8 Tips To Spring Clean Your Pinterest Account

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. See Disclosure page for details

Spring will hopefully be upon us soon, and during this time of the year, spring cleaning is on the mind of many. Why not extend this sentiment to your social media presence? Today, I will be talking about getting your Pinterest account ready for ultimate performance by doing some simple spring cleaning.

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Before we talk about cleaning and organizing your boards make sure your profile has been optimized:

1. Make sure your website/blog have been verified
2. Make sure your description contains your relevant keywords
3. Update your profile picture, preferably using one that features your face.

 

 

 

Now to the eight tips to spring clean your Pinterest boards:

1. Move your seasonal boards into the correct order according to your season, for example, your spring and summer collections should be pulled forward while your winter collection should be on the very end of your boards at the moment.
2. Combine any boards that have only a few pins
3. Delete boards that either have too little amount of pins and can not be consolidated with another board, no longer fit into your website/brand/blog niche or do not have a large following.
4. Move your most popular boards to the front – use Pinterest analytics tools to see which boards are the most popular/ active at the moment, and display them as the first two rows. Remember that when looks at your profile, those are the only ones they initially see.
5. Edit board descriptions – make sure all of your boards contain relevant keywords and updated information to make them easy to be found in the search results.
6. Split large boards into two boards – narrowing down some boards to a separate subject matter makes it easier for the followers to find your individual pins.
7. Update your boards featured image – move your most popular pins to the featured position, in order to draw in more followers. But most importantly make sure that the featured pin describes your boards content well.
8. Check your pin’s URL’s. Make sure your pins go the actual post or merchandise with the correct link like they are supposed to. If not, change that immediately.

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A few more tips to keep you sane during the Pinterest Spring Cleaning

1. Choose only one or maybe two specific tasks to complete every day
2 Be clear about what you want to accomplish with your Pinterest presence – what do you want your boards and profile to say about you – do this before you start any spring cleaning, so you have a clear mission in mind.
3. Keep the amount of the group boards you are a part of to no more than 15 but no less than 5. Make sure they are all relevant to your brand and mission.

Have a great day!

Claudia

Masks

Masks by Claudia H. Blanton

Hide

your colorful masks
empty of real expression
hide the pain inside

 

We all pretend. Sometimes in social media, this pretend leaves me with a feeling of disconnect. I don’t mean that we purposely pretend to be someone else we are not. I do not believe that. But because social media and blogging (as well as art and writing) can leave the creator vulnerable, we hide behind our masks of our own creation.

How much should we share? How will what we share affect those we love, and how does the parts that we do choose to show influence what others think of us?

Many bloggers choose to share quite a bit about their lives. Cautiously, they write about their depression, struggles, obstacles and dreams. This raw openness takes courage. Artists and writers do the same, through their creation and stories – even if it is not as recognizable at first glance as it is in the platform of a blog about someone’s life. The message and vulnerability is the same.

It is that what attracts me to those creatives, and the fact that the opposite is often the truth in social media channels and that pushes me away. Where is the real person behind the twitter feed, the emotion behind that snarky comment, or seemingly open attitude? We get snippets, not stories, little glimpses of masks, rather than the true person behind.

It is not to say that we should share more, indeed I think that sharing more on those open platforms can be too dangerous to consider it. Yet, I miss that more and more today. And within that lies my love/hate relationship with social media.

Question: What parts of yourself do you share openly on social media, and which ones do you choose to hide? Is that a concious decision you make, or is it an instinctive holding back?

“Masks” is available on RedBubble as a canvas print, poster or a framed art piece.

 

This blog post is a part of the following blog hops:

Elizabeth And Co Link Party

Together On Tuesdays

What Are You Doing? Blog Hop

Amaze Me Blog Hop

Share With Me

Making Money On Zazzle – Are You A Part Of A Blogging Community

I can not overstate the importance of having a well-designed, creative blog to promote your products, and as a part of doing so, joining blogging communities is a must.

Blogging communities allows you to interact with fellow bloggers, as well as potential customers – and yes, your fellow bloggers are your potential customers – increase traffic, build readership and connections, and potential opportunities such as guest blogging. Because of these benefits, I compiled a list of 15 blogging communities you should check out and connect with.

Top 13 Blogging Communities:

1. BlogEngaged
2. Kingged
3. BizSugar
4. DoSplash
5. Blokube
6. Inbound
7. ManageWP
8. Indiblogger
9. BlogCatalog
10. Blogher
11. Blogster
12. FuelMyBlog
13. SocialBuzzClub
Happy Blogging!

 

Check this out: 

Romantic Pink Teal Watercolor Chic Floral Pattern iPhone 6s Cases – $22.91
from: Redbubble

40 Hashtags Every Writer Artist and Creative Should Know And Use

The power of the hashtag is undeniable and constant. May it be to make it easier to find your projects on places like Medium and Wanelo, or the most commonly used hashtags on Twitter, which can make or break your visibility. But which hashtags are the most effective to use for a creative person to get noticed? I have compiled a list of popular, often used hashtags you should use and check out often:

For Writers:

#amwriting

#amediting

#WordCount

#AuthorLife

#writingtip

#writetip

#Ebooks

#AskAgent

#AskAuthor

#AuthorLife

For Visual Artists, Graphic Designers, and Print On Demand Folks

#GraphicDesign

#FineArt

#Design

#artwork

#illustration

#DigitalArt

For Photography 

#photography

#photog

#Foto

#picturesoftheday

#travel

#picture

#photographer

For Bloggers

#Blog

#Blogs

#Bloggers

#MondayBlogs

#Blogging

#Blogpost

#bloggingtips

#problogging

#lbloggers (lifestyle bloggers)

#Bbloggers (beauty bloggers)

#FBloggers (fashion bloggers)

Day Specific Hashtags:

#MondayBlogs

#TopTenTuesday

#WWWblogs (Women Writer’s Wednesday)

#ArchiveDay (Saturday – for sharing your older posts)

#WeekendBlogHop

#SundayBlogShare

I highly recommend that you print out this list, and utilize these hashtags in your postings, but also get actively involved in the communication around these hashtags.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks on Marketing for Creatives.

Wanelo For Print-On-Demand (POD) Creators

This post may contain affiliate links – see disclosure page for details

If you are a print-on-demand creator on Zazzle, RedBubble, Society 6 and the like, you should utilize Wanelo to market your products.
Wanelo stands for “want – need – love” and is simplistically stated a version of Pinterest that specializes purely in sales. so for any e-commerce business that focuses on clothing, shoes, jewelry, handmade items or home decor, this is the place to be.

You can create boards, similar to Pinterest, but your products are not competing with infographics and other non-product related pins,  follow other people, share your own products and those of others (but not as an affiliate, more about that later), and create “stories” around your products.

Stories are not as fancy as they sound, there are more a commentary or thought you have about a group of your products, which you attach to your written words, and you created somewhat of a collection (see an example in the image above).

As you can see, this platform makes it easy for you to get directly in front of consumers, even though the main customer base is still a younger crowd – which is most likely to expand over time, as it has with many social media platforms. The downfall to the younger age of the people on Wanelo is that they tend to not have as much money they can spend freely  while at the same time this demographic does make more impulse purchases, than an older crowd would.

What Wanelo is not, is a way to make money as an affiliate. They do not allow the affiliate links because that is how they make their money. Every time you post something they get a commission, which is only fair for creating the site, but a downfall for anyone who seeks to make an affiliate income. We have to look for revenue elsewhere.

Four quick tips on how to make the most out of Wanelo:

1. Post often – Top Contributors get featured, and that means you have to post a large volume of content to take advantage of that aspect. Do not just share your own things, create boards for other items as well that might be related but do not compete with your product line. That way you are not limited to posting only the amount of items you have created.

2. Be active – interact with other contributors, just like you would, to gain followers on other social media platforms. Comment on other people’s posts, share their stuff, and follow others.

3. Connect with people that buy in your niche – the best way to do that is to check out your competitors and follow their followers. Those are people who have already saved items that are similar to yours, so you know they are interested in your types of products. Many will follow you back, and you will relatively quickly grow a following of niche-related people.

4. Use hashtags – you can add up to five hashtags to each of your products. Use all of them, and use them wisely. Hashtags make it easier for your products to be found, just like it makes it easier for your content to be found on twitter. Because you are limited to five, you should be very careful about which ones you use.

That’s it for now. I will be posting more tips on how to get noticed as a POD artist.

Find out more about marketing for artists here

Blessings and happy creating!

Claudia

Book Review: Social Media Shortcut # 1 by Jonathan and Susanna Gebauer

Title: Social Media Shortcut #1: Your Twitter Road To The 1,000,000th Follower (Social Media Shortcuts)

Author: Jonathan and Susanna Gebauer

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Written in an easy to read and interesting conversational style, this book brought nothing new to the table, but also did not miss the mark as so many others in this genre have. While the advice given sounded more like an accumulation of what the Authors read in the books of real social media experts, I did appreciate the no-nonsense style, and the links that were added to the book.

That said, readers would benefit more from going to the experts, such as Guy Kawasaki, because of the more detailed and comprehensive information, that is given in their books about the same subject.

But, if you are looking for a quick refresher guide, or just want the absolute basics, this is not a bad book to pick up, especially considering that it is free on Kindle Unlimited.

(Disclaimer: I have borrowed this book from Kindle Unlimited for personal use)

The Wrong And The Right Way To Advertise Your Book On Twitter

I get it, you want us to read your book. I want people to read my stuff too. That is the reason we write, in order for someone to find our work and enjoy it, and hopefully share it with the world. Twitter is a great place to share your creations, and get people’s attention.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to advertise your book on Twitter.

Constant badgering your followers or those who follow a particular hashtag with requests and “read me!” advertising is a turn-off. I will, and I know quite a few people who will do so as well, ignore all of these requests. You heard me right ALL of them, and I am constantly on the lookout for books to review.

Do you want to change that? Then try this:

Instead, give your followers and fellow hashtag readers/writers something of value. Share tips, connect, have some meaningful conversation, and encourage – then, but only then, and only a few times in between, ask us to read your book.
Now, that I know you, now that I am interested in what you have to say, are the chances that I will buy your book or at least follow the link to check out the blurb you are offering a much larger one.
Simple, isn’t it?

Blogging, Tips And Principles

Are you an Author with a social media strategy? In order to get heard, read, seen, noticed and paid attention to, you HAVE to create your own social media presence.

Did you know that publishing houses (and some agents) are more likely to work with someone who already established a presence on the internet? The best time to find out more on how to get noticed is not after you finished or published a book, rather before or during the writing process.

I have been experimenting a little with some of the blogging and social media tips that I have come across of as of late.The following questions (and more) arose from that content:

• Does social media feed scheduling work?
• Is there a system to get more followers, comments and acknowledgment?
• Does sticking to certain principles limit ones potential market and therefore success?

Some tips from so-called social media experts are nothing but vehicles to sell their products. Don’t bother. There are many companies build around making a buck off your unknowing, or unwillingness to do yourself. The key is to find out what works for you, and your specific audience.

From time to time, I will use this platform to write about the fails and wins of those tips that have come my way. It will serve not only as a reminder to myself to be active in a time where knowing how to navigate the jungle of social media is essential, but maybe I can help you find something that works for you. Remember, not everything works with every audience, and for every person, so I might find something the best thing since coffee, while it does not do anything for you. But maybe it will.

Really quick about principles:

Success achieved by denying an essential part of yourself is not success. Embrace all the facets of yourself. Stay authentic no matter what!

If, in the midst of your social media experience, you feel the need to share about something your passionate about, whatever the subject may be (feminism, animal rescue, the economy, your faith, gun rights, whatever gets you going), then do so – to an extend. While it is easy for your passion about these subject to overtake your posting, it is also easy to not post about them at all, and with that deny a part of who you are. Your passion, whatever it is , it makes you unique, and believe it or not, there are people just waiting to agree with you, looking for someone who has the guts to say something, that might be a little different. Just be polite about it. Learn from those who have fallen on their noses for posting outrages things without the care of others feelings. So keep it small, keep it polite, but post away!