Run A Business? Now There’s Even More Reason To Be A Pinterest Fan.

Show Notes

Patents and Buffer and Pinterest, Oh my! Those are the big topics of conversation in this episode. We talk about patent trolls and then insert a clip from a conversation with three of our favorite SuperFreds – Alisa Meredith, Ian Anderson Gray and Jeff Sieh – to get their take on the big Buffer/Pinterest news from last week.

But First, A Sponsorship

Our episode today is sponsored by Tramplee Designs where you can buy a purse, bag, clutch or tote that is customized for you. Tramplee Designs offers unique designs for unique women.

Purse creator extraordinaire and SuperFred Tammie Rampley is the mastermind behind the designs. You can purchase a bag from her Etsy shop or send her a request for your own custom design. These are perfect for Mother’s Day, graduation, prom, weddings and just every day.

So What’s A Patent Troll?

A company called Personal Audio LLC exists solely to attempt to enforce patents related to podcasting, which would essentially require all podcasters to pay them a licensing fee.

If it sounds nuts, well, it is. But their M.O. is to slap you with threat of a lawsuit and hope you’ll be unsuspecting enough to cough up the licensing fee rather than the rather large sums of money it would cost to legally fight them.

Fortunately, thanks to a half-million-dollar crowd funding campaign and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) they’ve lost a recent case against Adam Corolla’s company that leaves their validity in doubt.

A Win For Pinterest Lovers

Last week Buffer announced that you can now schedule pins to Pintrest through their Awesome Plan.

We love Buffer as a scheduling tool and were so thrilled to hear this news that we immediately asked three of our favorite SuperFreds to chime in with their reactions.

Alisa Meredith wonders if this will just lead to a lot of bad images on Pinterest.

Ian gets geeky and laments a lack of IFTTT integration.

Jeff just strokes his beard and looks fabulous.

With A Little Helpful Criticism For Buffer

While we all agree that Buffer is pretty great, what we don’t love is their pricing model. Currently, you can sign up for their Awesome plan for $10 a month where you get 12 profiles. The only other option is a Business account for $50 a month where you get 25 profiles.

Hm. Let’s do some math… you could buy 5 Awesome plans for $50 which would net you 5×12=60 profiles. Or a Business plan for $50 which nets you a mere 25 profiles.

We’re all left scratching our heads wondering how this makes sense.

Carol Lynn Angers The Pinterest Lovers

Carol Lynn dares challenge Pinterest’s methods by wondering whether their vertical orientation is backwards, since every other platform uses a horizontal orientation for images.

Alisa is having none of it and makes a good point about Pinterest being extremely popular among mobile users. But it’s still challenging to prep your images in a format that works everywhere.

The Pinterest/Buffer Wish list

Alisa wants to be able to add a place to pins when they’re Buffered rather than going back to edit the pin later.

Jeff wants stats so he knows what’s working on Pinterest and what’s not.

Ian wants more social profiles beyond the measly 12 you get in the Awesome plan, without upgrading to the Business plan.

And we want Buffer to rethink it’s Business pricing. We also want to be able to schedule blog posts for promotion even if the post isn’t published yet, without getting that aggravating “page not found” message.

Your Marketing Action Item From Carol Lynn

Go to your blog posts and look at your headline/feature image. (If you’re not using images, start by changing that!)

First, decide if you’re using good photography or just some boring, generic overcooked stock photo.

Then look at the photo outside the context of your blog as if you were seeing it on Pinterest. Would someone be able to tell what your blog post is about or be compelled to visit your blog based on that image?

If not, consider adding a text overlay, URL, logo or the title of your post so it helps bring you qualified traffic.

Your Marketing Action Item From Ralph

Think about what marketing challenge you’re facing right now. Send an email to [email protected] and let us know what that challenge is. We’re going to answer as many challenge questions as we can on our 100^th episode next Monday so consider this your opportunity for some free consulting.

Links & Resources

• Visit Tramplee Designs on Etsy and see if one of the purses catches your eye. Or send Tammie a request for a custom order.
• Read about Personal Audio LLC on Wikipedia
• Read about Adam Corolla’s recent victory against patent trolls
• Find Alisa Meredith on Pinterest
• Find Jeff Sieh (and his beard) on Pinterest
• Find Ian Anderson Gray on Pinterest
• Find Carol Lynn on Pinterest
• Find Ralph on Pinterest 
• Watch John Oliver’s clip about patent trolls – it’s funny and disturbing at the same time

Where To Listen

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