CityVoter Blog

This post originally appeared on the Shareaholic blog

Want to share to Pinterest the easy way? Use Shareaholic for Pinterest!

In the world of blogging, a lot of recent attention has been paid to Google + and Search Plus – Google’s effort to integrate Google + into search results. But with all the hoopla over Google +, content marketers can’t forget about Pinterest, a new kid in town that’s driving traffic and taking names. In fact, Experian’s Hitwise report  just listed Pinterest as the #7 social network, beating out Google+ for share of visits.

Pinterest is a site where you can organize and share images that you find interesting. Images shared on Pinterest are known as pins. Users arrange their pins on boards, customized collections of the pins that often have themes. From wedding inspiration ideas to favorite recipes, you can create a board to collect ideas and images for just about anything.

Pinterest is still invite-only, but if you know any Pinners (chances are you do!) you can snag an invite from them.

You can now add Pinterest as a sharing option on your Shareaholic social media toolset. If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll want to edit your settings on the Shareaholic Bookmarks plugin in your WordPress dashboard. We also recently launched Shareaholic’s Pinterest Extension for Chrome. This means that with a simple Chrome extension, you can collect your favorite findings into a Pinterest Board. If you’re not a Chrome user, you can login to your Shareaholic account and add Pinterest as a service for your current Shareaholic plugin.

The Basics of “Pinning”

To get started with Pinterest, created an account on Pinterest.com. Next, add Shareaholic’s Pinterest Extension for Chrome or add it as a service to your Shareaholic browser plugin. Next time to see a photo you love, click on your Pinterest icon in your browser.

Next, select the image you want to Pin, create a new board, and pin the image to your board.

Continue collecting your favorite images to your board until your digital collage is complete. You can use photos you find from individual websites. Or, you can follow other users with similar interests and “re-pin” the images they post. Doing the later is a great way to create relationships with your blog’s target audience.

How to Use Pinterest for Content Marketing

Like just about any social network, your involvement will come off as much more genuine if you participate first. It may seem like fluffy advice to promote others before you promote yourself. However, few brands have such strong positioning that they will generate a following just by showing up to a new social network. Participating first is how you establish your presence. 

So, if you run a recipe blog, participate by pinning photos of delicious meals shared by others. If your blog is about interior design, show off your taste and curate photos of great design by collecting those shared by others first. Admittedly, because of the visual nature of Pinterest, it naturally lends itself to lifestyle blogs. However, B2B companies or business-oriented personal blogs can drive traffic to their content if their willing to get creative.

• Curate infographics relevant to your industry.
• Collect charts to share statistics for your industry.
• Create more visual content for your followers to share: Don’t list your tips – put them on a visually-appealing slide with a short phrase.
• Include a photo with each blog post – give your readers something to pin.

Did you know that this week is National Small Business Week? Many businesses, both large and small, are celebrating small businesses this week.

Constant Contact is holding free events in 50 cities across the country in honor of Small Business Week. These events will help small businesses reach future customers and network with other small businesses as well as local influences.

To celebrate and help one lucky business, Tech Cocktail has partnered with Microsoft to give away a new HP Folio Laptop with Windows 7 Professional. There are only two simple steps in order to be entered for a chance to win and any small business can participate. The qualifiers are signing up for the Tech Coctail Newsletter and leaving a comment on the post telling them how you’d use the new computer for your small business.

Office Depot is not only celebrating small businesses this week, but is also a sponsor of National Small Business Week. The company hosted a free panel discussion this past Sunday to discuss ways small businesses can work with larger companies.

Have you done anything to celebrate your business and National Small Business Week? Let us know in the comments!

This post originally appeared on the Shareaholic blog

Each week, the blogosphere is full of fantastic tips on how you can create shareable content. Here are the top tips we learned that will get your content creation started on the right foot this week.

1. Know your “schtick.”

There’s a ton of content being created, and you need to find your own way to stand out. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Find your own unique angle and value proposition, and use that as your center point from which all your content ideas come from.

Learn more: 5 Essential Qualities of Growing Your Blog Quickly in a Crowded Niche

2. Spend 80% of your time crafting your title and 20% of your time on the rest of your content.

To suggest that 80% of the success of your content relies just on the title is a bold claim, right? SEOmoz suggests that you focus much of your effort on this area, concentrating your attention to 7 key qualities: curiosity, benefit, emotion, tangible, appearance, sound and expectation.

Learn more: Are Your Titles Irresistibly Click-Worthy?

3. Remember – search engines find you valuable when readers find you valuable.

Many people think that SEO is the number one reason for creating content – but SEO is best achieved when you provide value to humans and get them to share that content. Putting other goals like understanding customer concerns and developing new business ideas through content will help you create content that is valuable to readers and hence is valuable to search engines.

Learn more: 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing

4. Get over it – you’re in the content business.

No matter what industry you’re in, you have to create owned media. With the may that consumers buy nowadays and the way that search engines work, everyone is a content creator.

Learn more: Get Content-Centric, or Get Disrupted in Search and Social

5. Write like a teacher, and consider what types of learners your readers are.

There are four different kinds of learners: Analytical, commonsense, dynamic and innovative.

• Analytic: Like facts and will evaluate how your information compares to other facts and competing claims. 20% of people are analytic.
• Commonsense: Practical and want to know how things work. 20% of people are commonsense learners.
• Dynamic: Look for interesting information, but are more gut learners and teachers. They want this information for themselves and for others. 25% of people are dynamic learners.
• Innovative: Demand reasons why they should learn something. They look for the personal benefit in content. Innovative learners make up the most of people at 35%.

Learn about the different reasons that people process information, how how they process that information. It will help you deliver it more effectively.

Learn more: Develop Irresistible Content With This Four-Point Formula

What interesting content did you read this week? How will you put those lessons into practice? Let us know in the comments.

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