Pinboards and Pictures The Future of Pinterest

By Michael Massey

Lifeboards. It’s not really a new concept. I’ve got one propped up on a book shelf now that I started and stopped working on several months ago because it became too much of a pain in the ass to cut out pictures and write in a diary everyday. I’m more of an immediate pleasure kind of guy that wants everyone to see what I’m doing 24/7.

Pinterest is great for egoists like me. It allows you to create multiple virtual lifeboards, share and post pictures and create inspiration for others and yourself.

Ben Silberman, CEO and co-founder says: “I realized that people were using it for projects that were important in their real lives.” Once Pinterest began growing, it didn’t stop. Since inception, the site has added an estimated 40% to 50% more subscribers each month.

The burning questions you should ask yourself:

1) What does the future hold for yet another social media application?

2) How can a business use it as part of their media mix?

What makes this unique is that you customize your boards and title them the way you like, reposting pictures is easy and requires no technical knowledge and it’s a snap to feed this into your Facebook and Twitter feed. As long as users continue to check out favorite travel places, fitness tips and chocolate cake recipes it has a future. Hell. It’s free to use.

And since it’s free to use, any small business can use it to build buzz through contests and stunning visuals that can position your enterprise any way you like. See what I mean. Makes you want to book a flight today, doesn’t it:

My passport and running gear are calling me (see above) so I’ll be pinning pics of a road race in Bali. What about you?

Changing It Up

By Chrissie VanWormer

Sometimes we get complacent. You know what I mean. You’ve got a good business, good clients, good cash flow and all is well with the world. That was my 2011. I was content for the first time in a while and had a bit of time to have some fun. I wasn’t thrilled with parts of what I was doing but I was finally making some decent money. Then…BAM…2012 came in like a lion. Let me just back up and say that I had set my intention for 2012 to really change it up. I put it out to the universe that I wanted to grow personally, grow my business, and finally find my life’s purpose. But I forgot to ask it the change would come with grace and ease. That was my mistake!

Shortly after the beginning of the year, we were notified that a very large account was being pulled back and away in another direction. My heart sank. My stomach sank. I felt a little sick, a slight bit depressed and maybe a tad bit angry if I will let myself admit that. We worked hard for that client and went above and beyond at all times. The change had nothing to do with what we did or didn’t do. It just happened. Life happened.

I needed time to think.

About two days later, as I sat eating a lunch time salad, I had an epiphany. The feeling came in like a lightning bolt and I was suddenly 100% aware that the change was nothing but good. Good for me, good for our business, maybe even good for the world. Well, I probably shouldn’t go that far but I’ll tell you one thing…the whole experience made me re-think and re-direct my thought processes. I had been buried in minutia for two years which didn’t make me happy but the money was good so I kept at it. We had been handed the opportunity to change it up.

The excellent part of all of this is that we are really being forced to think out of the box relative to finding new clients and a new direction. We’re even re-branding our business and becoming more of who we want to be as a business and individuals. A very wise friend of mine regularly says, “Whoa, wait a minute, let’s back up and look at that again.” I’ve never been keen on looking backward but I have to admit, hindsight really is 20/20. We’re looking at where we’ve been, looking at where we want to go and finding the path to get there. Is it scary? Darn right it is but it’s exhilarating. And anything that’s new and unfamiliar is a bit scary but growth doesn’t come from stagnation. Growth comes from shaking it up, moving out of the familiar, and changing it up.