In today’s society it is easy to suffer from information overload.  Between email, the internet, and YouTube videos, the ability to focus is becoming difficult.  Our audience is often multitasking, whether it be during a presentation or in a meeting, therefore it is necessary to learn how to engage your audience.  One of the best ways  is through a call to action which allows your audience to better understand what it is you expect them to do.  A good call to action will provide focus, measure, and direction to your users.  Using active language is the best way to get your point across and to get your audience to act.

Try working these words into your material for a great call to action:

- Listen: When making a key point during a presentation, it is important to have the attention of your audience.  ”Listen” alerts your audience that you are about to make an important point.

- Subscribe: Whether it be a quarterly newsletter or a facebook post, in order to engage your audience they must click and subscribe to the content.  Asking a user to subscribe increases the opportunity for future interactions.

- Share: Social networks are continuing to grow at a rapid rate and part of the reason for this is the ability to share content with other users.  Social networks such as Pinterest and Twitter allow users to choose who they see information from.  Asking users to share your content spreads brand awareness.

- Contact Us: Reach out to your audience with a contact form as a great way to start discussions.  A “Contact Us” form tells your audience that you want to hear from them.

Whether giving a keynote presentation or creating a landing page, including a call to action will let them know exactly what it is you would like them to do.  So, please share this post on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn!

What began in 2010 as an online bulletin board geared towards wedding planning or crafty art projects has exploded into a visual social networking site with 3.3 million users, according to Compete. Pinterest’s demographic, states TechCrunch, is predominately 18-34 year old upper income women; the target audience of many marketers. Brands and businesses are taking notice of this and it’s no surprise the question on every marketers mind is “Can I incorporate Pinterest into my marketing strategy?”

Pinterest can absolutely be used as a marketing tool, but requires a thoughtful approach in order to remain true to it’s goal to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Businesses should use the social network to showcase the lifestyle their brand promotes, as opposed to blatant self-promotion. This provides a great opportunity to establish your brand within a niche community and share pins with others who have similar interests. By pinning content that adds value, your followers are more likely to share by repining or liking your pins. Simultaneously, your brand will be building trust with its followers because you are engaging in the lifestyle that surrounds the brand. Build your reputation by becoming the go-to Pinterest account for pins about a topic relating to your industry.  HubSpot suggests viewing pinboards of your customers to aid in your understanding of who your customers are and what they’re interested in. Pinterest is a fantastic resource for better understanding your brand’s audience.

One of the biggest challenges CGI faced when determining the approach to our Pinterest was a lack of tangible products. However, even if your brand isn’t particularly visual, this shouldn’t hold you back from using Pinterest. To overcome this challenge, we brainstormed boards we thought would add value to our industry and be something our clients found interesting. We kept our boards visually appealing by being mindful of how we arranged our pins and how we organized the boards.  Currently Pinterest is still invite only, but leave your email in the comment section and CGI would be happy to send you an invitation to join us on this cool new social media platform.

The best advice is to simply try out Pinterest- it’s incredibly easy to use. Start small and see how your boards begin taking shape before generating a huge following. If after a month you’re generating more referral traffic, consider linking your Twitter to your Pinterest account so you can easily tweet your pins and leverage hashtags to make content more search-friendly. The number one rule, is pin things that are relevant to your business but not too promotional. In the words of Ben and the Pinterest Team “Happy Pinning.”

At CGI we’re inspired by so many things that we are often bursting with the need to share. We do this with our clients through our creative work, and with each other through our “roundtable” discussions where we share thoughts, ideas, and learnings.  We have  four main focus groups, each made up of 7 or 8 individuals from various areas of the CGI team.

With so many different personalities at CGI it’s great to find similar interests among the team and bring everyone together in a forum where we can interact and bounce ideas off of one another. I use various social sites, such as Pinterest, Flickr, Blogs, and even Twitter to inspire me with new ideas when it comes to marketing CGI, but I have found the roundtable discussions to be just as inspiring as any outside source.

For example, I just came out of a discussion about where we as a team find inspiration. This discussion included the marketing team, designers, project managers, and administrators who all brought very different ideas to the table! In our connected world it’s important to remember that sometimes the greatest source of inspiration can be combining the various perspectives and experiences we each provide, so log off and start connecting (the old fashioned way) to the people around you.

What inspires you? Let us know right here or on twitter @cgiinteractive!