Tag Archives: social media

Social Media Mods: 2 Epic Updates to Pinterest & Instagram

Pinterest Secret Boards

Being a big social media junkie, I caught wind of two exciting changes last week and in case you hadn’t heard about them, I wanted to share them with you!

The first is that Pinterest now offers secret boards. One of my biggest complaints in the past with Pinterest is that everything we pinned was public, and while that’s great for sharing our inspirations, it wasn’t an ideal solution for client-focused projects, gathering inspiration for gift giving or pinning away a secret obsession!

Now, when you log into your account, scroll down to the bottom of your profile and you’ll have three secret boards waiting for you. The pins you place within these boards won’t show up anywhere else, ever.

The second is that Instagram now has profile pages that are accessible online. Being a phone app, in the past I relied on third-party services to access my Instagram snaps but now, just go to Instagram.com/yourusername and everything’s right there including your bio, profile photo and a quick overview of recent snaps right at the top.

If you’re on Pinterest and Instagram, let me know your user name in the comments! And feel free to follow me here and here.

The Brand Audit

the brand audit

A is for audit.

In my case, I’ve been in need of a brand audit for quite awhile. The cool thing about being online regularly since 2000 is that I’ve built up a recognizable brand. The bad thing about being online that long is that there’s a lot of inconsistencies that have developed over time.

One issue I’ve been having is that my social media platforms just aren’t consistent and this is something I’ve been meaning to remedy as soon as I’ve had time. Remember when life was simple and all we had to worry about was Live Journal and Myspace (yes I’m dating myself!) My handles, avatars and bios need to be cleaned up and yes, I need to get to work on my Facebook business page (don’t lecture me — I’m already managing two Facebook accounts and just thinking about running a third gives me heart palpitations!)

What this all comes down to is taking a step back from the brand I’ve built and figuring out what’s working and what’s not so I can move forward more consistently in 2013.

The tricky part of my brand (and I know many of you also fall into this boat) is that I’m very intertwined with it, perhaps too closely at times. I’ve been sorting through handles on my profiles, trying to determine which I want to keep under my business name, Nubby Twiglet, and which I want to be under my name, Shauna.

This has become more of an issue this year in particular because I’ve been expanding beyond Nubby Twiglet with the launch of The Blogcademy and have another separate venture launching early next year. Since both of these are outside of Nubby Twiglet, I’ve been using my name much more prominently across key social media accounts in the spirit of being the recognizable link between these brands. In the future, Nubby Twiglet will be one of many businesses I have so I’m thinking about what makes sense going forward. This might sound a bit convoluted now but I promise, everything will reveal itself in time!

All of this probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to most of you, it’s just a fair warning that you may see some of my social media handles and content shifting over the next few weeks as I figure out what works best for me. Nubby Twiglet began at 18 when I pushed two of my nicknames together and eventually became the basis of my senior thesis for my marketing degree in 2005 (do you want to see it? I’ve never shown it online!) And, it will always remain the name of my blog (don’t worry, it’s not going anywhere!) Now at 31, I’m ready to expand into more varied areas so you’ll see me using my name, Shauna more visibly. It’s been a long, strange, intriguing journey watching how blogging and design has unfolded over the last decade and I’m more excited than ever for the future.

Once my brand audit is complete, I’ll be sharing more about the process and some tips for how you can make sure your brand is aligned consistently as well. Stay tuned!

*Photo by Lisa Devlin.