations that inspire you as an artist

Pick 10 ideas from the above list, add 10 pins to each board, and see if you don’t start to understand how Pinterest can present your art to your friends and fans a little differently from Facebook or Twitter.
For more ideas, search Pinterest Accounts for accounts about “Art.” (Purple arrow points to search box in upper left, pick the “pinners” option for search.)

Save

Filed Under: Content marketing 658-8, Pinterest

The story behind Instagram

Six steps to eliminating a behavior