TechnoGrannyShow, 7 Reasons to Use Pinterest

Seven Reasons to Use Pinterest

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RIEVA LESONSKY – BIO

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. A nationally known speaker, best-selling author, and authority on small business. Lesonsky has been covering America’s entrepreneurs for more than 30 years.

Before co-founding GrowBiz Media in 2008, Lesonsky was the long-time Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Lesonsky has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Martha Stewart show and Oprah, and can regularly be seen on MSNBC’s Your Business. 

Lesonsky is the editor of Network Solutions’ Grow Smart Business blog, and regularly writes for SCORE’s Success blog, Small Business Trends, SBA.Gov, American Express OPEN Forum, Small Biz Nation on LinkedIn, AT&T Small Business, ReadWriteWeb, and her site SmallBizDaily.com. In 2009, she was named to Folio Magazine’s “Folio 40” list, which honors publishing’s top innovators. In 2011 she was named one of the nation’s top 100 Small Business Influencers.

Pinterest Talking Points

Pinterest

• Pinterest is essentially a virtual catalog of products sold online, some call it a virtual pin (bulletin) board.
• Pinterest is a fairly new social medium, about 2 years old, but is one of the fastest growing social networks ever. It’s already the 3^rd-largest network, behind only Facebook and Twitter. They just got a $120 million round of funding, and are expanding overseas to places like France, Germany and Japan.
• Traffic is booming. According to Compete, they had OVER 23.5 million unique views in August, up 1,795 percent from Aug in 2011. Compete also said about 25 percent of consumers say they are spending less time on other social media sites in favor of Pinterest.
• Pinterest is also attracting consumers who have not previously interacted with a social media. 15% of Pinterest users reported that they do not use any other social media sites.
• Most Pinterest users in the US are women, ages 25-54 (80 percent women).
• Pinterest drives traffic—people are not just looking, they’re buying.
• Great for business owners who own retail businesses, like jewelry, clothes, accessories, furniture, etc. But I think it’s also good for service providers.
• One of most popular categories is posting Inspirational quotes
• Great way to improve brand recognition and get more customers

Contact Info

Rieva Lesonsky

GrowBiz Media/SmallBizDaily

SmallBizDaily.com

Rieva@growbizmedia.com

714-389-7411

TechnoGrannyShow 11-29-11, Alternative to Twitter, Entrpreneur's Tool, Sprouter

Everytime a new social media tool shows up, consumers and power users and geeks rush to espouse it thinking it will be the be all end all for it’s application.  Users have referred to   Spouter as the “Twitter-like tool” for startups and entrepreneurs.

When Sprouter first came on the social media horizon it seemed to have many twitter like qualities.

1.        You can offer updates in 140 characters as you do on twitter.

2.      It is a social tool with community members

3.      Users can follow and be followed.

4.      You can communicate with other users.

Ahah, the similarities have ended there.  Check out the home page,  you can get help with your startup by asking questions of a one of a panel of experts who may be on-hand in real-time or will respond relatively promptly to your queries.

Sprouter has also been sending out weekly newsletters that profile up-and-coming entrepreneurs and companies, as well as offering live webinar sessions with their experts. To entrepreneurs and start ups this is much more than a Twitter-like tool.  It is an online educational resource for start ups and entrepreneurs.

Sprouter has risen beyond the microblogging model.   IThere are so many Twitter like modalities out there, Jaiku, Plurk, Blippr, Tumbler.  But the uniqueness of Sprouter is readily apparent just by going to the front page of the website.   Sprouter has carved out a business niche. 

Trendhunter Magazine says,

 “Essentially, the Sprouter online community invites entrepreneurs to share, support and collaborate with each other through common goals and business topics.”

Adding webinars and nearly real time feedback in the future could challenge icon business magazines like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast.

From Sprouter.com:   Sprouter facilitates networking and collaboration between entrepreneurs globally. Providing a platform for users to connect with other innovators, entrepreneurs can expand their networks to include fellow entrepreneurs and startups with similar interests and goals. By answering the question “What are you working on?” in 140 characters or less entrepreneurs can discover and join events in their local areas, start discussions and follow topics of relevance to their business.

If you’re currently an entrepreneur or thinking about launching your business, Sprouter is the perfect place to bounce ideas, get feedback, and meet like-minded people. Sprouter also holds monthly Sprout Up events in cities around the world to connect entrepreneurs in person, showcase local startups, and hear from relevant guest speakers.

Cost: Free

What makes it different? There are a number of differences:

1.        There are less, but more targeted, users than many of the mainstream networks.

2.        They facilitate offline meetings (Sprout Up events) around the world where users can actually connect in person – just imagine. Meeting feature guest speakers, and showcase local startups.

3.        Sprouter focuses on business only, and specifically on challenges facing startups.

Principals:

·         Sarah Prevette, Founder/CEO

·         Erin Bury, Community Manager

Blog: Sprouter.com/blog

Popularity: Alexa site ranking: 63,322 (worldwide traffic rank) with 178 sites linking in.

Add-on tools: Sprouter integrates with Twitter. Users can choose to update their Sprouter account through their Twitter account by using the hashtag #Sprouter in an update, or they can chose to push all the Sprouter updates to their Twitter account.

What you need to know: Don't expect the flood of followers and direct messages that you get from other larger social networks. But what you do get is actually valuable. This is Twitter, all grownup and focused.


*****Techno Granny loves the updates that are sent out to find out about newly funded businesses.  We have found many or our recent guests there.


Listen to the show we did on Sprouter as chat guests logged on and became members at:  http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=423042&cmd=apop