Erin Tillotson

Pinterest for the Social Entrepreneur

April 10, 2012 By Erin Tillotson Leave a Comment

Are you Pinning yet? Or are you thinking “Another social network to keep up with!” I feel your pain. Just as we’re getting used to the changes on Facebook we have a completely new network to try and work into our busy lives.

But hear me out on this one. I‘m really loving this pinning stuff, you can check out all my pins. It’s not just business and branding but I really get to see a new side of everyone and learn about them in a different way.

This is such a powerful new network for entrepreneurs and is driving a ton of traffic to websites right now. The network already has over 10 million users, of which about 97 percent are women (via AppData and Facebook).

So all this excitement, now what can you do and how can you do it? Let’s look at a few cool ways to start using Pinterest.

Creating Your Pin Boards
Your account will come with a few pre-made pin boards. I changed most of the titles to be more in line with my personality, you can do this too if you’d like. Then add some new boards as well, do you like quotes? Consider creating a board based around your industry. Let’s look at an example, gardening. You can create a board with beautiful garden pictures and layouts. Even a funnies board, with some oops pictures. Another valuable board would be based around your business and valuable information. Consider a portfolio, featuring some of your work, or a training area where you can feature great blog posts and videos.

The objective here is to have several areas you can pin a variety of content to. You will be pinning your content and others, so keep that in mind when you title the boards. You can always add more boards as you need or change the ones you have.

Start Pinning
Once you have your boards setup let’s add some images! You can do a search in the top left corner. Type in something around your industry and start browsing for images to add to your board. You don’t have to spend too much time just enough to have some content on your profile (you don’t want to invite people to connect to a blank profile!).

Next let’s add the Pin It button to your browser. This will allow you to pin content from any web page while you’re browsing the web. Go the Goodies page on Pinterest and follow their instructions, really easy promise!

Once you have that installed you can visit your business website and pin a few pages from there. Items to consider:

A few recent blog posts (that have images of course)
If you have a portfolio section I recommend pinning a few pictures from that page
An optin page, if you have a great graphic on one of your optin pages pin it!

Don’t pin your entire website right away. Adding content over the next few weeks and staying in front of your new connections will be more valuable in the long run.

Remember, each image you pin will link back to the page you’re pinning from. If you pin an image from your portfolio website page and someone clicks on your image via the Pinterest website they will be directed to the portfolio page on your website! Cool right?

Finding People to Follow
Once you have your boards up and a few pictures pinned let’s see about adding some followers and starting your network. Keep in mind while you’re following people that they match your target client or market.

One of the easiest ways to find people is to look up your Facebook friends. To do this go to the top right corner and click on “Find Friends” from the drop down menu. You’ll be taken to a page were you can see what Facebook friends are already on Pinterest. You can click Follow All, or go through and only follow specific people.

Next you can search for thought leaders in your industry and mentors. These are great people to connect with!

You’ve got the basics setup, now what?
Something I do when I join new social networks is I leave the email reminders on. Why would I want to clutter my already crazy inbox? Well, this helps me remember to go back and check these new people following me. It helps me see what content I’m posting is most popular so I can do more of that. I can see when people are commenting on my posts and reply back to them. All in all, it helps me get in the groove of the network.

Next, add some time on your schedule to test and play on this new network. Maybe 10 minutes at the end of the before you shut down the computer. In these 10 minutes you can:

See what’s being pinned and re-pin some content.
Follow new people each day, set a goal – say maybe 10 people
Comment on some content you find interesting or have insights on
Pin a few more items from your website

Start slow and see if this is a network that fits your business. If you love it, stick with it and put a plan into place for using it. If you chose to stay active on Pinterest be sure to add the pin it button to your website! So Pinterest users can share your content with their friends. Then add your profile button with your other social media links so people can follow you.

Are you going to start Pinning? Share your links with me below, I’d love to connect!

Filed Under: Social Media

5 Social Media Foundations for the Busy Entrepreneur

April 1, 2012 By Erin Tillotson Leave a Comment

We’ve all been there, yes even me! Where you feel like you’ve spent nearly all day on Facebook or Twitter yet you haven’t accomplished a darn thing. That’s the worst feeling!

Now wouldn’t it be great to log into Facebook or Twitter spend about 10 or 15 minutes on each site and really connect with people and build your authority? I’m going to share 5 foundations you can start putting into place today that will save you hours every week.

Delegate – there are definitely tasks you can outsource to a trained professional. You don’t want to outsource your personality of course. But consider tasks that need to be done, but not by you personally. Let’s take a look a few ideas: weekly or monthly post scheduling, customer service questions to your profiles, JV or affiliate requests, posting events and inviting friends and fans, and inbox management.
Boundaries – put in place specific rules for yourself, and your team if it applies. If you put some delegation into place be sure there are clear guidelines in place so both you and your team are clear on what needs to be handled and how it is to be handled so nothing falls between the cracks. What does that mean? If you have a professional scheduling your social media posts, have a process in place were its clear when the content will be given to them, how will it be provided (I personally love to use Google Docs for team collaboration) and how will all this be tracked. Perhaps your team is also handling customer service and inbox management; should requests be handled online or should the prospect be directed to email – or will it be a combo? In what cases should email be necessary? How often is your team to check your inbox for messages, maybe once a week? Are they to forward them to you for review, or respond to some if possible and keep you in the loop with a weekly update?
Lists – create several lists for your accounts to save time everyday. On Facebook you can create Friend Lists, I have quite a few of these in place. Here’s some ideas to get you started; a list for thought leaders, one for close friends and family, a list of joint ventures, and possibly a list of Facebook pages you want to closely follow.
On Twitter you can have lists as well. I have both public (these lists are visible on my profile) and private (I am the only one who can see these) lists. You can have lists very similar to the ones I just listed for Facebook. Once you have the lists in place be sure to start using them. I save a TON of time by using these more often then scrolling down the live home feeds of each network.
Vetting – this is a big time saver for me. This is a big one! I use Social Oomph to vet all new Twitter followers, and actually this is a task I have my assistant help me with. When someone new follows me the system does not follow the person back right away. Instead it places everyone in a queue for me to review. I review this list Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If the person appears to be a spammer or does not have a profile picture, or for another specific reason I choose not to follow them. Everyone else I chose to follow. This helps to keep my network completely targeted!
I do something similar with Facebook, when I receive a friend request I do not simply hit accept. I go to the person’s profile and see who they are and what they’re interests are. If we have something in common then I can approve, otherwise if I don’t find something of common interest I will likely not accept. For me personally I want people to connect with my fan page over my personal profile.
Targeted Audience – nothing can waste more time then questions or concerns from people that are not your ideal client. You want your message to reach the right people, and have a meaningful impact on their life or business. By maintaining a targeted audience your message will have a much greater impact on your connections and they will likely share it with their connections!

Start working on at least two of these items this week. And put the other items on your calendar to work on as well. Once you have these 5 foundations in place you will see time wasting dwindle down to almost nothing.

5 Things To Do Before You Invite Your 1st Twitter Follower

February 16, 2012 By Erin Tillotson 5 Comments

Once you join Twitter you want to run out and connect with a ton of targeted people and get your message out there! I know, new networking and business growth opportunities are exciting. I’d like share 5 easy steps to do before you invite your 1st follower.

Let’s talk about how you can get your account ready for all those new followers,

Complete Bio: When people check out your Twitter profile one of the 1st things they will look at is your bio. You want to be memorable and unique. Always have your most relevant website link as the URL. Last but not least, be sure to add a professional picture of yourself as well, nothing is worse than seeing a new follower with the “egg!”
A few actions to avoid in your bio:
- Don’t stuff your bio exclusively with keywords. People cannot connect with just words. You want your personality to be present.
- Don’t use industry lingo. Use words and phrases that your target client or market uses.
Have at least 20 Tweets on your profile: With a full page of tweets people will know you are serious about twitter. They can get a feel for who you are, what you have to say and if you match what they are looking for. Offer some good content that will benefit your target market.
A Professional Background: This is a great way to increase brand awareness. Use your logo, tag line, photo and anything else that helps represent your business. Mari Smith is a great example of branding. She changes her background to support her current marketing plans.
A Giveaway or Link for New Followers: Here is an opportunity to further connect with your new connection. Offer a great resource to them.
This can come in a variety of forms – I use SocialOomph to set this up:
- Share a popular blog post. If one of your blog posts gained a high number of comments and social interactions it must have been extremely helpful to your audience. Share this with new connections!
- A free report. These are generally behind a lead generation form (opt-in form), where the visitor will enter their name and email address to receive your free gift.
- A Custom Welcome to Twitter Page: Setup a page on your website just for new followers. Have a nice introduction video with something they can walk away with, a tip or action step they can do right away.
Understand the basics of Twitter: When you know a bit about Twitter you can engage much more efficiently and save yourself a lot of time.