The Tumblr Of Mike McGrail.

I’m currently sat on a bus, I tweeted out asking people for a topic they would like me to try and cover before my journey ends in 45 mins… Fraser Bedwell (@fraserbedwell)asked me if Pinterest is over hyped… I now have 41 minutes…

Pinterest, if you haven’t heard of it by now, you must have smashed up all of your web enabled devices in a futile attempt to live an unconnected life. The fact that is that you can’t look at a blog or Twitter without seeing it mentioned at least 72,493 times. Per minute. Hype much? Please note, that fact is completely made up. But the hype levels are bigger than a banker’s bonus (before it was taken away) 

Let’s Look at The Facts

Over 10 million users in the USA - achieved in the fastest time of any independent site in history 
12 million unique monthly visitors
The hype has meant that since the start of 2012,  daily users once site have increased by 145%
It is generating more referral traffic to sites than Google +, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.

That last fact is one that appeals to me most as a digital marketer - the ability to very easily post relevant images to a site that has an engaged and growing user base and drive traffic back to the home site so effectively is a pretty attractive proposition.

Is it Right For All Businesses?

In a word, no. First things first, you need to have great and relevant imagery to share, as without it, you will never get interested eyes on your pics and in-turn zero ‘re-pinning’, comments or indeed clicks back to your site. It’s very consumer and lifestyle orientated - if you aren’t playing in those areas, I believe its best to avoid right now. The figure has ranged wildly from 60% to 97%, but ladies make up a massive proportion of the user base (recent reports in have said that in the UK, here are more men using it than women, I may put that down to hype within the marketing/tech industry) and putting all sexism aside, if your product isn’t on the female radar you may struggle to gain serious traction. As with all social media platforms, you need to take the time to assess its potential value, and if you are going to use it, make sure you have the time to do it properly. Of course, you can benefit from Pinterest without having an actual presence for your business - install Pin buttons alongside your social sharing options and you may well see your customer base doing some work for you. 

Are There Any Issues Surronding It?

Yes - there has been a lot of discussion this week about copyright issues, afterall, the site allowseople to easily take any image and post it on the platform. Pinterest have now released a code that site owners can install that will stop this from being possible. Scottish photo journal app, Blipfoto yesterday took this measure and now any images held within it cannot be added to Pinterest by a third party. This approach could cause issues.

Believe the Hype?

It’s growth has been rapid, businesses are seeing great traffic (and sales) stemming from it and the train doesn’t look like slowing down, so yes, don’t ignore the hype without assessing the opportunity for your. business first.

Facts from - http://www.mastercom.me/2012/02/pinterest-facts-and-figures-infographic/

Phew, made it just in time!

Written in Evernote on my iPad, excuse any auto correct fails!

In March 2011, myself and an adventurous team from The BIG Partnership   took part in a White Water Rafting challenge in order to raise money for the great charity, Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland. We won the challenge and managed to raise over £1600 for the cause! (You can see us in action below). We are rising to the challenge again in 2012 and really want to smash the amount we raised last year! If you would like to donate please:

1. Head over to our Just Giving page here and please donate whatever you can
2. Please mention my name (Mike) if you do donate, we have set each team member a target and this will help us count!

Thanks very much!

Mike

Why does this suck so much?

1 - My blog (The Social Penguin) is about social media, not babies

2 - This clearly means my blog is not a ‘perfect fit’

3 - Find out my name you maniac!

Massive, crappy fail!!!

So I was like ‘no way’ and she said like ‘yeah I know, so so bad’

I went to the bar and I was like ‘three beers please’

I think we should like take a new approach to this

The use of the word ‘like’ in our language has gotten out of control. It punctuates the sentences of so many people. Now that I’m aware of it, it makes it very hard to listen to someone who is a culprit. Where has this come from? Are people using it instead of the equally as annoying ‘mmm’? Does everyone want to sound like a Bell Air airhead? I’ve found myself doing it recently and I want to punch myself in the jaw when I catch my mouth uttering such nonsense. Language has been bastardised enough by text speak. Surely we can manage to construct lucid, flowing verbal sentences without adding ‘like’ and all manner of other pause replacements?

Please people, give it a go before we ruin spoken English forever. 

I love getting the bus. Always full of such nice, clean and polite people. I really love the youngsters that use their phones to entertain their fellow passengers with lively music. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of your legs going numb as the plastic seat in front of you gently closes up your arteries, it really reinforces how important blood really is. And to top it all off, you can read high quality paper based publications for free. The insight and education value of the content far outstrips the worry of catching syphilis, Ebola virus or MRSA from the much read paper. And all this for £1.30? We are truly lucky to have this people. Blessed we are, blessed.

Oh no. Pinterest has infiltrated my digital life. It’s busy enough. But I like it. Really, really like it. It looks pretty, it is well categorised and oh so simple. Its very well integrated across the web and just works. It’s not a manly place to be, but I don’t care.