What I will focus on is the business side of Pinterest. According to a recent study, Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than Google plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. Some are calling Pinterest overhyped (Forrester is one) but clearly this new social network is not something to be ignored. However, it turns out there’s a lot happening behind the scenes at Pinterest and it has everything to do with affiliate marketing.

If you’re familiar with Pinterest you know that along with tips, recipes and inspirational quotes you’ll also find pins to products that can be purchased from various e-commerce sites. Last week, a report by social media blog LLSocial revealed that Pinterest is adding their own affiliate tracking codes to e-commerce links that already have an affiliate program. This means if you purchase an item from that store, Pinterest makes money off of the sale.

The discussion over the last week or so is not whether or not Pinterest should be doing this (affiliate marketing is nothing new) but rather why they have not disclosed it to users.

Honestly, does it matter? While addicting (ask my husband), I find Pinterest extremely useful and a behind-the-scenes affiliate program doesn’t affect my experience one bit. In fact, it’s better than the alternative, which would include annoying on-page or pop-up ads interrupting my pinning experience. Pinterest isn’t encouraging me to buy something or endorsing particular products either.

There has been a considerable amount of coverage on this topic over the last week including the New York Times, CBS News and countless blogs. Almost all are focusing on the fact that Pinterest has not disclosed this practice. According to Skimlinks (the organization that manages Pinterest’s affiliate links), the company isn’t legally bound to disclose the affiliate program because there are no endorsements by Pinterest.

Here’s my advice to Pinterest: make everyone happy and add a disclosure to the Help section so everyone understands you participate in affiliate marketing. Simple, easy, done!

Now, back to those baked avocado fries I need to repin.

Polling is ubiquitous these days, especially in political campaigns. It’s hard to imagine the news media and the chatterclass functioning without polls. And they give those of us who follow politics like a spectator sport with near instantaneous information on who’s up or down, in or out, and which issues have “traction,” and which won’t last a single news cycle.

Is that a good thing?

Well-designed polls from reliable organizations can present a reasonable snapshot of public opinion towards candidates and issues. Polls conducted by or for news media organizations also provide additional content for each day’s news cycle, as this example shows. The New York Times’ political coverage is supplemented virtually every day with polling data from researcher Nate Silver. His reports serve as a kind of daily racing form enabling political junkies to handicap election contests. Polls also clearly the power of immediacy. They can, for example, provide virtually feedback on a candidate’s debate performance; Gerald Ford’s startling assertion in 1976 that Poland was not under the thumb of the Soviet Union generated an immediate negative reaction in polling, and helped sink his candidacy. Newt Gingrich apparently won this year’s South Carolina GOP primary for challenging a CNN moderator about charges of marital strife, polls immediately showed. On the other hand, polls can be wrong, or misleading or — worse — manipulative. Much depends on the size of the polling sample as well as its demographic variety. This presents challenges to pollsters, especially those who rely on telephone sampling. Lots of people these days no longer have landline phone service, and mobile phone numbers are difficult to obtain. Ethnic and racial diverse audiences are typically under-represented, while seniors are over-represented. Independent research also has demonstrated that poll respondents often repeat inaccurate information they’ve read or heard and then cling to their misconceptions even when the correct information becomes available. ”People recall facts that support their beliefs, and don’t recall facts that contradict beliefs,” says Leo Simonetta, a social psychologist and director of analytics for the Art & Science Group, a Baltimore-based education consultancy.

Polling, no matter how well it’s done, replaces the visceral nature of campaigns with detached “ojectivity.” It gathers and collates the opinions of people — thousands of them — and yet most polls seem strangely impersonal, with thoughtfulness, emotion, hesitation and insight scrubbed out of the data. It’s much harder as a result to find detailed candidate profiles, of the kind that Joe McGinniss or Tom Wicker used to write “from the back of the (campaign) bus.” When I covered politics many years ago, my editors insisted that I spend time driving and flying around with the candidates, and write about what I saw, heard and felt. It wasn’t important to predict who would win. Rather, my job was to give readers an insight into the candidates, and help them answer the question: would you have this guy over for dinner?

In any event, public opinion polling here to stay. It does makes you wonder, though, what it must have been like back in the days when, without polling to foreshadow the outcome, people didn’t have a clue who was going to win on election day. Not knowing was a lot more fun. Which is not a bad thing at all.

Self-educate daily. You will be constantly researching, studying and applying what you learn, whether it’s via internal professional development, partnership outings or the many e-newsletters and articles that find their way into your inbox. Set aside time each day to stay on top of trends in the industry.

Learn to fend for yourself. At some point, you will be thrown into the fire…it’s going to happen. Rely on your strengths and be confident in your abilities. Demonstrate that you can lead, manage and organize, but know when to lean on your mentors in the moments when you need clarity and understanding.

Keep it in perspective. Sometimes young professionals feel a sense of entitlement to work on complex client projects the minute they walk in the door. There are certain things a textbook can never teach you about this industry – pay your dues, do the extra work to get ahead and the good stuff will come.

Be resilient. At some point in your search for PR gold, you’re going to fail. Mistakes are going to happen, however, there will always be a chance to rebound. Own up to your mistakes and always try to find the positive in every situation. It will make the time pass quicker until your next victory.

Two words: time management. Staying organized while you juggle multiple clients with multiple projects is of utmost importance. Make sure you create efficient habits for tracking billable time, updating weekly calendars and following action plans.

What would you add to the list?

Hyperbole aside (“kills its attackers,” “the world shook”), there is little question that what we witnessed in America last week was the influence of social media and the internet in shaping public policy … the American way.

I am not being all nationalistic and stuff here.  Compare the SOPA defeat with the Arab Spring of the past year.  Stay with me.

Without question, history has shown us that change (innovations to revolutions) occurs because of communications.  Whether we’re talking about societal progressions from print to radio to television to cable to the internet (innovations), or we’re talking about communications facilitating awareness of oppression, inequity, fairness and freedom somewhere else (revolutions), communications is the constant when change occurs, actually, for change to occur.

The sudden and dramatic death of SOPA  is a powerful example of how America changes.  We are a nation of laws and, despite the rhetoric around the impact of SOPA, it was the openness of American society and how information is shared that convinced our elected leaders that they were going too far … that their proposed policy was not good policy in the eyes of those whom they represent.

From my perspective, the only real difference between SOPA and the Arab Spring is that people didn’t die to affect change.  There were no mass protests, no dictators overthrown, no unimaginable collateral damage (women, children, etc.). 

There was just a change, or more specifically, a temporary halt to a bad change in law.  This article in the Hollywood Reporter confirms that there are other chapters to come in this story.

At one level, we witnessed the beauty of the American form of democracy.  At another level, we witnessed the awesome power of the internet in affecting change right here in America.

As an old politico and a comms pro, I love this stuff. From the Arab Spring to America’s 2012 Presidential Election, the impact of social media is as fascinating as it is remarkable.

For all the other junkies out there, please read this post (5 Examples of How Social Media is Changing the 2012 Elections) by Kevin Dugan.  It’s really good stuff.

Kevin highlights some sites that do a great job from his perspective (and his is a good perspective) of covering the 2012 contest via social media.  Some of the angles for coverage (fashion choices?!) make the read as interesting as it is fun.

I could comment more, but just read Kevin’s post and bookmark a few things to follow.  Thanks, Kevin.

It discusses the battlefield for 2012 for mobile devices.  Interestingly, the article suggests that this may play out at the Consumer Electronics Show opening next week in Las Vegas.  It references new devices that reflect converging industries: powerful tablets/smartphones v. laptop PCs with mobile device weight and battery life.

The Vehr Communications 2011 Social Media Usage Survey showed that tablets were mostly for personal use.  We also speculated that advances in technology may bring the worlds of laptops and mobile devices closer together.

Definitely something to watch.  Enjoy the brief below.

“High tech’s most powerful players are preparing for a new series of battles this year, many of them maneuvering to build or bolster positions in the fast-moving mobile market. Some potent combatants, including Apple Inc., are using patents as well as new products to outflank rival makers of smartphones, tablet-style computers and related products. Courts could help shape the prospects of several big names, including Google Inc. and its quest to popularize handsets and tablets running its Android operating system. The year could also be a crucial test for mobile-device laggards, like Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., which are desperate to build bigger footholds in the market, as ailing incumbents such as Research In Motion Ltd. and Nokia Corp. face increasing pressure to shore up their franchises.

“Many of the year’s opening gambits will play out at the Consumer Electronics Show, which opens next week in Las Vegas. The big product showcase is expected to include new devices that reflect two converging industries: tablets and smartphones with personal-computer-class performance and laptop PCs with weight and battery life approaching those of cellphones. “People have finally figured out that these mobile devices are computers, and they want to do the same things as they do on their personal computers,” says Mike Rayfield, general manager of mobile computing at Nvidia Corp., a Silicon Valley chip maker. “The activity and intensity will continue to accelerate.”

“The focus on mobility has steadily increased as the personal-computer market has matured. Researchers at Gartner Inc. expect PC shipments to grow 4.5% in 2012, on the heels of less than 1% growth in 2011. By contrast, unit sales of smartphones are expected to increase nearly 40% this year, with tablet sales surging nearly 63%.

“Apple has been leading the charge since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone. But handset makers that use Google’s Android software collectively far outpace Apple shipments. Apple, Microsoft, Oracle Corp. and other Android opponents have filed patent actions in a variety of courts and before the U.S. International Trade Commission, many of which are expected to result in rulings this year.

“Also look for whether Apple produces a third iPad or embraces fourth-generation cellular technology, if Microsoft’s new operating systems take hold in the mobile market and if Facebook Inc. more aggressively counters Google in smartphone-related offerings.” (Don Clark)

Whether driven by a quaint midwestern humility, Catholic/Jewish residual guilt, or a too-insular perspective, we tend to think it happens only to us or that we have it worse than everyone and anyone, everywhere and anywhere else.

As communicators, we always advise our clients to stay focusse don the positive.  Reinforce what has gone well while, if necessary, being honest but not overly effusive about what hasn’t. 

So, as I think about the New Year, I like to think about things that did happen here, some recently and some not so, things that should make us proud, say it loud and be comfortable standing out front.

• The board of director’s of the nation’s most respected civil rights organization, the NAACP, as it closed it annual convention a few years ago, gave the Cincinnati Police Department a standing ovation for its professionalism and courtesy.  Yep, it happened Cincinnati.
• Cincinnati was named #3 in the “Top 10 US Travel Destinations in the US” by Lonely Planet just last week.  That’s right, Cincinnati, #3 in the US.
• Cincinnati was selected as host city for the prestigious World Choir Games being held in America in 2012 for the first time ever (full disclosure, the World Choir Games is a client of our firm).  You bet, right here in Cincinnati.
• We have a grab bag full of firsts (check them out).  From the first professional baseball team to the first city to host a municipal song competition (Saengerfest); from the first heart-lung machine to the first Jewish theological college in America; from the first US concrete skyscaper to a favorite son being the first to step on the moon.  We did these things, Cincinnati.

Are there other things about which to brag a little?  Of course.  Have we had our share of missteps?  Certainly.

Join me in starting 2012 thinking about how good we are and how that can be the foundation for getting even better. 

It happened here, Cincinnati.  Be proud of it.