Pinterest in a very short period of time has become a go to destination for millions of users. In fact in December 2011 there were 11 million visits a week, that’s 400% growth over just six months.

Realizing the success of the program LinchPin SEO has created an infographic that shows users exactly how to market their items on the interest website and they created their unique infographic using the Pinterest setup.

As the infographic rightfully points out Pinterest can be used for a variety of things suck as promoting sales and promitions, offering coupons to readers and even answering questions such as “how much should you spend on an engagement ring?”

Because Pinterest is almost exactly like a giant infographic for readers a business can easily create a visual flowchart that not only sells a product but also provides tons of information about that product at the same time.  A business can easily post information about a product, pin photos to a page and even offer video accompanied by a coupon.

Here’s the Pinterest business marketing Infographic: read more

Facebook has nearly captured the market for 1 billion social media users so it only makes sense that some of the countries top brands would want to turn that loyalty to the network into a rewards program and that’s exactly what’s happening at Dunkin’ Donuts, Red Robin, Taco Bell and Quiznos.

Those company’s have signed deals with loyalty marketing start-up Plink who will announced a new quick-serve brand test for partners on Thursday.

The program works by tracking how much money Facebook users spend at each location and then rewarding them with Facebook Credits which can be used to make in-app purchases in such games as CityVille and FarmVille.

To get started users simply register their credit or debit card at Plink.com and then when they use that specific card at participating locations they receive Facebook credits.  read more

Facebook on Wednesday suspended secondary market sharing of the company’s stock in what is very likely a sign that the company plans to go public with an IPO in the near future.

A letter was sent from Facebook’s law firm, Fenwick & West  stating that shares of the company would stop trading immediately although a reason for that decision is still not known.

A recent report said Facebook would release its IPO in May and in an interview with Bloomberg Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo. said:

“Facebook and companies who do this don’t want to expose themselves to lawsuits related to the fact that some people had it before others and were able to trade on it,” and “The best way to protect yourself is to have no one able to trade.” read more

Over the last eight months video views on popular video streaming website YouTube have jumped 25% to 4 billion online videos each day.

Video views continue to increase particularly in the smartphone and Smart TV market where users are able to download YouTube videos faster and with better display quality.

YouTube has also revealed that uploads to the service have greatly increased from 48 hours each minute in May to 60 hours each minute at the current time.

While YouTube users are watching more videos through the service YouTube users only spend 15 minutes each day watching videos on the site while American TV watchers consume four to five hours watching TV every day on average. It’s that low level of engagement that has led investors to question YouTube’s earnings capabilities.  read more

I honestly don’t fully know the best way to combat online piracy; but I do know that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) isn’t it. The bill would create a plethora of problems if it were passed. Let’s be real here, copyright infringement and piracy are real problems that need real solutions, but when you spot a weed growing in your front yard, do you dig up the entire lawn to get rid of it? No, you pull that weed, and ONLY that weed, out of the ground and you do your best to monitor the lawn for any future weeds.

User-Generated Content Sites and SOPA

One of the complaints that you’ll consistently hear about the SOPA bill is that it is way too generalized and all-encompassing. For instance, under SOPA, a site will be considered dedicated to the theft of U.S. intellectual property if it is “primarily designed or operated for the purpose of offering services in a manner that enables or facilitates copyright infringement”. Well, take YouTube for example; the online video site serves an average of 100 million videos every single day. The majority of it is uploaded by users, who can remain anonymous with minimal effort if they so choose. Under SOPA, YouTube can be considered a site that is primarily designed in a way that enables copyright infringement because of those reasons. Totally nuts. read more

Less then two full days after some of the world’s top websites began protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the lead sponsor of the bill Lamar Smith, says it will be sent back to the drawing board and redraft with an emphasis on keeping censorship off the table.

Speaking about the decision to keep the bill off the table Smith noted:

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy.” He went on to add: “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Lamar Smith says he’s still committed to protecting “American intellectual property and innovation” but he stopped short of saying how the bill could be changed to reach that goal.

Under the current form of SOPA critics have argued that the bill would allow company’s to easily shut down sites that disagreed with its opinions, while pushing up the cost of community driven sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit by forcing owners to monitor activity in near real-time.  read more

Google+ is cruising along these days and that fact was buoyed by Google CEO Larry Page on Thursday when he announced during the company’s quarterly finance meeting that Google+ is now serving more than 90 million users.

When you take into consideration the fact that Google+ was reporting just 40 million users in October 2011 the improvement in usage is astounding.

In December 2011 Google+ watcher Paul Allen predicted that the social network had 62 million users while Experian Hitwise has predicted 400 million users by the end of 2012. read more

Multiple sources have revealed that Facebook executives plan to release the company’s IPO in late May 2012. The company is expected to go public in the third week of the month which means they would have to file with the SEC in the next month since it usually takes three to four months for the agency to review a company and approve its IPO.

While late May looks to be the much anticipated day a source close to the plans tells All Things D:

“This IPO planning could all change in a New York minute to another month.”  read more

Words With Friends can be more than just a fun scrabble type game you play with Friends, it could be the very technology that saves your life one day. At least that was the case for an Australian man who was diagnosed with a life threatening condition.

Australian resident Georgie Fletcher and American wordsmith Beth Legler met several years ago through the gaming platform and began a friendship through the Words With Friends chat screen. Recently Mrs. Fletcher began to describe her sick husbands symptoms when Beth’s husband Larry, a physician, told Georgie to rush her husband immediately to the hospital.

It turns out that Simon Fletcher had a 99% blockage near his heart that would have led to certain death had he not been taken immediately to the emergency room. read more

Fans of Turntable.fm will soon have a similar offering to take advantage of through the Facebook platform. The social network on Thursday announced “Listen With” a new feature that allows users to access a personal chatroom where they can share songs with their Facebook followers.

Tunes are picked up from Spotify and Rdio at this time and the program integrates with real-time sharing technology which was introduced to the Open Graph in September.

Unlike Facebook’s current offering which allows users to see what their friends are listening to and then play them the new program picks up and plays songs right where they are currently streaming. For example if a friend is half way through a song and then changes to a new tune you’ll be taken along with them to the new track. read more