Podcasts about viraltag

Megan Auman is a designer, metalsmith, educator, and entrepreneur who has built a multi-faceted business around her passion for art, commerce, and visual content creation! (Which is just a fancy way of saying she's obsessed with Instagram and Pinterest.) In addition to running her Megan Auman jewelry line, she runs the site Designing an MBA, where she writes and teaches about the intersection of art and business.   On today’s episode we’re talking about product photography and why you should be leveraging pinterest to get more sales. ON TODAY’S EPISODE: A common mistake that Megan sees product-based business owners making around marketing strategies When she started her jewelry line and how it lead to her starting her Designing an MBA program Her product photography & the importance of having high quality photos of your products Megan’s tips on preparing for a photo shoot The editing software that Megan uses How she is leveraging her product photography and Pinterest for sales Some of Megan’s struggles when she first got started on Pinterest How she measures conversions and the effectiveness of her Pinterest strategy Utilizing Pinterest scheduling apps to batch content Megan’s experience with Pinterest ads The advice she would offer to someone just starting out in a product based business What’s next for Megan KEY TAKE-AWAYS: “It's really easy to get sidetracked just by all the information online about running a business, and trying to know what applies to you and what doesn't.” - Megan Auman “You have to show your customers how it fits into their lives, otherwise they're not going to buy it.” - Megan Auman “Your life will be so much easier if you batch your photography, whether that's product photography or social media photography, it doesn't matter, the easiest thing is to batch.” - Megan Auman “Shoot like crazy and then pick your best ones and delete everything, because it's better to have a lot of options when you're editing.” - Megan Auman “Shoot from far away and then get in and shoot the detail, and shoot somewhere in the middle. Shoot from those different distances and you going to have a lot more options.” - Megan Auman “One of the reasons that people get frustrated with Pinterest, is sometimes they just pin their product photography directly from their online shop, which is good, but it's not ultimately the best way to use it, especially if your price point is higher.” - Megan Auman “If you're starting out and you're only putting your images with your images, and no one else is pinning your content, Pinterest isn't showing it to anybody.” - Megan Auman “As soon as you start putting your content across other boards with other people's pins, it greatly increases the chances that Pinterest is going to show them to other people.” - Megan Auman “More often than not, stuff doesn't go viral immediately, people call it the Pinterest lag.” - Megan Auman “The biggest challenge with Pinterest ads is that, they're better at keyword targeting than audience targeting.” - Megan Auman “You really cannot compete if you don't have that email list and you're not using it regularly.” - Megan Auman LINKS: Afterlight: https://afterlight.co/ Snapseed: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8 Retouchup.com: https://www.retouchup.com/ Viraltag: https://www.viraltag.com/ Tailwind: https://www.tailwindapp.com/   CONNECT WITH MEGAN: Website: http://designinganmba.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/meganauman Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/meganauman Twitter: http://twitter.com/meganauman Market Your Selfie: http://www.marketyourselfie.com Megan Auman's Pinterest for Makers class on CreativeLive   SUBSCRIBE TO PROOF TO PRODUCT: If you'd like to receive more information about our upcoming episodes of Proof to Product including show notes and information about our guests, head over to www.prooftoproduct.com and sign up for our email list.   ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT: Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Welcome to episode 009 of the Blogger Genius Podcast. My guest is Kate Ahl founder of Simple Pin Media. In this episode, we discuss how to grow Pinterest now -- what's working today and what's not. We also discuss the value of niching down in your business, how to create growth by staying focused, and the importance of not chasing other people's success, but finding your own. Resources: Simple Pin Media Simple Pin Pinterest Strategy Group Visual Marketing Certification Course MiloTree Transcript - Latest Pinterest Tips To Grow Your Account Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hi, welcome to the show today. My guest is Kate Ahl, who is the mastermind behind Simple Pin Media. So welcome to the show, Kate. Kate: [00:00:21] Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited about your podcast. Jillian: [00:00:25] Thank you. And I'm inspired by you because I've been a big fan of yours for so long, and I've been on your podcast twice. Kate: [00:00:32] Yes, you have. They're both great conversation. Jillian: [00:00:36] And the thing that we both share is love of Pinterest. Kate: [00:00:40] Yeah it's true. Jillian: [00:00:42] So what I want to start with is a) - How you discovered Pinterest. And b) - how you built a whole business around it. Discovering Pinterest Kate: [00:00:52] Yes. So the first time I discovered Pinterest was actually at a good friend's house, and it was just after Pinterest started late 2009 early 2010, and she had made these really amazing outdoor candles chandelier-type-things with like mason jars and pallets. And we live in Portland, so that kind of all comes together even more perfectly. Kate: [00:01:17] I said, Where did you get all these ideas? This is crazy. And she's like, Well it's this new site called Pinterest. And I remember standing at her kitchen and we were looking at the computer or iPad, I can't remember at the time, and I was like I don't. But this is a great solution to bookmarking, because you would bookmark everything on your computer and try to save it for later, and that didn't feel like this cohesive place. But Pinterest didn't look like what it looks like now. At that time it was really confusing, like you couldn't figure out who you're following, and you had to have an invite. So. I said, Can you send me an invite? And it took like forever. It took like six weeks. And so my other friends were talking about Pinterest, and like what is it and how is it going to work> And so I got the invite and I created an account. I don't even know where that account is actually, I should try to dig and find it. But I loved it. I loved the sheer fact that I could organize content. Kate: [00:02:20] But I should also say I was really still confused by it, like the user experience in the beginning was not easy. Like you couldn't really figure out like, Who is this person I'm engaging with and what's their stuff. Kate: [00:02:33] They wanted you to follow artists and it didn't seem like it matched me quite yet. So I did take a step back from it for a little bit. Well during that time too, I started working with a friend who had a blog and she was feeling like it was growing pretty significantly. It was 2010 which means we we're still like mid-recession and she did deals, couponing for a living, which was going crazy during that time because people needed to save money. So she asked me to come on and do Facebook marketing for her initially, which I did and I loved. And then she asked me to come on to her blog to do a lot of affiliate marketing, blog management, kind of jack of all trades and that slowly merged into Pinterest, and what I ended up doing was that Pinterest account essentially became my personal Pinterest account. I was falling in love with Pinterest. Falling in love with her content too at the same time, but also falling in love with just using Pinterest in general, and so we really didn't know how to market on there. It was more, we had heard of people getting traffic and this was probably bringing us up to like 2010ish. And she discovered a Pinterest course. Turning Pinterest into a business Kate: [00:03:49] And she's like I took this Pinterest course to talk about naming your boards no longer cutesy names, like really thinking business. And we spent like three or four hours in her living room. It was spring of 2012 and really looked at what were we going to do with Pinterest, right? So we got the strategy. We're just playing around with it for a good full year. And then 2013 probably like November 2013, is when Facebook changed their algorithm pretty significantly. It was like the first big Facebook Armageddon where business pages weren't getting seen as a deal blogger. That's how you got most of your click throughs and affiliate sales, and everybody took a huge hit. Kate: [00:04:42] The question was like, We've never seen that before and we didn't really know what to do with it. Everybody's getting this amazing traffic. So we looked and said you know, maybe we need to do something different and at that same time, personally we were going through still the downturn of the economy. And my husband couldn't find a job and his unemployment had run out. And so at that same time the unemployment was running out and Facebook was changing their algorithm, she had said to me, the friend I was working for she said, Well why don't you try managing people's Pinterest accounts?And I thought she was nuts and I literally remember sitting at the kitchen table watching her say this and thinking I don't even know how you would do that. I was just on her account all the time. So I thought I can't be on someone's account all the time. Kate: [00:05:36] This is crazy. But she said just research everything you can do. Start Googling and see what's happening out there. We knew from this previous Pinterest course, that there was at least some idea of Pinterest for business. But yet there wasn't a lot of conversation about it. Kate: [00:05:52] I found one other Pinterest course that I joined. I found a small Facebook group of women just getting together to strategize about Pinterest. And I discovered ViralTag in the beginning as a scheduling service to use because there really wasn't anything out there, and I said I'll test with yours over two months. This was November-December. And then we sat at the beach one weekend and created a couple of different packages. I bought Simple Pin Media as a domain and thought, Here we go. Let's try this. And so she asked two of her friends to be beta clients. Jillian: [00:06:34] That is terrific. And how many clients do you have now? Kate: [00:06:38] A hundred and one. Jillian: [00:06:39] Wow. So you manage 101 clients' Pinterest pages. Kate: [00:06:46] Yes we do. We definitely have a big team. Jillian: [00:06:48] And how many people on your team? Kate: [00:06:50] 30. Kate: [00:06:51] Oh my goodness. Wow. And do you manage other social media accounts like Instagram or anything else? Kate: [00:06:59] No we've thought a little bit about Instagram. I have to say that that been in my thoughts, potentially on the road map. But it would be something along the lines of taking the model of Simple Pin and either franchising it or duplicating that model underneath different socials. Advice: The benefits of niching down Jillian: [00:07:24] This is a piece of advice that I continue to give which is the internet is a really big place and that you can grow a really successful business by niching down, by being the Pinterest experts. That you don't have to be the Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube expert. That actually by knowing your niche so well, you could really grow. Jillian: [00:07:52] People think oh, and then I need to move into this area and this area, and I'm like, if you go deep, not that many other people will do it. So you can own that space. And so when I think of Pinterest and I think Pinterest marketers, you're the person I call. Kate: [00:08:14] Thank you. Jillian: [00:08:15] Because I'm not thinking, oh I want a general social media marketer. I'm like, ooh, were noticing something with our Pinterest accounts. I'm going to check in with Kate and see if she's seeing the same thing. Kate: [00:08:27] Hmm yeah it doesn't make it easy for anybody who is thinking of doing any business. I will definitely say that niching down allows you to immerse yourself so deeply in a certain platform, that that's all you study. And I've found it feeling overwhelming. And that's why we haven't gone into Instagram because if you're dealing with two different animals, like one drives traffic and one drives engagement and there aretwo different methods of using it, and you can't apply a one size fits all social strategy to all social platforms. So absolutely it will just drive you into the ground. I don't want to be driven into the ground. Jillian: [00:09:10] Like another piece of advice I give is figure out what your goals are for your business, and pick the social media platform that a) - speaks to your audience, where your audience already is, and b) - which delivers what you're looking for. And yes you should own your name on every platform but to think that you need to be on every platform actively is... You will drive yourself insane. Kate: [00:09:40] Yes I have felt that. So for me socially as far as Simple Pin, my first focus was just Pinterest that's where I put my content. That's where I spent my time. That was my big drive and I did focus a little bit on Facebook, and building a really strong Facebook group. The group was more important to me than the page. And since then, I've just I have a social media manager who does all my stuff for me, because I don't want to keep up with Facebook I don't want to keep up with Instagram, right. I just want to interact with people. Jillian: [00:10:11] I will definitely say you are one of the top Pinterest experts, but Pinterest is always changing. So it's not like you ever own Pinterest. I'm always amazed at how often these social networks are changing. Kate: [00:10:34] All the time. Jillian: [00:10:34] So you know Pinterest today, but then you've got a keep on it and then you get to tell me what I need to do, because again it's not like oh I've mastered it. Oh no. They'll pull the rug out from under you. Advice: The moment you become unteachable or unwilling to learn is the moment your business dies Kate: [00:10:48] And I've always heard and heeded this advice, that the moment you become unteachable or unwilling to learn is the moment your business dies. The term expert is really tough for me to digest. And mostly because it's hard, it's just hard to see it that way and semantics right, like you could say thought leader, and I might wrap my brain around that a little bit better, but I think the thing is that even I as a person who studies Pinterest, teaches Pinterest, is only in Pinterest. I still have days where I will email some colleagues and say. There's not a trick I'm missing. Right. I'm not missing something and they know to expect it. You know, every six or eight months for me, because I just go... it's that moment of insecurity to go, did I miss something? Have I not learned this? And I appreciate people in my life who are willing to accept those questions from me in a way that says no, Kate you're fine. Like keep doing what you're doing. Jillian: [00:11:59] Absolutely. And again I like that idea of, if you have an online business you have to stay nimble. You have to stay hungry because you're absolutely right. You can't rest on your laurels like when you're talking about 2012, let's say Pinterest in 2012. That's not that long ago. And yet in the world of the Internet that's a really long time ago. Jillian: [00:12:25] So I will say that for us, for Catch My Party, or our first business, we stumbled into Pinterest. What I was doing was using it as a way to save content from Catch My Party, so that I could write blog posts, right, because my husband who's the technical part of our partnership, I kept saying to him build me somewhere I could have a clipboard or something. And he never built it. So then I discovered Pinterest. I was like oh I could just do it here. And then what I weirdly found was we were getting traffic. It was like weird we didn't plan on it. It was really just for my own personal use. And then we said to ourselves really early, which was good. This is driving us traffic and we're not even trying we need to try. And Pinterest now, of course, is our biggest traffic driver and the way we monetize with Catch My Party is traffic. So that's why we've then built MiloTree for example, or pop-up, because we recognize we need to grow Pinterest so we doubled down on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:13:33] So it's why I read whatever you write, because Pinterest matters to us in a huge way. And so it is about finding that area where you can build your business, finding the social networks that support that. And then being willing to learn as much as you possibly can about that platform, or whatever that thing is whether you're selling courses whether, you're selling products, whether you're creating stuff for Etsy, whatever it is. Jillian: [00:14:02] The more you know just the more you have to leverage. Advice: If you spread yourself super wide, you become less efficient and less productive Kate: [00:14:11] Yeah definitely. Fully agree and I think there's that feeling too of spreading super wide because we want to make sure we're covering it all. But yet when we spread super wide, we become less efficient or less productive. And we're only skimming the surface of everything instead of going to focus here, and that's hard in our online world and you and I have talked about this before. Because we are being pulled in so many different directions, kind of like with the dangling carrot of like, if you go here you can make money, if you get here and you are constantly in this push pull. And I was saying this to you before we started. I can't listen to podcast anymore about marketing unless I need the specific tool, because it's almost it's information overload for me, and it feels like dangling carrots in my face when I have this big team of people saying especially my leadership team, saying, we need you to do this or we need you to lead this, and lead us in this direction. And firm up these processes. That's where I got to continue to focus back my time, because that's where my business is and that's hard because there's a little bit of like the FOMO. Jillian: [00:15:28] Yeah. Kate: [00:15:29] Like, yeah I couldn't miss out on this tip, and yes my business is going to go down, and then you realize your business is going to go down the tubes if you spend all your day listening to podcasts and never implementing. Jillian: [00:15:41] Absolutely. And I am a big believer in just doing at least one thing a day. One thing a day to move your business forward and then to give yourself credit for achieving that goal. And I agree with you about stepping away. I've mentioned this previously, that I've really stepped away personally in Facebook. I know that's now kind of in the news, but I took a Facebook break personally. I noticed how much better I felt. Yes. And I know that's like, you know, I work in the world of social media. Advice: Don't fall for the FOMO trap Jillian: [00:16:18] But it's about figuring out that I don't have to be where everybody is and I don't have to follow that thing were, Oh my god everybody's making a ton of money here. I need to be there. It's a good lesson. Digging deep and figuring out who you are, what you want, what you want to grow, why you're doing this like those deeper questions, because you could spend your life going from trend to trend to trend. Kate: [00:16:48] Yeah yes you could. And you would drive yourself into the ground. Jillian: [00:16:52] And by the way. You won't be successful. Kate: [00:16:56] Yep I agree. It is hard in our world to have laser focus. But I would say like that is the place where you can find out the most about your business. That's where you can grow the most. And I agree with you I'm not on Facebook anymore very much, except to look at my group, right. That's where I get the greatest value from. Jillian: [00:17:20] Will you tell everybody what your group is? Kate: [00:17:23] So it's a Simple Pin Pinterest Strategy Group and it's just a group to talk about Pinterest we don't even do group board threads because we find that it kind of muddies the waters of the group. Jillian: [00:17:35] And what is a group board thread just so people know? Kate: [00:17:38] So there are specific Facebook groups on Pinterest group boards, so what it means is you can go into these Facebook groups, and you can look at what group boards on Pinterest people have available for you to join, and submit your content to that. So there's this one it's called Pinterest Group Boards. it's a fantastic group just dedicated to that, and I love it because again it's just dedicated to one thing. So knowing that that was happening over there I decided to really create a culture in our Facebook group that was just about Pinterest. So if you are experiencing a glitch, you could go there, ask a question and someone who would answer if you were frustrated or if you had a joy to share, or whatever it was in relation to Pinterest marketing. I wanted this to be the place where that conversation could happen without drama. It's the big thing for me. Yet without being solicited to get other members, without feeling like you were asking a dumb question, that there are no dumb questions. We want every single question there is and we want this to be the hub where you go to get up to date information on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:18:49] The thing I have to say, I love that you are popping in with updates and what's new. Like if I get in my feed, if I see that you have been on, talking about something I know to listen. Like I will stop what I'm doing and listen to you. Kate: [00:19:08] Thank you so much for the support, that means a lot. Because you know when you're on the other side of the computer, you never know what people are responding to. Jillian: [00:19:16] I have to say again, because you are my expert. So if you're talking, I'm listening. Kate: [00:19:22] I love it. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Most up-to-date Pinterest tips Jillian: [00:19:24] Okay, so so let's do this. Let's talk about Pinterest, just because you are the expert. And if I say group boards, give me your like 30 second thing on should people be focusing on group boards. And group boards again or where a bunch of people can share to a board, and the hope is that you can get your content in front of people that aren't necessarily following you. Kate: [00:19:53] Yes, that's correct. Group boards Jillian: [00:19:54] So that we can give some value to the listeners. Like group boards. Should people be finding group boards? Joining group boards? Kate: [00:20:02] Yeah, I think they're a valuable part of a bigger strategy on Pinterest with marketing, but I always tell people to keep it about only 30 percent, because what can happen is that you chase the idea of getting other people's followers to see your pins, ny joining group boards. And then you forget that you have your own followers, and they're following your personal boards, and they want to see what you're pinning. Kate: [00:20:26] So I tell people if they're going to do group boards, I always have them join group boards that fit their niche. Jillian: [00:20:32] Got it. Kate: [00:20:33] And that the content on there is something you would want your people to see. It's nothing sketchy, or just super general, or even not appealing. It has to have a specific title that is a very strong keyword on Pinterest so I don't want it to be like "Best Blogger Recipes. Jillian: [00:20:51] Or "Awesome Pins." Kate: [00:20:53] Exactly. I'd rather have it be something like "Instant Pot Soup Recipes." That means on the board is only Instant Pot soup recipes and if you have that content, that's a great place for you to put it. Not just for followers, but for the search factor, that when people search that title of Instant Pot soup recipes, Pinterest will see that that's a place where there's a lot of content on that topic being shared. So there's that, and then also joining with people you know is really important as well, and sharing from that group board especially if you have relationships, is also super important too. Pins per day Jillian: [00:21:30] Great okay. Now in terms of success on Pinterest. How many pin per day do you recommend somebody pin? Kate: [00:21:39] I have thought about this a lot actually, in the last couple of months. I have a data analyst who's going through a bunch of our data of the last four years, and analyzing a lot of this based on a number of pins per day. And one thing that's really interesting to us is our baseline package is ten pins, then we do a midline package of 20 pins and then 30 pins per day. Kate: [00:22:01] And the reason we started that in 2014, was because Pinterest was based on a chronological feed. So the more pins, the more you got seen in the feed. Well now that we've moved on to image and search based, what we realized is that the number of pins per day isn't as relevant as your keywords and board descriptions, or images and how much they capture the pinners attention. So I'm less likely to tell people it's a certain number of pins per day, and I'm more likely to ask them, what do your images look like? Because you can slap up 50 pins of crappy images, and not end up getting return. Or you could have ten amazing images and drive tons more traffic, and we find that with some rare clients lately, that those who really have had head down focus, they know their avatar. They have really strong keywords, like three to four pillar keywords that they really focus in on, and that that is increased engagement and it's increased their page views over time with just 10 pins a day. Text overlays on Pinterest images Jillian: [00:23:08] That's terrific. OK. Text overlays on the images or not? Kate: [00:23:15] Yes I really like them and I like them especially because Pinterest feels a little bit like billboard advertising. Jillian: [00:23:23] Yes, that's a good way to describe it. Kate: [00:23:25] Like you're coming by and what's going to catch their attention? Kate: [00:23:27] So I always tell people before they go into creating text overlays on their images for their own business. Do two things. One, start paying attention to billboards as you're driving. And just really pay attention to the patterns that you see and, two, go on to Pinterest on your phone. Try not to do this on desktop, and see what catches you. Scroll by and save it all to a secret board. And then you can see, what is it that stands out to me and why? And chances are it's going to be very "call to action" type statements. Something that could even be a provocative statement or a question. And then also really really bright colors. That's another thing to add if you're dealing with recipes or any type of food. I've seen a couple of things worked well which is showcasing the ingredients in the pin image somewhere, because then I can look at five o'clock if I'm ready to do dinner, and I can see that I have everything in your image. I'm much more likely to click, and make that meal. Jillian: [00:24:30] Ooh, I like that. Kate: [00:24:30] Or you can really tell me if it's easy, if it's healthy, if it's five ingredients. People on Pinterest love numbers. You're going to do something like twenty five cruise tips. That is amazing. Or you're going to do five ingredient brownies. Those do so well. And making that number pop too in a different color is really good too. Jillian: [00:24:54] That's awesome. Hashtags on Pinterest Kate: [00:24:54] Okay. Hashtags. Hashtags is new. So Pinterest released the use of hashtags in August of this last year, 2017. And that was a big surprise to us all. In fact, it felt a little bit like whiplash. What did you do? Because they were very dead set on it since the beginning. We don't use hashtags. We don't use hashtags. So they released it. And what they did with it was they created what's called the hashtag feed. So that means when you pin something to Pinterest with a hashtag, it goes into this hashtag feed that's run chronologically. So it's very wise for you as a business owner to create your own branded hashtag. So for me, I have the hashtag Simple Pin Podcasts. So when anybody clicks on Simple Pin Podcast, it goes to all of my pins. Then in addition, Pinterest is set up to do 20 hashtags on a description. But I would not go that many yet. I would just do about four to five and then, make it pretty specific. We're not like Instagram here so I would do something like "instant pot" or "instant pot soup" or "easy dinner." So not just "recipe." You don't want to go that route. And then, you don't want to go back and update your pins. That's one thing that's gonna be a waste of time because it's only done when a new pin enters the platform. So if you update with hashtags on your pins, it's not going to automatically funnel over into the chronological feed. It just stays where it is. Jillian: [00:26:33] Right. Right. Kate: [00:26:34] So the only update I would tell people to do is on your top 10 pins that are driving traffic to your site from Pinterest. I would go into your Pinterest description or wherever you want to have Pinterest pull the description from, and I would add hashtags there because people are already sharing once they get to your sites, so that does put the new pins that they're sharing on your behalf into the chronological feed. Jillian: [00:27:01] I love this. I'm like taking copious notes right now. Okay, video on Pinterest. Video on Pinterest Kate: [00:27:08] Video is also new as of this last summer. The only way that you can get access to their native video player is if you run a promoted pin ad, and it's based on views. I have not tested it yet. From what I've heard from other people, it's a little bit expensive. And video, it is being used by the big brands. So if you wanted to throw some money behind it, I would definitely. If you're a food blogger, I would go that route for sure and just set it up or have somebody set it up for you. But beyond that, video's on Pinterest that are just uploaded by YouTube are still a little bit of a speed bump, like people don't quite interact with them yet. Jillian: [00:27:51] Yes. Do you think - Again, as we're talking about niche-ing and that different niches are different, that Pinterest has really wanted to break into video but people have talked to me about it, and said, it makes me uncomfortable to watch video on Pinterest. I want to just be scrolling. It breaks the good vibes. Kate: [00:28:14] Yes, it does. It feels intrusive. Jillian: [00:28:16] Yes. Kate: [00:28:17] Yeah. I would say that's because - So we look at the Big Three which is Pinterest, YouTube and Google, and YouTube owns the space on video. So we are all conditioned that if we want a video, we go to YouTube, right? If we want a quick cooking video that just happens upon our stream, we will tolerate those on Facebook. Kate: [00:28:39] But the best path for video as it relates to Pinterest is still to create that solid pin image and lead them to your site or lead them to YouTube. We have seen some people doing that, and that works fine as long as the pinner knows on the image that they're going to a video. Yeah, if you - you can't interrupt their flow. If we're shocked into something or just it jars us a little bit, then we just were like "What? Where am I? What is going on?" But if you have a pin image with that little play button in the middle, people are more apt to try to push the play button because that's what we're conditioned to do. And then when they get over there, they find what they've expected which is a video. So that's really - I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what Pinterest does in the next year with video but I don't think we're quite there yet where the masses are ready to consume it. Promoted Pins Jillian: [00:29:37] Yes. Okay. One last Pinterest expert question, promoted pins. Who are those good for? Kate: [00:29:46] I think everybody. I definitely would say that promoted pins are continually getting better and better and better as they go along. I believe that an organic strategy is really, really good combined with a promoted pin strategy and that when you do a promoted Pin, you need to have a goal in mind. So we're doing a bunch of promoted pin campaign testing. We're building a promoted pins team like a services team here in Simple Pin. And so we're running a bunch of tests and my goal, because I'm going to use my account as a guinea pig, my goal is email sign ups. I want as many people on my email list is possible because I love talking to them in my email. It's my favorite thing to do. And it's the way that I can hook them in and continue to teach them and then hook them into my Facebook group. I'm not as concerned about course sales or promoting my services because those are two things that take a little bit of time to warm up. So my goal is always, okay, I have this amazing post there, and I'll say it's not an amazing post but it's gotten an amazing amount of traffic from Pinterest, about how to clean up Pinterest boards and it has an opt-in on it. That's the one I'm promoting because I'm getting so much traffic to it that I want to take my promoted pin and give it another 10 to 20 percent boost, just to see how it performs. Jillian: [00:31:10] So then you're sending that pin to a landing page where people can sign up? Kate: [00:31:15] No, it has the landing page built within the post. Jillian: [00:31:18] Okay, so it sends it to a post and then, they read the post and there is a sign up. Kate: [00:31:23] Exactly, it has a good conversion rate on it already. It's about 50 percent. Jillian: [00:31:29] That's terrific. Kate: [00:31:31] Yeah, so we're really trying to funnel as many people towards that. Jillian: [00:31:34] Got it. Okay, because we were experimenting with some promoted pins for MiloTree and what I found was when I just promoted like "Hey, grow your social following especially Pinterest" because again, the idea is I want to advertise on Pinterest that this can help your Pinterest. It was working okay but when I promoted a pin that was an article that was like "How to grow your Pinterest. Here are our top tricks and tips", that did much better by getting people to click when it was "I'm going to give you free content here. Here it is", or which did much better than "Hey, here's just an ad for us. Kate: [00:32:26] Yeah, I would agree. People need to be warmed up for sure. Jillian: [00:32:30] Yep, they need to trust you, and they need to see that there's real value there. Kate: [00:32:35] We have run ads to the landing page just for my Pinterest planner and that's like our big main opt-in. And we found that that hasn't actually converted as well as sending them to the podcast where I talk about it and they can get warmed up. Jillian: [00:32:53] Interesting. Okay. This is the thing I would say: When you do ads, test. Try things and you have to be willing to lose money. That's painful, super painful but it is true that you have to think about the fact that it's like paying for a course that you put some money behind stuff to see how it performs. And then, you try to learn as fast as possible. What is a KPI - key performance indicator? Kate: [00:33:32] Yes exactly. You try to catch up before you lose too much which is not much. It's a good idea. Yeah we were talking about a podcast I just recorded is about KPIs, key performance indicators. Jillian: [00:33:44] Can you just explain what a KPI is? Kate: [00:33:46] Yeah, so a KPI is just that key performance indicator and for Pinterest, the common KPI is our followers, sessions and then saves but we wanted to take it a step further and look. Do we actually know when a user is coming to your site from Pinterest? How much is that user worth or how much is that post making? So we could either want more traffic and spend more time doing that or we could spend some time really being strategic about where people are clicking, and what's making us the most money and try to optimize that. Kate: [00:34:26] And then once we know the cost of a click, then we could put money behind it. And we'd actually know how much we're spending on an ad, that the illustration that my guest gave was you could put a 20-dollar bill into an ATM and get out a 40-dollar bill or you could put in - That's not the best analogy but you could put in two to three cents and get back a dollar. We'd stand there all day, right? Even though it feels painful to lose 50 cents for a lead, they're worth down the line. But if we don't know that, that makes it harder. That's another element of Pinterest marketing that I think is easily forgotten. Because we are caught up in follower's sessions and saves. But a follower or a session doesn't mean anything to us if we don't know the value. Jillian: [00:35:16] Right. If you're not making money from it or you don't know how much because the idea is that you want to figure out where I can spend a dollar but I'm making a dollar fifty. And you know what? If that's the case, then you want to put as much money as you possibly can into that because you will be making money. And that's what I call finding that flywheel where you put money in, but you're getting more money out. And so those are, you know, but there can be a situation where you're putting money in and maybe you're putting in a dollar. So it doesn't feel that bad. But the truth is that it's cost two dollars for a sale even though you're like "Well, I'm just losing a dollar." You know, it's ultimately not making you money. Kate: [00:36:06] Right. Yeah, and it's hard to face some of those numbers. I mean, I will say sitting down and doing a cost analysis of my post sounds like I want to poke my eyeballs out. But once you know it, then you're more empowered to make better decisions than if you didn't know it. So it's kind of like "Do I want to bury my head in the sand or do I really want to know the numbers exactly?" Jillian: [00:36:31] Exactly. And one thing that I think happens with social media is when you get new followers, it feels good. But when you're running a business, it's not about that kind of hit of dopamine. It's about making money, and those can be very different things. Kate: [00:36:55] Yes, drastically. Jillian: [00:36:57] So I know a bunch of people who put a lot of emphasis on Instagram to grow their followers and when I say "Well, why are you growing your followers?" They don't really have a good answer. Kate: [00:37:07] Right. Because that's just the thing we've been taught to do. Jillian: [00:37:09] Exactly. So first of all, I just have to thank you because you have been so supportive of MiloTree. And you really, like way at the beginning, you put us on the map. So I just have to tell you that. Jillian: [00:37:25] And then, what I want to ask you is if you had one piece of advice for people who are starting out, and this can relate to Pinterest or not, what would it be? And maybe something you wish you knew when you were starting. Advice: Don't chase after other people's success Kate: [00:37:44] Well, I think I might have the same answer for both but a slightly different bent. And I think it would be "don't chase other people's successes." Jillian: [00:37:58] I love it. Kate: [00:37:59] Because on Pinterest, I hear it over and over again and that so-and-so has this many sessions or pageviews, so-and-so has this many followers and I want that. And when we go after that, we're distracted away from who our person is, and we're distracted away from our avatar and our focus and our vision. And the same can go for growing a business. I found, for me, probably about, I think it was two and a half years into my business, that I was reading emails from another person who was teaching Pinterest, and listening to a couple of podcasts and when I would do that, it would distract me away from what I was doing and specifically because I am a services based business. Kate: [00:38:48] My main focus is not my courses and their main focus was their courses. And so I felt this kind of push and pull away from "I'm services based and I'm gonna focus on these clients but yeah, all these people are making so much money doing courses and I want to go there," and I finally have this moment, that comparison is the thief of joy, right? So I can't chase their success. I don't have their email list, and I don't have their wiring, and I don't have their personality so I have me and me as a person who does really well in a services-based environment, who does really well with clients and loves that part of it and I have been able to scale it pretty aggressively. And I naturally fit into it, and that is okay. And so I think that would be the biggest piece of advice: "Don't chase other people's success. Chase your own because you are unique, and you have your own strengths and gifts and talents and personality." And I'm not somebody else and their take on Pinterest. I'm not going to focus on certain things and there's certain things I will and will not teach on, and that's fine. Other people are going to teach on those things. But sometimes, it's not for me and I have to be okay with that instead of trying to be all things to all people who want all types of Pinterest marketing. I'm not going to be the expert for somebody who wants a different type of philosophy with Pinterest, and I've finally come to the place where I can say "That's okay." Jillian: [00:40:24] I love it. I completely agree. It's like you have your own special sauce. We all do. And it's how do you figure out what that is and typically, I would say it's two. For me, it's two things. One, does this feel good? Do I leave this happier than when I started? So for example, for me, I'm really enjoying podcasting in a way that I didn't even know I would. So it's like "Ooh, that feels good. I want to continue" and then the other side is "are people responding in a positive way? Are people liking what I'm doing, liking what I'm selling..." So that there's this kind of feedback loop and I feel like if you can find your own feedback loop where people like what you do and you like what you're doing, that is kind of your sweet spot. Kate: [00:41:17] Right. Yeah. Agreed. Jillian: [00:41:19] So now, what about your business are you most excited about? Kate: [00:41:24] I am really excited about a new step that we're taking to teach people how to be a Pinterest account specialist and are certified in a Simple Pin Method. Jillian: [00:41:35] So explain what that is. Kate: [00:41:36] So here at Simple Pin, we do services for Pinterest account management and I have 30 team members that I've trained to be Pinterest account specialists, so I realized that teaching and training how to do this specific skill comes very naturally to me. So we realized we could take that and transfer into helping other people find work at home jobs to be Pinterest account specialists if they needed to supplement their income, or they need to find a full time income. So we took the methods that I've used, the systems that I've had and we created a whole course training as to how you can be a Pinterest account specialist being trained in our method. So we would endorse you as a provider, kind of similar to how like, I don't know, Dave Ramsey has this great method that he does with budgeting, so he endorses people to be like endorse local providers. So that would kind of be similar as to what we're doing is training people on how to do this, and how to grow their Pinterest account specialist business. Jillian: [00:42:40] Oh wow. So if you're a person and you love Pinterest and you want to make money, kind of delving in and then helping others, this is an awesome way to do it. Kate: [00:42:51] Yeah. And there was not anything like that when I was around when I was starting. There was nothing. Jillian: [00:42:56] Well, I have an assistant, and she does all of our Pinterest. And I think it is one of the - like it's her happy place because she gets to go onto Pinterest and find beautiful pins and pin our content. And I really think that when I was explaining that part of the job, I think that she's like "Oh my God. You're going to pay me to hang out on Pinterest all day?" Kate: [00:43:20] Yeah, exactly. That's what most of my account specialists say. They're like "People don't understand what I do. But I love it." Because many of them, they are young moms and they get to stay at home and do this during nap time or in the evening or they have kids who are at school or they even don't have kids, summer in college. I mean, there's a lot of things that they love about it and the freedom to be able to do it whenever it works for them and they're on Pinterest. Jillian: [00:43:45] Exactly. See, I find Pinterest very different than when I'm on Facebook. Pinterest to me is like, and I'd still get this even all these years later, just this feeling of like "Oh, filled with possibilities." Kate: [00:44:00] Pretty, pretty things. Jillian: [00:44:03] You know? It puts me in my happy place. Like "look at all this food." It just makes me happy. Kate: [00:44:10] Me too. Jillian: [00:44:11] So, okay, will you share how people can learn about you, learn more about your services, whatever, you know, so people can connect with you? How Simple Pin Media works Kate: [00:44:21] Yeah. So first of all, Simple Pin is kind of broken up into two parts. One is the services side. So if you are somebody that you've a business blog or you're corporate, whatever it is and you want to just take Pinterest management off your plate, take that chore away, that's what we primarily specialize in, and you can find more about that at simplepinmedia.com. And you can see, there's a services menu at the top and we also offer a variety of onetime services as well, and we do teach and train teams how to do that as well. So if you have a virtual assistant that you still want to do your Pinterest management but you need more support, we'd do that as well. And then there's the DIY side. So I had the Simple Pin Podcast. Jillian: [00:45:03] Which is terrific. Kate: [00:45:05] Thank you. There is I think where one episode I recorded, episode 89 today, so there's quite a bit of information and we try to keep it. The goal is to give you information to make you not feel overwhelmed because there's a lot of things out there that can feel very heady or tricky, or whatever it might be, and we try to stay away from that and just give you the most up to date information as it relates to how they're currently working on the platform. So we have that, and as with the blog too, and you can also find at simplepinmedia.com a free Pinterest planner, a year round planner, that I did in conjunction with TailWind. We partnered together to create one this year. And that has a month by month of what to pin, what to promote, content, planning ideas, tips for the month as it relates to Pinterest and then monthly action items that you can take to keep your business moving forward. Jillian: [00:45:59] Kate, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Kate: [00:46:03] You're so welcome. Jillian: [00:46:05] If you're trying to grow your social media followers on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterestm plus trying to grow your email list, definitely check out MiloTree. It is the smart pop-up you add to your blog or your site, and it asks your visitors to follow you on social media or subscribe to your list. Jillian: [00:46:27] Just a couple of things: It's super easy to add to your site. We offer a WordPress plugin or a simple line of code. It's Google friendly on mobile so you don't have to worry about showing pop-ups on mobile. It's lightning fast. It won't slow your sight down, and you can grow multiple platforms at once. So check it out, milotree.com. We also offer your first 30 days free!

Welcome to episode 342 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Today we're sitting down and talking about another social media management tool. This week we're talking about viraltag. Before we get into the specifics of viraltag though, I want to make a small disclaimer that I make whenever I do any of these kinds of episodes, and that is this. The social media tool that is best is the one you're going to use. If you are not going to use it, it doesn't matter how awesome, how free, how expensive, how feature filled, how whatever. It won't work. Okay? If you love the tool you're using now, great. Use it. If you don't think that viraltag's a fit for you, that's okay you're not broken. The tool you're going to find the best results with is the one you're going to use. With that said, let's break down viraltag because for a lot of you, it might be a perfect solution. Cool? Cool. Starting off, viraltag. Let's talk about some features. You've got the ability to schedule content for all of the big guys: Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc. which is a great, great place to start because not everybody has all of those features. You can also do things like upload content and schedule it in bulk. Meaning you can hit sort of all the places you need to get content to or if you have somebody who maybe writes your content for you, they can send you say, a Google spreadsheet or an excel document or whatever for your approval, and then they can upload all of those at one time into viraltag without having to sort of go in and schedule everything one by one. That's really, really powerful. Also, you can create a slightly different post for the same piece of content all at one time. Meaning, I can upload a video or an image and create the Instagram post, the Pinterest post, the Twitter post, and the Facebook post at one time without having to upload that image four times. That is a huge, huge time saver. It's not something I've seen with a lot of other networks. There's also integrations with things like Canva and RSS feed so you can create images and handle your content curation right inside a viraltag. I know for a lot of you being able to do things in one place is really, really valuable. With that said, one last really awesome feature and then a feature that I wish was there. The awesome feature being evergreen content, post recycling. The ability to have a queue that goes out and tweets go out and out and out and then when it's empty, it sort of cycles through again. I know a lot of you are using tools like MeetEdgar. I use eClincher to do that. I believe Sendable does that. More and more tools are adding this feature because it's a great way for us on the content curator side, our creator side of things, to keep sharing past content that still has value. And viraltag allows you to do that as well. Now a not so great feature, or a missing feature really, is there's no social listening. With viraltag, it's all about broadcast. It's not about conversation, so you're still going to need to go use the networks or another tool to actually manage your incoming message, at replies, comments, things like that. However, the broadcast side of this tool is really solid as far as the amount of networks you're talking to, post recycling, allowing you to add your RSS feeds and things like that so you can do your content creation all in one tool. There's a really great thing called Circles that allow you to create like little communities of people to collaborate with friends and peers and really, colleagues, JV partners, whatever so you can kind of share each other's content and grow your reach. That's really, really powerful. Especially for those of you who are on the blogger podcaster content side of your business model. That can be a really great way to increase your reach, grow your network and support people putting out content is going to serve your audience and really get your content in front of more people who maybe aren't yet in your audience, but are a perfect fit for your audience. That's really cool. The other thing is there some analytics. You can pull in your Google analytics, you're going to have Pinterest, Instagram analytics so you can see how your content is doing. You guys know, you know, how valuable that is. You can absolutely make sure that you're tied in and connected to your numbers. That's features. A lot of great features. Really, really like the layout. I really like the way it looks. If that fits your needs, that's worth checking out. The next step of course, is pricing. We always talk about sort of where these price points fit into the grand scheme of things. There is a monthly and an annual option. I'm going to talk about it from a monthly perspective. For one user, ten social profiles you have $29 per month for the individual. That is going to leave out any team sort of option, as well as things like Google analytics and advanced visual analytics. However, those options do come up when you talk about the small business option, which is $99 a month. What's cool is at that $29 a month, you do have the post recycling option, which, again, is killer. That's actually a really great price point to have that option as well. That's worth checking out, guys. Then of course you can save 20% when you do the annual option, and you pay once a year. On this sort of note, I've had a couple people ask me if I prefer to pay monthly or annually for social media tools. I pay monthly for social media tools because there are new tools all of the time. If I find something different I don't want to be tied into a one year commitment or I've already paid for it at least with a social media tool. That's just me. I think for most people, the annual option is really great if your business can afford the upfront cost because it's taken care of and there's usually a savings. Generally speaking, you will not jump around tools very often. I don't actually jump around tools very often, I try a lot of new tools. I've been with eClincher for quite awhile now. I think right about a year. But because I have serious shiny object syndrome when it comes to social media tools, I tend to pay monthly. That's something I wanted to mention. The last thing I mentioned I want to talk about, is who is this tool going to be best for? I think this tool is really solid for those of you who are in the content space, the media space. Vloggers, bloggers, podcasters. Because there is such a really great curation and community, and recycled content, we're talking all of the major networks that needed to be tied into like Pinterest, and Instagram, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Tumblr, etc. I would definitely say for you guys. However, if you're somebody who wants to use one tool for your listening and your broadcasting, viraltag may not be a fit because again, there's none of that listening and engagement side of things inside of this tool. You're going to want to pay attention to that. However, I have to say of all of the tools I've used including eClincher which I use, I liked the Pinterest scheduling inside of this tool the best. If that's something that's really important you, I thought this looked the best of all the Pinterest scheduling tools I've used. That's just a random side note. But that's viraltag. Check it out. If this is something that sounds like it's a fit for you, check it out. But again, there is not one tool to rule them all. This is absolutely a contender as far as being a valuable place to look the next time you need a new tool for social media management. All right? If you have any questions about viral tag or finding the best tool for you, or you want recommendations, come on over to the Facebook page and ask that there. Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris. They're questions I get quite frequently. What's cool about asking them on the Facebook page is other people can answer them as well. Again, the tool that's best is the one you'll use. If you check out viraltag, there is a 14 day free trial, no credit card required. You can at least get in and get a feel for it. If you love, go with it. It's about what you'll use. All right? All right. Of course for all of the latest social media tools and network news, the best place to go is HittheMicBackstage.com. They are the community that finds out first, the latest and greatest like all of the cool news that has come out in March with Facebook ads and Instagram stuff. Some of the stuff we're going to talk about next week on the three things you must know about social media in April. Yeah, guys Backstage already knows it because I told them. All right? Check out HittheMicBackstage.com to join us backstage and I will see you backstage! Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Viraltag Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 339 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Welcome to our first episode of March which means it is a three things you must know episode, and so these are the three things I want you to be paying attention to when it comes to your social media time in March 2017. Now here's the deal. Some of these things will be relevant even outside of March, so if this is not March when you're listening, keep listening, because guys, these are things that I'm seeing questions on, I'm seeing frustration around, and so I really want to get this in front of you get clear. If you want to stay up on the latest and greatest of all things social media anytime, the place to be is of course inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. That's where I make all announcements on sort of network updates, strategy changes, tool updates, things like that. So if you are listening to this because of a intense need to be in the know, head over to to hitthemicbackstage.com because that's the place to be. All right? With that, let's get started. Number one thing I want you to be paying attention to in March is around the tools you're using. We're actually going to review a new tool this month called Viraltag. I'm a big fan of eClincher. I have done countless episodes reviewing tools, and still one of the most common questions I got in February of this year was what tool should I be using to manage my social media? What tool should I be using to schedule? What tool? What tool? it's not about the tools, guys. It's about using it, and the best tool for you to use to manage your social media is the one you're actually going to use. If that's Hootsuite, if that's Buffer, if that's eClincher, if that's Meet Edgar, if that's Viraltag, if that's Post Planner, and I don't care what it is. I care that it fits your needs and that you are going to login and actually use it, because that's where the difference happens. That's where the change happens, and that's where your business and your community is impacted is when you actually use the tool. You know, the same can be said about just about anything. The webinar that's going to make all the difference in your business is the one you attend and then the one you take action on. The course that's going to change your business forever is the one you actually use, so this is one of those things that applies to literally all the things, but I want you to remember, especially when it comes to social media, the tool that is going to work is the one you're going to use. Now there are different tools for different budgets and different needs a different network focuses. Again, I've reviewed a lot of them. I'll actually link to all of the review episodes in the resource section over on the show notes page for this episode, but at the end of the day, if you're not going to use it, it's not going to work. It's not going to make a difference. So make sure you are using it, and that means getting comfortable with it. That means setting aside time to figure it out, to watch the tutorials, to reach out to your social media person get training. Whatever it is that you need to make sure that you are, yes I'm going to say it again, actually using this tool, because again, that's where the difference is made. That's where the change happens. And you know what guys? That's where the results are. I know, it's magic. So yes, the tool that is best for the job is the one you will use. Number two, let's talk about number two. If you're not yet going live, seriously guys, do it. We're actually, we just launched last week on the first, a brand-new training inside of Hit the Mic Backstage about going live, and the power of going live. I actually walked our members through using OBS, which is what I used to go live for Facebook and YouTube. We talked a little bit about a tool that will allow you to go live in multiple places at one time, so if you want to check that out, of course that's all on Backstage, hitthemicbackstage.com. But going live is never been more important than it is right now, so do it. Start figuring out what that looks like for you and then do it with some consistency. One of the biggest things I want you to realize is this doesn't have to be all new content. This doesn't have to be you creating something else. This is a great play for you to be repurposing your content. This is a great way for you to be doing more with what's already there. Maybe you have a blog post the that you wrote or a video series that you did, and you can pull out one small point in that valuable piece of content and say, "I'm going to dive deep into this in five, 10, no more than 15 minutes really, and I'm going to provide the value that way."  Or you can be using your Facebook Lives or your Periscopes or your YouTube Lives, whatever you want to use, you can be using those to create your content. Actually record it going live, and then have it transcribed. I use Rev.com for all of my transcriptions for not only my Facebook Lives, but this podcast. So Rev.com, and then take that and edit it into, you guessed it, a blog post. Use the value in lots of ways, because that's how you're going to see it, but you've got to be doing it. You've got to be going live, and later this month, we're actually going to talk about a few ways I have up-leveled my Facebook Lives so that I'm really providing maximum value and really having the best experience from a creator's standpoint, but also my watchers are having from a consumer standpoint. So stay tuned for that. That's going to go live on the 21st, you'll see that episode. And again, if you want to do that right now, of course head into hitthemicbackstage.com when we're talking about Lives, and you can of course ask your questions there about Facebook Lives. And of course, you can join me. I go live once a week, so there you go. Number three, consistency matters. We talked about this at the beginning of February, but here we are going into the final month of this first quarter of the year, and I'm starting to see a lot of people who were really gung ho at the beginning of the year about their social media goals, about tracking their numbers, about looking at what was happening with their numbers and doing something about it, about implementing a strategy, and now here there are in March, and they're feeling maybe overwhelmed. They're feeling like they don't know if it's working. They're feeling like they don't have time. Something else has sparked up in front of them that seems way more fun, and I get that. I totally get that, but consistency is important, and it matters more than it ever has before, because there are more voices than there have ever been before. And so, as much as you can get distracted by the shiny object, so can your audience, and that shiny object might be someone else. So what I want you be doing is really looking back at January, looking back at those goals you set, looking back at those commitments that you made to change something about your social media and do something with it. If that means that you are going to do something, and this is what I really hope it is if you're not doing is already, looking at your numbers regularly, checking those insights, paying attention to those numbers so that you can see if those changes you're making are working. One of the biggest reasons people stop doing something is they're like, "I don't even know if this is working." Well, first of all, look at whether you've given it enough time to work. Two Facebook Lives is not enough time to know whether Facebook Live works for you or not, okay? It's just not. And number two, make sure you looked at the numbers before you started, and make sure you look at the numbers on the regular now, because they're gonna tell you if things are working. I can tell you that going live once a week since the beginning of the year is absolutely working. You know why? Because I'm seeing an increase in traffic to my site. I'm seeing an increase in new members. I'm seeing the impact made on my business from people telling me they're watching live. I'm seeing my view numbers go up. I'm seeing my viewers are staying longer. I'm seeing my engagement sort of fluctuate back and forth, but I'm still seeing the traffic drive and the members join and the sign-ups happen for the free stuff that I'm promoing. So I know it's working, even if I feel like, "Well, nobody actually watched live today," or, "Nobody commented today." Well, guess what? They did take action, though. They did sign up for that training. They did join us backstage. They did listen the podcast, whatever it was that I was talking about on that episode. So if I didn't look at those numbers, I wouldn't see that it really is working. So stay committed to whatever goal you set. Stay committed to taking action, and continually be measuring those results. And guess what, guys? In some cases, it will be that it's not working, and then it's okay to make a change. But making a change doesn't mean throwing everything out, it means "Well, you know what? I've been going live, and it's not clicking in the way I want it to. Maybe I'm going to start going live on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays, or in the evening instead of in the morning, or flip that around, because guess what, guys? That depends on who your audience is. It depends on when they're online, it depends on when they're available, and it depends on how you're executing your Live. Maybe it's not working because you haven't included a single call to action in a Live you've done all year. I'm seeing that and absolutely seeing that mistake made. I'm guilty of it from time to time. I'll get so excited to provide value and share something that just happened that I'll forget to say, "Click the episode. Check out the training. Join us backstage." Whatever the call to action is that episode. So make sure you're doing those things, but make sure most of all that you're being consistent. All right? All right. That's our episode for today. Again, if you want to be in the know of what's happening, not only strategy-wise, but what's happening on the networks, there were some changes that we talked about inside of Hit the Mike Backstage. Instagram is a great example, sort of a bonus thing you need to know, Instagram has now got a slideshow option for your Instagram photos. You can do up to 10 photos in like a little gallery kind of thing. If you want to know about that stuff first, Hit the Mic Backstage knows about it first, so hitthemicbackstage.com to join us.  Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Hootsuite Review Buffer Review eClincher Review Edgar Review Sedible Review Co-Schedule Review Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Today I speak with Sudheer Someshwara, founder of ViralTag and entrepreneur. He's a Product guy with deep technology experience building advertising, marketing and big data platforms at Amazon, NextJump, and Yahoo. I'm a big fan of his product viraltag because it has helped me grow a Pinterest audience of 45,000 views per month.

Do you have a hobby that you'd love to turn into a business?  Listening to Addi may be just the boost you need to get going!  Addi had a hobby blog for several years, but one day, she decided it was time to get serious.  Did she ever!  In four months' time, Addi figured out how to boost her blog traffic from 10,000 pageviews per month to 100,000 pageviews a month.  Now she averages over 500,000 pageviews each month.  Addi is a down-to-earth mom - just like you.  Listen to her story to hear her best advice - then go make some brilliant moves of your own! On the Podcast 00:49 - How an Outlet Turned into an Income02:56 - Simply Blogging Along... or is it?04:21 - Starting Fresh05:21 - Splitting Time Between Two Blogs07:35 - Posting Frequency + Blog Traffic09:28 - Pinterest Strategies14:22 - This is Real Life, Folks!16:19 - The Number One Tip for Bloggers19:18 - Launching an E-book21:30 - Why you Should Sell an Audiobook29:10 - Using Woo Commerce35:09 - Landing Pages43:18 - Addi's Embarassing Mom Moment   Note: We use affiliate links in this post.  This means, at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you decide to purchase a product.  Affiliate links are noted with an asterisk *  Press Play on the Podcast Player Below to Hear Addi's Full Story How an Outlet Turned into an Income Addi began her first blog, Frugal Fanatic, about three years ago.  It started as an outlet for her as a new mom who wanted to share about saving money and motherhood.  After two years of blogging just for fun, Addi got more serious about blogging and decided to turn it into a real business. She soon found she loved blogging and had a passion for it.  Not long after, Simply Blogging Along, her second web site, was born! Simply Blogging Along... or is it? Once Addi grew Frugal Fanatic into a successful blog, she received a lot of questions about blogging and business. Although she wanted to share what life was like as a mom blogger and small business owner, she knew her core readership at Frugal Fanatic likely wouldn't be a fan of her new focus.  They were used to content about motherhood and money saving tips. So Addi decided to start a new blog where she could share about blogging and business and Simply Blogging Along was born. We love the title of Addi's new blog, because she shares blogging tips that are honest, and genuine.  She's simply blogging along - growing as she goes.  But in other ways, blogging isn't simple at all!  Addi confessed that she has found it very tough to run two blogs at once.  She forgot about a lot of the little things involved in setting up a new site such as social media and networking with bloggers. Starting Fresh We were curious about whether Addi's past experience in successfully growing a blog made growing her new site a piece of cake, or whether it still felt like she was starting from scratch.Addi confessed that while she's a step ahead in terms of the knowledge she's gained from growing Frugal Fanatic, she has found that the challenges in creating a new readership are still there. It's not as though Addi's entire audience at Frugal Fanatic came right over.  She did grab a core group of readers, but she still has to work hard to gain new visitors to her site.  The other challenge that any site owner will face: getting to know your new audience and serving them well.  In order to grow her site, Addi knows she needs to provide her audience with the content they're looking for and not just write whatever she feels like writing that day. Isn't that great advice for all of us?  Whether you're brand new or years into online business, you have to get to know your audience well and serve them well.  And... if you're thinking about starting a brand new site with a brand new focus, just remember, it will still take a lot of time and work to make it successful. Splitting Time Between Two Blogs Although building Simply Blogging Along is new and exciting Addi has to remember that Frugal Fanatic is her “bread and butter” so she can't ignore it. Balancing her time between both sites has been a struggle but Addi sticks to a schedule every week that helps her stay on track. Addi has time blocks to work in the morning, during nap time, and in the evening.  Addie always uses her evening time block to write (she's trained her brain to do this!)  She creates a “must do” task list daily and uses this to guide each time block. 75% of Addi's time is spent on Frugal Fanatic and only about 25% on Simply Blogging Along. This is because her new blog is more relaxed, doesn’t have ads yet, and is growing only as quickly as she allows it. Sticking to a schedule has been the most important way that Addi balances both blogs. Posting Frequency + Blog Traffic Addi used to post 6-7 articles per week on Frugal Fanatic but has cut that down to focus on writing higher-quality posts. Now Addi posts about 3-4 times per week on Frugal Fanatic. After Addi decided to get serious about blogging, she was able to grow her site from 10,000 pageviews to 100,000 pageviews in just four months! 18 months later Addi now averages about 500,000 page views each month. She attributes her fast growth to using Pinterest to promote her blog. By putting in the time and having a solid plan, she has grown her blog readership and believes others can too. Pinterest Strategies Addi attributes a lot of her growth in traffic to Pinterest.  Here's what she does. Use vertical images.  (Addi didn't even know to do this two years ago!) Put great descriptions into the alt text on your photos.  This makes them compelling to someone on Pinterest and is great for those pins getting found more often on the site. Overlay text on your images to make them stand out. Pin more of other people’s content than your own.  (Addi says this main tip alone has helped her gain many new followers and readers.) Don't spend all your time on Pinterest.  It's not necessary!  Addi spends 5 hours per week on Pinterest. This includes scheduling pins, manually pinning, creating pins, and following others.  (We love ViralTag for scheduling our pins*) Addi has over 31,000 followers and 89 boards for Frugal Fanatic!     Addi with her adorable family This is Real Life, Folks! Although Simply Blogging Along is more focused on blogging and how to make money online, Addi found that it was important for her to include her “mom” life here as well. When you're a mom, growing a business from home just isn't quite the same.  There's a huge balancing act at play, and Addi knows that struggle firsthand. Addi wants to help her audience with their home lives, their parenting, and the entire balancing act of being a mompreneur.  And, she wants to acknowledge that although it's tough to be a work-at-home mom, it's very possible! So Addi shares real life.  She shows others how she balances running her household, being a mom, and running her business all on Simply Blogging Along. Addi says her kids even help her with her blogs on occasion, and her oldest son now tells people that he's going to work from home when he grows up! The Number One Tip for Bloggers Write amazing content!  Write something that your readers will not only relate to, but will be compelled to share. Provide value by solving your reader's everyday problems. You may be able to entice someone to click over from Pinterest by simply using a great photo and a catchy headline, but they'll leave just as fast as they came if you don't have solid content to with which to back that pin up. If you want to build a loyal readership and grow your email list, focus on posting less often but posting quality work. Launching an E-Book In June of 2015, Addi launched her book, Breakthrough: The Complete Guide to Growing your Platform and Blogging your Way to a Full-Time Income*  She shared several things she learned along the way. Develop a clear plan of action.  Know exactly how and where you'll market your book, and give yourself plenty of time to take action on that plan. Guest post.  Addi guest posted on a lot of related sites.  Those bloggers also shared about her book on social media.  All of Addi's guest posts resulted in a lot of traffic to her landing page on launch day. Timing Matters.  Addi released her book just one month after launching, Simply Blogging Along.  So she hadn't had enough time to build up a loyal readership there so this probably decreased her overall sales numbers. Why you Should Sell an Audiobook We don't usually tell you "you should do this!"  We tend to be more balanced in our approach.  But in this case... I really think most of you reading this page should sell an audiobook!  Listen and read on to figure out why. Addi has made the most sales by selling her book on her own site and through affiliates she works with.  On Amazon, Addi's e-book doesn't sell all that well, and she thinks she may need to learn a little more about Amazon SEO. But here's the kicker: Addi has sold about 200 copies of her Audiobook, and that version has only been out for 6 weeks (as of our interview date). At first, Addi never considered selling an audio version of her book, but after getting numerous requests, she's so happy she took the time to create it. She has sold about 200 Audiobooks in just 6 weeks of having it live on Audible* with very little promotion. Addi found a woman on ACX Exchange and paid her $20 an hour to record her book which was 3.8 hours in length. So in all, Addi paid just under $80 to create the Audible version of her e-book!  That included the editing done by her narrator to format the book for Audible. Here's Why Selling Audiobooks Might be a Great Idea: Less Competition.  There are so many less search results in any given field within Audible as compared to e-books on Amazon.  Compare just 55 results for "blogging" in Audible to 10,435 results on Amazon!  Addi's book gets found more often on Audible. Less Price-Gouging.  Most Audiobooks are priced at the same level, but on Amazon, an e-book can range from Free to $15! Better Commissions.  Audible has a Bounty program, so when you refer a new member who sticks around for 60 days or more, you get a $50 credit.  For everyone else, Addi says the commission averages to about 50% of the retail price.  So in Addi's case, she can make about $7.45 for each book sale. Easier than you think.  You've already done the hard work of writing a book.  Why not go the extra step to make more sales?  On average, Addi says people on ACX Exchange charge from $15 to $50 per hour of finished audio. Reach more readers. There are some people who are just too busy to consume your book in a traditional format, but they have driving time and chore time to listen to you teach them.  Reach more readers with an audiobook. Using Woo Commerce Addie sells her e-books and products by using the Woo Commerce Plug-in on both of her sites. Quick Facts: The plug-in is free. You only pay if you want a theme.  Addi paid $30 - a one-time fee- for her theme that she can then customize. Use a sub domain for each blog (shop.frugalfanatic.com for example).  This makes the process easier and you'll avoid slowing down your main site. Set up your affiliate program from within Woo Commerce. Affiliates can easily track their traffic, sales, and commissions. Payment Options: You can connect PayPal or credit card payments through Stripe, along with several other payment options such as Cash On Delivery. Sales Pages Woo Commerce also has a landing page template that has lots of short code options so Addi can customize it.  It looks the same as Addi's old landing page that she paid for. Shoppers can land on the landing page, or they can click and go straight to the cart.  Addi has been testing both options to see which converts better.  Overall, it seems like her customers like the shorter option better! Then...we all proceeded to compare and contrast long versus short landing pages, the psychology of selling, and $1,000 courses :)  It was an interesting conversation! Addi's Embarrassing Mom Moment Addi's embarassing mom moment is something we've all experienced!  Oh boy... kids will be kids!  Tune in to hear the story! Find Addi Online! FrugalFanatic.comSimplyBloggingAlong.com (Our book on Audible! And, if you're brand new to Audible, use this link to get your first book free*)

Brain Burps About Books Podcast #213 A Pinterest Rockstar Shares Her Secrets Announcements Just a quick note to let you know that I’m starting a new podcast soon if I haven’t already started by the time you hear this. Want to know more? It’s going to be pretty awesome and very different from this show. Go to writeakidsbook.com/podcast to learn more.   There's still time to join Crank It Up with Katie! It's a great opportunity to get coaching for your writer business in a small group format. Join HERE. I’m inviting you to a party! Join the KidLit.TV Pinterest Party on January 29th at 9pm EST. Be sure to follow for the latest resources on KidLit and a chance to WIN! Comment, Like, Repin... it's like a visual Twitter Chat on Pinterest! Have you ever been to a Pinterest party? One for writers? One that will grow your followers? RSVP HERE. Sign up for a FREE 15 minute Pinterest Session HERE! Plus, receive $20 Off a Pinterest Consulting Session by click HERE. This Week's Guest is Kim Vij! Kim Vij is a Pinterest Consultant, Educator, Blogger, Freelance Writer and Speaker. Using The Educators' Spin On It, she has created award winning boards on Pinterest with over 1.6 Million followers by focusing pins on Education and Parenting. She’s successfully partnered with leading children’s educational bloggers and brands to create powerful Pinterest boards for early childhood education. In the past three years she has discovered how to reach out to parents to encourage them to become their child’s first teacher by blogging and pinning resources and tips onto her Pinterest Boards. As a mom of 3, Kim enjoys sharing simple ways to make every day moments into learning opportunities. Kim and I talk about • What to name your author board. (Hint: Use Pinterest Name-author) • How to pick a niche topic. • How create a character building board. • Naming your boards. • What to use for board descriptions and how tabs connect. • The educational aspects of Pinterest. • How often should you change your board covers? • Promoted pins – paying for pins to be promoted. • Picmonkey.com and Canva.com • What is the maximum size image you can use? • How to pin to secret boards and release later. • Should you use Tailwind or Viraltag or Ahalogy? • Can you change the name of your board? • How to embed your boards on your site. • The steps to a perfect pin. • What should be in your pin description? Answer: Title for the blog post, plus one more sentence, about 100 characters total. • What are the Pinterest don’ts? Note to my podcast listeners When I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR I thought, "Hey! I could do that, but with children's publishing as my focus!" That's how Brain Burps About Books got started. Writing is so solitary. I thought it would be a great way to get to talk to my friends and make new ones, plus I could help others learn. Maybe I'd learn some stuff myself, too. I've had the privilege of talking to the first three National Ambassadors for Young People's Literature, to librarians and New York Time's bestselling authors. I've interviewed to booksellers and publishers, writers, illustrators, app creators, and app distributors, and more! There is always something new on the horizon to learn and to share. So many listeners have asked how to support the show, and actually, now you can. I've installed a donate button to help defray the costs of producing the show. What do you learn or get out of Brain Burps every week? If it's worth donating a dollar, two dollars, five, or whatever you think the show is worth to you, it would help enormously. The show costs $20 a month to keep on the server, and that's only if there are four shorter episodes in a month. That number doesn't include other costs like my time to research and record, post, edit the intros and outros, web hosting, and equipment and software to do all this. I ended up loving podcasting. I love my listeners. My "Burpers!" This is my gig, I know. and like I said, it's an incredible experience for me. But if you've you've been helped, or just love it too, and you're able, here's your opportunity to help defray the costs. No matter what, thank you for being a Burper! http://katiedavis.com/donate