In the last few months, I have noticed how many bloggers, especially book bloggers, do not have a Pinterest share button. Why?! I just want to share your posts on Pinterest. Occasionally, I create pins for other blogs just so I can share their post.
Some people don’t like Pinterest or see the value. I don’t get a million views from Pinterest but I get enough to make it worthwhile.
Personally, I do not spend a ton of time on social media anymore. I have streamlined my sharing process so it’s less than 30 minutes a day.
Everything that I can share from my blog automatically is set up that way. At the moment, Pinterest is not set up to share the first post. If you set up a tailwind account, you can schedule Pins to share. It’s not totally necessary but it’s an option.
I can only think of five things that are really easy. If you are a blogger and want people to see your posts, then what can it hurt?
Use good images. Pinterest is very visual. Images are what people see first.
Put things from your blog on their own board. Also add your blog link to your profile.
Share on a group board or on a Facebook group for Pinterest.
Put a share button on your blog. For every post. Please. Please. Please.
Figure out what works for you and your blog.
If you are interested in learning more, here are some helpful posts about Pinterest.
What’s good, good people?!? Thanks to Holley for having me on as a guest. Now allow me to introduce myself… I am CJ Kendricks, a singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and Atlanta native. Yes… “ATLien 4 Life”, and as I lead into the topic of discussion, its important to note that I do not identify as an Atlantan, but rather an ATLien (a fact that will be relevant in the later points of the post).
Fame is a very fleeting thing. All artists of all art forms desire it in some way or another, and anyone that says otherwise is either lying to themselves or just full of it. But chasing fame, success, and recognition in today’s music industry poses new challenges to those of us courageous and determined enough to pursue it. That is thanks in part to the impact that the internet and social media has had on the industry and society as a whole.
The biggest of those challenges seems to be maintaining one’s artistic integrity in this age of viral videos and global access. Long gone are the days of submitting to A&R of your desired label. Today the measure of success, particularly for the independent artist, is directly linked to one’s social media presence and online persona.
To some extent, the concept of “selling out” is extinct. Rather than being focused on the music, it has become required that an artist be focused on their budget. It’s the most common phrase I’ve heard over the past few years in my own pursuits of success when trying to broker deals and build my team…. “what’s your budget?” In addition to this, we now have to navigate through online marketing with a roll of the dice, deciding whether or not to buy Likes/Views/Comments/Subscribers/etc.
Pressure from those that would aid in your journey to change or hide parts of yourself and the current socio-political climate also poses great challenges to artists such as myself, who skate a thin line of defying genres. In the age of hashtags with #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, NFL player protests, immigration issues and international issues, it has become just as easy to offend and alienate your audience, as it is to entice and intrigue them.
Being from The South, and in particular being from ATL, has afforded me a unique perspective on the industry and all the aforementioned challenges. I’ve been blessed to watch Atlanta blossom, and see the “The Hood” become Hollywood South. I’ve been on the front lines of bringing southern swagger to the world, and continue to honor my fellow ATLiens and pioneers of swag. The face of hip-hop and pop and even the Film and TV industries have been flooded with gems from the Dungeon Family, SoSoDef and more.
Ultimately it is up to each individual to decide what their limits are in terms of what one is or isn’t willing to do for success, and just what this thing called fame means to them.
There are two ways that I know that it’s time for me to unplug. The first way is that my kids and boyfriend have asked me three, four or five hundred times for something like lunch or Starbucks or some really important question about bills. No, I haven’t seen your tablet or crayons. If your shoes or jar of pencils aren’t on the Pinterest, I haven’t seen them.
Then I realize that I have to pull myself away from all of the craziness on the Internet and focus on the craziness going on in my house. Trust me, there is plenty of hijinks going on here to keep me entertained for awhile.
The second way is that I feel like I have run out of ideas. I’ve spent hours staring at different social media sites. I have nothing else original to say about anything and my eyes hurt.
This month, I have been unplugged more than I like to be. It wasn’t so bad. It might have even been kind of nice. I feel like I really talked to people and had some good ideas. I went camping . . . outside . . . in a tent. Twice. I don’t think I’ve been camping at all in the last two years.
I knew that it was going to be a busy month so I scheduled a lot of posts ahead of time. Social media can wait until I’m not busy, right? As far as I know, Twitter and Pinterest will still be there when I need to plug in again.
If I can’t stand to look at Twitter for the millionth time, then I try to do laundry. I’d rather be reading but everyone likes having clean clothes, right? Right now, I’m being distracted by looking for a new DIY laundry detergent recipe on Pinterest. The Internet is so distracting. Toooo distracting.
By the time I finish being distracted, it’s probably time for someone – I always hope it’s not me – to make dinner anyway. Darn it. I should’ve looked for recipes while I was on Pinterest. Anyway, I’ll figure it out. I don’t want to get sucked into the vortex that is the Internet again.
Have there been events when you’ve turned to social media over traditional media or vice versa?
When I want to know about entertainment news, then I look at social media and online entertainment magazines. Rock Revolt magazine is usually interesting – good articles and photos.
A few months ago, I tried a little experiment with my follow buttons. I took most of my follow me buttons from Twitter, Pinterest, etc. down. Although, I think I did leave the Bloglovin button up. For the most part, if you wanted to see my blog, you actually had to subscribe to email or visit the blog every day.
Honestly, I really did not see an increase in views. There wasn’t really an incredible increase in followers either.
The follow me social media buttons are back on the blog.
It was bound to happen. I found a social media outlet that I don’t like. Reddit is not the social media platform for me. In fact, I think we should break up. Immediately.
Maybe it’s me. I don’t like most of the posts on there. However, I do like the Thor section.
Maybe it’s Reddit. People don’t seem to like my posts either. I hate to say that Reddit is just not that into me.
Reddit and I are a mismatched couple. It makes me a little sad to end our relationship but it will be for the best.
Does anyone have a good relationship with Reddit? I’m curious about how things are going with you and Reddit.
Here is a video that expresses my feelings about Reddit. Enjoy!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how crazy are you about pinterest?
I love Pinterest in an off-the-charts kind of way. A few years ago, I heard from a few crafty friends about this website called Pinterest. I asked them what it was and if they liked it. My crafty friends said that I should look into it immediately. So I did. Three years later, Pinterest and I are still going strong.
In the beginning, I used it to pin scrapbooking layouts, destination vacations, crafts and funny pictures. Currently, I’ve been pinning food & beverages, quotes and stuff for my blog. I also have a board for dragons and “The Walking Dead.” It can be useful if you have a group of blogging friends with a group board. I’m fairly certain that individuals can start the group board and invite others. Repinning pins by other bloggers can be helpful – if they have things that you can fit into your boards somewhere. Pin items that make sense on your boards. I made an exception. I did make a new pet board, even though we have goldfish. This was only because some of the pet costumes were so cute.
See what I mean? 🙂 It makes me want to get a dog and dress it up for Halloween. Would that make me crazy? Maybe I could just borrow a dog for a few hours. Anyway . . . back to Pinterest.
Don’t underestimate the power of Pinterest. My blog and Pinterest page have much more traffic since linking them and also joining an online pinning group.
