Pinterest - What is it? How Do I Use it?

Karen Leland has the answers for you - who is Karen Leland and why should I read what she has to say?

Karen Leland is the bestselling author of 8 business books including the recently released Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest For Business, which can be purchased at http://bit.ly/Amazonbook. She is the president of Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with small businesses and Fortune 500 on building stronger personal and team brands. She writes the Modern Marketing Blog at www.karenleland.com.

Pinterest is a social bookmarking site that allows users to create a visual, online pinboard with images they

love organized around topics of their choice by category. It’s the fastest growing social media site in history, the third-largest network after Facebook and Twitter and has over 25 million members and 10 million unique visitors a month. 

The most recent studies indicate that nearly 20 percent of women using the Internet are on Pinterest, 72 percent of Pinterest users are female, and 66 percent of those are age 35 or older, and the average amount of time visitors spend surfing the Pinterest site is an hour.

Karen Leland, author of the new book “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business,” has created a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide to hitting the road running and quickly making Pinterest into a valuable source of prospects, promotion and profits. 

“Great business brands are about telling compelling, congruent stories, and Pinterest is at its core about storytelling in pictures,” says Leland. “Pinterest has tapped into this visceral lover of visuals, and no small business, entrepreneur or corporation can afford to miss the boat on bringing what they offer beyond words and into images.”

About Ultimate Pinterest Guide for Business

“The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business” is designed to help businesses use Pinterest to its maximum potential. The book provides both beginning users and seasoned veterans with the ability to find their specific area of interest “at a glance.” It uses step-by-step how-to, sidebars, examples, case studies, expert interviews and tip sheets to show how, from setup to strategy, to use Pinterest for promotional, branding and marketing objectives. 

The book explores the ins and outs of signing up and getting started on Pinterest and how to create boards that get noticed, drive traffic and convert fans into customers. Special chapters are devoted to creating a strong community and enthusiastic following through high-engagement activities, contests, social media outreach and smart pinning strategies.

In addition the book outlines specific marketing applications to small businesses, from architecture firms to theater companies.  

About Karen Leland

Karen Leland is the best-selling author of nine business books and the President of Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with entrepreneurs, small businesses and Fortune 500 companies around the globe on building stronger personal and business brands. Her clients have included AT&T, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer and Johnson & Johnson, among others.  

She is a regular speaker for business groups and has spoken for the Young Presidents’ Organization, American Management Association and Direct Marketing Association, among others. Karen is a frequent guest of the media and has been interviewed on “The Today Show,” CNN, CNBC and “Oprah.”

She writes a regular branding and marketing column for Entrepreneur.com and has been published in Woman’s Day, Self, The Los Angeles Times and others. Her latest book is “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business.”

A Muse, Me

Who is this Muse, a mystery, a mystery writer or you?

He was tall and gaunt; a bag of air tied in the middle with a shoe string, or was that a memo clip? He stared at me and me at him. My voice was frozen in his eyes. I could not utter a sound.

A long thin hand with gnarled knuckles reached out to me. "Muse," he said.

My mind questioned. My voice could not.

"My name—Muse."

I nodded and still his grip would not release my voice. How could someone's eyes hold you speechless, his did?

"You want to know why I'm here. You summoned me. To put it bluntly you cursed me and implored 'how dare I leave you without warning—without story.' Think dear child~~Are you the only writer? Do you have exclusive rights to the muse?"

With that he brushed by me and floated about the room. No foot falls of noise, no noise at all. Apparition I tried to convince myself. I have not awakened. I dream still. That's all it is. He is not real. He is not here. I dream a fitful nightmarish dream.

He sits upon the counter now, legs dangling, playful-like. He's thumbing through the dictionary. "They're all here, and here," he pulled a banner with the alphabet on it from his pocket and unfurled it over his head. "At a loss for words? Pick one, or three." He tossed the heavy dictionary at me.

"Leave, scat, shoo." The words came easily without the dictionary's aide.

"No, read, at random. Three words. I'm serious, now!" he demanded.

"Button, dregs, prepare," I said running through the pages with my fingers.

"You know the rule of threes don't you?"

I shook my head. What did he want with me and rules, rules are for fools I once heard and I believed it.

"Everything, everything always in threes. There is no other way. Take your three words and begin. Just write. There must be beginning, middle and end—say three.

There must be characters, plot, scene,--say three.

There must be place, protagonist, antagonist, say three. He continued to bombard me with lists of three. "Haven't you heard even deaths come in threes?"

I shuddered as I scribbled on the tablet he had given me. As I wrote the ink dried and disappeared. A sinking feeling began in the pit of my stomach and hauled my heart down with it as fear began to paralyze even my breathing. A horrible dream, a nightmare, my thoughts were out of control.

I filled three pages quickly with no problem at all. But, the pages were blank now when I looked back.

"Remember, three pages a day. That's all you need to write. In a year, 365 days later, you will have written 1, 095 pages that could be three books. See how simple, how many pages do you have now?" he questioned.

I looked down at the blank note pad. None, your pen is no good. I tried to say but only the thought floated through the room.

He whipped the pages from my hands and held them over a lighted candle. I thought he was about to burn them, the words I had written suddenly became visible over the heat.

"Ingredients," he said. "Thoughts, words, and execution/action. Action, reaction, effect. Pick the words, slurry them around with the ink, heat them up. You've cooked up a story. One, two, three. It had nothing to do with me. You only thought you needed the muse, the muse was inside of you not out there."

He bounced across the room. The sound of him was a merry tinkling as if he were adorned with bells. As he opened the door he turned. "You are your own muse.  Listen to yourself and remember the rule of threes."

"Wait!" My voice came back, surprising me. He vanished as though he never was. But, I, I found my voice again. "Thank you muse." I said and bells tinkled somewhere not far off.

Then I had to lie down with a wet cloth on my face, to contemplate the muse and dictionaries and alphabets and rules of three.

Outlining Your Novel may just map your way to success

Book/Product Review

Outlining Your Novel, Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland

ISBN 978-097-892-462-1

186 pages ©2011 $9.95

"Outlining is the dry erase board where we unveil our ideas and see how they line up on the page."

According to K.M. Weiland, outlining has many benefits and encourages wide open throttle creativity once it's in place. 

After reading this book, I'm convinced outlining, of some sort, is the work, the preparatory work, of a good novel or non-fiction worked.

With an outline, Weiland informs, cajoles and encourages, you ensure balance and cohesion, prevent dead end ideas form ever getting half written to flounder and die. You see places to foreshadow novel events with an outline. The writer can smooth out the pacing, maintain consistent character voice throughout so readers come to know and like your character, if not trust them.

Character motivation drives the story toward a satisfying conclusion. Seeing the whole picture in outline form allows you to tweak and adjust and show character motivation, as necessary and encouraged.

Each chapter of this book has a check list the writer/reader can use to keep tabs on her progress. Interviews with best-selling authors, how they outline, and why separate the chapters and give the book an added sense of authority.

Whether you are writing your first book or your fiftieth book, you will find tips to make your next book the best yet. The ugly duckling of outlining will change your mind as you see the swan emerge from the dark dust of your right and left brain battle to write the next best seller.

I highly recommend "Outlining Your Novel", for anyone with dreams of writing. Especially, perfect if you're gearing up for the annual National Novel Writing Month in November or any or the other challenges that writers face, like deadlines.

So Many Books--So Little Time

So many books—so little time or so it seems when I look at the stack growing on my desk. Some deserve immediate attention though. For instance:

Ellen Hopkins' books for the Young Adult audience are written in verse. [Tilt, Perfect, Collateral, Fallout – to name but a few ] A very unique and interesting style, to say the least.  Some pages the occasional words, still part of the verse, but running down one side or the other almost as a side bar, are a sentence themselves when read alone; but, they add meaning when you read the full version in verse including those words. So unique, edgy, but wonderful. She has many books, you'll think --so little time, how can I read them all.  Thank you Autumn for introducing her to our Amberg Writers Group. If you haven't seen her books yet, so a search on Amazon and be prepared to be impressed and pleased, even if you aren't a young adult. These books are good! [Amazon link http://tinyurl.com/8fqksos ]

Ellery Queen—Did you know---I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't—he is not real, he's the pseudonym of two men, Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee. I picked up a copy of The Finishing Stroke, copyright 1958. It was recommended reading by my instructor, Carolyn Wheat, at The Long Ridge Writers Group School, because my work in progress is about twins who were separated from their brother at birth. It means they were actually triplets—strange premise I thought, perhaps, but—Ms. Wheat's suggestion to read The Finishing Stroke proves, at least to me, there are no new ideas, only new ways authors look at and choose to show them.

Novels in verse, Ellen Hopkins unique perspective, two men writing as one whom we've known forever as Ellery Queen, or even Angela Lansbury's novels written by her Murder She Wrote character, Jessica Fletcher. Creativity-- not trickery, it's uniqueness that counts.