There has been a lot of discussion this past week regarding the new Facebook for Pages. I have a post this week on GigCoin’s blog where I’ve outlined the new features and have used Starbucks Facebook page as an example for how to implement timeline to tell your brand story.
Pinterest has certainly caught on like wildfire. The word I kept hearing associated with Pinterest as I was creating my first boards and pins was “addictive.” And, I think that sums it up nicely.
I’ve been intrigued by infographics, cool things I find on the web, and a host of other topics for some time. For a while I was very disciplined about bookmarking them on my browser and then on delicious, but Pinterest is exactly the visual representation I was looking for.
As someone who writes about social media and business I was also intrigued to see the ways in which businesses would figure out how to use Pinterest to represent the more personal sides of their business and provide complementary user experiences.
Today, I’m really pleased to have a new post on Social Media Examiner, 26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business, an A-Z guide. Stop by the page when you have a moment and also follow me on Pinterest!
Kristina Halvorson was talking about the importance of web content way before others chimed-in on the discussion. In her book, Content Strategy for the Web, she makes the case for having a well-thought out strategy that involves getting others in the organization on board early on, and not leaving content as an after-thought to the design process.
Recently I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Kristina for WebDesigner Depot. The timing was great since she and Melissa Rach have revised the book which was recently published in a second edition by Peachpit.
Check out the interview on WebDesigner Depot and do yourself ( and your team) a favor and invest in your content by getting a copy of 2nd edition of the book.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve published two new articles on GigCoin’s blog. One on Content and SEO and the other on Facebook updates.
You can see the posts in their entirety on GigCoin.
This week’s post on GigCoin is about Email Marketing and the good news from the findings is that email marketing is very much alive and well. And if you’re wondering whether social media will push email marketing out of the arena, Forrester Research believes that social and mobile campaigns will actually help you send more emails since “email tethers together customer experiences across channels.”
You can read the full post on GigCoin’s blog.
This week I researched and wrote about restaurants and contests for a post for Gigcoin’s blog. Our goal for the post was to demonstrate some successful, unique and clever contests.
I put a query out on Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and through the query we heard from a number of businesses around the United States. We selected four to profile in the post: Ling and Louie’s Asian Bar and Grill, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, The Bistro Group, and Mia’s Pizza and Eats.
I was very impressed with the creativity of each of these contests and it really drove home the point that businesses need to be strategic with their social media approaches.
You can read the post on GigCoin’s blog.
I’m having a nice day today on the blogosphere with two new posts published, one on Social Media Examiner (SME) and the other on The Content Marketeer.
The 26 tips post is an A-Z guide providing assorted tips for writing great blog posts. The second post is an article about Dr. Patsi Krakoff and her experiences with content marketing. I enjoyed working on these posts immensely!
You can read the posts on their respective sites.
Every week is a treasure trove of finds online and offline. Here are some of my favorite fun finds this week:
Photo Pin
PhotoPin helps bloggers find photos for their blog and makes adding them to their post fast and easy created by Markus Urban. This is a great tool. Makes finding photos easy and Markus even provides the code for attribution!
Pinterest
I discovered Pinterest more than a week ago but have started building more of my boards this week. I’ve been researching Pinterest for an upcoming article. In particular, I’ve loved having a place where I can pin all the wonderful infographics I come across.
Paper.li
I’ve been into the topic of content curation this week and discovered Paper.li. I set up a paper of stories and topics that I enjoy to track.
Read Dhemley Curation ▸ today’s top stories
Scoop.it
As part of my content curation interest I discovered Scoop.it and came across this wonderful publication being curated by @janigordon, Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond. Great stuff being captured here.
The Night Circus
I attended an author reading at Newtonville books last weekend and heard Erin Morgenstern read from her novel, The Night Circus.The book is pure magic and a delight. Really fun to be transported to another time, place and reality.
Content Strategy for the Web
I had the pleasure to interview author, Kristina Halvorson (@halvorson) this week for an upcoming article. I bought the first edition of Content Strategy for the Web in 2010 when it first came out and am looking forward to the release of the second edition by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach due out February.
The first section I go to in the Boston Sunday Globe each week is the Ideas section. And this week I started following them on Twitter, @Globeideas. They also have a great list of people and news organizations they follow which gave me some other great ideas for follows.
What have you discovered this week? Share your fun finds in the comments below.
The new year has gotten off to a terrific start with three new themed social media articles I’ve published on GigCoin’s blog.
One about the real estate profession, how to use games-based marketing, and tips for local marketing.
You can see the posts here:
A Closer Look at Real Estate and Social Media Marketing
Gamification & Marketing: How to Get Your Head in the Game
Local Marketing: 10 Tips for Getting Found Locally
Happy New Year! I hope your new year is off to a good start.
I’m thrilled to be part of the writing community at Social Media Examiner and to have my social media prediction profiled there today as part of the “30 Social Media Predictions for 2012 from the Pros” post.
If you’ve found your way over to my blog as a result of that post, welcome, and I hope you will continue to follow my writing here and via social networking: Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
If you would like to contact me about my writing services, please use the contact form. I’d be happy to discuss your writing needs with you.
Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Deb Hemley | Mixed-Media Artist & Writer 