Pinteresting

I have a mildly obsessive interest in Pinterest. And I'm not getting paid to mention it, by the way.

It is a website that allows you to assemble a web-based inspiration board for whatever topic you'd like. This is a lifesaver for things like decor ideas, recipes, fashion, projects, and anything you can think of that can be represented through an image. My mother and I are even working on our Christmas lists through the site!

 Here's the deal:

When I log in, I see things that have been recently pinned by people I follow. It's similar to the feed on Facebook. You have the option to like, comment, or repin your friends image to your own inspiration board.

When you click on someone's "pin," you see a larger version of the image and can see where the image came from. If you click the larger image, it will actually take you back to the original site where it was pinned! This feature makes it an excellent way to clear out the growing mound of bookmarks in your toolbar!

Each pin is part of a "board," like an inspiration board. What a great way to replace all those collages I made for my personal lookbook! As you can see I have boards for fashion, my dream home, entertaining, recipes, DIY projects and random things that are too cute to forget about.

But the best part of Pinterest is the "Pin It" button. You add this button to your bookmarks bar in your browser -- but it doesn't take you to another page. When you browse the internet and find something you want to mark, hit the "Pin It" button and all of the images will be extracted from that page. Choose the image that best represents what you are trying to save and a pin will automatically be created without you ever leaving that page. You can label the pin, make notes and even share with your social networks without interrupting your Internet surfing session.

At this point, the network is dominated largely by women: mommies, brides to be, graphic designers, photographers. Maybe the million images of DIY baby booties and glittery pumps is a little intimidating for men, children and the professional world...but I really think there is potential with this form of social networking.

To me it seems like an eye-catching adaptation of Twitter. Microblogging with images! And because you can choose which of a user's boards you subscribe to, there is the same thematic organization as with most blogs.

I'm not really sure yet how else this program would be applied -- I imagine work presentations, interior design boards, wishlists -- I'm sure there are other brilliant ways to apply Pinterest. I think the job of the company (and they have their work cut out for them) is to rebrand this and expand their audience.

But personally, I'm really looking forward to the future of this site!

Stop Selling Yourself Short

When we entertain the idea or begin the process of starting a business, the idea is always the same: We have a product or service we want to sell to a lot of people. Social media has gained a lot of attention for being the great equalizer between the astronomical budgets of corporations and the meager to non-existent start-up funds of many small business owners. But there is a quiet movement towards monetizing these social media efforts that could be putting your business in the hole.

In our great country, we seldom take the time to question the argument that more is better...which is why companies of all sizes border on desperation as they try to get consumers to follow them on Twitter or "like" their Facebook Page. An excellent example of this was recently mentioned by Kizer & Bender, a duo of retailing experts I had the pleasure of interviewing recently (Link Below).

Did This National Restaurant Chain Put Too Much Love into the Like?

Articles like this have to make you wonder: What is the potential profit of having one person like your Facebook Page? Considering the potential cost of their efforts to reach 100,000 fans, they must have valued it pretty highly. To me, it just sounds a little unwise to put all of your eggs (and money!) into the social media basket.

However, Bucca di Beppo had one thing going for them: The people they were trying to reach were already involved with the brand. They weren't strangers just looking for a gift card -- these people had already subscribed to a loyalty program through the restaurant.

The rush to gain a following has become so urgent for some people that they turn to third party groups to artificially boost their numbers. Did you know you can buy Twitter followers now? I don't know how reliable the business is, and it certainly isn't my attempt to endorse them here, but Get TwitterFollowers claims they can get you thousands of new followers for a small price. While it sounds tempting, what are you really going to get out of it?

The fact that there is a "need" for this kind of business really says that people are willing to pay to have ANYONE look at their content. In reality, I think it just circumvents the process of natural selection in the business world. If you're passionate and have a good product, things have a way of working out over time.

Don't sell yourself short over impatience or desperation. The whole point of social media is that you can get word out to people for FREE. So stop falling for the idea that, regardless of the cost, more is better.