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April 2012

Getting Through the Gate: How to Connect with Popular People in Your Niche

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Everyone has a wall built around their personal life. Some people have very low walls, the type you can step over easily, while others build nearly impenetrable fortresses with gatekeepers stationed at every entrance. Reaching these people is difficult to say the least.

That doesn’t bode well for you if you’re trying to score an interview, like we recently discussed on this blog. Interviews are my favorite source for free content, but your best intentions to post this kind of content will fall flat if you can’t find anyone to say yes.

Now, of course, you have people that respond quickly to interview requests and are happy to accommodate you. But as you try to reach the more popular people in your niche, you’ll probably notice a decreasing likelihood of response. Some people don’t even take the time to send a negative response. No matter how you spin your interview request, the most popular people in your niche need you to go through their gatekeepers if you want a slice of their time.

Traditional Gatekeepers

You probably have already thought about the more traditional types of gatekeepers a person might have. Virtual assistants, secretaries, and other lower-level employees are often the people answering the emails and setting up interviews. These people get dozens – sometimes even hundreds – of requests every day, so you can see how it would get overwhelming pretty quickly, even if answering emails is their main job.

So how can you stand out?

  • Do your research and call them by name. Gatekeepers like to be acknowledged as important too.
  • Keep your email short and to the point. Longer emails that look like more work are more likely to get put in the “I’ll answer it later” pile.
  • Be specific with your request. Don’t say, “I’d love to connect with Mr. Important about an interview at his convenience.” Instead, say, “I’d love to interview Mr. Important via Skype about his recent comments on Twitter at some point next week.”
  • Be flexible. “If Skype is not possible, email would work too!”
  • Remember to say thank you. You’d be surprised how many people forget this point.

You should definitely follow up if your first email doesn’t get a response – but you have to give the person a little time. Don’t be a burden, DMing on Twitter to say, “Did you get my email” an hour after sending it. Wait at least a week; then, if you haven’t heard back, send a friendly reminder.

Non-Traditional Gatekeepers

Don’t forget that you can look beyond the traditional gatekeepers as well. Other “gatekeepers” include:

  • Personal friends
  • Coworkers
  • People who have worked on join projects with the person in the past

I will caution, however: do NOT get chummy with these people because you want the hook up. Not only is it rude, but people can usually smell when they are being used. If you’re already friends with a friend of the person you’re trying to interview, though, it never hurts to ask! Just make sure you do so respectfully and remember to return the favor.

And remember a conference can serve as a “gatekeeper” as well. At a conference like BlogWorld, you can connect with experts in your field without the barrier of email. So don’t be afraid to set up interviews with these people when attending BlogWorld. Many are happy to carve out some time to meet you. You just have to ask!

22 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Facebook Likes

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Brilliant Bloggers is a bi-weekly series here at BlogWorld where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every week, we’ll feature three of the most brilliant bloggers out there, along with a huge list of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here.

This Week’s Topic: Facebook Likes

Whether you’re a small business owner or a blogger/podcaster, you probably already have a Facebook page. Maybe you’re highly interactive on that page and have a huge community there. Maybe you try to ignore it because you don’t know what to do with it. Most of us fall somewhere in between (though I think our community director Deb Ng does a FANTASTIC job on the BlogWorld Facebook page!)

On Facebook, it’s all about the likes. You want people to like your page so you appear in their stream, and you also want people to like individual pieces of content so you show up in their friends’ ticker. Today, our Brilliant Bloggers are talking about how to get more likes – and by making a few of the simple changes they talk about, you can skyrocket the success of your page.

Brilliant Blogger of the Week:

Buying Facebook Fans…Is There No GOOD Way? by Kirsten Wright

Buying likes on Facebook seems to go against my gut feelings of how to build a community, but in this post, Kirsten talks about an ethical and effective way to buy REAL fans through Facebook advertising. This isn’t the right move for everyone, but for many businesses, and even some bloggers and podcasters, “buying likes” is a great choice. From Kirsten’s post:

Facebook advertising, while it has a much catchier name, is technically still buying fans. But in this case, you’re buying extremely targeted, likely interested in your product/industry and often willing to engage fans. Which is where the key difference, and success, lies.

After checking out her entire post, you can follow Kirsten on Twitter at @kirstenwright.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

  1. 10 ways to get more Likes on your Facebook Timeline page! by SocialAppsHQ
  2. 13 Simple Ways of Increasing Your Facebook Likes by Niall Harbison (@niallharbison)
  3. 20 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page by Justin Wise (@justinwise)
  4. 21 Creative Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fanbase by Mari Smith (@marismith)
  5. 50 Ways to Get More People to Like Your Facebook Page by Garin Kilpatrick (@garin)
  6. Billy No Mates? 10 Tips to Get More Likes on Facebook by Nicky Price (@NickyVitality)
  7. Facebook Explains How To Get More “Likes” and Clicks by Pamela Vaughan (@pamelump)
  8. Five Tips for Getting More Likes On Facebook Fanpage by Kushal Biswas (@kushalthedude)
  9. How I Built A 6-Figure Facebook Fan Page by Adam Singer (@adamsinger)
  10. How I Get 87% More Facebook Page “Likes” Every Day by Tory McBroom (@torymcbroom)
  11. How I Got 18 Times More ‘Likes’ on a Facebook Update by Darren Rowse (@problogger)
  12. How to Get More Facebook Likes for Your Website and Fan Page by Kristi Hines (@kikolani)
  13. How to Get More Facebook Likes: Write More Good Content by Jon Loomer (@jonloomer)
  14. How to Get More Likes For Your Facebook Page (The Easy Way!) by Dave Charest (@davecharest)
  15. How to Get More Likes on Facebook by Amanda Webb (@spiderworking)
  16. How to Get More People To Share Your Content by Natalie Davis (@NatalieIMPACT)
  17. Positive Facebook Updates Get More Likes, Negative Get More Comments [INFOGRAPHIC] by Zoe Fox (@zoebfox)
  18. The Real Reason Your Customers Don’t Like You on Facebook by Jay Baer (@jaybaer)
  19. Study Reveals Why Consumers Fan Facebook Pages by Amy Porterfield  (@amyporterfield)
  20. Tips to Get More Fans to Share Your Facebook Content by Patricia Odell
  21. Use your website to get more Likes for your Facebook page [guide] by Erno Hannink (@ernohannink)

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about Facebook likes? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link.

Next Brilliant Blogger Topic: Starting a Podcast

I’d love to include a link to your post next week – and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

004 The Podcast Report – The Virtual Ticket And Session Previews With Evo Terra

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Hey everyone, Cliff Ravenscraft here. I’m back with another episode of The Podcast Report.

The Virtual Ticket
I start off this episode with an interview with Johnny B Truant who tells us about the Virtual Ticket option for BlogWorld & New Media Expo. The Virtual Ticket is a perfect standalone option for those who have decided that they will not be able to make it to NYC, this June, to attend the event.

The Virtual Ticket is also perfect, as an add-on option, for those who will be attending #BWENY this year, as there will be so many sessions happening simultaneously and you will only be able to be physically present at one session at a time. The Virtual Ticket allows you to catch all the sessions you missed just one week after the conference.

Five Session Previews With Evo Terra
Next up, I had the pleasure of interviewing Evo Terra from PodioBooks.com. Evo happens to be leading two panel sessions and sitting in as a panelist on three other sessions at #BWENY this year.

Here’s the list of sessions:
From Book To Podcast & Back Again
Podcasting For Creatives
The Real Speil – The Realistic Approach in Monetizing Your Podcast
Learn The Part of Podcast Narration
The State of Podcasting for 2012

I hope that you enjoy this podcast, that you will subscribe to it, and that you will tell every podcaster you know about it. Please leave me any comments or feedback that you have in the comments section below! I hope to see you at the event!

Register For BlogWorld Today!
If you are serious about your podcasting efforts, I highly recommend that you attend the leading podcast industry conference. If you haven’t registered yet, click here to get registered today. Use promo code GSPN10 for 10% off!

Subscribe To The Podcast Report
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Scott Monty Interview – Ford’s Social Media Manager – BlogWorld 2011 Los Angeles

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At last year’s Blog World, Future of Publishing host Murray Newlands interviewed Ford’s social media manager Scott Monty about social media marketing, outreach, and other topics. In this interview, Scott talk about Ford’s social media outreach efforts and how a big, “traditional” company can embrace new mediums of communication. What Scott says might surprise you:

In addition to running Ford’s social media presence, Scott also owns a widely-read social media blog called The Social Marketing Blog, which gives him an outlet to share his expertise among social media professionals.

New Media News Break: Moving to Vegas, Klout on the Go, TED-Ed, and more

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Every week, we post a New Media News Break to help catch you up with what’s going on in the world of new media and get you through the work week. Here are this week’s top stories:

BlogWorld Heads Back to Las Vegas!

I might be a little biased, but I think one of the most exciting new media news stories of the week is that BlogWorld is heading back to Las Vegas, where it first got started. Our east coast event took place in Los Angeles last year, and while this location was fun, our community – you guys – asked to go back to Vegas, and we listened. We’re really excited to be at the beautiful RIO, and our conference will also overlap with CES, which means you can get double the bang for your travel buck, hitting both conferences in a single trip rather than having to plan and pay for several different flights. Our initial post about the move has a great discussion about heading to Las Vegas and more information about this event, which will be held in January 2013.

Klout Goes Mobile

Four months ago, Klout announced app plans, and this week, they finally released a version for iPhone, with plans for an Android version in the future. What’s cool about this app is that you don’t have to open it to see your Klout score; instead, you can just choose to have your score displayed on the icon. You can’t give out +Ks with this app (yet), but there are a lot of other functions available with the Klout app, which you can read about on Mashable’s story about this new way to use Klout while on the go. While getting too wrapped up in Klout isn’t necessarily a good thing, I do think there are definite benefits to tracking your score, as it allows you to see how you can improve with using social media.

The Sioux City Journal Creates a Blog-Like Issue

Newspapers are losing money and going bankrupt across the country as more and more people move to getting their news online, but that doesn’t mean there are no papers out there doing interesting things. This past weekend, The Sioux City Journal took a very unconventional approach to their Sunday paper, devoting the entire front cover to a message about stopping bully after a local teen died from self-inflicted injuries due to bullying about being gay. I think the paper looks almost blog-like, which is a pretty interesting concept. Could more content like this be the answer to newspapers’ problems? (Not that print news publications should capitalize on tragedies, but I think the idea of rethinking content to be more blog-like is an interesting one.)

TED-Ed Allows you to Create Comprehensive Lessons with YouTube

The new TED-Ed site is now making it easier for educators, especially online educators, to “flip” YouTube videos into lessons for their students. It’s actually a really cool concept that allows you to add supplemental content to videos by asking questions or adding additional resources. While the concept was initially designed for teachers, I think it would also be interesting to see how online content creators use this new ability as well to create some online courses. It’s definitely a tool worth checking out, especially if you are a video creator, vlogger, video podcasters, or blogger thinking about adding videos to your text content.

In Case You Missed It

Here’s what you might have missed on the BlogWorld blog in the past week:

Awesome from the Archives

There are some golden posts in the post hidden in the BlogWorld archives. Here are three of my favorites that I think you should check out:

Check back every Wednesday for a New Media News Break just when you need it!

What is BlogWorld?

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We receive questions about BlogWorld every day. This is a good thing because it means people are interested in our conference and our community. Besides, we jump at the opportunity any time we can have a comversation with current and potential community members.

We recently posted our Frequently Asked Questions on both our conference website and our Facebook page as a way to respond to our community. However,  space is limited when we have so many questions to answer, so we also felt it would be a good idea to break them all down here and answer them one by one, in depth.

Over the upcoming weeks we’re going to do exactly that. Today’s  question may seem very basic and obvious.

However, in addition to being the most popular question we receive, it’s also the most important.

What is BlogWorld?

Everyone has an idea of what they think BlogWorld is. We’ve heard that it’s a social media conference, or that it’s a tech conference, blogging conference, and even an interactive conference. The truth is, it’s none of the above.

First and foremost, BlogWorld is a conference for content creators. It’s for anyone who creates, distributes, markets and monetizes any kind of content over the web. If you blog, podcast or create kickass videos, BlogWorld will not only help you out with the best tips and techniques for putting out the most professional and well-recceived content posible, but you’ll also learn how to make that content grow and earn. It’s the first conference of it’s kind and considered the largest content and social media conference in the world.

Our attendees can’t decide if it’s the top notch educational sessions or the networking with both movers and shakers and up and comers in social media and content creation that keep them coming back.  Whether it’s in the hallways, the New Media Lounge or one of several networking events we put on for each conference, if you’re looking to meet potential clients and collaborators, you’ll find no shortage of either at BlogWorld.

Learn at BlogWorld

Our educational sessions feature standout lessons and workshops from noted professionals in their respective fields. Current tracks include, but are in no way limited to  The Business of Blogging, Content Creation, Community, Podcasting, Web TV, Monetization, Content Marketing and Mobile.

BlogWorld also features the Social Media Business Summit. SMBS is sort of a conference within a conference. Featuring the top names in social media, SMBS features content and networking for businesses and brands looking to get more out of social media and expand their online presence. As our speakers are the best at what they do, SMBS is also a place for quality networking, deal making, and brainstorming.

Lots of Bells and Whistles

Our show floor features exhibits from the brands behind the top tools and technology in the space. BlogWorld is where these brands come to reach out to and grow their own communities and it’s where attendees learn about resources to help grow their own brands and businesses.

Speakers and attendees alike have landed book deals, interviews, jobs and media opportunities after spending time at BlogWorld. Job scouts, talent scouts and representatives from book publishing companies alike come to BlogWorld to seek out new talent. They hang out in our lounges, schmooze at our parties, and sit in on our educational sessions.

Our community is made up of every type of content creation imaginable. From food, travel and parent bloggers, to podasters and video hosts, when we say we touch every aspect of content creation, distribution, promotion, marketing and monetization, we’re not exaggerating.

Currently we host two events. In 2012 our “East Coast” event is held in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center from June 5th – 7th. Our 2013 events will commence in the West in  Las Vegas January from 6 – 8th, at the Rio Hotel and Casino, with  East Coast dates for the spring to be announced.

What is BlogWorld? It’s a place for any person, business or brand to grow their presence on the web and make the most of the online tools available to them.

 

BlogWorld is the future of content, community and commerce.

 

Interested in learning more? Drop by the BlogWorld home page for a run down of speakers, sessions and registration information.

 

 

How to Find Free Images for Your Blog with Flickr

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I highly recommend you include at least one image with every blog post you write, in most cases. Using images has several advantages:

  • Your content can be pinned more easily if you include an image.
  • Derek Halpern taught me a great trick – psychologically, people are more likely to read shorter lines, so adding an image at the beginning of a post helps lead them into your content. (I featured a video from Derek here last week.)
  • Images can break up your content, making it easier to read.
  • Images can illustrate steps in a tutorial or complement reviews.
  • You can even monetize images.

Some blog themes also require images to work well, so while I won’t say that you have to use an image in every blog post, I do think you should have a compelling reason why you aren’t using an image if you choose to go this way.

One of the main challenges with images, however, is that most of us aren’t also photographers. You should NEVER simply do a Google search and save an image you find, as this does not uphold copyright laws. However, there are a few free sources for images online, including one of my favorites – Flickr.

In this video, one of our community members, Brankica from Online Income Star, shows you how to use Flickr to get free images for your blog, and she also shares some great tips about finding and working with photographers on this site:

I highly recommend checking out the rest of Brankica’s channel, which includes more great video tutorials for bloggers.

The #1 Way to Get Exclusive FREE Blog Content from Experts in Your Niche

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Free Blog Content Wouldn’t it be great if you checked your email one day to find a message from a leader in your niche? And I don’t mean their latest email newsletter – I mean an individual email with free blog content they wrote, exclusively for your blog?

When I first started blogging, I had a hard time catching the eyes and ears of other bloggers. I was the new kid on the scene, and even back then, there were thousands of other bloggers out there, also vying for the attention of the top names in my niche. But if you can make a big-name blogger aware of your content – and that content is great, of course – they might share it with their followers. So I was frustrated. I felt like I was spinning my wheels, just hoping to get noticed.

But there’s a fool-proof way to get almost any expert out there not only to notice you, but also to send you free content – and even promote it! Who doesn’t want that?

My Secret Way to get Free Blog Content Exclusively for Your Blog – FROM EXPERTS

Ready for the secret? It’s actually a pretty simply concept – but first let me tell you what DOESN’T work:

  • Asking for guest posts – most popular bloggers are way too busy to write content for you
  • Publicly tweeting at experts – it’s rude to put people on the spot publicly when you ask for a favor unless you know them well
  • Post an excerpt from their work – you can do this (as long as you abide by fair-use laws and properly credit the work), but the posts won’t be exclusive for your blog

What does work? Are you on the edge of your seat? Okay, here’s my secret: Tell the blogger you’ll be featuring them on your blog and ask for an email interview.

Doing interviews is no secret, but if your experiences have been anything like mine, when you email popular bloggers or companies and ask for interviews, a lot of the time, you won’t even hear back. You have to spin your email the right way. I don’t just recommend asking for an interview, which is easy to ignore.

Here’s how to go about writing an email that is much harder to ignore:

Step One: Identify leaders in your niche who need promotion.

At any given time, there will be people in your niche who are hungry for promotion, and they’re more likely to give you the free blog content you really want. Maybe they just launched a new company. Maybe they got some bad press recently and need to set the record straight or tell their side of the story. Maybe they recently published a book. Whatever the case may be, there will be certain people in your niche looking for press. Those are the people you want to target. (For example, I interviewed Rick Kats from Pinerly, since they recently launched a new Pinterest-related company.)

Pro tip: If the person you’re interview is an extremely popular blogger, I recommend trying to find out who their “people” are and email them instead. Virtual assistants, managers, and others who work directly with your target interviewee are more likely to answer your emails. That might actually be their job. So work with them directly if you can. Assistants love when you actually send them an email directly because it shows you’ve done your homework and you know who you’re supposed to be emailing. These people spend every day answering emails addressed to their employer; sometimes it’s nice to read an email addressed to you.

Later this week, I’ll be publishing a post specifically about working with these “gatekeepers” in your niche, so make sure you’re subscribed to our blog if you don’t want to miss that post.

Step Two: Start the email with what you will do for them, not asking them to do something for you.

Popular bloggers get several requests every day, and they just can’t answer them all, even if they want to. Unless you know one another, an email that says, “Hey, would you do an interview with me for my blog?” is not a good idea. Yes, you’re getting free blog content, but that’s not what you want to highlight in your email. I have no motivation to help you, if you send that kind of email. Instead, here’s a better example of what you can say in your email:

Hey Joe Blogger,

I’m a huge fan of your work, and I’d love to feature your new book, How to be an Awesome Ninja Guru Expert Rockstar Blogger, on the BlogWorld blog next week. Our community is filled with bloggers from over fifty different countries, and I think they’d really love to hear about your book, since they’re always looking for advice about blog monetization. Would you have time to answer a few quick email questions about your work and where they can buy it (or we connect on Skype if that is easier for you)?

Best,

Allison

I do not  recommend that you copy this example word-for-word (yes, even if you change out the specifics). When you send an email with a request, the person deserves and individual email, in my opinion. But the take-away concept that I’m trying to show is how you should focus on what you can do for the blogger, not what they can do for you.

A few other things this email does:

  • Show that you know their work by mentioning their work and what it is about.
  • Use their name. (Many PR companies don’t take the time to do this.)
  • Tell them something about your readers/community so you can show how this will benefit them.
  • Make it clear that your questions will only take a few minutes to answer.
  • Reiterate in some way that this is for their benefit, talking about money/sales if possible. (For example, in my sample email, I talk about sharing how readers can buy the book.)
  • Give the person options for answering your questions.
  • Give a deadline passively. Avoid demanding a reply by a certain deadline, but make a time reference. (For example, I noted that I’d like to publish my feature “next week.”)

Follow up with this email if you don’t receive a reply, but wait at least a week for it to be answered. In my experience, 90% of the time, you won’t have to follow up at all. I’ve never not  received a reply with this kind of email, and usually I don’t have to follow up at all.

Step Three: Watch your email like a hawk.

The moment you receive a reply, respond with your questions or set up a time to chat on Skype (most people prefer emails). If you can catch the person while they are still at their computer, your interview questions will be less likely to fall through the cracks. In fact, if you catch the email the moment it is sent and are prepared with your questions, you might even get a response right away.

From there, also post the interview as quickly as possible. Sometimes, it makes sense to hold the piece (for example, posting at 4 AM on a Monday morning might not make sense), but in general, the sooner you can post it, the better. People don’t want to spend time replying to your questions only to wait to reap the benefits.

Don’t forget to email the link when the post is published or tweet the link with an @ reply when it’s published. You need to somehow alert the person that the content is live on your blog. And definitely do work to promote the content as much as possible through social media channels and your email list. If you do your part, the person you interviewed will likely help as well.

Why This is an Amazing Source of Content

So why is a “few quick questions” an amazing source of content for your blog? Because people love to talk about themselves. If you ask interesting questions (not the same old stuff that everyone is asking), people will send you LONG answers. Most of the time, when I send five to seven interview questions, I get 1000+ words back in return! And this is all exclusive content for your blog, as good as if the blogger had written a guest post for you. So don’t be afraid to start sending out email interview requests, even to bloggers who haven’t taken notice of you in the past. There’s no better way to get free blog content from the experts.

And as a side note? Email interviews with leaders in your niche are awesome, but video content is even better. In just over a month, experts across several niches will be gathering in New York for BlogWorld’s East Coast event, which makes it possible for you to connect with people like Peter Shankman, Jenny Lawson, Jim Kukral, Tim Street, and tons of other content creators who might otherwise not have time to reply to emails, even using the above technique. If you’re going to the event, set up interview times with these people now to make sure they can fit you in.

How to monetize your blog’s images (part 2)

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A week ago, BlogWorld showed you the first part of a two-part Future of Publishing episode about how to monetize images so that you can make money at home with your blog or affiliate marketing website. This week, I’m showing you part 2 of the episode. The producers felt that it should be split into two parts so that all of the bases would be covered:

Highlights

  • Banner blindness is worse than ever…
  • Some publishers get less than one click per 1,000 pageviews…
  • This means that new advertising methods need to be used…
  • One of the best is to put the ads in the content, for example, with monetized images.

Future of Publishing brought to you by BlogWorld and sponsored by VigLink.

Track Your Pins and Drive More Pinterest Traffic with Pinerly: Interview with CEO Rick Kats

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Pinterest is one of the most addicting networks out there (I swear I don’t have it open in a second window as I’m writing this post…), but while it functions well for hobby pinners, it doesn’t give content creators many options for tracking Pinterest marketing efforts. Enter Pinerly. This Pinterest analytics and marketing site received 36,000 signups within one week of launching and, so far, its 500 beta testers (of which I am one) have created over 1,000 campaigns to track pin performance.

Pinterest is an AMAZING marketing tool for digital content creators (and we’ll actually be releasing a free ebook covering that topic soon – stay tuned). Pinerly is part of that equation, at least in my opinion. So I sat down with Pinerly’s Rick Kats to talk more about this site and how it can help pinners build a bigger following on Pinterest, drive more traffic back to their content, and more.

Allison: For people who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself and Pinerly.

Rick: My name is Rick Kats, CEO of Pinerly. Pinerly is an analytics dashboard for online visual content sharing platforms – starting with Pinterest. We provide tools to allow users to post content and easily compare the virality, reach, and engagement of each campaign. Designed with the simplicity to make it “just work,” Pinerly allows brands, bloggers, marketers, sellers, and agencies to focus more on their customers/content while optimizing their posts to increase on their returns.

How did you come up with the idea for Pinerly?

The inspiration behind Pinerly came about when we were using Pinterest to market our old business (www.setnight.com) and noticed that our traffic increase by 30%. We really loved Pinterest from day 1 and enjoyed how friendly the demographic that uses it really is. Although it was a lot of fun, our biggest pain was trying to measure the amount of traffic brought to us from certain pins (ROI – or return on our time). This is the fundamental reason why we started Pinerly. There is a nice phrase that we saw some time ago “if you cannot measure it, then it’s just a hobby.” We believe that it’s completely true and are creating the tool that we wished we had for ourselves when trying to get more exposure to our brand.

I think the “Pinalytics” section is extremely helpful for online content creators who want to see how well their links are doing. I love how it shows your total reach, based on others who have also pinned it. Can you talk to me a little about how the Pinalytics section works and how content creators can best use it?

The campaign and pinalytics is certainly one of the most compelling features on Pinerly. What we allow you to do is easily measure click-throughs, re-pins, and likes on a pin that is pinned through Pinerly. In a similar process to Pinterest, you select an image or input a URL to fetch the images, add a description, add a destination URL and then post the pin onto Pinterest. Once you do this, you are able to easily compare the campaigns against each other and see which work better and try to understand why. Although this may seem like a simple concept, there is a lot that we (and other brands) have learned about our posts and now do more of to optimize on our postings. We talk about some of these things here. There is certainly a lot to be understood in terms of times, descriptions, images and boards to find out what converts best and why.

My First Pinalytics Campaign

The ability to schedule pins is something I think a lot of pinners want, especially people who are using Pinterest to market their content. When will this feature be available?

For the scheduling feature, we are completely dependent on the release of the Pinterest API – ability for third party services to post data to Pinterest. As soon as Pinterest publicly releases its API we will be able to flip the switch and enable this feature.

One of the most important things about Pinterest is to disperse the pins over time. So instead of just pinning everything at once, it would be great to have a way to spread content throughout the day so that even when you are away from the computer, pins that you may have found earlier in the morning will be posted to keep your followers engaged. We hope that this will allow many avid pinners do all of their pinning in one time and concentrate more on the things that matter (spend time engaging with their followers, customers, users, or even with their family =) )

I also noticed in a recent email you sent out, you mentioned a Pinerly button. What can you tell us about it? Will this be similar to the current Pin It button that a lot of people already use?

Yes! But even more exciting, it’ll be a “Pinerly It” button that will now allow you to pin things at the same ease as the Pin It button and will tie directly into your pinalytics so that you can basically create campaigns on the fly. We’ll also be tying in other cool features like the scheduling into this as well.

Currently, Pinerly is not open to the public, but you do allow people to get access sooner by promoting it to their friends. You’ve come under fire for asking people to promote in order to move up on the waiting list. What is your response to those critics?

I think it’s really easy to forget that there are real people behind Pinerly and that sometimes there are things that you really just can’t expect. We wrote a full response with all of our thoughts here: http://not99.posterous.com/all-cards-on-the-table.

What else can we expect from Pinerly in the future?

We’ve really got some really really exciting things in the works (and I’m not just saying that =) )

1) Pinerly Bookmarklet: Discussed above.

2) Scheduling: Also discussed above!

3) Multiple Accounts: Ability to manage multiple Pinterest accounts through Pinerly. The idea is to provide a seamless way to control multiple business accounts or personal accounts simultaneously and easily switch between them to making posting content even easier.

We’ve also got things like monitoring, campaign analysis and recommendations, and a lot more coming… so stay tuned!

Thanks all of the great information, Rick! I’m super excited to see how Pinerly keeps evolving, and I hope you’ll keep us updated!

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