Pinterest: The Internet's Searchable Future

Brooke and I have a few rules for watching TV on the couch together.  We have "no phone shows" - usually the more intense shows like The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad.  And we have "phone shows" - usually shows on Netflix we have seen before and are re-watching like The Office, Parks + Rec, Arrested Development, New Girl, Friends or Seinfeld... basically the only six shows you ever need to watch.

During "phone shows" I am usually clicking around on Instagram, Twitter or Clash of Clans.  Brooke is only ever on one app every time I ask her - Pinterest.  Seriously, almost 99% of the time she is clicking around on her phone, all while George Castanza is in the background yelling about who knows what, Brooke is looking at Pinterest.  She's usually scrolling through home decor trends or healthy meal inspiration.  It is totally her jam and so over the past few weeks I have been using Pinterest a lot more.  You can follow me here - @tjmousetis.

Now, we have always used Pinterest for walk in love. but after using it for a few weeks I am only now seeing the incredible power it has for business.  I can see a future where your "normal Google searches" end up looking more like a Pinterest layout and less like the Google layout we are accustom to seeing today. Why? Because people LOVE visuals.  Whenever you go out to eat and look at a menu you usually point to whatever is pictured in the menu and say, "Oh, that looks good!"  That's because we love visuals.  We don't point to text as often and say the same thing.

Because the brilliant minds behind Pinterest have captured that in a searchable way, I think their layout will eventually be what a lot of search sites look like.  We want to see what something looks like before we click on it, whether it's for remodeling your kitchen or baking chocolate chip cookies.

So, what does this mean for your business?  It means stop what you are doing and GET ON PINTEREST!  It is such an important tool that you need to be using yesterday. Especially if you own one of these types of businesses.

• Clothing
• Photography
• The Wedding Industry. Brides literally plan their weddings on Pinterest.
• Contractor, or anything to do with home repair/upgrades.
• Children's Products - Clothes, accesorries, baby food, etc.
• Home decor
• Fitness, Health & Wellness
• Tattoo Artist
• Or, any business where you can take a photo of your product or service. This doesn't however exclude your brand if you can't seem to take a photo of it, like an Accountant or Musician for example. There are plenty of creative ways you can still offer content to your clients via Pinterest. Get creative!

I know starting out on a new-for-you social media platform can appear daunting, so here is what I suggest.  First, set up an account with whatever handle/username you normally use. Then, use IF THIS THAN THAT to set up a simple recipe to send all of your Instagrams to a board on Pinterest.  We just recently started doing that and those pins have already been re-pinned 57 times in just two short week. In this scenario, we aren't even making any new content for Pinterest specifically, just posting Instagrams like we always do.

Pinterest isn't just for DIY crafts and crockpot recipes anymore.  It is the new type of search engine and your business can really benefit from being on it.  Bottom line: If you aren't on Pinterest, no new customers will ever find you on Pinterest. And that's where your customers are.

If you want to remember this blog post you can pin this graphic!

Be Your Own SUPERFAN!

I wear a walk in love. shirt every single day.

I wear one when I work.

I wear one when I sleep.

I wear one when I workout.

I wear one under my suit, when I wear a suit.

I am a walk in love. super fan because I want others to be.  If I don't wear a walk in love. shirt everyday, and post about it as often as possible, why should I expect others to?

It should be the same way with your business.  You should be your biggest fan and cheerleader!  You should be to your brand what the super fans who camp out all night, make crazy puffy paint t-shirts and memorize every lyric are to Taylor Swift.  I think entrepreneurs often think they are "too cool" to be super fans, but again, if you aren't, how can you expect someone else to be?

Whenever you are around a super fan you get sucked into their fandom.  Have you ever watched a football game with someone who is crazy about the team that's playing?  You find yourself caught up in rooting for them, their team, and all their hopes and dreams, simply because fandom is contagious.  The same is true about your business.  If you are the ultimate "hype guy" for your company, you will attract people to your brand.

This is why it drives me absolutely crazy, for example, when photographers get their "About" photos taken by another photographer.  If you want people to hire you to be a photographer, why would you hire someone else? You are basically giving that other photographer a full page advertisement on your website. That's why the Brooke Courtney Photography team always used iPhone photos, Smilebooth photos or photos we shot as our About photos. It simply makes sense.

If you are a carpenter, why would you hire someone else to build something for you?

If you are a graphic designer, why would you hire someone else to do your logo?

If you are a clothing company owner, why would you wear any other clothing?

I once had the pleasure of working at the wedding for one of the founders of Under Armour.  And guess what?  He was wearing Under Armour sneakers with his tuxedo. Because that's what super fans do.  They also provided Under Armour flip flops for every woman at the wedding when they got tired of wearing their heels. Because, again, that's what super fans do.

I know that this thinking might seem intense, but super fans are intense.  Intense fans will do intense things for the brands they love, and you should do the same.  You should be your own SUPERFAN!

If you want to remember this post you can pin this graphic.

Layers

In a lot of our discussions lately Brooke and I have been talking about the layers of walk in love.

Let me explain.

Our top layer, because of it's following, is Instagram with over 55k followers. We have the biggest following there so we put a lot of energy toward creating good, beautiful content for Instagram.

Our second layer is our MailChimp E-mail List with just over 17k subscribers.  This is an important sales layer because it contacts customers directly.  If you don't have an e-mail list start building one today! 

Our third layer is Pinterest because while we don't have as many followers, our pins get viewed by millions because they get passed around over and over again.

We'd like to make our 4th layer YouTube because of the viral and sharing nature of videos but haven't given it enough attention, although in the coming months we hope to change that.

Twitter, Facebook, Periscope and Tumblr are all lower layers as well.  We'd love to use Facebook as a more prominent layer but because you basically have to promote any post you want to be seen it's not worth it. We use twitter but because we don't have a huge following there we don't focus on it as much.

Brooke and I have been discussing the layers of walk in love. because we realize that as we grow we will need to utilize all those layers to get the biggest, best following possible.  When we use all layers effectively we can maximize how many potential new customers come in contact with us.  More eyes = more customers = more sales = more growth.

So, if you have a small business and you say things like "I don't think we really need Pinterest"...STOP!  You do.  Use those layers to maximize your growth in a way that works for you.    You may find that it's not quite right for you, which is okay.  But it might end up bringing in a few new customers just because you tried.

If you want an easy way to start using some layers check out If This Than That.  It allows you to set up your social posts to go from one to another.  It will let you set up a recipe to post your instagrams to Pinterest or Twitter, etc.  It makes it really easy to start using some layers you might not be.

Just think of layers like all the ingredients in your favorite burger.  Without the tomato or cheese or bacon the burger just won't be as good. It will still be a burger, but just not as good as it possibly can be.  It's the same way with your business.

Photo : The Mac Attack from the Boston Burger Company (Best burger I have ever eaten so far)

“Brands are like burgers. Layered + delicious. You can serve your customers a plain burger, but that’s boring. And it’s the same with your brand. You gotta layer it up with everything you’ve got!”

If you want to remember this post you can pin this graphic!

Hustle Efficiently

Recently, I had the insane pleasure of being a guest on the Hardwood Hustle Podcast.  The podcast is dedicated to talking about either Hardwood (basketball) or the hustle of life.  I am not great on a basketball court so my episode was centered around the hustle of growing walk in love.

You can listen to the entire episode here - Hardwood Hustle Episode 173

Leading up to the interview I started thinking about what I would specifically say about hustle.  I think hustle is an overused term in todays entrepreneur world.  You see the well designed quotes about hustling everyday all over Pinterest.  It's totally an awesome idea but defiantly think it's way overused.

So when thinking about the interview I knew that I wanted to talk about the idea of hustling, BUT doing it in a way that makes sense.  I want to hustle, but I want to do it efficiently.

Now here are two scenarios:

 1. I could spend all day at the studio "hustling" and do a thousand different things that don't matter just to say that I worked 10 hours today and was just hustling all day.  I could wear it like a badge of honor for all the people who follow me on social media.  

OR

2. I could make a list, figure out what needs to be done today, plan ahead and hustle for 8 hours and probably get more done.  This option also leads to what I really love to do, which is spend time with my amazing wife and beautiful daughter.  With this option I don't get to humble brag on social media because I only worked a normal workday.

I think the best part about efficient hustle is that it makes you better at everything.  You start to look at everything through efficiency goggles.  You refine your process to save you more time, more energy and in turn more money.  My team teases me about always talking about efficiency but the more efficient we can be the more we can get done in a shorter time which leads to more time with our families and doing the things that we really love.

An efficient team can leave early on Friday because of what they've accomplished!

Here are some examples of inefficient hustle:

1. You stop what you are doing at different points in the day to check/post on twitter and instagram

2. You talk about what you are going to do someday instead of focusing on growing your business today.

3. You think ONE thing is going to make all the difference and stop focusing on the hundred little things that actually will.

4. You are a photographer who is planning a elaborate shoot but still have clients waiting for their photos.

5. You are a social media manager that doesn't batch create content and schedule it out with buffer or hootsuite.

6. You never ask yourself if the way you do something is the fastest way to do it.

7. You LOOOOOOVE telling people how busy you are.

So stop the inefficient hustle and focus on how to do things the best and most efficient way possible.  Once you start you won't be able to stop and every time you walk into any place you will think "That would work better if it was over there..."

Hustling doesn't mean you are adding more to your plate.  It means that you are doing what you do well and efficiently.

Here are some tools we use to hustle efficiently:

Buffer - Schedule Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest Posts

Lattergrame - Schedule Instagram posts.

Things - Make lists to make your life easier.

Dropbox - Have access to your files from anywhere.

Also, if you want to see process efficiency in action you should check out the show The Profit on CNBC

10 Tips For Using Instagram for Business

Episode 3 of my podcast was to help you with simple tips and tricks for using Instagram to grow your business.  I am going to list the 10 tips below but make sure you actually listen to Episode 3 of the T.J. Mousetis Podcast to hear the explanation of each point!

1. Have a mission statement specific to your brands Instagram
2. Ask questions about your posts before you post them
3. Have a schedule
4. Post should be good but don't need to be perfect
5. Batch create content ahead of time
6. Don't overkill aspects of Instagram
7. Rarely try to sell
8. Interact with your followers
9. Don't copy.  Be original
10. Have Fun!

If you have any questions that you'd like me to answer on your podcast comment on this post or ask on one of my Instagram photos - @tjmousetis