Heard all the buzz about Pinterest? Whether or not it’s just a fad, it seems to be a fact that Pinterest is good for business — at least for now. Mashable reports that web traffic from Pinterest at several top apparel retailers has cracked their top 5 traffic referrers and the amount of traffic referred has jumped 398% from July to December.

For the clients we’ve recently added to Pinterest, they too are seeing a traffic boost if the page is regularly maintained. Here’s more interesting reading on Pinterest for Business to get you started:

• Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers - Mashable
• 3 Ways to Use Pinterest for Business Right Now
• 9 Tips to Boost Your Business With Pinterest – Inc.com
• A PR Practioner’s Guide to Pinterest for Business – Step Ahead
• Pinterest for Business: Yes! – About.com Women in Business

By Lyn Mettler

Tired of hearing about Google Plus and how it’s the latest and greatest place to be on social media? Well, we’ve got a new one for ya: Pinterest. It’s a good bet that by now you’ve received an email inviting you to this popular new invitation-only social network, but if you’ve never heard of it, it’s time to sit up and take note.

Last month, Pinterest cracked the top 10 most visited social networks at No. 9, besting the latest social media darling Google Plus at No. 10. Time magazine also declared it one of the top five social networks for 2011.

So what is this Pinterest? At its most basic, Pinterest allows you to create virtual “pinboards” with images you come across on the web. Your “pinboards” center around a specific subject matter or topic, say Arts & Crafts homes you’ve come across, purses you love, places you’d like to visit, birthday party ideas, decor for your baby’s nursery, you get the idea…

But it’s a whole lot more than that and the real reason I’m telling you about it is because of its potential to generate results for your business. Pinterest is a social network, of course, so for starters, you can follow others and their boards and vice versa.

Typically, the way a person uses Pinterest is they log on view pins (images) from those they follow, check out Pinterest’s recommended pins and search within the site for images specific to what they’re looking for. There is also a “pin” for your browser’s toolbar that you can click when you come across something on the web you’d like to “pin” to one of your boards.

When you pin an image, you can attach a web address to it and even a price. So if you’re a retailer who sells shoes, you might want to load up boards of your different styles of shoes and maybe even outfits that would go great with your shoes. Attach prices and websites to your products, and when Pinterest users come across your images, they just might go to your website and even better, purchase the product. On top of that, they may “repin” your image to one of their boards, thus sharing it with all of their followers.

We had a retail-based client who recently set up a Pinterest profile, and within days they saw a big bump in traffic from the site and even a boost in sales, better than they see from either Facebook or Twitter. We had another client with a women’s product who saw nearly 100 hits on their site from one pin someone posted of their product.

To get properly introduced to Pinterest, get on the site and play around. If you need an invite, shout and I’ll invite you from my profile. Feel free to take a look at Step Ahead’s Pinterest page at Pinterest.com/StepAheadInc/ to get a feel for what a company can do. It’s not a great fit for every business, but certainly those who offer something visually appealing should definitely poke around Pinterest. Have fun!

Lyn Mettler is the owner of Step Ahead Inc, an Indianapolis and Charleston, SC-based company specializing in social media management for business. Email her atlmettler@stepaheadinc.com for your Pinterest invite!

A guest post from Cyndi Laurenti

Most people are familiar with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but many likely believe such services are simply used on an individual basis. In the beginning, these sites were primarily a way for individuals to keep in regular contact with friends and family, but things have changed.

Many higher education institutions from conventional colleges to online PhD programs are now also creating accounts to promote themselves. There are several things colleges can learn from businesses successful with their social media marketing campaigns.

What can colleges learn from businesses about social media promotion?

When colleges look at a business that operates a successful social media campaign, they’ll notice there are a few techniques nearly all businesses use. First, businesses give people some sort of incentive to “like” or follow them. Some businesses will give everyone some type of discount or credit for subscribing, and other businesses will have some type of sweepstakes that the 100th visitor, for example, will win. Colleges could offer similar incentives (textbook discounts, free school merchandise, etc.) to current or prospective students who connect and keep up with the schools’ social media presence.

Another thing colleges can learn from businesses about social media promotion is how to construct the social media page itself. Colleges should take note of how clearly businesses tell customers their mission statements and what products they offer. Colleges will also notice businesses (hopefully) all do an excellent job of making their contact information extremely easy to find.

What do colleges need to do differently in promoting themselves via social media?

It’s a great thing that more colleges are using social media to promote themselves, but they may not be doing it in the most effective manner. Many colleges appear to have just created a page to say they’re on Facebook or Twitter, but the information on the page isn’t all that useful or doesn’t encourage people to visit frequently.

Colleges need to get excited about venturing into the social media world and make it more than a weak gesture. This means they should post fresh content at least daily. Regular, interesting updates will get more interested visitors, lead to more subscriptions and keep visitors coming back.

What do colleges stand to gain by better using social media to promote themselves and connect with students?

When colleges use social media to promote themselves and connect with students, they’ll reap several benefits. One likely possibility is a substantial increase in enrollment. It’ll also be easier for current students to know exactly what is going on at the college on a regular basis, even as prospective applicants get a better sense of the school from the same source.

Any college that uses social media for promotion will definitely notice some gain in business, but the colleges that really take off with social media are the ones that actually put some effort into doing it right. When a college makes its social media pages actually interesting to read, people will want to check back on a regular basis. When people continue to visit a page, they’ll be a lot better able to form a clear picture of the school, and a lot more likely to choose that college.

Well, I’ve been saying for the last couple months, finally LinkedIn is worth coming back to for reasons besides job hunting, hiring or adding to your  network. The recent upgrades they’ve done to company pages are fantastic with the ability to add different services, associate company contacts with those services and even add videos about your company or products. But now, they’ve added the icing on the cake: LinkedIn Company Updates!

Just like you have a Facebook page for your business where you can post status updates, now you can post status updates to your LinkedIn company page. Here’s how it works:

• Pages set to “designated admins only” for page management now allow page “admins” (just like on Facebook) to post status updates.
• Go to your company’s overview tab and you’ll see a Share an Update field at the top.
• LinkedIn company updates can be up to 500 words.
• LinkedIn status updates can include multimedia, such as links to videos and photos.
• The updates appear in the homepage newsfeeds of your company’s “followers” (better get some followers now!)
• Followers can comment, “like” or share the post with their network.
• Whenever someone takes action, such as a like or comment, their network also  has the potential to see your page (again, just like Facebook).

Step Ahead’s Lyn Mettler recently talked with two different media outlets about how the new Facebook changes — from Timeline and the ticker to Smart Lists and the Newsfeed — affect businesses and their Facebook marketing strategy.

On the WISH TV interview, she quickly hit the highlights of the updates to educate the viewers about what to expect and how to make changes to the settings.

On INside Indiana Business, her article addresses specifically how each of the updates impact businesses and how they should alter their Facebook strategy.

Struggling to get a handle on all the changes Facebook recently made? Not sure how it impacts your company’s business page? We’ll walk you through the changes and answer any questions you have about the updates at an informal brown bag lunch at the Step Ahead office’s at the downtown Flagship.  We’ll also share with you our thoughts on how the changes affect your Facebook strategy.

The nitty gritty details:

Get a Grasp on Facebook’s Changes Brown Bag
Oct. 12  11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Flagship, 475 E. Bay Street (Corner of Calhoun & East Bay)
Parking: Gaillard Auditorium garage or Aquarium garage
$15/per person payable at the door, cash or check
RSVP to hold your spot by emailing info@stepaheadinc.com  (limited to 25)
Bring your own lunch!

I have read one too many articles lately that claim you just cannot measure success on social media, at least not yet, but rather it’s more about awareness, engaging loyal fans and customers, creating goodwill, etc.

While, yes, social media is about that, it’s also about RESULTS and yes you can measure that. I’ll tell you how in my weekly SocialMoms.com post. Read on!

Here in Indianapolis, we recently experienced one of the worst tragedies we have seen in years: the scaffolding collapsing on a crowd at the Indiana State Fair waiting to see country duo Sugarland. Six people have now died with many more injured and recovering.

David Lindquist, longtime music reporter at the Indianapolis Star, was on hand covering the concert for the paper, but quickly became witness to this disaster and found Twitter allowed him to report the story in real time to his followers, which grew from 2500 to 4000 in the ensuing days.

In an article today in the Indianapolis Star, Lindquist, @317lindquist on Twitter, recounted his experience and how he attempted to report on the tragedy live as it unfolded in front of him. His first tweet: “”Tragedy at fair concert. Entire stage collapses on track.” He was able to interview a few people at the event, including a videographer on tour with Sugarland, quoted as saying “This is as bad as it gets” — which served as the front page headline for the paper the next day.

Lindquist used his phone to report back to the paper, all the while tweeting what he saw and what he heard.

I’ve heard my friend and founder of TheDigitel, Ken Hawkins, who formerly worked at the daily paper the Charleston Post & Courier, say he felt social media would turn the average Joes into the witnesses and the information gatherers of news, a job formerly done by reporters, while journalists would become those who provide the context for that information, helping it make sense to readers and viewers. However, here, Lindquist found himself in the role of man on the ground and context provider.

In addition to reporting the story, he too became “the story” with countless media interviewing him about what he witnessed that night. He made appearances on “The Today Show” and “Entertainment Tonight” to tell his story.

What strikes me here is the powerful way this journalist was able to use social media to its fullest effect to get out information not as just a witness, but as a journalist trained to capture details, verify information and translate that into an understandable story to the public.

Without Twitter, we would have heard that story live on TV, some hour and a half after the event occurred, without the trained firsthand account he was able to provide. I was watching TV that night, and this was how long it took for them to report the story. The CNN email News Alert came at 10:13 p.m.; Lindquist’s first tweet above was at 8:54 p.m. Or we would have read about it next day when Lindquist was able to write a more finely crafted story of the night’s events.

Thanks to David and to Twitter for providing us reliable reporting and a vehicle to share the information immediately. While this is a case where Twitter is being used for good, it also reminds me how we’ve seen recently people using the tool to organize criminal activity and other inappropriate actions. Unfortunately, though, that is their right. Just as with free speech, we can say what we want, but we hope the best thoughts and actions rise to the top just like the admirable reporting the night of Aug. 13.

Google Plus is all the buzz in social media circles over the last week and a half and I got a chance to check it out recently.

After playing around in this latest social network, which is getting raves reviews from social media influencers, here’s my two cents on its potential uses for personal and business on my SocialMoms.com blog.

It’s hard to deny that social media is taking over the way we live, the way we do business, and the way we connect. Last year, Mashable announced the first ever Social Media Day to celebrate “the revolution of media becoming social.” Mashable challenged the online community to host Meet-Up events in their cities. Word spread fast about the newly declared holiday, and more than 600 meet-ups in 93 countries were set up to honor the social technologies we love. This year, Social Media Day will be held Thursday, June 30.

Step Ahead is excited to announce our second annual Social Media Day Meet-up event to represent the city of Charleston. We had such a great time last year connecting with other social media enthusiasts that we just had to do it again! This year, we will be celebrating at Uno Mas, located at 880 Allbritton Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. Make sure to take advantage of these awesome deals: $2 domestics, $3 happyritas, ½ off Sangria, ½ off guacamole and a $4 appetizer menu! We’ll also be giving away goodies from the Dine With Sal group who owns Uno Mas.

Connect with your online community offline, and meet us at Uno Mas from 5:30-7:30 p.m. for margaritas and awesome networking opportunities. Be sure to RSVP via our Facebook event page. We look forward to celebrating with you at our second social media fiesta!