Don Schindler

Executive Reputation Coach & Digital Marketer

Month: December 2013

How to deal with negative comments with a Social Media Response Flowchart

When it comes to negative comments, sometimes they are really hard to take. Should you respond or should you just let it go?

The problem is that they eat away at you. Especially if you give them that power in your mind.

What I do is tell myself that every negative comment can be an opportunity for engagement (which I wrote about) and I use a system to take away their power (make it more objective and less personal). If I follow the system, then they don’t bother me (as much).

Remember that you are putting yourself out here to have conversations not SCREAMING MATCHES WITH ALL CAPS (though sometimes those are fun to read).

So what are some steps I take to dealing with negative comments online?

I put together this simple flowchart for dealing with posts, comments or tweets. I’m not going to repeat the flowchart here but I am going to share with you some insights and tips on following the flowchart.

Social Media Flowchart

Would you like to edit this yourself? Just ask me and I’ll send you the file.

If we start with the positive left side, if you receive or discover a blog post, comment or tweet that is positive then it’s a great opportunity to repost the information.

If it’s a blog post, I will share the post on my social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Google+. You can even post to other blog sharing networks like Reddit.

Another tip is to leave a comment on the blog post, thanking them for their time and effort to share positive information.

If the post, comment or tweet is positive but not factual, we need to take the time to correct it. It’s great that it’s positive but misinformation can cause more damage than good.

Now on the negative side of things, you need to be careful.

Take your time when seeing a negative post, comment or tweet. Remember you don’t know where they are coming from or where they got their information. Don’t take it personal unless it’s a personal attack – that’s a whole different ball of wax.

What you want to do is go through the flowchart and carefully examine the information.

The first one is easy – if it’s offensive, you can get rid of it with no questions ask. My friend Janice says she usually deletes the comment and warns the person about their violation of her blog commentary rules. If they violate the policy again, then they are blocked.

TIP – Put up a blog comment policy on your website. It makes it easier to delete something when you have a policy out there. You can check out Janice’s What Flies Here policy page.

Knowing if someone is a troll or not is tricky. If you don’t know what a troll is, you can check out my negative comments post. For a new blogger, it’s much worse.

You’ll probably have conversations that you think are going well and then suddenly it’s all bad. No worries. You’ll get to know the troll language, how they incite people, etc… You can block these people as well. A troll isn’t there to listen to your story – they are on an agenda. DairyCarrie deals with trolls efficiently. Just block and delete and move on.

The next block “Does the comment contain misinformation or errors?” is really tough. It seems nowadays you can prove anything on the internet is true because there will be a blog post to back them up. What we can provide here is tested and true science but you can only provide this after you’ve established a relationship with someone – and that takes time. Simply throwing your facts at their facts won’t help anyone.

In fact, there’s a study from the University of Michigan on why misinformation doesn’t get corrected but reinforced.

Pointing out misinformation on the internet (unless it is overwhelming in your favor) normally just gets someone to dig in deeper – this is about having a conversation with someone. It’s better to not think of how you are going to win with facts.

Learn where they got their facts from and why they believe it. You can share where your beliefs come from then and maybe you’ll find a common ground in the conversation. People need to know that you care about their opinions before they’ll care about yours.

You don’t need to be an expert in their facts – just an expert on yours. And if you think you are going to educate someone, remember that’s not a conversation technique and it will probably cause them to resent you more than understand you.

Brenda Hastings, the Dairy Mom, does a fabulous job with her blog and has responded to several negative articles on farming. Her best advice is to

“I consider all comments on my blog an opportunity. When responding, I do my best to stay positive, be honest and stick to the message I want to deliver. I use my experiences on my farm because I’m an expert about what happens on my farm. I try to use a balance of facts and feelings.

 

I’m a busy mom, wife, and daughter who works and volunteers, so I probably have much in common with those reading my blog. I want to do what’s best for my family, farm and community, just like you! People can dispute facts, but can’t dispute feelings.

 

It’s easy to get upset and fire off a response. I try to draft a response then put it aside for a while before finalizing and posting it. I keep in mind that several people will be reading my response to comments, not just the person who asked the question. My response will be there a long time, so I better give it thought so it reflects who I am.”

Once you build trust with the person, then you can start to share official information from credible resources.
Remember you aren’t racing to win here and it’s not going to happen overnight if ever. The big thing here is that you are having a conversation and you are open to listening to their concerns instead of just pushing your agenda. Even if you think you are not convincing that person, you might be influencing others that are seeing the exchange. Remain positive and patient with an open mind.

The next block deals with a bad experience much like customer service. If that’s the case, then I would repair the damage as best I could because this one person could be telling a lot of people how unfair you were. The best thing here is to be a good listener and then follow up with solutions afterward.

Finally, the catch-all for all other conversations.

REMEMBER

  • Always be positive.
  • Take your time.
  • Be transparent about your connection to the dairy industry.
  • Be honest – if you don’t have an answer, let them know.
  • Cite official sources if you are supporting a factual statement.
  • Take your time to craft a smart, empathic response.
  • Your tone reflects yourself and the entire dairy industry.
  • Thank them for speaking with you.

Now what are some tricks to getting rid of comments and tweets you find offensive and unfair.

While I would never delete a negative comment unless it violates the rules, you can use social networking for some relief.

If you are getting negative comments on a particular Facebook post you can do a few things to give it less of a chance to be seen.

  1. Add more content quickly. This will help move the post along.
  2. Add your comments and get your friends to comment below the post to drive the negative posts into the thread.
  3. Wait until it has ran its course (a week or so), then go delete it from your timeline.

If you are getting negative comments on your blog post:

  1. Simply don’t approve the post (you should be moderating your posts so they can not go directly up on the web).
  2. Approve the post and then respond in a positive manner.
  3. If you need support, you can connect with other friendly bloggers to help defend your position. (Remember that comments do help in Google for search engine optimization).

I think everyone in the industry understands that it can be tough sharing your story when you get negative feedback but the more positive information you put on the internet, the more chances it has to be found by customers who are in search of the facts from a trusted source.

You will be that trusted source over time and you’ll be a positive influence and supporter of your way of life.

Do you have any tips for dealing with negative comments?

Are negative comments really negative? Sure they are but you can change them.

child-yelling

Photo courtesy of Sharon Mollerus (creative commons)

Yep, they are negative. It says so right here “negative comments”. But you can approach them as if they were a positive and I think you should because:

Negative comments are an opportunity to connect with people.
In a world where engagement is so very important, any opportunity to connect and engage is definitely worth the time.

It’s like when my wife says, “I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t care about you.”

So sometimes the purpose of a negative comment is to communicate about something an outsider perceives as negative to your business or image. You probably don’t want to hear about the negative but by learning about it you can make things better for the future.

Negative comments are an opportunity to share your passion and understand theirs.
Listen, if people didn’t care, they wouldn’t leave comments. You could take their negative comments as “I wouldn’t take the time to say this to you if I didn’t care what you are talking about.”

This means they are passionate about what you are talking about. I believe that people are as passionate about food as they are about religion, music and sports. You need to be sensitive to this information – passion can start a conversation with someone – even if it starts in a negative way.

Ray Prock, dairy farmer from CA, says this about negative commentary that he’s ran into:

“Don’t write off a relationship with someone just because they have different beliefs.  Do you remember that magnet experiment in science, the one where the same polarity repels itself and the opposite polarity attracts the other? The same can be said for relationships, find common ground outside the subject area involved to connect. Work towards a trusting friendship then use that trust to help re-enter the polarizing conversation.

Do not be afraid of taking time to build the relationship, Rome was not built in a day and you will not change someone’s beliefs that quickly either. As the relationship grows the trust will soon give way to influence and that is where you can work to help someone understand why you believe what you believe.”

Negative comments are an opportunity to share your insights into how your farm works, how their food is made, how your cows are treated, how much you care about your business, etc…
A negative comment can come off from someone’s lack of understanding – and you can share insights into how your farm operates.

I prefer to share insights over informing your readers that you are going to educate them on food production. By the simple fact they are reading and communicating with you, you can assume they are educated and informing them that you are going to ‘teach’ them usually gets them defensive.

Their thoughts and opinions may differ from you based on where they have received their information so approach those differences by sharing, not attacking their knowledge or education level. People need to know that you care about their opinions and that you empathize with them before they’ll care about your opinion.

Negative comments can give you insight on how you are coming across to others.
I think Mike Haley sums up this point best in his blog post on AgChat:

“The first step begins as you are writing the blog post, as the tone in which a post is written can set the stage for others to comment, either positively or negatively. If a post is written to talk WITH the readers and respect their opinions, instead of talking AT them, readers tend to think more critically about what was said. It encourages your readership to engage in positive and constructive conversations that remain respectful, even when opinions on the subject can defer greatly.”

I’ve seen Mike in action on blog posts and in comment sections, talking with people in a very respectful manner about their point of view. So I thought it would be great to interview him for this post and ask him directly about how he deals with negativity.

He says, “The biggest goal to any type of online social conversation is not converting people to your point of view rather it’s about opening up the dialogue – it’s a two way street.

Don’t spend so much time trying to get people on your side, instead spend quality time on the conversation. Everybody can be right – everyone’s opinion matters. When you treat negative comments in this fashion, then it’s much easier to get common ground.”

Janice Person, who has a great deal of experience with negativity, is in agreement with Mike. Her best advice comes down to:

“When you look at comments, it’s important to get a little broader perspective when the critics pop up. Maybe they have just heard something for the first-time and are really upset. If you always treat people respectfully, you are more likely move the conversation forward. They may seem aggressive or emotional to me but I need to think about how everyone else reading the exchange will view it. If I set the baseline of respectful dialogue, I can help hold others to it. That means I need to know when to step away for a bit sometimes as people may be pushing my buttons.”

Sometimes negative comments are NOT an opportunity.
Sometimes when you answer back and try to listen the other person will not engage, they are looking to just to use your platform to get their point across.

We call these people trolls.

All they look to do is to use your platform to attack you, to hijack other conversations, to incite anger in you or others and, generally, just be a nuisance.

When it comes to this type of behavior, you don’t have to put up with it or engage in it – actually, that’s the worst thing to do because that’s what the troll wants. To actively see you get upset.

How do you know if someone is a troll?

Check their information with a simple Google/social media search. If you can’t find them, then consider the conversation is over. Remember you can always walk away – it’s tough sometimes but it might be better in the end.

As you get more experience on the internet, you’ll start to know who are trolls and who is genuinely interested in having a conversation with you.

How to deal with troll comments, posts and tweets?

There’s a old saying out there that “never wrestle with a pig, you are going to get dirty and the pig likes it.”

In other words, don’t stoop to their level of fighting because your reputation will be damaged more and that was their intention in the first place.

Carrie Mess has a great point on how to deal with trolls.

“Don’t be afraid of the delete/block button. Some people’s comments are not adding to the discussion. If a comment is completely out of line, insulting or over the top, delete it and block them.”

So what do you think, do you think negative comments are opportunities to engage or should we avoid them at all costs?

In my next post, I’ll go through the steps that I use when dealing with comments – it’s a simple social media flowchart but it can help guide you on whether you should answer back or delete that comment.

How do I edit a photo online for free? Use picmonkey in 7 easy steps

How do I edit a photo online for free? One of my favorite photo editing tools is picmonkey and here’s how you can use it to create great images and fun memes.

 

 

Or like this?

picmonkey-facebook-placement

First, there are many great tools out there for editing photos and making great memes or images.

BTW, if you don’t know what a meme is that’s ok, the definition is kinda fuzzy. It’s basically any image or phrase that takes on a life of its own where people copy the image, change the image or text and repost it. Many grumpy cat photos are memes.

BTW, half of all Facebook updates that are shared are photos. If you want to be noticed on social networking sites – use photos!!!

So how do you make your own?

I use picmonkey mainly because it’s free and easy. I also have photoshop (though, I’ve never been professionally trained in it, I can still get around in. I believe it’s really too complicated for a beginner).

Here are other free services online if you want to use something different. These are in no particular order.

For my iPad, I like to use Over App. It’s simple as well.

1. Get your photo

hot-chocolate-milk

I used a simple hot cocoa photo from the free stock photo website – stock.xchng.

I downloaded it to my desktop and named it appropriately.

TIP – Name your photos for what they are.  So instead of img102872.jpg change it to hot-chocolate-milk.jpg.  Why? Because Google can’t see the photo but it can read what you called and associate those words as keywords for its image search.

 

TIP – do NOT take photos from Google Search or any other search engine. Or even photos on Facebook (unless they are yours) or any website. They are automatically copyrighted to that person or company that put them on the web. If you need photos, take your own or get them off free photo sites that allow you to manipulate the photo or buy them.

 

2. Upload your photo

picmonkey-homepage

You don’t need to register or anything. That’s pretty cool in itself. I’m so tired of filling out registration forms.

 

3. Here’s what the editor looks like.

picmonkey-editor

 

Let’s take a look around very quickly.  The top navigation contains:

picmonkey-editor-top-nav

Open – with a drop down of your computer, dropbox, Facebook or flickr (photo storage website)

Save – when you are done and ready to roll.

Share – you can share with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, Tumblr, and Email (you’ll need to connect your networks if you want this feature)

Undo and do arrows – if you screw up and want to go back or forward with the step you just did.

Add a layer – for royale (paid) users

Settings – for your image settings – Bubbles is usually recommended and should work for most of your needs

 

picmonkey-main-nav

The left hand navigation is divided into two parts. The primary navigation is the icons, the secondary navigation will change depending on your primary navigation selection.

The left hand navigation is:

Home (looks like Crop) – basic edits which allows you to Crop, change Canvas Color, Rotate, Exposure, Colors, Sharpen and Resize.

Effects – these are different effects you can apply to the photo

TIP – if the effect has a crown on it, you must login and upgrade (pay) to use it.

Touch-up – lots of upgrades here except for some basic fixes like blemish fix.

Text – pic monkey has a great amount of cool fonts without paying. Probably one of their best features.

Overlays – these are images you can put on your photos. Cute hearts and stars. Things like that.

Frames – Put a nice frame on the photo or just round out the edges. Personally I like the old Polaroid look.

Textures – Put a texture over your photo.

Themes – you can add a bunch of different features based around the theme. Definitely something I should check out more.

So that’s the editor. Pretty simple.

Now let’s go through the steps of putting up an image on Facebook that I used pic monkey to manipulate.

 

2. Change the size

picmonkey-resize

My original photo was huge (both in size and in mega bytes so I wanted to change that. I dropped it to the standard Facebook wall size of 403 pixels wide. Now this automatically changes the proportions, which is fine and I want to keep those proportions so I don’t distort the image.

If I wanted the 403 pixels by 403 pixels (standard size for Facebook) I would resize and then crop – never uncheck the Keep proportions, it will stretch your photo and make it look not so good.

 

3. Crop the photo

picmoneky-crop

Instead of sizing down and then cropping, I decided to undo the change and go to cropping instead. I cropped down the photo the portion of the image I liked best.

 

4. Add text

picmonkey-text

Then I added some text and picked a grandma looking font to go with my grandma saying.

TIP – If you want to add text to an image, keep it like a billboard with very short sentences. Get your point across in the fewest words possible so people can just glance at it and learn what you have to say.

 

TIP – Add your website or Facebook page to the photo like dairycarrie.com does or facebook.com/DairyMom

dairycarrie-cow-fever

5. Add a frame

picmonkey-frame

You don’t have to add a frame but sometimes it’s nice to have. It shows people you thought about the photo a bit – remember anything to draw the eye is a good thing.

TIP – People’s faces and animals draw people in especially pretty and cute ones.

6. Save your image

picmonkey-save

Pretty simple to do. Just click the button at the top. You can pick one of three sizes. Roger, Pierce or Sean. Normally I pick Pierce. You can also select png or jpg. Normally I pick jpg because the file size is smaller. You can see the file size at the bottom.

TIP – You want the smallest size with the best possible resolution. Don’t pick the smallest size automatically if the image is broken up – it won’t be shared then.

7. Share your new image with world

hot-chocolate-facebook

The image is complete.  Now I can share it with all my friends and followers so they can share it as well.

If you don’t know how to use Facebook, I’ve got a complete Facebook 101 Tutorial.

Now you know how to use picmonkey, what kind of photos are you going to make?

Here’s a video if you if you want to watch how to do it instead of reading the notes below. Note: this is a third party and I have no relationship with his company.

What are the best tips on using Pinterest for your farm or business? – Pinterest 101

So now that you’ve got your pinterest account up and running (if you haven’t set up a pinterest account yet – here’s how to set one up), how do you make the most of it?

First, we should change it over to a business account.  Click the image below or the link to do it.

pinterest-switch-to-business

This is very simple to do and your followers won’t know the difference. The biggest benefit for you is to be able to see analytics on your page. It’ll be under the drop down on your name at the top right.

Just click the “convert” link on the page.

You’ll have to fill out some business information but then you are up and running. Simple as pie.

If you have a website (and you know I believe you should have a website), you’ll need to verify it. Depending on your website, this could be a little more complicated. I have a wordpress website so it was as easy as adding a trusted plugin and the code.

You’ll want to add the “Pinterest Follow Badge”.

follow-me-pinterest

I added it to my blog that if people roll over an image.

I also added a plugin for Rollover on Images so people can easily pin them to pinterest.  Below is a sample of how the rollover looks when people touch an image with their pointer.

pinterest-roll-over

But when it comes to using Pinterest strategically, you need to have a plan in place. So what’s the first thing you need to do?

1. Make sure you are pinning what your customers want.

When it comes to dairy, there are several interests from consumers.

You can show off your products (if you sell direct or if you know exactly what your milk is being used for) but it is better to put them in the context of what your audience wants. For example:

Recipes

pinterest-recipe

TIP – Rich Pins offer more information (like the recipe information above) for your pins but also require some work by your web developer. Here’s more information on rich pins via social media examiner.

 

Cows and farm life

pinterest-brenda-hastings-cows

People really love to see what happens on a farm (this is Brenda Hastings farm and she does a great job with pinning about the farm) – they love cows and the barns. You can give them what they desire by pinning the photos you take of the landscape and the animals.

TIP – Make sure that you are posting these photos to your website first – and not just straight into Pinterest. You want the photos on your website so you can drive traffic there. And it will also keep you safe if Pinterest decides to change how their system works.

 

Farm Tour

pinterest-stearnscounty-dairy-farm-tour

People love farm tours and to visit virtually 24/7 is not a bad thing. You’ve given probably hundreds of tours but if your tour lives in the digital space you may be giving tours to hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. Not just the people that can make the drive to your place. Sterns County, Minnesota did a great job here with this farm tour of Groetsch Dairy Farm near Albany.
Home / farm remedies

pinterest-dairy-remedies

Pinterest is a very useful search engine when it comes to practical advice and partnering that information with pictures and links back to your website can really generate a lot of repins, comments and likes.  Check out this one on Gout.

 

Interesting facts about dairy

pinterest-dairy-facts

There are many things that just aren’t communicated about the farm, your animals or your products. Here’s an opportunity to get out quick facts along with great photos or infographics.  And they don’t all have to be serious – Hiland Dairy is showing humor, fun factoids and animal care.

 

Videos

pinterest-video-pin

While videos aren’t very new to pinterest, they definitely aren’t posted as much as other content. I would recommend posting more video if you can since it generates more repins, likes and comments because it is more of a novelty.  Washington State Dairy Council was passing along a YouTube video of our Fuel Up to Play 60 Program for kids.

 

Inspiration

pinterest-inspiration

Pinterest is definitely a social network where people are looking to be inspired from the things they want to have like clothes and houses to the things they want to do like exercise and eat right. Since dairy is part of a healthy diet and the Fuel Up to Play 60 program, pinterest is a perfect fit.

TIP – Images that are taller are likely to be seen more. Use good fonts when putting text on images. If you are looking for an easy-to-use image manipulator or free design program, I recommend picmonkey.com or Over App.  There’s also a great design application for pinterest called Pinstamatic. You should check that out as well.

pinstamatic

2. Keep your important boards near the top.

pinterest-top-two-rows

You can easily arrange your boards in the order that makes most sense to your audience. Whatever you want them to see first when they come to your page, you should put first and organize from there. BTW, when you add a board it will automatically be put at the bottom.

 

3. Put your pinterest link wherever you can.

Integrate your Pinterest Page with your other social media profiles/pages like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, YouTube, etc…

 

4. Be careful of copyrighted images.

Don’t steal. Give credit where credit is due. It’s better to create your own if you can. And if you are linking to an image on a website, make sure the source is legit. Click through the links. Bad links can damage your reputation as a trusted source.

 

5. Remember this is a social network.

Follow other interesting users and definitely other farmers and ag supporters. Repin those your wish to influence. They will get notified if you repin, comment or like dealing on their email notifications.

Here’s a list of people I follow in farming. If you want to add to it, just send it to me and I’ll add them.

National Dairy Council
Brenda Hastings
Midwest Dairy Association
Southeast United Dairy Industry Association, Inc.
Hiland Dairy
United Dairy Industry of Michigan
Social Silo
Cabot Cheese
American Dairy Association Mideast
Mid-Atlantic Dairy Spot
Dairy MAX

And here’s some great tips from ohsopinteresting.

She always asks these questions before repinning.

Will my followers find this pin valuable?
Are my followers likely to repin this?
Who am I repinning from? Could they have an interest in my business and be a potential follower?
When pinning from an account with a large following how many times has it been repinned?

She goes into detail on each one of these questions so I would definitely check out her blog post on this.

Comment and Like other people’s pins.

You can use usernames and hashtags when you are pinning as well to notify people of interesting pins.

And, of course, don’t forget to thank them when they repin your information.

 

6. Call to Action or Pinterest contests

pinterest-contest

If you have something to promote, it’s really easy to use Pinterest for contests or putting in a Call to Action.

So what are your best tips for using Pinterest for your farm or business?  Let me know and I’ll add them to it. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out.

Oh and I wanted to add this infographic from Amy Porterfield.  You should definitely check out her blog.  The 10 Commandments for Pinterest is easy to understand and looks great.  Enjoy.

pinterest-infographic

 

 

How do you use Pinterest? – Pinterest 101

Pinterest_Logo So why get involved in yet another social network? Pinterest is more than just another social network.

While the good people at Pinterest claim that “Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing the things that inspire you”, I would say that Pinterest is the ultimate photo browsing solution.

To most others, Pinterest is an online scrapbook – you basically get to tear out images you want to save and add them to your cork board virtually.

If you want to find a great image or some nice photos of things that others find attractive and cool, then pinterest will help you do that, too. And it’s organized by people – not machine algorithms – which makes it easier to find things.

Just do a quick search for cookies in google and you’ll find a lot of text and, of course, the digital browser cookie that advertisers love but not a lot of individual recipes on cookies and virtually no images unless you do just an image search.

But on pinterest, you’ll find thousands of pictures of amazing looking cookies with their recipes attached. But it works for more than just recipes. Search “cows” or “milk” and you’ll find great photos of both.

Pinterest is still one of the fastest growing networks with over 70 million users and most are women (over 80%).

But they are tablet browsers, which means they aren’t searching but more or less letting content find them. So what does that mean?

It means that if you have interesting farm photos or dairy recipes, they will get found on the network because people are sharing the good stuff.

How do you use Pinterest? It’s very easy to get started with just a few steps.

1. Go to Pinterest.com

pinterest-landing-page

Pretty easy, right? Here’s a link for you.

 

2. Sign up

pinterest-sign-up

You’ll have to use an email address or attach to your Facebook login.

You’ll have to tell them your gender. You can click the Pinterest personalize your experience if you want.

 

3. Check for an email notification

pinterest-email-notification

This is to verify you are a person.

 

4. Follow some boards

pinterest-follow-boards

This is to start your main home feed. If you click on the images you like, you can follow those boards.

You can also do a search for your particular interests.

 

5. Pin an image and create a board

pinterest-pin-image

As you can see I selected a motorcycle shot. At the top right is the Pin It button. When I click this, I’ll have to create a board to assign the photograph.

Don’t worry it’s not saving the photo to your computer. It’s just adding the photo and a link to the photo to the board I created.

TIP – The more descriptive you are in the Description Box, the more chances you have to show up in the search results.

6. Go to Homefeed

pinterest-home-page

If you click on the Pinterest logo at the top of the screen, you’ll go to your home feed. This will be images pinned by the people you are following.

pinterest-categories

At the top right, you’ll see a little box with lines in it. This is the Category Selection box. You can click this to find all the categories within Pinterest.

pinterest-search-pins

Next to this box is the search field.

If you put in a search term, you’ll get back the results of pins with those keywords. I put in “cows”.

Once you do a keyword search, you’ll see different ways you can narrow the search down. You can do “All pins” which is everything on pinterest or you can select “Just my Pins”.

pinterest-search-boards

You can also search for boards.

pinterest-search-pinners

And pinners with the search term in their name.

pinterest-upload-pins

Over on the left hand side of the screen, you can click on the Plus box and it will allow you to Upload A Pin (if you don’t have a website – I don’t recommend this), Add from a Website (which I do recommend) and create a board.

pinterest-pinit-button

You can also get the Pin It button which allows you to pin images from any website as you browse the web. This is the best and easiest way to pin images outside of Pinterest.

pinterest-dropdown

If you click on the Name box, you get a drop down of things you can do.

You can check out your Boards, your Pins and your Likes.

pinterest-facebook

You can also Find Friends from Facebook and Twitter and follow their boards.

If you click on the “Follow Boards”, you’ll be able to see boards in the categories that are most likely like the boards you follow. It’s an easy way to find more boards to follow.

Finally, you have the Help Center and Settings.

pinterest-basic-settings

Under Settings, you’ll find your Basic Settings.

pinterest-email-settings

And email settings.

pinterest-social-settings

And social settings.

When you pin things, you should always check whether or not you want them shared with your other networks. I’ve got a funny story about this but I’ll save it for another time.

You can also deactivate your account here.

Finally you can log out here.

pinterest-notifications

The last box at the top of the page is your Notifications. This just lets you know what’s going on with your network.

Now you know how all the pieces work. Next post we’ll talk about what to pin to help your business the most.

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