Pinterest is an emerging platform enjoying a lot of excitement and speculation as to how this social channel will benefit businesses.  There are also lots of mistakes, confusion and fear surrounding this new item. Some basic instructions for actually creating the right Pinterest account:

STEP #1: Request an Invitation
Pinterest is not open to the general public so don’t expect to sign up for an account without some work.  There are two ways to start a Pinterest account for your business: 1) Request an invitation directly from Pinterest OR 2) Get invited by a friend who already has an account.

If you request an invitation directly from Pinterest it can take as little as one day or as long as several weeks before your request is approved.  This can be a bit annoying if you’re excited to get started but rest assure you will be approved eventually.

STEP #2: Receive Invitation and Create Account
Once you’ve received your invitation, either from Pinterest or another Pinterest user, simply click on the link provided in your email invitation.

When you click on the link you’ll be brought to a welcome page on Pinterest. From here you will need to sign up with either Facebook or Twitter.

NOTE: Pinterest is designed for individuals and not businesses. If you sign up for Pinterest through your Facebook account your Pinterest account will be directly linked to your personal Facebook profile and not your businesses Facebook Page.  Because of this I highly recommend you sign up for Pinterest using your business Twitter account.

STEP #3: Click 10 Pins that Fit your Businesses Personality The next step is where the fun begins! Pinterest wants to know a bit more about you so they can suggest Pinners you might want to follow and figure out what Pinners might share interests with you.  Take time to select 10 images that fit well with your brand.

STEP #4: Create First Boards Now you get to create boards. Pinterest boards are where you will pin images so take time to figure out what types of boards would make the most sense and appeal to your audience. New boards can be added any time so don’t rush the process. 

STEP #5:  Build About Section This is a very important step! Pinterest was designed with the individual in mind. Don’t go through the process to quickly and accidentally enter your actual name or personal information instead of the business.  If your business is Bluesky Web Company enter the first name as “Bluesky” and last name as “Web Company”.  Whatever you enter as first and last name will be what appears at the top of your organizations Pinterest account.  In addition, this is how people will find you when they enter your organizations name in the search box.

Provide a complete and accurate About section and always include your website. This is how Pinterest users will know who you are, what you do and how to find you.

STEP #6:  Start Pinning Now you can finally start Pinning images.  But before you get going make sure you know the best types of images to pin, times, frequency and how to optimize all of your pins!

Magically move photos from your phone to your printer with Bump. You just bump your phone on the spacebar of your computer and print. Available for iPhone and Android.

We’re still using business cards, and that’s too bad. They’re a pain to order, a mess to keep track of, and a hassle to enter into your digital address book. With Bump, you and anyone else running the app just tap phones and all your contact info is automatically exchanged.

Bump is a free app that makes it easy for iPhone and iPod Touch users running it on their device to exchange contact information by bumping the devices between them. Two users run Bump at the same time, "bump" their device to one another and the application offers the possibility to exchange contact information. That's it.

The app needs a stable internet connection, be it WIFI or 3G for the iphone to connect and upload and download contact information. When you start the application, it connects to the server and asked you to select the contact information to be available for exchange. After connecting two iPhones to the Bump server, a mere waving of the two devices did the trick. The sharing screen pops up and the exchange is made with a flick of the finger, the whole process taking no longer than a couple of seconds.

The small company says that the privacy of your data and contact information is totally secured, no one can see it, accept after you approve the transfer to the other Bump device. The application sends an encrypted connection to the server and then uses location data to determine whether there is another device running the same app attempting to share information. Mighty cool!

Skypers talk to Skypers and Facetimers talk to Facetimers, but video chatting still can't rival the ease of picking up a phone. Right?

Not now! Meetings.io starts a video chat between you and up to five people in two simple steps: 1. Press button to generate link to video chat; 2. Share link. That’s it. No registering, no logging in, no screen names to remember. Just click and start.
 
Your screen automatically resizes to accommodate participants as they come and go, and there are cool little add-ons like a notepad for personal memos and a messenger space for personal comments.

If you did want to register for an account (it’s free!) you can create your own “vanity room,” meaning you could simply say, “Meet me at 7:00 in The Netted Chat Room. And BYO lounge chair!”

You may have heard that using free Wi-Fi is the same as SHOUTING everything you're typing out loud across the planet.

A service called Spotflux is perfect for use in airports, hotels, and that cafe around the corner where you may nestle in to get some work done.

Spotflux is a free download available (for both Mac and PC), that ensures your Internet usage is protected even when sharing a connection with total strangers. Once you're logged in to the wireless network, flip on Spotiflux and browse as you normally would. The service encrypts your internet traffic, blocks malware and viruses, and hides your IP location to keep you anonymous.


Visit Spotflux