A cute infographic we created at OpenX for New York Advertising Week this year.

It seems in the space of just a few weeks Pinterest has risen from a little-known site to a front-of-mind social media platform. It’s certainly now considered one that should be in the tool box of any savvy social media pro.

So what really is the significance of this picture-sharing site, and how are people deploying the use of it as part of the social stack?

For those new to the platform, it can be described as a stylish way to share, like and group, images and infographics. You can ‘pin’ content on boards, categorizing and naming in any way you like. You are able to upload images direct from your phone and computer, or simply use images from other Pinterest users. With an estimated 7.2 million unique visitors already pinning content it’s undeniably growing in popularity, despite still having an ‘invite only’ admission policy. (Not a user yet? Drop me an email and I’ll happily send you an invite.)

Pinterest is being used well by brands like Whole Foods

There are limitations for brands using Pinterest, and it seems that users are prevented from simply sharing images of products that are deemed directly promotional. However, creating communities around the ideas or lifestyle of your brand is acceptable. For example, if you’re a property company specializing in seaside properties in England, then you could create a series of boards showcasing some spectacular coastal scenic views to whet people’s appetites.

A good example of creative use is by Whole Foods who have created a series of boards around recycling matters, art initiatives and more as a way to promote its brand values and demonstrate is commitment to relevant associated issues.

I could imagine a brand like TOMS shoes – who, upon purchase, give customers a branded flag, encouraging them to take a picture of it at a unique location – using the best submitted pictures here, offering incentives to users whose pictures are selected. Or perhaps you might consider a series of ‘how to’ infographics that relate to your product and that cover set-up, Q&As and trouble-shooting.  What will you do with Pinterest?

Co-founder Noah Brier explains how the Percolate algorithm helps brands to be social at scale. Used by companies including American Express and Reuters, Percolate finds relevant content from around the web and feeds it back to a brand editor to add comments, before publishing back out to social channels and websites. Source: Adweek

One important thing to mention here is that any social media strategy needs to be developed with full consideration of your business, organisation or mission aims. Without this planning you are simply wasting your time.

Once you – or your consultant – have spent the time building your strategy, and you’re still seeing a slower level of growth than you’d like, there are various ways you can help accelerate your number of followers.

Innovate and be creative
Remember to be creative about how you use social media, and be sure to use it as an opportunity to extend your brand’s personality and message. Spend some time understanding what your competitors are doing, and identify how you can be better and quicker than them. For instance, you may want to explore giveaways, or rewards to those that engage with you on social media – this is generally a fairly good way to build a loyal and engaged following. Perhaps you could host a live Q&A session for your followers to discuss some of the issues affecting your area of focus, or maybe develop associations and partnerships with other prominent players in your space.

Listen and respond
Aside from just listening to conversations and reacting to those discussing your brand or project, explore how social media could assist you in your product development process and offer your followers a chance to be part of defining some part of what you do by crowd-sourcing their input. This was a successful strategy used by Kodak recently as they developed a closer relationship with customers by appealing for, and integrating, suggestions for future product modification.

Still need more followers?
There are a myriad products and platforms out there that will enable you to simply buy followers (just search ‘how do I get 10,000 followers’ in your search bar and see just some of them), but you need to be serious about the quality of followers you are building this way. Having 100 advocates who are regularly discussing you is going to do a lot more for your brand awareness, volume and reach than 1,000 who have no idea who you are or what you do. Another route to generating a community of suitable followers is to take advantage of Twitter’s Promoted Account advertising. Still in beta testing and available to just a select few, this is a way of gaining followers based on pre-determined criteria such as geographic region or keyword relevance. The pay-per-engagement model means that you only spend money as you get results.

A key thing I always advocate is that it’s better to focus on community-building, rather than metric building. If you are using social media as a tool to stimulate discussion, interact and offer valuable content deemed to have high authority in your subject, you will see a healthy level of growth of followers that will be an asset to your community.

Need help building a social media strategy and growing followers? Get in touch.

Twitter has naturally been very cautious in keeping a tight control over how this rolls out in order to prevent any negative consumer reaction and, as such, have limited access to a select number of brands this year. Over the past few months I secured participation in the beta testing program on behalf of a world-leading digital advertising company, allowing us to take advantage of Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets. The third area that is currently available for promotion is that of ‘Promoted Trends’, typically being deployed by brands releasing films, video games and other one-off products that can warrant the $100K+ cost-per-day basis.

Through running a series of tester campaigns, I’ve had the opportunity to try out some of the following Promoted Account and Tweet campaigns:

Promoted Account campaigns that:

-       Gave visibility to the followers of competitor brands.

-       Targeted the followers of relevant industry journalists, bloggers and analysts.

-       Positioned the brand in front of those searching for relevant keywords typical in our industry.

Promoted Tweets that:

-       Would be viewed by the brand’s followers, regardless of when they might be viewing Twitter content.

-       Shared positive endorsement of the brand in front of users who we know might be searching for or following our competitors.

-       Were targeted to particular countries using local language for maximum effect.

With reported engagement rates of up to 11% by some, I’m pleased to say that I’ve seen rates slightly north of this for some of our Promoted Tweet campaigns and follow rates of up to ten times the suggested average for the Promoted Account campaigns. There are plenty of case studies on Twitter’s blog here that make for encouraging reading too.

So, what of the consumer reaction to these types of promoted content? A recent Lab42 study showed some interesting results.  48% of respondents indicated that they had seen a promoted Tweet from a brand they consider relevant to them, and 42% have received discounted offers via promoted Tweets. Compare these figures with the 21% of US users who suggest that Promoted Tweets are “annoying and take away from the Twitter experience” and you have a fairly good indication that Twitter is close to getting it right.

As we head into 2012 I fully expect to see more promoted activity and higher levels of creativity around how campaigns are being executed by brands. Looking to maximise your brand on Twitter, drive new followers and improve your content? Get in touch. You can also register your interest in using the promoted products here.

Tweetdeck – I personally prefer the iPhone app rather than the desktop platform, but regardless it still provides a good way to keep up-to-date with conversations and keywords on the move or at your desk. Widely used, and recognised as one of the better tools out there, the company was recently acquired by Twitter (May 2011) as they build out their user management and analytics capability.

Ubersocial – ‘the world’s most popular full-featured Twitter app’. With versions for iPhone, Blackberry and Android, Ubersocial helps find the world’s best Tweeters on particular topics, and aims to generate followers amongst those keen to hear what they say.

Tweeteffect – want to know which of your latest Tweets generated most followers? Or perhaps see what may have caused some of them to stop following you? I find this tool a little unreliable, but can still provide a good indication of what content your followers are likely to be turned on and off by.

Klout – find out the influence your social channels have with Klout’s scoring system. Some recent changes in how they calculate scores downgraded a lot of people’s scores, but this is still a good tool to see who you most influence, and in what subject areas. This is useful as you manage your influencer lists and identify who in your follower base is most responsive to your content. Also, if you’re an ‘influencer’ in certain topics, you could qualify for special offers and gifts through the ‘perks’ program.

Have a suggestion that I didn’t include? Tweet me @JamesAldousPR and let me know.

The mission of SMW is to connect and explore the ways that societies, cultures and economies are becoming better connected and empowered through the opportunities for global communication.

Here in LA alone there will be 75 events over the five days (spanning 470 square miles!) that have been cultivated into the following three themes: entertainment, marketing and social media for social good. Particularly, I’m looking forward to participating in the following:

• Sustainability 2.0: Harnessing the Power of Social Media to Promote Change with contributions from Pegasus Capital Advisors, USC and Tecnospot Solar.
• ROI in Social Media to discuss the many different ways you can measure results and performance of your social media strategies.
• Pick Me! The Ins and Outs of Influencer Outreach for a focus on how best to communicate with your ‘key influencer’ community and then measure the impact created after you’ve succeeded in engaging them.

For a full list of activities and events, see HERE and be sure to follow the SMW hashtags throughout. You can follow the @SMWLA handle for latest news and updates live from the sessions too.

Glen D’Souza and Mike Takasaki for agency Lowe Roche (@loweroche) created a pretty unique campaign utilizing window boards with growing bacteria in the form of the film title treatment. The board itself was put together by CURB (@curbcrawling), with the help of a few micro-biologists along the way who used all sorts of growing bacteria to create the effect. Check out the short film for the behind-the-scenes work, and the public reaction on the streets of Toronto. An awesome idea that was a perfect match to the film’s content.

Since arriving in Los Angeles a little over five months ago, I’ve been amazed at the wide array of diverse communities from differing cultures who call LA their home, adding vibrancy to this place often referred to as “culturally flat”.

Beyond the more obvious Chinatown and Koreatown, there is the Armenian community in Glendale, and the Russians in West Hollywood (the most concentrated single Russian-speaking region in the US outside of New York), all adding to a rich tapestry of culture and style that imbues this sprawling metropolis.

Each community brings diverse cultures, customs and – in some cases – leave indelible marks of their contribution to this city. None more so than individuals arriving here from the UK, who have made significant additions, not just creatively in the entertainment industry in the studios of Hollywood and beyond, but contributions that have shaped the very fabric and physical manifestation of this city.

William Mulholland (1855–1935)

Many will be familiar with Mulholland Drive – the scenic road of twisting turns and hairpin bends that runs through the hills of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and beyond, providing breath-taking views of the city on a clear day. Mulholland’s name was given to this road after his role in bringing much-needed water to the city along this pass in the form of The Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed in 1913.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mulholland arrived in Los Angeles in 1877 after a period with the British Merchant Navy. Settling here, his career never ventured far from water and on his way to find work on a ship, he took a job digging a well.

From there, he rose to become the head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, where his work in acquiring water for the city was not without controversy. The water was sourced from the Owens Valley – both the lake and the river – creating anger amongst the farmers who depended on it, and triggering the “California Water Wars”.

His career ended abruptly in 1928 after the collapse of the St. Francis Dam, which killed hundreds and is often cited as the worst US civil engineering disaster of the 20th Century. Those that have seen the iconic Roman Polanski film Chinatown will recognize the familiarity of Mulholland’s history in the character of Henry Mulray, which was based loosely upon him.

Griffith J. Griffith (1850-1919)

Born in Bettws, South Wales, Griffith settled in Los Angeles in 1882 after living in Pennsylvania and San Francisco. After a career as the mining correspondent for a San Francisco newspaper, Griffith earned his money though employment by various mining companies, keen to acquire his knowledge of the industry.

Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles he purchased 4,000 acres of the Rancho Los Feliz Mexican land grant, and later donated over 3,000 acres to the city of Los Angeles for use as a public park in 1896. To honour the donation, the park took the name “Griffith Park”. It is a space five times that of New York’s Central Park, and where the Hollywood sign resides.

His good name was tainted in 1903 when he shot his wife at the Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica, leaving her alive but disfigured after the loss of an eye. A heavy drinker – and subject to paranoid delusions – the reason for his attempt on her life was due to his belief that his wife and the Pope were conspiring to poison him.

After two years in prison, Griffith returned to Los Angeles and, attempting to make good again his name, offered money to build a theatre and hall of science within Griffith Park. Although initially rejected, the city eventually took the bulk of the $1.5 million estate bequeathed in his will, using it to build the Greek Theater (1929) and the Griffith Observatory (1935), which remain popular facilities to this day.

John Parkinson (1861-1935)

A celebrated architect who created the iconic Los Angeles City Hall and Central Station, Parkinson was born in Scorton, Lancashire and began his life as a builder in Bolton, before coming to North America at the age of 21. Settling in Los Angeles in 1894, he established his architectural practise in Downtown Los Angeles.

Parkinson brought the first skyscraper to Los Angeles – the Braly Block at 408 South Spring Street, standing some 175 feet high and completed in 1904.

However it was City Hall that dominated the Downtown landscape from its completion in 1928 (co-designed with Albert C. Martin and John C. Austin), until the law stipulating it should the tallest building in Los Angeles was changed in 1956, making way for the high risers that now occupy the area.

David Hockney (1937 to present)

Hockney’s visuals are as typically LA as the Hollywood sign or Sunset Boulevard. The ability to capture the area’s unique colours, the bright blissful blues of the sky and swimming pools especially, are what have helped define this enfant terrible of 1960s pop art culture. He sometimes refers to himself as an “English Los Angelino”, saying of LA:

“There’s a quite sophisticated city out there, yet you can live privately in it.”

Born and schooled in Bradford, he has lived in the Hollywood Hills since 1978. He now spends a lot of his time in Yorkshire, as he prepares for an exhibition at the Royal Academy, due to open in January 2012.

Christopher Isherwood (1904– 1986)

Isherwood, born in Cheshire and settling in Los Angeles in 1939, remarked in his diary that it was “perhaps the ugliest city on earth” and that he was “amazed at the size of the city and its lack of shape”.

Isherwood came to love the place eventually through the interesting characters he met and socialized with there – Tennessee Williams, Bertholt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo amongst them. He would later say that he felt there was no point justifying the allure of the city to people: “either they understand it’s the only place or they don’t”.

Although his observations of California don’t feature in the early works for which he is most known, he did create some of his finest material here including A Single Man, a semi-autobiographical work.

Aldous Huxley

Similarly taking an immediate dislike to the city on first arrival, Huxley called Los Angeles the “city of dreadful joy”, where “thought is barred” and “conversation is unknown”, in his essay Los Angeles. A Rhapsody. He also talked of the strange religions and assembly-line movie making which permeated the city.

However, he was amused by all the differences and interests, “There is everything in Los Angeles…like Venice in 17th century – where East and West would meet and everything would happen here.”

James Aldous, who works in communications, recently moved to Los Angeles. You can follow him on Twitter here.