Pin It Forward UK!

Thanks Coach Cox (aka Russ Cox) who “pinned it forward” to me yesterday, linking to thefitwriter blog in this blog post. Although it’s been some time now since I did a triathlon or dipped so much as a toe in open-water, we do share an endurance-sport passion 🙂

Pin It Forward UK kicked off almost a month ago and, since then, one UK blogger every day has blogged about their blogs, their interests and – of course – their Pinterest boards. It’s been fascinating to get to know so many UK bloggers across many different areas of interest and expertise. You can see the entire list of bloggers here – have a look, you may well discover one or two new favourites.

Today it falls to me to introduce the next link in the Pin It Forward UK chain, and to talk a bit about my own use of Pinterest.

I’ve been “pinning” for ages now. I flit in and out of Pinterest but find it a great tool, a useful resource and a rather “peaceful” social media platform. There’s no need to engage, chat, respond and comment (unless you want to). You can just look… And I like that!

As you’ll see if you look at my Pinterest account, I pin everything from tasty-looking bodybuilder-friendly recipes, to teeth-aching “post-comp” recipes (none of which I’ll ever make, but somehow just the act of pinning them makes me feel a bit satisfied!)

The board I’ve been asked to talk to you about is my “Read Later” Pinterest board. Perhaps it needs a more exciting title! This is where I pin blog posts, online articles, book reviews and research relating to sport, fitness, mind set, sports psychology, nutrition, female sport and fitness, body recomposition, gender politics, bodybuilding, contest prep and more. Take a look: I’d love to hear from you if you find any of my pinned “read later” items interesting.

How about you? Do you enjoy using Pinterest?

I’ll leave you with an introduction to Emma, who blogs at The Style Box (and Huffington Post UK) from her desk in sunny Bournemouth. She’ll be blogging about her own Pin It Forward UK experience tomorrow. Like me, she’s a freelancer (*fist-bump*) – she freelances as a social media consultant and trainer. Here’s Emma’s Pinterest. Emma: over to you!

Pin It Forward UK! is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

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Do you Pinterest?

I signed up to Pinterest ages ago, forgot about it, and lost my password.

Then last week I was speaking (as part of a panel of fitness journalists) at the Fitness Industry Association’s monthly communications forum, and one of the other speakers gave some stats about Pinterest which encouraged me to hit that “forgot your password?” link and get stuck in. The take-home fact was that Pinterest is the fastest-growing social networking site in history. And, in the UK, the gender split of Pinterest users is far more balanced than elsewhere, and actually slightly weighted towards the chaps (56% male and 44% female).

Well. 24 hours later and I’m addicted. I woke up the next day thinking about boards I simply must create. I got a thrill when someone repinned one of my pins. Then Jamie Eason started following my boards and, well, that was that.

Do you pin (what’s the official verb for one who uses Pinterest?) Are you a….er… Pinner? (?) Here’s a great beginners’ guide from Mashable and a fab infographic from econsultancy (thank you to my social media guru Melanie at Scarletta Media for the links!) Apparently it’s going to be the social network to watch in 2012. I don’t know about that. I just love the pretty pictures.

Find me on Pinterest here. Leave me a comment with your Pinterest link so I can check out your pins! ;D

Do you Pinterest? is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

The power of social media in under 24 hours

I just had to blog about this.

One of my local clients (not in the fitness business – he’s actually in the groundworks trade) asked me to help him with his social media a few weeks ago. He knows he should be blogging and on Twitter but doesn’t have time to learn how to set it up or manage it.

So I stepped in, built him a blog and set him up on Twitter. I did this yesterday at the end of the working day…so that’s less than 24 hours ago.

That detail is significant because, guess what: he just had a serious enquiry through Twitter direct message. I’ve added his account to my Tweetdeck and have been managing it for him so, when I saw that someone had DMed him to say that he’d just missed an opportunity with her patio but that she was doing an extension to her house this Summer and wanted him to quote for it, I jumped in with a friendly reply.

Of course, this could come to nothing but at the same time it could be a great job for my client.

All from a Twitter feed set up and managed by me…less than 24 hours ago.

So, if you’re thinking about social media, just do it. And if you don’t know where to start, or don’t have time to do it, ask me. I’ll be happy to help.

Fitness industry blogs, books and bods

I went to the inaugural Fitness Entrepreneur Bootcamp a couple of weeks ago and came away with a wealth of inspiring and hugely useful information from the fantastic speakers.

I thought it might be useful to everyone else who was at “FEB” (hiya! *wave*) and any other readers (hiya! *wave*) to gather all those resources in one blog post. Of course, I may well have missed some – feel free to add them in a comment. But, for now, here’s the blogs, books and other bits and bobs from my “FEB” notebook:

From Michael Heppell’s opening talk:
Book recommendations: How To Be Brilliant, Five-Star Service, One-Star Budget
Michael is on Twitter here

From Phil Richards’s talk:
Book recommendation: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

From Paul “Morty” Mort’s talk:
Websites: workoutmuse.com
Blog: fitnesscampblogspot.com

From Nick Grantham’s talk:
Blog: www.nickgratham.com
Book recommendations: Maximum Strength, The Female Body Breakthrough
Nick is on Twitter here

From Alwyn Cosgrove’s talk:
Blog: alwyncosgrove.com/

From Nick Nanton’s talks:
Books: Celebrity Branding You, Shift Happens, Big Ideas For Your Business
Nick is on Twitter here

From Bryan Kavanagh’s talk:
Blog: personaltrainerdublin
Bryan is on Twitter here

From Jon le Tocq’s talk:
Book: Googled
Blogs: Dan Kennedy
Jon is on Twitter here

From Steve Jack’s talk:
Website: Institute of HeartMath
Book: Tribes (which I’m reading at the moment)

From Tim Goodwin’s talk:
Books: Googled, Symbology
Websites: aweber, getresponse
Tim is on Twitter here

From Lucy Johnson’s talk:
Websites: dandyid.org, claim.io
(Lucy gave us a ton more information than this, but I didn’t write it all down – it’s on the slides of her talk which are being sent to us. Sorry!)
She did recommend that anyone into vlogging or youtube marketing got hold of a Kodak Zi8 – mine arrived last week 😉 I love it!
Lucy is on Twitter here

Hope that’s useful! 🙂