Over the past week, there’s been a lot of digital ink spilled over Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, and its swift about face.

Taking the politics out of the situation, Komen has provided a textbook example of how to severely—and possibly irrevocably—damage your brand. Its bungling of the original announcement, its initial silence (while Planned Parenthood went on a PR/social media offensive), its feeble attempt to reframe its policy decision, and finally its sheepish reversal, had the cumulative effect of tarnishing its image as a non-partisan advocate for women’s health and angering supporters on both sides of the issue.

But rather than piling on about the mistakes made by Komen, we wanted to focus on an organization that did all the right things last week in terms of messaging, outreach, and brand positioning: The Ms. Foundation for Women. This high-visibility non-profit organization took swift and immediate action to address the situation in a way that promoted their organizational goals and advanced their cause.

After Komen’s initial announcement, the Ms. Foundation worked quickly to figure the most effective way to shape its message, reach its supporters, and inspire them to take action. In less than 72 hours, Ms. Foundation supporters had a message urging them to donate to “The Ms. Foundation Stands with Planned Parenthood.” Supporters learned that Ms. would match their donations dollar-for-dollar up to a total of $40,000.

Launching the campaign involved a great deal of planning and fast-thinking. “Rapid response involves a lot of moving parts,” said Kelly Parisi, Vice President, Marketing and Communications for the Ms. Foundation. “With the Ms Foundation stands with Planned Parenthood, there were so many elements . . .  from identifying what we were going to call this campaign, to how we were going to message our response, and getting the website up and able to accept donations correctly. Adding the element of a matching campaign proved another layer of complication, because there were a lot of pieces that needed to get lined up before we could launch it and put the press release out.”

The campaign proved to be highly effective. Within 30 minutes of sending the initial email, the Ms. Foundation had received 27 donations. Yes, you read that correctly—nearly one donation per minute. And donations continue to roll in.

“It was a really galvanizing issue for people,” said Parisi, “And also I think the immediacy of it was helpful. People who are very passionate about this issue were excited about the ability to take their dollars even further.”

Given that the Komen Foundation reversed its decision the following day, it’s safe to say that immediacy was the most essential key to the Ms. Foundation’s success. With an effective message, a clear mission, and a rapid, disciplined response, the Ms. Foundation was able to transform its supporters’ outrage into action—and dollars—for Planned Parenthood.

If your company has an opportunity to launch a successful, time-sensitive campaign, follow the Ms. Foundation's example:

1. Develop a simple, coherent message and call to action
2. Have the technology in place to launch a rapid response
3. Reach out to your audience as quickly and thoroughly as possible

If you need help with your online marketing strategies or technology platform, contact CDG. We'll help you get everything in place so you're ready to react.

With a phenomenal growth rate in the last 6 months to 3.3 million users and counting—and a mostly female user base—the young photo-based social network Pinterest has suddenly grabbed a lot of attention.

As a result, brands and businesses are wondering how (and whether) they can use Pinterest for marketing. Some initial case studies are showing the way.

But first: what the heck is Pinterest, anyway?

How Pinterest Works

An online version of a pinboard or wall corkboard, Pinterest allows users to organize photos into collections called boards, each of which can be categorized by type of image.

Photos are added to Pinterest either by uploading them or “pinning” them from a website using a browser bookmarklet (snippet of code).

As on all social networks, users on Pinterest can follow other users. The main page of Pinterest presents a feed of all of the images that have been pinned by users you follow, which you can then “like” or easily repin to one of your own boards. (This activity may feel familiar to users of Tumblr which has a similar ease-of-use for resharing content.)

Individual “pins” can also be commented on. When they’ve been pinned from an originating source, there’s a link from the image back to that website.

How to Use Pinterest to Market Your Business

There are a variety of specific ways to use Pinterest, from holding contests to conducting market research and creating boards of photos from a property for sale. (See the articles in the Further Reading section, below, to read some great case studies.)

No matter what specific use is best for your business, a few principles apply when marketing via Pinterest.

• Don’t just promote yourself. This is a best practice for all social media, but it pays to remember it here. Pinterest provides a unique opportunity to build an image around your brand or business, so look for complementary pins that connote the same ideas as your business. Bergdorf Goodman’s pins both product images to trend boards and book covers to a board called “The Books on Our Shelves.”
• Showcase your image content. Seems obvious right? But it’s not just about beautiful photography you took or of your products. NBC’s Today Show, for example, pins photos of travel destinations it has featured on the show.
• Be strategic with your boards. Group pins in ways that appeal to your audience(s). Reaching moms? Have boards for kids’ items, parenting advice, mommy quotes or any other subject matter relevant to them, and to you.
• Engage with users. Keep in mind that people on Pinterest may already be pinning images from your business. When you find them, comment on them, repin them to your own boards, and follow the users.
• Show your process. Use Pinterest to brainstorm ideas with internal teams, letting followers (and potential customers) in on the process. They’ll be more invested in the final product you create at the end.

Further Reading About Pinterest

These articles provide a wealth of specific uses, individual use cases, and companies to follow on Pinterest once you join.

• “7 Creative Ways Your Brand Can Use Pinterest,” Search Engine Watch
• “Chobani Yogurt Tickles the Tastes of Pinterest Addicts, and So Can Your Brand,” Fast Company
• “Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips,” American Express OPEN Forum Blog
• “Online Pinboards: Is This the New Way to Facebook?” Search Engine Watch 
• “10 Tips for Playing on Pinterest,” Let’s Lasso the Moon blog
• Update 1.30.12: "Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers," Mashable

Your Turn

• Are you on Pinterest yet?
• How are you using it, and why?

Wondering if Pinterest is right for your business? CDG Interactive helps companies like yours choose the best social media channels to support their marketing strategies. Contact us today to get started.

A new evolution of this feature

Rather than collect links throughout the week and wait until Friday to share them, it makes more sense to share them as we find them and when they are most timely for our readers.

From now on, you will find shared articles and ideas on the CDG Interactive Google + page throughout the week, so we invite you to join us there.

If you like, put a pin in it

Pinterest is the new rage in social media as participants “put a pin” in images, ideas, and concepts that inspire them. Others can follow, like, comment and re-pin. Unsurprisingly, businesses aren’t far behind, wondering how this can work for them. Open Form offers tips for brands interested in Pinterest. And a jewelry maker shares her own experience on how she has successfully used Pinterest to generate interest in her bracelets.

Twitter can’t fix your debit card

Many of us turn to Twitter for customer service assistance – especially when faced with baffling phone tree menus. But according to the New York Times, tweeting your bank won’t help at all and will likely get you referred right back to that customer service phone number.

Learn an instrument online

Can’t find a teacher that plays the ukulele or the bagpipes near you? Never fear! Now you can take music lessons online. Now that people have better bandwidth at home, it allows for better video chats and music lessons with teachers anywhere. Students can take master classes without leaving their own homes and adult students can find teachers available when they are.

Listen with your friends

Facebook is rolling out a new music service that allows you to listen along to the same music on their online music service (such as Spotify). Just look for the musical notes in the chat sidebar and you’ll have the option to listen along. We’ll reserve judgment as to whether it’s creepy or cool.

Scan that code

If you’re going to create a QR code campaign, you should probably make sure it’s implemented in a place where it will work. Over the holidays, I was visiting a wildlife preserve that offered QR codes along the trail. Unfortunately, there was no data signal available to let us know what the information was.

What did you resolve?

Curious about the most popular resolutions or how likely you are to achieve your resolution? There’s an infographic for that. http://dailyinfographic.com/new-years-resolutions-infographic

If you resolved to upgrade your browser, it’s a good thing. Microsoft is saying goodbye to Internet Explorer 6. Download newer versions from Microsoft.

Rules are rules

It’s nice to know that Google’s rules apply to everyone – even their own products. And when the Chrome browser violated Google’s own rules with their ad campaign, Google punished them by pushing them further down in the search engine results.

Change your password

Call it another New Year’s resolution, but change your passwords. Once hackers have accessed information on one site, they will use the same email/password combination on other sites with an alarmingly high rate of success. Even computer security firms aren’t immune, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal that also identifies the most popular passwords.

2011 Wrap Up & Lessons Learned

From A List Apart - What I learned about the Web in 2011

From UX Magazine -  Global Lessons from Travel Websites

Social Media most popular online activity

According to a recent comScore report, social networking is now the single most popular online activity, accounting for 1 in 5 online minutes. Facebook now reaches over half of global online audience. Mobile fuels the social addiction – with 64% of smartphone users accessing social networking sites, either through apps or a mobile browser.

Military families are among those increasingly relying on social media to keep in touch. Facebook and BlueStar Families have teamed up to create a Social Media Guide for military families.

Google Image Search

Google is now detecting your device to add some new features to movie and Image Search for mobile and tablet users. Google is trying to anticipate the reason for the search and provide a richer experience such as offering opportunities to purchase movie tickets on your mobile device.

How we search

One word searches are increasing dramatically, possibly as a result of mobile search becoming more popular.

A recent Pew Internet Project report indicates that people are increasing turning to search engines for information about local businesses – an argument for optimizing your Google Places listing.

Just for fun

Open a Google search window and type “let it snow.” Enjoy.

Go to LinkedIn and click to see who has viewed your profile in the last 5 days. Click on any special consultants you see listed to get a special holiday message.

Google released Google Zeitgeist 2011 – what we searched for.  You can also see what we talked about on Twitter with HootSuite’s top trending topics of 2011.

Tomorrow night Google and NORAD will help you track Santa’s journey as he brings presents to all the good boys and girls. (I hear cookies can help.)

New new Twitter

Just went you got used to new Twitter, there’s a new new version. And this one includes brand pages. So far those brand pages are limited to 21 advertising partners and charities including CocaCola, DisneyPixar, and McDonalds. They’ll be rolled out to a wider audience over the next few months.

I remember when….

The holidays always make us nostalgic, so here’s blast from the past - see how 20 popular sites looked when they first launched including Google, the Facebook, Apple, and Whitehouse.gov.

Public Messages vs. Direct Messages

In case we all need a reminder about direct vs. public messages (and why you should probably just text when you’re sending your phone number), Charlie Sheen accidentally tweets his phone number.

HTTP Status Cats

In true Internet fashion, there’s now a way to help you remember http status codes… with cats.

Online activity

According to a recent report by comScore, more than 200 billion online videos were viewed in October and over 40% of those were on YouTube. This makes the new YouTube metrics even more important.

Location aware deals

You can now add a “Save this to Foursquare” button on your website that allows visitors to save your location to their Foursquare account – they’ll be notified when they are near your location. This is even more interesting now that ScoutMob has partnered with FourSquare – showing available deals when you check in.

Jargonitis

As we’re approaching the end of the year, let’s make an early resolution to not commit any of these jargon-related sins next year. May plain language be with you.

Facebook events

Facebook changes the way event invitations act, and it’s confusing people.

Holiday Cheer

Bing offers a “Magical Holiday Calendar” that opens a new holiday icon each day with links to deals, contests and give-aways.

NORAD will be tracking Santa on his journey again this year and you can follow along with Google Earth.

No idea what to get your co-worker for the office secret Santa gift exchange? Search Engine Watch has you covered with suggestions ranging from gloves make especially for touchscreens to a t-shirt that detects wi-fi signals to a phone case with a built-in bottle opener.

Now that Google+ Pages for businesses have been up and running for a month, we’ve had a chance to get some hands-on experience.

While it’s still early days—Google plans to continue rolling out features, such as page analytics and the ability to schedule posts—we’ve already learned a few aspects to watch out for.

5 Things to Know About Google+ Pages for Businesses

1. You need a Google+ individual profile first. Very similar to the way Facebook Pages work, you must first have an individual Google+ account and profile before you can create a page. But unlike Facebook, as of right now a page can only be controlled by the profile account that created it. In other words, there can only be one administrator—and that control can’t be passed to another Google+ account. How to create a Google+ Page for business.

[Update 12.20.11: Google+ now allows multiple page administrators.]

Tip: Be very careful in choosing which Google+ account to use when creating your Google+ Page.

2. Profiles can follow anyone first; Pages can’t. On Google+, groups of users you follow are organized into lists called Circles. Following another G+ user is called “circling” because you follow them by adding them to one of your Circles.

When you are using Google+ as an individual, you can circle any other Google+ user. But as a Page, you can only circle users who have already circled you. Add People to Google+ Page Circles.

Tip: Promote your Google+ page once it’s created by adding the G+ badge to your site and sharing the Page link through your individual Google+ profile as well as other social media channels, like Facebook and Twitter. Once others have circled you, you can begin to circle them back.

3. Unlike Profiles, Pages can’t “+1” everything. The +1 button is Google’s version of Facebook’s Like button. When acting as a Page, you can’t +1 another Page or content from the Web. You can +1 another individual user’s posts.

Tip: Make sure you understand the differences between what Profiles can do and what Pages can do.

4. You must choose the Page category of Local Business or Place to associate your Page with your existing Google Places listing. This is the only category that asks for location information, such as country and phone number. When you enter your phone number, Google looks to see if it matches an existing Google Place listing and use that information for your Page.

Note: Right now, it doesn’t appear that your Place is then linked back to your Page—but don’t be surprised if Google integrates or even combines these features in the future.

Tip: If your business has a Google Places listing, choose “Local Business or Place” as the category for your Google+ Page.

5. Once your Page is created, you can’t change its category. As of right now, once a Page is created you can only edit the following information:

• Business name
• Tagline (the line of text immediately under the business name)
• Introduction text
• Contact info
• Website
• Links to other sites

And of course you can upload photos and videos. Here’s what CDG Interactive’s Page looks like—and circle us while you’re there!

Tip: Think carefully about the category that best fits your business before you create your Page. If you want to make a change later, the only workaround is to create an additional Page in that category and then delete the original. Less than ideal, to be sure.

None of these current shortcomings, however, are a reason to avoid creating a Google+ Page for your business. Many of them will be addressed in the weeks and months to come. More importantly, Google is increasingly incorporating both the +1 button and Google+ content into its search results—which makes participating in Google+ almost a necessity for search engine optimization. Ignore it at your peril.

Are you bewildered by Google+? We’ll guide you through. Contact CDG Interactive for help creating your Google+ Page—and a presence for your business on any other social media channel, from Facebook to YouTube.