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You are here: Home / LEARN / BlogHer12 / BlogHer 2012: Day Two: Leveraging Pinterest, Google+, Instagram

August 4, 2012 By Cyn Gagen 2 Comments

BlogHer 2012: Day Two: Leveraging Pinterest, Google+, Instagram

Filed Under: BlogHer12 Tagged With: BlogHer12, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, social media

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Leveraging Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram presented by Alexandra Asher Sears of Alexandrawrote, @alexandrawrote (Pinterest section); Lynette Young of Lynetteradio (Google+ section); and Heather Durdil of Domestic Extraordinaire (Instagram section)

Pinterest

This is an incredible resource but as with any other social media platform,  you just need to follow the guidelines.  Pinterest now leads in bringing traffic to blogs so you need to make people interested in your content by pinning it appropriately and then curating other relevant stuff.  Pinterest is like a visual tweet – public, concise, and usually contains a link through to learn more.

Start with your bio – you need to streamline it across social media platforms – the quicker you can connect the better.  Use the same avatar everywhere so that there’s an instant branding connection.  Link up your other social media platforms  Keep it as simple as possible.

From your site to Pinterest:  use original content, pictures can be a max imumof 600 pixels wide, watermark them with your URL, text makes it more Pinteresting, use those 500 characters well to describe what it’s about including the use of appropriate #hashtags, be sure to link to the permalink not your homepage.

Use their pinning button, a plugin, and make it very visible on your site what can be pinned and what can’t including the use of what she calls SAFETY PINS  –a  button or badge that says yes or no you can pin this post (she has some on her blog that you can use:  http://alexandrawrote.com/if-emily-posted-safety-pins/)

People are very interested in how tos on Pinterest!!!

Make your text informative so you drive them to the site but don’t give all the info right on the pin.  Pin should inspire them to click through right to your site – you really need to attract them with a good picture and a catchy “headline”.

Square images often work best because then you can use instagrams too.

Make your boards stand out – people window shop on Pinterest so make them want to stop – make them easily identifiable by their names and make the cover image something people will want to stop on.

“Don’t pin the ugly” a quote from The Next Martha.

Make one or more boards that are blog specific for self promotion- can serve as a Pinterest portfolios.

You should repin, like, and comment on others – it builds community.

Less can be more in pin descriptions – more info – less chance of them clicking through – do include relevant hashtags too.

Edit your repins to add your personality.

Stagger your posts when sharing to Twitter and Facebook!!!!!!! – turns people off but also the less you share, the more powerful the shares are.

Collaborative boards can be a great way to build a following.

To find what stuff of yours is being shared on Pinterest go to Pinterest.com/source/YOURNAME

Double check the original source when you are repinning to make sure it has been done properly.

DON’T just follow all boards on others’ accounts – just pick and choose the boards pertinent to you.

Don’t pin any image that can cause harm.  Don’t pin anything unless you own the copyright or have permission to.  (Pinterest TOS)

Google+

G+ is a digital publishing platform.

No one loves Google+ more than Google!!!!!!!!!!!!! (think about that and what it means to the importance of using Google + to get your stuff out there!)

Why using Google+ matters- she went from 0 to 1.5 mill followers in a year by talking talking talking on it!

Guy Kawasaki says he uses Facebook for people he knows, G+ for people he wants to know!

Post publicly and post often – the more you do, the more traction you’ll get – circles – if you post inside to a circle the internet won’t see it!!!!!! Must do public post to reach the entire internet.  There are multiple layers of who you can post to.

Disadvantage in that there are no vanity URLs – very long ugly urls is your only option right now.

Instead of liking you can plus one – that button can give you a tenfold increase in search ranking – Remember, who loves Google more than Google?

Can still use hashtags here – very easy to get content and find content

Is Google+ a ghost town?  You can’t just copy and paste content there and leave.  You HAVE to make an effort to build relationships in there.  250 million people there now.  You have to be very proactive on the system.

Think of your three things that draw people to your blog.  Search for those in G+ and you’ll find them.

How do you do it – circle people all the time!  Reshare content.  Reciprocation.  Can only follow 5000 people.  Unlimited number can follow you back.  Be sure to comment.  You can edit your posts forever.

Google+ system won’t love you for dump and runs – they won’t penalize you but they will ignore you.  G+ is very visual and very multi media.  Share pics and videos!!!! 6-700 pixels wide for photos so photographers love it.  If you attach a pic you have a 20 fold higher chance of being shared.

People cannot post content to YOUR “wall”.  You’re in 100% control of what is being put out.

Every single thing in your bio is searchable.  Be very very verbose.  The more you put in, the higher the likelihood people will find you.  You MUST fill out the sections called “other profiles” (blog, twitter etc) , “contributor to”, and “links” – you get rewarded with higher search results.

How often should you be posting on G+ – a twice a day update is good (put in your links in your post so Google picks them up) Maybe morning and evening to hit different time zones

Pages vs. profiles – Should you have a Google+ for your personal name or your blog name?  Think about:  do people call you by your name or by your blog name and go with that.

Don’t do entire blog posts – do a teaser.

Instagram

Honestly, she gave us a lot of information but without her slides to see her images there isn’t much that will translate here in notes.

Left to right the buttons at the bottom are– home, explore, take a photo, news, your page

Tap on your screen to focus

Tap on it if it’s a little bit dark and it may correct that too

You can use the blur tool if your pictures include kids that aren’t your own

Geotags are public info – be careful

Can reedit pictures later

SEO doesn’t really work with this so why use it?   – To build up your numbers – people are going to get to know you, like you and then search you out to connect in other places.

You can cross promote by doing such things as using your Twitter name as your Instagram name to make it easier

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  1. Isabel Marant Sneakers says

    November 10, 2013 at 2:21 pm

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  1. Creative CynchronicityWhat I Learned at BlogHer 2012 - Creative Cynchronicity says:
    August 10, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    […] BlogHer Day Two – Leveraging Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram: https://creativecynchronicity.com/2012/08/blogher-2012-day-two-leveraging-pinterest-google-instagram/ […]

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