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How to Use Video To Promote Your Business on Pinterest

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeAugust 9, 2012

So you signed up for a Pinterest account to promote your business. That’s great, but now what?

I have clients from all over that have done this, but don’t know what to do with it. You can get lost in looking around at all the pretty pictures, etc. But, like all social media (that is what Pinterest is), you have to know what it can do FOR you.

If you want to spend all of your time looking at infographics, pictures of puppies and flowers, that is wonderful, but if you want to use it as another tool in your marketing toolbox, then here is something to consider; use your YouTube videos in conjunction with Pinterest. Yes, that’s correct, use them together!

Recently, a client asked me to post her videos to her Pinterest account. What she didn’t know was that I had no idea that you could…so, with due diligence, I dug in and learned that you could. Not only can you create the image, but you can also have the video play as well.

Here are simple instructions on how to do just that.

1. Make sure your YouTube channel is up and running.
Pinterest is set up to easily and quickly grab videos from YouTube.

2. Make sure your videos are branded

Branding Your Video

Pinterest users don’t have to leave Pinterest to view your videos, but you should have some sort of branding on opening and closing of your video. Make sure there is a call-to-action as well.

Call to Action

3. Create a Pinterest board

Create Pinterest Board

I created a pin board specifically for Content Marketing. So, when I add content to that board, it is all with content marketing in mind. Make sure that when you name your board, it is SEO friendly.

4. Grab your YouTube embedded link

Grab Your YouTube Link

Once you have created your board, it is time to add your video. To do so, just grab your video link from YouTube (make sure it is the longer link). A word of caution: there are two types of YouTube embedded links. There’s a shorter one (which is the first one you see), and a long link (which is hidden). Pinterest will reject the short link because the system sees it as spam.

5. Upload a new pin

Add a Pin

In order to add a new video to Pinterest, you’ll first need to add a new pin, then copy your YouTube embedded link into the Add a pin box, like so:

6. Select the appropriate board

Add to Board

It is suggested you create a board specifically for your YouTube videos, but it is not necessary if you are sharing other’s content.

7. Add a description

Add a Description

You have 500 characters with which to describe your video. Make sure the copy is inviting, and that it includes a number of keywords related to your blog.

8. Add a link to your blog or squeeze page

Add a Link

You should also add the complete URL for your blog or squeeze page to the description box. This won’t just give your blog a back link from a trusted source, it’s also a great way to make it easy for people to easily get to your blog or squeeze page.

By making all links active from the description box, Pinterest makes it easy for you to build a strong community of loyal followers!

9. Automatic sharing on Facebook
If you sign into your Pinterest account (the same holds true if you sign in using your Twitter account), all of your updates will automatically be added to your Facebook personal profile. Pinterest has systemized sharing content from their platform to other social media platforms, which, again, makes our lives easier! I never suggest doing that. See Say NO to Auto-Feeds.

10. Repeat as needed!
The key is to be consistent with adding content to Pinterest as you would to any other social media site you are involved in. Remember, Content is King.

Note: you can also add video from Vimeo, etc.

You ask, what are the advantages? Again, it is another tool in your marketing toolbox. But, let me make it simple:

Back links from a trusted source to your YouTube channel. This will increase your page ranking.
Exposure. Not only is your video on YouTube, it is now on your Pinterest board, your Pinterest home page and with your other videos and boards as well.

End money fear forever with Suzanne Evans

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeMay 6, 2013

I know from first-hand experience that this one worry has ruined more lives. Blocked more creativity. Scuttled more relationships. And trashed more promising businesses than I can count.

It can suffocate you. Make you want to give up. But it doesn”t have to happen. Because you really can end your money fear forever. And experience a freedom, and a security that simply defies description.

And it all happens when you discover these powerful free videos from my colleague, Suzanne Evans. Who went from a secretary. To a 7-figure business in 3 years. She lives and breathes the secrets to financial freedom. She wants to show you. Now.

And it won’t cost you one single cent.

How to Embed Your YouTube Video Without Leaving Your Page

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeMay 6, 2013

I was recently given the task from a client on how to embed her YouTube video, without their logo and without leaving her sales page.

I’m no teckno geek, so I did a little digging and here is what I found.

Removing the YouTube Logo from the Video Player

If you would like to remove the logo from the YouTube player before embedding it on to your website, you need to make a minor change to the default embed code as outlined below.

For the IFRAME version:

The highlighted modestbranding=1 replaces rel=0. in the code.

For the old OBJECT version:

The highlighted modestbranding=1 replaces rel=0. in the code.

Final version:

Use the default embed code for a YouTube video and just add modestbranding=1 at the end of the video URL and the YouTube logo won’t show up in the Flash Player.

The new “modestbranding” parameter for YouTube is supported for both Flash-based and IFRAME based embed codes (that are HTML5 compatible).

Update: The previous version of this article used the “showinfo=0″ parameter with “modestbranding=1″ but for the video player to be completely logoless, the showinfo parameter needs to removed. Brian Glick from the YouTube team shares why:

The reason why the video “YouTube” logo overlay appears is because the modestbranding option normally, by itself, still shows some branding – in the form of a small “YouTube” text overlay in the upper-right corner of the video, when you hover over it while the video’s paused. But since you explicitly asked for showinfo=0, we have no place to show the “YouTube” text overlay. So the alternative is to communicate that it’s a YouTube video player via the video overlay.

Thank you Amit Agarwal, a personal technology columnist at WSJ India, author and founder of Digital Inspiration, a widely-read tech and how-to blog.

Virtual Assistant Certification–Do You Need It?

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeJuly 23, 2012

I recently asked the question, should I seek virtual assistant certification?

First of all, what exactly does it mean?

According to one website:

“When you display the VAcertified Seal on your website and in your other marketing materials, it says to prospective clients that you are the VA you say you are. Virtual Assistants who display the VAcertified seal have demonstrated to an elite peer group that they possess a unique combination of:

Professional work experience
Education and training
Demonstrated contributions to the VA industry”

It just so happens that I am what I say I am (look at my testimonial’s page) and I do what I say I do.

I have been in this business for almost 10 years and I stand behind what I do and what I say I can do….

Am I wrong? Do you think VAs should be certified? If so, why?

15 Lessons To Redefine Selling: Free Training

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeMay 6, 2013

My friend Nancy Marmolejo is a well known visibility expert for entrepreneurs. She teaches you how to turn your visibility into profitability – but there’s a secret behind it all.

What’s the secret?

It’s knowing how to ENGAGE so you build trust and sell effortlessly… without having to push, manipulate, coerce, or cajole.

For the first time ever, Nancy is bringing together 15 masters of engagement giving this topic its own stage in a very special virtual event- and I want you to be part of it as my guest… AT NO CHARGE.

It’s an all-new, powerful training series called “Engage and Persuade: The Effortless Path to Sales Success” and it starts very soon- August 6th!

Engage and Persuade is unlike any other training series of its kind. It’s filled with simple yet effective things you can do to boost your level of engagement online and offline so you effortlessly:

ATTRACT ideal clients, resources, referrals, and opportunities
CONVERT prospects without force, coercion, manipulation or sneaky mind games
RETAIN your existing clients so they buy from you again and again.

This training is available for absolutely NO COST but you need to act now because it starts August 6. You can’t afford to miss out on training like this that can multiply your bottom line ten, even one hundred times over.

Social media and your business blog

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeJuly 7, 2012

With the onslaught of social media in the last 10 years, the ever constant question is, what can it do for my business and my business blog?

First, why should you bother with social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) if you’re in business? It’s the numbers. If you want customers, you need to go where they are online. Let’s be clear:

Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online in the US.
Twitter processed more than one billion tweets in December 2009 and averages almost 40 million tweets per day.
Over 25% of U.S. internet page views occurred at one of the top social networking sites in December 2009, up from 13.8% a year before.
The number of social media users age 65 and older grew 100 percent throughout 2010, so that one in four people in that age group are now part of a social networking site.
As of June 2011 Facebook has 750 Million users.
Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
Social Media has overtaken pornography as the No. 1 activity on the web.

One of the questions is always, what are your expectations and goals for using social media to advance your business and blog? If you expect that your business blog is going to skyrocket off the Google charts, then you’re in for a disappointment.

Social media is a tool, plain and simple. Albeit a strong one, and it should be one of many tools you have in your marketing toolbox. Not the only tool.

I always advise clients and colleagues to stick to the major social media site icons, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. There are social media sites that are niche-oriented, such as GoodReads for authors.

If you’d like readers to share your content with their social media audience, make it easy for them to find your share links. I like to use Shareaholic.com or as in this case, as it enables you to list as many of the social media icons you’d like.

Once your post is published, do NOT auto-feed it into the networks (see “Say NO to Auto-Feeds:Your Blog & Facebook, Social Sites.”) Because your audience is different, depending on the site, you may want to customize the post in the status update.

On Facebook, I also post it to the notes section. If you have a business page, this is a great way to get your content out to a larger audience. Remember, Google indexes content on pages. The more keyword rich your content is, the more likely it will be that Google will pick it up.

Don’t worry about duplicate content or the fact that it may find your content on Facebook and not on your blog…..just make sure that you link it back to your blog.

It is key to follow-up on any discussion, comments, etc. that are posted once you have shared your content. If someone shares your posting, thank them. Keep the conversation going; that is key to any relationship on social media…..that is why you’re there in the first place.

There are many benefits to sharing your content on social media sites. The primary benefit is to get more readers to your blog, build your list (which is where the gold is) and to find possible joint venture partners. Of course, there are others, but these are the top three.

Again, I like to reiterate, this is just another tool in your toolbox for your marketing strategy. Don’t rely on just one. Each tool has a purpose and if used correctly, they all work together.

Although today’s post was originally posted on Writing on the Web, this was written by me!

How to Use Simple URL in WordPress

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeMay 6, 2013

This is a very easy and simple tool you can use in WordPress to create a redirect link. This is a great way in which to track your links without using any of the free services offered, such as tinyurl.com.

It also allows you to make the URL look “pretty”. Let’s say you have a long url or an affiliate url. Just pop the url in the redirect slot, name the url and there you have it.

For example, I am an affiliate of The Publicity Hound. The links I have are quite long and not very pretty:
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=608232&u=http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity-products/reports.html

Now, here it is after I created the simple url:
http://www./go/publicityhoundspecialreports

Below are easy to follow instructions…..

First, log into your wordpress dashboard. If you have not installed the plugin, Simple URLs, do so after you have logged in. Once you have downloaded the plugin and activated it you are ready to go.

1. Click on Simple URL or hover over with your mouse.

2. Click on “add new”.

3. Create Simple URL

1. Enter the title of the URL

2. Enter the URL you would like to redirect

3. Save it as a draft

4. Preview it to make sure it’s correct

5. Publish

It’s that easy. No uploading to your server, or having to invest in software.

How to Get on the NY Times Best Seller List

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeMay 6, 2013

Like most authors I know, Peggy McColl dreamed of seeing her book on the New York Times Best Seller List, the most prestigious bestseller list in the country.

Well, a few years ago, Peggy saw her dream finally come true.

Her book “Your Destiny Switch” not only hit #13 on the New York Times Best Seller List for hardcover advice, but also #3 on Barnes & Noble and #2 on Amazon.com, just behind Harry Potter. In less than a week, Peggy sold more books than 95% of authors sell in their lifetimes and surprisingly, it cost her practically nothing to do it!

Want to discover how she did it … and how you can use her strategies to make your own book a bestseller?

If so, you’re invited to a free webinar (or telephone seminar) this Thursday, May 3rd on which you’ll hear Steve Harrison interview Peggy about her proven formula for creating bestsellers.

Note: I’m a compensated affiliate for this program.

Regardless of where you are in the publishing process … whether your book is still in the idea stage … just published … or even if it’s been out for years, this is a call you won’t want to miss.

Go here now to register for Thursday’s webinar (or teleseminar).

Here’s just some of what you’ll discover on the call:

Peggy’s ingenious yet simple, five-step Bestseller Formula almost any author can use to make their book a bestseller at almost no cost.
How she’s used the formula to make numerous books bestsellers.
Why her formula works for all types of books,fiction or non-fiction, regardless of subject — whether they’re self-published, POD, ebooks; newly-published or even those that have been out for years.
Big mistakes almost all publishers make selling books on Amazon.
Case histories of several authors who’ve hit various bestseller lists using this approach.
How Peggy uses blogs and social media to sell books.
Want big-time publicity? You’ll learn how becoming a Bestseller makes it much easier to get media exposure.

Again, there’s no cost to participate in this webinar (or telephone seminar) except your normal long distance charges.

To register for Thursday’s webinar (or telephone seminar), go here.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be seeing your book on the Bestseller List very soon!
[amazon_image id=”B003GAN1SY” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Your Destiny Switch: Master Your Key Emotions, and Attract the Life of Your Dreams[/amazon_image]

Get Premise and Forget It

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeMay 6, 2013

I am always on the lookout for tips and tools that can assist me and make my job easier. I don’t know of too many folks that don’t.

So, when I found this Get Premise, created by Studio Press, I just had to investigate it myself.

I find that one of the downsides to working with a wordpress blog platform is that they are normally built to have a sidebar where you can put various widgets and plugins.

I can work my way around a stylesheet, but I am not knowledgable enough to do any real coding. I leave that to the experts.

When creating landing pages, or sales pages, it can be distracting to have all the extranous items that accompany a page on a wordpress site. I have been using a progam from Studio Press, Get Premise. It enables you to create stand alone sales pages, video pages, thank you, etc. It’s a wonderful program. I love using it.

The program also enables you to create your own style and it’s quite easy to do.

I could go on and on about all of the tools that this program comes with, but I will leave it up to you to investigate it.

If you are struggling to create sales pages of any type, Get Premise and forget it!

How to Fix a Mistake When it Can’t Be Fixed

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Christine BuffaloeApril 17, 2012

No one likes it when bad things happen. That is true for me as well.

I recently lost a client due to a “perfect storm”. And to say that it was not my fault would be an untruth. It was a comedy of errors, so to speak. It was not “my fault” but a series of them.

Let me start at the beginning.

I left for a convention in Orlando, Fl., Be the Change Event with Suzanne Evans. I left confident that I had informed all of my clients that I would be out of the loop for a few days, but staying in touch via email.

What I did not know, was that a new client was doing a launch and had a number of technical items that needed to be done while I was gone. I did not find this out until I was in FL. So, I put my husband on task. He is my business partner and his area of expertise is exactly what the client needed.

BUT wait, not exactly……to make a long story short, there was formatting, testing, etc. that needed to get done that he was not familiar with and although I did try to talk him through it via phone and online, it just didn’t work. At this point, what I should have done, was put on the brakes, contacted the client and stopped the whole process until I returned and could really dive into it.

To add insult to injury, I got delayed in FL. due to the tornadoes that rampaged through Dallas and that is where I was flying through on my way home.

Needless to say, it was a disaster. Client very unhappy, husband very unhappy and me, well, extremely unhappy.

So, what to do about it.

At this point, there really is nothing we can do. The mistake happened, the client was embarrassed as were we.

This is what I did. When I spoke with the client, I expressed my apologies and offered to “fix” whatever I could. I also emailed my apologies and send an Amazon gift card. The client felt that I “got it”. She felt validated and of course, the gift card went a long way in helping that as well.

You know, when you make a mistake, own it. That is the most important part. Owning what is yours and letting the rest go.

Yes, I felt bad. I have clients that have been with me for over 10 years and yes, I have made mistakes along the way. I have also learned from those mistakes.

I stand behind our services 100%. No doubt about it. She may come back and again, she may not. I did everything I could to make it better and although the mistake could not be fixed, the relationship was.