Pinning To Twitter

If you have plunged into pinning on Pinterest then you will not doubt be considering how you can spread Pinterest content seamlessly to your Twitter account.

This is not as difficult as it might first sound.  Fortuitously a minor tweaking of the URL address of a Pinterest board is all that is required.  Each has its own web address (URL) and these end with a forward slash ( / )

Each Board has its own distinctive URL.

Step One: Change this URL address into that of an RSS feed simply by removing the forward slash ( / ) and replacing it with .rss

Step Two: Copy this new URL address and check it by pasting it into the address bar of an IE browser.

The RSS Feed will look something like this

Note: If you want to promote your entire Pinterest activity rather than an individual board then misplay add the prefix feed.rss after the URL e.g.  https://pinterest.com/digitalc/feed.rss

Step Three:  Now use this new URL address to set up an automatic RSS feed into your twitter account.  There are two free options that you might care to use -  Hootsuite or Twitterfeed. My personal preference is Twitterfeed, as Hootsuite is restricted to just two RSS feeds in their free account option.

Note: Sign into the twitter account that you want the RSS feed to appear in before opening either Twitterfeed or Hootsuite; use a new window for either of these two platforms.

Step Four: Here is the Twitterfeed process after you have logged in.

Name your feed and add the RSS- test it then go to Step 2

So now you have created a cross between a 'Pin' and a 'Tweet' -  a 'Peet' perhaps?

Related articles

• From Mashable- How to Track Your Website's Content on Pinterest

The Big E

Image via Wikipedia

Right from the early days of the web building engagement with a brand has been one of the most important things to strive for.

The sites of a decade ago used simple but effective devices to capture and hold users; competitions and web cams to name but two.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. In the 1950' when organised dances were still the rage there used to a competition called the Lucky Spot .  When the music stopped the couple nearest to a predefined marking on the dance floor won a prize.

We once used the same principle with a web cam to run online competitions and to build a membership database.

With the development of the semantic web users now have far more sophisticated expectations, although the quantum change is that they expect the web information to come to them, rather than the old way of having to make repeat visits to a site to glean information and stay informed.

Companies that persist with the old idea of "build a site and they will come" do so at their peril. The new reality is that users may come once and if they see content they like, they expect to be able to subscribe to its news feed or embed it in their own sites or blog.

From this moment forward they stay engaged with your brand from afar, only returning to a site when an item captures their interest.

The importance of RSS: No web site should be released unless it has RSS subscription options  for each page or content topic. This RSS can then be used to push content virally to multiple channels simultaneously.

Digital strategy demands a sophisticated approach to user engagement.  Companies must embrace the idea of having as much brand presence on other (third party sites) as as on their own.

To truly engage you need to be where the market is and to be using the tools that the target segment employs.

Engagement also needs to occur in other digital dimensions. Leading brand conversations through blogs, driving traffic from social media platforms to your content, to name but two.

Ultimately though your brand proposition  and online worth depends on content. The old adage of "if you don't have something good to say, don't say it", still applies.

Just being online because the opposition is there is entirely counter productive.  To build engagement your communications and digital channel strategy must be carefully thought through.  Resource needs to be allocated and not just for the build phase of the project.

Having an online presence is just the beginning; it is not an end in itself.  Engagement will only build if you have quality content and provide the tools to interact.

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• Pew Internet The Fate of the Semantic Web (downes.ca)
• The Value of Content (platform.idiomag.com)
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