Tony Pinto » Social Media Marketing

Try a Google Search for “Tony Pinto”

Tony Pinto — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:29:26 +0000

Google Search results for "Tony Pinto"

OK, so it’s not an AMAZING feat of strength, but it has been a goal of mine for some time. It started about a year ago when I first noticed the domain www.tonypinto.com was available. I was lucky enough to buy it for less than $10 bucks!

Then I created this Wordpress blog, started Tweeting as @tpinto3 (had @tonypinto at one point, but lost it), and began to comment on other blogs, with links back to my site. I also created a Google profile that links all of my social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare.

The journey continues, but I’m just glad now that whenever somebody types “Tony Pinto” into Google, they find me right up at the top.

Can you say the same for yourself?

Drinking the Ning Kool-Aid

Tony Pinto — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:22:04 +0000

I had the unbelievable good fortune of being invited to visit the corporate offices of social media platform Ning this past week to participate in the Ning Network Council program. There were ten community managers in attendance, ranging from my little cooking community (NoTimeToCookDinner.com) to huge communities like Ellen, momlogic, and Extra, which currently has over 800,000 members.

Special thanks to my new friend Alice for this photo.

I met some of Ning’s most outstanding employees, shook hands with (and possibly insulted with a back-handed compliment) CEO Gina Bianchini, and compared notes with some amazing network creators who are just crushing it (as Gary Vaynerchuk would say) on sites like MyModernMet.com, BabySpot.com, tudiabetes.org, BroadwaySpace.com, BJPenn.com, DesignDemocracy.ws and LiveHereOakPark.com.

I was a big fan of Ning before my visit, but I can honestly say that I am 1000 times more confident in their infrastructure and commitment to making Ning the best platform for niche social networks.

As far as I can tell, here’s their special sauce (it’s pretty simple actually): Ning cares a lot about their employees. And in return, the employees care a LOT about Ning’s members. My fellow community managers and I were treated like royalty, and our feedback was intensely scrutinized. You don’t see that every day from your typical software companies.

For those who don’t know, Ning offers an amazing product offering and level of service for a ridiculously low price. You can actually create a Ning network in less than 5 minutes at absolutely zero cost. That’s right, zero. Nada. ZIP! And you could scale that network to tens of thousands of users without ever having to open your wallet.

That said, Ning does offer some “premium services” for those who want them. For example, if you want to make your network’s url something like www.BobsFishingHole.com versus http://bobsfishinghole.ning.com, that’ll set you back a whopping $5/month. Want to turn off the banner ads on the right hand side, or hide the references to the Ning Platform? Those features are $25/mo each. They’ve also got premium support for a measley $10 bucks a month, although, frankly, I’ve never needed it. Their user forums are very active, and full of seasoned and helpful community managers as well as Ning employees.

Bottom line: Ning rocks! Nothing else out there even comes close. The good news is that all of my energy can now go into community development for NoTimeToCookDinner.com and new communities for my clients who are ready to take the plunge into social media.

Thanks again to Ning, and to all of my new friends as well.

Here’s their special sauce, gang: Ning cares a lot about their employees. And in return, Ning employees care a LOT about us members. We were treated like royalty, and they listened intently to our feedback. You don’t see that every day.

I haven’t been very active in the Network Creators community before, but in the last few days I’ve seen countless NC’s beating up Ning employees about new features, performance issues, and business practices. That really bums me out.

The one thing I ask of my fellow Network Creators is that you consider softening your approach to requesting help, reporting issues, and venting your frustrations. These are real people who have your best interests at heart. I know tempers flare when people are under stress (I struggle with that every day). But even Premium Service members should stop and appreciate the amazing product offering and service that you are getting for the ridiculously low price you are paying.

Ning rocks! Nothing else out there even comes close

Social Media Marketing in 3 Minutes (video)

Tony Pinto — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:03:22 +0000

Here’s another great video highligting the benefits of social media marketing for BUSINESS. Yes, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are for more than just killing time and sharing photos of your nephew’s new cat.

Social Media Revolution (video)

Tony Pinto — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:46:30 +0000

Anyone who questions the power and purpose of Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Ning, and others should watch this video. Period.

Any questions?

Blogging On An iPhone

Tony Pinto — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:19:44 +0000

I can’t believe all of the incredible tools available for bloggers these days. I just downloaded WordPress 2 for the iPhone, and wrote this post ON my phone.

OK, so it took waaaaaay longer to do it this way, and I know people have been doing this for a while, but it’s my first time so I’m feeling quite empowered.

I also just realized that this allows people to blog from virtually anywhere. Including places like the bathroom. Cool. I mean, gross!

But still, it’s pretty amazing considering that 10 years ago most people didn’t even have cell phones.

P.S. I later edited this post and added the screenshot using a web browser.

Installing WordPress Themes and Plugins

Tony Pinto — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:03:00 +0000

OK, so I realize these first couple of posts aren’t going to be the most interesting. I just need some content to start populating my WordPress database, so I can see what this particular WordPress theme looks like.

I found a nice Twitter Plugin on WordPress.org, which I installed and hooked up to my personal Twitter account (@tpinto3). Nothing really exciting happening over there either (not yet, anyway), but you have to start somewhere, right?

Now I’m looking for just the right skin. The default “themes” that came with the latest WordPress install were OK, but I’ve seen some really slick stuff out there, and not all of it is custom development. In fact, there are over 1,000 FREE WordPress skins that you can download and freely use.

Amazing! You just have to be slightly technical enough to get the files in the right place. Need help? Let me know. (Scratch that. I just discovered that you can search for and upload/install themes from within WordPress itself. Nice!)

You can also sometimes find out where someone got their theme by scrolling to the bottom of their blog and looking for the “powered by WordPress” link, along with the name of the theme that is currently applied. For example:

And if you click on either the name of the theme, or the designer’s name, you’ll typically be taken to some place where you can get the theme for next to nothing (often even free!).

Well, that’s about enough for today. I guess there were a few nuggets in there. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually keep this post.