New Thought Marketing » Fun on a Friday

Fun on a Friday – Pinterest

Sherean — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:53:37 +0000

Every now and then a site comes along and just explodes into the social media stratosphere. Pinterest is one such site. Just look at its growth. In June, it didn’t even have half a million visits. By December, it had over 11 million! And this is still an invitation-only site. (Email me if you want an invite!)

So what is the site exactly? It’s an online inspiration board, a place to “pin” images and group them together. Say you’re redoing your kitchen and searching online for ideas. Before Pinterest, it wasn’t easy to grab those images and put them all together on one easy-to-view (and share) inspiration board. (You could do it with Evernote but Evernote’s boards don’t render so simply and elegantly.) We built a house a few years ago and I bookmarked and tagged stuff in Evernote and nothing was as easy or fun to use as Pinterest.

If you are a product company, add a “pin it” button to your products, just like you have a Facebook “like it” button. Pinterest doesn’t seem to play well with Java, so check to make sure your images are pin-able. Â Do this now. I wish I’d told you to do this last week because a lot of folks will be cruising around on their shiny new ipads this weekend, daydreaming on Pinterest.

Pinterest is the world’s largest idea board. Images are placed onto boards that are categorized. Looking for a craft project to do with the kids during the winter break? Search the DIY/Crafts boards.

Or a fun recipe for a holiday gathering? Check out this idea I pinned.

Planning a wedding? Make a board for flowers, one for food, one for dresses, one for decor . . . and share with your groom or wedding planner or mother.

The very social nature of this site is part of the reason for its adoption. It’s also insanely fun and useful. Friends tell me it’s addictive. And that, my friends, is marketing gold. Alas, they aren’t accepting ads (yet) but you can integrate the Pin It app into your site, as I mentioned. I’ve also seen brands create inspiration boards (Whole Foods has some great ones) that link back to their products. It’s a wonderful way to engage with your customers where they are already online and dreaming.

Fun on a Friday – the Black Friday Edition

Sherean — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:36:37 +0000

Let the shopping begin! According to Gallup,Â Americans are planning to spend moreÂ on Christmas gifts this year than last (and much more than they planned to spend in 2008-2009). I don’t care how much I’m spending, I like to get a deal. Great deals abound online;Â Amazon’s been running Black Friday dealsÂ all week. I’ll beÂ tweetingÂ out deals as I see them and posting links on myÂ FacebookÂ page so check in with me at either place for up-to-the-minute specials.

For those of you braving the mall traffic, or standing in line at Best Buy, first of all, my lazy hat’s off to you. I prefer to click my way to great savings. But while you’re mentally debating whether or not that ginormous flat screen TV is really a good deal, whip out your phone, scan the barcode and find out if it’s being sold for less somewhere else.

You’ll need an app, of course. There are dozens, but here are the ones I use most often:

1)Â ShopSavvyÂ - scan the item’s bar code and it will return prices for both local stores and online

2) Â Amazon’s AppÂ - this app has a feature that allows you to scan a barcode and it will tell you the price on Amazon. You can add the product to your wish list, or buy it from your phone. And if you can’t find the barcode, or the store has it covered with their own price sticker (which happens more often than I like!), you can take a photo of the product and Amazon will use an image search to match the product. It’s pretty slick.Â Android version here.

And before you head out, you might want to plan your trip usingBlackFriday by DealNews. The app is chock full of ads (including some “leaked” ads) and has comparison shopping tools. (You can also visit theÂ DealNewsÂ website which is a great resource for the best deals, by product or store.)

All right, so while you’re out and about, I’ll be chasing my toddler and some good deals from my laptop. Or my iPad. Or my phone. DO NOT LET ME BUY A KINDLE FIRE or anything else that connects to the Internet. Happy Shopping!

Follow me onÂ TwitterÂ orÂ FacebookÂ for up-to-the-minute sales. Follow me onÂ PinterestÂ for unique gift ideas.

Fun on a Friday

Sherean — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:52:06 +0000

Fun on a Friday with Google Maps

Sherean — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:55:59 +0000

You know how sometimes Google Maps takes you ’round in circles? Well, this trip will take you on a kayak across the Pacific. Try searching Seattle, WA to Tokyo, Japan, and you just might need to pack a wet suit. Also, this route has tolls.

Fun on a Friday – Twins Talk

Sherean — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:54:09 +0000

What could be more fun than a couple of babbling babies? This has been all over TV and the web but just in case you missed it:

Fun on a Friday – More Angry Birds

Sherean — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:43:30 +0000

For my Angry Birds peeps . . . HOW FREAKIN’ DEAD ON ACCURATE IS THIS??? Genius!

Fun on a Friday – Angry Birds Edition

Sherean — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:52:39 +0000

Any Angry Birds fans out there? Angry Birds is an addictive little game for your mobile phone and one of the most popular apps available. Cheap for iPhone users, free for the Droid. My husband plays it. I play it. Lots of other people play it. This guy likes it so much he turned his children into birds and pigs to recreate a bird suicide mission in photography.

Or how about this guy who created a set of Angry Birds out of Legos? (My husband will Â love this!)

If you’re a fan, or know someone who is a fan, I’ve put together some links to Angry Bird merchandise for your shopping pleasure.

The official Angry Bird shop. i-Phone cases and plush dolls.
Looking for something hand made? Check out these crocheted angry birds. My husband wants this pig and I think it would look great in the built-ins in our living room. I think home decor should have a sense of humor, don’t you?

Or maybe you need a t-shirt. Spreadshirt.com has several andÂ even has kids’ sizes.
Amazon also has a plethora of good shirts and accessories like these:

Or what about this little plush clip on? Do you think it would ruin the look of my new Coach bag?

Now if that isn’t some serious fun on a Friday, I don’t know what is! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Fun on a Friday

Sherean — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:07:49 +0000

Check out this one minute infographic video from some Vancouver Film School students. Everything you ever wanted to know about kissing! I should have posted this last Friday – in advance of Valentine’s Day – but it’s still Valentine’s Week – so enjoy!

Fun on a Friday – Great Moments in Texting History

Sherean — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:11:23 +0000

Mashable is up with some funny little cartoons on how history would be different if we’d had texting way back when. A sampling:

Listening to Pandora Yet? (Fun on a Friday)

Sherean — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:48:24 +0000

Have you triedÂ Pandora yet? Pandora is an Internet music station that figures out what kind of music you like and serves you up more of it. They call it the music genome project. As I understand it, they analyze the rhythm, beats, instrumentation, etc., of artists you like and create radio stations for you of similarly styled music.

I have to say it works great. I love music by the Killers and so I set up a Killers station. The way Pandora works is when you click on one of your stations, it first plays a song by that artist. So I’m listening to a Killers song right now. But next, it might play something by Coldplay or Muse or Queen – and nine times out of ten, it’s a song I have on my iPod or wish I had. It’s a great way to have a mix tape without taking the time to put it together. And of course, you get introduced to some new songs and artists in the process.

You can set up as many artist stations as you like. They’ll serve up a quick ad every 5 or 6 songs or so. They also have their own created stations by genre. When we were in the mood for some Christmas music over the holidays, we just quickly surfed over to Pandora and played their holiday station.

They have great apps for your phone, too.

I honestly have no idea how they mapped my music genome (for real?) but somehow they got inside my musical head and nail it every time.