This video is called, Why I Stopped Posting on Pinterest By Mike Pitt. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, you can . Mike Pitt is the Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd, a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London.

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In this video, Mike Pitt discusses, Why I Stopped Posting on Pinterest. This video will be of interest to content creators, business owners, B2B marketing managers, Content Marketing professionals, Social Media Managers and others who use Social Media to promote their businesses.

Posting on Pinterest

In April 2018, I made a video about my experience of posting on Pinterest, the video was entitled Traffic Tips: The Power of Pinterest  In the video, I explained my methodology and the results that I had achieved with my own activity. This new video is a catch up video on my Pinterest activity since then and explains why I am no longer posting on Pinterest. In the video, I explain the three reasons why I do not post on Pinterest anymore.

Take Action

Do you post on Pinterest? If so, what has been your experience? Do you agree with my conclusions? Let me know that in the comments section below.

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B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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This is video number 363 and blog post number 559

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Social Media Platforms

Pinterest

A few years ago Pinterest was considered one of the ‘big five’ Social Media platforms. The others making up that list at that time were Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. A key metric for social media platforms is the number of monthly active users. In September 2015 Pinterest had 100 million monthly active users*. By September  2017 it had only grown to 200 million monthly active users. In contrast Instagram had reached 700 million monthly active users by September 2017. Pinterest had lost the battle to be the dominant photography based social media platform.

March 2018 Update  – I will create a new post on Pinterest. My opinion of the  platform has completely changed and I will explain why soon. 

Snapchat

From a B2B perspective Snapchat is not the right platform for our clients. We recognise that many people are strong advocates of the platform, Gary Vaynerchuk being perhaps the most famous in a business context. We have not and do not recommend Snapchat to our clients. My views on the platform are summarised in this post,  Snapchat Don’t Believe the Hype . We have not seen any evidence from our tracking of target audience behaviours to suggest that we need to reconsider. It is also worth noting that Instagram has been able to replicate most of the key features of Snapchat making it less distinctive. Even LinkedIn is experimenting with GeoFilters.

Many of you would also add Google + to this list but we still recommend it for the reasons articulated in this post, Do I still use Google+ ?

What are your thoughts, do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments section below.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

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This is blog post post number 434.

Sources

* https://www.statista.com/statistics/463353/pinterest-global-mau/

* https://www.statista.com/statistics/545967/snapchat-app-dau/

The post Which Social Media Platforms do we no Longer Use? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Hello everyone. Last time we reviewed Instagram we compared it to Vine and evaluated its merits. You can read what we thought here. That was March 2014. A lot has changed with Instagram since then since then but before we summarise the changes we should explain that this time we have Instagram in a head to head with Pinterest.

Pinterest Background & Profile

Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra founded Pinterest in March 2010. When it first launched there was a feeling  that it would be great for visual industries and e-commerce. The common consensus was that if you were a photographer or an interior designer it would help you to showcase your portfolio, highlight locations and attract leads and customers. In the early years Pinterest had a reputation that it was a Social Media platform with heavy female usage. This is borne out by recent statistics indicating that 85% of its 100 million monthly active users are women. Pinterest is being used as an aspirational wishlist of perfect places and locations; it has become a place to create online mood boards around a particular theme or place.

Instagram Background & Profile

Instagram was founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched 7 months after Pinterest in October 2010 as a free mobile app. The photo-sharing app  grew rapidly and had reached 100 million active by  April 2012. That was the month that it was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. Since April 2012 Instagram has continued to grow its user base. The platform has introduced new advertiser friendly features making it easier for brands and companies to promotes themselves.

The two platforms do have clear differences but are worthy of comparison because they both allow users to upload photos and videos. Pinterest places emphasis on the creation of pin boards whereas Instagram encourages its users to take a reportage-style approach and reflect what they are actually doing rather than what they aspire to do. For medium sized professional services business neither Instagram or Pinterest are obvious choices for Content Marketing activity. This is exactly why there is an opportunity for a companies willing to use them.  Below I have evaluated both platforms using five significant criteria.

1. Monthly Active Users ( MAU) 

Instagram now has 400 million monthly active users which is four times the amount that Pinterest has with their monthly active users at the 100 million mark. Instagram now has over 75 million daily users. The 400 million figure is even more impressive when you consider that Instagram was launched after Pinterest and that it has also surpassed Twitter that was launched in March 2006. Twitter has 300 million monthly active users.

Verdict – Instagram. Instagram has more traction and all things being equal you will be able to reach more of your audience there.

2. Messaging 

On Pinterest, pinning and re-pinning, liking and creating new boards are all very simple functions to perform. Messaging was introduced to Pinterest in August 2014 but does not seem to have caught on.  Users receive email notification when messages have been received and is easy to send a message but this message functionality has not really caught on in the way that it is integral to other social media platforms. On Instagram communicating with someone is intuitive, you can reply publicly to one of their posts and @ mention them to ensure that they see your comment or you can send them a direct message and they will receive a notification on their home page that they have received a new message. In more technical terms, the user experience around messaging and therefore communication is better on Instagram.

Verdict – Instagram is better for communicating with your followers and others on Instagram.

3. Influencers & Building a Following

There are now many companies and individuals who have built up huge followings on Instagram because of the type of content they share and products or services they supply. Some of these companies and individuals like The Body Coach you will have heard of. Whole Foods is a great example of how a retailer should run a successful Instagram account.  There are also great examples from professional services too, Zaha Hadid Architects are here  and KPMG accountants are here.  By contrast the most influential Pinners on Pinterest are virtually anonymous and were given their huge audiences by Pinterest themselves. In a bid to increase take up in it’s early years Pinterest featured many of today’s most influential winners as ‘people to follow’ and their followings grew exponentially as a result. Bekka Palmer one of Pinterest’s top pinners went from 30,000 followers to 9 million in 6 months.

Verdict – It is easier to build a following from scratch on Instagram than it is on Pinterest.

 4. Advertising Opportunities

There may be occasions when you wish to promote your content. Instagram has opened up the platform for companies to advertise. Brands can create sponsored posts that appear in users newsfeed. It is not as clear on Pinterest how to advertise or promote your products. The top Pinners are able negotiate brand deals with companies but promoted pins are reserved as a service for Pinterest to sell to users in a similar way to how Google Adwords works. There is a lack of clarity as to how the top Pinners are allowed to monetise their pinning activities. It’s almost as if Pinterest hasn’t worked this out yet.

Verdict – Instagram is a far more business friendly platform for a Professional Services firm.

5. Geo- Tagging

When activated Geo- Tagging allows a business or individual to attach a location to a post. It gives your exact location. This is a great way for many businesses to raise their local profile and for customers and potential partners to find you. It is a also a great feature if you are have international locations or attend conferences and exhibitions. Geo-Tagging is available on Instagram but is not available on Pinterest. As an aside, if you are parents of children who use Instagram you definitely want to ensure that Geo- Tagging is switched off because the tags are publicly accessible information.

Verdict – Only Instagram offers Geo-Tagging

Conclusion 

This comparison of Instagram versus Pinterest weighs down heavily in favour of Instagram but you must assess each platform in the context of your Content Marketing Plan which will most likely also include Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. You should consider your audience, your objectives and the type of visual content will you be creating.  ‘Behind-the-scenes’ insights will work best on Instagram whereas infographics will be better placed on Pinterest, for example. Pinterest is still an effective platform for businesses and in this video I demonstrate How to Drive Traffic from Pinterest to Your Services Business Website. 

2018 Update

If you have liked this post you should read, How Should B2B Businesses Use Instagram?

Also, this one too Traffic Tips: The Power of Pinterest 

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B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business that includes Instagram or Pinterest give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

Thanks for reading and watching!

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder & CEO

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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This is blog post number 325.

The post Instagram versus Pinterest: Which is Better for Professional Services Firms? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

How to Drive Traffic from Pinterest to Your Services Business Website by Mike Pitt. Mike Pitt, Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd discusses one effective technique that he has used to drive traffic from Pinterest to the this website. It is a straightforward technique that you can replicate for your Services business and he invites you to do so and then let him know how what happened from a website traffic perspective. When you have tried the technique please leave your feedback in the comments below.

Drive Traffic From Pinterest

” Today I want to talk to you about driving traffic from Pinterest to your services business website. There was a feeling or a belief when Pinterest was launched in March 2010 that it would be great for visual industries and e-commerce. The common consensus was that  if you were a photographer or an interior designer it would help you to showcase your portfolio, highlight locations and attract leads and customers and generally it was believed that it would not be suitable for services businesses. However, using Pinterest also works for services businesses and I will show you how.

I have kept my Pinterest account as a personal account and I am aware that I could convert it to a business account. At the time of recording I have over 800 followers acquired without the use of any Pinterest management tools and I have 23 boards. The boards reflect my personality and I started to be active on Pinterest long before I had any plan to commercialise my engagement. How do you  Pinterest as a services business? Here is a one of my boards called Marketing Fundamentals Ltd. You can see that the images are taken from blog posts on the company website. The only link underneath each pin is a link to the corresponding blog post. If people are interested in the image they will click on the link and read the blog post. This is a very simple and effective technique and you can see the results in your Google Analytics report which will show Pinterest as one of the drivers of traffic to your website.  Start using this technique and and let us know how you are getting on in the comments section below.”

2018 Update

If you have liked this post you will like, Traffic Tips: The Power of Pinterest

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

Follow Mike on Twitter

Tailwind

The post How to Drive Traffic from Pinterest to Your Services Business Website appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

It is the core focus of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd – this is what we do for our clients. We are excited to see many companies embracing Content Marketing but want to warn you about five mistakes that you should avoid. Please review the list below and ensure that you and your team are not making these mistakes while preparing a content marketing plan.

Content Marketing Plan – 5 Common Mistakes

1. Replicated content across all platforms – Believe it or not there are people who recommend that you should do this because it is more efficient but it does not take into account the nuances of each platform.

2. ‘The Everest factor’ – Jumping onto a platform because it is there. A firm of lawyers or accountants on Pinterest – Why?

3. No clear strategy or objectives – What are you trying to achieve? What are your goals? How does all the content you are creating move you closer to achieving these goals? Have you remained on strategy?

4. Not interacting enough – You put yourself out there – well done! Now you need to engage and interact consistently. This will help you build your reputation among potential customers and prospects. You cannot be half- hearted with this because it is easy to tell if you are.

5.  Being hierarchical – Failure to treat every conversation equally is a mistake – don’t roll out the social media red carpet for people you perceive to be important and then treat others as a lower grade. The truth is you don’t really know who is going to be of greater importance or whom you can help the most – so stay open.

Do you need help planning or implementing your content marketing strategy? We hope this information has been useful to you. If you’d like to talk to us about creating effective B2B Content Marketing for your business give us a call on +448452264247 or email us at mail@marketingfundamentals.com.We are a leading B2B Content Marketing agency in London.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

The post Entrepreneurs – Five content marketing mistakes to avoid appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.