Pinterest, the very popular social bookmarking site, is well known to many but a bit more difficult to grasp for some. Below you'll find a list of people who are great both for beginner pinners and pros. The best way to learn the game is to play, so sign up already and get to pinning.  

Ben Silbermann

As CEO of Pinterest, Ben is a power pinner with almost 4,000 pins in a variety of genres and interests. His boards also are perfect for the minority of Pinterest users — men. Some of his best boards include “You can’t have too many t-shirts,” “Infographicon” and “Man Crafts.”

http://pinterest.com/ben/

West Elm

This upscale-furniture brand REALLY gets Pinterest, and with 8,658 followers, it shows. Do you ever think to yourself,  “Hmm, I wonder what I could do with chevron stripes in the living room?” Look no further. West Elm has you covered with their “Chevron” board. The best thing about this brand is that they obey the unspoken (well, sometimes spoken) rule of Pinterest: Don’t just promote yourself; be an inspiration.

http://pinterest.com/westelm/

Bonus Tip: If you’re a brand, claim your page now. You’ll be glad you did down the road.

Keegan Adriance

According to Keegan’s profile, he’s a designer and student from Spring Arbor, MI. His boards are great for beginners and certified pin-addicts. He keeps his boards simple and straightforward with names, such as “Tilt-Shift Inspiration,” “Illustration” and “Food.”

http://pinterest.com/keeganadriance/

Susan Gregg Koger

The founder of ModClothe, a popular vintage-inspired clothing website, is already a pro at using social media to promote her business. Susan shows she knows how to use Pinterest the right way, too. Pinterest users heavily frown upon promoting one’s own products. So, Susan’s boards are all about things she personally loves. For example, her “lovely vintage,” “50’s and 60’s inspiration” and “cute hair” boards are especially fun and quirky, just like her brand.

http://pinterest.com/susangkoger/

Joy Cho

Joy’s Pinterest account is an explosion of all that is sparkly, yummy, pretty and fun. She has a little bit of this and a little bit of that with boards ranging from “Cute Overload” and “Florals” to “Photography” and “Typography.” She’s an accumulation of everything that has propelled Pinterest into the spotlight and is a great person to follow.

 http://pinterest.com/ohjoy/

Christine Martinez

Pinterest is more than pinning pictures, it’s for video, too. Christine pins her favorite YouTube videos to share. If you’re an avid Instagram user, keep all of your Instagram pictures in one place like Christine. She has a “The Dogs of Instagram” board that’s worth checking out.

http://pinterest.com/chrisem/

Bonus Tip: To create your own Instagram portfolio, publish your Instagram pictures via Twitter, Facebook or blog. Then, click on the link and pin. You can’t pull pins directly from Facebook. So, you’ll need to click the link below the picture. You also can pin your Instagram pictures from Statigram, a site that displays and gives you stats on your Instagram photos. The site also lets users view the pictures they follow and comment directly on the site — no autocorrects!

Michael Gass

I stumbled across Michael’s board about agency interiors and thought Rockfish would make a great addition, especially with the new offices that we opened this year.  It also is fun to see how the “other side” lives and get design inspiration..

http://pinterest.com/michaelgass/

Water.org

This non-profit is curating its boards with things they care about and love. Their boards revolve around water, their mission and ways to help. Followers will see pictures of beautiful ocean scenes along side facts about drinking water across the globe. This is one collection of pins everyone can get behind.

http://pinterest.com/waterdotorg/

Roadtrippers

This start-up is all about travel and leisure, bringing a sense of wanderlust to its boards. For anyone itching to find a new destination, check out its “On (and off) the Road” board. Roadtrippers also pins pictures from its own trips. So, if you’re stuck in the office, you can live vicariously through these professional travelers.

http://pinterest.com/roadtrippers/

Brand Ventures is going strong in it's first year, from inception in March to investing in 3 startups including, Tap.Me, MomentFeed and Promoboxx. One of the benefits of working with these startups is getting to know the founders and learning from their unique point-of-view. Rob Reed, CEO of Momentfeed, recently released a whitepaper titled The SoLoMo Manifesto which takes an indepth look at the intersection of social, mobile and local. Reed begins by saying:

"Social. Local. Mobile. These are the sweeping trends in marketing today and for the foreseeable future. In terms of media consumption, they've come to dominate consumer attention. In terms of targeting and communication, they've opened dynamic new channels. In terms of data and measurement, they are nothing short of revolutionary. And in terms of technology, they are disrutping entire industries. While each is a powerful force unto itself, the focus of this paper is on their nexus". 



The SoLoMo Manifesto looks at location-based engagement as a new marketing channel by reviewing major platforms, applications and contexual layers. Reed also highlights the challenges that marketers will face and the new opportunities that are being presented. Even if you're not a digital marketer you might stumble across a platform that you haven't used before (Are you on Localmind?). 

This is a light read packed with tons of great information for any one in the space. You can download a digital copy here. 

Have you ever baked a dozen cupcakes for a stranger and delivered them for $20? Or maybe you couldn’t get those concert tickets you really wanted, but found them for the exact amount that you were willing to pay (and $50 under what they originally cost) from someone you’ve never met? If so, you may have used Zaarly, a virtual marketplace for the buying and selling of pretty much anything. The startup has only existed for 7 months and already has a solid base of passionate users and is a popular subject of both tech and retail reporters across the country. Their success can be partially attributed to stellar PR efforts, a subject that often befuddles startup founders. I was lucky enough to sit in on a presentation by Heather Whaling (or @prtini) from Geben Communications, a PR agency in Columbus, Ohio. Below are the top 4 takeaways from Heather’s case study on Zaarly and for more information, check out the Slideshare below.  

1.    Craft consumer friendly messaging – Simplifying your company’s communication means losing the industry talk and keeping the message simple and flexible. Illustrating what your company does with a colorful story is much more PR friendly than a four line description from CrunchBase.

2.     Act as your own media – Creating content is half the battle and social media is the perfect channel to spread the word. Building this into your launch will help keep your communications on track. Also, don’t forget to keep everyone in your organization in the loop too.

3.     Use social media to track media – Twitter is an ideal way to both learn about what reporters are interested in reporting and a perfect way to initially reach out to them. The list function also makes it easy to privately or publically group together reporters who are at the top of your list. Sidenote: Many reporters also have their own public pages on Facebook, with the advent of Facebook subscriptions. For example, Liz Heron, Social Media Editor for the NYT, is always updating her page and there’s always a lot of conversation happening in her posts.

4.     Find the right person, not the right firm – There seems to be a lot of disagreement in the startup world over whether or not to hire a PR firm. Working with startups and in PR, my opinion is that a company should base this on their individual needs and goals. Zaarly wanted to scale quickly and carefully planned PR – with a bit of luck – helped them achieve what they are today. Heather’s point is that startups shouldn’t hire a PR firm based on their accolades, but instead of on how the individual handling their account would fit into their own organization. As a small business owner, Heather is passionate about startups and isn’t a stranger to hustling and pivoting, like so many startup founders. So hire the person, not the firm. 

Written by Becky Gruebmeyer, Technical Strategy Architect

When people reference “digital marketing”, the first thought is regarding websites, banner ads and anything online, but digital marketing can be extended to include so much more!  

There has been a lot of discussion around QR codes as they slowly emerge in the United States.  Companies are beginning to place QR codes on packaging and incorporate them into their advertising campaigns, but one company in South Korea has taken QR codes to another level. 

                                                                              

Tesco has created a virtual store and they are seeing amazing results!  The store has no real products on their shelves.  Their shelves are pictures of the products with a QR code displaying next to them.  Consumers scan the codes for all of the items they want to order.  The items are dropped into their shopping cart on their mobile device.  They can then schedule a delivery time and pay for their order all via their mobile phone.  This is a great example of taking print media to digital media using an innovative idea!

Looking around, you can find many new technologies emerging to blend the line between print and digital media.  Scrolling through Seventeen Magazine, you may run across an ad with a Digimarc tagline included.  Digimarc has created a technology that allows for a watermark to be included in print that is not noticed by the consumer.  This allows for companies to develop print advertising with the same appearance, but allow the consumer to get additional information on their mobile phone by simply pointing at the page with the watermark using Digimarc’s free app.

Another company pushing the edge of digital technologies can be found in Americhip. Their whole goal is “finding ways to blend these technologies into a sensory showcase”.  Imagine opening a brochure to see a video playing.  What if you could turn the page of a magazine to hear music playing and experience the smell of your favorite drink? 

Technology encompasses so many areas in digital marketing.  How can you push the edge to bring another dimension to your business?  What other great use of technology have you seen at work?

This post originally appeared on iMedia Connection as a featured article and was written by Wade Allen, President of CouponFactory. 

If you haven't noticed, an abundance of coupon and daily-deal sites have descended upon us with stealth speed. Combine the popular kids of the group like Groupon, Foursquare, and Yelp with the constant rumors of other online players moving into the space and the list goes on and on, and then on some more.  

To put it all out on the table -- consumers have grown to expect discounts and are more than willing to switch to brands and products that provide the best deals. But what's really fueling the fire behind the demand and how can brands and retailers regain control of what feels like an out of control discounting spiral?

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. What's driving the consumer to seek discounts? 

Here are four factors that are likely the driving forces behind the couponing epidemic (or windfall for you deal addicts): 

Economic slowdown
2007 was the year the proverbial music died. The financial bubble-burst left us all in shock, and the after-effects left most people scrambling to adapt. In times like those, the thrifty tend to thrive, and so couponing became a key strategy for consumers looking to stretch their dollars to the limit. Even now, as the economy rebounds, couponing and deal seeking continue to flourish. According to the comScore study below, 66 percent of consumers said they used coupons in July 2010, compared with 59 percent two years earlier. The percentage of respondents who reported shopping online for deals increased from 24 percent in 2008 to 32 percent in 2010.

The explosion of social media 
The mass adoption of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and others has created a digitally social audience that has never been seen before. To put this in perspective, keep in mind that Facebook grew from 27 million users in July 2008 to over 150 million in July 2011. That's not just you on a social network -- but your mother, brother, sorority, bowling league, and probably your old eighth-grade math teacher.

What's more important than the quantity of users is that those users are consumers, and consumers are now engaging brands on social media networks. They're also looking for more than just content. Simply put, "likes," retweets, and mayorships aren't enough any longer; it's about added value, and this is where discounts are king. According to a study by Merkle, consumers (aka, social media users) who choose to become a fan of a brand on Facebook most often do so to receive exclusive deals and offers, including coupons.

The digitization of coupons and deals
To capture this movement, more and more brands and retailers made their coupons and deals available online. Daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial have helped popularize digital coupons while offering some fun content alongside it.

This led consumers to embrace digital couponing at a staggering rate. eMarketer forecasts that 47 percent of U.S. adult internet users (approximately 88.2 million individuals) will use online coupons in 2011. Another study by Experian Simmons found that the percentage of households using print coupons has not changed much since 2005, but the percentage of households using digital coupons has risen 83.3 percent.

Smartphone usage
With smartphone penetration hovering around 40 percent and with another estimated 10 percent gain for the end of this year, consumers are poised to receive mobile coupons in a massive way. Additionally, while mobile coupons only represent a small share of digital coupons, they have enormous potential to become the couponing medium of choice in the near future. Because mobile coupons influence a consumer in the midst of making a purchase decision, retailers and brands are beginning to experiment with this type of delivery standard. Imagine how great it would be to unlock a 20 percent discount while standing in line at a local restaurant. The best part about it all is that a customer can gain access to said discount with only a quick download of an app or a check-in, which takes only a matter of seconds. While understanding this new phenomenon helps bring some clarity to consumer behavior, it doesn't truly clear the fog when it comes to how brands and retailers can develop an effective coupon/deal strategic plan.

History is telling 
As many historians would agree -- it is critical to learn from the past. Believe it or not, there's a rich heritage and history surrounding the appropriate and inappropriate use of coupons and deals. More than 120 years of trial and error, by tens of thousands of brands and retailers, actually holds the secret to how smart coupon and deal offering can be achieved.

Much like how they're used today, coupons were first developed to drive product trial, encourage product use, and gain market share. In 1888, a very clever man by the name of Asa Candler used the first paper ticket coupon for a free glass of Coke to help market the new soda and unknowingly started a revolution, in more ways than one. By 1909, C.W. Post provided the public with 1-cent coupons to promote Grape Nuts cereal, which was likely considered an epic deal at the time. By 1940, big chain grocery stores jumped on the bandwagon and began using coupons to attract consumers away from purchasing at local markets. Then in the 1990s, customer-centric marketers used coupons to surprise their best customers in an effort create customer loyalty and re-engage valuable customers.

Today, the social media explosion requires brands and retailers to entice their followers with coupons and deals to create positive social sentiment.

Despite many cut-and-dry examples of couponing and deal offering, lots of retailers and brands simply see it as a means to buy future sales and tend to over-coupon. Have you ever heard of too much of a good thing?This is true in the case of coupon saturation because it has created a new breed of deal-seeking consumers. TLC recently launched a series, called "Extreme Couponing,"  about everyday customers gaming the system and saving hundreds of dollars. While this was not the intent of the brands and retailers that issued the coupons, these die-hard coupon-cutting hustlers provide a powerful example of why coupons and deals should be strategically delivered.

The future
No one can predict the future, but I think it's safe to say that couponing is here to stay. Communication media will evolve and tactics may vary, but brands and retailers will continue to use coupons and deals to drive customers to purchase. Doing this the smart way will require retailers and brands to recognize consumer demand, leverage historical data, and adapt a coupon supply strategy that delivers customer incentives effectively. Now ask yourself: Is your brand winning or losing in the coupon and deal game?