“Pinterest is now the number three most-popular social network in the U.S., behind Facebook and Twitter, according to Experian Hitwise.”1 This was announced this past April and since then Pinterest has only continued to grow more and more rapidly. For information on the stats of the top social media sites and a basic description of what Pinterest is go to my blog post Pinterest is now #3 Social Media Site. To learn how you can promote your business on Pinterest, keep reading.
Advantages/Disadvantages to using Pinterest for Business
Pinterest can help businesses drive their followers to their business website and other social media sites. Businesses have the opportunity to “show” more about what it is they do. The expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” most definitely applies to Pinterest. So Pinterest users can visually see and understand what your business is about.
Pinterest is currently 60% female users from 25-34 who share ideas for decorating, cooking, fashion, health, art and other interests. So if this is your target audience, Pinterest is the place to be.
Pinterest is a “social” site so they don’t take too kindly to businesses trying to advertise or “push” what they offer. They may shut down your account if they feel you’re not in keeping with the social aspect of their site. Furthermore, Pinterest does not have any business-oriented features nor offer any opportunities for advertising.
Setting up Pinterest Site
Start by adding your profile information, business summary and profile image. Then you’ll want to start creating boards, you can do so by clicking Add+. Once you’ve created the Boards, you can then add pins to each board. A pin can be a link or an image that you upload. Pinterest is a public site so do not post anything about your business you don’t wish to share the world over.
How to Interact on Pinterest
1) Socialize: Pinterest is a “social” site so be sure to connect with fellow Pinterest users by Follow All, Follow one of their Boards, Liking their images and/or Re-Pinning their images
2) Visualize: Don’t Sell – Show. Pin beautiful, action-oriented, intriguing, and/or informative images depicting what your business does and let interested parties come to you. Upload photos of your office/store, logo, your employees in action, products/services, and special offers. Businesses that aren’t particularly visual will have to be more creative in what they post. Also, be sure to add images to your website and blog that you and others can then share on Pinterest.
3) Strategize: – Create a layout of boards and pins that are easy to navigate and visually appealing. Create boards that represent the range of your products and services. It’s best to group products and services rather than have a board for each one or only one board for all. If you don’t have enough images for your business, think about creating a contest asking your clients to provide images and the best one gets a prize. Be sure to cross-promote your Pinterest site with your website, blog as well as other social media sites like facebook and twitter.
If you would like to get started on Pinterest, shoot us an email and we’ll send you an invite.
Need help? Let Logicreative set up your Pinterest site and give you a strategy of how to utilize it. In addition, Logicreative can manage all your social media sites for you. To learn how we can help your business, contact us at 1-888-934-3642 or info@logicreative.com.
Be sure to follow Logicreative on Pinterest and we encourage you to repin us http://pinterest.com/Logicreative
Sources
1 Pinterest is Now the No. 3 Social Network in the U.S. [STUDY]
2http://pinterest.com/about/
GoDaddy’s site got hacked! Down for hours…thousands of businesses affected
GoDaddy down…hacked
Any business or organization that has a domain name, website or email with GoDaddy.com, has probably been down most of the day today because their entire system is down. For hours, you couldn’t even go to their website. They posted on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GoDaddy and twitter @GoDaddy that they were aware of the problem and working on it. Many domains, emails and websites are back up, including GoDaddy’s but who knows how many might still be down.
According to the Guardian, Fox News, Washington Post and LA Times, GoDaddy was hacked by a member of the Anonymous @AnonymousOwn3r hacking group.
Businesses Affected
Thousands of businesses were affected by this today, Logicreative included. We have become so dependent on the internet that something like this begs the questions:
1) Why was it so easy for them to hack the site?
2) What protection will they have in place in the future
3) How can businesses prepare should it happen again?
Questions #1 and #2 are for GoDaddy to answer. As for #3, Logicreative has some Advice to Businesses.
Logicreative Advice to Businesses:
Logicreative admits that, like so many others, we were not as prepared as we could have been. We did implement #4, #5, and #6 and were able to prevent any undue panic. Logicreative ALWAYS keeps back-up files for all our clients’ websites so down or not, they’re NEVER lost. We realize, however, that we need to be better prepared, as does everyone else! We will become prepared should this happen again.