Pinterest. The image sharing app we all turn to when looking for inspiration for recipes, home décor, style, DIY projects, arts and crafts, and more. Whilst many view Pinterest as another social media platform, the truth is that Pinterest is more of a visual discovery search engine – and we use it just as we would use Google search to find images of things we want to try and experience for ourselves. This concept is exactly what Pinterest wants of its users, with their mission being to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love.

And because Pinterest acts as more of a search engine for pinners that are looking for something to do, try or buy, this presents a huge opportunity for businesses globally. In fact, many renowned businesses have run targeted campaigns on Pinterest, including the likes of Burberry, Häagen-Dazs and Fenty Beauty, to help drive sales and increase brand exposure.

Let’s look at some of the stats:

– over 90% of active pinners claim that Pinterest guides their purchasing decisions

– 78% of pinners say content from brands on the platform is helpful

– 95% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded (meaning pinners are open to discovering new products and ideas)

– 2 billion searches are performed on Pinterest every month (remember that Pinterest consider themselves a search engine, and not a social network)

Despite there being over 100 billion pinned images and over 400 million international annual users, many brands fail to utilise Pinterest to its full potential as they don’t see how it could help them to grow, or add value to, their business. If you are a business owner, think of it this way; Pinterest is still a platform in its infancy, and is not yet as widely used as other channels such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. That being said, user base has been growing year on year since its launch in 2010 and this presents an opportunity, an opportunity to build a solid community on Pinterest before it becomes as saturated as other names mentioned previously.

 

Pinterest offers several advantages for businesses, namely:

– increasing brand exposure: get more eyes on your brand by creating shareable pins that sell your product or services

– driving traffic to your website: possibly one of the best things about Pinterest is that it drives traffic to your website. The interface makes it incredible easy for users to click through to a page on your site or article, simply by clicking on the pin itself

– increasing brand authority: by creating pins that clearly follow the same branding and colour scheme, users will begin to recognise your brand’s pins as being distinctly yours, and once you’ve established your brand’s authority and expertise in a relevant subject, pinners will recognise your brand, and that it is the place to go for said topic

– helping to convert browsers into buyers: since 95% of top searches are unbranded searches (for example – red sole shoes rather than Louboutins), every brand has the chance to be discovered

 

All of the above are great reasons to start promoting your business on Pinterest today! And so, if you are considering opening a Pinterest account for your business here are some tips and tricks to get you started on the right note:

1. Open a Pinterest Business account (not personal) and verify your site. This ensures you are in line with Pinterest’s terms and conditions, as well as allow you to access Pinterest analytics and ads.

2. Enable Rich Pins. Rich Pins pull titles and descriptions from your website and show this information directly on the Pin.

3. Create 3 to 5 boards for the area your business falls under, to make the subject matter of your brand and its products or services clear to users. This, however, is just the start. As content for your website increases and you become more familiar with pinning, you can (and should) pin each piece of content you produce for your website to at least 3 relevant boards.

4. Remember quality is critical and is applicable to pin quality, website quality, your overall account quality and the optimisation of boards and pins

>>Pin quality – pins should always be vertical and use dimensions of 1000 x 1500px (aspect ratio of 2:3)

>>Website quality – ensure site is verified and Rich Pins are enabled

>>Account quality – consistency with pinning and overall quality of your boards and pins in terms of SEO and engagement. Accounts consistently creating new content are considered of a higher quality

>>Optimisation of boards and pins by using relevant keywords (see next point)

5. Pinterest SEO. Just like with the search engines we are all familiar with, SEO is just as important for Pinterest. Keyword research still needs to be carried out, albeit not in exactly the same way (it’s actually much easier on Pinterest!).

6. Keywords should be used wherever possible to clearly indicate what your page and profile is about. Keywords should ideally be placed in your display name, profile description, board titles, board descriptions, pin titles and pin descriptions! Always, of course, in a natural fashion so as not to keyword stuff as this can come across as spammy!

>> Written by SHE member; Sarah Borg Barthet. Sarah is the founder and editor of  Dukes Avenue – a luxury lifestyle online resource for the modern woman.

Sarah also seeks to educate readers and aspiring entrepreneurs on the world of SEO, and all of the undiscovered opportunities and possibilities that come with it. She offers an online course, private sessions or group trainings.

Follow Dukes Avenue on Pinterest here.

Written by; Andrea Britton – Mother, Singer, Songwriter, Brand & Marketer and the Founder of Gozo In The House – A Digital Platform For Gozo.

Malta became my second home nearly 15 years ago. I had a string of tunes hit the Maltese charts back in 2006 and travelled a lot performing all over the world in that time, but as my Gozitan manager of ten years will confirm, there was always an unmistakable pull to return here. Who knew I would later call the little island he grew up on, home.

Over those years, I raised a son, got married and began a second career in preparation for when I hung up my touring shoes. I learned a lot. I was always working on projects, businesses and events – mine and other peoples, and in March 2012, I launched a project in Malta, called GETMALTA, aimed at uniting Maltese businesses and creatives in one online space. The first glimmer of what has now become Gozo In The House. There was very little in the way of online hubs and resources on Malta at that time – especially when it came to the arts, culture and lifestyle. The project had huge potential and great support from all the right people, but it just wasn’t the right time.

Not long after the launch, I was asked to support Kylie Minogue on a global tour and as a young, ambitious artist, I jumped at the chance to travel around the world singing my heart out with a superstar! Leaving the GETMALTA project felt like such a big deal but it became clear my energy was required elsewhere and I knew I had to follow what had presented itself, no regrets.

By 2017, I felt I had finally reached a place in my career when I could be proud of myself. All the blood, sweat and tears were finally paying off! I was busy, I was earning. That equals success, right? [shakes head]

But at that very time, I burned out. I had reached the point of no return and felt completely lost.

The truth of it was, I hadn’t stopped for twenty years. Consistently pushing forward with little reflection had resulted with me at the bottom of my own list. I have always been firmly rooted in my heart but somehow I had found myself up in my own head and rarely in my body and at the height of this crash, I decided to follow in my husbands’ footsteps, literally, and walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. By the end of that painfully exhilarating but life-altering 300k hike, I knew I had to make some hefty changes. My London life was no longer serving me and after lots of soul-searching we ended up moving to Gozo.

Finding myself at the beginning again was such a scary process. I had to re-think my whole identity and leaving my grown-up son, and my wonderfully (comfortable) internal and external family was a big deal.

I spent the next two years, in the bosom of Gozo’s healing energy, understanding and tending to my wounds and learning to know and love myself again. Mainly, I learned the essential art of putting myself first. Having always been heavily invested in the evolution of the collective, and a feeler of energy, this was one of my biggest life lessons to date. The oxygen mask simply has to go on me first, before I could even attempt to help anyone else and deciphering the intricate differences between my own energy and the energy of others is ongoing and wonderfully fulfilling practice. Now – it makes total sense that this learning had to take place far away from everything and everyone I knew!

“Timing is everything. If it’s meant to happen, it will, at the right time for the right reasons.”

I am so grateful to Gozo, for the opportunities for such intense growth. It was time to give back. Fast-forward eight years (almost to the day) from the birth of GETMALTA, I launched Gozo In The House. The rest is a short history to most, but a long one for me! In those eight years, a lot had happened, enough it seems, for the project to be birthed and do what it needs to do now…at the right time. Looking back, especially when I feel challenged, I realise I have numerous examples of when I had to trust my inner compass. Of course, I made mistakes and circumstances were learned from, but these have proved vital for my personal and professional growth.

The classic question echoes through my mind; ‘What advice would you give your young self today?’. My answer is simply to trust your intuition, as it will never let you down. All I had to do was reconnect and start listening, once again – to mine.

That being said, it has been no easy ride starting a business in a foreign country, especially launching when the world was shutting down and the horrific effects of the Covid 19 virus were sweeping across the globe like a steam train. I have found difficulties with slowing down my pace, relearning a culture I thought I knew well, not to mention finding the right people to believe in me and help me on my journey, this part has felt almost impossible at times. There have been countless days when I wanted to give up, throw my laptop out the window and cry in a heap on the floor! But, always, within those moments, I am reminded of all the things I already know and all the things I don’t and more importantly – that my instinct is never wrong. So I stop the self-sabotage, give myself a warm inner hug (and most probably reach for the chocolate) until the storm clouds pass and I have the spring back in my step to face another day.

I have always been a deep believer in alignment, cycles and things happening for a reason. There has to be times of both light and shade, night and day, good and bad and along with the bad, there will always be a silver lining somewhere. If things are meant to be, they have a habit of finding their own way through don’t you think?

It could seem unfitting to speak about such things when we have lost so many of our loved ones due to Covid, but a bright side does exist that can honour the pain and I have found focusing on the positive aspects will no doubt cultivate more of those brighter moments. Everyone on the team at GITH started their own project during the pandemic. Aligned with heart and love, our collective aims are to serve our communities, work together and create positive change where we can.

Personally, I get butterflies at the thought of the numerous people who have aligned with their true purpose through these dark times and who have created heart-led projects and businesses. To think of the positive effects these will have on our collective future is nothing short of joyful.

To summarise, I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to give this old idea new life on Gozo. Timing is everything. If it’s meant to happen, it will, at the right time for the right reasons. I feel aligned with the island on an intensely deep level and will continue to work from a place of heart with the amazing GITH team to do it justice.

>> For more about Andrea, find her here; Website | Facebook | Instagram | Video

Transparency is the foundation of any sustainable business. The invisible nature of supply chains has allowed consumers to become total strangers to them, and fashion among other industries often reiterates this.

IN REALITY, Transparency has been linked with long-term consumer loyalty*, be it through the breakdown of costs or the time and wo/man-power it takes to manufacture a product. Knowing there are humans behind a brand resonates with people. Transparency by itself is not enough and it must come hand in hand with the pursuit of growth – an acknowledgement of faults and showcasing active efforts to improve.

Any company that provides a manufactured product is inevitably making an impact on the environment, and addressing imperfections through public disclosure, invites trust and exhibits a culture of accountability. Although transparency isn’t the be-all and end-all of sustainability and ethics, it does create room for conversation and allows consumers to exercise their right to know. Non-disclosure on the other hand, perpetuates bad behaviour in practices and treatment of workers.

In 2013, when the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Bangladesh killing over a thousand garment workers & injuring another two thousand five hundred, people had to dig through rubble to find out who should be held accountable. When industries perpetuate a culture of profit over people, there needs to be fundamental and institutional change in the way the industry operates as a whole.

Fashion Revolution has pioneered a movement of this sort, by mobilising consumers and expecting more from brands. This is why the hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes was invented. The social media campaign encouraged people to show their clothes label, and ask brands a simple question – Who made my clothes? – a question that puts pressure on companies to know and share information about their workers.

Fashion Revolution’s Transparency Index ranks the world’s largest fashion brands according to transparency about their social and environmental practices, policies and impacts. Through this transparency index, indicators of animal welfare, environmental impact, forced labour, waste and working conditions are evident. The most recent index revealed that a majority of brands still lacked transparency on social and environmental issues, however, brands that participated in the index through a questionnaire, have been influenced to disclose more information year after year. This makes one thing clear, accountability encourages improvement.

The coronavirus has shed a light on the value of transparency, many companies have halted production and payments, or cancelled orders, with little to no regard to the livelihood of workers across the supply chain. Due to a lack of transparency, as stakeholders, it is increasingly hard to hold brands accountable.

The importance of Fashion Revolution’s Transparency Index is that it creates room for constructive conversations with some of the world’s largest fashion houses and how they can be more transparent. By measuring progress across the industry, Fashion Revolution can push brands harder and faster towards transparent practices, in the hopes that social and environmental responsibility ensue. This attitude can be applied to every industry, and it must be.

Here are 5 steps on how your business can more transparent:

 

1. Get to know your supply chain

The first step is to map it out. List out your supply chain & understand the different tiers it may have. Get to know who your suppliers are & where they are coming from – ask yourself whom do you have most contact with from your known supply chain?

2. Get insights & Build Relationships

Once you have mapped out your supply chain that you have access &/or knowledge of, start to understand if you can go deeper within your chain. Make contact with the suppliers that you have relationships with, if you have none then begin forming them – relationship building is a crucial step towards more transparency.

3. Publish your supply chain & communicate about it

Publish any information that you have about your supply chains: factory names, websites, people, working conditions etc. Then find different creative ways on how to integrate this information into your marketing strategies. Feature the people behind your supply chains, celebrate them and begin to make those invisible ties visible.

4. Create criteria & standards

Once you get more information about your supply chain (where & who) begin to lay down criteria around the kind of suppliers that you want your brand to be associated with. Set certain standards that you expect from your suppliers & use them in order to guide you when it comes to on boarding new suppliers.

 5. Relationship building is key

Remember, a lot of suppliers might not be willing to disclose their information about the deeper tiers. That is why building & maintaining honest relationships with your suppliers is extremely important for this shift in transparency. It takes trust & willingness, which is not built in a day.

Follow @fashrev_mlt to find out how you can be a part of the #FashionRevolution

Written by Roberta Micallef; Fashion Revolution Malta volunteer.

As the pandemic drags on, many of us are feeling like our tanks have run dry and our energy and motivation have been drained. The term ‘COVID fatigue’ has been bandied around and many are definitely feeling tired by endless hours stuck to computer screens at home, living with restrictions, and not being able to engage in work and personal life as we used to. Some of our businesses have been impacted and uncertainty about the future may weigh upon us. And with the end not yet in sight, we do wonder how much more we need to contend with? We know there will be an end, but we don’t know when, and living in limbo seems to drain our energy and enthusiasm, leaving us feeling somewhat demotivated.

Often after a long-term illness, where there is physical tiredness and lack of energy, patients are prescribed some kind of revitalizing tonic to help them recuperate and build up their strength again. In a similar fashion, what are some useful strategies we can engage in to positively boost our emotional energy, motivation and morale as we continue to deal with the challenges of this pandemic? How do we get our mojo back? Here are some top tips to inspire you:

1. Reconnect to purpose and vision

It is easy to lose track of why we are doing what we are doing, as well as where we are headed, especially in this ever-changing landscape of the pandemic and the uncertain future we face. Use this time to reflect and to remind yourself of what you are passionate about in your work and the ‘why’ that guides what you do. What do you love most about what you do? What motivated you to enter into this work in the first place? What meaningful contribution do you make to your colleagues, team, organization, customers and society as a whole? How does that contribution make a positive difference to each of these? Connecting to meaning and purpose is known to be one of the main pillars to wellbeing and a great driver of motivation. And if you want to be even more inspired watch this great TED talk by Simon Sinek, the author of “Start With Why”.

Also review where you are heading with your work or business. If things can work out well, if you can navigate the challenges of this pandemic successfully, where do you want to see yourself and your business in a year or two? What does your best possible future look like? One strategy I found particularly useful in past challenges was to create a Vision Board. I answered the above questions and then created a visual representation of my answers on a board, adding pictures, phrases, colors, quotes, strengths and mottos to create a collage of my aspirations for my work. I placed this vision board on the wall above my desk and every time I felt disheartened or discouraged, I would look at that board and it would excite me and remind me to keep persevering to accomplish my dreams!

2. Set SMART goals

When I work with organizations I often get them to set some BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). These goals are linked to setting the vision for the future direction of the company. I tell them to dream big! But then over the following months we work at breaking those BHAGs down into smaller, more accomplishable goals, taking a step-wise approach to achieving the dream.

In this pandemic, the wider, more long-term goals can feel almost unreachable at times or else like they will require us to overcome big hurdles, and sometimes this can feel overwhelming and deflating. Instead, break down the goals into smaller chunks, making sure they are realistic and can be achieved in a shorter time span. Think about how you will measure successfully accomplishing these and then when you do, ensure that you reward yourself for each milestone you overcome. Breaking down bigger goals into more tangible, achievable steps can help you stay focused and on track, and is a great way to boost your motivation and keep going!

3. Create new routines

When one day seems to morph into another, it is often easy to aimlessly drift through our days on auto-pilot. Mixing and matching your daily routines, so that each day is different is a great way to re-energize yourself and create more interest in your day. One day you might start your day with a vigorous walk, another day may begin with some mindfulness meditation, or perhaps some stretching and yoga. Alternatively change the time of day that you might engage in these.

Some days you might choose to have a virtual lunch with your colleagues, other days you might make a packed lunch and drive to the sea or countryside and take a relaxing break in nature.

The important thing is to create a different schedule each day, building in some self-care daily, to counteract the stresses of these difficult times we are living and working in. You will soon see how revitalized you feel and ready to plow this renewed energy and zeal back into your business!!

4. Invest in social connection

‘No man is an island’ yet this pandemic has left many struggling with social isolation, especially those who are solo-preneurs and running their own business. Even if you are not working alone, working remotely can be lonely too and many say they are missing the camaraderie that we experience at the office when we can chat and connect in the coffee room, during lunch breaks or going off for drinks after work. This too can really dampen our motivation.

So what do we do? Try to set up a virtual lunch with colleagues once or twice a week, or else virtual cocktail hour at the end of your working week, where you all get glammed up even if it’s just for an online drink together, you will be surprised at how much something simple like this can uplift you, especially if you each play one of your inspirational songs to really motivate you!

Another option I have tried and loved is creating virtual ‘accountability workgroups’. Myself and some other business owners set up regular slots in the week where we want to focus and get work done, and we create a zoom room to work together in, which makes us feel like we are in an office, and helps us focus better and be accountable. We set targets for each half hour sprint and check in with each other to see what we have accomplished and support each other if someone gets stuck.

And finally one of the biggest motivators can be joining a community of like-minded people with regular events where you can get together to support and encourage each other. The SHE hub members group has been one of those for me, and getting to connect to others who are on a similar mission, as well as learning new things from each other or from guest experts has been inspiring and uplifting! The atmosphere has been so genuine and authentic, everyone wishes the best for each other and cheers each other on, and hearing other people’s challenges and successes has encouraged me to keep going and ploughing on. So if you have not already joined, I highly recommend it – it’s definitely got the essential ingredients to revive your mojo!

 

>> Written by SHE member; Mireille Pellegrini Petit. Mireille is a Positive Psychology Coach and Trainer. She has completed a combined Masters degree in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, and has a special interest in Positive Organizational Psychology. Mireille is the founder of Thrive Positive, a practice that offers positive, strengths-focused leadership and team coaching programs with a mission to help businesses, organizations or teams to develop positive leadership and workplace practices, so that they and their employees can thrive and flourish.

Beyond helping leaders and their team members optimize their performance to materialize their full potential, Mireille has a mission to “humanize” workplaces, by helping businesses prioritize the wellbeing of their workforce and empowering them to build “cultures of care”, where people feel valued and appreciated.