We, Bloggers, Can Also Use Pinterest

Being a blogger is a great outlet for writers and aspiring writers to express themselves. Sometimes, we want to take those thoughts to another level (I can only speak for myself, maybe for others as well). I am talking about--you guest it--Pinterest.

Although Pinterest is generally a visual display in which users Pin their favorite images and other content on their board(s). It is not just a visual display board; it paints an image of what the users desire, what they do (and did) and where they have been, etc. You can become very creative with this social media platform.

What is my point? You can use Pinterest to showcase your expertise and talent--even as a blogger. There are five methods in which you can make Pinterest work for you as a blogger:

Sharing Your Blog: Create a blog featuring an image or a video and "Pin It" on Pinterest. If you are a blogger writing about your niche, then you can create these boards that demonstrate particular themes.

Creating Backlinks: When you are sharing a post, it should link back to your website/blog.

Product Promotions: You can set up a link to go to your affiliate products sales page.

Promoting Yourself: Do you own a service business? You can create boards demonstrating what you can do, as in pinning your credentials.

Blog Posting Ideas: On Pinterest, there are so many different avenues you can take for getting ideas for blog posting. You can do a search with relevant keywords and view other users' Pins.

Pinterest is not just limited to fashion designers, retailers, florists and food. Bloggers can also enjoy the benefits of using Pinterest. I, along with others, shall enjoy!

P.S. Starting Friday, August 15, 2014, there will be a feature on this blog, called "Pinterest Pin-A-Thon." This weekly feature will include some of my favorite pins that exist on Pinterest.

Until then, stay tuned......

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How Did Caribou Coffee Have Success with Pinterest

Recently, I read a story about a specialty coffee and espresso retailer by the name of Caribou Coffee. Get this: they are the second largest specialty coffee in the food and retail industry and a very successful company. So, what were their ingredients to success with Pinterest? Drive and determination--the two D's.

Caribou Coffee began utilizing Pinterest for the purpose of giving inspiration to loyal customers. This meant creating their boards that spark interest with customers. The pinned boards include quotes, photos, favorite combination flavors, coffee drinks and pins from other Pinners.

This company has a hunch: they listened to their customers. So to prepare for their latest coffee, called "Real Inspiration Blend," they asked their followers on Pinterest for their assistance in helping Pinners to add pictures of inspiration, which included the hastag #InspireCaribou on Pinterest. As a result, Caribou took a look at these Pins to analyze what the new blend should consist of--notes of mango for tropical rainforest images, a touch of smoke and marshmallow for an image of a group of friends sitting around a bonfire and silk-type for an image of water running on the pebbles. The final product: an aroma combination of Latin American and Ethiopian sweet beans with fruit notes and wine.

The company had launched the Real Inspiration Blend. This included a board known as "Living Pinterest Board," which was presented in the Mall of America. Of course, this board was interactive and five-storied. Fans of the board utilized Twitter and Instagram to take pictures with the hashtag #CaribouInspires. These were showcased on the large screens in real-time.

To make a long story short, this coffee inspiration campaign really paid off. It had more than eleven million media impressions and Facebook CTR, or click-through-rate of 73% more than the typical industry average and Twitter engagement rate was also double the typical industry average.

Now, Caribou Coffee is very loyal to Pinterest, thanks to their customers. They really want to learn about what type of interests that their customers have and will apply these perspectives with future promotional campaigns.

This is one huge success story! Every business has the potential to be this successful with Pinterest or any other social media platform.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Pinterest holiday prep for your online store (bigcommerce.com)
• Caribou Coffee Builds Five-Story-High Pinterest Board in Mall of America (mediabistro.com)

Pinterest's Perspective on Direct Messaging

A few days ago, Pinterest launched messages that appeared on Android, iOS and the Internet. When someone thinks of direct messaging, what do most people think of in terms of the social media platforms? Of course, they usually think of Facebook and Twitter. Anyway, recent messages appear on the left side of the feed as callouts with your followers' faces--in addition to other types of notifications being displayed. To make this action happen, click on the "+" icon (near the username), type the follower's name (of course, if they are on Pinterest). Here, you can either send a Pin or just a single message.

The special perspective on Pinterest messages is the Pins that are sent by you within the app will keep the same type of Pin function that you would normally view on your desktop or laptop computer. Whatever function you can perform in terms of a Pin on the regular website, you can make it function within a message. Think about it--you Pin a message to your board, send it to a fellow Pinner, or even click on the heart symbol to add to your favorite Pins collection. Dragging a Pin into a message is another option that you can do.

Guess what? Pinterest does a 1-up! It permits the user to send the entire board and/or user profiles to your follower base with this message function. This also features a group chat, which can be up to ten people; this is ideal for whenever you are thinking about planning an event and/or everything else in between. For those people that have a business or a brand presence, they may consider making suggestions and commenting on their private Pins prior to sharing their feedback to their follower base will be a gem.

This is a great feature to check out on Pinterest. You will appreciate it in the long haul.

Stay tuned for the next post....

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• Pinterest Now Lets Users Have Private Conversations About Specific Pins (mashable.com)
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Mobile is King on Pinterest

It seems that everywhere you turn in the present time, everything is mobile-oriented. This includes venues as in restaurants, sports events and voting for your favorite movies, just to name a few. As a result, it brings in a substantial amount of revenue. It is no different with Pinterest.

Since Pinterest's humble launching in 2010, it has become a mecca not only for promoting products and brands, but a revenue goldmine. According to a study with Pinterest analytics, there was a major revenue increase of 224 percent in early 2014 in comparison to last year for brands and retailers. These include at least 45 percent clothing brands, 25 percent home decor brands and 20 percent retail brands and other categories.

This is because these mobile users on Pinterest are making more purchases and also they are pricier. Products that are Pinned on Pinterest has a very huge social influence that it tempts a user to possess these purchasing impulses. It is the social media platform to drive prospective mobile shoppers and monetizes existing mobile shoppers, which was increased by 46 percent.

What does this signify? Mobile devices, tablet revenue and the average order value has increased at a substantial rate. This also signifies that these mobile Pinteresters (this is what I call Pinterest users) are not only viewing product images, they are taking shopping for a proactive level, doing research on products in which they are interested--all from one touch on their mobile devices.

In terms of marketing, these retailers have to get on board to get their websites optimized for users to Pin and make it simpler to purchase products from their mobile sites. Is it possible for their sites to be optimized? With today's constantly-changing technology, anything is possible! Begin with Pinterest's Mobile SDKs (designed for Android and iOS) for the improvement of your brand's mobile Pinning endeavors and adding Rich Pins for bringing in more traffic, Pinning and clicks from them (I mean the Pins).

Anyone can truly say that the Pinterest mobile app usage has become very popular by approximately 75 percent for retail brands and other types of brands. This brings a very ginormous outlet for bringing more mobile impressions and reach more mobile users with Pins. The bottom line: the main aim is to optimize mobile websites for the purpose of Pinning those beautiful and interesting images--and bring in the revenue for your brand.

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• Are Your Leveraging Pinterest for Mobile? (marketingtechblog.com)
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Using Pinterest For Your Floral Business

Want to showcase your business in a very visual way? Well, you can! Pinterest is simply a virtual bulletin board that allows anyone to pin photos, videos or anything else in between. You can do the same thing with your floral shop!

Here are some ways for using Pinterest with your floral shop business:

Your Board Should Tell a Story
Florists often think in colorful designs, therefore flower designs are present in many locations, from homes, weddings, other events and even with individuals. When customers and potential customers are visiting your board, they should not be just seeing flowers, but your flowers should have some type of inspiration, such as bouquets; it should tell a very interesting story. If these flower arrangements are your own, then these should be linked to your store.

It's All About Sharing!
With a Pinterest account, you can either set it up to auto-pin or if you are pinning regularly, you can manually pin; this avoids overhauling your other accounts. It is suggested that you get opinions about what the story is and let people know what is behind your inspiration. This can really attract readers and will engage them in the conversation.

Hashtags Need Apply
Every time you post on a board, it is imperative that you add tags that are relevant to your board content; this will help people locate your page. For example, if your story is about weddings, include the tag #weddings. Other popular tags that are used are #flowers, #decorations. There are also other related tags that can be used. You can view on other floral sites--it will give you ideas on some of the most popular tags that are used.

Post/Update on a Regular Basis
You will always want to search for different ideas when you are on the Internet. As a result, you should post on your Pinterest board on a regular basis. When people find a board or creator they admire, they are more likely to come back repeatedly, but if there is not any new content posted, then they will leave, lose interest and go with someone else's board. It is best to update your board approximately twice a week or more, just to keep your content fresh and interesting.

Pinterest allows businesses, especially visual communications, to showcase their work and products that lead to a boosted visibility and higher traffic numbers. If you follow these steps, then doing business on Pinterest can be very profitable and fun!

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• How to Use Pinterest for Your Business - Can You Use Pinterest for SEO? (seo4anyone.com)
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