Pinterest delights DIYers, bakers, wedding planners, and anyone who likes looking at cute puppies. This year’s social media darling, Pinterest has become one of the top traffic referral sources for retail and magazine sites. For websites in general, in January 2012, Pinterest drove more traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined.

Holy cow.

Marketers, have no doubt: consumers love Pinterest.

But what the heck is Pinterest, and what should your brand do about it?

Have no fear—this post is here to help!

What is Pinterest?

Have you ever had a bulletin board in your bedroom or above your desk, with little reminders, ideas for later, and pictures of your cat? Or think of the bulletin board full of posters and notices at the gym or the local coffee shop.

Now take that bulletin board, imagine it online, and you’ve got Pinterest.

Basically, Pinterest is a socially connected public bulletin board.  Users create “boards” based around a theme or topic, and then grab images from around the web and “pin” them to that board. Of course, Pinterest is connected to Facebook and Twitter, so users can share their pins with all of their friends.

You don’t need to sign up to browse Pinterest, so it’s easy to take a peek to familiarize yourself. For an example of a very cool personal Pinterest presence, check out Steve McGauhey (who is male, unlike about 70% of Pinterest users on this female dominated platform), and for a brand presence, check out Whole Foods’ profile.

Read the rest of this entry »

Social media catalyzed revolution in Egypt and basically stopped SOPA. But it’s also affecting the way politics and government work on an everyday basis, in states and neighborhoods throughout the world and the U.S.

Yesterday, I took part in a Government 2.0 experiment—the first tweetup organized by @governoromalley’s team at the State House in Annapolis. Here’s my take on how it went.

Social Media is Changing How We Work Together

While technology and new media is nowhere near as powerful as the human heart, O’Malley stated in his opening remarks, it has enabled humans to be more connected than ever. In his opinion, using this connection to improve our communities as tough times continue is critical.  While his opening remarks were general, his actions prove that he’s willing to put muscle behind this notion. I for one hope that this small tweetup is just the beginning of a flood of political leaders helping constituents play a larger role in policy conversations.

All organizations should take note—just as social media has the potential to transform politics, it is transforming the rest of our economy as well. If your organization isn’t thinking about how you can grow or adapt to take advantage of social media, it is missing a huge opportunity.

Turning the Tables

At the beginning of the tweetup, Jeremy Johnson (@tanlife) asked O’Malley what he thought of Baltimore @mayorsrb’s initiative to bring 10,000 families into Baltimore in 10 years. O’Malley gave his thoughts, fighting the assumption that we can do nothing about problems like crime and trash, but also turned the tables to ask Johnson what he thought would solve the problem. Johnson works with a nonprofit, Operation Oliver, which believes the answer to this question is putting “boots on the street”—getting started, picking up trash, and making things happen.

This particular issue aside, this exchange showed the power of new media to bring regular people into policy discussion. Because of this event, and the power that social media presents for the individual, Johnson and his organization had an opportunity to be heard.

Just as social media changes government, it can also change business and nonprofits. Are you asking your customers what new products they want to see? Are you asking your donors what they think the next priority for your non-profit should be? If not, start.

Answering Tough Questions

At one point in the event, I pushed Governor O’Malley on an issue that’s sure to be contentious this assembly—shifting some of the responsibility for teacher’s pensions to the counties without sacrificing classroom funding. I got an honest answer—we haven’t worked it out yet, and have to make some tough choices. O’Malley went into more detail, but fully admitted the complexity and risk of the situation.

Throughout the session, O’Malley confronted questions like mine honestly. This approach is vital in a world where word spreads about mistakes and inconsistencies faster than ever—attendees had fact checking capabilities at their fingertips and were live tweeting their thoughts and O’Malley’s answers.  If he had glossed over an issue, we would have called him out.

The same applies for companies and other organizations. If your company is dealing with a complicated issue, you can’t hide it just by not having a press conference about it. For example, 75,000 people have liked a Facebook page urging Mattel to create a bald Barbie to which children with cancer can relate. Mattel has released only vague statements in response, making their brand seem inflexible and old fashioned. Tackling hard issues quickly and truly responding to difficult questions is essential in a world of crowd-sourced, instant media.

Takeaways For Your Organization

New media is a fantastic marketing tool, but at yesterday’s event, it showed that it has the potential to be much more. O’Malley learned about the issues important to a group of his constituents, and I won’t be surprised if we see a few policy adjustments and programs arising out of yesterday’s conversation.

Here’s how your organization—political, commercial, nonprofit, or educational—can learn from and build on yesterday’s social media integrated event.

1. Hold real life tweetups. At least among the folks I talked to, the consensus on yesterday’s event was that it was cool, and should be repeated. Whether you’re a politician, CEO, President of a University or Executive Director of a non-profit, why not host an annual or quarterly tweetup? They’ll grow both your social media presence and your perspective on what matters to your audience.
2. Ask questions that matter. Don’t just use your Twitter handle to ask people what they think of the Ravens game or what their plans are for New Years. If you’re a politician, ask what people think about same sex marriage, or who should be paying teachers’ pensions. If you’re a school, ask students what their dream dorm would be like—and incorporate their answers next time you build one. If you’re a business, ask about what kinds of products or services your customers or clients would like to see next, and use their answers to form your plans. Asking questions that matter will get you answers that matter.
3. Hold a Twitter Town Hall. President Obama held a Twitter Town Hall back in July that allowed people from all over the country to ask questions that were answered live, shown on a streaming feed, and tweeted on the @whitehouse account. O’Malley and other politicians could do something similar to bring more voices into policy discussions. If your business or organization has a large enough online audience and a geographically disparate customer base or clientele, you could consider doing the same—whether it’s “Live Answers to Accounting Questions” or “Live Answers About Adopting a Pet.”
4. Hold Twitter “office hours.” Politicians—or someone from their office—could be available for a given number of hours every month so that citizens can ask questions and get an almost instant answer tweeted back. No live streaming video necessary—just guaranteed attention to a Twitter account and a commitment to answering tough questions. Your business or nonprofit could provide a subject matter expert to do the same, whether it’s a marketing expert or an on-the-ground medical aid worker in Haiti.

Did you follow the #mdgovtweetup? Is your organization doing anything similar? How do you see new media transforming politics, business, and the world? Please comment below—I’d love to continue the conversation.

Image Source

Many content marketers don’t think beyond the corporate blog, or perhaps the occasional webinar or eBook. Yet if you look hard enough, you’ll find surprising ways to create effective, shareable content hiding right under your nose.

Here’s my quick list:

1. Job Posts—Especially with the difficult economy, people love job matchmaking, and are quick to share job posts. The funny thing is most job posts are awful: they’re poorly written, poorly formatted, and just plain boring.

This job post from a local company is a breath of fresh air. It combines videos, well designed text, and a lot of personality to clearly address the details, but also show why the job would be exciting. Unfortunately for anyone seeking, the job has been filled—but take a look at this post, enjoy, and be inspired for when you create your next job post (or go take it to your HR department).

Whether or not they show your company in the best light, people will share your job posts. You should be proud of them.

2. Unsubscription Confirmation Pages—A while back, Groupon’s unsubscription confirmation page made the viral rounds. Normally, these pages are boring and blank—if you’ve made it to the unsubscribe page, it’s clear that you’ve left the fold of treasured customers. Yet there’s value in creating an unsubscription page that leaves a smile on a former subscriber’s face. It’s likely that unsubscribers don’t hate your company, but just want off your email list. So it’s still in your best interest to make them happy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday and today, I joined social media marketers from around the Baltimore area and the country at Social Fresh Baltimore. I’m posting this blog post halfway through the second day, so if the afternoon talks are left out, my apologies–please help me out and comment with your afternoon takeaways.

Here’s the top five things that stood out for me from this event:

1. Measure the impact of mobile marketing before you dive in. As both @seo_girl and @jeannehopkins spoke to for web, and @meladorri spoke to for email, check your web and email program’s analytics to see which platforms and devices people are using to consume your content. If a lot of your traffic comes from mobile devices–and more importantly, as @seo_girl pointed out, if your mobile bounce rate is high–you’re probably missing opportunities for mobile marketing, or doing something wrong.

2. QR codes can be cool, but they can also be wasteful and ridiculous. Whatever you do, provide multiple options for access. Yes, more and more people are using QR code scanners, but that doesn’t mean you should plaster QR codes everywhere. As @thetimhayden covered, first, think about how people are actually using their phones–do you really think people are going to be able to scan a QR code from a billboard? To get around this, when possible, provide a link, an SMS option, and a QR code so people can access your content in the way that’s best for them. For a laugh on this count, check out @unmarketing’s video ranting (thanks to @cc_chapman for providing).

Read the rest of this entry »

The following post was initially published on the Content Marketing Institute Blog (October 11, 2011).

“Uh oh,” you may be thinking. “The marketing department is talking about that whole blogging thing again. Last time we did this, it was a disaster. Worse, no one seemed to like my posts.”

Yikes! Stop right there! And think again!

Yes, a lot of corporate blogs are awful. But neither your company’s blog nor the posts you contribute to should bear a sense of impending doom. We spend a lot of time helping clients manage their blogs. This involves bringing together subject matter experts, sales reps, marketing employees, and executives — many of whom have unique ideas but have never written a blog post.

One of the first questions we get from new bloggers is, “What makes a good blog post?“  As we answer, the doom drifts out of the room and is replaced by the glowing light of nurturing leads and increasing sales. Cha-ching!

We thought we’d share our answer with our readers here. 

1. Good blog posts speak to a target audience.

Figure out who is buying what you’re selling and write for them. If your company specializes in building mobile applications, you’re likely selling to executives and marketing departments, not mobile app developers. Your own developers can still write content for your blog, but they should keep content way less technical than it would be if they were writing to their peers.

Read the rest of this entry »