Social Media Tips | COW PASTURE CHRONICLES

Hello again! Thanks Sheila, for giving me at http://kimberleycooperblog.wordpress.com the chance to chat with the folks that visit your blog. Nice to meet you all. I’m based in the UK, so please excuse any spellings and expressions you might not be familiar with.

With a bit of writing under my belt now, I’m spending some time looking at different ideas to promote it. You’ve probably come across Pinterest. But you may not have thought of using it to promote your writing. There’s a lot of guidance out there on ideas to do this, so rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ve listed below a couple of sites you might find helpful.

But what I can offer is my experience of what went well, and what made me tear my hair out, in the hope that it helps you.

Converting my private Pinterest account to a business one was easy. There are new terms and conditions to accept, but I couldn’t see any problems for me, or cost involved. A business account gives you analytics, so you can see which of your Pins is getting interest, where those Pinners are from and what else they are interested in. These articles were helpful https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/set-your-business-account and http://www.thesocialcraft.com/social-media-marketing/how-to-convert-your-personal-pinterest-account-to-a-business-account/

Verifying my website on Pinterest gave me a headache. It took about a week of puzzling over this to see what I’d done wrong. One tip – if the website that you want to be verified is on WordPress.com, then the format of this to put into Pinterest is http://yourwebsitename.wordpress.com (eg don’t put www in there). There’s really useful guidance at https://en.support.wordpress.com/webmaster-tools/

I created more Boards to hopefully get my work in front of a broader range of people. Eg although I have a Writing board that gets quite a lot of interest, some of my newer boards like “10 free things to do on a cruise” which showcases the pictures I’ve taken on holiday, has been reaching (probably) different people. Who knows, they may be interested in paranormal/urban fantasy or sci-fi romance too!

That’s just a quick run-down on how Pinterest is helping me. I’ve only just scratched the surface and it’s already looking promising. If you have any experience of using Pinterest to promote a business (any business), why not mention it in the comments below. And for no other reason than it’s cold and grey in the UK today, here’s a picture of a warmer day, to enjoy.

Day 2 6: #AtoZchallenge

Yeah, we made it. Today is the last post of the #AtoZchallenge. It has been a wonderful experience. For the letter – Z– I want to share Zemanta with you.

Zemanta is a browser extension that once installed provides recommended links and photos as related content (posts). It will load automatically as you write, allowing you to click on the specific content you wish to share. Proper credit for the articles and photos are provided by default. Below is an example of a post on Blogging Tips and the related content pulled up by Zemanta.

The content will show at the bottom of your post in either title format:

or thumbnail format based on your preferences in the settings.

This extension saves time and gives increases your authority, promotes, links to other writer’s content and increases networking.

To download the extension, click on this link.

Download the Extension

I hope you will try it out and let me know what you think. Again, it has been my pleasure to participate in the #AtoZChallenge and to have met each one of you. I look forward to a long and engaging relationship in the Cow Pasture.

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, and Contently.