If you haven’t yet joined Pinterest, you’re missing what I believe will be the biggest social media story of 2012. Pinterest is the sharing of online dream boards. If ever you were a magazineaholic, tore recipes out of newspapers for things to try at some future date, or got duplicate copies of your photographs made so you could give people copies, you will love, love, love Pinterest.

But if you’re a marketer, you’ll love it even more. If you promote a post on Twitter or Facebook, timing is everything, because your audience will start to ignore your post within 3 hours.

I noticed one of my friends “re-pinning” something this morning that I’d posted 2 weeks ago. I did a little research. This recipe photograph was initially posted by Molly Harthgather 4 weeks ago. She has 498 followers, but this photo has generated 27 comments, 772 likes and 4,405 repins. It will continue to bring attention to the recipe blog where she found it for months or even potentially years.

And the icing on the cake for marketers? Every pin, re-pin, share and embed includes a link to the original source material. In the last month, Pinterest has generated over 200 backlinks to my travel website Things You Should Do.

I’ve started a Pinterest Networking Group on LinkedIn and am teaching a Pinterest Marketing class on February 14th in Sacramento. I’d love to see you either place.

Pinterest is in beta and you need an invite to join. If you’d like one, make a comment and I’d be happy to send you one.

For months, we’ve been telling business owners that they need to migrate from a profile to a business page. Facebook’s threatened to shut them down for a violation of the Terms of Service, but some have ignored because it’s confusing and a hassle.

But this weeks changes on Facebook make it even more essential that you have a solid strategy for marketing your business that recognizes the reality of human behavior.

On Tuesday, the Facebook tornado upended users with a totally new display. All of a sudden, people were overwhelmed with information from casual acquaintances and businesses that they had never seen in their Top News feed. And, where were their friends? Buried beneath conversations between people they barely knew, businesses that they’d never patronized and games they’d never heard of. If those conversations weren’t interesting to you, your only solution is to unsubscribe to the people who are “junking up” your news feed.

This is one of the biggest dangers in using a personal profile rather than a business page. You’ll never know if your audience reach is getting smaller. On a business page, Facebook offers analytics that tell me whether my influence is increasing or decreasing, and what type of content my followers like best.

If you’re a business owner marketing with Facebook, here’s my advice:

1. Lay low, limit your posts for the next two weeks. Don’t give anyone a reason to unsubscribe.
2. Download a copy of your Facebook data. Go to the dropdown arrow in the upper right corner of your home page or profile, click on the Account Settings link. At the bottom of that page is a link to Download your Facebook data. Do this now. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to get it to work.
3. Spend the next two weeks lurking and researching. Observe which things posted by people in your news feed get comments and likes. Are the comments and likes from the people you’d like to reach?
4. Pay a lot more attention to creating quality posts. Are my prospective customers really interested in where I had lunch or what I watch on TV?
5. If you’re still using a personal profile for your business, create two smart circles. Title one business, the other personal. When you’re off your Facebook moratorium, be analytical and ask yourself if your business contacts will be excited to see this before you post.

If you need help converting your personal profile to a business page, I offer a one hour phone consultation where I walk you through the change. Call Julie Gallaher at 916-265-2521.

Meet Sacramento Businesses on Twitter at our Monday night Twitter Chats.

You’re invited to the next #SacBizTweetChat on Monday, Sptember 12th at 6pm. Everyone’s invited, but the special focus will be on restaurants.

What’s a Tweet Chat?

from about.com
A Twitter tweet chat is a pre-arranged chat that happens on Twitter through the use of Twitter updates (called tweets) that include a predefined hashtag to link those tweets together in a virtual conversation.

From the comfort of your home or office, on your desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone, you can participate in a tweet chat.

If you’re a member of Twitter, you can fully participate – asking, answering questions and conversing with other participants. If you’re NOT a member of Twitter, you can observe and learn some reasons why you might like to join.

How to participate in the #SacBizTweetChat

There are two ways to participate.
1. Go to http://tweetchat.com and enter #Sacbiztweetchat in to the search bar. This is the easiest way to participate, because you’ll get a page that only shows only the tweets that have been tagged for our group and your tweets will have the hashtag added automatically.
2. Using twitter.com or an independent twitter tool (hootsuite, tweetdeck, etc.) type #sacbiztweetchat in to the search bar and you’ll find the conversation. Jump on in!

What will we talk about at the #SacBizTweetChat

Some of the questions we’ll ask include
1. How many times per day/per week do you Tweet?
2. What type of tweets are the most popular with your followers?
3. Have you attracted new customers to your restaurant or bar from Twitter?
4. Do you have a particular menu, food or beverage that generates a lot of retweets and comments?
5. Do you have any stories about new customers you’ve met on twitter?
6. How has Twitter affected your bottom line?
7. What suggestions do you have for Sacramento businesses just getting started on Twitter?

For more information and schedule of upcoming events, call Julie Gallaher of Get on the Map Local Search Marketing at 916-265-2521.

Tweet Chat Schedule

Monday, September 12, 6:00pm – 7:00pm Focus – Restaurants

Want more great tips like these? Join the Get on the Map Facebook Page

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of Yelp connection requests, primarily from business owners new to Yelp. Some Sacramento Social Media Consultant is recommending Yelp as a great site for business people, but neglecting to tell their clients about the danger zones.

Yelp is an affinity site, not a networking site. If I love a particular restaurant, and you love that same restaurant, we have a natural affinity and the basis of a social media friendship. If you hate a particular restaurant, and I hate the same restaurant, the old expression “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes in to play. But if you complain about a restaurant that I like or praise a restaurant that I dislike, I won’t change my mind about the restaurant, I will judge you harshly. As a business owner, this is something you should avoid. Do you really want to risk a potential disconnect with a prospect because you have a difference of opinion over sushi, pizza or bacon? (I know, who doesn’t love bacon?) You’ll never know which of your best prospects has strong opinions about the business you’re about to review.

Your other danger zone is finding the right level of participation. Active Yelpers create new reviews every week. If you only have a handful of reviews, you are indicated to them that you’re not really a part of their community. If all of your reviews are positive, they dismiss you as a Pollyana. If you review yourself, you stick out as a cheater.

Checking in at business location on Facebook or Foursquare does not have those same pitfalls. Creating a tip is easy — just a few words about something you like. You can easily share with your Facebook and Twitter friends.

If you’d like help creating a social media strategy, or if you want a second opinion on things you’ve been reading or hearing about social media, call Julie Gallaher at 916-265-2521. I’ve been creating websites since 1996, blogging since 2003 and have 20 years experience advising Sacramento small businesses about marketing and advertising.

Jay Baer, of Convince & Convert, has a fantastic slide show on the 5 Dangerous Realities of Social Media for Business. Jay has helped over 700 businesses, large and small, with their internet strategy since 1994. You can follow him on Twitter @jaybaer .

Funny … just last week I was teaching a group of small business owners about Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn. I told them that the internet world was constantly in flux, and that one of the most valuable things about working with someone like me is that I would keep up to date with the changes, so they didn’t have to.

And today, Facebook has a major redesign of their pages! Here’s the news you need to know …

FBML is out! Hip Hip Hooray!

Your #1 Priority — Go to your Facebook pages, say yes to upgrade to the new format and note the changes. Do the tabs look funky? Are your photos properly arranged? How does it look? If something doesn’t look right, comment here and we’ll try to help you.

I am in process of gathering the best tips and will post them here.

Do you repeatedly get invited by Facebook Friends to events that don’t interest you? Well, I’ve found the solution. You can block invites without defriending someone.

Alex James Brown provided the answer.

I’m teaching a couple classes on Facebook next month – click on Sacramento Social Media Workshops for more info, or call me at 16-265-2521.

Although many social media tools are free, the learning curve can be long. And when you’re confused, bad things can happen. I strongly recommend that you hire a pro to help you.

I’d been raving to a prospect about the cost effective advertising I had done on Facebook. With a small investment, I’ve had a huge return on investment, and received some terrific leads. She decided that she’d try it, but wasn’t ready to sign on with me as a client, so used their self serve platform to purchase her own ads. Without careful reading, she thought she set a budget of $50 for the campaign, when in reality, she set a budget of $50 per day. She was having trouble with her emails and realized her mistake when she received her credit card statement – instead of the $50 she was planning on, she had a bill for over $1,000.

When you’re dealing with a platform that you’ve never seen, it isn’t hard to miss an important step. With something as important as your marketing, don’t just hope you’ve done everything you should, get someone to help you.

I participated in a social media roundtable with the Sacramento Business Journal last week. Click the link above to read it.