If you’ve been paying even cursory attention to tech news lately, you’ve heard of it. The platform called Pinterest exploded onto the social media scene last year, and has gained a following of 12 million+ users. It was the fastest site to reach 10 million users in the history of social media statistics, beating out giants Facebook and Twitter to that No. 1 spot in the social media annals.

So what is it? What is the deal with Pinterest?

At its most basic, Pinterest is an aggregator of visual Internet content. The platform allows users to “pin” interesting content and organize it in “boards.” Most users choose to categorize their boards by topic – “Dream House inspiration,” “Cars I’d love to own” or “Tech gear I want to buy” – and pin content to those boards, sharing it with friends who follow them on Pinterest or Facebook. The inclusion of a Pinterest bookmarklet lets users pin something instantly as they browse the Internet, even if they are not on Pinterest’s site. “Repins” act like retweets on Twitter – users pinning someone else’s content to a wider audience.

Great. Another social media site.

As with any new social media element, it’s important to scrutinize Pinterest – is it useful?  Does it add anything to an already crowded social media landscape? What makes it different than the last “latest thing”?

The rise of Tumblr comes to mind as a semi-cautionary tale about the next great thing in social media. Tumblr burst on the scene in a similar fashion in 2009, leaving similar platforms in its wake and causing frenzy and genuflection from tech and media pundits. While Tumblr still enjoys millions of users and is a staple of the social media landscape, it has not proven as agile as Facebook or Twitter in becoming an everyday tool for social media users.

Pinterest’s ease of use echoes the praise of Tumblr’s ease of use, but Pinterest has a few things that might give it more staying power than other platforms. Pinterest is not a blog or even a microblog – it is an aggregator. Anyone can be a prolific pinner. Pinning does not require creation of content, just finding and repurposing (or repinning) it. Discovery of content doesn’t require research or crafting a blog post – it merely requires being on the Internet and browsing for things that you’re already interested in. Pinterest also streamlined its signup process by letting users sign up through Facebook. This provides a ready-made potential follower list and doesn’t make the user feel like they’re signing up for yet another service.

In my next post I’ll talk about Pinterest for business use.

We know that the toolkit at a full-service agency is already extensive, but we never underestimate the ability of the tech world to create something that makes our lives easier, faster, more efficient and more fun. The best part of “the Internets” overflowing with so many ideas is finding the ones that work for you and passing along their value to your clients.

We’ve experienced a few great upgrades and new finds in the last few weeks – all of which help us do work better and faster, and provide a better product for our clients.

WordPress 3.3

The gang at WordPress just released WordPress 3.3, or “Sonny,” the latest version of the content management system we recommend to our clients. The 3.3 release is chock-full of new features for developers, of course, but we also appreciate the improvements to the user interface, such as mouse-over menus and drag-and-drop media uploads. These upgrades make the back-end of WordPress even easier for us and our clients to use.

Jing

We’ve all had one or both of these problems before. Maybe you’ve shown someone how to do something on the computer a thousand times, even written it down in painstaking detail, but every time they come back to you with questions. Or maybe you want to show someone a procedure but don’t have time or don’t want to schedule a GoToMeeting. Screen-capture software has been around for a while, but Jing rises above the rest because of its ease of use and the free hosting of your screen-capture videos on Screencast. We’ve had some great success in the past week creating Jing videos to demonstrate specific procedures for our clients – and with the Screencast hosting, we can quickly email the link or permanently place it into a list of FAQs.

Shortstack

Facebook is an essential item in the toolbox, so we’re all for anything that makes it more customizable and easier to use as a promotional tool. The folks over at Shortstack have created an easy way to create sweepstakes, voting forms, custom tabs and more – all with full design control in a drag-and-drop interface. No programming experience needed. We see endless possibilities to help our clients run contests and increase “Likes” by creating exclusive content behind a “Like” wall.

With so many social media platforms, review sites and business listings out there, controlling your online presence can feel like plugging leaks in a dam with your fingers.

Since consumers increasingly rely on the wisdom of the crowd to make decisions, businesses need to know what the crowd sees and thinks. This is especially critical for restaurants, retailers and service providers, but useful for other industries as well.

Here are four reasons why you should understand and control your online image.

1.       Put accurate information out there.

If you are not in control of your content on sites such as Yelp, Foursquare or Google Places, your customers can and will put up information about your business that they believe to be true. “We don’t manage our page,” will not mollify an angry customer who showed up an hour after closing based on faulty information on Yelp.

By claiming your Yelp Business page or managing your Foursquare Venue page, you can ensure customers have accurate information about hours, location and services provided.

2.       Track and engage.

On sites with check-in features, such as Facebook and Foursquare, managing the business page lets you see how many people are checking in at your business. Each check-in promotes your business across the site to the user’s friends.

With a review site like Yelp, claiming the business page lets you receive alerts when site users post reviews. A savvy page manager can engage with customers by sending them private or public messages about their reviews, encouraging feedback and being first on the scene to remedy misunderstandings.

3.       Online advertising platforms.

Both review sites like Yelp and social media platforms like Facebook and Foursquare offer unique opportunities for targeted ads and promotions. Knowing how to fully utilize these sites means that you can market directly to users who will actively engage with your business.

4.       It’s easy and informative.

On most sites it is easy to register and free to manage the business page. Most sites also offer tracking to help you learn more about your customer – for instance, Foursquare breaks down users who check-in by gender and age, and Yelp allows you to see what other businesses reviewers are visiting.

Maintenance of the business page can be as easy as an automated email report in your inbox daily, weekly or monthly. You only have to log in if the business information changes significantly.

Pivot is experienced at managing a variety of social media and review sites. Call or email us to learn more about the importance of controlling your online presence.