by Kimberly | Aug 31, 2012 | Blog, Pinterest, Social Media
Pinterest has experienced phenomenal growth this year. With a mostly predominantly female user base much has been said about how if you market to women, and especially to moms, then you had better be on Pinterest. It is estimated that between 60 and 97% of the user base for Pinterest is female. Previously only available by invite, Pinterest has recently opened the network up to everyone. Just a few of the signs that Pinterest is HOT: Pinterest is now the 3rd most popular social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter. (Experian) Users who logged into Pinterest daily has increase 145% since the beginning of 2012 (Mashable) Pinterest generates more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. (Mashable) Despite being primarily an invite only network, Pinterest has grown to have almost 15 million users. (Econsultancy) What exactly is Pinterest? Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where users create topic specific or general pinboards to group and share images or videos. Images and videos can be shared from other websites or uploaded from your computer. You can view and follow other users’ boards or follow the user and all of their boards. You can also add other users to a board and give them the ability to contribute to special boards as a way to increase your reach and visibility. Images that are pinned from a website will be linked back to the original post or place they were pinned from. This makes Pinterest especially appealing for e-commerce sites or for any sites that sell things online. Home decoration, fashion, food and wedding planning seem to be particularly popular boards. Data also...
by Kimberly | Jun 8, 2012 | Blog, Social Media
Facebook promoted posts for pages is the latest addition to Facebook’s advertising options. With this feature, Facebook Page admins can choose to pay for a specific post to receive additional exposure for their post in the News Feed of their fans. Facebook says that in addition to a greater number of your fans seeing the post, it will be seen by a greater percentage of the friends of your fans who interact with the post. What are Promoted Posts? A Promoted posts is a status update on your Facebook page where you pay an additional amount for increased exposure of your post in the News Feed of the people who have “Liked” your page. If your page has more than 400 fans, then you will have a few different pay options for promoting your post (starting a $5.00). Facebook will provide you with an estimated amount of people who will be exposed to the post based on how much you pay and how many fans you have. The amount you choose for a promoted post is the lifetime budget amount and not a daily budgeted amount. You are able to promote posts that have been posted within the last 3 days as Facebook prefers that the News Feed only include current and most recent content. A Promoted Post will show in the News Feed for up to 3 day from the day it was created. You can paused a promoted post but at this time you are not able to change a post or the date it was created. You can also changed the amount of promoted post anytime...
by Kimberly | May 15, 2012 | Blog, Featured, Social Media, Twitter
I’m really not sure that there could be many other things that would be more fun for a social media junkie like myself than tweeting while drinking wine with a bunch of people who are doing the same thing. But, that’s just what I’ll be doing tomorrow evening! I’m really looking forward to taking part in the #TGTaste Chat with Thirsty Girl and Villa Maria Estate Wines. We’ll be tasting two of their Sauvignon Blancs: 2011 Villa Maria Estate Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc – SRP $14.99 Click here to download a PDF Info Sheet for this wine. 2011 Villa Maria Estate Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc – SRP $19.99 Read tasting notes for this wine. Now, I’ve been fortunate to have already tried the Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc and really, really enjoyed it. It has a nice, fruity, floral flavor. As I’ll be tasting alone tomorrow night, I’ve decided to open the Cellar Selection to taste during the Twitter Tasting. About Villa Maria Estate Wines This year Villa Maria is celebrating 50 years of winemaking. Founded by Sir George Fistonich, it remains a 100% New Zealand and family owned business today which a strong commitment to sustainability. – Villa Maria was the first wine company in New Zealand to declare the winery a “cork-free zone,” sealing all wines from the 2004 vintage onwards with a screwcap to ensure quality in every bottle. It was also the first New Zealand producer to employ professional viticulturists and is a leader in sustainable viticulture and winemaking. – Sauvignon Blanc The Sauvignon Blanc grape is originally from the Bordeaux region of France. It is planted...
by Kimberly | Dec 17, 2011 | Blog, Facebook, Featured, Social Media
As promised, Facebook has made changes to the personal profile once again. Your personal profile account is now a “Timeline.” The Timeline was announced back in August. As the new Timeline rolls out, users will be prompted to change over to the Timeline. One nice feature about this change is that users will be given a 7 day review period to work over their Timeline and edit it to remove or change the privacy settings for any older items that they don’t want to show in the Timeline. Users can publish their new Timeline at any time but after 7 days it will automatically become public. (After December 21st, all users will have the new Timeline.) One of my favorite features of the new Timeline is the cover photo. The cover photo is displayed at the top of the profile and extends for the entire page width. From what I’ve found, the ideal size for this space is 850×315 pixels but no smaller than 720 pixels. Since this a large photo area, a high-res photo is optimal to avoid pixelation. Your “profile pic” is now a 125×125 image embedded in the lower left corner of your cover image. In Facebook’s help section, it details the difference between the profile pic and the cover picture: A cover is the larger photo at the top of your timeline, right above your profile picture. Note: Like your profile picture, cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your timeline will be able to see them. We’ve found that people have a better experience viewing your timeline when they see a cover that...
by Kimberly | May 17, 2011 | Blog, Featured, Twitter
So much of what we hear is that Twitter is great for business networking, engagement, visibility and making connections with others in your industry. And this is true. However, Twitter can also be a tool for having fun socially (imagine that, using a social network socially?) I’ve participated in and moderated several Twitter chats in the course of my social media addiction, but I’m really looking forward to the one tomorrow that’s being hosted by Thirsty Girl and the You Bet Shiraz tour (Peter Lehmann Wines). This is a great opportunity to not only do two things I really enjoy (tasting wine and tweeting!) but also to really see the power of social media and social networking in action as it brings together wine lovers and drinkers- many of whom are actively using Twitter. For this particular tweet chat (#TGTaste), Thirsty Girl, one of the fastest growing social networks for women, is teaming up with Ian Hongell (The Duke of Shiraz) from Peter Lehmann Wines to chat about their 2008 Barossa Shiraz (G’day mates!). This will a great opportunity to not only chat directly with the winemaker about his wine but also to tweet with Head Thirsty Girl, Leslie Sbrocco (author of “Wine for Women” and regular TODAY Show wine contributor) about all things wine and in particular her suggestions for what to pair with this wine and her thoughts about this wine. I am thrilled to be a part of this Twitter chat and am so looking forward to connecting with other wine lovers and chatting about Shiraz (or just our love of wine in general!) I received...
by Kimberly | Apr 4, 2011 | Blog, Featured, Social Media, Twitter
The news out today on the Twitter blog is that Twitter has finally upgraded their Advanced Search feature and moved it from search.twitter.com to the be housed within Twitter’s main search feature. When you do a search on Twitter now, then it will bring up the link for Advanced Search. They have also now added a tab that makes suggestions for people to follow related to your search topic. When you use Twitter Search, there will be four tabs: Tweets, Tweets with Links, Tweets Near You and People. The two things I noticed, is that promoted tweets will come up first and within the People tab, verified high profile accounts tend to come up first. You are also only given a small sample of people to follow which is somewhat disappointing since it would be nice to have the option to sort through a few more accounts as a way to find followers within the search parameters you are using. You will also notice at the top underneath the Results headline, is a link for “operators” which are a list of different operators you can use for Advanced Twitter Search to refine your results even further. You can see in the screenshot below a list of the tips they offer you if you click on the Operator link. It’s nice to see Twitter growing up in a fuller search feature which helps to make the platform even more useful for people who are looking to connect with other Twitterers. Other news posted related to Twitter’s Advanced Search upgrade: Mashable: Upgraded Twitter Search Helps You Find New People to Follow...
