virtualDavis

Pinterest Interest? virtualDavis ponders Pinterest...

Are you on Pinterest? Still trying to resist the way you resisted Facebook?

Watch out, because it’s a slippery slope. When your invitation comes and you say, “Okay, well, maybe I’ll just try it out…”

You know, kick the tires, maybe even zip around the neighborhood with the roof down and the music blaring?

Don’t do it. You’ll get hooked. Pinterest. Is. Addictive.

And that’s why it’s exploding. In the good way. Out of start-up obscurity and into the gotta-be-on-it rocket that is flashing through the interwebs.

After being largely ignored for the first months of its existence, Pinterest is now being mentioned with increasing frequency… It is easy to see why Pinterest is attracting such a buzz. All measures of its growth are phenomenal. (Street Journal)

Phenomenal is the right word, but it lacks the necessary whizbang to accurately convey what’s happening with this rather straightforward social media concept

The premise behind Pinterest is for users to gather, organize, and share things they find on the Web, such as home decorations, clothing, and food. The end result is curated pinboards that are meant to help friends discover new items or get inspiration. (CNET News)

According to Mashable‘s Zoe Fox, Pinterest drives more online t than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn. Beginners’ luck? That’s pretty formidable competition.

[Pinterest] now beats YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January… Pinterest accounted for 3.6% of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61% of referral traffic. (Mashable)

You know how long it took Twitter

to get traction? You know how long it’s taken to get to this point. I suspect that the quirky crew over at Facebook are getting whiplash responding to the ticklish breeze they keep feeling in their hair, like something sneaking up from behind. Can you sneak fast? Okay, so maybe Pinterest isn’t sneaking…

Facebook reigns king of referrals, accounting for more than one-quarter (26.4%) of traffic, 4.3% of which comes from Facebook Mobile. After Pinterest, Facebook is experiencing the most referral growth, gaining almost one percentage point in December. (Mashable)

So Facebook isn’t giving up ground just to swig down electrolytes, but Pinterest’s mad dash out of the starting gates is noteworthy. Whether or not they can sustain this pace for the endurathon is another matter.

Who’s propelling its rise? 18-34 year old upper income women from the American heartland. (TechCrunch)

Hmmm… So not just bored teenagers party shopping.

To get to the bottom of what motivates Pinterest’s throngs of users, you first have to realize who those users are… Female… women tend to like to shop more than men do. You could easily define Pinterest as a way for people to “window shop” for anything that interests them… It’s a social shopping experience, disguised as a website full of interests. (TheNextWeb.com)

Brad McCarty may be right, but in my experience, there are plenty of gents aboard the good rocket ship Pinterest and more and more every day. Maybe there are male window shoppers too? Or maybe McCarty’s oversimplifying.

At heart, many of us are collectors. Stickers. Friends. Hats. Wine. Cars…

And many of us are voyeurs, happy to peak over the fence at the neighbor’s backyard digging project only discover he was planting a persimmon tree, not installing a hot tub.

In short, we’re curious hoarders on the lookout for inspiration. Is it any wonder that Pinterest has become the next runaway favorite? And with news a little over a week ago that Pinterest has partnered with Flickr “improve photo attribution” it looks like the visual floodgates may be opening. Happy pinning!

Related articles

• Pinstagram: How Instagram Should Look On the Web (readwriteweb.com)
• Pinterest’s Traffic Data Reveals Its Biggest Weakness (businessinsider.com)
• Who Are the Top Retailers on Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC] (mashable.com)
• A Marketer’s Guide to Pinterest [Video Infographic] (slideshare.net)
• A Marketer’s Guide To Pinterest (viralblog.com)
• 3 Reasons Why You Should be Using Pinterest (allseasonvirtualassist.wordpress.com)
• Using Pinterest To Supercharge Your Content Marketing (digitalsherpa.com)

Wildebeest Migration, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania (Image by Marc Veraart via Flickr)

Welcome to the future. virtualDavis is migrating.

Unlike the annual wildebeest migrations across the Serengeti, Masai Mara and Liuwa Plain, it’s been almost a decade since my last migration, and I’m not searching for greener pastures. Not literally, at least. I’m not abandoning my URL, but I am transitioning the site from Drupal to WordPress in order to standardize and simplify daily blogging. I am still (and will continue to be) an outspoken Drupal enthusiast and advocate. Organizations and individuals building websites with sophisticated CMS should at least consider Drupal. If they don’t they obviously have time and money to waste. Let them waste it. It will help buoy the economy. I continue to use Drupal for sites that I maintain and/or develop, and I intend to for a long time. Drupal is to website developers what Creative Commons is to content creators. Times ten. Or a hundred!

So why am I switching to WordPress? If Drupal is the CMS Holy Grail, I’ve come to believe that WordPress is the blogging holy grail. It is intuitive, easy to use and teach others to use, incredibly well supported and for all practical purposes it has become the “Dixie cup” of blogging software. I do wish that it offered a bit more robust, non-blogging CMS potential, but for my current needs (blogging across multiple domains), consolidating my interface to a single, effective platform offers me a major value.

It will take some time to make the transition, so until further notice I encourage you to stick with my regular domain where I’ll keep a link posted to the temporary site. Once I complete the migration from Drupal to WordPress, I’ll shift the new site to the old URL. Until then, thanks for your patience. Heck, thanks for following my blog in the first place!

FYI: If you’re looking for current happenings, you might want to check out virtualDavis on Twitter, virtualDavis on Facebook or virtualDavis on Google+. Or drop a note!

Related articles

• WordPress Plug-Ins: The Bare Essentials (janefriedman.com)
• Is Blog Fatigue on the Rise? (nathanbransford.com)

If in doubt about the social media revolution, just watch this sequence of three video presentations. Pay attention to the statistics; watch the revolution evolving in real time as the social media juggernaut sweeps the globe.

The social media revolution is
mushrooming while you sleep!

The next three videos are based upon Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business by Erik Qualman. This first,Social Media Revolution, asks if social media is a fad that can be waited out, a fad that can be ignored, a fad no less or more important than any other.

Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore. This video is produced by the author of Socialnomicshttp://www.socialnomics.com

Take a look!

If the music distracts you or wakes up your parents, mute the volume. But watch. Read. Wake up!

The social media revolution doesn’t sleep. Ever. And while you’re dozing off, it’s already evolved. The next video, Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh), updates the social media and mobile media statistics.

Ready for Social Media Revolution 3? This longer, more powerful video was produced in June 2011. Also “based on #1 International Best Selling Socialnomics by Erik Qualman this is the latest in the most watch social media series in the world.”

‪So, what do you think? Still plan to wait out this annoying social media fad? Still hope to ignore it? Good luck!

Related articles

• The Three Faces of the Social Revolution: Media, Marketing, and Service (kellblog.com)
• Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business (amazon.com)
• Watch: Socialnomics’ Social Media Revolution Gets Updated For 2011 (socialtimes.com)
• Social media is now more popular than online porn(digitaltrends.com)

1. Complete Your Profile
2. Increase Your Connections
3. Customize Your Website Links
4. Answer Questions
5. Update Status
6. Join Niche Groups
7. Post Comments In Groups
8. Add RSS Feed to Groups
9. Create a Group
10. Add the Blog Application to Your Profile

(Graphic and list via problogger.net)

via drewsmarketingminute.com

Need to explain social media to your grandmother? Tip: print out this PDF first.

Ever have that feeling that you’re late to the party? Like everyone’s already had a cocktail and an appetizer or two, and then you stroll in with your hair still wet from the shower and your shirt buttoned up crooked?

I’ve been feeling that a little bit lately. Especially while trying to decide whether or not to join Facebook. It rose rapidly and quickly eclipsed all equivalent social networking sites during the last couple of years that Susan and I renovated a pair of old buildings in Essex, NY. Prior to catching the residential rehabilitation bug — or at least prior to the last 3-4 years during which I’ve been 110% consumed with revitalizing five distressed buildings from the early 1800s and 1900s — I considered myself at least near the vanguard of the new media movement. No longer. While I blundered around in a dusty, plaster splattered purgatory, the wired world has catapulted forward. Now, fumbling around like a man blinded by sunlight after too long among the troglodytes, I’m trying to get my bearings. And there is no question; I’m very, very late to the party!

LinkedIn happened to be my first encounter. I was at Susan’s Hamilton College reunion a year and a half ago, and I met Dan Nye who was the much heralded CEO of LinkedIn at the time. He made a presentation about the service to fellow alumni, and by the time I connected with him that afternoon I’d already joined. The concept fascinated me, and his down-to-earth pitch and sharp wit convinced me to act. Since then, my LinkedIn profile has proven to be an invaluable networking tool.

Twitter was next. I’d toyed with it a couple of times before, mostly because it seemed simple and serendipitous. And because it was viable from Blackberry which was indispensable this last couple of years. But it also seemed frivolous during a time where I was rationing minutes for eating and sleeping. So it slipped. Until a few weeks ago when I posted my first tweet to virtualDavis on Twitter. I’m still a newbie for sure, but I’m having a blast. I’ve been really surprised by how quickly I’m connecting to all sorts of great tweeters, and frankly it was the incredibly welcoming atmosphere that I’ve experienced with Twitter that prompted me to take the Facebook plunge. It’s sort of ironic since the Twitter vs. Facebook debate surfaces so often online. For me, a great Twitter experience is what motivated to set up a virtualDavis on Facebook account. And they seem like totally complimentary services, each so totally niched and overdelivering w/in their niches.

So, last night I finally accepted an invitation to join Facebook and I’m off and running! I’m taking a little ribbing from friends who have mocked me for not getting on sooner, but it’s been in good spirits. And I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive response and with the number of friends who’ve quickly connected me. That tells me I’m lucky to have good friends, but it also serves as a gentle warning. These folks must be on Facebook all the time! I’ve been amazed at how instantaneous interaction is on Facebook, which makes me wonder how anyone gets anything else done… Late last night, I realized that I’ll have to learn how to close the browser and go to sleep!

To everyone who’s welcomed me into the 21st century, thank you!