Calls, emails and FB messages are pouring in from all across the country inquiring about what it takes to start an RLI chapter in new cities. Timothy Chin, RLI Founder/CEO, will be hosting a 30 minute informational call on what it takes to bring RLI to your city and how YOU can be compensated to do so. Friday, August 3rd at 1:00 CST. All new information and benefits. If you would like to be on the call, respond here or email me Sasha@ReferralLeaders.com and I will send you the call information.

5 Ways to Effectively to Market Your Business with Pinterest
by Alicia Forest
Oh no! ANOTHER social media platform? Oh yes - and it's one you might want to take a look at, to see if it makes sense for your particular business. But a caution here: even it does, don't feel you have to add it to your social media marketing. If you're already overwhelmed and just keeping up with your current social media efforts, then leave Pinterest be, at least for now. But if it appeals to you and makes good business sense to add it to your business platform, here are five specific ways you can use it in your marketing efforts:
1. Less Clicks = More Conversions
The less clicks your visitor has to make to get to the information or product they want, the higher your conversion rates. With Pinterest, there are just two clicks from first seeing something of interest to visiting its site of origin. That translates into more leads and more sales. For example, let's say you have a book for sale and you pin the image of the cover from the book's sales page to your board. When one of your followers sees your pin and clicks on it, it will allow them to share it with others immediately. And if they click it again, it will take them to the site where the image was pinned from, in this case, the sales page for your book.
2. Drive tons more traffic to your site
Because Pinterest has such a large following (10 million unique views at this writing) it's a great tool for driving more traffic to your site via the links that are attached to the pins you make to your board. In fact, there are tracking stats that are showing Pinterest is driving more traffic back to websites than Facebook or Google+.
3. Easy for people to share your content
Pinterest makes it super-simple for your followers to share your pins and therefore links back to your site. Because every pin includes a link leading back to the source of the image, this can translate into a lot more inbound links to your website. So the more followers you have, the more those followers share your pins, the more traffic to your site.
4. Gain from user addiction
Some markets have already fallen in love with Pinterest, with more to come as more people become aware of and start utilizing this new social media platform. If your market is a fan of Pinterest, then you need to get onboard and get in front of all that traffic. Just start with one board, pay attention to what your followers are re-pinning (sharing with others) the most, and pin more of that content.
5. Connect it with your other social media sites
Since I'm all about leveraging your time and talent, if you're going to use Pinterest, then you need to connect it with your other social media platforms to do so. You can connect Pinterest with your Facebook profile (hopefully they will add the ability to connect to your fan page soon).
You can also connect your Pinterest account with Twitter so your pins are automatically tweeted. And you can add a 'pin it' button to your website, much like other share buttons, so your visitors can pin for you.

All I can say is "WOW"! When I walk into a Chapter Meeting and the Leadership Team has arrived before I am there, the tables are set up & ready for 40 people, gifts for Visitors are so big and bad that I want them, and the energy in the room just gives you a smile... I can't help but get chills. Actually, it almost brought tears to my eyes. This is what it's all about! I am like a proud momma watching her children grow up and blossom. We can see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears how RLI has changed businesses forever. The relationships the members have created & the team building they have done is just amazing to witness. I knew when I signed on to build a networking organization that we would be different, but I what I have been experiencing lately is nothing short of breathtaking to me. I love creating connections. I love watching others create connections. If you haven't been to an RLI Chapter meeting lately, what are you waiting for??? Don't walk, run. You won't regret it.

Looking back to the start of this wonderful organization, one of my favorite moments is when we created our motto: "Creating Connections That Grow Your Business". When we sat in the conference room that day we were flying words around that we wanted this organization to stand for. At the end of the day, creating connections is what we wanted to be known for. How can that impact a referral organization? Well, if you have attended an RLI meeting in the last month, you can feel the relationship our members have for one another. Making these connections we become the specialist in our specific industry for each other. We are more than just another business professional to refer to, we are friends, and in most cases, we are family. We have created a networking organization that believes in connections with each other so much that we attend events outside out meetings, we send cards when we are celebrating or even in sympathy, we even go out of our way to find that special referral that can provide for their families even more this next year. Yes, I truly believe we have it correct when we say, "Creating Connections That GROW Your Business". Who have you connected with lately?

Members: If you would like to receive up-to-date information, new RLI contest, tips & more... we need you to text the letters RLI to 292929. This is a great way to stay in touch with the lastest information. We promise not to blast you with anything that isn't relevant to you as a member of Referral Leaders International. Please, go to your phone and text now! We appreciate your support.

I want to send a wonderful shout-out to Sarah Kirkish with Work Life Organization. She just completed a series of coaching calls to help our members conquer the 3 main area of disorganization: Time, Information & Workspace Management. Members are going to be pleasantly surprised to see new coaching calls in their Dropbox folder this week. Just another reason we are a cutting edge referral networking organization. We make sure we give all our members everything they can to increase productivity in their businesses. Check out Sarah for yourself at www.WorkLifeOrganization.com or follow her on Twitter at WorkLifeOrg

I received 3 seperate emails/calls today talking about the wonderful savings are members are getting monthly from Sprint. In total, we have saved our RLI members over $350.00 per month or $4200 per year! What are you waiting for... go check out the discount for yourself and see what we can do to save YOU money! www.saveonsprint.com

Today is the start of the Tour, beginning with Heart of America Chapter in Olathe @ 8am and then Linking KC Chapter also in Olather at 11:30. Be sure to check out the calendar of events for ALL the upcoming meetings over the next several weeks.

After our meeting with RLI CIO Nick Kurucz yesterday, I am more confident than ever before that this will be the greatest website for our members and for the public to view. There is a full team working to make this a user friendly website with Member Benefits and much more. Keep checking in to see lot's of changes and added material over the next several months!