What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a popular social network that’s based on image sharing. You can create pin boards (up to 200) to reflect their interests, and boards can be organized and titled in accordance with your preferences. A typical Pinterest account might showcase boards for recipes, home décor or things for children. You can then “pin” images to each board from all over the internet or upload your own images. When you click twice on any image, Pinterest leads you back to wherever that pin originated. So, if you’re pinning a recipe for Victoria sponge cake (with sweet cherry topping), you simply click on its image to return right to the source.

Professional Usage

While throngs of people browse Pinterest and use the site to support their hobby or personal interests, many professionals are discovering how it can enhance their professional interests. For example, many graphic artists use Pinterest to organize images for specific web projects. Similarly, writers can use Pinterest to store important research for their projects too. Rather than clog up your browser’s bookmarks, you can use Pinterest to literally pin thousands of links to research.

Pinning Sources

Once you set up your Pinterest account, you can decide how to organize your professional boards. If you have long-term clients, you might include a board for each so if you come across an article or bit of helpful research on the web, you can quickly pin it to that board. You can also create boards that reflect the topics you write about such as marketing, business, or health. If you primarily write on business topics, you can break down this subject into specific areas as they apply

to your work such as office culture, regulations or best practices. As you research online material for your work, you can pin sources directly to your well-organized boards to revisit them as often as you like.

Pinning Ideas

When you use Pinterest to store your ideas, you’ll never suffer writer’s block again. Be sure to create a board that reflects future projects or topics you want to cover. As you research for any given article or blog post, you’re going to come across pieces that might trigger ideas for future pieces. Be sure to pin these to your idea board along with a quick note summarizing your idea. In no time, you’re likely to have a huge file of topics with research to back them up.

If you’re worried about Pinterest’s public platform, remember that you can make your boards private. So, if you want to keep your research for a client or your own writing ideas under wraps, you can set specific boards to private so only you can see them. If you haven’t used Pinterest to store your research, you should definitely consider this effective resource that will save you time and enhance your work.

The post Pintastic Writers Use Pinterest appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Better Branding

With a personal website, you create the platform, you author the content, and you take center stage while separating yourself from the crowd of other creatives. Unlike a resume, a personal website allows your personality to shine through the medium. Although you can still tailor your site to include the business essentials that need to be there (i.e. education, relevant work experience), you can add much more that reflects your individual goals and objectives.

More Is More

Imagine being able to steer a perspective client to your website rather than relying on a traditional resume and a link to wherever your digital portfolio happens to be hanging out. The website becomes a one-stop-shop for clients to find everything they need to know about you. In essence, you can fill up your website, providing its well organized, with galleries of your work, links to publications, an up-to-date biography, your blog (if you have one), and much more. In addition, if writing or web design is your talent, you can better market your skills from your own platform.

Nudge ahead of Other Candidates

When clients or companies are narrowing down their list of potential candidates, a personal website can help you edge out the competition. If your background and work experience is similar to another candidate, but you have a professional website, you have an asset that is likely to help you score the project. According to U.S. News and World Reports, four out of ten recruiters suggest they would favor a candidate with a website when deciding between candidates of equal experience.

It Networks Even When You’re Sleeping

Your personal website can work for you round-the-clock, helping you achieve professional recognition in your field. Not only can you use your website to attract more clients, you can also attract other professionals to create a balanced network that could help drive your career forward. A personal website makes you incredibly accessible, but it also enables you to control that access by publishing only what you want to convey. Just as companies strive to send traffic to their website, you can begin to the same thing in order to increase your network and improve your own brand recognition.

It’s a Hot Trend (with Staying Power)

According to USA Today College, intern candidates are clamoring to build their own websites to increase their visibility and secure the positions they want. As increasing numbers of job seekers adopt the website platform, it may, at some point, be a prerequisite among hiring businesses. In any case, while it remains a relatively new trend, you can take advantage of its benefits right now before many members of your competition do. Once you do the hard work of creating your website, you simply need to maintain it into the future where it will continue to work for you.

A personal website gives you control of your brand and allows you to showcase important aspects of your work. Currently, a personal website isn’t a must, but if you are looking for an avenue to ramp up your professional image, few other resources can do as much for you as you very own website can.

The post You Need a Personal Website and Here’s Why appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Are You Being Human?

Using a company-branded voice, quite frankly, has an omniscient quality that could be deterring readers from commenting. Let your readers know you’re human and not merely some nameless company entity that handles the Twitter or Facebook account. Who are you? Readers will be better able to connect when they feel that their interaction is with a human being and not a generic business voice.

Ask Questions

Although you may think that your blogs and social media posts invite comments, you might need to take a more direct approach and ask questions or even, if it comes down to it, ask for comments. Let’s say you’re an energy company and you frequently publish helpful informative blogs for your readership like how they can save money on energy bills during the winter. Try a variation on the topic and come out and ask your readership to share what they do to save money on energy costs. In the meantime, you can link back to that old post on the topic while generating some lively discussion.

Try a Content Makeover

No one wants to think their content is boring, but we’ve all snored—or scrolled quickly—through unexciting blog entries (certainly not this one) and social media posts. By making over your content, you could elicit more responses from your readership. How do you do this? You could (get ready for a shameless plug) hire a professional writer to revamp your content for you. A fresh voice could add more color and excitement to your entries. You could create more interest by inserting anecdotes into the content and avoiding topics that are overtly dry.

Be Opinionated

While there are a number of bloggers out there who will advise other bloggers to be controversial to elicit comments, that’s not always possible for businesses that don’t want to alienate anyone. Even so, if your blogs routinely lack opinion, they begin to sound like company speak—a homogenized chunk of text that has had all its metaphorical teeth removed by multiple company censors so that it reads more like a manual and less like a personable conversation starter. There’s nothing overtly wrong in stating an opinion about topics within the sphere of your company—provided you’re tactful.

Comment Back

When your blog or social media posts do receive comments, it’s important to comment back. Discussion is a give and take process, so you have to reward interaction with more interaction. Moreover, people actually appreciate when they’re comment has been read and generates a real response from the post’s author.

If you can incorporate these tips into your blogging and social media platform, you’re likely to stir up more conversation. Remember, too, that generating traffic is key, so ensure that you continually build your readership with timely posts filled with meaningful content.

Save

The post Hearing Crickets? Here’s How to Elicit More Blog and Social Media Comments appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Everybody loves a good story, €”even your customers and potential customers. Using storytelling techniques and building narratives is something that can help businesses and organizations connect with people. This type of connection often resonates with customers and ultimately helps to build brand trust and recognition. If you aren’t telling a story, what are you telling customers? Consider making some changes to your communication platform so that you can effectively engage customers with stories that drive home what your company is all about, what it values, and why people should become your customers.

Create Distinction

When you provide a story to your clientele, you actually create a memory about your business. Customers can better relate to businesses that share stories rather than content that is purely informational in nature. One of the reasons stories resonate so well with audiences is because they create emotion. When a customer is emotionally bonded to your story, they become one step closer to bonding with your business. Moreover, the memory you create with your story helps to define your brand and helps set it apart from your competitors.

Market Your Brand

When you tell your customers a story, you’re actually marketing your brand to them. Depending on the type of story you tell, you can actually pinpoint areas of your business you want to promote, areas you hope will resonate with your audience. You might want to reach your clients with a story about your environmental platform or how you take care of your employees. These stories aren’t just interesting in themselves, but become viable vehicles for marketing your brand with each and every story you tell.

Human Touch

If you look at a wide array of business websites, you’ll begin to divide them in this way: websites that are personable and websites that are not. If your business is trying to sound more personable, it can rely on storytelling to give it that personal touch. For instance, “this business was started by my grandfather who left Italy when he was 17 years old.” That type of storytelling detail puts a human spin on something that could very well sound more formal, more like corporate speak: “our team has a combined experience of 20 years.” The second example does not generate the same emotional response in customers that the first will.

What Types of Stories Should You Tell?

There are many types of stories that businesses can tell in order to connect with clients and build their brand. Your company could discuss how it came to be, what motivates your team to create innovative products or services, or even the types of customers and clients you work with. By employing a narrative, you can draw your audience in and help them connect with information in a more emotionally meaningful way.

If you have used the storytelling technique before, try it in small ways. Create a blog or series of social media posts that rely on a narrative technique. Consider other ways in which you can use the storytelling technique to market your brand in email or even on the home page of your website. Chances are you’ll find that the technique will help you make those connections needed to drive your business forward.

The post Does Your Brand Tell a Story? How Storytelling Content Markets Your Brand appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Old-Fashioned Brainstorming €”with a Modern Twist

If you come to the blog table without ideas that knock your metaphorical socks off, you might have reached a point in your blog’s career where you’ve exhausted your subject matter. This, of course, mustn’t happen to a writer or business with a blog that’s previously been thriving. To generate more writing topics, do some brainstorming. Instead of generating ideas yourself, head to Google and do a keyword search. Chances are you’re going to pull up news articles, editorials, and even other blogs that can inspire new angles and new ideas for your own platform.

Build a Topic Database

Before sitting down with your latest writing idea, take time to build a topic database. After generating some ideas with Google keywords, research further to create a viable list of actionable ideas that you’ll be able to use for your blog. You’ll need to peruse the contents of relevant news sites, journals, and other blogs. Be sure to scan forums to uncover trend-worthy topics to cover in your blog. Once you have a list of topics, you can begin to plug them into your publishing calendar. The beauty of having your topics mapped out is that it allows you some additional time to research those topics to produce a truly outstanding entry.

Diversify the Medium

You can add interest to your blog by diversifying mediums. In many cases, you can even revisit former popular topics by changing up the way you present it. For example, if you had a written piece that scored big with readers, consider addressing a similar angle on the subject but presenting it in a video. Diversifying your medium is a great way to refresh the look of your blog as well as its content. Spice up your entries with podcasts or images. Consider creating an infographic or some other type of visual entry that is likely to sharable on social media sites.

Clean It Up

After freshening up your content, don’t forget to address some of the more €”dare I say a mundane aspects of blog-keeping. That means check your links to ensure they aren’t broken. Check to ensure your social share tools are doing their job. When cleaning up your blog, consider updating your about page and getting a new headshot. Updating your policies page and header can also help refresh your overall platform.

Blogs need tremendous love and care to ensure that they continue to thrive. Maintaining the connection to your audience is essential, and the best way to attract your readership is to provide it with compelling content. Use these tips to refresh your blog, but don’t forget to read other blogs on a regular basis so that you stay inspired and enthusiastic about your own project.

The post 4 Tips to Refresh Your Stale Blog appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.