How to Use Pinterest to Curate Content

 

turtle photo

There are lots of different and fun ways to use Pinterest, and just one of them is for content curation. If you’re curious, or even serious about content curation, then using Pinterest is a perfect way to go.

Plan Your Content Curation Strategy

Ask yourself a few questions about your content curation strategy, such as the following:

  • Who is your audience?
  • What would they like to know about or see from you/your brand?
  • What kinds of headlines could you use?

You don’t have to have a complex strategy, at least not to begin with. That can come later. If you want to know more about why you should curate content, you might want to read: Content Curation: 5 Killer Reasons It’s Your New BFF.

Create Boards

You can create boards of, say, ten different subjects, based on the questions you ask yourself. Don’t forget about secret boards! You can always create more boards later. Use simple names for your boards, such as Cats, Tiny Houses, or Autumn. Post Planner suggests “being glaring obvious about what your board contains.”  They have more suggestions on how to name boards in their article 37 Pinterest Board Names that Will Get You More Pins, Clicks, and Followers.

Use Secret Boards

One of my favorite tricks is to use secret boards. When you’re using Pinterest on your phone, and come across a compelling pin, pin it to a secret board so you can check it out later. I like to pin to a secret board on my phone and then thoroughly research the pin later on my laptop. Making a secret board isn’t a secret, in fact, you can get it straight from the horse’s mouth (Pinterest): All about boards.

Optimize Your Descriptions

After you examine that pin and make sure the content behind it is good (by clicking all the way to whatever website it goes to, for example), you can optimize your description. To optimize a pin, talk about what your pin is, where it goes (aka website), and by all means, don’t spam people. So if you use hashtags, make sure those hashtags accurately describe your pin so that your target audience can find those pins.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Do you use Pinterest for content curation? Why or why not? Leave me a comment! And thank you!

 

 

How to Make the Most of Your Time on Social Media: Seven Easy Ways

How to Make the Most of Your Time on Social Media: Seven Easy Ways

How to Make the Most of Your Time on Social Media: Seven Easy Ways

Social media is no longer an option for any sized business. And it’s not optional for people of any age range, either. Everyone and their grandma is on social media these days. So how do you create posts that are easy to share, quick to read, and how do you maximize your time? Read on!

Have a System and Measure

Having a system is probably the most important part of managing your time. My dad used to say “Do something, even if it’s wrong.” While that’s probably not the best approach, in a way he was right. You can tweak your system later. So decide where you’ll be on the internet (Facebook? Twitter? Pinterest?), and most important–pick the places that you love to be! For instance, I don’t enjoy Google Plus much, so I don’t spend much time there. But you, on the other hand, might love Google Plus!

As Katie Lance write in this article from the Huffington Post, “The right question should be, “What social networks should I focus on that will build my community and build my business?” Also, what platforms do you enjoy the most?”

Measure your efforts. These days, I prefer the analytics within social media platforms. You may prefer to use Google analytics. And most business accounts have built-in analytics, so you can see which posts are getting the most traction.

 

gucci photo

Curate the Best

Here are some ideas for curation. The important thing is to batch and use blocks of time when you’re curating, to get the best results.

  • Twitter Lists. You can make them public or private. Set them up in columns in your scheduler.
  • Saved Searches. Save these in Twitter, so next time you can go to your topic easily.
  • Secret Pinterest Boards. Think of this as a vision board. You can use secret boards to share things with your clients or save pins that you want to check out later.

For more details, you might want to read:

Keep Tinkering

Once you have a system, improve on it. If you’ve measured your progress and success, and figured out what you really like to do, challenge yourself to make your system more streamlined. My friend Bridget Willard likes to gamify her time to see how fast she can respond to mentions. Could you do something similar?

Since we’re discussing time here, do you think you can do your social media in an hour a day? Would you believe you can create a wonderful blog post in an hour? You definitely can! Of course, it might take a little practice.

waterfall photo

Repurpose, Recycle, Reuse

Once you’ve written something, find ways to use it again. And again. Don’t use it just once! My friend Randy Clark suggests 6 Ways to Reuse Old Blog Posts. I must admit, I’m considering the idea of creating some e-books. At the very least, reusing content on your other social channels helps you save time.

talking photo

Mention Others and Engage

Mentioning others in your article or on your social media can be a good tactic. If your audience is engaged, that makes your job so much easier. You may need to post fewer times if you have an engaged audience.

talking photo

Interviews

Interview influencers. Then go back to them and let them know that you’ve written about them or published an article or put up a video. Again, you can reuse your articles or videos over and over.

Power Partners

Sharing from others with a similar audience to yours saves you time and effort. You can share people in the same field if they’re not in competition, too. For example, a plumber and a tile setter might have a similar target audience, and can refer work to each other. Who do you refer to?

talking photo

Hire Someone

Why not hire someone who’s an expert to handle the social media for you? If you’re too busy to do your own, why not a done-for-you approach?

 

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On PinterestVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On LinkedinCheck Our Feed