Category Archives: Uncategorized
Pinterest For Business Tool
I found a great new tool that will help you see if your company has been pinned on Pinterest and how many times.
If you have no idea what Pinned means or have never been on the hot social media site Pinterest, please check out our previous Pinterest blog posts.
Now for the new Pinterest for Business Tool:
Type in http://pinterest.com/source/domainname.com (replace domain name.com with your domain name and extension)
Below are some examples:
http://pinterest.com/source/blackanddecker.com
http://www.pinterest.com/source/cat.com
If you get a 404 error it means your company does not have any pins. If the page opens, it will show you just how many pins your company has.
When you have time check out some of the popular brands like Starbucks, Coca Cola, GAP, and some industrial brands like 3M, Boeing and others.
If you know of any additional Pinterest Tools, please mention them in the blog comments below.
OTC 2012 Houston, TX
OTC 2012 runs from Sunday, April 29th through Thursday, May 3rd.
The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is held annually at Reliant Center in Houston. Each year, OTC attracts more than 70,000 attendees and 2,000 exhibiting companies representing more than 110 countries.
Below are some tools to help you make the most of this year’s OTC.
OTC 2012 Resources
OTC 2012 Official Schedule of Events
Networking Events for OTC 2012
Now comes the part everyone is emailing and calling me about. OTC 2012 Open Networking Events. Below are list of different networking events. Please remember that a lot of these events require you to RSVP.
You are welcome to post OTC 2012 Networking events you know of in the comments section of this blog and I will keep the list of Events updated throughout OTC 2012.
Thursday, April 26th
AMA Houston and supporting organizations OTC Marketing Kick Off Party
Where: Courtyard on St. James – 1885 St. James
When: 5:30pm – 8:30pm
One of the largest pre-OTC events.
RSVP to Tad Grow – Tad@branditmarketing.org
SUT Houston Pre-OTC Mixer
Society for Underwater Technology
Where: Vintropolis – 10001 Westheimer Road
When: 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Excellent Association for those involved in Underwater Technology
Wednesday, May 2nd
The Oil & Gas Magazine OTC Party
Where: Mo’s – 1801 Post Oak
When: 6pm
LinkedIn Events Listing for this event
Thursday, May 3rd
Energy People Connect Post OTC Mixer
Where: The Remington at St. Regis Hotel – 1919 Briar Oaks Lane
When: 5:30pm
Energy People Connect – to become a member of Energy People Connect
Again, this a list of events that Upstream Marketing has received information on. If you know of an OTC 2012 Networking Event, please feel free to list the event information in the comments section of this blog.
Have a successful OTC and remember to support the supporting OTC Organizations
Upstream Marketing is proud to be a Marine Technology Society (MTS) Member.
Pinterest for Business
How Pinterest Can Be Used For Business
We are simply living in a world where everything is controlled by technology and social media. Social media sites are all the rage, and have been for quite some time. They are good for networking, catching up with old friends and even promoting your business. Yes, you can use social media sites such as Pinterest to promote your business.
Pinterest was launched in 2010, but it’s now one of the fastest growing social media site. Pinterest has roughly 11 million users per week. so it would be a great place to promote your business. Pinterest, like Facebook, Twitter and Linked has a mobile application so Pinterest users can access the site whenever and wherever they want.
Using Pinterest for business is very simple, the people who use the site will simply pin a button on their board. If they’ve pinned your button on their board then other people they are connected with, will be able to see it. It’s kind of like word of mouth advertising, but a lot faster and better.
Pinterest is very simple to use, the interface is very easy to understand. If you have not done, so please read our first blog post in the Pinerest series called Help with Pinerest
Pinterest is mainly used to connect multiple people to things they all find interesting. Very neat, easy concept for promoting businesses on as well.
If you have a pin, and your business is very popular among a lot of people then they add it to their boards. Or people who don’t know exactly what type of services you offer will be interested in finding out more about your business. It’s a great way to reach a lot of potential clients and recurring clientele.
Perhaps the most powerful business Pinterest tool is the ability to post images of your company’s products or services on your Pinterest board and link them back to your website. How many of you currently have a product catalog? Think of it as a social product catalog.
Pinterest is a good tool to drive buyers to some websites. Retailers are experiencing increases in web traffic from Pinterest and sales resulting from those visits have increased.
Here is a list of some of top brands on Pinterest. Some you probably never heard of.
If you are wondering what The Perfect Pallet is The Perfect Palette, a wedding blog that explores “the color palette possibilities for your wedding” and serves as a resource for other wedding ideas.
Next in our Pinterest Blog Series will be the Top 4 Tips on Using Pinterest for Business.
Thank you to Fort Bend Toyota for the Internet access to write this blog post.
New iPad Features
The new iPad was released last week and a client of mine called to ask my opinion on purchasing one for their business.
I though I would run down some of the new features that the new iPad has.
New iPad features:
- Retina Display – 4 times more pixels than the iPad 2 – makes text sharper and colors more vibrant.
- 10 Hours of Battery Life
- I-Sight Camera – 5 mega pixel camera. Camera has autofocus, tap to focus and tap to set exposure.
- 4G LTE
I own the original iPAD and for what I use it for, it works great for me. Viewing websites, reading industrial blogs and reading/replying to email are my top three tasks with my iPad.
I don’t download past episodes of Mad Men and I have never played Angry Birds. My favorite is App is the one for Go Daddy so I can check the availability of domain names and you will find me playing Video Poker on silent mode, if I’m waiting too long in your outside lobby.
If you don’t already own an iPad, I would recommend buying the new one when it is available for shipment. I do not recommend buying a used iPad.
If your in the store and what to check out some websites that Upstream Marketing designed that are iPad friendly, please visit
All of the websites we design are iPad friendly. The one’s above have some different features that work both on a desktop and iPad.
If you do purchase the new iPad, please post the features that you like the most, below.
What People Use iPads For?
What people us their Apple iPads for?
- 75% Access the web
- 63% Email
- 53% Entertainment
- 48% Play games
- 41% for Social networking
- 29% for Researching services & products (more…)
Online Intellectual Property Resources
I had the pleasure of meeting Intellectual Property Attorney, Ron Haggerty when I spoke at METRO Small Business University on “Effective Website Design”. After our conversation, I thought the internet must have some good resources for those interested in starting their own IP search.
Here are some IP online resources to start your own research.
3 Deep Water Gulf of Mexico Permits, so far.
ATP Oil and Gas Corp won approval on March 18th to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. ATP will now be allowed to continue the final phase of drilling a well in 4,000 feet of water at it Telemark Hub.
On Feb. 28, Noble Energy won approval to drill a bypass well in its Santiago prospect and on March 11, BHP Billiton won approval for a deepwater well in its Shenzi prospect. As reported the Interior Department is focusing first on restarting the 57 deep water drilling projects that were already approved before last year’s spill including 16 that had started drilling. The approval process has been way to slow. As someone who works closely will all aspects of the oil and gas industry, everyone is feeling the slow down. From the top down. You got crews out of work, suppliers not being able to supply the rigs and even the repair shops that keep the equipment running are all feeling the slow down. Heck, we all know marketing is the first to get cut in lean times so yours truly is seeing some website projects put on hold. It’s time to put Americans back to work in the Gulf. Safety and Environmental mandates imposed after last year’s spill can be met. The approval process needs to pick up speed before drillers leave the Gulf for good.