Meet Jon.  Meet his dog Pilot.  Jon’s a filmmaker. He grew up in Washington D.C.  He lives there today.  He knows all the best insider places in D.C.

Pilot’s a therapy animal.  He never barks and he likes to be petted.

Jon and Pilot live in this swish neighborhood of Washington D.C.  It is near all the coolest restaurants and tourist sites. If you were Jon’s friend you would want to stay with him because he would tell you all the best places to eat and visit.

He would tell you to go to “Paul”, a beloved Paris bakery and cafe that recently opened its first US location, just a short walk from Jon’s apartment.

The “Paul” cafe has delicious coffee.  You can sip it while sitting outside.  You can sit  in comfortable French-y chairs, next to these  fountains and be right across from the National Archives.  And if you didn’t eat it too fast to perhaps take a photo, you could savor your memory of a delicious French Apple Turnover.

See this couch.   It also belongs to Jon.  Pilot likes to sleep there sometimes.  If you were Jon’s friend you would be delighted to sleep there.  Jon’s a gracious low-key host.  You’d be so happy to have the chance to sleep in his studio.

Lots of people like to visit D.C.  They see the sights.  They go on school field trips.  They learn some history.  They see cherry blossoms.  They might even be there for business meetings.  People look forward to these trips.  They plan ahead.  They book nice hotels.

Or sometimes they do not plan ahead.  And they have nowhere to stay.  They find bad expensive hotel rooms on offer in terrible locations.   Sometimes they can afford to pay crazy prices to get the last room in town.  But sometimes they cannot do that.  And they just wish they had a friend like Jon who lives right next to the Metro stop, only two stops from the train station.

But they don’t know Jon.  They panic.  Then they remember to check that newfangled site AirBnB.  They find their new “friend” Jon.  They read happy reviews from strangers who stayed with Jon.  The strangers write that Jon’s couch is comfortable and Jon is nice.  The strangers say they happily paid $90 to stay in Jon’s studio apartment and sleep on his couch.

And that’s what I did. And I liked it.

I slept just fine.  The eye mask from Jon helped.  It created a semblance of privacy even as he and Pilot slept mere steps away. And the Sugar Daddy made me laugh.

Free bonus: I even got to take Pilot on a nighttime walk to keep me safe.

My son, calling on the phone, during my walk with Pilot:  “What?  You are in D.C?  You are walking some stranger’s dog?  You are sleeping in the same room as some guy you don’t know?”

Me:  “Yes dear.  And I would do it again.”

Here is the original pin.

I was hankering to re-create the pin on the right, from a French garden pinned by a guy in London.

Here is what I did this weekend.

I had written to the original pinner to ask for help with re-creating the cool faux Allium sculptures.  But he had only taken the photo in France.  He had had no knowledge of the project and could offer no pointers.  I asked my pinpals for help and got some useful suggestions from D.L. Wilson and Danielle Chapdelaine.

After seeing a couple of my botched attempts to make flower-like globes out of chicken wire (can you spell KINDERGARTEN FAIL?), my son casually whipped out a perfectly round wire sphere while watching some random episode of CSI.

I was then off and running and made 11 purple globes to put in a rather dull spot of my garden.  I like their ethereal and “what the heck is that?” quality.  I am waiting for the suburban neighbor reaction to this new front yard installation.  Fun!  Thank you Pinterest.

I suspect that these home improvements stimulate the production of the natural “contentment” chemical substance–oxytocin–for me. There is something about taking good care of my house (and my family by extension) that is mood-enhancing.  And I believe that the enormous numbers of women who report the calming, mood-lifting effect of Pinterest to be experiencing some version of the same oxytocin effect.

Why?  Take a look at a tiny snippet of my “Gardening” board on Pinterest, below, and an amateur deconstruction of my oxytocin theory, which depends on three key components of oxytocin production:  generosity, trust, and optimism:

Generosity: sharing a project doubles its pleasure.  In the first two photos I am pinning my spring garden.  Coincidentally, I do almost all my gardening in my front yard because I enjoy sharing it.  I am away from home most of the week and I like the notion that people are passing by appreciating it in my absence.  I feel generous and oddly connected to strangers, which is a documented oxytocin benefit. But now Pinterest enables me to share my garden with, literally, anyone with an internet connection, in a context that makes more sense than, say, Flickr, Facebook, or Instagram.   And I get a slice of that same enjoyment in looking at garden pins from other people.

Trust: Pinterest enables people to help each other.  In the third pin above, (the purple balls) I am sharing a photo of a garden sculpture I want to make.  I am having a little trouble copying what I found in this French garden, so I pinned the photo and asked for suggestions.  According to the neuroeconomist and TED talk-giver Paul J. Zak, I just produced an oxytocin moment for the people who follow me on Pinterest.  Apparently, one of the central ways to stimulate oxytocin is to give a sign of trust to another person.  Zak is publishing a book about it called The Trust Molecule.  It’s very low-demand, but putting this project up and asking for help enables other people to have that feeling of being trusted.  Odds are, I will follow their advice and probably even report back.  According to Zak, the mere act of sharing trust is a tiny step to creating a more stable society.

Pinterest is entirely optimistic.  Pinboards roughly divide into two categories.  One is “here is who I am.”  (Or at least the parts I am proud of, like my garden.)  The second is “here is who I am going to be.”  This second category is very interesting.  It is optimistic and future-facing. Pinning is like losing weight, cooking fabulous food, dressing beautifully, travelling to exotic places, and displaying great taste…with none of the actual effort.  This is who I will BE, and no one can argue with that.  In my case, I created an “Easter Projects” board full of the charming and obsessive things I would make IF I had time.  I am telling the world:

I am really am like THIS person, even though I don’t, um, actually have that life right now. But I would if I could, and I will some day.

And oddly, the mere act of pinning these projects, knowing full well I would never make them, gave me half the satisfaction of actually doing them.  And as proof (to myself) that these boards can someday be my reality, I used my “Need a new haircut” pinboard  to actually figure out a new hairdo. I made this board to show my hairdresser what I wanted, and to solicit input from a couple friends on my finalist choices.  So Pinterest can be concretely useful to organizing a project, which contributes to my optimism about the much more unrealistic boards I create.  (But for the life of me, I have no idea why 333 people decided to follow my haircut board.)

It’s a pretty rare and special thing for a bunch of pixels on a website to provide a consistently pleasant and personal experience.  The “oxytocin effect” of Pinterest is not dependent on delivering great new pins every day, or dumb humor, or exceptional stories.  I can look at my home page, find nothing of interest, but still wander over to fuss with  my own boards and feel…content.  I am tending my future.  (I have boards for trips I am actually planning, and trips I will never take.  Boards for house projects I am doing and houses I will never own. Boards for business ideas, meals, parties, inspirational people, gifts. Basically anything that I can capture online, visually, that I want to remember.)   And I probably spend a maximum of ten minutes a day on the site, so it is not as though it takes a lot of work.

Pinterest is the site that gives and does not take.  Clearly, being the fastest growing site in history, Pinterest is playing with more than pins and pixels.

The crying shame of business travel is this: you go to cool places where you can spend entire days and see nothing but conference rooms.   Never fear.  At least in New York I have an easy 45 minute fix for curing the “cultural zero” blues. It’s the Museum of Arts and Design.  Here are its virtues:

• FAST. You can fly through the entire place in 45 minutes if you want.  Or take the same amount of time to really see two or three exhibits.
• FRESH.  Only one of the five small exhibit floors is dedicated to the permanent collection.  So it is always fresh.
• FUN.  The emphasis is on craft and the combination of interesting materials, techniques and often slightly bizarre themes makes it highly stimulating.  And it doesn’t make you feel like an ignoramous if you don’t know your Manet from your Monet.

It’s right at the bottom of Central Park on Columbus Circle so you practically trip on it during many New York sojourns.  Give it a try!  Visiting this tiny gem of a museum makes me feel 100% better about a kamikaze New York trip.  It’s a place that gives and does not take.

Here’s what I took in yesterday with a cool 45 minutes between appointments:

This artist actually burned a whole bunch of books that had special meaning to him and then permanently captured the ashes in blown glass. Challenging!

This artist took layers of soil and substrata from each of the New York burroughs and arranged them in this grid, as part of an archeological project.

This artist darkened the inside of ordinary bottles with smoke and then painstakingly removed the soot to create complex images.

Quilt made of human hair and dryer lint

From the permanent jewelry collection: a meticulously crafted "train" necklace. Each box is only about two inches long.

Glass bubble necklace

Folded and chain mailed Zulu love letters

Pig intestine necklace

The Ladies of Ellenville NY Cake Club. A necklace made from glass, found objects and photos. This is the one I covet.

A final insider tip.  If you are REALLY pressed for time, just duck into the museum shop right off the lobby.  It’s a total visual treat and you can score terrific gifts there, even for kids.

Our first night out, we saw people being served a restaurant meal in the back of a pickup truck. This is at Jacques-Imo's.

Understandably, Hurricane Katrina is a backdrop to much of New Orleans today. The central touristed areas were not flooded, but you are often reminded of its impact on the whole population as you travel. This is a sign in a restaurant, The Ruby Slipper. Tourist tip: if you want to get a quick read on someone in NOLA, ask them what they took with them when they evacuated. Our cab driver's answer: "My computer and my official Batman costume." Well, OK then. Costumes are VERY important in New Orleans.

Back to the Wizard of Oz atmosphere, I myself said, "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" when I ordered cinnamon pancakes at The Ruby Slipper and they arrived looking like a Dunkin' Donuts Easter special. They actually tasted pretty good.

Locals favor this weekend's French Quarter Festival.. It has 22 stages of free live music and endless food from local restaurants. In a brilliant stroke of marketing genius, Tums had women handing out a new form of antacid every 50 feet or so. See the next few photos to understand perfect fit for introducing this product at the Fest.

Fried varieties of fish, crayfish, and oysters.

This innocent looking pile of crayfish just about burned my mouth off. This pound of pure crustacean ($6) was amateur though. I saw people gnawing on entire turkey legs, fresh off the BBQ.

With hot sauce choices like these, the Tums marketing effort made more and more sense.

I told these two women I needed to take a photo of them because they were making me laugh by carrying BOTH coffee AND the local Abita beer at 10AM. Their response, “Welcome to New Orleans baby!”

Speaking of “baby”, this woman at the Crescent City Farmer’s Market called me baby about 10 times. I hadn’t yet realized it was a common way to address a stranger, so I asked to take her picture, on the theory she was my new best friend. Only later, and many “babies” later, did I realize it was pretty much the same as saying “dude” or “ma’am.”

I’m not sure what these two wild women were drinking first thing in the morning, but it fueled their confidence to strip topless and change shirts in broad daylight. At the very public, central French Quarter Festival merchandise stand. I am shocked I got this photo because my embarrassed son was aggressively tackling me to block my shot. He was more mortified by my behavior than by theirs. Teenagers.

But I guess the Festival spirit caught my son too. What started as a fun photographic game to change New Orleans street signs into family names.........

......devolved into a “find the rude word” in the street sign game.

Speaking of signs, and street art, I liked the way that exiting patrons of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art turned public fixtures into colorful collages. Not sure this would happen in Boston.

People seem to leave a trace of themselves all over New Orleans. Touring the Lafayette Cemetery, we learned how VooDoo rituals combine with Catholic burial traditions. In this case, on the tomb for “The Society for Destitute Orphan Boys” people leave Mardi Gras beads, toys, food, and coins to keep the boys entertained in the afterlife.

They do the same for Mary, apparently.

Further on the cemetery tour, we learned that plant is called Resurrection Fern. Pretty, right? Until you learn it’s a botanical species that only grows on human remains. It is creepily poking out everywhere in those New Orleans cemeteries.

It’s a blast to tour the year-round backroom studios of the enormous Blaine Kern workshops, where they start building the next year’s floats the minute Mardi Gras ends. But this scary "doll" sporting a weird pacifier and acne could not be explained by our tour guide. It must have inspired many a nightmare as this giant water head lumbered slowly down the parade route.

I didn’t ask about the excellent Ronald Reagan prop. Some jokester craftsman made his own statement about the ex-President by adding those hypnotic “charmer” glasses.

The biggest charm of New Orleans is its relaxed sense of humor. You see it everywhere. Here, 0n the front of a shoe repair shop.

On a gentle pan-handler's sign.

On the sign in a coffee shop.

Speaking of story-telling and humor-- Don, a volunteer at the National WWII Museum was a master yarn-spinner. He’s a vet standing in front of the Higgins boat he piloted for 2.5 years in the Philippines. (Who knew that these boats, built in New Orleans, comprised 92% of the US Navy fleet. This is why Dwight Eisenhower credited their creator, Andrew J. Higgins, with winning the war.) Don told me the only reason he survived all those perilous boat runs under heavy fire, was that his head is so hard that the “Japs” didn’t want to waste their ammunition by shooting at him.

This looks like an ordinary lunch counter. It’s not. It’s at a foodie paradise called “Butcher.” Taking home one of those “Grandma’s Chocolate Cakes” will set you back $45! But you might also get the offer of a free shot of whiskey to go with that root beer, as I witnessed. There’s a lot of that “giving a little extra” custom in New Orleans. They even have a special name for it: "lagniappe"

I come from a hat-wearing city: Detroit. New Orleans had a number of booming hat shops. The most prominent “everyday” style on the streets was this one--for both men and women. They even had shelves full of them right here, in Walgreens.

Going along with those hats were some pretty cool shoes. These were on the doormen of our hotel. They told me they get a new uniform every six months and they never know what it will be. Right now it’s these hip Doc Martens (Alfred, $140), paired with striped seersucker shorts and long sleeve white polo shirts.

The colleges we visit tend to leave us with one unique and lasting image. With Northwestern it was Lake Michigan. At Columbia, it was the grim faces of the students—to our son's dismay. For Tulane, the image that stands out is this. The weather is soooo easy to take and this setting (not the potential student slackers) will last for us.

But in case my son wants to be a slacker, with this choice of literature, he should fit right in with the Tulane pool-side crowd.

]]> http://jules.dailygrommet.com/2012/04/19/new-orleans-an-oddball-photo-tour/feed/ 4 julespieri P1020024 P1020029 P1020027 P1020095 P1020103 P1020108 P1020104 P1020098 P1020062 P1020094 P1020026 P1020128 P1020131 P1020077 P1020074 P1020078 P1020055 P1020052 P1020129 P1020096 P1020069 P1020146 P1020141 P1020072 P1020083 P1020035 P1020147 http://jules.dailygrommet.com/2012/04/17/two-big-pieces-of-press-this-week/ http://jules.dailygrommet.com/2012/04/17/two-big-pieces-of-press-this-week/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:02:05 +0000 julespieri http://jules.dailygrommet.com/?p=4385 ]]> Today’s press is a travel mishaps piece by Joan Raymond in the Business section of the New York Times.  See the full article here, and screen shot of it below.   Joan wrote it, so I can say it is pretty funny.  The stories, sadly, are all mine, and all true!

I am also thrilled for a bunch of great Grommets to get terrific coverage in Better Homes & Garden‘s May issue.  This is the second biggest magazine in the US and Jody Garlock did a fine reporting job.  It is also an treat to be featured in this “innovators” article next to the founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann.  (Alas this is not online, so you either have to squint to read it, or buy the issue.  It’s full of good content, so worth the price.)

It was posted by the self-described “An Angry American.”  He or she said:

There are so many products in THIS country that need to be recycled, that I cannot understand why you would not want to give jobs to the unemployed here…This disgusts me….

I do not wish you well with this venture….

This barbed comment was in response to our story about a young company that is recycling food and rice bags in Cambodia into durable and interesting bags.

We tend to get one of these “Made in USA” fan objections anytime we talk about an international product.  I don’t mind them–these are people expressing their values and they are normally respectfully delivered. (Here’s a good example in the discussion about a very popular Grommet, GripStics.)  But this Torrain bags comment was so unbalanced that it made me think more deeply about how we manage our discussion board, and to share some examples and lessons learned.

When one of these “tough” comments comes in, the team at Daily Grommet often waits with bated breath for our colleague Katherine Klinger to respond.  Why?  Because she is so skillful and continually surprising. In the case of answering “Angry American,”  Katherine wrote:

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you used your passion to start a product line that employs Americans? We’d be the first to want to hear about it! You’d be especially interested in Grommet stories such as American MoJo or Blue Moon Bottles.

Given our 800+ Grommet partners and 20 product categories, we have a difficult remit when we initiate a discussion. We cover stories about ground-breaking innovations ranging from mushroom growing kits, to alternative funerals, to feminine hygiene.  That’s practically asking for complexity, if not trouble.

The nature of any given website is going to be fairly predictive of its particular difficult dialogue.  If Daily Grommet only covered “sustainable/green” products, we would have activists in that space carefully watching us and contributing daily.  (And we do have a nice representation of those people everyday anyway.)

If we were a fashion site we would have people commenting more breezily about the Grommets, and probably just giving opinions rather than asking a lot of penetrating questions.

If we were a deal site, we would have community members monitoring pricing very carefully  This is exactly why you do not see open discussion boards on the deal sites (like Groupon, Fab.com, Gilt Groupe).  A CEO at one of the leading sites told me,

Yeah, we [deal sites] all pulled our discussion boards.  People just post complaints about the prices and share links about where to get things cheaper.  I’m amazed you guys [at Grommet] keep such a positive tone going every day.

I think we have such a positive tone because we are celebrating inspiring stories.  You might not groove on a given company or product, but it is hard to beat up on a Grommet creator for pursuing their passion. Yet the other reason for the tone of our discussion boards is skillful management by Katherine Klinger, who sets a high bar for all of us who contribute.

I asked Katherine how she approaches the more difficult cases.  She said,

I feel that we bring our commenters [Grommet creators] here as a special guest and as such try to stop conversations that are going down an unproductive road. We owe it to them to keep the conversation focused on their products and mission. If this were a discussion board with no special guest, I might instead explore what people think about some of these topics. When I write a reply, I try to not be defensive and I try not to give them any hooks to latch on to to come back with another similar post.

Katherine Klinger, Wordsmith Extraordinaire--she could make the copy on a stop sign interesting!

I also asked Katherine which recent responses were particularly challenging for her or the team.  In the screen shot case below, we had a rare instance of a person on a vendetta against the Grommet creator.  The screen shot is hard to read, but basically we deployed the VERY rare nuclear option of deleting a community comment.  We hesitate to do that and always indicate that we have done so.  Generally we welcome negative comments as they might reflect some general concerns, and it is great to have a chance for us and our partners to address them.  But when a person just attacks another person for some matter outside of Daily Grommet, we don’t let it stand.  (It is our digital equivalent of “take it outside, kids.”)

Katherine also cited the difficult tenor of the conversation around Spirit Hoods, which are playful faux fur hats.  This story brought out the wrath of a couple of animal rights activists.  Complicating matters,one of our very loyal Grommet fans came back at the animal rights person a bit too zealously.  It would have gotten ugly quickly, if Katherine did not tip in. Here is the strand.

To try to summarize, here’s what works at Grommet in creating a productive discussion board:

• Think “sideways” when a tough comment comes in.  Katherine is the master at looking at things differently, rather than frontally.  When we have a difficult email to write, we often consult her.  For instance, we like to check directly with a customer if we see an unusual order come in (like one for 20 pair of work overalls).  Katherine advised, “Don’t send an email asking if the order is a mistake.  Just thank the person for the order, while clearly calling out the order contents.  If it is a mistake they will be the first to tell us.”  (The 20 pair of work overalls were ordered by a drama teacher–they were costumes for a student play.)
• If you are CEO or a senior leader in your company, pay close attention to the discussion board.  I personally read every comment every day.  I answer many.  These comments are not “optional” to me.  They tell me what people are thinking and feeling, and I can also help set a tone in how we respond by taking on some of the dialogue myself.  I make it clear that it is worth my time to do this, and it is highly valuable work for anyone in the company.
• Know the difference between an ordinary negative comment and one that is going to lead to a death spiral.  Ordinary comments generally represent a criticism based on a different point of view, or a bad experience with the product or service.  NEVER delete those.  But comments that get personal, or are just an extended rant, need to be reigned in.  Make sure your posting guidelines are clear about that, as you do not want to create unique policy on the fly.
• Understand the value of negative comments.  Studies have shown that negative comments mixed in with positive ones actually increase the purchase rate for products.  Why?  People trust what is on the discussion board better, as being unedited and true.  This trust can be extended to any kind of discussion board that lets negative comments stand.  And in the case of product reviews and comments, people may not be concerned with the negative aspects that are raised, in regards to their own use of the product.  They understand that no product is perfect for absolutely everyone.

The biggest piece of advice about discussion boards I could give is:  hire a Katherine!  When I read the comments at some of my favorite e-commerce sites I often see robotic responses to customer complaints.  These replies look like someone pressed the “send that canned [fill-in-the-blank] response” button.  It’s admittedly a very labor-intensive effort to manage a discussion board (and not everyone at Daily Grommet itself agrees with our emphasis on this!), but I would not initiate one if you are not prepared to follow through with it in a real and human way.

As a CEO, you sign a high-pressure contract with your customers, investors and employees to solemnly swear to be faster, better, smarter than the next guy or gal.  Unless you possess superpowers, it’s impossible. You can’t do this all on your own.

So imagine your company as a bunch of auto parts. As CEO, you hope to soon be at the wheel of a lean, mean driving machine. You don’t personally need to know how to assemble the seats, the engine, and the tires.  But you do need to find people can to put the parts together so you can get on the road, fast. This is where advisors come in handy.

Here are three rules for putting together an advisory board that will get – and keep – you in gear:

• Keep the load light. Keep the number of active advisors in your company between three and six. Why?  It’s basic human psychology. Did you ever get an email asking for help, and then notice it that it was sent to fifteen people? Most people don’t respond to such things, because they assume that one of the other fourteen people answered. The same is true of advisors. They need to feel needed before they’ll extend themselves.
• Don’t be afraid to drop advisors along the way. The skills you need from your advisors in the first years of your company will be radically different from what you need later on. Veteran advisors understand this.  Manage expectations by using a formal agreement with equity compensation reviewed annually. Specify the expected time commitment and grant equity that assumes a year’s involvement. In an early stage company, one year’s involvement will be worth somewhere between ¼ and 1% of the equity in the company.
• Do a lot of test driving before putting people on the road with you. What can seem like a burning need right now might be a distant memory six months later. Conversely, an advisor can be extremely enthusiastic for two months and then fade away, thanks to other demands and pressures in their life. You are looking for advisors who can consistently and quickly answer your calls, and who have enough depth and coverage to merit a seat in the car.

In addition to forming a great advisory board, consider joining a community of peer advisors. You’ll get immediate help, you may find candidates for your advisory board, and you’ll practice the art of giving and taking advice, which will benefit you in multiple ways.

To find great peers, I’ve had good luck with the Creative Good Councils, a peer network of digital executives across a wide range of industries and geographies. They’ve announced a free membership for qualified candidates. I’ve been a member for several years and it’s been very helpful. Because there is careful vetting of applications to ensure that only senior-level talent is admitted, the quality of participants is high.

Just as driving from coast to coast is an intense and exhilarating process, with unexpected weather, boring interludes, and breathtaking scenery, so goes the journey of building a business. You wouldn’t invite just anyone along on that road trip, but it sure would be lonely doing it alone. Find some trusted advisors to take along for the ride.

The Pumponator water balloon filler was a popular Grommet in 2010.  It is a great little invention by an eight-year-old girl named Lexi Glenn.  Daily Grommet helped to make it successful by telling her story.  The award-winning toy landed in Real Simple magazine and is now widely distributed.

Alas, I saw a direct knock-off in Bed Bath and Beyond today.  I don’t mind when a competitor improves on an idea.  Sometimes the original version of a product does not advance and a new, improved version is created.  But what I saw today was just a direct imitation of the Pumponator. To blatantly rip off a child inventor like this is heinous.  (Here is what Lexi, now age ten, says about that.)

That’s my mad face, below.  Discovery Kids the division of the Discovery Channel that makes this rip-off copycat should be ashamed. C’mon Grommet folks, let’s support Lexi, and her original invention.  As for the Discovery Channel…when did you go to the dark side?

Inc. magazine recently recognized Daily Grommet for our effective business use of Pinterest.  (Here’s the article.) It’s kind of ironic because in the last three weeks some investors have been asking me “why can’t you be more like Pinterest?”  (Last year it was Groupon, the year before it was Gilt Groupe.)  Here is what a fellow entrepreneur, Jonathan Edson, retorted:

I’ve decided that the “Be More Like Pinterest” is the annoying comment of the day.  Next time someone pulls that on you, ask them if they would rather have been investors in Friendster or in Zynga.  I’d invest in the company that figures out how to monetize the ecosystem any day of the week.

Anyway, here’s what Inc. wrote about Daily Grommet:

The folks at Daily Grommet have been active on Pinterest since late August 2011, and in only one month’s time Pinterest was among their top 15 referring sites; today it is in their top five. According to their analytics, site visits from Pinterest increase on an average of 160 percent each month, with 83 percent being new visitors. Since they sell unusual products curated from all over the world, the folks at Daily Grommet created a group board to act as an extension of their community and for sourcing new product ideas. This board grew to over 3,000 followers in the first few weeks. So far, they’ve seen over 60 pins from their Pinterest community, affectionately known as their PinPals.  They’ve also pinned conversation starters and hosted a giveaway for their PinPals, so their activity is not limited to pinning.

Three weeks later, these article stats are already way out of date, but I guess our experience gives me credibility to share some advice for embracing Pinterest, for business users.

1. Don’t Pollute.

This is a visual bookmarking tool.  The operating word is “visual”.  So make sure whoever represents your company on Pinterest has a pretty good aesthetic sensibility.  I am already seeing businesses randomly posting ham-fisted pins like pictures of their software developers clowning around at their desks, or ordinary advertising messages.  This is like bring Cheese Curls to a garden tea party.

2. Care about what Pinners care about.

http://www.russandcamille.com/2011/09/pinning-away-on-pinterest.html

Here’s a Mashable article with brand new stats about what people are pinning on Pinterest, to help you navigate (it’s home/garden, food, fashion largely).  Even with Pinterest at the 15th most traffic-rich site on the web, I still hear people dismissing Pinterest as “just a bunch of Midwestern scrapbookers.”  (As though this is some unimportant or stupid population, rather than the one that actually controls 80% of the consumer economy.) If your business does not have any value to these women, maybe your business does not belong on Pinterest.  You could damage your brand more than help it if you are constantly off-key with your business posts.  Consider saving Pinterest for personal use.

3. Pin Products. 

There are several pages of repins of this Grommet on Pinterest, all of which occurred in a day.

But only innovative ones.  Products are most popular subjects for repins–in fact 80% of repins are products.  The Pinterest community is very cutting edge in its appreciation for the new, well-crafted and problem-solving products.  Here’s a screen shot of one of the Daily Grommet Pinterest product hits.  It’s a line of paper bakeware (Welcome Home Brands) that the Pinterest community grabbed and shared because it is new to the US.  Pinners are sophisticated enough to realize how fresh this product is, whereas it would probably go right over the heads of other demographics.

4. Experiment.

Daily Grommet’s kinda surprising “Pin it to win it” winners’ choices: Yantra accupressure mat, One Good Earbud, Better Life Green cleaning products, a Yakitori BBQ grill and a Cocoon GRID-IT Electronics organizer

Our Community Manager Tori Tait invented a fun “Pin it to win it” raffle on Pinterest.  People pinned whatever Grommet they most coveted and five were selected.  I was surprised that people pinned what they really desired, rather than just expensive choices.  (Here are the links to each one:Yantra accupressure mat, One Good Earbud, Better Life Green cleaning products, a Yakitori BBQ grill and a Cocoon GRID-IT Electronics organizer)

Tori Tait

Our customer’s world moves with lightening speed and our Community Manager Tori is being sought out–already–as an expert and innovative Pinterest user.  She had embraced the platform first as a personal user and kept encouraging the rest of us to follow suit.  (I did, and will share my personal experience separately.)  Tori’s been the focus of two crazy-busy Tweet chats where she shared her knowledge.  Here is the transcript of the Pinterest chat two days ago (hosted by Kelly Westhoven Lieberman and the data is from our friends at Hashtracking) in case you want to grab Tori’s wisdom and see what other business users were asking.  (This chat alone had a 2.9 million impressions reach on Twitter.)

I helped Tori with an earlier Tweetup on Pinterest  and I had to laugh at the reaction of one of my favorite technology journalists, Wade Roush, when he tried to participate:

Wade Roush's reaction to our "Pinterest Party" on Twitter