The Social Media Mermaid

Personally, I think Pinterest is great and hopefully this shines through the recent blog posts. It is useful in so many ways, not just personally, but great if you want to grow your business or organization.

Something I have stumbled upon recently is the use of Pinterest for events, or the promotion of events.

The different steps are something like this: Create a board for the event, pin the flyer graphic, link to a Facebook event, sometimes even create a raffle.

What annoys me about this is that I think Pinterest is not as “current” as Twitter or Facebook, which makes it very hard to keep your followers on things such as events. I have phases where I check my Pinterest dashboard every day, but sometimes it gets so overwhelming that I don’t check it for a whole week. Your event might as well be over by that time, if you have tried to promote it on Pinterest.

If you really think that Pinterest is a great way to promote your kind of event and that your followers will actually learn about it through Pinterest, keep this in mind:

• Make it visible on other platforms and don’t solely rely on Pinterest. Create a Facebook event, put it in a tweet, show a picture of you organizing the event on Instagram. Try to get people excited!
• If you make a board for the event, don’t just pin one picture advertising it.
• Try to create buzz around the event, and show this off in your pins. Make it a whole thing and pin inspirations for the event, show who is coming, what food will be there, the city it’s in, the progress of making it happen…This way people will actually follow that board.

Pinterest can be a great tool for businesses. It is basically online scrapbooking, but not limited to that. It has over 70 million users and if used right, can become a great tool to build a community and connect with your consumers/customers/followers. A lot of people use Pinterest for recipes, workout tips, fashion or travel inspiration, but it businesses can take advantage of it even if their business is not related to these areas. The great thing is that any pin can be linked to a website, which is great for driving traffic to your website. Pinterest is the best platform to do this, even better than Twitter and Facebook!

Not only has Pinterest a great guide for businesses on their website, they also have a extensive FAQ as well. It shows you how to get started, gives advice on how to start pinning and how to use the free web analytics. They also have several case studies to explain how other companies are using Pinterest, which is a great start and full of inspiration!

Here are just three general tips to consider when thinking about including Pinterest in your online presence.

1. Even if your business or organization is not all about visuals or if you don’t have products that are easily pinable, you can still create your own visually attractive pictures that will lead to your original content. (Look at this example from this great article) Make it easy for people to find your pin and content!

2. Go with the flow- be creative and incorporate seasonal things to your pins! Giveaways for Valentine’s Day, Easter or Christmas will always be ‘in demand’ and a trending topic, so take advantage of that!

3. Even on Pinterest you can get engaged with your community. Don’t just follow people that are following you, but answer comments underneath pins, reach out to fellow organizations or your local community and you will create a great relationship with them.

An example of how Charity Water uses their Instagram account! (from here x)

 

In the last post I talked about things that non profit organizations should consider when using social media. The conclusion was that social media is useful for everyone if done right and so today I would like to talk about Instagram.

Yes, Instagram is probably mostly used by teenagers and tweens to show off their lunch, kittens or feet, but it can also be used to promote your business.

The fact that Instagram can only be properly used on your phone is something that definitely adds to the spontaneity of it, but that does not mean you can’t also plan it strategically.

It ties very neatly in to Facebook posts or even Twitter, which makes it perfect for non-profits that are visually oriented.  Not just that, it also allows you to be very creative and raise awareness of your company. Instagram has over 130 million users that are easily reachable if you do it ‘right’.

If you are new to Instagram, a good first step would be to show your (future) followers who you are and what you do. Posts that show why you do it can also inspire people to do the same and join your cause.

Getting people to follow you is not much different than in Twitter for example. Find like minded people and follow them, get engaged, leave comments and also encourage participation in your own posts. Instagram is not all serious, so it is allowed to have fun while showcasing your work or statistics for example.

Mashable wrote a great article on how non profits companies are using Instagram for their  purposes. All of these organizations are using Instagram to visually show off what they are up to.

Julia Campbell also explained how non profits can use Instagram. An important fact that she mentions is to show the impact that your organization is having. She says:

You are changing lives, saving the environment, finding homes for animals, preserving historical buildings, saving children. Whatever your mission, make sure that some of your Instagram photos show this impact – whether it be a smiling face, a cleaned up beach or an empty food pantry after the holidays.

 

I think that this is a great advice for any non profit organization. Show the actual work that you are doing day by day and people will definitely be more likely to get involved.

A lot of businesses are only gradually beginning to realize how important it is to have an online identity. Social media allows us to create a traceable, very visible identity online. If done wrong, it can be daunting and terrifying, leading to a misleading perception of yourself and your company. If done right, it can help your business/company/yourself grow in to something so much bigger.

Social media networks are exactly what their name tells us: they are social. Being in touch with your customers/followers/clients has never been so easy. Using this to your benefit can result in exceptionally useful relationships for you and your business.

So first, figure out what message you want to send and how you want this message to be conveyed. As soon as you figured this out, it’s time to think about the platforms you want to choose to represent your social media or online identity in general. Depending on what message you want to send, only certain platforms might be appropriate. Being on every platform is not the most important thing. Being on Pinterest is great when your business deals with visual things, otherwise it is a waste of your time. Having a few but properly used platforms you are absolutely committed to will be more than enough.

If your message is clear and strong, your ground stone is set. The visual part of your online identity should tie in nicely with your content. Now we are getting to the key part of building a successful online identity:

Consistency and continuity is of the outmost importance when starting off to build a social media identity. Being recognized is very important when you want to deal with the mess that can be social media. Consistency does not just mean having the same logo or same username across the various platforms- content wise it is smart to have a common theme.
This goes even further- being committed to your social media is important. Creating A Pinterest account, filling it up with pins but then never visiting again is not a smart move. Starting off with crazy amounts of new content but then not continuing on the same level sends a bad message. Social media is a long term strategy, mostly because it takes time to build a network of follower and also maintain your relationship with them.

Melinda Emmerson explains the three C’s of social media when it comes to developing an online brand identity:

Content+ Community= Commerce.

If you are knowledgeable about your target audience, produce great content that is applicable and significant to them, building a community will be so much easier. It does not end here, though: Staying in touch with them is the most important part here. ‘Giving’ is crucial when starting out and creating a new online presence- Don’t worry, it sounds like a lot of work and it is- but after a while, all of it will pay off.