Only released in beta version a little over a year ago, and already voted one of the “50 Best Websites of 2011,” Pinterest.com is a new social media phenomenon. It is a “mood board” style sharing site, where users create their own boards based on themes that interest them. Users “pin” URLs and photos to their theme boards, which are then shared with followers and other users. The site offers a “pin it” utility to allow users to quickly and easily pin something they see on any site on the web. Pins can be repinned, or liked, and allow other users to comment also.

To join Pinterest, you must be invited. You can get an invitation emailed to you from a current user, or go to Pinterest.com to request an invitation. When you are invited you can register through your facebook or twitter accounts.

I just started using Pinterest and I will say that the site has become a major source of inspiration and ideas for everything – cooking, fashion, home decor, art, design, technology, and much more. The search feature is useful when I’m curious about what’s been “pinned” on a particular topic. I started pinning favorite things of mine right away, and I also do a fair amount of “repinning” ideas that I see from other users that I want to save to my boards, too.

It will be interesting to see how companies and brands can promote products on the site. I’m sure many companies are already looking into how to incorporate Pinterest in a way that won’t alienate users – especially when their rules of etiquette are clearly opposed to overtly promotional activity on the site. As part of an overall social strategy, it appears that Pinterest is a site that should be considered, particularly if the brand can provide helpful, interesting, or inspiring information “pinners” would appreciate.

Have you started using Pinterest? Will it be part of your social media strategy?

Some wisdom from smart people, some things you learned from your mom, and some seriously random stuff…

1. “In this business, you can never wash the dinner dishes and say they are done. You have to keep doing them constantly.” Mary Wells Lawrence
2. No whining.
3. “People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to.” Jerry Seinfeld
4. Failing does not make you a failure.
5. “The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife.” David Ogilvy
6. Never leave a man behind.
7. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Winston Churchill
8. “I’ve learned any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.” Leo Burnett
9. Tip your servers.
10. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato
11. Always stick together.
12. “Never trust a smiling cat.” Garfield
13. A little goes a long way.
14. Lefty loosie, righty tighty.
15. “Floating the flop to bet on the turn.” Ted Kucinsky

5:00 am. Alarm goes off. Vaguely remember something is due today. Momentary panic. Hit snooze and turn over.

5:18 am. Have hit snooze twice. Now the dog is whining. Groan. Turn alarm off and get up. Remember that the promo concept is due today and panic. While standing in the driveway waiting for the dog to potty I develop a hopeful feeling and go inside to get this day going!

5:59 am. Working out. Turning the project over and over in my mind while jogging. Halfway through a 6 minute hula hoop interval forget about the project entirely and wonder if this exercise is working at all.

6:20 am. Attending to ADLs*. Have a really funny idea for the promotion. Say it over and over in my head so as not to forget it. Got it! It’s a lock! This will work!

7:30 am. Driving to the office. What was that idea I had in the shower? What was it!? CRAP! Start thinking about the creative brief, the client objectives, and the timeline. Become convinced we’re not going to make it. Get distracted by the radio.

8:00 am. Arrive at the office. Check email, have breakfast, and start Workamajig. Holy cow what are these new tasks and edits and man this hard boiled egg is delicious.

10:00 am. Finally have time to devote to the project. Start by feeling stupid that I can’t remember the shower concept. Give up trying to remember it and open a file with a blank page.

11:00 am. Looking at some words on the page now. Have used thesaurus.com, rhymezone.com, onelook.com, and wikipedia. Have researched on various industry sites and blogs, then got distracted by an article about color. This coffee is cold.

1:30 pm. Back from lunch. Decide that I can use some of the ideas from before, a couple of them are growing on me, and begin massaging them.

1:50 pm. I now have three or four headlines I like, and hoping they work for Jeff.

3:00 pm. Coffee shop with Jeff talking about the promo. Look at the creative brief again, and talk about my ideas. He likes them. He has some ideas, too. We merge one of his with mine, and go with my headline on a couple. AWESOME. Three solid concepts! Plus we come up with a couple of interesting POS ideas and a funny Facebook tie-in. Success. Plus, this coffee is delicious.

4:15 pm. Typing up what Jeff and I discussed, putting the concepts in the folder so he can grab them and start making Catalyst creative history!

4:18 pm. Momentary panic that the client won’t like the ideas. Remember that I do that and remind myself of the good stuff we’ve done before.

6:00 pm. Home for the day. Remember the idea I had in the shower. Oh crap, it’s better than that one concept we had. Write this one down on a post it note and put it on the back door to take to him in the morning… we still have time to change it…make it better…

Note: This story is presented in a compressed time mode. Meaning, normal turnaround for making Catalyst creative history is two weeks…

*ADLs – Activities of Daily Living. Bathing, dressing, grooming.

I grew up watching Star Trek after school and (of course) fell in love with Captain Kirk. But I also had crushes on Scotty, McCoy, Chekov, and even Spock. Plus I totally envied Uhura. She was the chick on the ship who had a job on the bridge with the guys AND got to wear a mini dress with tall boots. Wow. There was something special about each one of them, mostly that they gave a damn.

In every episode (original series, next generation, or movies) the crew had to get it together and come up with some creative solutions to the tough spots they found themselves in. Kinda like working at an agency.

The crew is made up of both illogical humans and logical vulcans. It works best that way.

Actually I think it works best in any work environment. The humans need the vulcans to remind them of the facts. The vulcans need the humans to remind them of the feelings.

Good ideas can come from anyone on the ship.

Even the rookie, Chekov, had his chance to save the day. We try to never forget that everyone here has great ideas every day.

Deadlines are not the real enemy. 

When the scary alien has started the countdown to your destruction, remember this. It’s not the clock’s fault! (This is in no way intended to imply that clients are scary aliens.)

Sometimes you have to beam down to the planet.

Sometimes it helps to get off the ship. You get a different perspective. This is especially true when we are starting on concepts for a new project. Thirty minutes at the coffee shop on the corner can be more productive than two hours staring at a blank computer file.

The best ideas usually come to you when you’re about to be disintegrated.

Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like imminent death. Okay that may be a bit dramatic but in our case it’s true – at Catalyst we can come up with some pretty amazing stuff under pressure.

If you’re on the ship, you’re on the mission.

At Catalyst, we’re all on the same mission, and the mission is to help our clients and their customers/shareholders live long and prosper. If we succeed at that, we ourselves live long and prosper.

Things are happening at warp speed at Catalyst. Give us a call or send us an email if you want to talk about what’s going on in your universe!