@rich-brooks I don’t have a success story yet because I just signed up for the service. My personal account,  http://pinterest.com/kristycartier/, will allow me to play around before posting to my association’s account, http://pinterest.com/ahaaorg/. With that account, I would like to gather our advertising and marketing agencies’ works as well as the works submitted for the U.S.H. Idea Awards. The main goal is to create engagement which might attract new members, sponsors and partners. I’ll follow this topic so I can pick up tips from the more experienced Pinterest SME’ers!

• Hype: It’s the latest bauble in social media
• Next big thing: I believe that Pinterest is here to stay. We have become a visual, short-attention span society. I mean, I could look at horse, architecture and landscape photography all day!
• Success story: none to report yet
• Marketing tip: Use Mashable, SME and other sights to find the high profile accounts and follow the boards that appeal to you. It’s similar to Twitter that way – find the big fish and follow. This will help you gain visibility. For trade associations, follow your members.
• URL: Please see my introduction above. 

@rich-brooks Just like @kc_kreative I am very new to Pinterest, and haven’t done much other than look at stuff that personally interests me.

I have a personal account, http://pinterest.com/username right now with almost nothing pinned. Right now I have other priorities, frankly. But, I agree with @kc_kreative and think it will be around; it might likely change up some, but visual methods work well.

I also appreciate her tips on gaining visibility.

i do think you area bit  off base…but  you arent a girl..,im  guessing  that   you  dont  like  to look at pictures of s hoes or  cute outfits..or  wall arrangements..or  collage   collections ….buti  can say for sure that  its  really  sweeping   my  market in a huge way..

.do  i have to have roi proof?….not  going to happen…but to me its a part of  the  web  of  my  website , my  facebook   and my  customers….its  kind of all   working  together …with pinterest  being the most  subtle…. 

im  getting    hits from  pinterest  to my website   every week…my customers are talking about it….one  said i was the place to go   to for  anyones  pinterest projects…another  plus for me is  education, i  can see  right into  the  trends im  selling in…  thats   great   market research….

my  business world is all about  visual, how  your house looks…and my  customers  CARE ABOUT THAT….  and  also  i have  huge   amount of  customers w ho  make u p  their own  recycling, rehabbing, projects and thats  huge on pinterest….and at our store….  so im hoping it  stays  around  and   that  my  website  keeps  spreading  thru the internet   thru  pinterest…like it has  been  for the last  few weeks…. i can see from  my statconter  how many hits i get…

heres my site….  http://www.pinterest.com/greenoakantiques/

i think its just  starting  and   will be  changing….i  cant see  any  copyright  problems in what ive pinned…. what  kind of   pins  are the problem  in that  way?    

@rich-brooks great  topic….love it!!!   cant  wiat to  read  everyones  view of this   wild  new  thing….. its just a baby so it will probably  be  changing…and ps….its  so fun on a personal level..

tip …dont have it all about your  business….  lots of my  boards are  very related to what our store is about but only  2  are   directly about us….

and…the  better  the  pictures the more  they get pinned…. i need to work on   those skills…..imho its all about the pictures…

I use Pinterest but not for marketing. I use it to organize resources for business and personal use. I like looking at some boards as they have great ideas.

I tried it, but whats the point of having followers, if you cant communicate with them?

@rich-brooks Great topic for discussion, Rich. I actually think Pinterest will hold tremendous potential for some businesses but it does boggle my mind to see how much hype and buzz it’s getting these days.

I even wrote a post on it two weeks ago: Pinterest for tourism: the best thing since vanilla?
And guess what? It generated the most traffic ever to my blog, like three times more than my usual unique visits! Sheer luck? Opportunistic timing? Perhaps. Still, you have to wonder…

Jokes aside, I really do believe a site like Pinterest can complement travel destinations that rely so much on aspirational visuals, evoke emotions and drive traffic to a site where a booking will take place. The demographics help too: between 80-95% are women, depending on which study or article you read. And we all know who take the decisions in most households, right?

Cheers,

@rich-brooks I do hope I do not make a fool of myself by admitting that prior to the discussion here in SME I have never ever heard of Pinterest…now I ask myself whether it is just me or the fact that Pinterest is, due to its sudden rise, still a phenomenon solely in the States, at least not in the European area? The other way round: Are there SME Club members from Europe knowing that service?

Nonetheless, now I know about it, my first impression is that Pinterest does not really add an up to now unknown value to the industry – looks a little that it is the hype that lets it go viral. Maybe we should discuss that service next March and look what is left.

I haven’t even given this a breath yet… adding it to the list but it’s not as though people are going to be loving up on pics of Blood Draws, yeee-uuuckkk!

Oddly, it feels like Pinterest may be facing a Napster-like beginning. Lots of people are flocking to it, but the intellectual property issues are serious. You’re supposed to have or secure the rights to anything you pin, and the Terms of Reference are pretty clear that you’re left holding the bag – not Pinterest. I think it will only be a matter of time before their model is truly tested. 
I’m a “wait and see” until that big hurdle is overcome.
trefor

socialcatalyst.ca 

Very interesting thread!
Here’s what I know.  Any environment filled with my target market, I want a presence there, even if that’s a bachelor watching party!
@rich-brooks I find it necessary for me (may not work for everyone) to seek out the balance of needing proof of a new network’s ROI value and simply jumping in because I know that the right people are there.  Either way it’s a risk.  On one hand, I don’t want to miss business transactions and networking opportunities, but on the other, I don’t want to waste time on a dead environment.
Sometimes It’s best to test the waters ourselves before passing judgment even if it is a bit risky.

@ericrandolph thats  how i feel too..i dont  quite see  exactly how  to use pinterest  the  best way, yet   etc….but  i know my  target   market is  there…BIG TIME…  so im  there too. ….and i  like it  too   for  my  personal interests….i wouldnt  expect to   see  real  roi   from there   but lots of good   indirect  pluses are already   becoming  apparant………

@juleswebb very interesting article and comments. 

@claudiapoeckl  I believe you have to tell FB or Twitter to link to each other by going into your settings.  My other suggestion would be to set your FB page as the place you post from and then try setting up your Pinterest account.  Don’t have any other ideas.  Does anyone else?

I just read Hubspot’s free Pinterest e-book and got a few good ideas for using Pinterest.

Color me conservative, but I’m with @treformunn-venn – I’ll hold off until I see what is going on with it. I’d love to do a number of user generated photos or something along those lines that give a visual to our loan and savings products, but with the potential for significant copyright abuse (and the failure of electronic systems to accurately judge true copyright violations – see here), this is just a can of worms waiting to be opened.

Further, I’m concerned because if we set up a contest, or link pictures say of a Ford Focus someone bought with their auto loan from Bellwether, will that result in that picture linking to Ford instead of our website? I’m not certain how “service industry” friendly this is going to be.

Jason

@dianebianchi, great suggestion to use FB as my page and try to log onto Pinterest. I immy tried this. But unfortunately, the system forces me to switch back to my personal profile. I guess we have to wait for Pinterest to grow further and open up to more ‘commerical’ use by businesses…

Great. Thank you, @dianebianchi! 

I tried it – that’s really cool!  Thanks @sharijstauch for sharing.

pinaquote is mentioned in that latest SME newsletter @sharijstauch

@Anitacohen-Williams. Thanks for the articles. Your point about the number of women on Pinterest is a good one that I can use in my business.