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If you’re not on the social media giant Pinterest, then you’re missing out!

Let’s begin with the basics: I started pinning in what feels like forever ago, but it was probably some time in 2010. The site wasn’t what it is now – granted, the design has stayed pretty much consistent and the user-interface has always been very friendly; yet, the following that Pinterest has now is just enormous. In January 2012, comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark.

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{ My Pinterest Profile }

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Everyone seems to be joining Pinterest – from big businesses to personal users. And with the sites immense growth comes innovative ideas for sharing and reaching more people. I love the Pinterest App on my cell (available for Android and iPhone) because I love to pin while I’m waiting for anything. It’s a sweet way to pass the time; looking up design inspirations or delicious recipes. But what matters most is what you have for later – Pinterest gives you the satisfaction of knowing that all of that information is stored there, in an organized and conveniently-linked manner.

Now for the goodies – literally. They’ve got a whole page of Pinterest Goodies where they’ve created some fantastic tools for business’ and personal brands:

Buttons + Widgets: Integrate the Pin It Button, Follow Button, Profile Widget, or Board Widget to get more engagement from pinners and traffic back your site; and don’t forget to Verify Your Site.

Also, if you’re a WordPress blogger – like me – then you’ll love this plugin that adds a “Pin It” button as you hover over blog images. Recently, I stumbled upon another plugin called Alpine Photo Tile that showcases your most recent pins on a site page.

By simply searching online, you’ll find an endless list of plugins and widgets for Pinterest + WordPress.

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Now for some visual fun. Here are a few examples of the Board Widget being integrated into a post. By clicking anywhere on the images below, you’ll be directed to any of the following boards: Design + Typography, Home + Garden, or Delicious Delights; yet the best part is that it’s constantly going to showcase the most recent pins. It’s sheer awesomeness:

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It doesn’t seem like the Pinterest trend will subside anytime soon. Which is why I’m recommending you to jump on board, if you haven’t already! There’s lots of help on the Pinterest site to get you started. Plus, it’s truly one of the most user-friendly websites out there. The inspirations are endless and the organization is perfect.

{ Check out Pinterest and be sure to follow me when you get there! }

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• This year, splash some color in your office or home. This Pantone 2013 Calendar is just perfection!
• Time for a refresh www! Some hope that these 6 website-trends will disappear in 2013.
• Speaking of a refresh – try simplifying your internet life with ZenHabits tips.
• Want more simplifying? How about the ultimate quick fixes to clear your Gmail inbox.
• There’s nothing like good ol’ fashion USA love. These small doodles create amazing images – including Lady Liberty!
• Blogger Breanna Rose shares her favorite web fonts and links to each for more info/downloads.
• Don’t know how to install Google fonts to your site? No problemo. Here’s an example and how-to-install-guide + all of the Google webfonts.
• Work, life and side projects – oh my! Read on how to work smarter.
• Freelance designers have options for making money throughout the year. Check out Smashing Magazine’s Passive Income Strategies for Designers.
• It’s nice to handle all of your social media updates in one spot: HootSuite is my personal favorite.
• Subscribers love cool newsletters – so I suggest you work with the trendiest mailer, Mail Chimp. Plus it’s free!

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Good design comes in all shapes, sizes and styles. Today I would like to focus on color – or the lack of. This is one of my favorite types of art: the classic black & white design. There’s nothing more elegant than traditional black & white; plus, if you can make a great design with the simple black & white color palette, then it will surely look amazing in every other way. Here are some of my favorite black & white designs from my Pinterest Design Board. Enjoy:

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If you’re a hard-working American, you more than likely have to create presentations to impress your boss with your sheer awesomeness. Well, maybe not your awesomeness – but your work productivity. It’s all relative, I swear.

And when it comes time to present, the traditional PowerPoint Presentation just isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s outdated. It’s old news. There are multiple ways to present online and I found my favorite – Prezi. I blogged about Prezi about a year ago, when I first found the online program. Ever since, I’ve been impressing bosses all over the world! No joke – my job entails me to travel and present marketing solutions to the heads of companies throughout Latin America.

Every time I present one of my Prezi’s, I get asked the same questions: “How do you do that? I want to learn, can you teach me?”

So I thought about it, and I decided to be a good-tutor. I created a Prezi Tutorial, for dummies! (Well, it’s for beginners, but the dummies title is fun.)

It’s simply a step-by-step guide.

You’ll learn the basics from how to create a Prezi account and start your first Prezi to creating frames, paths, inserting images, and finally saving and exporting the file! It’s easy, I promise. Like everything in life, practice makes perfect. But overall, Prezi is very user-friendly. Try it out and you’ll see.

Ready? Here it goes.
Download the Prezi Tutorial. Check!
Visit Prezi.com to start. Check!
Impress your boss with Awesomeness. Double Check!

Suggestions or Questions? Let me know in the Comments below

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Almost 1,500 people can’t be wrong!
Wordpress.org is where you should open, create,
and customize your new and soon-to-be-amazing blog.

It’s an open source blogging platform with extensive customization capabilities. You can install themes into the program and customize everything from layout, to fonts, to colors, and much more. It’s also notorious for its plugins and widgets servicing pretty much everything you need on your blog. From newsletter sign-ups to running SEO keywords for individual blog posts, WordPress plugins do it all. It also incorporates spam protection in your comments, has a mobile-app where you can quickly update and respond to comments from, and is always easy to upgrade. This blogging platform just gets better with every update. So don’t wait any longer, start blogging about whatever you want!

Ready to learn more about blogging and WordPress.org? Join me for a one-on-one consulting session. We’ll go step-by-step and in-depth as to how to start your WordPress blog site – plus tricks to make the site more user friendly and attention grabbing. Not sure exactly what you need help with? Contact me and I’ll help point you to the right starting-location.

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{ Click Image for Full Size Infographic }

“SO YOU NEED A TYPEFACE is a project by Julian Hansen. It’s an alternative way on how to choose fonts (or just be inspired) for a specific project, not just by browsing through the pages of FontBook. The list is (very loosely) based on the top 50 of Die 100 Besten Schriften by FontShop.”

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Over time, big brands can definitely get stagnant in their marketing efforts; thus, a reform in thinking and innovation is imperative. This morning, I was referred to view this video by my boss (and fellow marketing-enthusiast). After watching it, I do agree with the fundamentals of the video – that we must consider the psychological needs of the client, not just the material needs. Also, that the initial sale (getting the product off the shelf) is just as important – or more important – than the customer returning for more. In other words, you have to make your products attractive on the shelf in order to get that sale!

But, I don’t necessarily agree with up-charging a product that used to be $10-$15 up to $50 just so the client feels that that psychological need is filled. Maybe it’s just because in today’s day-and-age, most peoples economical situations don’t allow them to spend money in such a frivolous matter. Yet women, especially, have been known to pay whatever-it-takes to have “great skin” and use “amazing products.” You be the judge. Take a look at the video below and voice your thoughts and opinions in the comments:

In 2000, growth at Proctor & Gamble had slowed to almost zero, and the company was losing market share in seven of its 10 top brands. Ten years later, they’d managed to increase market share in nearly every one of those brands. “It wasn’t turning the organization completely upside down, bringing in lots of outsiders, making acquisitions,” says Martin. “It was changing some small, subtle things about the way the company reviewed its strategies, how it strove to work with people outside the company, how it thought about its customers.”

Proctor & Gamble has two types of customers: every day consumers, and trade customers (for example, Wal-Mart or Target). When Martin was working with the company, CEO A.G. Lafley “declared that there are two moments of truth. The first moment of truth is when you as a consumer are walking through a Target or a Krogers or a Walgreens and either pick a Proctor product off the shelf or not.” The second moment of truth occurs when customers actually use it.

What’s the Significance?

The problem, says Martin, is that historically, Proctor & Gamble had focused primarily on the second “moment of truth,” without giving much consideration to getting products off the shelves. They had poured money into research and development, without taking into account how easy their products were to find (or how appealing they looked) on store shelves.

It was only when P&G employees began to reconsider their product from the point of view of the customer that a change was made. “They started understanding that there are a whole set of emotional, psychological needs. How does this make me feel? What kind of a person does this make me feel I am? So that they were appealing more holistically to the consumer as a whole…

Now notice, is that an ‘or?’ We either have to win at the first moment or the second moment of truth? No, it’s an ‘and’—we have to win at both of these moments of truth.”

Martin believes that the key to solving problems lies in your perspective just as much as your situation. If you see the world as a series of “tough choices,” when you’re confronted with a problem, you’ll probably make a decision based on the facts and move forward. If, on the other hand, you regard “everything [as] doable,” chances are, you’ll be willing to take risks and imagine new possibilities from scratch.

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