Pinterest is my favorite social network for both personal and business reasons. I’m always looking for Pinterest tools that make my job easier. Not only that I’m working with my business partners Paul Wilson and John Benson to develop new tools of our own. Here’s our list of favorite tools Pinterest board.

Here are my top 5 Pinterest tools

1. PinAlerts

PinAlerts are like Google Alerts for Pinterest. You get an email when something from your blog shows up on Pinterest. This is my first Pinterest tool with PinnableBusiness.com and it’s been getting great traction. It was named as a fav tool by Sarah Evans and Website magazine named it their tool of the day. We have many plans for it so this is just the exciting beginning.

2. Quozio

Quozio is an easy-to-use tool for making quotes for Pinterest but also for Facebook, Twitter or even this blog post! I’d love to see them allow you to resize your picture, add a watermark and control the font color and size (even each individual letter). I found out about it from a reader of my blog (which is one reason why I keep blogging). Quotes are huge for Facebook. One quote can be featured in a blog post (which can then be pinned), pinned on Pinterest, and tweeted. I’ve found that people don’t read my contests (or the rules) on Facebook unless I make them visual. When I read an article I’m always looking for the quote. When I get a killer quote it gets a ton of likes, shares and comments on Facebook.

I made this for Mother’s Day:

3. Pinstimatic

Pinstimatic is a versatile tool that creates a pinnable map of your location (great for local SEO optimization). They also have Post It Notes (wish it were easier to add an icon, image or watermark to a note and change its size) and you can do a screenshot of your website or even share music from Spotify. My ideal tool would be to combine Quozio and Pinstimatic. I’ve also tried PinaQuote too but it’s too basic at this stage, even at the pro level (check out this post with examples).

4. PicMonkey

From the founders of Piknic that got bought out by Google comes a tool with more robust features for making and editing images. This is the tool I’ve used least often but this image made in PicMonkey (here’s how) caught my press release loving eye:

5. The Pin It Plugin for WordPress.

This plugin adds a “Pin It” button to posts and pages that will allow readers to easily pin your content at Pinterest. You choose what types of pages the button should appear on and where (above or below content, for example). Several styling options are available and implementation is as simple as pasting a shortcode. The plugin has over 42k downloads and a 5-star rating from every review.

It’s a great plugin but I like this paid Pinterest WordPress plugin better for one reason (I apologize for the cheesy sales page, you can get the developer’s license for $17 so you can use it on all of your blogs). It puts a PinIt button next to all of your images (not just at the top of your post) which encourages more pinning.

UPDATE: I just learned about yet another tool that lets you upload your own images (or use one of theirs) and add quotes. It’s called Pinwords http://www.pinwords.com

Any Pinterest tools you love that I didn’t cover here? Please leave a comment!

Just like Google, no one knows exactly how Facebook’s algorithm works. But unlike Google where most content gets into the search engine and can be found for years, if no one interacts with your posts on Facebook, they are essentially gone. Once they are off the front page they have essentially disappeared forever. Sure, there’s a chance someone will find and read your old content, but it’s unlikely (get it, unlike -ly?). If someone truly likes you they want to hear from you.

Number of Fans not as Important as Level of Engagement

I’ve seen various figures about what percentage of your Facebook Page fans see your content, but it’s not ever very high. Anything above 10% is pretty good. And the larger your page, the lower the engagement drops.

To find what percentage of engagement your page gets, take the # of likes for your page divided by the number of people “talking about” it. I wish I knew where I got this chart (help, please comment if you know). Once I got my engagement level in the 80% range for a client but I couldn’t maintain it. It’s consistently around 20%. This is why I rarely delete or ignore fans who post frequently. Instead I thank them and respond (unless they are obscene or vulgar). Think about it – controversy sells! Every CEO I’ve worked with wants me to squelch the person who posts something negative. I say most of the time, leave it up! Let your fans come to your rescue. Chime in. Find ways to reward engagement from your fans and ways to build loyalty with them.

Interact with Brands you Like on Facebook

The bottom line is if you want to see content from brands you like, you need to share, like or comment on their posts. Otherwise they won’t show up in your newsfeed and you’ll forget all about them. Same goes for the fans of your Page. If you want to see all the brands you or someone else has liked (which is great for understanding your target market) simply type in your username followed by a slash and then “favorites” like this: https://www.facebook.com/JanetThaeler/favorites Scroll down past interests and you’ll get to all of your likes. I’m not sure why that URL isn’t /likes but not my call.

Go try this on your profile and you’ll see just how many pages you’ve liked but forgot all about. Then go and start interacting so you have a newsfeed full of content from brands and organizations that you really like. It beats having a newsfeed full of drama from your high school friends!

An Effective Way to Get Higher Engagement

What I’ve found most effective (besides large giveaways) for engagement on Facebook and Pinterest (link goes to my Pinterest for Business blog) are quotes that relate to your brand. My client’s page attracted people who want a quick pick me up that will make them feel good and inspire them in their faith. I started out simply typing in a daily quote.  Next I graduated to making quotes into graphics. That really enhanced the numbers of shares, likes and comments.

My best posts have a short question relating to the image and a killer image with a quote. Not too crafty and not too plain. In other words they like quotes that have background images over just text on a colored background. If I keep it short, the quotes also make ideal tweets (I have them tweeted automatically using Hootsuite). Then I use the same quotes in blog posts to get maximum search engine value and I pin the quotes on Pinterest. That’s a lot of bang for my buck!

P.S. I’m always looking for a tool to make quotes where I can add my own image and have choices of fonts and sizes. Let me know if you know of any.

Not All Interactions are Equal

When it comes to Facebook, not all interactions are equal. The share is king because it says you like something so much you’re willing to put your name on it and let your friends know.  These are usually very informative, timely or funny posts. Next important is a comment because that takes more effort than just clicking like (easy). The time of day you post something on Facebook is another factor because then more people will see it. Sound complex for a small business to pull all of this off well? That’s why there’s a rise in social media experts. It’s a lot to keep up with and do well! I invest a lot of time staying current and testing for that very reason.

Support the Brands you Love by Interacting with Them on Facebook and in Real Life

Think of this principle in real life. The longer and more often you “engage” with a store (visit, go inside, talk to the owner or salesperson), the more likely you are to buy from them.  If you simply drive by it frequently it’s not going to help. Example: your local bookstore. You might be glad it’s there. It may add a lot to your community. It has character. People gather there. They bring in authors and have live performances. You really like them. But if you never make time to visit or buy books and instead order all of your books from Amazon.com what will happen to your local bookstore? Yes, exactly what is happening all over America. That bookstore will close. Either that or it will struggle. That’s why I’m willing to spend more to keep places I like in business and why I’m bugged when people only buy what is least expensive (they’re cheap). I’d rather not have a world full of asphalt, chain stores and Walmart!

So on Facebook if you truly like a brand show them! Go out of your way to comment and share their content. It’s a win/win for both.

Learn more about EdgeRank

In the meantime, here’s an awesome infographic with insights on how to rock your Facebook fans (link goes to original post about the infographic):

Ever since hearing the news that Facebook is buying image sharing app Instagram I’ve wondered why. Why did Facebook pay $1 BILLION for Instagram? That is an astoundingly high number. Especially since Instagram hadn’t made a cent. It’s also highly unusual for Facebook to buy a company.

First, this validates mobile and how important it is that social networks and services are optimized for the mobilesphere. Next, it’s part of the trend of image sharing/curation of beautiful things (the imagesphere).

To validates Pinterest too. Like Pinterest, Instagram was a unique way brands could “market” their products. Obviously, Facebook wants to reach those businesses. Facebook could also get direct revenue because they show ads on images (I wish I could see figures on that).Is it because it’s an easy way to get rid of a competitor? I don’t think so.

Was it a way to tap into a passionate userbase that Facebook doesn’t have but needs? I don’t think so – because I don’t think the goodwill will transfer (people are deleting their accounts in protest).

Mark Zuckerberg said this on the post about the acquisition on Facebook. “We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products.”

So why did Facebook buy Instagram? I think it’s to bolster their mobile and photo sharing technology so they could better reach businesses.

Here’s an infographic that explains a little behind Instagram’s success. And here’s Mashable’s answer to the question.

Created by: Online MBA Programs

When you’re coming out with a new product, you need publicity. Before the product is finished, you should start creating a list of media and bloggers to pitch.

This works even if you don’t have a product but just want to be recognized as an expert on a particular topic.

Let’s say you’re writing a book or you have a product about Facebook marketing.

1. Set up Google alerts for the topic. In this case, “Facebook marketing” and related terms.

2. Every time you read an article from your Google alert, leave a comment. Share your opinion or further insight. Do it right away and you’ll be one of the first comments. I do this and always sign my comments with @Newspapergrl. This starts a relationship with the writer – it gets me on their radar.

3. Search Twitter for the terms too (to see who tweets about the topic). Add them to a Twitter list so you can track them all in one place. Add the people who tweet about Facebook marketing and have a strong following to your media list. Retweet and comment on their tweets.

This is one of my favorite methods for finding case studies and new articles too. Repeat step 2.

4. Use Google to see who writes about a topic on a particular media outlet you want to be published in. For example, you want to get in the New York Times. Type site:newyorktimes.com “Facebook” into Google to see who has written about Facebook.

5. Pin your favorite articles to Pinterest. This is why I added a graphic to this post – to make it pinnable. The reason to add your favorite articles to Pinterest is it makes it very easy to find and browse them plus it can help you rank for the topic in Google (further establishing you as an expert.) Summarize the main points in the description. Now I need to add a Pinterest button to my blog! Here’s my collection of resources for businesses on Pinterest.

Use these techniques to assemble a media list. Then when you’re ready to pitch a journalist of blogger, try this method to personalize your email. Hopefully they will recognize your name and you’ll already be seen as an expert on the topic – perfect for an interview or commentary.

Continue this process and you will build an expanding reach in the topic you’re following.

Do you have any online pr tips to share?

Related articles

• 92 Ways to Get (and Maximize) Press Coverage (seomoz.org)
• How to Take Your PR Pitches to the Next Level (mashable.com)
• 25 Tips from 25 PR Experts (ereleases.com)

I didn’t mind Facebook’s timeline for profiles. I don’t LOVE it but it’s ok. But as a marketer who has clients on Facebook, the timeline for brands is giving me a headache. I can’t imagine how I’d feel right now if I were making my entire living from Facebook.

Changes on Facebook are the norm and you can’t control anything but how you respond. As far as changes go, this one is huge. Yes, those who figure it out have opportunities for new business and it’s why brands pay me to keep up on it for them.

I don’t like how most of the top real estate of the page is going to a giant image. I don’t like the 2 columns. I’m not sure what will happen with apps. My consultation is that most people never visit your brand’s page – they only see your content in their newsfeed (if they interact with you that is).

On March 30, brands will get the new look. You can turn it on now if you want to. I gathered a few resources to help.

• Facebook’s own tutorial http://www.learnfacebookpages.com
• A guide to the new Facebook image sizes and dimensions.
• Hire someone to do it for you: http://www.fbbrandcovers.com
• Hubspot’s guide to the new Facebook timeline – what you need to do now.

It looks like I need to devote some of the time I’m give to studying Pinterest to a new Facebook Page design.

What do you think about the new look? Is it an opportunity or headache for marketers?

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s my story.

Since getting married I’ve had to switch my crushes from men to other things. Like ideas, bloggers, or web sites.

My biggest crush was first for WordPress, until they deleted my blog. Like most first loves it’s hard to recover from. I have never gotten over it, even though I still like Matt.

My next big crush was Twitter. It was so bad my friend Chris threatened to stop reading my blog if I didn’t stop writing about it.

Various crushes have come and gone but my new love is Pinterest. The visual search engine (sure that part needs some work but Pinterest is a baby). It’s not all gushy love though. There’s data to support my adoration. Pinterest is sending more traffic to web sites than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google Plus COMBINED.

Why do I love Pinterest?

I love Pinterest because it conveys emotion so quickly. And marketers know if you can get a person’s heart then they will likely buy from you. They are forever trying to get you to fall in love. Telling you beautiful stories and showing you gorgeous pictures.

Much like all social networks Pinterest has a personality, but the face you see is formed by who you choose to follow. Like the beginning of new social networks a lot of people don’t get the fascination. Until they see how it applies to them. Men will likely see it as a place for women. There is even a male version of Pinterest called Gentlemint (anyone who says men are more visual than women ought to compare the sites, it’s awful). This social network is fun and uncomplicated (like a summer fling).

Here’s what it’s like to rejected when you go to pin something on Pinterest – and really why you should make your blog posts and content pinnable. You’ll get this:

Pinterest is so easy. Even your mom who can’t figure out how to do Facebook is on it. All day. It’s going so mainstream that I overheard 2 twenty-something women at the gym talking about a swim suit they found on Pinterest (as they were sharing magazine photos). I clicked through and it’s sold out on Nordstrom.com.

Pinterest is both a marketer’s dream and a dreamer’s play land.

It’s so easy to get happily lost in it. Oh, and while you’re there, will you pin this blog post?

Related articles

• Pinterest’s Obvious Secret (forbes.com)
• Pinterest Tips for Web Marketers Infographic (webmarketingtherapy.com)
• The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing (hubspot.com)

I could subtitle this post: How to Learn Social Media Marketing.

The ecairn blog has a list of the top 150 social media blogs. The list was created by their tool that identifies influencers. I wish it were a graphic and I would pin it on Pinterest. Since it isn’t, go check it out.

Here’s a preview:

#1 is Chris Brogan

#2 is Seth Godin

MarketingProfs is #10.

Peter Shankman and others are on the list. It’s fun to note who I’ve met or heard speak. There are a few I haven’t heard of. I consider many on this list my marketing heroes and people I’ve admired and learned from for many years. I’ve invited or worked on campaigns to get them to speak locally.

At this point I mostly follow my favorites on Twitter. Recently I’ve subscribed to some on Facebook. I don’t spend as much time learning as I did in the beginning because I’m implementing what I’ve learned and come up with.

Many times people think that they can become an expert by attending conferences and reading but at some point you must practice. Once you learn the principles of social media marketing and get to know the tools a lot of the work is creative. You have to think. I wish there was a magic wand but there isn’t. While you can be inspired by seeing what other people do that is successful (I search Google and press releases because most of the time people write brag about what worked) you have to do it to really learn.

Just remember that even experts are still learning, thinking and trying out ideas.

Someone asked me recently how to learn social media marketing. Here’s my answer:

• Go through this list and add each blog to your reader (like Google Reader)
• Set aside consistent time to read posts they write. You’ll find who you like and learn from the most, so then just concentrate on their blog.
• Comment on the posts you love.
• Really get to know the bloggers you read. Find out when and where they are speaking and try to not only go hear them, but meet them. Get your picture taken with them.  This is very motivating and inspiring.
• Follow your favorites on Twitter, subscribe to them on Facebook and Google+ (depending on where you’re most active). Everyone shares slightly differently on each platform, find one or all ways to track your favorite bloggers.
• Look for webinars, recordings (search Google to see if they have podcasts), slides (slideshare) and YouTube videos by your favorite bloggers.
• Practice applying the principles you learn from reading and listening to the bloggers.

As mentioned in the blog post I’m referencing, BlogWorld is a great place to meet several of your social media blogging heroes in one place.

One last thing, there are people who do this as their job and that is all. I’ve never considered it work because I’m passionate about social media marketing. Even after a full day of work I want to come home (ok, most days I work from home as a consultant) and read more, learn more and try different ideas. If you have to make yourself learn this because it would be good for your career you might want to consider a different career. While knowing social media will help you in most careers there are many jobs that don’t require or even discourage it.

To me this is FUN. Not every second, but overall I love it.

It’s a big week in Utah for social media and the outdoor industry. There are 2 social media events and 2 social media conferences on Wed., January 18th. The Outdoor Retailer show is also going on.

I’m going to Shift Summit and going to try to also make it to the tail end of the SLC Social Media Club meeting.  (Gabrielle Blair of the amazing Design Mom blog is coming over from ALT to speak at Shift).

Here are the events taking place this week:

1. ALT  runs Jan. 18-21. It’s huge for design/mom/craft bloggers.
2. Then there’s Social Commerce on January 18th from 6:30 to 8:30.
3. The Social Media Club (SLCSEM) is meeting at the Leanardo on January 18th 6-9pm.

For the SLCSEM event Bing, Sundance, SEO.com, and SLCSEM.org are speaking about video search. It features speakers from Bing and Sundance.

Topics:

• Video search engine optimization

• Why search engines are changing to videos and images

When: Wed. Jan. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Where: The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South in Salt Lake City, Utah (the old Salt Lake City library building that has been turned into a museum of sorts)

I didn’t know this but Bing, (owned by Microsoft) controls about 30% of the search engine market and a major sponsor of Sundance.

More info and register for the Salt Lake City Social Media Club event here. Unfortunately it says to get on the waiting list. When I tried signing up last week the site wasn’t working and I finally gave up). Too bad because I just got the press release a few moments ago.

Hope to see you at both events!

I saw a press release today from Dunkin’ Donuts that made me pause. Get this. Their new Twitter campaign is all about how to EAT HEALTHY and keep your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. By going to Dunkin Donuts.

How clever marketing agency!

Sorry, anything with the word donuts in its name isn’t where I’m going to get healthy food, no matter how low calorie your other items might be.

For one week they are asking people to tweet weight loss tips using the hashtag #DDSMART. They are promoting their “better-for-you” menu (which is way too healthy to be a mid-level calorie choice). One winner per day gets a $50 gift card. And yes, if you are actually on a diet going into a doughnut shop to spend that $50 might not be that smart. Or are you going to pass up your favorite glazed with sprinkles for an egg white sandwich on multigrain bread? And the rest of the menu, well, it’s a landmine! You’re in the war zone, so don’t even tell me you’re going to eat healthy.

Here’s how your tweets will be judged (from their contest rules): A) 40% – Overall Appeal; B) 30% – Adherence To The Theme; and C) 30% – Originality/Creativity.

They got it all wrong. Well, not all wrong. They are capitalizing on a trend with a social media campaign (this would be perfect for my book). That’s good. People are coming out of the holiday fog/binge and want to lose weight. They are onto something there. But here’s what their Twitter campaign should’ve been.

Everyone makes and breaks New Year’s resolutions right now. Almost everyone decides to go on a diet. Almost half of us have fallen off the wagon within 6 months.

“Within the first week 25% of people break their resolutions. After half of the year, only 46% of people are still keeping their promises.”

People on diets dream of things like donuts all day until they go crazy and eat one. So why not help them out a little by suggesting they break their resolution with you? Or, if you’re like me and a lot of other people you have a cheat day (another trend, diets that have cheat days) that you dream of all week long.

Why not have people tweet what they plan to eat on their cheat day? And, oh, btw, if you want healthy, we have you covered. They can make some suggestions off their healthy menu item but focus on the large percentage of people who break their diets.

That’s how I’d do it. I don’t think I’m the only one either:

I’m very tempted to tweet snarky suggestions such as: Park as far away from the front door as possible then sprint to the front door. That way if you die of a heart attack, at least you can get a donut on your way out. But I’m too nice for that.

What can you learn from this? Capitalize on large trends like New Year’s resolutions in your social media campaigns. But don’t confuse customers with competing messages. Stick to something that will reinforce your brand image. Because donuts and diets just don’t go well together.

One of my favorite business activities is hosting, attending, or studying great blogger events and campaigns.  I’m still fascinated with the power of blogs and what a revolution it is in the media world.

Tonight I had dinner at Cafe Zupas. They are a casual restaurant chain that serves gourmet soups, salads and sandwiches.

Zupas is great at blogging. The blog looks great (or at least it used to – not as crazy about the new look) and they enlisted several local food bloggers to write for them. They chose  bloggers are influencers who already have followings of their own. Since Zupas started in Utah, I know some of them.

The bloggers write about their post on their own blog (example) and draw in their readers. They are brand ambassadors for the restaurant. I’m hoping to interview their marketing department.

Tonight I noticed that they are now selling a simple but nice cookbook with the best recipes from their blog. In other words, they made it into a product. A product that promotes their brand. Smart. This could make an ideal giveaway for a brand to give away to Facebook fans (a PDF version for new likes), new newsletter subscribers, or as a download on your blog.

The great thing about the cookbook is it features a profile of each blogger. The bloggers get copies to give away on their blogs and are of course helping to promote it. Don’t tell my sister but I bought her one for Christmas.

Related articles

• Local Business Marketing – Host a Blogger Event (newspapergrl.com)
• Pitching to bloggers – the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching (buildabetterblog.com)