Chapter 2: How To Use Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media site that's growing in leaps and bounds. It's been called the 'visual Twitter' because it's all about images.

You create boards and share your images with other users.

While it may good for traffic, its real power in how you can use it for branding. For us it's all about using all the marketing avenues available to us to promote our online

activities and naturally social media plays a part in that and will grow substantially over the coming years. However a word of caution here don't let the other more traditional methods slip,

article marketing, blog and forum commenting are still vital - it's all about doing little and often across as many promotional platforms as possible.

Read More Here : http://whoissoniafreer.com/uncategorized/use-pinterest/

It seems to me that a lot of people out in the wide world of the Internet are looking for ways to generate an income.

With so many jobs being made redundant by outsourcing, technological advancement, lack of funding, cash flow – whatever. We are all at the mercy of the person who pays us a salary in exchange for our skills and labour – and it is my experience that very few of us are paid what we are really worth.

How much would you charge per hour for your skill set, time, effort etc if you could name a price?
Think about the education you have endured, the time that you have spent away from your passions, your hobbies, family, friends, pets, kids – whatever.

I used to say that I wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $40 an hour. Found myself humbly accepting half of that as bills don’t stop coming.

Read More Here :http://whoissoniafreer.com/team-site-traffic-review/

What Is Pinterest?

We are now living in a modern world and we are now making use of computers, internet and social media for our own advantage.

Before anything else, it would be better if we could get to know one social media application at the base level. It will provide us with all the necessary background that will help us as we go further. Pinterest is actually one social media that allows you to express your thoughts and desires through pictures and images.

 It’s essentially an image sharing platform where members 'pin' images to their own 'pin board'.

 This can be anything you want - it can be random things that you just have an interest in and want to share or it can be multiple images relating to a passion you have.

For example you could have a passion for 1960s British roadsters, old company logo's, classic men’s watches or even a holiday home you really need to hire out.

As a member you are able to browse subjects and if you discover a board that you're interested in you then 'follow' it in the same way you do on Twitter or Facebook and you will be notified whenever any new photos are uploaded to the board. You can also leave comments and join in discussions on each of the images that appear on the site.

If you run a business which is selling or producing items that can produce good images such as clothes, photography, accommodation, artwork, this looks like it's a terrific opportunity to create some boards to advertise your services because your photos are able to have links back to your own websites product pages.

The most beneficial long-term approach from a sales perspective would be to be a part of the community spirit for a little while prior to 'hard-selling' your products, for example 'pin' some non-business pictures and then over time add your items.

If we take the holiday cottage letting example I mentioned earlier, it might be somebody owns a cottage they want to let in Wales for the eight or nine months of the year it’s not being used by them. They have a problem on Google because the first 4 or 5 pages of results are dominated by the large letting agents & so they get a board on Pinterest and fill it with pictures of the cottage itself. They also upload images of the surrounding country side; local places of interest and then wait for other Pinterest subscribers to come across the board follow them and, ultimately, rent the cottage.

Much like Facebook & Twitter before them though if they keep going at this pace of growth it’s only a matter time before everyone’s talking about Pinterest.

You would probably ask yourself whether we have time to log onto another social media site but this one’s definitely different & it’s very simple to use so it may possibly fill a gap we weren’t aware we had. From a business perspective it’s another no-brainer - if you have a service which will potentially benefit from a lot of visitors seeing images of what you are selling you need to be on Pinterest.

I'd love to know your thoughts about using Pinterest - please leave me your Pinterest URL below so that I may follow you there!

Read more about Pinterest for Beginners HERE: http://whoissoniafreer.com/pinterest/pinterest/

Soni

So, you've got a ‘Fan Page’ on Facebook. You've put in a bit of effort and managed to collect a few likes. You may even have been doing it for a while and may have over 100 or even more ‘likes’ on your page.

So, have you done anything with those people that have liked your page?

If you have, you need read no further. However, if you've just been watching the like count go up, celebrated each milestone and posted something every now and again, then please read on – and leave your feedback as a comment at the end of this article to let me know if you have learned anything new!

I know that a lot of ‘Social Media Guru’s’ and the like are advertising that they can help you get more likes, show you how to turn those likes into leads for your business etc. I've seen them, I've learned a little from some of them which I am happy to pay forward, but most of all, I've put into action a few simple tactics that really work.

The biggest thing I've learned from taking action though, is that for action to bring great rewards, you do need to be consistent. Yep! Consistency is the key.

As well as learning from some of the top social media industry names however, I've found ways to do things myself that have really worked as well and by combining the two, You may well have a winning formula – or at least the start of one that you can start putting into consistent action yourself!

Facebook is here to stay – so it seems. There is a huge magnetism about the whole Facebook community that has more and more users being added every day.

Last count, there are over 96 million Facebook users – at least the ones that have liked the Facebook Fanpage at any rate! Get the picture?

Just 1% of those users liking YOUR page, would give you 960,000 fans. How cool would that be? And it is absolutely possible over time.

Reflect for a moment, how you got your “Likes” on your page. Did you send requests to people already on your friends list? Did you ask those friends to share your page with their friends and ask them to like it too? Did you run any Facebook ads – either paid or with credit from your Hosting Provider?

However you got them, you have them and regardless of how often you've been posting on that page, they are still hanging around right? So you must have something either on your page, in your “About Me” or how you acquired these people on your “Fan List”that keeps them stuck there and not “Unliking” your page.

This is super cool! You now have a captive audience to start entertaining and have them get to know you, like YOU and not just your page AND TRUST you as well.

The tricky thing with fan page likers however, is that if they are not already your ‘friend’ then it is extremely hard to communicate with them one on one without ending up in their ‘Other Box’. And because your page likers only know your ‘Business Name’ from the page that they liked, when your personal profile name pops into their ‘Other Box’, they immediately get suss on who you are and think you are just another spamming scammer! This is not the case if you have at least one friend in common, Facebook allows us to at least have our message arrive in the recipients regular inbox.

I would strongly suggest that you comment and like statuses that you post on your fanpage as YOURSELF so that other fans of the page get used to seeing your name. This is so that when you come to try to connect with some of these fans, they would have seen your name around so you won’t seem like a complete stranger. If you’re not sure how to do this step, please feel free to contact me for a one on one session to get this sorted.

So, you’ll spend a couple of weeks or so posting interesting things on your business page – be sure to mix business with pleasure and don’t continuously bombard your fans with sales pitches or other product related stuff – show your personality on this page too by posting funny videos or images that you may see around. Share some personal stuff that’s going on in your life etc.

Once you are confident that people have been seeing YOU and that your content has been engaging, informative and of value to your fans, It’s time to start some real connecting.

Now, I actually keep a notebook of all of the people that have liked my page and I have columns drawn up like so :

I also didn't think of doing this until I had almost 300 likes so it took me a while to write up – but if you’re reading this when just starting out, I’d strongly suggest that you keep a table like this or something similar right from the start. It will save you a lot of time in the long run.

The reason I have a column for locality is so that I have a quick reference as to where the person is in case my offers or products are not really suitable to that person. I will still go through these same steps with each and every person regardless of where in the world they are – each and every one is practice and the more often you do this, the easier it becomes!

Go through your list from the very first “liker” and check off if they are already a friend – and you yourself know if they are a ‘real life’ friend or a ‘Facebook’ friend that you made by playing games or some other socially interactive activity.

Send a private message to each one of the people that have liked your page. Make the message simple and duplicable but with a little personal touch. Here’s an example:

Hi Kim!

I'm just catching up on thanking everyone that has liked my page 'Cafe Freer Gourmet Coffee'.

Thank you very much for liking my page!

I see you share the same birthday as my oldest daughter - she's an '87 model though

If you'd like a free sample of my Organo Gold Coffee, please inbox me your address and how you like your coffee and I'll send some on its way

Have an awesome week!

Soni

This person got back to me but not for a few days as I’d landed in her ‘other box’.

Kim responded that she would love a free sample and gave me her mailing address.

This is just one example and when you spend half an hour a day, touching base with each of your fans on a personal basis, this will build relationships that provided you never abuse their trust, will last forever.

Now my next step, once I have established trust by delivering on my promise of a free sample, is to contact Kim, the day that I send it to let her know and then ask for her email address to keep in touch and keep her updated of new products she may want to try as they become available.

Once the persons email is on your list (you do have Aweber don’t you?) then, send your first email asking permission to send a regular newsletter with value packed information once a month.

Another lesson I have learned along the way that I must pay forward.

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE about writing your first follow up email in Aweber, OR your first newsletter.

I did not do either of these things (well I drafted but didn't tighten up) as I was of the mindset ‘I don’t have a list! I’ll wait until I have a list’.

Ever heard the old saying “Build it and They Will Come”? Yeah! This is a powerful statement indeed!

If you need help setting up an Aweber autoresponder for yourself, then simply sign up HERE if you haven’t already, then send me an email to moderndaymentor1@gmail.com

And simply write ‘Aweber set up help’ in the subject line. I will get back to you within 48 hours.

And there you have it! You’ve just set yourself up your very own FREE lead generator. Now, just keep adding fans by being proactive in associated and relevant groups, share your page often on your personal profile, invite friends that still haven’t liked your page yet (or delete them as friends!) Rinse and Repeat.

If you found this article useful, please share with your friends and I look forward to having you visit here again real soon!

Soni

I have been involved in Multi Level Marketing and Network Marketing for  more than 20 years.

I was attracted to the MLM model due to the fact that I could own my own business without overheads, without staff or other stresses of a traditional business let alone the cost of starting up – fractional compared to a traditional business.

I was originally recruited by a friend who took me to a ‘business meeting’ and introduced me to ‘The Big A’. I was impressed with the presentation, the person presenting and all of the smiling faces behind the handsome suits and smart dresses. A whole new world was opened up to me.

It was simple they said – you buy the products you’d normally buy weekly at the supermarket through the company – at a discount – but you MUST spend a certain amount each month to stay qualified for bonuses when your team grows.

Cool, I thought! Who wouldn’t want to save money on their every day items AND help me build my business?

I was taught how to show people ‘circles’ on napkins and whiteboards ( I longed for the day I could afford a big white board and imagined myself in front of eager people all wanting to become free from the ties of a J.O.B and an ungrateful boss!) and I was given some fantastic reading lists and tapes to listen too (yep, no CD’s back then!)

So, I was attending meetings, listening to tapes, I had products coming to me on autoship – I raved about how wonderful the products were to friends and family – gave them catalogues and told them of my dreams to qualify for a holiday to Canada.

I posted positive affirmations, I made dream boards. I imagined myself sitting in luxury cars and speaking in front of thousands of people.

I did all of this and I failed at this business. In fact, not only did I fail but I fell deeply into debt TIMES 3! Yes, 3 times I joined this particular company and quit, (well didn’t renew my distributorship fee)  each time under a different ‘team’.

But not once did I get told the REAL secret to success. No. That was for the LEADERS to know and for you not to find out until you attained a certain level within the company (or so it seemed to me).

In later years, I was recruited into a wellness company by some friends of mine.

This company confused me, I didn’t have a credit card (no debit cards back then and I was blacklisted from credit due to my debt with a card from the activities in the Big A!)

I didn’t attend meetings – I did use some of the products but never really took a great interest in it.

I bounced around with Avon catalogues for a while, signed up with a telecommunication MLM and even an online auction business as well! With a little success but nothing to write home about. Something still missing. I had no idea what I was doing wrong.

Figuring my MLM days were behind me, I threw myself into a career but I was still looking for a way to make money from home. I was getting tired of working away from my family, having little time to pursue my own passions and hobbies so I was still ‘looking’.

I responded to an advertisement I saw somewhere about making a good income from home – it was very secretive though, no company mentioned just stories of success and huge dollars to be made.

I received an info pack that I paid $9.95 for. Again, no company name – just info on how my dreams could come true by working this particular business in my ‘spare time’. Well, I didn’t really have much ‘spare time’ but figured I could make myself available to work my own business for about 4 – 6 hours a week, maybe.

After receiving a call from a lovely lady who finally told me what the company was, I decided to give it a go and paid nearly $400 to get started with my own business – again.

So, I began using the product daily, didn’t see any drastic change (it was a weight loss product) but kept with it, determined to have my before and after pictures and story so that I could prove it worked and become a walking advertisement and therefore grow my business with eager customers.

I did a little training with my mentor but I think she gave up on me when my weight loss results were so minimal and so slow! Little did I know I have a medical condition preventing easy weight loss! So, the manuals and materials are collecting dust on my bookshelf as another MLM business bites the dust.

Have you noticed a pattern in my stories? Have you noticed how I speak of product and myself? How bad is that!

So, let’s recap.

Big A 3 times – FAILED

A Wellness company – FAILED

A telecommunications company – FAILED

An online auction business – FAILED

A Weight Loss Business – FAILED

All of these companies are HUGE! They have THOUSANDS of success stories attached to them and their reps make hundreds of thousands of dollars every single year in residual income.

So, if I’d wanted it bad enough, I wouldn’t have failed! Or would I?

Tune in for the next instalment to find out what I have learned from each and every one of the companies I was a part of and what I have learned since that has turned my world around.

Soni