Carol Stephen, Author at

How to Avoid Bad News on Social Media and Keep Your Sanity

June 16, 2016 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

How to Avoid Bad News on Social Media and Keep Your Sanity

Those of you on social media know that being there too much can almost make you have ADHD. Here a squirrel, there a squirrel, everywhere a squirrel squirrel. Am I right? Oh, look! A squirrel! Seriously, though, how do you keep the omnipresent bad news at bay? Here are some ideas.

Use Lists

Vigorously maintain your lists in Twitter. Do not enter the mainstream every day, for that way madness lies. Clip unwanted accounts in your lists, like you would trim the unwanted branches of your beloved shrubberies. Chop out those on your lists with tweets you don’t like, and look for others you do like. You may want to take a deeper dive into using lists.

Photo by eflon

Hide Posts

Yes, you can hide posts in Facebook. You are not obligated to follow everyone’s sad, crazy story of how they were once beholden to the circus, forced to eat Spam, or nearly drowned that one time in Buenos Aires. Really. For some clues on when to do what, here’s a post about how to unfollow a friend without unfriending.

Photo by Loozrboy

Unfollow

Sometimes you need to unfollow people. If they always post bad news, if they badmouth others, if they sell sell sell! Those are good reasons to unfollow. You may have others. Also, if they haven’t posted since 1999, that’s a good reason, too. Why are you following them? And here is one of my favorite posts from friend Bridget Willard about your “safe place” on social media.

Get Outside

We all need a break from social media. Take a break every hour, two hours, or whenever you need it. Don’t follow someone else’s rules. Take a day or a weekend off. Heck, take a week off if you can! When you return, everything will look fresh.

Photo by mstearne

Post Less, Curate More

Maybe you could simply post less, but better stuff. Some accounts seem to post everything they find, rather than what’s perfect for their audience. If you curate, only the very best will get through your filter.

Focus on the Good News

There are some places that publish good news. Here are some of the best:

How Do You Avoid the Bad News?

Do you have the skin of a rhino? Does bad news roll off you like water off a duck? Leave me a comment! I’d love to know!

Photo by thirdblade

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bad news, Facebook, good news, positivity, Sanity, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter lists

How to Create a Wonderful Blog Post in an Hour

June 9, 2016 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

How to Create a Wonderful Blog Post in an Hour

The first thing to do? Set that timer for an hour. Another good thing to do is make sure you have a reward for yourself once you’re done. How about a frozen yogurt with sprinkles?

First 15 Minutes

Brainstorm ten topics. Here are some ideas to kickstart you:

A question that your clients always ask. Or one they rarely ask.
A news story you could discuss and how it affects your clients.
A recent testimonial, and how happy you were to receive it.
Reasons you’re better than your competitors.
What people don’t ask about your business but you wish they would.

Photo by Helen.Yang

Funny things you’ve learned plying your trade.
Tell a story about a crazy client you’ve worked with (anonymous, of course!).
How you work with people in another field (for instance an app developer and a website developer).
How people can work with you (for instance, Social Media Managers: Ten Secrets to Care for Yours).
Behind the scenes in your business–describe some of the people who work at your company.

This tweet from Randy Clark might make you think twice:

Don't limit yourself to blogs about your product. Learn your target audience's interests and write about those topics. #digiblogchat

— randy clark (@RandyLyleClark) June 7, 2016

Photo by boltron-

Second 15 Minutes

Pick the best topic from your brainstormed list.

Choose only one! If you like two, write about the other one next time. Here’s a bit to help with blogging in a post I wrote about Orange County WordCamp, by the way (create five topics). Now speak out loud and write down what you say. Pretend someone else is there, or call a friend and talk into the phone. If you can use speak to text, even better and faster. I like an “hourglass shaped” post, starting with the macro, going to the micro, and back out to the macro. That is, begin with something generic and then get specific. Now write three short paragraphs about whatever your point is. And then wrap it up with another short paragraph.

Third 15 Minutes

Add Links. Add at least two inbound links to your own blog (if you don’t have any, don’t worry–you will soon!), and two outbound links. For an article of 350 words, I like to have a total of four links. For instance, for this post, I linked to my own blog twice, and two external links. Search on a topic or two that could use more explaining, and add the URLs.

Add Tags. Pick a few to identify the content of your post.

Photo by HerryLawford

Fourth 15 Minutes

Add Images and a call to action.

Images

Go to Creative Commons and find something you like and plug it in. I like Flickr, but you may find another favorite–be sure the image you like is available for commercial use and modification. You don’t need a lot of images, but at least one or two at a minimum. Find something compelling that represents your words, but don’t stress over it too much. If you have your own images, that’s even better.

Call to Action

Here are some typical CTAs:

Join us now!
Add a comment!
Sign up for our newsletter!

Here’s a list of 11 Kick-Ass Call to Action Examples that you might like!

Photo by Mark Berry – Photographer & Graphic Designer

Enjoy Your Reward!

Are you enjoying your reward now? Tell me what your reward is in the comments below! (And how did you like that Call to Action?)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blog topics, blogging quickly, time management, write, writing, writing fast

Ten Reasons Not To Be Afraid to Ask Stupid Questions

June 2, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Ten Reasons Not To Be Afraid to Ask Stupid Questions

Some people would argue that there really are stupid questions. Angela Henshall, in her excellent article for the BBC, Yes, There Really Are Stupid Questions, for instance. Her article reminds me of the question I’ve heard at the Dollar Store: “How much is this dish towel?” And the answer: “It’s a dollar.” But I digress. Already.

Photo by Jan Tik

People Need Entertainment

I am reminded of the time that my bestie and I attended a civil war reenactment. She asked the dude-in-charge, “Who do you think is going to win?” And he said: It’s a re-enactment.” And she repeated her question. To which he replied, again, “It’s a re-enactment.” So at that point, she had to pretend not to understand what a re-enactment was, lest he feel insulted. He was just so, well, earnest.

Photo by otterbeintheatre

There Are Naive Questions

Carl Sagan says there are no dumb questions, only naive ones. And who doesn’t believe everything Carl Sagan said? Or is that naive, too?

“There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

~Carl Sagan

You’re Developing Your Bravado

A bunch of other people are thinking the same thing, but you’re the only one who says it out loud. You’re always the first one to ask: Are these sandwiches free? And sometimes people are so shocked at the question that the sandwiches are free.

Photo by permanently scatterbrained

You Really Want to Know

Sure, everyone wants to know why Pluto isn’t a planet any more. But you have more curiosity than the average cat, so you keep asking. (Pluto is a dwarf planet, as if that clear anything up.) Without asking, how would you ever know?

Dogbert

Because Dilbert

No post about stupid questions would be complete without a reference to Dilbert. Without stupid questions, there would be no pointy-headed boss. Speaking of Dilbert, here are ten ways to demotivate employees.

Photo by Listen Missy!

Your Sole Purpose on Earth is to Make Other People Feel Better about Themselves

When I play golf, other people feel better about their own golf games. Is there some way you cheer up other people by your own bad example? Just kidding. Everyone knows you’re perfect!

Photo by kevygee

If Not You, Then Who?

Someone has to ask! And you’re right there, sitting in the front row with your hand up. That slacker in the back isn’t going to ask! So the pressure’s on you. And speaking of weird segues, have you read the one about Darth Vader and why it’s easier to be him than a social media manager? No, of course not!

The Emperor Is Wearing No Clothes

Sometimes stating the obvious takes someone who isn’t afraid to ask a stupid question. That someone could be you!

Photo by keane dasalla

Is That Ten?

Stupid question!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: stupid question

Five Quick Ways to Boost Your Social Media Listening

May 25, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Five Quick Ways to Boost Your Social Media Listening

People are always complaining about the amount of noise there is on social media. Clients want to know how to cut through the tremendous ruckus and hear the good stuff. Here are some surefire ways to listen better.

Photo by darkday.

Twitter Lists for the Win

My number one piece of advice for new clients is to set up lists on Twitter. You can make them secret or public, but either way a list is how you can follow many people and listen to the best ones. For a deeper dive, here’s my post about lists for the power user.

Photo by telmo32

Google Alerts

Did you know that you could set up a Google alert for any keyword you like and then add it to a column in Hootsuite? Each Google Alert has an RSS feed. So for instance, if you have a Google Alert for your own name, you can add that. You could set one up for all the people in your startup so you can monitor who’s talking about you. Then put them into columns using HootSuite Syndicator.

Facebook Groups

You can have different groups on Facebook. That is, you can create groups of friends, people who are restricted, or those you’d like to see less of in your newsfeed. It’s already built into Facebook. So if your coworker is meddlesome, put him in a group other than “friends.”

Photo by Moyan_Brenn

Personal Hashtags

You can create your own hashtag by typing a pound sign (#) in front of any word. Use it to organize a search or any time you want to be found. Make sure your content matches your hashtag. For instance, my chat on Twitter is #DigiBlogChat. For a deeper dive into hashtags, read the excellent The Only Hashtag Guide You’ll Ever Need.

Pinterest Guided Search

If you’re on Pinterest, use the guided search. You can pin from the feed, but a better way is to use the guided search. Listen to what people are pinning on a particular topic relevant to your business. Start with the highest-level (for instance, a hair dresser might search on “short hair,” then let Pinterest guide your search.

Local Search by Keyword

If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, you could search by hashtag to see what people in your area are saying. For instance #SF or #SanFrancisco. I search on #SantaCruz in Twitter quite a bit. Then retweet, repost, or comment on those posts. Brainstorm other keywords your ideal audience might be using.

Make Listening a Habit

Julian Treasure, in his wonderful TED Talk about listening better, recommends trying to listen to different channels to deepen one’s connection to the world around us. If you have a chance to listen to his video, please do.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Facebook, Followers, listening, Social Media, Twitter

How to Unleash Your Creativity with One Simple Trick

May 19, 2016 By Carol Stephen 14 Comments

How to unleash your creativity with one simple trick

You’re probably thinking that there’s some incredible secret here. A lot of us believe that creativity is something we left behind when we stopped falling out of treehouses and breaking our arms testing gravity going downhill with no brakes. But creativity is a belief as much as anything. We are all wired to create.

We Are Designed to Move

Similarly, we are all designed to move. A lot of us in the tech industry believe that we’re more or less heads on sticks, like mobile lollipops. But we have bodies for a reason, and if we don’t move a lot of bad things can happen. We’ve all heard those scare tactics by the people who want to sell standing desks: if you sit for too long, you’ll get diabetes and die. By contrast, when we move, a lot of good things happen. We become rich, famous, and sexy. Or at least we get in better shape and can write blog posts a lot faster!

Photo by Nikko Russano

Walking Helps Us Think

Ferris Jabr in his excellent New Yorker article Why Walking Helps Us Think, asks: “What is it about walking, in particular, that makes it so amenable to thinking and writing?” Moving the oxygen in gives the little gray cells the right kind of food to get the job done.

He also says this:

“When we stroll, the pace of our feet naturally vacillates with our moods and the cadence of our inner speech; at the same time, we can actively change the pace of our thoughts by deliberately walking more briskly or by slowing down.”

So to speed up our thoughts, all we need to do is run a brisk mile.

Put One Foot in Front of Another

Walking or hiking changes our moods and our thoughts, as well as letting us change the pace of our thoughts. We’ve all had the experience of our outer pace changing our inner pace. Sometimes it starts with music. And knowing that merely putting one foot in front of the other can quicken our thoughts, well, it’s a refreshing idea.

Daydream Believer

Whether you’re outside hiking, or inside walking on a treadmill, spacing out can lead to creative ideas. And all your need to get started is a pair of walking shoes.

It’s Not Just Anecdotal Any More

In the good old days (ok, pre-2014), people thought walking helped their creativity, but there was no science to backup the idea that creativity was linked to walking. Then a study, from Stanford came along, in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. And this article from the New York Times: Want to Be More Creative? Take a Walk.

Dr. Oppezzo, who led the study says

“Again, walking markedly improved people’s ability to generate creative ideas, even when they sat down after the walk. In that case, the volunteers who had walked produced significantly more and subjectively better ideas than in their pre-exercise testing period.”

How Does Walking Improve Your Life?

Do you walk to be more creative? Do you take advantage of the new ideas you generate right after a walk? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: competitive edge, creativity, hiking, walking

How to Lose All Your Followers on Social Media

May 12, 2016 By Carol Stephen 12 Comments

How to Lose All Your Followers on Social Media

I almost called this “The Wonderful Art of Subtraction on Social Media,” because sometimes the best thing to do is to subtract. That is: unfollow, unfriend, and mute. After all, everyone wants more, more, more followers on social media. Isn’t that the whole point? Not always! Sometimes less is more.

Photo by cliff1066™

Same Old, Same Old

Lately I’ve grown tired of seeing the same stuff day after day, month after month. On Twitter, the accounts that spew quotes are the worst. My friends Mitch Mitchell and Terri Nakamura have been tweeting about it. How do those accounts get so many followers when all they do is broadcast quotes all day long?

Fast Path to Losing Followers: Spew quotes all day long.

https://twitter.com/Mitch_M/status/728464131049693187

Unfriending on Facebook

On Facebook, if I don’t remember where the heck we met, or if we haven’t had a conversation for a couple of years, off you go! I’ll bet they don’t remember me, either (even if to me, I’m the queen of the universe!). Wiki has a great list of reasons you might have been unfriended on Facebook and how to get over it.

Fast Path to Losing Followers: Being offensive and way too personal is a good way to be unfriended. Right now, the political rant is also a great way to lose friends.

Photo by abodftyh

Unfollowing on Twitter

On Twitter, if there’s too much salesy stuff, and too many boring tweets, same thing: they get muted or unfollowed. Muted if the volume is too high and unfollowed if the tweets are tasteless. Partly the fault is mine. I may not have taken a good, hard look at the account when I first followed or followed back. But sometimes accounts change, too. Here are some Twitter Best Practices, by the way.

Fast Path to Losing Followers: Drunk tweeting off topic is a fast way to lose followers. Also, sending direct messages asking for money is a fast path to being unfollowed.

Photo by davebloggs007

Disconnecting on Pinterest

Sometimes people post about too much of one thing, and it gets boring. Or, as in the case of someone I unfollowed this week–too many “sexy ladies dressed as animals.” Yeah, I know. Weird. I kept unfollowing one board after another, until finally–no boards at all! What a great day that was. If you want a primer on Pinterest, you might like this one: Pinterest: Top Ten Tasks and Power Tips.

Fast Path to Losing Followers: Pin only photos of sunglasses. Or stuffed animals. And you’ll lose followers. Try it!

Photo by janoma.cl

Getting Unlinked on LinkedIn

Like Direct Messages on Twitter, sending salesy messages before getting to know someone is a no-no on LinkedIn, and a great way to lose followers. Today I got an email from someone I’d never had contact with asking me to buy their IT services. See ya! If you want to know how to prune the rose buds on LinkedIn, here you go.

Fast Path to Losing Followers: Send a lot of salesy stuff, before getting to know someone.

Photo by eelke dekker

Insta-Unfollowed on Instagram

On Instagram, a really great way to be blocked is to leave a comment on someone else’s post saying “follow me.” Don’t you hate that?

Fast Path to Losing Followers: Say you sell followers in a message on someone else’s post.

Who Have You Unfollowed Today?

If you’ve unfriended, unfollowed, or blocked someone today, why? I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: failure, Followers, Instagram, less is more, LinkedIn, Pinterest, subtraction, Twitter, unfollowing, unfriending

The Seven Social Media Creatures You’ll See in the Woods

May 5, 2016 By Carol Stephen 14 Comments

The seven social media creatures you’ll see in the woods.

The woods are famous for tall trees and hiking. The woods are also famous for trolls. So although you may think it’s the hiking that makes you more creative, it’s actually all the running away from trolls and other creatures that gives your brain that creative edge.

Photo by MiguelVieira

Mosquitoes

There you are in your idyllic spot, minding your own bees wax (more on bees later), when along comes a mosquito. But they’re never alone. They always have tens or hundreds of friends. You could say they’re the extroverts of small woodland creatures. In Social Media Land, mosquitoes steal your work, and leave you feeling anemic.

Then There Are Ticks

Ticks are the multi-level marketing people of the woods to me. They will give you anything if only you’ll send your bank account number to a friendly Nigerian prince, separated from his family. He does not need all the money, just a small fee. Ticks are the same way. By the way, if you want to survive the Social Media Doldrums, here are some clues.

Butterflies and Moths

There are butterfly people, and then there are moth people. Butterfly people flit around and you can never get them to commit. Moths are the ones who do all the work. Just bring a lightbulb and you’ll see what I mean. Be careful, though: invite a moth into your home and they’ll build a nest in your sweater drawer! In social media terms, butterflies will promise you anything but never deliver.

Photo by peretzp

Bees

There are many kinds of bees. Bumblebees, honeybees, and miner bees. The solitary bees are the hard-workingest bees of the woods. They don’t sting because they don’t have honey to protect. And they don’t have big ol’ hives, either. Bees are different than WASPS. WASPS go to church (they are mostly Presbyterians). If you encounter a group of WASPS, make sure to sit in an empty pew.

Birds

Although they are small, hummingbirds are *holes. They refuse to stop humming, even when they don’t know the tune. This is not acceptable, even in an election year. If you carry a tennis racquet around, though, you should be pretty safe. In social media, hummingbirds are those annoying people who don’t know when to quit.

Deer

One time, I was at my dad’s house, and a deer came tearing down the street, jumped over his mailbox, and landed on a car. Therefore, because of logic, are deer all dangerous. Don’t let those big doe eyes fool you. In social media land, this is the person who spreads those bad rumors about “if you don’t share this with ten people, bad things will happen!” The best way to deal with these people? Send them to Snopes.

Skunks

Of all the denizens of the woods, skunks are the most powerful. Pound for pound, skunks can outperform any parfumerie. A little skunk goes a long way. The skunk is the Kardashian of the Internet. Apologies to the skunks.

Photo by matt hutchinson

Can You Find Any Scientific Inaccuracies in This Post?

If you can, leave me a comment! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bees, butterflies, creativity, hiking, ticks, walking, wasps

Why Social Media Darwinism is the Most Wonderful Way to Success

April 28, 2016 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Why Social Media Darwinism is the Most Wonderful Way to Success

Like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks, social media Darwinism can be your fastest, craziest, and funnest way to success. If you’d like a quick overview of Darwinism, you might want to check out Natural Selection and Biological Evolution for Dummies. It won’t be as fun as this blog post, but still.

Mistakes, Failures, and Startups

What propels you forward faster than making a bunch of mistakes, and the ensuing embarrassment? Nothing, that’s what! You may have read about how mistakes and failure are important to your brand and your startup, right? If not, here you go: What If Failure Didn’t Exist? Anyway, how can you create something new, and something wonderful if there’s no failure involved?

Mark Zuckerberg’s Mistakes

Even Mark Zuckerberg admits he’s made every mistake you can make. Well, maybe not all the mistakes! I’ve made some of them, so he doesn’t get to claim all of them. His telling employees to “be fast and be bold” could be why Facebook is still thriving now.

Twitter’s Survival

Remember when Twitter proposed losing the 140-character limit? And we all said “C’mon! Don’t do that!”? If you don’t remember, here you go: Will Twitter Dump Its 140-Character Limit? They learned pretty fast through that mistake! Talk about survival of the fittest!

Biomimicry

While social networks may not lend themselves to Darwinism per se, cooperation can help those in the physical world. Cooperative relationships can help organisms with their reach (for example, Mychorrizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with host plants, greatly extending the “reach” of a plant’s roots). Our own tendency towards cooperation can help us with our own reach. And I think that’s pretty neat.

Brian Solis on Digital Darwinism

One of my favorite writers, Brian Solis, has this to say about social darwinism (article from Wired):

“This is a time of digital Darwinism — an era where technology and society are evolving faster than businesses can naturally adapt.”

And Solis adds this:

“But make no mistake. Digital transformation efforts grow market opportunities and profits as well as scaling efficiently in the process.” Plus the hashtag #AdaptOrDie.

By the way, here’s a review of Brian Solis, What’s the Future of Business: Generation C that you might like.

The Speed of Change

As technology races ahead, businesses must learn to adapt. They don’t need to blindly adopt new tech, but need to stay open to new changes coming down the pipeline. Think of Kodak (R.I.P.) or Blockbuster. We thought they were permanent institutions at one time. But now? Not so much.

Are You Practicing Social Media Darwinism?

How so? Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Brian Solis, Darwinism, failure, Mistakes, Social Media, social media darwinism, Startup

How to Choose a Social Media Manager: Ten Worst Ways

April 21, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

How to Choose a Social Media Manager: Ten Worst Ways

People choose social media manager for all the wrong reasons. Now bear in mind this doesn’t mean you. But many, many other people do just that: they pick based on some emotional reason, then are very upset when their social media manager (“SMM”) doesn’t work out. If you want to hear the positive side of how to choose a SMM, here’s my previous article: Top Ten Questions to Ask Your Social Media Manager. But stick around if you want some of the worst ways to choose an SMM!

Photo by xmatic

Someone Who Doesn’t Engage

Your new SMM should be someone who hates to chat with people. Having short–or long–conversations of people is a hallmark of social media. They should hate dealing with people at all, whether that’s talking on the phone, in person, or on social media.

Photo by Nirazilla

Someone Who Buys Followers

On the day they start work, your new SMM should plunk down $20, and buy a bunch of followers. After all, you need the “social proof,” right? And if you want to know whether someone has a bunch of fake followers, take a look at this: Who Has the Most Fake Twitter Followers?

Fake Followers

Someone Who Follows, Then Quickly Unfollows

Maybe this has happened to you. Someone follows you, you follow back, then they quickly dump you. Now that’s a great thing to do! In a bad way, of course.

Someone Who Says They Do it All

Most SMMs do not do it all, but you should pick someone who says they do! They will say they know about graphic design and Google adwords and also create and edit video for you. However, they might have someone in their agency who can help with some of those things.

Someone Who Doesn’t Care About Driving Traffic

None of your Facebook posts need to drive traffic to you, right? So having a SMM who doesn’t understand that’s important would be a great (aka bad) choice.

Someone Who’s Rude and Entitled

You really ought to pick someone who’s rude and feels entitled as your SMM. Because then there’s a lot less work for them to do. When they start work late, they can leave early to make up for it!

Someone Who Steals Images

Someone who “borrows” images and posts from others without giving any attribution would probably make a fantastic SMM! Always get the consent of the person before using an image, as Sarah Snow Explains in this article.

Someone Who Unknowingly Posts Porn

Someone who doesn’t check what’s behind a pin on Pinterest would make a great manager for your social media! It will certainly be more exciting when you discover what’s really behind that pin! Here’s a swell guide to using Pinterest for Business, by the way.

Choose Your Niece or Nephew!

Surely they’d know something about how to post, just because they’re super young. After all, they can use Snapchat!

Choose Your Admin for the SMM

Sometimes this can work out, but what about when it doesn’t? What if they don’t have the aptitude for it? As always, leave me a comment! I do appreciate it.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: buying followers, failure, SMM, social media manager, unfollowing

Pinterest: 10 Quick and Easy Tasks You Can Do Right Now

April 14, 2016 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

Pinterest: 10 Quick and Easy Tasks You Can Do Right Now

If you’re confused by Pinterest, there’s no need to be. You can start pinning for yourself or your business right away. For this post, I’ll skim over a few basics, and then get into some tasks you can do immediately. And I’ll make it as quick and easy as possible!

Set up a Business Account

If you haven’t set up a business account, go to Pinterest’s blog for the easy setup. Don’t forget to verify your business account, too. Skip this step if you’re on Pinterest for fun, of course.

Your Action: Set up your business account.

Create 5 Boards

Create Five Boards

Yes, you could create more, but start with five boards with five pins each. That’s quick and easy, right?

Your Action: Set up boards with simple names to reflect your business interests. For instance, if you sell windows, you could have boards about Glass, Architecture, Shades, Window Boxes, and Trim.

Make ‘Em Pretty!

Make ‘Em Pretty

Your board covers need to be pretty! Guys, that includes you, too!

Your Action: Choose the best of the five pins and make that your board cover. Here’s a post that includes how to create better board covers, by the way.

Pin Descriptions

Of the pins that you pinned, are they filled with keyword-rich words?

Your Action: Put yourself in the shoes of someone searching on Pinterest. Would they find your pin?

Pin At Good Times

If you’re only pinning in the middle of the night, you’re going to get middle-of-the-night results!

Your Action: If you only have a few minutes, pin at 6 pm. That’s when most people are on Pinterest.

Find Your Analytics

Click the little gear at the upper right of your Pinterest account.

Your Action: Spend 10 minutes getting cozy with your Pinterest analytics.

On the first page of your analytics, you’ll see the above screen, or something like it.

Check Your Own Website’s Impressions

Pinterest By the Numbers

In the screenshot above (Find Your Analytics), you can see some of the ups and downs of the numbers. If you hover over what interests you, you can see more details. Here I’m interested in activity from my website. Check the impressions from your own website. Go to the top right (third panel, above) and click More. You will see impressions from the past week, by default.

Your Action: Check the impressions for a pin that got repinned and see what you did right! What was the subject of the pin? (To check when a pin was pinned, simply click on the pin and you should see how long ago it was pinned to the top right.)

It’s All in the Details

Check the details. I’m interested in the spike shown on April 10, above.

Your Action: Choose a pin and check the details. See the impressions, clicks, repins, and likes. Below the Top Ten Impressions, there’s a list of places where your pins got repinned. Skim over it–don’t spend a lot of time.

Follow One Pin with the Highest Impressions

Here’s where it gets interesting. One repin onto a board with very high traffic caused all of the 4565 impressions, above. Pretty neat!

Your Action: See where your highest pinned pins got those impressions. Above, you can see that one repin caused a number of clicks. Is that something that you could replicate?

Be a Tortoise Not a Hare

Pin steadily. Don’t worry too much about daily fluctuations in analytics.

Your Action: Commit to pinning five minutes per day. If that’s too much, maybe five minutes three times a week.

Bonus!

Bonus Tip

Once you’re a regular pinner, you may want to do more.

Your Action: Create one board of your highest ranked pins. Use your analytics to find, say, your pins that got more than three pins. Or five pins.

What Would You Recommend?

What quick and easy tips have helped you? Let me know in the comments! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, boards, pinning, pins, Pinterest, Pinterest for business, quick and easy