What is Pinterest (recently overheard it being pronounced Pin-Interest. LOL.)? How do you use it? What’s the point? 

I get these questions a lot from my clients. They hear (or heard) a lot about what it can do for a business but when they log on to check it out, they are lost and consumed by a flurry of nonsense.

Pin v Repin. Board v Group Board v Secret Board. Like v Follow. The terminology itself is confusing. They layout is overwhelming. And, at the end of the day, my clients are left more confused than ever. 

Thankfully, the folks at Pinterest put their thinking caps on and dumbed it all down for us. Their new Help Center will answer a flurry of basic Pinterest questions like, “What can I pin?” and “What’s following?” There’s also some great information there for the more advanced pinner like, “Make existing pins or boards secret,” and “Warn me if I pin something twice.” (you know you’ve done it!)

Now, all of this is great. Don’t get me wrong. But, learning Pinterest inside and out isn’t going to make your business flourish. In fact, I’d argue that Pinterest is only helpful to a super small number of businesses and exclusive to those who sell things online. Sure, people will disagree. But, in my experience in working with my clients, Pinterest for business isn’t all that. 

But, if you like following the crowd and getting sucked into the internet for hours that feel like minutes, jump into Pinterest. It is super fun and highly addictive. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Hubspot! 

I find myself screaming this in my head time and time again with this awesome service. They have (probably literally) an e-book for just about any social media topic you can think of. They consistently put out timely, relevant, helpful tips for social media insiders like myself. I’ve used so many of their helpful tools to help my clients stand out and look awesome. If you’re a social marketing manager, like myself, or a small business owner going it alone, I will always stand behind Hubspot as a dependable, reliable tool. 

Their latest “Aha” tool is email templates. Totally free, Hubspot has released 35 email templates to aid in lead nurturing, landing pages, and blog promotion. Like I said, these are totally free, but it does take some button clicking to get them all (or your favs) into your preferred email software (MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc) 

Here’s how to import Hubspots 35 free templates into MailChimp.

Head to Hubspot to download your templates. You’ll have to give them some contact info, but trust me…it’s worth it.

You’ll be redirect to a landing page asking how you’d like to access your templates. Choose the far right option, “Download HTML.”

Once the file downloads, double click it to open the zip file. 

You’ll end up with all of this mess. If you’d like to view the template, right click on any of the files that start with “VIEW,” and select Open. If you’d like to download a template, right click a file that starts with “HTML,” and select Open. (You may get an alert asking if you want to open a file that’s being downloaded from the Internet…Allow it.)

When the window opens, select “Save As” from the “File” drop down menu. Name you file and save it to your desktop. 

Sign in to your MailChimp account. 

Select “My Templates,” which is a green button on the left under the big, red “Create A Template,” button.

Select “Code Your Own,” (bottom left) by clicking the orange link text “Code a template.”

Select “Import Template” from the Template Type drop down menu (left side bar).

Name your template. This should be something pretty specific. I used “Hubspot Blog Newsletter Long.”

Click “Browse” and select the file that you saved a few steps ago. Click blue “Upload” button.

If you’re not automatically redirected to your template page, select “My Templates” from the Template Type drop down box. 

Ta da! There she is!

I was just looking through the “People You May Know” feature on LinkedIn and found myself furrowing my brow on more than one occasion after spotting some questionable profile photos. 

Here’s a few of my favorites:

So, this profile photo would be acceptable if she were a personal trainer. Lord, with those abs, she should be! But, alas, she’s an event planner for crying out loud!

This is the profile photo for a company that sells hot tubs. First, LinkedIn should be more personal than this. It should be your name, not your company name. It should be your photo, not just something you grabbed off Google images. Not to mention, this is a little…um…racy!

This lovely woman is an executive assistant. You’d never know it. Either way, I don’t want to cross her! (I hope she doesn’t read my blog!)

This, similar to the hot tub example is the profile photo for a builder. And, although I am all about showing off your work, this is not the way to do it. It looks dirty, incomplete, and tells me nothing about you.

Is she…winking…at me?

Now, I’m not saying your profile picture has to be one of those awkward, stiff professional photos putting you in front of the quintessential watercolor background. But, your photo should speak to what you do, who you are, and what you love. 

Here are some great examples I found:

She’s a Vice President. You can tell right. Standing in front of a mic taking in a round of applause…very official, very professional, very authoritative. 

She is a sales executive for a magazine that targets parents. She looks like cheerful and like she identifies with her readers and, ultimately, her advertisers.

He is an art director. Even though his image isn’t the right dimension on his profile page, it’s quirky enough to make me forget about that. It shows his personality, sense of humor, and creativity.

He is a private investigator. The photo really speaks for itself…as it should.

Wonder how your photo stacks up? Send me a link to your LinkedIn profile and I’ll let you know. But, be prepared for brutal honesty. 

This seems like an appropriate time for me to throw in one of my favorite quotes, “You never get a second chance at a first impression.” And, these days, those happen online whether you like it or not. Might as well make the most of it.