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Build Followers: Expert Panel

Lesson 24 from: Unlock the Power of Pinterest

Melanie Duncan

Build Followers: Expert Panel

Lesson 24 from: Unlock the Power of Pinterest

Melanie Duncan

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Lesson Info

24. Build Followers: Expert Panel

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Bonus Video with Purchase: Create/Convert to a Business Account

07:39
2

Bonus Video wtih Purchase: Business Resource Center

04:25
3

Bonus Video With Purchase: Your Profile

06:27
4

Bonus Video With Purchase: How to Create Boards

10:16
5

Bonus Video With Purchase: How to Edit Your Pins

03:17
6

Bonus Video With Purchase: How to Follow

02:01
7

Bonus Video With Purchase: How to Pin

07:46

Lesson Info

Build Followers: Expert Panel

So, first of all, we have Christine back from Miss Modern design. Thank you. Great to have you here. And also Crystal from room magazine. Welcome. Have a seat. So what's really fun is today we're actually going to talk about building an audience online, and we're, of course, going to talk about Pinterest followers to But like I said, they go hand in hand where an audience online will also trickle into a Pinterest following as long as you're using those integration strategist we talked about earlier. So both of these lovely ladies have had different experiences, different businesses. So just go ahead. We'll start with Crystal, tell us a little bit about you and your business and kind of what you dio. Yeah, So I created a online publication called Room Magazine. This month is actually our three year anniversary, So we're really excited about that. And my beginning was I was a design blogger on, and that was sort of my creative outlet to an unfulfilling day job. And after gaining an audie...

nce on my blogged and developing contacts in the industry, I decided to take it a notch up and launch an online publication. So that's how I got started in this business, I kind of joked, saying, I'm a accidental entrepreneur because I didn't really know if the online magazine was going to be a business When I started off, it was more of a passion project, and we had a great first response to her premier issue. And before I knew it, I was managing a business. And here we are. Three years later, Crystal is extremely humble. She has one of the most successful online home decor magazines. They're based here in San Francisco, but he wasn't collaborated with brands like Gap, where some other companies have collaborated with. We've had great partnerships with brands like Coach Target Gap is you mentioned. We've been really fortunate with press, So The New York Times actually did a feature on us in our first year, which was very exciting for me personally and then also professionally. So it's been a great right and really interesting to be sort of born in this generation where we have tools like Pinterest and the online world at our fingertips, because had I been born in a previous generation, I might not have ever had the opportunity to create my own business and we, my team and I, we have grown this strictly through being online and using social media and blog's and that whole world. So I'm very passionate about this topic. It's great. And Crystal, I will actually be doing a full segment together after this. Where we're going to really talk about how Roux is leveraging Pinterest right now. The strategies they're using. So we're gonna go much more in depth about this. But Christine, let's remind everyone who you are and what you dio. I'm Christine from Deluxe Modern and the Dear Miss Modern Shop, and both of my business or both of my businesses are based entirely online. I said yesterday I don't even think I would have a business if it weren't for this platform between, you know, having the website. Blawg, Pinteresque, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram That's it. That's how I do it. In fact, I said yesterday was my first time getting out from behind the computer in years. Thanks, but yeah, that's I wouldn't have the global reach or the resource is or the marketing opportunities without Pinterest. And that is my biggest source of clients. Absolutely. I love that. So I think would be really interesting for everyone to hear is kind of what that journey looked like. So we've kind of talked about where you got started, where you are now. Both of you have very passionate online audiences, you know, from your Facebook pages to your actual websites to your instagram followings to your Twitter followings. I mean, it goes across the board. What do you think it all have? Start with you crystal again. We'll go to Christine. What do you think it is what has attributed to your success? Has it been, you know, a personal angle? You've taken on a topic. Has it been a way that you think you relate to people? What do you think? Because there's so many people out there that how blog's that have businesses and they don't see the response. What do you think that was? A enabled you to be successful Well, for us, and it's different for every business. But are niches sort of being being an approachable, accessible magazine? So, you know, there's the print publications out there, and they sort of seem like you can't quite get into them unless you know an editor or what not but being online, we can have a daily interaction with our readers on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and so for us. I think that has been absolutely key toe leverage, that dialogue with our reader and being you know, not just a source of them for information on our website, but then also extending our content onto what we're pushing out through our social networks. I think our readers really feel close to the editorial team. We try toe, open up our lives to them on the site. Today, for example, we're doing a home tour of one of our editors, which just sort of speaks to that personal touch that we always want our brand voice tohave. And for us that's been really keep our success. I think, Yeah, that's perfect. We were. Christie and I were talking about this yesterday about people wanting to be a part of your brand, wanting to see what goes on behind the scenes, wanting to feel like they know you is a real person. I was talking about my bloopers and some of my videos and how people really respond to that. I think that really speaks to that and you guys have also been amazing about embracing small businesses from the beginning. I am when you were first swing your issues, you had a lot of small independent businesses advertised. You know, for most of us putting an editorial, putting an ad. And you know, Harper's Bazaar is probably not something within our ad budget, but you would have done a great job with full print ads. Also doing a lot of collaborations with small business owners. You know, everything from photographers to make up. Artist. I think you guys have done a great job. How did that what that really look like? Were you able to reach out to people in industry? Did they reach out to you? Yeah. So when we were putting together a very, very first issue, we the founding team was actually a group of bloggers. So what we did was we reached out to our other blawg friends toe, have them help us with the promotion of it, and it was a very grassroots strategy. They just, you know, would put a message out to their followers both on their blog's and their social network and through also our block advertisers. We thought Hey, would you were working on this project? Would you also like to advertise in this new venture? So that's how it started at the very beginning. So we had some really great big interior design brands sign up from the first issue, like Mitchell Gold, Mitchell Gold, Bob Williams, Durley Fabrics. And they've still advertise with us today three years later. So we've got those big name brands. But then it's also important for us to support the smaller businesses, people just starting out. So we've had local photographers advertise with us and whatnot, so it's really just being sort of an open. We want the big names because it brings credibility to our brand. But we also want to support the smaller ones. So it's just sort of balancing those two. And I really hope everyone in the studio audience and also the worldwide audiences listening to this because I don't want you to check out and think, Oh, well, this is Ah, this is talking about a magazine or talking about these large global brands like this doesn't relate to me what Crystal is talking about in the beginning, with the partnership she was able to form with peers and people contact within her industry. That she already had established and leverage that into an online audience is a very, very valuable tidbit of information. It doesn't have to be just you going at it alone, I think, as entrepreneurs or business owners. A lot of times we feel like we have to do everything. It's just us were independent, were behind our computer, You know there's nobody else out there to help us and you are not alone. You know, so many other business owners or people who have passion projects on the side like that is a massive that is a massive group of people. And so finding other people that you can say, Hey, you scratch my back, all scratch yours. That is a very real and very effective strategy. So maybe thinking about if you don't have an online audience yet and you're wondering where do I even begin? Start reaching out and forming relationships and contacts, going to meetups in your areas, you know, joining different Facebook groups. I mean, there's so many ways to do it now, virtually but forming connections with other people that you can then use to leverage and build your businesses together. I think that's a very important strategy that we don't touch upon enough. But Christine, you've got great stuff to share too. So what do you think you know, attributed to your success? Why do people follow you and engage with your business? Well, I think that I still like I said yesterday, mixing it up completely, changing up the content, but keeping it all consistent. And within that one voice that one united front for the brand things. Like I said yesterday, pinning a screenshot of your website, your homepage of maybe a tutorial on how to do something like I did one, for instance, on how toe get that intrest widget on your sidebar just posting So it is more behind the scenes posted a screenshot of your blawg keeping, showing all the different facets of your business. You know, Denise and I were even talking yesterday, you know, doing a post on Hey, look at this shot. Look at how it turned out. Here's the steps that it took to get there. Here's what kind of went on behind the scenes keeping that engagement going. It's just, you know, in Pinterest to so viral. One thing leads to another so quickly, for instance, going on creativelive Fiona Pinterest followers will in our everyone that tuned into Christine segment yesterday and also all of you here in the in studio audience you can probably attest to her brand is really fun. Her language ing is really fun. Her images are very fun and we want to be a part of fun stuff, right? We want stuff that makes us feel good. That is interesting. That is empowering. You know her post aren't boring to read. Her images aren't boring toe look at their fund, their playful they're fresh and that will go hand in hand with building an audience online. You have to be a Brander business that people want to be a part of. You know, people buy from companies. We talk about this like aspirational marketing. Yesterday, they buy from companies that they see themselves kind of fitting into that picture, fitting into that customer avatar. So I think that making your messaging making every touch point of your business and enjoyable experience also lends to building an audience Kabam or they enjoy it, the more they're going to talk about it to their friends and where they're going to share your stuff. If you have a business that's not really share a bowl or that no one's talking about, it is a lot harder to build that presence online. But if you're posting stuff that other people want to share with, their friends and followers, share with their fans, that is going to make building your online audience a lot easier cause you're gonna have comrades in that they're helping you along the way. I think keeping it fun and lighthearted is a great way to put it. Teoh. I think that that's why it does so well. It's not super serious. Nobody's going to die from, you know, it's just like completely lighthearted and fun and cheeky, and I try to keep it that way from the beginning. Love it, and it's obviously very effective for you. So something I would love to talk about is you guys all use Facebook. Use instagram use Twitter. You kind of use it across the board. Are there any particular strategies and either one of you can answer this? Are there any particular strategies that have just clicked and work, so something like we tried this on Facebook one time. It just worked so well, We always do it from now. So something more specific that maybe would translate to their businesses. Like I know you were talking Christine yesterday about, you know, snapping pictures just wherever you are whenever you're feeling it And thats why people really respond to your content. Anything like that that you've noticed in your business is working really well. Contests, I think, are something contest that you know, I did the What's in my friend. You guys guessed the two things in my fridge, and whoever gets it right gets a $50 gift certificate to the shop. And that contest probably had more comments than anything I've ever done. And they were on it if I didn't realize you guys were paying such close attention and what was great was almost half of them got it right. Like what I had in my fridge over 100 comments on that. So that was so fun. And that instantly worked. And that's just something to keep people engaged. That's not necessarily not gaining more followers from that. Maybe I am because they're sharing it. But mostly it's keeping my people happy, keeping them engaged, and it's just pure fun. And so they're gonna I'm on their radar. I'm still in their minds and that was fun. We're gonna do it again And I didn't win this time. I always feel so guilty of, you know, somebody. I want everybody to win, but you know, they love it so much. Everybody gets a medal for participating I. But I think the contest are great. People. Look what it does yesterday again talking about engagement. I mean, engagement is directly related to profit some or engaged your audience is the more engaged your customers or clients closer, they feel to the more they buy from you, so that is that That is a strategy. But again, with the price was just a $50 gift certificate to the shop. So I want you guys to hear this because a lot of times when we talk about raffles or prices, people think, Oh my God, I have to give them a trip to Tahiti. I've got to be able to fly them around the world or buy them a pair of blue batons and I have noticed through all of the different promotions I've done. It could be something as simple as a $ ITunes gift card and still get a reaction. Now is it going to be the exact same reaction as if you're flying them? Tahiti? Probably not, but I don't I think a lot of people hold themselves back from launching contests or promotions like this because they think I don't have a huge budget. Why can't give them $ camera and you don't need to? Normally, there is just a little bit of an incentive will push people over the edge to do that. It was just fun. It's just sorry. It's just it's because it's not even about the prize at that point. Is just about participating point about if you don't have the budget in your early business stage to create a wonderful giveaway partner with a brand that does So When we were launching our first issue, we partnered with the Siris of brands. They all donated a product to this sweepstake that we're hosting, so it didn't cost our company anything, but it was advantageous for the companies because they got their product in front of all of our readers. And then we had something offer So you can really get creative with giveaways and contests. Yeah, that's really, really great. And this signal perfectly into what we're gonna be talking about later for contest. Just a little teaser. And I want the worldwide audience to get ready because we're also going to give you a chance to ask questions for both Crystal and Christine. So start thinking that if you have any questions for these two lovely ladies, but we're gonna be talking about as service providers how to be using Pinterest contests because something that I see service providers limiting themselves is I can only give away my service as a prize. And sometimes you don't get the response. Just because we tend tend to be programmed toe want tangible prizes for things. So what I recommend doing if you are a service provider in your launching a Pinterest contest and there might not be like a cli ing demand for your services yet is to partner with another brand that has a physical product. So maybe you're a fitness professional, and what you're going to do is partner with, you know, a cleanse company or someone who does a juice cleanse and say, Hey, I'm going to this contest will be promoting out to my network. What I'd like to do is I'm gonna promote your products, your brand front center, as the prize of this if you'll donate whatever that prices and you would normally see a very responsive reaction to that. So again will be going much more in depth about using contests after lunch today. But I love that we're already talking about this, so let's throw it out to the in studio audience first. If there's any questions it can be related to, you know, their areas of business, it could be related. Teoh building the online audience. You know Pinterest again. Crystal and I will be doing a full intensive right after this. But any questions in here and then we'll take him from the worldwide audience as well. I was wondering from both of you what would be your advice for people just starting out. If you had, like, one piece of advice, you you'd hand someone that was new, I would start you. Don't you have Pinterest yet? We talked about yesterday. I not I dio, but it's not E. I would say that my first thing that I would do is get at least 10 boards with different content and start filling them up. Get that going because that's gonna automatically start creating interest people we're going to see on against. I think that adding collaborators something I've never done. I'm so excited to go back and do that. I'm just thrilled but doing that, you know, even at me. Add Denise ad at us and we can start help, you know, helping you get going. But get those boards up and full of good content. Good. Be picky. Be selective and really only things that you really love and then go from there. Yeah, and then piggybacking off of that. Do you have Twitter or Facebook or Instagram? No things, all of those things. So then what I would do is cross promote those. So let's say there's a gorgeous image that you found on Elle decor of a beautiful house. Instead of tweeting that image directly from Elle decor uploaded to Pinterest and then tweet your Pinterest link to the al decor photo, for example, So I would just start getting in the habit of sharing your pens on Facebook and Twitter and even instagram occasionally so that you start to bring the traffic that's there over to Pinterest. And little by little, you'll see that your online community is growing. And then, of course, pinning your work hitting a snapshot of your website of your blog's. I even will take the, uh, I'll just grab a screenshot of some of my pin boards and put him up on Facebook without highlighted and be like you guys following us. Why not invited? Come on, you know, and then I'll get a bunch of followers just doing that. But again, with the visual, you've got the pretty little boards, the grid, which I'm a huge fan of, and people respond to that, so that's gonna do it to anyone else. Any questions? Um, I guess this goes on toe more about finding good boards to follow. Our people get people to collaborate with. Maybe you're someone just like you brand new to Pinterest, Uh, and you wanna quickly develop that audience. So are there tools that you used to find, like the most popular boards in certain segments or certain industries? I use this really specific tool. Not a lot of people know about it. It's called Google on. What I will dio is I will go to Google and I will say, you know, largest men's fashion companies. And the great thing about blog's is there is pretty much a round up for anything you know, 10 large 10 best men's fashion Pinterest accounts If you Google that there's usually something that talks about that, Okay, so when in doubt Google all right are even going to a brand that you admire and look up to and look at who they're following and then start following similar people and then that will introduce you to new people and new people. And it's so funny, cause it's just like this, never ending web of discovery, Which is why I love it, that that's another break strategy and follow up with that. I was wondering, If you guys, of course, so you follow a brand on one platform, then you're going to go try to connect with them on the other platforms. Is there a tool that you guys used to sort of keep a track of those like influencers or followers across all platforms or like whose sweet or anything track of more. Or yes, just to make sure that sure connected to the same people on all of your platforms, constantly communicating with them. I don't know. No. Yeah. I don't think that I use in particular mean whose sweet is great cause you can schedule stuff all across the board. So it's great for posting. Uh, but in terms of, you know, in some brands air really good on one platform and not another. So I don't necessarily follow the same brands on every single platform. Some I just fall on instagram. Others I just fall on Facebook and some I just fall on Pinterest. Okay, a question from Camelia for you. Crystal, can you explain again about tweeting an image to Pinterest? Okay, sure. So, um, one of my Twitter strategies is to be tweeting both through magazine imagery, but then also spreading the love to the entire industry as a whole. So one place of inspiration for me is albacore. So I used that as an example. So instead of tweeting a link to the l decor page that I love the image of insane. Check this out. I'll actually first pin it to one of my boards and then tweet that link so that when someone on Twitter clicks on it, they're not going to the L decor site. They're going to my Pinterest page to see it and hopefully bringing attention to the Pinterest page. And if they're not a follower, maybe that'll entice them to follow. And they can still eventually then click through the image to get toe Elle decor eventually but its first driving them my way and then toe Elle decor. So I like. I like it so she's not going through. It gets to be talked about changing source link. She's not changing where the images hosted. She's simply showcasing it on her account, which is really clever. A Missouri woman is asking if there's a way to get followers of her personal page or boards to follow new business boards that she's created. Yes, one of the strategies I use is on my personal account. My top two boards are my two businesses, so it's not necessarily like that Board in itself doesn't link to my my business account. But every pin on that board is pinned from my business page, so in all of those pins. Also, if you click on them, link my business page. So when you're on my personal, you're seen those names. You're seeing that content around those businesses. So you could also, you know, go over. And each one of them is being re pinned from those business accounts with the bottom of the pin, your scene, that user name there and everything is then clicking back or transferring to my fight questions have. So, uh, what's a good amount of followers? I imagine 20,000 is great, but what is it good amount of followers like, What should we be? What she would be aiming for? Sure. So, like I said, I think the 1st 100 is the hardest. I think once you hit I think that's a good sweet spot for a small business owner. Obviously, if you're you know creativelive, we got big. We got big aspirations for you. But I think for an independent business owner, what you don't want to dio and this is something that I try and talk about a lot is I see some small businesses come on and they decide they need to be everywhere And so they have Facebook. They have instagram, they have Pinterest, you know, tumble or everything. And each platform only has 368 followers And what I encourage people to do is start with one. Build it, get at least 506 100 followers before you start dipping your toe into the next one. Because the worst thing you can dio in this effort to be everywhere is have someone click toe one of your social media icons off your science. You have three followers because then you're going, What's going on? This person not know what they're doing? Does nobody endorse this brand? Why? Why is there no Facebook page? And I get reached out to people from people who want to work together, Collaborate and the first thing I do If they've got social media on their side as I click, How many are they? An influencer. What is their reach? You know what have they done and how they establish themselves in our space on DSO Many times I see that they have eight different you know, social media things. You can click on everything under the sun and yet none of them are developed some of them haven't been updated. If you're going to put social media on your website, you've got to be doing something with it. Otherwise, just don't put it because it's only going to detract from the value that they're getting from that site. So I think you should start with one. Build it get to, Like I said, 506 100 followers. I think for an independent contractor is a good start. But I do think that once you get past that tipping point, you start to see more residual sharing and pinning. And so that that follower base tends to automate a little bit more in its growth. One more question with that. So I'm terrible with blogging. I don't do it is often is I need to too busy doing other things. Yeah, but with Pinterest, you can't tell if I haven't updated right? No, it will show the most recent pins that someone clicks on. You've got boards, pins, something else. But you can click on pins and see the most recent stuff, but I don't think any of its time stamps that I remember when they get away with a little bit like good me. Oh, all right. Anything else? Cowgirl Jessie is asking for some general guidelines about how much time to spend on social media. Yeah. Good question. Why don't we all talk about this? A good personal questions about four hours. Well, for room magazine, we actually have a dedicated social media coordinator, So I've now been able to pass that off to someone for the business. But personally, I like Teoh again. Since we're an online entity, I think it's my job to be online with my eyes and my ears open. Seen what is going on in the industry with competitors, collaborators and whatnot. So I'm pretty much online all the time. I always on my laptop have my hoot suite open for Twitter and my Pinterest page, and I have instagram on my phone. So for me, it's really I think of it as part of my job. And so I'm on it from, you know, 9 a.m. To 6 p.m. and I think it's important to sort of stay plugged in as much as you can. If your goal is toe, grow your online reach. Same. Same answer exactly. Just jump back and forth I have all the screens open and I'm just, you know, just check in all the time what people are doing on Facebook. What's going on? Pinterest? You know, one other thing I wanted to say to is you can put something up on Facebook and get a ton of likes on it, and then you can put that exact same thing up on Pinterest and see no action. It's really weird that happens, you know, and and in the reverse is Well, yeah, so it's one thing can work in one place and not in the other. So but yeah, I think just keeping social media in your mind all the time, not necessarily scheduling it and have to go do my Pinteresque duty and have to Facebook. Just you have something to say when you have you, you're in the mood. I think that that's really a good way to go about it too. But keep it going. All right. So I'm gonna do the devil's Advocate here just for just for entertainment. So obviously here I am teaching social me down like don't use it. No, that's not what I'm going to say. Social media can be the best friend or the best enemy of your business. If you are a solar preneurs, you're the only person working in your business, and you are spending to 75 to 90% of your day posting an update. And instead of working in your business, you might not be spending the air. Spending your time in the right areas and social is something that has been invaluable to my businesses. So I'm not going to say that it is not a valuable place to spend your time because it ISS but something that I am starting to see since there is so much fun stuff. And we can pin this an instagram this and tweet this and put this, people are spending time on their social media like it's the only thing to work on in their business. And that is not true. Social media is a part of marketing your business. It is a fantastic way, like Crystal said, to keep your eyes and ears open to your audience. There are programs and products that I've created that have been widely successful, that I never would have thought of independently, so that feedback that interaction is incredibly amazing. But you also need to know your own limits. And you also need to know your own discipline and focus. And there are some weeks when I am working on a very intensive project that I will. Sunday night I will schedule all of my posts for the week and I will not log onto social media because I know if I dio and I think we were all talking about this with Pinterest of their day, you log on. Oh my God, where did four hours go? I had so much to do today. So sometimes as a business owner we have to know our own weaknesses. And I'm like, for me, I know that if I log onto Instagram, it's not gonna be a 32nd thing. I want to see what everyone has posted, and maybe if it's, you know, at two oclock in the afternoon, on the day where I have a lot to get done. By the time people were out of their offices, that's not my best use of time. I also tend to do a little reward system. You know, there's all of those air tons of great acts out there that will block your social media sites and give you a break like every two hours, or give you a break every 45 minutes where they just let you log on. Because social media is addicting. We've got to put that out there is addicting, and as much as it is a tool for your business, it is a tool that you need to be using. Smart. You need to be very smart about how you're using it and very smart about how you're spending your time, so use it, but in parameters that are helping and not hurting your business for me, it's so with that said, Do you guys have a structure to the way you're publishing, like editorial calendars? Or you're like, OK, one block post every two weeks. You know, this amount of tweets per week are great questions. No. Whenever I have new content or an idea or something to say, which is really often so I don't schedule anything, but I will say what you were saying just real quick. Um, you can do all this social media and social marketing, but if you don't have the content in the work to back it up. They're not gonna follow you. They might follow you for a while, but they'll get bored and be like, Well, there wasn't really going anywhere. You need to actually do the work, keep the content fresh and keep new ideas happening for people to stay engaged. That's my for us. We do, Sort of we've established are golden number. So we on Twitter. We do about four tweets per hour on Instagram. We try to do at least two instagram today and for Pinterest sweep in all of our stories on route daily, which is our daily content site. So we do have this rhythm to our social media strategy, and I think each business will be totally different where a content site. So we have a lot to get out there, so maybe your numbers will be a little bit different. But you'll start to get that rhythm, and I think what's most important is actually consistency. So whatever you do establish as your company's perfect number, try to stay consistent with that because readers really like Teoh, know what to expect when they go to your brand, and that's familiar to them. And they've got a pace that they can sort of share with you. So we do try to stick to a certain number out of Mother, blow your mind. All right. So how I actually do content for my list, which is my main focus in my business. It's all automated. So what I will do? I film a lot of videos, showed you all yesterday. I will have my videographer come in. I have stuff scripted out. I will shoot five videos with him in a day. I will then get those loaded up on my site. Right, The content out and I will hook them up Teoh emails that are programmed in a sequence so that whenever somebody joins my list, they're getting content in a particular sequence because someone on your mind and this is Devon's workshop on Saturday. I mean craziness. So, anyway, is the way that this works is since I am teaching and training and getting to know someone, probably from what's called kind of a cold lead, where they don't really know me at all. I have a sequence of how I want them to start digesting. I don't want it may or may be I write this really in depth post about this really advanced topic and someone joins my newsletter list and they're just not there yet. So I actually don't broadcast my audience, and I don't broadcast my content necessarily on my Facebook page. But what I dio every touch point of my social media, whether it is on my Facebook page, I'm always promoting Sign it for my list, sign up for my left Senate for my list, and then once they're there, I have custom tailored and experience for them Now. Also, we use something called Infusion Soft, which I like to call confusion soft because it is a very in depth email marketing campaign that can be fully customized. So I might have someone joined my list, and they click on one particular article. I know they're interested in this, so then I start sending them content about this, and I don't worry about this other stuff, but someone else might come on and click over here and then I'm setting them content about this, based upon also different lists, whether they're a customer or not a customer yet, so this goes very, very in depth. But the way I dio my content in my editorial is in big chunks, and then it's dripped a little different. Very, very impressive. Melanie, you have a lot of So you have a lot to teach the best upon your success. I love it. I just really quick. I should go back to say that I don't schedule anything, but I do post daily on Facebook. I do pen daily. I do instagram daily, and I try to blogged at least every two weeks. So there is a rhythm to it. It's not just like random when I feel like it is, there's a focus, but because I do it so often, it just and I think nature. And I think that's what we were talking about. Actually, this morning before the program started, Christine was about how it really is getting down to like what you think. You what you know. You want to dio and then doing the work. So whether you have automated whether you have a regular times of day, however, it works for you and fitting into your lifestyle. But you got to make the plan and then do it, and so it's awesome. All right, so we've had a couple questions about a healthy follower to following ratio does following way. More people than you have falling yourself indicate anything bad for your brand and vitality and similar, he said. Is there a point when you are following too many people? Great question and it definitely again Depends told you guys have a lot. I don't think you ever want to goto board and see them following 600 people and have 12 followers. I think it's you know, that juxtaposition. You want to make sure that there's some sort of a relationship. That being said, you'll notice that most really large Pinterest accounts will not follow as many people that are following them simply because of their breath and their reach in the marketplace. So I do think there is a certain point where I don't think you need to follow more than 300 people. I mean, kind of at that point. What? What is the point? You're so getting constant in your news? Feed your engaging with enough people in your industry past a certain point, I don't really see the see the benefit of it, but that being said it definitely depends on how far you are in your Pinterest campaign, you know, have you Did you just start because we just started? You're probably following Ah, lot more people that are following you. But I really don't think I think that get started following 50 people in the beginning is more than enough people to get content and also to be able Teoh, communicate and engage with them on the platform. What do you both think? Yeah, for me. Just to be totally honest, it comes down, Teoh, I don't want so much in my newsfeed that I'm missing. Important things are popping up. So I know that you can do create list on Twitter, for example, that you put specific people on there, but for me, I want to really sort of. We're all part of this inundation of content, right? So I like to eliminate the noise where I can. So for me, I just like a really streamline following the important people. Um, and that works for me. So I think we follow maybe around 500 people on Twitter, for example. And that number sort of is consistent with all of our different social networks. Same for me. On Pinterest 100? Yeah, I've heard the strategy thrown out there like follow people on fenders. We'll follow you back. I wouldn't bank on that, you know, and posted it on Twitter to, like, fall people on Twitter that haven't follow you back. And I was on my Facebook fan page, and it always kind of confuses me where they'll comment will say, Hey, I like your page like my back and I get a smaller scale. Maybe that works when you're really, you know, reaching out and beginning. And you kind of just want Teoh link arms with other people in your industry. But when you are positioning yourself, it's like things. Example I Can we talk about this? So sometimes I have friends that are social media experts, right? We'll have that friend and they I will log on to Facebook and I will get a message from them that says, Hey, will you go like this? Businesses Page and I'm wondering, is this their growth strategy that they're going Teoh and like, it will be something that does not even relate to me. You know, we've all gotten those like event invitations on Facebook, where it's something like this like punk rock music show, and I'm like, I don't know that I'm their demographic. I'm not sure what's going on here, So we think that the following follow me, I'll follow you at the beginning and reaching out to people that maybe you already have personal relationships could make sense. But as a larger business strategy, it's not one that I really recommend going after, right. I have another question that is kind of similar to what we've been talking about, but and specific but similar to a lot of people. Jackie Siperco Ask this question on Facebook. I started my Pinterest as personal, then started a business and now have the two together. But a lot of my personal are not business related my personal post. But the problem is that some of my tech Web design and social media boards have tons of followers over 3000 followers. Should I still go forward separating the 21 account for my virtual assistant Web designed one account for my personal, I will lose the followers that I have now what we do it by, I would keep it. I mean, if you've got yeah, you about 300 like Christine was telling us, Yes, 3000. Sorry, 3000. If you have content that page that's just isn't representative of your brand. Like she was talking about the ugly green djellaba. Move that content to a secret board. Keep those boards as your directly personal. But if you've got people I have personally, unless you feel very confident you'll be able to replicate that instantaneously over here another account. I would go ahead, and I would keep the account already having just clean it up. Um, multiple audiences for business. Does that necessitate different business board? Great question on this is something I can definitely speak to because I do have, ah, home to core business. And I also have page for my business that is more entrepreneurial, more coaching Now. My market does cross over a little bit, right, cause we're still I still have a predominantly female market in each place, but I found that people who are customers of mine for luxury monograms people who buy from that aren't necessarily entrepreneurs. They don't necessarily want to learn about Pinterest. They don't necessarily want to learn about social media strategies and brand Dene and all of that. So my if the audiences are separate, I tend to create separate accounts because I think that content needs to be curated around what they're interested in learning about. So I have separate boards for that because on luxury monograms we are targeting individuals who are interested in entertaining and home design. And, you know, lots of monogram stuff versus people who are interested in growing their business. They want it how to videos. They want programs. They want courses. They want information checklists. Resource is someone who follows me on luxury. Monograms doesn't necessarily want to know, you know, a checklist for productivity there going This is not enlightenment with this brand, so I do recommend separating them out if they have separate audiences. Just find one final thing for your opinions on people like Denise, who within photography do two very different types of photography. So say weddings and boudoir, where a lot of times this question comes up all the time with Facebook. Should we have two different boards? Should we are Facebook pages? Should we have two different websites? Would you advise for a photographer with different audiences within? I mean I would personally think you are your brand and that ISS you should keep it all cohesive and show your breath of work. So I would still keep one particular. I would have one particular account and then just separate with board showing the different types of work that you dio. What do you do? You think the same thing and same thing, like if you're a personal brand and you have different types of programs and stuff in it is separated, but it's still kind of all under you, and people associate you with each one of those things. Then you can keep it personal or you can keep it on the same board. But most cases, like we were talking of the differences between Christine's businesses in mind, like luxury monograms I'm not necessarily associated with. People don't buy from luxury monograms because of me. They buy because of the products. So the way that I brand that is obviously very different from the online edge academy where you guys saw it was like my face on over single board, my videos, pictures of me about me that isn't really going to serve. I'm gonna have one board on luxury monograms that talks about you know who created this. Who is the person behind the business, And I really recommend that for product based businesses or larger brands where you're not the face of it, still have some content on that page that tells more about you. But for something that you're not directly attached with, go ahead and separate those based upon audiences. This is thrilling. Not only are we getting the secret scoop on Pinterest, but a broader sort of social marketing strategy and ideas that work for really successful businesses. So we know exactly what to put to use. So thank you so much to our guests, Crystal and Christine. And, of course, Melanie and I. Would you remind us where we can find you online. The Lux modern design dot com room ag dot com Awesome. And then Melanie, would you let us know what's gonna happen after we get back from our 15 minute break? Yes. So we come back from break. We're going to have a very exciting session with Crystal, and we're going to be looking at room magazines Pinterest account, talking about what they're doing, right, talking about all of the great ways to be promoting your own personal content in a way that still feels very fresh and relatable and not overly sales here. Promotional. And also kind of getting to pick crystals brain and talking about content creation. Because I think this is something you know, Denise, you were talking about how I don't belong as much as I really should are. Maybe I don't feel like I'm update on Facebook. You know, creating content around your brand can be something that gets a little overwhelming. So we're gonna talk about how to stay creative, how to stay inspired, how to be creating content that still speaks to your brand, is engaging in that you enjoy the process of so be talking about all of that and a lot more after the break. Cool. And some quotes from our Internet audience photo by A M says I can't believe a how much Pinterest can be used for and be how much Melanie knows. How did you learn all this? And Margaret in says that her ah ha moment from yesterday was the way you order boards can increase your followers and traffic. She did nothing other than reorder her board last night, no new pins and had 53 new followers this morning on Gillian is saying she missed part of yesterday and is kicking herself because what she did see was fabulous.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Post Design Elements.zip

bonus material with enrollment

MDBusinessPinterestH264.mov
How To Get Lots of Pinterest Followers Fast.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

What an incredible amount of GREAT information that Melanie gives in this course! I couldn't watch it all live, but I saw enough in about 30 minutes to know I had to have it and so I bought it and it is worth EVERY PENNY! I can't wait to start utilizing all the great info to make my Pinterest boards work for me and have more fun pinning! Thank you CreativeLive and Melanie!

Stamperdog
 

So glad I saw this and got it to keep. With just a few tweaks, I turned my non-active boards into active boards and quadrupled my followers in just a few days. This spilled over into site traffic AND major lead generation for my mailing list. Thanks for the inspiration, Melanie.

Michelle Smith
 

Awesome learnt so much thank u

Student Work

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