Source: riazzoli.blogspot.com via kate spade new york on Pinterest
Since I was busy getting the mini party set up, I missed all but the keynote speaker on Friday's Alt Summit lineup. I was very disappointed to have missed so much of Friday's content. Alas. Anyway, the keynote was "How Pinterest Became The Next Game Changer" by founder Ben Silbermann. I have had a Pinterest account for some time, but I haven't used it too much. Mostly from internet overload coupled with lack of time. I also tend to keep my big inspiration files private in Evernote. (I don't want to spoil future content musings for my magazine subscribers!) However, I can see the benefit in using Pinterest as a social and promotion tool and I do like the embed feature, which makes putting things like this pretty image, above, onto the blog quick and easy.
It was amusing to hear Ben's somewhat scattered and unplanned venture into online media, though I have to admit that I'm still a bit perplexed by the standing ovation he received. The presentation also neglected to explain how the site and its staff are supported and the very first question from the floor was to that effect. (The answer? Venture capital. But he wouldn't divulge how they intend to grow the company or sustain the service.)
Here are some varying perspectives on Pinterest: Life-changing. Questioning the hype. What's the deal with Pinterest?
I think how Pinterest could be really useful and engaging for me and the UPPERCASE community of readers is if we had communal boards of inspiration. You could show me what inspires you, your interests, the trends that you're seeing and participating in, things that you think would be of interest to other UPPERCASE readers or for magazine content... I've long thought of setting up something like this in Tumblr, but perhaps Pinterest would be more appropriate...
Would this interest you? Which platform would you prefer? Please put your responses in the comments like this, your preferred platform, followed by your username or Pinterest/Tumblr url:
yes, Pinterest http://pinterest.com/uppercasemag
or
yes, Tumblr http://uppercasemagazine.tumblr.com
I've also started a board where I'm pinning images taken by UPPERCASE readers and contributors of the magazine inself. Pinterest seems like a good way to collect all those instagrams and twitter pictures that I come across. The board is called "UPPERCASE, by you."
