This blog is the intersection of photography, psychology and business.
I call it “branding with photos”.
The surefire way to stay motivated while running your business every day
Do you sometimes wish you were... how do I put it... a bit more motivated in your work?
Let’s talk about that today. Because - let’s all agree - getting un-stuck from mental ruts is one of our biggest challenges. Do you agree?
I know it is for me.
Whether I’m alone working from home or out shooting all day, there are days when I end up crawling to bed physically and mentally exhausted. Long hours and longer days, filled with clients… shoots… consultations… errands, team calls, etc… And after those there come the hours when I hear that unpleasant voice of doubt in my head (as well as heavy feeling in my chest - like a big clunky piece of metal, pressing me down, making me feel drained and exhausted):
“Why am I doing this? Where do I want to go with this?
Can't I take one more nap…? Of course I can! The World has waited this long, it can wait some more.”
Naps are nice, but work hours tick fast and we need to meet those weekly and monthly goals. As they say, the show must go on… Whether we like it or not. But therein lies the question one of my clients asked me a few days ago: HOW do you stay “on the roll” and keep pressing forward?
Here’s the first thing I immediately thought of: Hire some talented people to work with. A freelancer. A virtual assistant. Working with people who are excited about what I do keeps me self-accountable and focused on the prize at hand. Seriously - it works. And there's a lot more to it than just that.
The key to this little trick is getting them involved in tasks that are vital to your business - particularly if they can do those tasks better than you can.
For instance, I currently have content available for sale: I created online courses that help people up-level their content visuals, and I’m doing 1-on-1 visual branding consultations. These are the tasks I’m on top of, but I kid you not - I have an entire wall covered in large post-it sheets full of tiny scribbles with tasks I still need to accomplish in order to move my projects forward - all to prevent being stuck in same place for months (or even years) at a time! Think: Getting more speaking engagements, doing more interviews, developing the blog, writing more guest posts, and creating more consistent content in general. All of it in order to grow.
With us being growth-oriented people - our biggest nightmare is fast forwarding to next year and watching ourselves do the exact same thing we’re doing today! Ahh, the frustration! Are you feeling the same?
Photo by Oscar Keys via Unsplash
So, naturally, I’m hiring and working with people who are helping me cover those bases. Work on tasks that will grow the business and stimulate change, not the ones that I’m doing everyday anyway.
I have a wonderful team helping me format my content and free me to not only work on my vision, but also making sure the work I started gets finished - a copywriter, a graphic designer, retouchers and a small group of virtual assistants - all of whom I’m deeply grateful for.
On top of that, I’m beginning to work with an ad agency. It’s an exciting new beginning, and I know without a doubt that they’ll further keep me on-target with my goals.
Of course, picking the right freelancers and agencies to work with is crucial. But it’s also extremely important to truly involve them in the heart of your business process - not just to handle some mundane tasks. Only then can they really help you break through those mental walls and shut up that voice that insists it’s time for another break! Think about those 20% tasks that REALLY matter, and assign your wonderful helpful team to those! The other 80% can wait. Or they’ll somehow magically get done along the way. Trust me - that’s what’s happening in our workflow all the time.
And one more thing. At the end of the day, if you can get people excited to show up for you, you’ll be motivated to show up for them. It’s a beautiful never-ending circle of feeding off one another’s energy! That’s why I always take time to remind my team how important each of them is to me: Because (a) it’s the truth, and (b) their enthusiasm is my lifeblood. It gives me strength, it keeps me going, and it forces me to show up. Every. Single. Day.
One where I compare Visual Marketing on Social Media with PIZZA
Are you concerned with people even NOTICING your posts on Social Media?
I was watching a live Q&A video of two marketing professionals the other day…
They were discussing my favorite topic - strategies for creating and curating imagery for all sorts of marketing materials. Blogs, Instagram, other social media - you name it. But as I kept listening, I couldn’t help but cringe...
Because they were steering their viewers in a wrong direction!
They spoke about cultivating a clean, beautiful look on social media… Which is fine! Aesthetics are great! BUT - and this is a big “but” here - aesthetics are not everything.
Every single day, I come across a brand on Instagram that looks just a little too perfect. And as a result, I - as a consumer - become completely disinterested! So I got to thinking why that is:
As beautiful as their feeds may be, their photos can look stock-ish. Unnatural in a way. Which means…
They don’t connect to me emotionally. Which is the whole point of this content in the first place! And as a result…
I don’t retain anything about their brand. I don’t take in the specifics of their business and I certainly can’t recall any of it later on.
In short: Their accounts may have the looks… But they don’t have any personality. And it’s the personality that counts. After all...
The most important aspect of your branding process is a personal story - YOUR story.
Here’s what actually matters:
Putting together a consistent content strategy ensures your brand stays at the top of your audience’s minds.
This means emphasizing your VALUE: What do you bring to the table? What’s in it for your follower base?
On top of that, developing your unique persona. You are the central hero of your brand’s story - what have you overcome? How did you get here?
All with the purpose of establishing a genuine relationship. Put yourself out there, take them behind-the-scenes in your life, and connect with them on a human level in a way that a long feed of beautiful images cannot.
Visual aesthetics are the toppings to your branding “pizza” - they’re nice, but not necessary.
The bullets listed above are the foundation of a solid marketing strategy. They’re the mandatory features that you simply cannot do without. Like the dough, sauce, and cheese in a pizza. And even the cheese is optional. You’d be surprised but the 1st pizza (in Napoli) was without cheese at all!
Clean looking feed is the pepperoni. Or the anchovies. Or even the pineapple. Depending on your preferences (... and I realize anchovies and pineapple are controversial toppings for the pizza lovers out there), they CAN make the pizza a little better. But you don’t NEED them.
And that’s the mistake I see time and time again on various Instagram feeds - valuing beautiful aesthetics over personalization. When in reality, your branding priorities should be the other way around.
So what does YOUR branding process look like? Are you making an effort to share everything about your business and your personal brand? Are you carefully crafting that delicious base of your pizza? ...Or have you been focusing all your attention on the toppings?
Until later~
Irina
10 Things to Consider as a Business Before Writing Instagram Of
For many years, I was using Instagram to post non-work related photos that I took while off-duty as a photographer. It mostly consisted of…
For many years, I was using Instagram to post non-work related photos that I took while off-duty as a photographer. It mostly consisted of food, architecture, travel, and glimpses of my everyday life that I was attempting to communicate to my "avoidant" former boyfriend. In a "hey, look at me - I'm interesting, you should love me!" kind of way. Who’s done that before? Raise your hand and say AYE!
While I can write circles around bad relationships, this article is about marketing and visual branding on social media. And I’m glad that in time I realized that Instagram is the 2nd biggest social network to tap into. Some even say it’s the best. And I agree with that. Here’s why:
1. Reaching a new audience. Instagram is the best social channel for finding and charming brand new audience. It is a network of people from all over the world who are open to making new friends. I’ve had success establishing working relationships with podcast hosts, art directors, advertising agencies, as well as my business mentors whose work I follow closely and admire. And that was before I figured out how to find and connect with my future clients and students.
“Instagram is like an open window of opportunity as opposed to Facebook, where we keep our networks tight and closed from most of the public”
2. Creating a visual funnel. It’s also a great way to funnel that new audience that you bring in through speaking, podcast interviews, networking, etc... On top of being extremely visual, Instagram allows for all kinds of fun interaction through stories and posts. The option to create carousels of photos invites the scroller to dive deeper into your posts and read the captions to see how the images relate to one another.
3. Textual engagement. You have the option to write pretty long captions (telling your business stories and teaching your audience things they wouldn’t be as open to learning on Facebook). These long captions work like a charm if they begin with an attention grabber, just like a good email subject increases open rates or a good title intrigues us into buying a book. Instagrammers have already established a caption culture that works; even long captions are scannable and easy to comprehend. They work like bullet points. And, of course, you can include a Call to Action at the end.
By the way you simply must follow @tylerjmccall - the guy is an Instagram Master, and constantly posts amazing tips and cool offers in his feed and in Insta stories.
4. Personalization. On Instagram, your brand’s personality isn’t diluted with retweets and links to other people’s content. It’s kind of like your own special YOU place. This is YOUR content. This is what YOU created. This is how YOU look, feel, and show up to the world at large. The right folks will relate to you, and form a stronger connection. They will watch your Instagram stories and swipe up or go to your profile links when you invite them to do so.
5. Approachability. At its core, Instagram is yet another way to increase your online visibility with your new and existing audience. The thing is - you can choose to show up in a fun and approachable way. You can show up in a very human way! Posting your everyday stories gives people a candid glimpse into your everyday life and makes you that much more relatable. AND you can still use this tool to nudge your users in the right direction for "what to do next”.
6. Educational tool. This is a GREAT place for you to learn AND teach them something. No - you don’t put up a whole BLOG on there, but you DO want to deliver bite-sized tips that they can go and implement right away, making it EASY for them to use the value you’re putting out. And once they see your advice working, you’re already one big step closer to converting them into a customer (or your new best friend!).
7. Conversation starter. Here’s a trick that works amazingly well on Instagram. Every time I get a follow from someone I reached out to or someone I'd like to connect with - I send them a personal video greeting (Instagram makes it insanely easy and quick). The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People are taken by surprise, they respond immediately, and then: Boom! The conversation has started. And this is most we could ever want from a platform like Instagram! Start a conversation with someone you like and see how it goes. Of course, a good overall social strategy also increases your chances of a fruitful interaction, but that’s a whole other can of worms that we’ll keep for another time.
I created this screen recording to show you how simple it is to send video greetings to new followers!
8. Fostering the right relationships. Instagram is in part a numbers game. The more people you reach out to, comment on their posts, and start conversations with, the bigger the chance that you’ll be checked out (for real, not just by a bot that picked up on your hashtags) and followed back. However, it’s not all about having more followers to stroke our egos; it’s about having the RIGHT followers to grow our brands. And that can only be established by building a relationship with every single person (whether on Instagram or elsewhere). If they follow you, it’s because you gave them a reason. And from here on - your job is to continue building that relationship by encouraging engagement. Ask questions, ask for help, ask for anything, and then - listen. And respond.
9. One piece of a larger puzzle. Instagram is not a one-for-all answer; it is a part of the bigger system of your brand exposure. You will be very slow (growing) if you consistently show up on only one platform. Knowing exactly how it can work for YOUR business is part of figuring out your strategy. A business with good visibility will strategize and use as many social platforms as possible for its growth and expansion.
In short- Instagram is a great and FUN tool to build momentum and support your marketing outreach activities. However, here are some “yeah buts” I hear from people who avoid Instagram, claiming it “adds complication to their life.” Consider them additional tips - 10 and (a bonus) 11.
11. “I’ve already got too much on my plate”
I hear myself saying this every day of my life. But here’s the way I see it: The growth of my business and reaching my goals for the next year and the next year and the one after it strongly depends on where I’ve put myself today and whom I’ve reached out to and started a conversation with. Today. When I look at the “being extremely busy” situation from that perspective, I begin to understand that spending time on Instagram is an investment in my future - more so than with any other social media drug of choice. Because this is where we show up in an as humanly a way as possible.
11. “My audience isn't there.”
Is that actually true? Have you checked? I want to invite you to do the following. If you've been doing things right, you must have good tabs on your competition. It's time to pull out that list and go find them on Instagram. Better yet - follow them! See what they are posting, and how frequently. See which posts perform better. There’s a chance that some of them don't use Instagram as a business tool yet. That's fine. It's their loss and your gain. But we are looking for those who DO use it to drum up the business momentum [link back to momentum post] and we want to see who their audience is. Then, once you've found them - see who else Instagram suggests you to check out.
Instagram suggestions appear when you tap on the arrow next to the FOLLOW button.
See how those guys are doing. Seriously - spend your time doing this, because you don't want to be one of those people who says “my audience isn't there “ just because THEY themselves aren't there, and not because they actually did the research. Chances are - you'll find your competition there AND your audience along with them.
If you haven't found any competition on Insta - you may have struck gold. This is where you want to see whether a good visual mix of educational, inspirational, entertaining and personal content can be consistently created and posted on Instagram in order to attract new followers, and since there's no competition - everyone who is looking for you will be yours and yours alone.
Hope this helps! Let me know in a comment..
Cheers~ Irina
How I found my passion in a 3 minute conversation
I was at a networking event when…
I was at a networking event last week when a woman named Tammi asked me: “So what’s YOUR passion?”... And she caught me completely off guard.
I mean - I have a perfectly prepared 3-minute elevator pitch about what I do, but a passion? Should I tell the truth to this unknown lady with big, bright eyes and a genuine smile? That deep in my heart, my truest passion is… taking naps?!
Fast forward to this morning, which I spent burning my tongue on a hot matcha tea and going through one particular client’s photos. I found myself reminiscing about our initial phone consultation when he said he needed new headshots, as well as some nice lifestyle photos taken around the city to post on social media.
And even though I’ve had this exact same conversation with prospective clients countless times now, it still stuns me when they vaguely ask for “some nice lifestyle photos.”
However, when I put myself in their shoes, it makes complete sense. Of coursethey want photos for their social media! And just the fact that they realize they need more than a headshot means my work is already halfway done.
All that’s left for me to do is explain that not only should they want nice pictures - they should also want THE RIGHT nice pictures.
[Hmm… What exactly does that mean, Irina? It’s bolded and capitalized so it must be important!]
Well, what I’m talking about is the kind of nice pictures that will simultaneously speak and relate to their audience while representing their brand in the most flattering and accurate way possible.
Which means my clients and I need to spend some time answering important questions - about both their business and their audience. And ultimately, figuring out what kind of stories we’ll create to connect the two through our lifestyle shots.
Because - I need to frame my pictures to complement the stories they’ll be telling THEIR prospective clients and audience. And sometimes, we even need the pictures to drive home the whole point.
So - back to this morning. While I was working on the pictures and observing the transformation from “let’s shoot some nice lifestyle photos” to “let’s create a strong collection of professional on-brand images,” I couldn’t help but get goosebumps. Because I realized that I’m genuinely passionate about finding that special light in a personal brand and bringing it to surface.
Like… this kind of passionate!
Because, with everything we - business owners - task ourselves to do every day of the week, of the month, of the year - it’s difficult to maintain that sharp focus on WHY we do what we do and adjust the HOW accordingly in the fast changing world around us.
And I love finding that light. I love the moment it clicks (pardon the pun). And then photos become easy. Well, not always, but when we know our exact destination - the challenge of getting there is exhilarating and fun.
THAT is my passion, Tammi. Thank you for asking me that question!
How to give them a compelling reason to buy from you
The best use of storytelling in YOUR business.
If you have been running a business for a while, then you know very well that
PEOPLE LOVE STORIES.
And what better way to engage with your audience than to give them what they want?!
Unfortunately, you also know that the average attention span is closing in on ZERO, and competing for someone's eyes on you and your business is already as hard as waking a napping elephant.
On the other hand, if you’re NEW to business and are just starting to learn the ins and outs of getting the word out - you’re in for a double treat today!
First and foremost, when beginning to develop our marketing strategy - whether it’s a product launch or completely new business - we must consider the collection of stories behind it.
As a personal brand - you simply MUST have stories that you've gathered throughout your life. Your awkward and messy life experiences have made you the passionate and strong-willed person that you've become and they are the WHY behind everything you do. But just like everything else in business, storytelling requires consistency; if we don't approach it systematically, we're going to fall flat.
The simplest thing you can do is create a Google document to start writing down your stories. It’ll take more than one day, so you’ll want to start as soon as possible (and not put too much pressure on yourself).
Just keep in mind that this is going to be massive for your business growth and will simplify your marketing so much, it'll feel like cheating. What you want to eventually end up with is a collection of 15 - 30 stories that led you to where you are right now: your current business and your present goals. Simple enough?
Now, let's assume you already HAVE these stories down and are quite happy with how your messaging is polished around them. This is where I put my visual branding cap on, pull out the horn, and ask you bluntly:
DID YOU PUT GAS IN YOUR CAR THIS MORNING?
Photo credit: Tim Mossholder / Unsplash
...Because every story is that much more powerful with accompanying photos (or other visuals). In a nutshell - skipping the images is like leaving the money on the table. And the loss grows exponentially with time!
But I've got good news for you. When you have your STORIES down, it becomes so much easier to figure out which images you want for your visual branding. You simply ask yourself: What do you want to illustrate? What kind of drama, struggle and transformation are you telling people about? What kind of images would visually support the story and help you connect with your audience on a subconscious level to REALLY grab their attention?
If you work with a professional photographer, you can plan taking some emotionally-loaded photos illustrating the drama you've been through. You can also borrow images from stock libraries, or use any personal photos that you might have collected from the past. But the good bulk of the photos for your social media content can be created today, with just your smartphone camera!
If you're only dabbling in taking photos or consider yourself a complete photography newb, I've launched a training course to help people just like you learn the ins and outs of basic photographic skills and composition. You can see the complete list of topics outlined here in this link.
You can take it yourself, or give it to an employee who does content creation for you - I'm all for delegation! Regardless, this will definitely help you boost your visual content level and become more visible with YOUR personal brand business.
What kind of stories will YOU tell?
Til later!
Irina
How to completely overcome the "Impostor Syndrome"
You’ve been in business for several years.
You have customers who know and love you.
You even have people working for you, for God’s sake!
Your work has consistently improved over the years and overall, life is good.
… Or is it?
Somewhere deep inside, there’s a part of you still worried that you’re a complete fake. That you don’t deserve the title you’re wearing. That you’re a nobody.
And when your lovely friend introduces you as “my good friend Irina, who by the way is an AMAAAAAZING photographer,” you can’t help but cringe on the inside. Instead of smiling, your face exhibits a grimace that combines doubt and fear as you awkwardly respond, “Well… yeah.. I take photos. But I’m not as good as she’s describing.”
Before you know it, your friend is engaging you in combat to gather all kinds of evidence that you’re being way too modest, and you’re left wondering “why did I even come here today?? I should have stayed home. Invisible, untouchable, undiscovered.”
That was me, just a couple of years ago.
And after one such painful introduction, I looked back at several years of cringing and hiding and decided it was time to turn things around.
You see, it’s one thing to achieve a perfect mindset around who you are becoming - in my case, a professional photographer, who is good at both connecting with the subject and applying photographic technique to create stunning and relatable portraits. That’s who I wanted to become and that’s whom I “faked it til I made it”. However, I have completely missed one HUGE piece of the puzzle (hat tip to my friend and life coach Melanie Curtis): gathering a complete set of evidence to support that mindset.
So what was preventing me from accepting the talent that others saw in me? I gave it some thought and decided on a course of action. This project was purposely designed to be ongoing. And to kickstart it - all I had to do was a little research.
I went to two places: A library and an Amazon.com book store. I was searching for literature. Anything and everything that I haven’t yet read on the art of photography, history of art, revisiting the color theory, composition and graphic design, and many, MANY books on photographing people.
I sorted through these resources by their Amazon reviews, library availability, and publishing year (I wanted to cover the whole range of available years, but not spend time reviewing ALL the books, just finding the best ones I thought were worth spending time ordering and reviewing).
I was looking to either grow, or to receive an external validation that what I’ve learned all by myself through the years of my favorite “method of scientific poking around” has been good all along.
And I found what I was looking for! It took me about three months to go through that initial stack of books that arrived through Amazon and my local library network. Some of them were a waste of time and I returned them immediately.
I glanced through tables of contents as fast as I could and spot checked the books inside, by reading a few paragraphs here and there to be able to quickly identify the ones I wanted to read, while bookmarking some that had chapters of no interest to me (literally talking about how to use the camera… in a portrait photography book…. Wouldn’t one agree that this is advanced material and you no longer need to include the basics? Maybe they needed more content… go figure in that publishing industry...)
Overall - I’ve picked up a few semi-essential techniques that I haven’t yet invented on my own (which have improved my workflow! A WIN for sure!), and also concluded, that if I need to do the World a favor - I will need to write a book or two myself. Just to make sure that there are more GOOD books out there. Because out of 25+ books that I went through - perhaps 3.5 were worth anything. I think this ratio indicates significant room for improvement.
And what else has happened? My impostor syndrome was gone. I fully realize that there will always be opportunities to grow for me, but with what I’ve done and where I am in life and business - I now smile proudly while shaking hands of new friends during introductions.
"If you want to run faster - just run faster."
So what will it take for YOU to lose your impostor syndrome? How can you qualify your knowledge and expertise against what’s out there? What's a good standard to measure yourself up against? Find it, put it in front of yourself, and do the work.
For me this project was a win on all accounts. Not only did I gain full confidence and validation, I also learned things that other people have discovered. AND I’ve made it into a habit, to consistently learn and read new photography related content - on top of all the self-improvement and business literature I’m already freakishly obsessed with.
Good luck out there and let me know what impostor syndrome you’re battling with! Maybe together we can find a way for you to overcome it.
What the heck is visual branding?
You've probably heard the term VISUAL BRANDING fly around the internet. You've most likely heard someone's very respectable lips utter it, and if it registered, you may have thought that has something to do with logos and graphic design. And while you're not too far from the truth, if you are a personal brand business - there's a whole lot more to it than that. In fact, it's only the tip of the iceberg. And not the whole top that's above the water - but only a tip of it. Because, frankly, what's logo for you, if you are in business branding yourself as a person? Nothing. Your face is your logo, if you care to know my opinion.
So what the heck is VISUAL BRANDING?
If you run a personal brand business, then you are familiar with the fact that you need to put yourself out there in order to get paid. Matter of fact, in the current day and age, even if you’re very-very good at putting yourself out there, you are still being outsmarted by those who also provide incredible amount of value to their audience, along with that. They basically took their “putting themselves out there” and turned it into massive value for their audience. They blog, they go live, they make videos, and they speak at the events. That’s the name of the game. If you’re not a part of that, you’re not growing, and not only that - you are falling behind.
Now that we covered that, let's say you've been doing (or attempting to master doing) all those exciting and challenging things. You most likely already got to the point when you realized that doing both - getting paid AND putting yourself out there - is not a full time job. It’s at least 3 different full time jobs. And it is menacing. Because running your content creation and promoting it on social media - that’s two jobs. And then you have that one job which is the reason you started the whole thing - the "getting paid for doing what you love" job.
And then someone like me goes out and tells you - well… nowadays "everybody who is anybody is doing that", so in order to really stand out - you need to use your visual arsenal to its full capacity as well. Meaning - all that wonderful valuable stuff that you’re putting out there - it has to VISUALLY appeal, attract, retain, and build relationships for you. And the thing is - since visuals stimulate our brains on conscious AND subconscious level (subconscious being a whole lot more essential in buying process) - you want to master that game and turn your visuals into powerhouse engine that essentially speeds up your personal brand business success.
And this is where the VISUAL BRANDING comes in.
Take this quiz to discover what you're missing out on in your visual branding in order to attract better clients through your online platform.
Now that you know what you didn't know - I'd like to invite you to sign up to this blog and my newsletter, and you'll get regular updates as I plow through this very important topic and attempt to organize it in the most consumable way - for you.
7 ways to use Pinterest for your content inspiration
I know, right now you’re thinking... what?? But bear with me for just 500 words.
I know, right now you’re thinking... what??
But bear with me for just 500 words.
I was working on my Pinterest boards a few weeks ago and I found a lot of GREAT ideas that I could write on, based on my niche and my audiences needs.
There is only one catch. You DO need to have your brand identity down, otherwise none of this is going to work. And by branding - I don’t mean - the logo, the colors, the fonts. I mean - detailed definition of your business’s message, values and goals, as well as your ideal customer. Because once you REALLY KNOW who your customer is - on a deep intimate level - this exercise becomes easy as it gets.
Step 1: List a few keywords you’re going to start with. For me the 1st thing that came to mind was as simple as “personal brand photos”. In my search, among many pretty photos someone else took for people’s “personal brands” I found a slew of graphics that lead to blog articles. Graphics had titles on them and those titles gave me some good ideas to expand on.
Step 2: Each graphic you click on, opens the pin up. If you scroll down, you will see Pinterest suggesting you related pins. For example, I chose a pin that said “How to Organize and Plan a Styled Shoot to grow your Brand and Business”. Now I can see a LOT of graphics and MOST of them are relevant to my niche and direction. At this point, I’m able to see a clear bigger picture on what my audience may search for on Pinterest. And those things are:
stock photos for the personal brand business,
using Pinterest and Instagram for the personal brand business,
preparing for the photoshoots,
taking your photography to the next level (I can definitely create a LOT of content around that)
DIY flat lays for branding
Looking better in photos
Posing inspiration
And these are just to name a few.
Step 3: Each one of the categories above can easily expand into at least 10 different blog ideas on “how to”, “myth busting”, “common mistakes”, etc - you know the drill. So now that you have those down, you can dive in and "juice" these categories to create very specific bite sized blog topics.
Step 4: Look out for the keyword replacements Pinterest suggests at the top of your search results:
Keep in mind - these are NOT meant to replace your entire search phrase, just one of the words. Get it? You’re welcome!
Step 5: And then, Pinterest goes and adds kerosene to my search by throwing me the little “Ideas you will love” suggestion box among my pins here (and fine, I’m clicking on those too, repeating the same steps as the above, at this point my head is generating my own ideas too, so there’s a competition going on - for what I’m going to write on next):
And even “Searches to try”:
These appear as a bunch of colorful bars you see in my screenshots right amidst the search results you are scrolling through. So, even if the search results don’t look too inspiring - go ahead and check out some suggestions. Pinterest is AWESOME at fixing our searches, that’s why it rocks.
Step 6: Guess which one I clicked on? “Branding photoshoot” of course. I KNOW, my ideal client is ready to buy when they search those terms. What do I see? MORE inspiration. At this point I’m too tired of ideas and want to write my blog post! I am READY. But here’s the number 7, in case if you still feel stuck.
Step 7: Repeat all of the above while searching for keywords included in:
your audiences pain points,
their competition,
what you do for them
transformation your business is offering
your competition
etc.
As you can see, all of this is just a start. I gave you the matches, now go and light that fire!
Bonus: some of the links were broken, so when I clicked on one of them - I was taken to a list of their blog posts instead of a specific article. And that was awesome in the following way: while that blogger has very little to do with the topics I write MY content about - by simply scrolling through that extensive list, I jotted down at least 10 more blog topics that I got inspired to write about. For example, her “5 Ways You’re Throwing Away Your Pinterest Potential” became my “5 Ways You’re Throwing Away Your Personal Brand Potential”. See what I did there?
Have fun with all this! And remember one thing. If it’s been written about already - it doesn’t mean you shouldn't write about it. Nobody will write the way YOU do. You have a unique perspective and life experience and YOU will be the only one who sounds like you, jokes like you and has your own experience. So there’s no fear of plagiarism here. You are adding value, by adding your own two cents (or a whole dollar!) to the topic. At least. Most of the time, the content that’s already out there isn’t even very good quality, so you can definitely make the world a better place by writing a better article.
And don’t forget to create a Pinterest pin with link back to your article! Pinterest is one of the most powerful tools allowing your customers to find you. But I hope you knew that already.
Cheers~
Irina