Sitting through stuffy lectures with a monotonous teacher is a student’s worst nightmare. But Pinterest may be changing that. Yes, Pinterest, the site where people pin their favorite pictures on boards to share with the world.

With Pinterest gaining traction by the day, it’s becoming a valuable tool for educators. Not only are teacherssharing tipsand using the site to grabideas for lessons, it’s being used as a teaching tool too.

Pinterest is helping inspire students, increase student participation, and helping them tell stories.

For example, University of Minnesota adjunct instructor Leslie Plesseris usingPinterest in her basic media graphics class. Though her students are not graded for their use of Pinterest specifically, they are required to use it with their activity being factored into their participation grade.

“I am looking at their design work and comparing it to what they ‘like’ on Pinterest to see where they are drawing their inspiration from and it helps me to understand their personal design aesthetic, which I can then use in determining their project grades and in any advice I give on their work,” Plesser told theDaily Dotvia email.

The students are interacting with each other on the site as well, as they follow each other and often repin items their peers have found.

More at: http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/teachers-using-pinterest/

The Google comment system, which will almost certainly rival that of Facebook, will have deep links to Google’s network of services and websites, indexing comments in Google Search, and most significantly, the system will be available for use on third party sites.

You can’t go anywhere these days without running into a site that is using Facebook’sthird-party comment platform, and it looks like Google wants in on the action.

A third party Google comment system would ensure that users are further plugged in to their Google accounts, and one step closer to Google+.

It certainly wouldn’t come as a surprise, as Google continues to push its social networkfurther into the public sphere, and tie all of its products into that hard-to-miss black navigation bar at the top of every Google product page, with Playadded just yesterday.

The question remains how this will affect services that are dedicated exclusively to providing a comment platform, like Disqus and Livefyre, who may struggle to compete against the likes of Facebook and Google down the line, each of wish enjoy a well-established user-base.

More at: http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/03/27/google-to-launch-third-party-commenting-platform-to-rival-facebook/

Some have questioned the effectiveness of Facebook as a commerce platform, but can you dismiss an ad and marketing channel with 800+ million users?

Here are some tips for increasing the opportunities for commerce on Facebook.

Recently, Bloomberg published an article about several retailers, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, Gap and Gamestop, who all closed their Facebook stores in 2011.

As a consultant implementing s-commerce (Social Commerce) solutions for my clients, I am writing to let you know that Facebook commerce (f-commerce) is alive and well and customers are making money selling products and services via Facebook. 

I can’t speak about the f-commerce implementations of the aforementioned companies, only from my own experience.

For one company, Grassroots Festival, we created a Facebook store to sell discounted tickets on the festival’s Facebook fan page.

The Facebook store generated a 4.1% clickthrough rate, resulted in a significant ROI and also cut-out the middle men in terms of ticket sales, who require substantial commission. 

We have also seen considerable success with smaller clients who do not currently sell their products online. The success of their s-commerce efforts has prompted them to commercialize their businesses online with e-commerce functionality on their websites.

For larger online retailers, unless they are offering specific incentives for their Facebook Fans to purchase from their Facebook stores, why would a consumer purchase something anywhere other than their website?

It is even more effective to find a specific niche or focus on clearance lines, rather than replicate your entire inventory in a Facebook store.

We have many hotel clients who have seen considerable volume in their Facebook stores specifically for gift vouchers, a growing category in the hospitality sector. Their websites are not usually geared up for anything other than booking rooms, and even then, they usually use a third party booking engine rather than managing their own functionality.

More at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9428-why-facebook-commerce-is-alive-7?

Brands are being increasingly successful in social media by using humorous mascots, according to the WSJ. We’ve seen plenty of evidence of that in the UK with Dulux recently reinstating its dog and how brands as diverse as Burger King’s “The King”, Compare the Market (Meerkat) and Go Compare with its opera-singing mascot, Gio Compario, have used them.

The report says that ad executives believe consumers on Facebook are more likely to bond with a character than the traditional company page on the social-media website pumping out company and product news.

The piece cites US brands such as eBay-owned ticket-resale website StubHub, which uses a 25-foot-high animatroni tree, insurance firm Progressive with a sales agent called Flo (played by comedienne Stephanie Courtney, Spam with Sir Can A-Lot,  Diageo with its live action Captain Morgan rum pirate not to mention the Old Spice guy and Geico’s popular talking gecko.

“Consumers are less likely to have a conversation with a logo or a PR guy on social media,” said Jeff Charney, chief marketing officer for auto insurer Progressive Corp. Since 2008, Progressive’s TV ads have centered on a perky sales clerk named Flo, who touts the insurer’s rates. She now has 3.5 million fans on Facebook, where she posts comments about new Progressive products.

Characters also offer a softer way to sell a product, which is important on social media where executives fear that blatant selling or promotion can turn people off.

“You can put fairly bald product benefits into the mouth of a mascot and it doesn’t come off as hard sell,” said Parker Channon, partner at Duncan/Channon, a San Francisco ad firm that crafted the StubHub pitch, from the WSJ.

More at: http://wallblog.co.uk/2012/03/26/does-your-brand-need-a-mascot-to-be-successful-in-social-media/

Whether on a smartphone, tablet or laptop, using a second screen to tweet about TV is becoming a common occurrence - and it is called “chatterboxing”.

According to a survey conducted byTV Licensing, those aged 18-24 are the biggest uptakers of chatterboxing, with 46% of people who use social media taking part.

But the 25-34s are catching up - with 43% now chatterboxing, and in the 35-44 age range, 31% are already using second screens.

Communications manager Dan McLoughlin has been chatterboxing for months.

He said: “It makes TV such a social experience. We don’t often sit with family or friends to watch TV any more, so it makes it social.

The way that people choose to entertain themselves now, is not just listening to the radio during the day and watching the television in the evening. It’s far more about getting their news online, some on television, talking about it, recording it.

Emma Mulqueeny, from developer network Rewired State

“On these panel shows like X Factor or Strictly (Come Dancing), I value the comments of my friends and other people tweeting - and celebrities - more than the actual people on the panels themselves.

“I’m more excited by what happens on Twitter than what’s on the programme itself.”

Broadcasters are getting wise to this. They have realised if many people are tweeting about a programme while it is on air, more people will read about it, then tune in.

Social TV applications have been developed specifically for second screens.

On apps like Zeebox, Miso or Getglue you can tweet next to a live TV feed.

This is where money can be made because some of these apps have “click to buy” options, so users can directly purchase products advertised on TV.

Emma Mulqueeny, from developer networkRewired State,said: “With adverts, people can now pause and fast-forward.

“So advertising through television needs to become more clever and more directive marketing, bearing in mind what people are talking about.

“It’s difficult to guess what this is going to be like in two or even three years’ time.

More at: http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16189017

More at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9342-peugeot-uses-pinterest-to-launch-puzzle-competition

Peugeot Panama has launched a Pinterest-based competition that asks people to complete puzzles by repinning images of its cars.

Last week the brand created several boards depicting different models with pieces missing.

People can search for and find these pieces, pin them on their own boards and share it with Peugeot. The first five people to complete their boards win prizes.

Though a visit to the brand’sPinterest pageleaves you somewhat confused at first, since several boards have been used as placeholders – separating the cars into different price brackets.

One such board is titled ‘Starting at 35,000us’ and is toally blank, with no content pinned. It’s an interesting way to use the space, but isn’t immediately obvious.

On the bottom row (on our screens at least, see below) – the first four board titles are used to explain the contest, with another placeholder then showing the ‘contest boards’.

People are asked to click any board to find out where to look, which is explained as follows:

This is a 5 piece puzzle of a Peugeot 3008, as you can see there are 4 pieces missing. Look for them in our website (peugeot.com.pa) or in our Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1797346790), pin them in your own board and share it with us. The first 5 people to complete their boards win!”

Using boards as placeholders is certainly one of the most creative uses of Pinterest we’ve seen so far, but sadly it’s overshadowed by the fact that the puzzle itself isn’t very clear.

It’s difficult to work out how you’re supposed to get involved, and even the brand itself has had to step in to inform a participant that the goalposts had been changed:

Hi Julia!, thank you for participating in the Peugeot Puzzle Contest, sadly as you may know, Pinterest changed our layout so we were forced to adapt the contest again. Please feel free to leave your board and start pinning again. Best Luck!”

That said, Peugeot Panama uses a conversational tone in its outreach above and is trying something new - so should be applauded for doing so.

However, it might transpire that a simpler competition, with mechanics that are easier to understand, might be more successful in driving participation in the long run.

Imagine standing at the Eiffel Tower and being able to see messages and videos overlaid through your smartphone from all visitors who have come before you.

A new app called Wallit combines augmented reality, a virtual view of the real world that can be extended with graphics and other content, with a socialexperience.

It allows users to post and view content atvirtual wallsin popular places, tourist attractions such asthe Eiffel Tower, stadiums and stores.

“Think of a virtual wall on the face ofthe Golden Gate Bridgefrom one end to the other where people can leave sentiments, photos, movies and even audio that are persistent at that location, even though the people who generate the content constantly keep changing,” said Veysel Berk, the founder of Wallit.

The goal, he said, is to record a cumulative, human experience at a location that exhibits the character of a place over time.

“We wanted to move the physical experience of a public wall that everyone can see content on and move it into digital and virtual life,” he explained.

To maintain the quality of content posted to the app users cannot create their own wall, which ensures there is only one wall for a place, producing a common experience for visitors. Content must also be generated and posted from the physical place where the virtual wall is located.

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/app-leaving-virtual-mark-physical-places-051821927.html

Graphic available From: http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/17/thumb-sxsw/?

Every year, before, during, and after South by Southwest, everyone’s eager declare someone the winner of the conference. Then comes the inevitable backlash, with questions about whether Popular App X will ever catch on with “regular people” — or if it’s just useful to techies who are constantly checking their iPhones in search of the next party.

For the second year in a row, mobile Q&A app Thumb (formerly known as Opinionaided) is offering its own take. It made a list of the apps that seemed to be getting buzz at the conference, then polled its users on whether they actually used the apps. The results (there were 4,700 responses total, with at least 220 for each question) are being pitched as an answer to the question, “Which SXSW Apps Do Real Americans Actually Use?”

Now, you could make a list of caveats to the results that’s longer than this post. For starters: Do we really think Thumb’s userbase is fully representative of “Real Americans”? And doesn’t the survey’s definition of “SXSW App” seem a bit arbitrary? But I have to admit, I was still curious about the results, so here they are. The most-used app seems to be Instagram (22 percent of respondents said they used it), followed by Spotify (14 percent), Waze (12 percent), and Foursquare (12 percent). Highlight, the app that many predicted would be this year’s big hit, was used by 5 percent of respondents.

Instagram’s victory is no surprise, given the rapid growth the company announced on-stage at SXSW. But if you want to argue about winners, it’s too bad Thumb didn’t ask about the Mophie juice pack.

Now that social curation site Pinterest has become the hot-new social thing, with loads of traffic and highly addicted community, it seems to be time for spammers to take advantage of its traffic and intense virality.

Earlier this evening, some kind of spam-exploit injected  javascript code that started replacing many Pinterest photos with ads for Best Buy. (see photo.) The actions resulted in disgruntled users blaming Pinterest. A recent study claimed that Pinterest was referring more traffic on the web.

Pinterest is now driving more referral traffic on the web than Google+, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn — combined. That’s according to Shareaholic’s January 2012 referral trafficreport, which is based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month.

In the era of social, what is amazing is how quickly the spam attacks can spread and have an impact. I sincerely hope Pinterest has brought this under control. I for one, am rooting for that hot little company.

More at: http://gigaom.com/2012/03/17/and-now-spammers-have-discovered-pinterest-too-pinterest-comes-under-spam-attack/

Since women turn to online sources for information during critical times in the purchase decision process, marketers might benefit from knowing that 35% turn to sources at the beginning of the process and 42% at the end to narrow their choices, according to BlogHer’s Fifth Annual Women and Social Media study.

The study identifies emerging platforms that women use to gain information about products and services. It also traces the connection to specific media channels and analyzes the influence of each on purchase behavior.

Seventy-seven percent of women use Facebook for fun, while 87% turn to Facebook to remain up to date with with family. More than 61% of active blog readers admit to making purchases based on a blog recommendation, nearly double the rate of Facebook and Twitter active users — 33% and 31% — respectively.

Purchase conversion among the BlogHer community was 87%.

While Facebook ranks the highest for fun and keeping up with friends and family, blogs rank the highest in learning about new products and research recommendations that can turn into purchase decisions. Some 41% seek out blogs to learn about new products, 39% look for product recommendations, and 36% use blogs to make purchase decisions.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/170164/blogs-influence-womens-shopping-experience.html#ixzz1pHNJnqul