Recently, a client of mine asked if it was worth being part of the LinkedIn network.
Admittedly, I was a bit dumbstruck by the question. After all, isn't LinkedIn the preferred business-oriented social networking website of the upwardly mobile? As of mid-2013, it claimed over 178 million unique users globally, 65 million monthly users in the U.S. alone, and was heading towards 400 million global members.Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?
See Also: The Best (and Worst) Times to Post on LinkedIn
As I came to learn, he was more concerned about being stretched out over too many networks than with LinkedIn's potential value. Understandable, given the plethora of choices available to online marketers and entrepreneurs today:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest

Not to mention the thousands (millions?) of micro-niched websites catering to specialized fields.
So, my task was to present convincing arguments for signing up on LinkedIn. Not that I had anything specific to gain, but at the very least it got me to thinking about my own use of the site.
Here's what I came up with.

1. It's All About the Networking!

Regardless of your employment or business status, consider the LinkedIn network as a social equity investment. Being a consistent LinkedIn networker will enhance your standing amongst like-minded people in the long-term.

If you suddenly lose a job, you won't be seen as an opportunist connecting merely to take advantage of people. If you are about to launch a great product or service, it will be seen as par for the course – not a bald-faced attempt to sell.

2. Holding all the Cards

LinkedIn is crawling with recruiters looking to poach currently employed folks with lucrative offers.  Are you an entrepreneur instead? Even if you are fully committed to a nascent business, this is an ideal platform to pick up side jobs that may prove invaluable for income or enhanced networking purposes.

You can stay off LinkedIn if you want, but you will be foregoing many chances to gain valuable contacts and make more money.

3. Niche Networking within LinkedIn

One of the most overlooked and underappreciated parts of LinkedIn are the industry-specific groups that you can join.
Over the years, these groups have evolved into spirited but respectful forums of debate and information exchange, often exceeding the worth of more conventional face-to-face encounters.
Of course, not all discussion groups will be engaging and useful, so you need to use sound judgment about appropriate involvement.
In the end, you should meet like-minded professionals and business people, build alliances, and reinforce your network building skills in the process.

4. A Dynamic and Respected Resume

For most people, a resume or CV is something static, i.e. you write it once prior to your job search, get a job, then forget about it until you decide to change employers.
However, LinkedIn members are subtlety encouraged to update their profiles with important milestones.

This way, recruiters and potential partners already have a good idea about you – and you don't have to frantically scramble to update your accomplishments. A dynamic win-win for all concerned... 

5. LinkedIn Gives You a Trending News Feed

LinkedIn allows you to customize your news feed according to your chosen industry, preferred article preferences, and the interests of people in your network. As a result, you can use it as a customized database of business knowledge – leaving aside extraneous, time-wasting feeds for leisure time, if at all.
Using this aspect of LinkedIn in particular taps you into what is trending amongst your peers, and clues you into what they are thinking about on a near real-time basis.
See more social media marketing tips and strategies here.

In a previous article we looked at 5 Pinterest marketing tips to get more traffic to your website. Pinterest is a website where you can upload and organize images (pins) into grouped collections known as pinboards. Now, we will continue on that theme by showcasing more ways for you to enhance your brand and reputation with effective Pinterest marketing methods.

1. Working Around Affiliate Marketing Limitations on PinterestIn early 2015

Pinterest management decide to ban affiliate links, redirects and trackers on pins. This was done to keep the website's smooth and relatively fast operation, especially with respect to rich pins (see below). In addition, the new policy was implemented to counter spammy behavior, broken links and irrelevant feeds.
Serious affiliate marketers are directed to Pinterest's Acceptance Use Policy to continue monetizing their efforts on the website. However, in the meantime, here are some suggestions:

• Use your blog as an intermediate medium between Pinterest and your affiliate pages. Unless otherwise notified, it should be acceptable to place your blog's URL on a pin. This way, you shield affiliate links away from Pinterest, and can continue marketing as usual without significantly altering your approach.
•  On the blog, write affiliate product reviews, solicit comments and testimonials and include a strong call to action (i.e. salesletter-style “Buy” button).

​This is really a best practice no matter where you are marketing. Use the marketing platform to drive traffic back to your website; there you can build your email list, and make a lot more money by following up and promoting multiple products and services to your list.
See Also: 3 Simple Ways to Make Money Blogging

2. Getting Traffic from Pinterest by Pinning Re-shared Pins

Recent changes to Pinterest's “Smart Feed” algorithm has raised fears within the user community that it will become harder to get exposure for their images. However, there are tactics that will continue to work and help grow your list of followers and general audience:
A. Pinning popular images: Do a search within Pinterest in your chosen niche with popular words.  Select the best twenty-five or so images that give your board sufficient breath and creates an aura of expertise for future visitors. Then track their pin count and check if they have active blogs. Choose 5-10 blog feeds to follow and subscribe to, and if possible connect personally with the authors.
By pinning the best and most popular blog articles, your Pin board should be considered “popular” itself by Pinterest and allow you to be found by hundreds if not thousands of visitors every month.
This idea of "social sharing" initially seems counter-intuitive to those who are newer to social media marketing; but when you share other people's content and not just your own, you can actually reach more people and attract more people to your own property online.

B. Keeping your account active: You won't necessarily grow your followers ('Likes') and re-pins at a constant rate, but consistently building up images will enable you to take advantage of other people's success in an ethical way.In addition, tools like LinkWithin and Viralwoot, which will offer users analytics and promotes pins, are starting to appear. 

The more active you are, whether you are promoting your own images or other people's images, the more activity you will see on your own account.
See Also: 5 Steps to Facebook Marketing Success

3. Improve Your Pinterest Pin Board Diversity

Sometimes being too focused on your specific niche can limit your growth possibilities on Pinterest.  Granted, your business-specific channel should promote your brand and display your expertise. However, consider making boards with slightly unrelated topics can draw a more diversified audience that, in the long-term, may also find your main business appealing.
For example, if you are a certified fitness professional, chances are that you have reasonable nutrition knowledge as well.

Therefore, in addition to pins that highlight workouts for various types of goals, physiques, sports etc. you may want to consider creating aboard for pre-workout and  post-workout meals. The synergy between physical fitness and nutrition is well-established, but there are many possibilities with other niche groupings (e.g. visual art and architecture; environment causes and ethical investing, etc.).

Another opportunity is to create boards that are unrelated to your business entirely but reflect your own personal hobbies and interests. This is a good way to put some personality into your marketing and develop a more personal bond with your audience.
See Also: Discover the Most Profitable Niches for Affiliate Marketing

Pinterest Marketing Conclusion

Pinterest's great strength lies with the immediate, positive impact it can make on large numbers of prospects and viewers in a relatively small amount of time. As a relatively new social media marketing medium, members continue to experiment with different approaches within visual marketing.
The bottom line is that people love visual content. It's easy to create, gets a lot of attention, and can drive massive amounts of traffic to your website.
Explore various possibilities to better serve your audience and find more Pinterest marketing tips here.
See more social media marketing tips, tricks, and strategies here.

Pinterest is arguably the premier visual social media marketing website for Internet marketing today. Its simple to use pinning features allows entrepreneurs to build a community of like-minded people by offering them images, photos and infographics that can really make a difference in their lives.

If you are a certified fitness professional or athletic trainer, Pinterest is especially well-suited for you.The health and fitness niche is one of the most lucrative niche markets in the world, and if you can integrate a strong online campaign with your work in the gym, it can mean:

• An enhanced reputation with current clients, colleagues and gym management.
• Growing your personal customer base as an independent consultant (in-home).
• More attention from fitness and health bloggers, traditional media outlets.
• Motivational speaking and other live event appearances.

There is no mystery for succeeding with Pinterest. Breaking down the main components of fitness pins will guarantee you great feedback and inspire you to extend beyond pre-defined job functions.
See Also: How to Enhance Your Business Brand on Pinterest

1. A Strong Goal-Oriented Headline

A successful Pin starts at the top, so think about a short but punchy headline that speaks to the fitness goals sought out by your readers.
“Burn more fat faster than ever.”, “Bodyweight exercises for business travelers”, and “7 Killer Abs Exercises” are examples of goal-oriented headlines that will bring in a targeted audience ready to view your solutions for specific fitness goals.

Once hooked, you can offer people the necessary infographics and images to get them started with building muscle, losing fat, gaining strength or something else.

2. Sub-headline Follow-up

Quite often, everyone will come with the same cliched fitness-related headlines re. weight loss, hypertrophy, muscle mass gain etc.That's why a snappy subheading is often the necessary trigger for views, pins, and re-pins.

Let's take one example:
Bodyweight exercises for business travelers
             Forget the gym, lose your gut in the hotel room.
The underlined subheading, “Forget the gym, lose your gut in the hotel room”, reinforces the benefits that people will presumably derive from your fitness pin, namely:

• No need for a gym or gym equipment (other than possibly free weights).
• Time savings.
• Getting lean and toned with the highlighted exercise sequence.

3. Text Descriptions with Physical Illustrations

Do a clear write-up of the exercise and break them up into demo images as required (e.g. Step A, Step B etc.). If part of the exercise requires special attention and deserves to be highlighted, add a separate image to showcase it (e.g. starting position, midway position, ending position).
This presentation technique can be employed for one exercise, a series of related exercises (arms, back, legs, abdomen), or military-style circuits like the famous Spartacus Workout.

4. Attractive Color Schemes

You want to be noticed on Pinterest, and using the right colors can help you in that vain. Black, red and yellow are among the most popular colors used in the fitness niche, but there are no hard and fast rules to follow.Try things out, and remember that plain white can be your best friend if you need to write more detailed exercise descriptions.

5. Link Back to Your Own Website

While some of your pins may be self-sustaining as a workout or workout advice for your readers, you should link back to your own self-hosted blog or website. This gives people further opportunity to judge your expertise and decide if they will know, like, and trust you moving forward. Chances are that they will connect to you in some manner once they see that you are a serious fitness professional. In addition to Pinterest communication, they may sign up for your email newsletter, or bookmark your blog for future reference.
See Also: 5 Pinterest Marketing Tips to Get More Traffic to Your Website

Finals Thoughts on Pinterest Marketing for Fitness Professionals

Pinterest gives both established and upcoming fitness trainers the same chance at online success, provided they deliver advice and exercise themes that relate to their audiences needs' and desires.

Use your creativity and physical fitness insights to expand your audience and grow your personal brand.

See all of our social media marketing tips, tricks, and strategies here.