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CDL 037 – The One Social Media Platform I Plan to Use More Than Ever in 2015

01/07/15 • 28 min

Crazy Dad Life - Building Online in the Off Hours Entrepreneur | Social Media | Online Business | Parenting | Productivity

What Social Media Platform Should You Dig Into in the Coming Year?

We are all constantly looking for ways to build our audience and drive traffic to our wonderful websites. The question is, where should you drive that traffic from?

In this week’s episode I discuss my thinking of how I’m planning on using Pinterest more this year.

I’ll wait here as you laugh. “How can you as a ‘Crazy Dad’ have any time to embark on this journey into the nether regions of Pinterest?”

Point taken...more on that later.

I guess you could call it a New Year’s resolution since we are near that time of year...and it’s questionable how long my commitment will last. But, I’m going to give it a go and see what happens.

Here are some of the reasons why I want to explore Pinterest more, why I don’t want to explore it, and how I’m going to set out on this adventure.

Why I Should Get Into Pinterest

Why in the world would I, or anyone, want to get into Pinterest? Check out some reasons why you should!

Growing Driver of Traffic

In a recent study conducted by Shareaholic, Pinterest continued to show growth in the amount of traffic it is driving to websites. In fact, it remains the number 2 source of social media driven traffic.

At the end of the 3rd quarter 2014, Pinterest was pushing 5.5% of the traffic while third place Twitter was only giving websites .88%!

Here is the chart from the Shareaholic study...

Untapped Market

A recent Forbes article discusses how Buzzfeed has made a conscious effort to leverage Pinterest more in their online marketing. In this episode I talk about the findings and what it means for you.

There are a number of bloggers out there, yours truly included, that are not using this growing and powerful platform.

Timeline of Your Content is Greater

Your content lives longer on Pinterest than it does on other platforms like Twitter. This could be huge for your long term strategy for content sharing

Opens New Markets

The majority of Pinterest users are women. In fact, according to an article on MariSmith.com 80% of Pinterest users are women!

Given the fact I talk “dad stuff” along with online business, this may expose me to a new audience. With that said, I do have quite a large female following (and they are friggin awesome), but this may allow me to reach a new set of folks.

Level of Engagement

Pinterest users spend time on Pinterest...real time. In the same Mari Smith article this stat stood out to me...”average American Pinterest user spends 1 hour and 17 minutes on the website.” Wow.

Shares More Likely

According to a Harvard Business School case study on Buzzfeed, removing the Twitter share button and increasing the size of the Pinterest button doubled the shares! Doubled.

Why I Might Not Get Into Pinterest

Ok, everything seems wonderful right? Well, maybe not. Here’s why.

I Don’t Know What the Hell I’m Doing

Yes, I have no shame in admitting I don’t know something. I find that to be an admirable character trait by the way.

This is definitely the case with Pinterest. I need to learn more about it in the coming weeks to really see how I can leverage it for my online brand.

It Doesn’t Align with My Target Market

I touched on the positive aspects of finding new markets on Pinterest, but there’s also the risk that my content won’t resonate with Pinterest users.

Time

Time continues to mock me every chance it gets. It’s in full blown mock mode at the mere thought of me launching any sort of engagement on another social media platform.

If I engage more on Pinterest, something has to pay the price. Maybe I’ll cut back on working out since I don’t do that anyway.

How Am I Going to Do This?

There has to be a method to the madness...some sort of plan.

I Need Help

I’m going to dig in...

What Social Media Platform Should You Dig Into in the Coming Year?

We are all constantly looking for ways to build our audience and drive traffic to our wonderful websites. The question is, where should you drive that traffic from?

In this week’s episode I discuss my thinking of how I’m planning on using Pinterest more this year.

I’ll wait here as you laugh. “How can you as a ‘Crazy Dad’ have any time to embark on this journey into the nether regions of Pinterest?”

Point taken...more on that later.

Here are some of the reasons why I want to explore Pinterest more, why I don’t want to explore it, and how I’m going to set out on this adventure.

Why I Should Get Into Pinterest

Why in the world would I, or anyone, want to get into Pinterest? Check out some reasons why you should!

Growing Driver of Traffic

At the end of the 3rd quarter 2014, Pinterest was pushing 5.5% of the traffic while third place Twitter was only giving websites .88%!

Here is the chart from the Shareaholic study...

Untapped Market

A recent Forbes article discusses how Buzzfeed has made a conscious effort to leverage Pinterest more in their online marketing. In this episode I talk about the findings and what it means for you.

There are a number of bloggers out there, yours truly included, that are not using this growing and powerful platform.

Timeline of Your Content is Greater

Your content lives longer on Pinterest than it does on other platforms like Twitter. This could be huge for your long term strategy for content sharing

Opens New Markets

The majority of Pinterest users are women. In fact, according to an article on MariSmith.com 80% of Pinterest users are women!

Level of Engagement

Shares More Likely

According to a Harvard Business School case study on Buzzfeed, removing the Twitter share button and increasing the size of the Pinterest button doubled the shares! Doubled.

Why I Might Not Get Into Pinterest

Ok, everything seems wonderful right? Well, maybe not. Here’s why.

I Don’t Know What the Hell I’m Doing

Yes, I have no shame in admitting I don’t know something. I find that to be an admirable character trait by the way.

This is definitely the case with Pinterest. I need to learn more about it in the coming weeks to really see how I can leverage it for my online brand.

It Doesn’t Align with My Target Market

I touched on the positive aspects of finding new markets on Pinterest, but there’s also the risk that my content won’t resonate with Pinterest users.

Time

Time continues to mock me every chance it gets. It’s in full blown mock mode at the mere thought of me launching any sort of engagement on another social media platform.

If I engage more on Pinterest, something has to pay the price. Maybe I’ll cut back on working out since I don’t do that anyway.

How Am I Going to Do This?

There has to be a method to the madness...some sort of plan.

I Need Help

I’m going to dig in...

Previous Episode

CDL 036 – Are Your Goals Out of Control?

Organizing Your Goals Can Enable Fantastic Success

In this episode, I take the show on the road and talk about goals. While I have only recently become a supporter of establishing goals in life and business, I find the practice of setting milestones and markers along your journey fulfilling and empowering.

There are 3 distinct segments in the episode.

Segment 1 – Goals Make You Accountable

In segment 1, you’ll hear about goals making you more accountable. You establish goals in order to serve as incentive. You want to do something and having that goal written down will most likely push you to do it.

Merely writing the goal down will serve as incredible motivation going forward. Oh, and make sure you write down where you stored your goals. I have a tendency to forget where I put things. Would hate to have you go through the same.

Segment 2 – Establishing Timelines for Your Goals

Segment 2 continues with the process of setting up your goals in chunks. Some goals should be set for the near term while other goals can be marked for later. You probably want to focus on the next year only though as things change so fast, especially for busy parents.

Think about how you want to distribute what you want to accomplish in the next several weeks and months. Then, think about how these items interrelate and lead into each other. Finally, think about what other life events you may have going on that may cause disruption in accomplishing these goals.

Segment 3 – The Mental Side of Goals

Segment 3 wraps up the topic of goals with a hard subject for many. What happens if you don’t accomplish what you set out to do? What happens if you revisit that goal and don’t get to check it off?

The important thing here is to understand that this is all a process. Even a little bit of progress is still progress. Perhaps you didn’t fully accomplish your defined goal yet you can create a few lower level items that you did do and mark those off.

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this episode and really started to think about what goals mean to you. Hopefully in the next day or so, you will sit down and write about some of the things you want to accomplish in the upcoming time period.

Also, I’d love some feedback on what you thought about the episode? Did you like the format?

If you liked the show, please subscribe HERE and leave a review.

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Next Episode

CDL 038 – How to Test Your Product Ideas – and How I Tested Mine

Give Your Product Ideas the Best Chance for Success

It is safe to assume you have had a number of product ideas over the course of your life. It could have been a massive product that would change the world or a simple enhancement to an existing product.

At some point all of us have thought about making a product or offering a service.

If you identify yourself as an entrepreneur, you probably have these thoughts multiple times in a single day, and have the domain names to prove it.

Product ideas bounce randomly through your head at all times of the day, regardless of where you are or what you are doing.

In this week’s podcast episode, and in the post below, I share my experience with testing product ideas in an effort to best position your product for success.

What Do You Do When Your Product Idea Can No Longer be Ignored?

Let’s say the product idea dancing in your head just won’t go away. Let’s say it doesn’t get filed away along with all the other ideas as a “some day” project. Let’s say you really think you have found the “right one”. Now what do you do?

There are many things you could do at this point but perhaps the biggest thing you should do is research and get feedback.

My Case Study

You may think your product idea is the next big thing, but your potential market may ultimately disregard it and set it on a path destined for failure. This recently happened to me with Project White Coat. If you are unfamiliar with Project White Coat, let me quickly explain.

I interact with a lot of people online and I am continuously coming across parents that either struggle with finding time to build their online platform or claim they don’t even have time to start. I felt if I could do a brain dump and create a product that would package valuable and consumable content for them to take action, it would ultimately save them time and lead them to something fulfilling.

Given parents live a crazy life, I figured we all needed the men in white coats to come take us away at some point. The idea for Project White Coat was born.

So, what did I do next? Was there a way I could validate my idea before I spent the next 6 months in the basement building it?

How to Test Your Product Idea

The good news is it is not that hard to actually test your product idea. But, there needs to be a method to the madness. You must first enter the research phase if you want to have any chance of success.

Blindly putting a product into the market because you like it, and think everyone else will, is a recipe for disaster.

I had to do the same for Project White Coat.

Market Research

First you need to determine what the current market looks like. Do searches based on your product idea and determine how many competitors are out there offering the same, or similar, product. Seeing competition is a good thing. That means there is a market.

A mistake many people make is assuming an empty market is ripe for business just because there are currently no companies offering the product. While this may be the case, it is a rather unique situation where you discover something that has not already been tried.

If you find an empty market, there is probably a reason for it. The demand most likely isn’t there.

In my case, there are literally thousands of products out there teaching how to blog, how to “do” social media, and everything else online. Even with the crowded market, I felt my idea was still viable given the fact it would cover more than just a blog and would dive into the mindset, strategy, and general lifestyle to help bring some form of structure to your overall online journey.

At least that was my thinking. But, was it enough?

So, I have my product idea, I determined there was a market of some sort, and I’m ready to go to the next step. Testing.

Determine Who to Test

Now that you know there is a market for your product idea, you’ll need to really narrow down the “who”. In particular, the “who” that you will target as your potential customer.

Some people refer to this as your Avatar, that one person that represents the perfect consumer of your product. Get as specific as you can to identify this person.

This includes attributes such as age, gender, education level, income level, and family status to name a few.

This person will not only be used as the baseline for when you actually create your product, but will also be the key person you target during your research phase.

My Avatar looked like this: