In today’s interview session, we have Laura Rike, a social media strategist who has made her career out of helping brands come up with exciting content that helps grow the brand footprint across all social networks.
In this interview, she discussed how businesses can use social media (particularly Pinterest) for improving the market share and how automation can help businesses save time.
Let’s dive in
Q. Please share some highlights of your career with our readers.
I am a Pinterest Strategist who helps high-performing business owners implement content growth plans, outsource their visibility, and steadily grow their monthly revenue.
To almost all my audience, I am better known as the creator of my signature Growth To Greatness Framework, done-for-you services, and Pinterest courses. During my career, I have helped clients and students bring in over $50k+ in monthly revenue.
Q. When did you discover the world of social media? As a Pinterest strategist, how do you think Pinterest differs from other social media platforms?
It first started when I launched my Virtual Assistant business 13 years ago. I was burnt out and had no energy to share with my kiddos or family when it mattered most to them!
I had established myself as a sought-after Virtual Assistant who rocked the house with design and tech skills, but I was hitting walls trying to expand my business online, make more money, and spend more time with my family.
So I took some time figuring out what I truly loved and wanted to be doing day in and day out. That’s when my true passion for graphic design (which I have a Bachelor’s degree for) and Pinterest morphed into my daily life!
Pinterest is unique in that it utilizes the power of search. For example: if a user types “Printable business planner” into Pinterest. The site immediately displays printable business planners, pins from other users, videos on YouTube, and blogs related to business planning or strategy.
The amount of information available depends on what the person has shown interest in through queries already entered. Pinterest has a few social features, such as likes for idea pins or comments, but the majority of the focus is on search-based content instead of feed-based content.
Q. How can businesses use Pinterest to drive more revenue?
First, you’ll want to validate that Pinterest is relevant for your audience with a quick search on the platform. If what pulls up is what you offer or information you can teach it, you should be using the platform to be found there too!
Next, taking the time to create and optimize your profile will take you a long way. Optimizing your board titles, pin descriptions, writing great captions, and providing a stronger call-to-action are all important ways to attract more viewers to your account.
Last, start using Idea Pins. These are fun ways to showcase a product. If you have an e-commerce store connected to your account, you can now tag idea pins with your products to make them shoppable pins! And because they are new, they tend to get great results.
Following this strategy, we increased a client’s traffic by 137% in less than three months!
Q. What Pinterest strategies would you recommend for visibility?
One of the main ways to assure visibility on Pinterest is to make sure you have relevant board titles for trending topics in your niche. Otherwise, your pins may never be seen by people because they’re searching for a topic/product that you don’t have highlighted on your account.
You must post and curate content that not only focuses on SEO but also aligns with the interests and personality of those who follow (and will want) to see pins from you in this specific zone of interest–be it weddings, cooking, or crafts.
Q. How necessary are marketing automation tools for business owners? What do you think about Social Champ for automating social media management?
Marketing automation is necessary. It’s a waste of time to deal with messages manually, and social media management tools, for example, can be automated to save you hours each week.
These tools need work, but the current efforts seem authentic in supporting that A/B testing is used rather than firing off emails without being personalized based on customer data. Just ensure that you don’t get lost in trying to automate everything in your brand to the point where you lose your human side and your authentic appeal to your customers.
I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds like one tool that can potentially help you grow your business by saving time.
Q.Who inspires you in both personal and professional life?
I would say, my mom. Even though she is not an entrepreneur, she was the primary breadwinner for our house growing up. Seeing all that she did, sacrificed, and gave to us to have a better life was inspiring to me. I hope to do for my children as they grow up while also leaving a legacy and my agency for them in the future.
Q.Aside from work, how do you like to spend your free time? Any particular activity that might fascinate our readers?
I love doing crafts with my kids. I have a 13, 4, and 6mo old, so we try to find ways to do something everyone will enjoy.
To also teach them along the way and help keep ourselves accountable to our ‘crafting Tuesdays’, we started a blog littlefamilylegacy.com, and the whole family helps get involved. It has been a fantastic project we hope to continue to do together for years to come.
Now it’s time for our rapid-fire questions round.
Rapid Fire Round
| Fahad | Laura |
|---|---|
| Instagram or Pinterest | |
| Tea or Coffee? | Coffee |
| Social Media or Social Networking | Social media because networking comes from it naturally if done right |
| Your favorite vacation destination? | Costa Rica |
| Your favorite movie | Anything action-packed and funny |
Q.Can you share an image of your workplace with our readers?
If you can’t find me in my office indoors, you can find me in my office on my deck!
Q.Who would you like to recommend to interview next on Social Champ?
Kristy Honsvick of SimplyOnline. She is absolutely amazing when it comes to repurposing content.
Social Champ is thankful to Laura Rike for taking the time and sharing her secrets with the champ community. We are sure that our followers loved hearing from you!
