5 PINTEREST MARKETING TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR VISIBILITY

How do you feel about your current social media marketing plan? Like many, you may focus most of your time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. While these three services put you in position to drive a lot of traffic, there is another you may be overlooking: Pinterest.

Social Media Examiner shared their top tips for marketing your company on Pinterest. Here are a few of our favorites:

1. INCLUDE PRICE TAGS

Pinterest users aren’t just looking for creative inspiration on the network. They’re also ready to buy. Make sure you include a price tag in the pins you create or repin.

2. USE PIN IT FOR LATER LINKS

Publish a blog post, then pin an image from the article to a board. Copy the url of the pin. Use that same image for a post on your Google+ page.



3. SHOW PINS TO NEWSLETTER READERS

Turn Your Customer’s email inbox into a “Pinbox” by including a few of your best Pinterest pins in your weekly newsletter or your regular email. Include a screenshot of your Pinterest Pin(s) in your newsletter. Place a clickable link on the image that links to the Pinterest Pin. When newsletter readers click on the image they’re taken to that pin on Pinterest where they also browse your pinboards to see what else you have. It’s a win-win.

4. PROMOTE YOUR PRESENCE

Many marketers are surprised to learn that even if the brand Pinterest account they manage has a great profile, fans aren’t likely to seek it out or ‘stumble’ upon it on Pinterest, even if the brand is one of their favorites. Here are some ideas you can use to let fans or subscribers know your brand has Pinterest profile:

Tweet about Pinterest 2-3 times a week.
Post on Facebook once a week to once every two weeks.
Send an email mentioning Pinterest and feature a Pinterest profile widget at least once a month.
Add a (free) Pinterest app to your Facebook account.
In addition to social media promotion, optimize your website with a profile widget, ‘follow us’ buttons, and ‘pin it’ buttons on your images.

5. DRIVE TRAFFIC WITH BLOG BOARDS

By creating a blog board, you provide a place for your followers to find all your blog posts. Followers also automatically see any new blogs you pin on their homepage. After you publish a blog post on your site, pin it onto your board. Make sure to include a brief summary of the article, a relevant high-quality image and a link back to the blog post itself.

Source: http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2014/08/7-pinterest-marketing-tips-improve-visibility/

A Sick Kid and Working Parents: WAHM

By Nicole Banens
Work At Home Mom and mother of 3 with a daddy who works over 40 hours a week.


I used to work a full time job at a marketing company 1 hour commuting from were I live, this meant I left the house at 6.15 in the morning and got back at 5.15 in the afternoon. With 3 kids in the age of 6 and 4 this wasn't an ideal situation, especially with a partner whose often abroad or at least not back home until after 6.30 in the evening. But we managed as long as none of the kids would get sick..... Yes, SICK.
With our parents not living in the Uk, we did not have any back-up as payed childminders don't accept sick kids!! Who to ask last-minute?


There had to be another way!

I had heard of mums working from home, online, using the internet, but how?
After some research to understand the possibilities I decided I wanted to become a WAHM: Work At Home Mom

Unfortunately my employer was clear about working from home: NO...

So, I quit my job!... was it the best idea ever??

Luckily my partner fully backed me up and we had some savings so I could go for it. (I know this isn't possible for everybody)

With a little help I started my home based online business as a Work At Home Mom. 

So far I love it, but there's a lot of work and making big money instantly isn't true. I have to work hard, be persistent and use the best (online) tools, but I can be at there for my kids.


A phone call from School

This Friday morning, only an hour after dropping all 3 off at school the phone rang: "Can you pick up your daughter, she has a temperature and keeps coughing"
Me: "Of course i'll pick her up, be there in 10 min"

As we speak she is asleep and I decided to write this post. Why because I can, I work from home!


Do you work from home or would you like to? Please, share any tips, comments or questions.

5 holiday email marketing tips to kickstart your Christmas campaign right now

The holidays are no longer a two-month affair. In 2013, shoppers took to the stores with gift lists in hand starting in early September, according to Time, and retailers were working their audiences with promotions before summer’s end. By the end of December, consumers spent some $46.5 billion during the season—up 10% from 2012. And so, getting your share of those holiday shopping budgets means planning earlier than ever.

Let’s look at how you can plan a mobile strategy that brings an increasingly advanced holiday crowd to your business this fall. Mid-summer is the time to begin planning your marketing strategy, one that will reach customers right as thoughts of Labor Day drift toward the start of school.

The Holiday Stakes: E-mail Marketing and the Mobile Consumer

One key approach to the early holiday shopper is to find them where they live—and where they spend their money—and that’s increasingly online. And it’s increasingly online via mobile devices.

Recent reports tell us that there’s a $294 billion world, out there, when it comes to ecommerce, and 29.5% of that happens on smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, purchases via mobile devices jumped 22%, in 2013, according to a new report from Campaigner.

But that doesn’t mean that every enterprise simply gets to press “send”. Reaching the online and mobile shopper takes having the right message in the first place—and then getting it out in a way that prompts consumers to click-through and buy, or show up in person for your excellent offer.

E-mail marketing is one way to go about that — 64% of decision-making mobile consumers read their e-mail on a mobile device — so your campaign could reach them in just the right spot. But with that idea come some relevant cautions. To understand what those are, we turn to stats from the Campaigner study, showing what consumers said they want from brands that come to them with offers via their inbox.

• 45% of respondents said they open mobile marketing e-mails that feature both compelling text and graphics.
• Only 2% said they are motivated by graphics alone.
• 42% stick to what they know, reading promotional e-mails on their mobile devices primarily based on the familiarity of the sender’s name.
• 21% indicated that an awareness of an ongoing deal or price promotion is a primary driver to read promotional e-mails on their mobile device.
• 20% cited the e-mail subject line as the main reason they decide to read marketing e-mails on their mobile device.

This paints a picture of the mobile consumer, ones who are receptive to marketing e-mails, as being a fairly sophisticated — and particular — audience. In these cases, enterprise leaders looking to effectively reach customers have to become marketers of the same kind — savvy enough to build an e-mail campaign that hits the visual and storytelling marks, and also able to leverage the right audience in the right way to bring in conversions around their holiday push.

Getting Past ‘Open': How Enterprise Can Build a Better E-mail Campaign

“Retailers have a significant opportunity to embrace the growing market for mobile shoppers this holiday season,” said EJ McGowan, general manager at Campaigner. But it’s an opportunity that comes with a catch.

“While consumers are more interactive with mobile content and purchasing, [some] marketers are still providing a lackluster mobile experience,” McGowan said. “Some consumers feel content is not personalized, underscoring the importance of relevant content to increase sales and effectively engage with consumers.”

To get you thinking about the relevant and personalized touches that customers desire, check out the following key ideas for crafting outreach:

5 summertime tips for building a better e-mail campaign, this season and all year round:

1. Build a campaign around environments. The 2014 survey found that 56% of participants read promotional e-mails while relaxing or watching TV, and 28% do so at work. The summer months are the perfect time to create and test various messages, subject lines, and mobile designs. Prepare to cultivate multiple environments and so increase your chances of reaching your customers in the perfect way, at the perfect moment.
2. Implement responsive design. Marketers should take the summer to review their responsive-design strategy. Spend time with the analytics surrounding your previous mobile e-mail campaigns. Where you see flagging open rates, freshly encourage mobile interaction by emphasizing those measurably important subject lines. Lean into the image-text combination that mobile customers say they prefer.
3. Streamline content. Nearly 22% of survey respondents said that too much text, or hard-to-read text, irritates them most about reading marketing e-mails on mobile devices. Shorten and simplify your message.
4. Conduct A/B split testing. Once you’ve crafted compelling subject lines and responsive, streamlined content, test these elements of your campaign. Create an A/B split-test on multiple subject lines and then watch in real time as variations go head-to-head.
5. Focus on established and key customers. Keep a version of the 80/20 rule in mind. That is, don’t waste your time on — and/or alienate — the 80% of consumers who won’t drive revenue for your enterprise. Focus instead on the 20% of consumers who do spend time and money with your brand. And then , encourage a continued relationship with that segment by providing rewards, loyalty programs, and great deals for the holidays.

Creating a mobile e-mail approach in the run-up to the holidays doesn’t have to include elements of the impersonal and bland. It doesn’t have to be ineffective because of common and easy-to-avoid mistakes. By working with the above five ideas in your planning, this summer, you’ll hit the digital ground running with an effective e-mail marketing campaign.


And your holiday sales success story? It just might start this month.


Source: http://blog.bigcommerce.com/holiday-email-marketing-tips-kickstart-christmas-campaign-now/

Factoids for Twitter Fanatics

Infographic Source: http://www.didit.com/infographic-16-facts-only-twitter-fanatics-know/

How much of these Twitter Facts did you know?

5 Google+ Marketing Tips From the Pros

Are you struggling to figure out how to use Google+ to market your business?

Looking for some tips and ideas? You’ve come to the right place.

We asked 5 experienced social media professionals to share their best tips on Google+ for business with you.

Here are 5 ways you can use Google+ to promote and market your business.

#1: Close Off Google+ Comments to Increase Engagement

Here is one of my favorite tips for people who are more intermediate to advanced users on Google+.

Knowing the system:
When someone has comments on a post, they will receive a notification each time someone comments on that post after them. As such, comments are a powerful way of punctuating people’s attention.

Application:
Knowing this, you can use this to have ‘the last word’ on your comment threads, and get engagement from the right people. That is one of the great things about Google+, you really have a lot of control as to who and how people engage with you.

How to close off comments on your threads:
Simply click on the upper right of one of your posts and choose ‘disable comments’.



What to say once you close off comments:
Now you know how to close off comments, you need to decide how you would like to use them.

As you can see in the example below, I am letting people know the next steps for the campaign I am running at that point in time.



How to see who has plussed the comment, and why!
If you click on the plus ones for a comment you can see who has plussed.

But here is the great thing: you can then look to add them people into circles as you may well find they are some of your best engagers. From there you can build the relationship further.



An extra tip…

If you re-enable the comments, you can add an additional message and notify the people on that thread another time. A great way to market a new idea to people who related to the old one.

Martin Shervington is a Google+ marketing expert, consultant and executive coach. He manages two communities on Google+, Plus Your Life! and Plus Your Business! and has authored numerous books including Developmental Coaching.

#2: Leverage Google+ Hovercards to Grow Your Audience

Every marketer wants to grow their audience on Google+. A larger Google+ audience leads to more reach inside the network and ultimately more traffic and potential customers to your business.

Unfortunately, many marketers are getting overwhelmed trying to keep their Google+ stream filled with fresh content in the hopes this will attract +1′s, reshares and new connections.

These marketers are making one critical mistake. The most effective way to grow your audience on Google+ doesn’t involve creating your own posts. Instead focus on commenting.


Google+ users can scroll over any other users name, anywhere inside of Google+ and a hover card will appear.



The existence of hovercards removes the necessity to create original content (at least as often as on other social networks). This is why I highly recommend a Google+ commenting strategy (similar to the old-school blog commenting strategy) for building new relationships and driving traffic to your site.

Enter terms relevant to your business in the search bar at the top of every Google+ page. The results will return Google+ users, public posts, communities and Hangouts on Air which match your interests.

Next start engaging. Add valuable comments to the public posts. Join and engage in the community discussions. Attend and participate in the Hangouts on Air. From your comments in these locations over Google+ users can simply hover over you name and add you to their circles (which they’ll happily do if you’re adding value to the conversation).

Ryan Hanley, founder of Hanley Media Lab.

#3: Schedule Your Google+ Posts for Maximum Impact

When you find great content you want to share on your Google+ personal profile it doesn’t make sense to share it all at the same time. Instead it’s better to add it to a queue and share at an appropriate time.


The Chrome DoShare plugin is a free plugin which allows you to share content at a time that suits your audience.

When you come across a piece of content on the web you can click on the DoShare button in your browser and add it to a queue.

You can also add content you find in Google+ to your queue by clicking on the DoShare button.



Due to limitations on Google+ for posting on personal profiles, you need to have your Chrome browser open at the time you have scheduled the content to be delivered.

This is not a bad thing, as I’d advise you to only post content at a time you are available to respond to it. But you can queue up your scheduled content or just add content without a schedule and send it when it suits.

Ian Cleary, founder of Razorsocial.

#4: Use Your Google+ Profile to Claim Authorship of Your Content

If you write content for various online blogs and publications, be sure to use your Google+ profile to claim authorship of each piece of content you write. Also, regardless of whether you own a website or not, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools using the same Google account as your Google+ profile.


This will allow you to see analytics data for the posts linked to your Google+ profile, including impressions in search, click through rates, and more. Just look under the Labs menu for Author Stats!



Since you generally can’t get analytics data for the content you write on sites other than your own, this can give you a little insight on the popularity of your content in search.

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer and author of Kikolani.

#5: Make Sure Your Images Take Up Significant Real Estate

One of the secrets for success on Google Plus is not just sharing images that capture attention, it’s also making images that are tall and skinny so they take up significant real estate.

Don’t make the mistake that many newbies make, and allow Google Plus to grab an image from the link you’re sharing. Go the extra step and take a couple of extra minutes to create gorgeous, visually appealing, tall and skinny images for your content shares.


Looking at the images below, which would capture your attention?



Yes, the tall and skinny one, with images of people and attractive colors, would definitely win.

Experiment with different image sizes and colors to see what performs best. If you find images that aren’t the right size, use a tool like Canva or PicMonkey to resize your images and to make them more visually appealing.

And here’s a final tip: get great charting software, make great charts, and share regularly. Everyone shares memes, animated gifs, inspirational quotes, etc..but few people are turning statistics into images that are easy to digest. Be the first in your niche and watch your +1’s grow!

Marcela De Vivo is CEO of Gryffin.com, blogs at The Alchemy, and specializes in Google Penalty Recovery and Link Building.


What’s your experience with Google+? What other Google+ marketing tips do you have to share? Please share your questions and comments in the box below.


Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-marketing-tips-from-the-pros/

7 Exercises You can Do while Sitting Down (improve flexibility and muscle tone)

I stay home with our kids, most days, while working part time as a play therapist.   I don’t really sit very much, but my husband is the opposite.  He sits at his desk for many hours a day.  He can’t really get up very much, because he could miss something important, so he tends to stay at his desk.   Unfortunately, his body doesn’t appreciate this (back aches, etc… which come with being sedentary) so here are a few exercises that you can do while sitting down..

7 Exercises You can Do while Sitting Down in the Office

If working long hours at the office is eating away at your exercise time, don’t despair. Make the most of your time by exercising on the job. Here are seven exercises you can do while sitting down in the office that don’t even require that you get out of your seat.

Clenches
For buns of steel, clench your buttocks and hold for ten seconds. Do five sets of eight reps. The beauty of this exercise is that your supervisors and coworkers won’t see any movement and need not even know that you’re secretly exercising on the job.

Ankle rotations
Rotate your ankles in both directions for five seconds. Do five sets of eight reps in each direction. This exercise can strengthen the flexibility of your ankles and make you less likely to suffer from sprains.

Arm stretches
Just because you’re seated at your desk doesn’t mean your arms can’t do just about anything they want. Many arm exercises can be performed while seated at your desk. Stretch the muscles in your right arm by reaching as far to the left as you can with your right arm while supporting it in the crook of your left elbow and then hold it there. Feel the stretch for five seconds. Do eight reps before switching over to your left arm.

Calf muscle toning
Give your calf muscles a work out by raising your legs up on the very tips of your toes while remaining seated. Your calf muscles should start to burn after a few seconds. Hold for ten seconds and then repeat eight times.

Rotating at the waist
Strengthen your core by rotating at the waist while remaining seated. Rotate as far to the left as you can and hold for five seconds, then repeat on the right. Complete five sets. Grab the backrest of your chair with your hands for extra support.

Crunches
Move to the edge of your seat and lean back on the backrest. Then lift your straightened legs a few inches above the ground and raise your back a few inches off the backrest. Feel the burn in your abdominal muscles and hold for ten seconds. Eight reps of ten seconds each can strengthen your core considerably when done regularly.

Leg lifts
Starting with both feet flat on the floor, do leg lifts, starting first with the right leg and then the left. Lift each leg until it touches the underside of your desk. Do ten sets of eight reps to strengthen your thigh muscles and your core.

Being busy is never an excuse to not stay fit. While you should always try to make time for proper cardio and weight training, never forget that there are many other ways you can incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Doing a couple of simple exercises while sitting down in the office each day can, when done regularly, help to improve your flexibility, muscle tone and strength.


Source: http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/exercise-sitting-down/

#MOMtivationMonday: 6 Ways For Work-At-Home Moms To Stay Motivated

Working from home is often touted as an optimal solution for new parents seeking to balance their work and family lives. However, I’m learning that working from home is a double-edged sword. With my son just shy of his first birthday, I recently returned to work on a part-time basis outside of the home. The rest of the time, I work from home and he stays with me.

Juggling work demands with our kids’ needs can be a struggle. It’s hard to stay motivated and be productive with work when you’re managing a household, all the while making sure your kids stay out of trouble while you try to make a call, book an appointment or write an article; and even if your kids are in school or daycare, it’s easy to get distracted (or, I admit, lazy) at home, procrastinate and let your motivation wane.

Fortunately, though, there are steps that can be taken to stay motivated and focused when working from home.  Here are 6 things that I’ve found helpful:

1. Start Your Day By Doing Something For Yourself.

Although no one day will be the same with a baby or kids on board, do your best to have a morning routine, starting with something for you. Whether it’s working out, reading, taking a bath or going for a brisk morning walk before your kids wake up, do something that you enjoy doing to clear your mind and better prepare for a productive work day. This is your ‘me’ time. When you start your day on the right foot and on a positive note, everything that follows is more likely to fall into place.

2. Ditch the Jammies!

This may seem like a silly and odd thing to say, but there’s something about taking a shower and getting dressed in the morning that resets your brain. When the home and work setting is the same, lines are blurred, which makes it harder to switch your mind from home to work mode. Who wouldn’t love to stay in comfortable PJs and slippers all day? For me, getting dressed psychologically marks the start of a business day.

3. Remember That You Do Have a Full-Time Job.

When people asked me if I worked when my maternity leave was over, I found myself stumbling over my words a bit. “Yes, I work, but I work part-time, but also from home, and I’m also a stay-at-home mom, so… no. I mean sort of, actually, yes.” If anything, I think that working from home, especially if you have kids home with you, is the equivalent of 2 jobs. I often feel more tired when I work from home and have my son with me than when I work outside of the home, which is something many people don’t understand. 

4. Get Out of the House Frequently.

When I’m home for days on end or long stretches of time, I tend to go stir-crazy. Like a deflated balloon, I start losing motivation and inspiration. When you reach a mental block and your productivity starts going down the drain, a good way to recharge your batteries is to get out of the house. Take a lunch break and go for a walk. If you work from home with your kids, you have an even bigger reason to get out of the house for a bit; otherwise they’ll likely be bouncing off the walls and preventing you from doing any work. Some fresh air and a change of scenery can do a world of good and give you the mental boost you need to tackle the rest of the day.

5. Make the Most Out of Your Work Time. 

It’s so easy to get distracted with other things when you’re working from home, whether it’s household chores, personal phone calls, TV etc. Don’t let your own distractions eat up the precious work time you do have – because once your kids are back from school or daycare, it’s hard to get any real work done. Once you break your focus and chain of concentration, it’s easy to lose your motivation. If you work from home with your kids, make the most out of nap time or quiet time and avoid veering off track during those periods.

6. Set an End Time For Work.

When you have a 9-5 job outside of the home, it’s more obvious when it’s quitting time. One of the challenges of working from home is knowing when to stop. At home, you’re always surrounded by tasks that could or should be done. Try to end your work by a certain time and when it’s that time, shut down your computer, turn off your cellphone and change clothes. Again, this cues your brain to switch back from work to home mode. Personally, having a reasonable time in mind to ‘end the day’ motivates me to be a productive as possible during the day, so that I feel less guilty or stressed about leaving things undone at the end of the day and I can enjoy playing with my little man and unwind a little.

Although there’s no foolproof or one-size-fits-all method to avoid motivation slumps when you work from home, the above tricks have helped me tremendously. You ‘ll eventually come up with your own techniques to keep yourself motivated. No one knows you better than you know yourself. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely doable.

Do you have a hard time keeping focused and staying motivated as a work-at-home mom? 
How do you keep yourself stimulated and productive?


Source: http://miastylemama.com/momtivationmonday-6-ways-for-work-at-home-moms-to-stay-motivated/