A Brush With Humor

 Heard of   ?

Think it’s just another silly waste of your time online? You might be wrong this time…

Pinterest is a visual/virtual pinboard that allows its users to organize and share all the beautiful and interesting things that you may find online. The attraction is in it’s visual quality and ease of use.

My "In Dog we Trust" board

How many times have you visited a web site and wanted to remember it. What would work better for you, adding it to your already long list of forgettable and uninteresting bookmarks or pinning a recognizable image (with supporting text that you can add/edit) to a “subject specific” visual bulletin board that belongs just to you so that when you click on the image at some time in the future, you’re taken to the web site you wanted to remember and revisit?

Confused? Here’s an example:

I’m online looking for some ideas For a pirate themed kid’s party:

Bad idea: I could start a general google search called “kid party pirate”, but that’s likey to give me a lot of commercial sites that may or may not help me decide how to creatively (and cheaply) pull off this theme party.

Better idea: I could do a “blog only” google search for the same topic and see what other bloggers are saying about this topic. That would give me creative ideas and possible sources for products but the search results will be limited to the bloggerverse (a large community but not everyone blogs).

Best idea: Go to the main page of Pinterest and type pirate in the search box at the upper left. Bam! I get hundreds of images that link to product pages, blog posts, and everything in between.

From here I can explore each link that looks interesting and start “pinning” the things I like on to a new board I’ve called Pirate Party.  I can also start following other people who are pinning things I like, comment on their pins, and start new boards for things that I’m interested in but don’t have time to explore until I figure out my Pirate Party plan.

You can also use Pinterest to grow your business!

• For example – If you create and sell clothes for dogs and cats, create some cute dog and cat boards full of great photos you find on the internet.
• Pin a few pictures of your products to the same boards.
• Repin animal shots you like on to your boards
• Comment and like pins that are associated with your product
• Encourage your fans and friends to pin your products on to their boards (you could even launch a contest or giveaway using this model!)

Need an invite? [Like] my page on Facebook and post on my wall – I’ll send you one!

Here’s a link to a youtube video that takes you through a tutorial on using Pinterest:

Using Pinterest

I’ve no great resolutions this year, only a wish to be a little healthier, more creative and a little less frazzled by the world around me.

I’m not much for self improvement programs but I have signed up for an email alert scheme that seems pretty doable. Every day, the site sends you a simple challenge to make your day and life better. You can complete the challenge or pass on it and there’s more social media bunk on the web site like comments and sharing but participation is up to you. Click on the image to visit the site.

My first challenge yesterday was “Clean out a Kitchen Cabinet”. I PASSED on that one and did not feel guilty at all. Today’s challenge was “Add fruit to a meal” today. Since I read the challenge right before lunch I added a Dole fruit cup to my meal and felt mighty good about myself. I’ll even have more fruit tonight!

On the exercise front, we’re a full week into the new year and today was my first trip to the gym and a serious stab at exercise. 50 minutes on “Momo the Monster”, my name for any elliptical machine, and I was set for the day. I topped that off with another few hours goofing off on the beach with my sweetheart Charles to make the day complete.

My last front, creativity, got off to a slow start but my muse has not left me entirely. Perhaps more ‘down time’ will keep the creative juices flowing when I need them. I am close to finishing another cat painting that I like a lot and speaks to everything in this post.

On that note, here’s hoping you find your moment of Zen this week and focus on what’s important to you!

I know it’s a new year and you’re crazy busy breaking all of those resolutions you made on the 1st but don’t forget to post regular updates to your Facebook page! Here are a few simple rules and some pointers to get you going this year:

TIME - Pick the right time of day to reach the most people
TAILOR  - Make your post matter to the people who follow you
ACTION - Include a call to action
RESPOND - Always respond and interact with fans

• Be human! People come to Facebook to interact with people, not buy products or donate.
• Keep your updates short & sweet. After around two sentences FB will truncate your post – If you don’t catch them before the … your readers will most likely move on!
• Ask for action. Pose a question or suggest viewers click “Like”. It also helps to put the question at the beginning of your status update, not at the end.
• Try to limit your posts to no more than TWO status updates per day – think QUALITY not quantity…
• Cross post to other sites (Twitter, G+, your blog) for better coverage.
• Track what times of the day your fans are most active through your page insights (facebook.com/insights – available to page admins) and target your updates then, keeping in mind that 10-20% of fan comments are posted from mobile devices.
•  Don’t slack off on the weekends. Weekend posts on Facebook will give bigger returns than weekdays. Using a scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer can enable you to participate even when you are not at your computer.
• Become your own producer – video is easier than you think! Broadcast quality video tools are now easy to use and inexpensive. Learn the pocket video camera, take an iMovie class, pick up a decent microphone. You can capture, edit and publish video in minutes!
• Don’t be afraid of a little controversy.
• Answer questions and ALWAYS respond to comments!
• Remember that people like PEOPLE more than people like LOGOS. Post photos OF YOURSELF with your status update.