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• Our top picks for best Pinterest tools and resources

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Pinterest Tools & Resources: Our Top Picks

You know interest in Pinterest is rocketing. We don’t think it will flame out. We think it’s a game-changer, which is why we gathered the most important tools and resources to get you up and running or moving faster on this hot SocMed platform.

Please forward this newsletter to a colleague. If you are that colleague, I welcome you. I also invite you to subscribe at no charge here.

Pinterest is still in invite-only beta testing. You'll need to request an invitation at Pinterest.com. Now, without further ado, here’s Sr. Editor Janet Roberts with those top Pinterest tools and resources. Take it awaaaay, JR...

1. Best Tools Provided by Pinterest

Below are Pinterest's own tools, which you can use to start pinning right away, to publicize your pinboards on your website and to encourage site visitors to pin your items on their boards:

• The "Pin It" browser button: Use this official bookmarklet for the Firefox browser to pin your own website images or images from other sites onto your pinboards. (Unofficial Chrome version is here).
  
  Once installed, click the "Pin It" button when you find an image you want to save on a pinboard. Clicking the button brings up a form showing all the pinnable images on the page.
  
  Choose the image you want; write a few descriptive words; and hit the "Pin It" button in the form. Voila, you have just pinned your first pin!
• Pin It Button for Web Sites: Put this button on any page or next to any image you want to encourage your site visitors to pin on their own pinboards.
• "Follow Me on Pinterest" button: This button sends your site visitors to your Pinterest site and invites them to follow any or all of your boards.

On your own Pinterest Settings page, you'll find tools that broadcast your Pinterest pins automatically to your Facebook or Twitter brand pages. Flip the "Link to Twitter" and "Link to Facebook" switches to the "On" position to activate these tools.

2. Pin to Pinterest from Email Button

This Email Design Review blog post provides a code that you can paste into your HTML email message so that recipients can pin from your email instead of your site. This saves your pinners a step or two and can help integrate Pinterest deeper into your digital marketing strategy.

The blog post also explains how to use the code and provides an example from a recent Babies R Us email campaign.

3. Pinwords

With this web application, you can add a few choice words to the images you pin on Pinterest, in addition to the description you type in below the image on your pinboard.

This app gives you another way to make your images stand out in your followers' photo streams. According to data from the Pinterest analytics provider Pinerly, adding copy to an image can double or quadruple the traffic that image will generate.

4. PinReach

PinReach is like Klout for Pinterest. It measures your influence in the Pinterest social network based on Pinterest's unique metrics, which include the following:

• Number of followers
• Number of pins
• Number of repins, "likes" and comments from your followers and the Pinterest community

PinReach also helps you track your score history and shows you which boards and pins are the most popular. Use this information to refine your pinning strategy and look for the kinds of content that's most likely to engage your followers and attract new ones.

We prefer PinReach to other Pinterest influence/analytics measurement services because it provides a more complete picture of your activity. However, PinReach competitor Pinpuff can show you how your competitors are doing on Pinterest.

5. not99's Space

You can't tell it from the name, but this blog is written by Rick Kats, founder of the Pinerly analytics and pin-scheduling service. Although Pinerly is still in closed beta at time of writing, this blog will give you handy tips and advice on effective pinning that you might not find on Pinterest's own blog.

In recent posts, Kats delved deep into the mechanics of effective pinning in several verticals, including travel and food. Especially useful are infographics showing how well-written descriptions and text added to images extend your pins' reach throughout the Pinterest community.

6. Pinterest Boards to Follow

If you want to see what works on Pinterest for B2B and B2C brands, check out the following company boards, chosen because they have high numbers of followers and activity through fresh content and commentary:

• General Electric makes a major corporation look human with lots of employee and partner photos
• Nordstrom blends straight promotional pins with photos of the in-store experience.
• Apartment Therapy has great do-it-yourself images of small-space decorating.
• Realtor.com's boards make house-hunting fun with collections of homes to salivate over.
• The U.S. Army gets Pinterest better than many B2C brands. Pins emphasize Army life, culture and families. See the Army Style & Fashion board.
• AMD pins feature things employees like (books, holidays, gaming, etc.) along with classic product shots.
• LaylaGrayce's "Pin It to Win It" board provides a template for a Pinterest-based contest.

Want more suggestions? The Social Fresh blog posted this list of 250+ brands on Pinterest as of February 2012. Check the comments below the post for regular updates.

Attention Twitterers and Bloggers: You can link to the above content here.

Internet Direct Response Tip of the Week

Put Some Words on Your Pinterest Graphic Post

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a couple of words on a graphic posted to Pinterest can increase click-throughs. Keep in mind that Pinterest frowns on overt selling on boards. The few words you use can encourage a call to action or point of view that tells exactly why you posted the image in the first place.

While seers of the next big thing are heralding the dominance of the “visual web,” a few words serve as a frame for all those visuals and tell readers exactly why they’re looking at what appears on screen.

Everyone suffers from “info inundation” now. Words can quickly frame up what users see and offer them much-needed context. Context is something sorely lacking in this flattened universe of barely structured data. LC

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