Stop the Tweet! 'Going Dark' during times of tragedy.

I believe that most marketers and businesses agree that during times of natural disaster, terrorist attacks or other tragic events that cause everyone to stop in their tracks, we do not want to conduct "social business as usual." +Debra Donston-Miller wrote a commentary for +InformationWeek shortly after the April bombings at the Boston Marathon about the importance of knowing when to react quickly - and when tragic events occur, the consensus seems to be that automatic updates should be postponed.

While it may seem like a relatively simply solution to postpone scheduled posts until a later date, in reality this is becoming more and more complicated with every new app that we allow access to our social media accounts. I did not think that I personally used very many scheduling apps; however, when I began to list all of the accounts that I would need to login to in order to "stop" my Twitter account from posting, a different story soon emerged.

1) Triberr - Each day, I go through the feeds and choose posts written by my tribe mates to post to Twitter. I generally choose about 10 per day and they automatically post at one hour intervals.

2) RoundTeam - I have rules set up to automatically trigger a retweet based on specific keywords used by people I have on a list.

3) Buffer - Using my Chrome extension, I add posts to my buffer throughout the day as I browse the web to keep it topped off. These are scheduled to post to Twitter at optimal times.

4) ManageFlitter - I have a few of my own tweets scheduled to post at optimal times throughout the day.

5) Paper.li - Tweets are automatically sent out when the paper is published, also automatically since I am using the free version.

6) SponsoredTweets - These are tweets I have written and approved and they are scheduled to be tweeted automatically once the sponsor has approved them.

I also use a few others and my Google+ account is set to automatically post to Twitter, although I usually post directly rather than schedule my Google+ Tweets, so that is not a problem.

I suppose the options available to "Stop the Tweet" are to:

A) login to each account and manually delete or reschedule each post (time-consuming, likely to forget an account or two, may not be able to reschedule);

B) login to Twitter and disable access to all apps and grant access at a later time (not a bad solution, but likely would need to go in to each account and reschedule the Tweets that were not sent); or

C) deactivate the Twitter account and reactivate it within 30 days before it is permanently deleted (probably not good for business, can take 48 hours for everything to appear normally again, would still probably need to go in and reschedule all missed posts).

None of these seem to be an "ideal" solution, and what I think could likely happen is businesses would eventually just let the posts go ahead and post as scheduled rather than take any of these steps. Not because they are insensitive; rather because they simply do not have the time, the money, the man-power or the fortitude to spend time undoing what has already been done and then redoing it again.

So, what is the solution? 

I believe that Twitter could easily provide the perfect solution that would work both quickly and effectively and allow businesses and profiles to "go dark" during times of crisis - by using drafts. Twitter's mobile app currently saves posts as drafts if a connection to Twitter is not available; once the connection becomes available, the draft can be sent. I think the perfect solution would be for Twitter to provide users with the ability to enable a "set to draft mode" option. Once triggered, all incoming posts that had been previously scheduled would go to draft status and could later be tweeted or deleted by the user when they are ready to start posting again.

In the meantime, I choose option B. Of course, this only takes care of Twitter....

What would it take to get you to switch to Bing?

Would you switch to Bing to earn the equivalent of $1 per week? That is essentially what you could earn with Bing Rewards just by searching as you normally would - only using Bing rather than Google.

At 1 credit per 2 Bing searches (up to 15 credits a day), you could earn 105 credits per week. That is enough for a 60 minute Skype Credit (100 credits); or you could save up for a few weeks and redeem them for a $3 Amazon.com gift card (340 credits) - or a few more weeks to earn a $5 Starbucks Card (525 credits). There are opportunities to earn additional credits, such as for referring a friend or adding Bing to your browser, and you can also reach a higher status so you can earn additional credits (and bragging rights), and since I am not sure of the exact amount you can earn, let's rephrase the question:

What would it take to get you to switch to Bing?

Although I had taken the "Bing It On" Bing vs Google Challenge once before and preferred Google, I decided to take the challenge again. I had a bit of a problem because their service went down several times during the challenge, but I decided not to weight that into my decision as Google hasn't been running perfectly lately either.

I have to admit that the challenge was not easy because the results are very similar (although when I searched my name it was easy to spot the difference as Google showed the number of followers I have in my circles); and in the end, I was a little surprised that I choose Bing in 3 out of the 5 rounds. So... will I switch?

I believe that using Google is such a habit at this point, that in order to get me to switch, Bing's results would either have to be quite obviously much better than Google's, or their rewards program would need to be so incredible that I could not pass it up - and at $1 per week - Bing is not even close to the mark.

Google AdSense: There's mad money to be made online!

Whether you are marketing yourself, your business or someone else's business online, I can guarantee you that at some point either you or someone you work for is going to look at your efforts and the countless hours you spend online and say "SHOW... ME... THE... MONEY!" When this eventually happens, your ability to monetize or justify your work by showing a ROI will likely determine whether your efforts will be considered successful or a colossal waste of time. With that said, I am at a point where I need to start showing myself the money for my efforts and I figured it might make for a few good blog posts as well. I am also hoping that if I do have any flawed logic here, one of my readers might be able to point it out to me or may bring up a point that I have not thought of yet.

A little background.

In 1997, I started my online journey by providing search engine optimization (SEO) services for clients all over the world, all of whom found me online (SEO was a little easier way back when!). I also set up several other websites and included Google's AdSense on one of them. On Friday, July 11, 2003, less than one month after AdSense launched, I got my first taste of "money for nothing" when I earned $2.17 from clicks on the ads on my site. I was excited at first and spent my spare time (which wasn't much considering I had 3 young kids and a full time job) improving my site in an attempt to make more money. Unfortunately, it didn't make as much as I had hoped and I eventually put it aside. Over the years, I worked for several companies ranging from start-up to large corporations, and started my own web development company in 2007. I checked in on my site and added a few more over the years, and the checks, although small, continuously rolled in.

I don't want to be kicking myself 10 (more) years from now!
I have decided that it is time I got serious about making money online. It has taken me 10 years, during which time Google AdSense celebrated its 10 year anniversary, to come back to the realization I made in 2003, which was, "There's mad money to be made online and how much I can make is really up to me."

Methods to monetize.

My goal is to monetize several of my existing websites and my blog ("web properties") as well as my social media profiles ("social sites") using three distinct methods:

1. Google AdSense and other CPC/CPA Ads
2. Affiliate and Referral Programs
3. Influence Marketing Campaigns

My plan is to tweak my existing and/or set-up additional web properties as needed for method #1; to research and test various programs until I find the right ones to promote for method #2; and to continue growing my fan base on my social sites to improve my acceptance rates for method #3. Regarding method #3, I am starting to find out that I am "not quite there yet," especially as brands do not yet seem to put a lot of weight on Google +, which is where I focus a majority of my efforts. On the other hand, I may be way ahead of the curve when they finally catch up. Because I am just getting started with methods #2 and #3, I will focus this post on method #1. I haven't played around too much with other CPC/CPA Ads (cost per click/cost per action), so will save my findings for a future post - and in fact, may just skip them altogether as I doubt any are better than Google AdSense.

Pick the low hanging fruit first.
Because there is only so much time and yet there are seemingly so many "opportunities," I want to target in rather quickly on the ones that I believe have the potential to provide the highest ROI and focus on them. I also want to develop a testable theory by making a few hypothesis based on some existing data as well as on some assumptions I feel that I can make based on experience. Since I am already familiar with and am already making some money with Google AdSense, and since I believe there is room for improvement, it makes the most sense to start there.

Analyzing the data.
Note: It is against Google AdSense's TOS to reveal actual click through rates (CTR) or details regarding property performance, so I am going to err on the side of caution and adjust my numbers. Disclosing gross payments is allowed, so I have included those numbers. 

Fact: It took me close to a million page views to earn approximately $6,500. This was achieved over a 10 year period with only one website running ads during the first 4 or 5 years.

Fact: Approximately half of this amount was earned the first 8 years and the remainder was earned in the past 2 years. It took twice as many page views (now across 20+ properties, although the majority was on about 1/3 of them) to earn the same amount, likely due to lower advertiser rates, something that is out of my control.

Fact: Over the past 3 months, I have been averaging around $250 per month. Of the higher earning properties, higher page views didn't always correlate with an increase in clicks. This is something that I believe can be played with by changing ad positions, styles, etc. Also, some of these properties are seasonal, so looking at just the past 3 months may need to be adjusted.

Based on the information I gathered and looking at property stats in Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, I believe I can determine which sites could possibly be improved and what the outcome might look like if I were able to achieve a higher CTR for a particular site.

Current Income: $250/mo
Initial Goal: Double Current Income

Property: A (seasonal)
Earnings: $355 (average $120/mo)
This site is my best performer but looking at several years worth of stats, I can see that page views are likely to dramatically drop this month (Sept) and won't pick up again until Feb.
Action Item: Revisit this site in January to determine additional action.

Property: B
Earnings: $24 ($8/mo)
I have made several attempts to improve the performance of the ads on this site without much luck. The site has great potential in my opinion and an extremely low bounce rate. The number of page views and CPC (cost per click) are similar to Property A, so in theory getting the CTR up to the same level should result in an increase of earnings of approximately $100/mo.
Action Item: Reposition ads on pages with highest page views. Also need to make that page more "sticky" as time spent per page is rather low.
Potential Increase: $100/mo

Property: C
Earnings: $96 ($32/mo)
At 1/3 of the page views and clicks, this site has the same potential as Property A. Although the site has increased page views year after year, it is a small town site (population 4,000); therefore, I do not think attempting to triple the page views is really practical. A large portion of the page views are people looking for a particular thing to do (seasonal) for a site that has at least triple the page views if not more, so targeting the related keywords a bit more might make a marginal difference.
Action Item: Spend 1 hour targeting keyword in January to prepare for the next season and see what happens.

Properties: D and E (seasonal)
Earnings: $72.50/$76 (combined average $50/mo)
These sites have a much higher CTR than average, so it makes sense to try to increase the page views. Since they are both so similar in both stats and content, will just go ahead and plan to work on both at same time even though their seasons are slightly different. Initial goal will be to try to triple visits/page views.
Action Item: Add additional pages for search to try to increase visits and page views. 
Potential Increase: $100/mo

Property: F
Earnings: $40 ($30 in past month due to recent changes)
This site is another with extreme potential. The page views used to be much higher but suffered due to some site problems which resulted in a loss of indexed pages.
Action Item: Add additional pages for search to try to increase visits and page views. 
Potential Increase (based on past performance): $100/mo

Properties: G, H, I, J, K, et al
None of the other sites (5 or 6) seem to have much potential, making up the remaining $15 or so per month; however, if each site potentially can earn even $3, if they could be added quickly enough, that would be an additional $30/mo for each 10 sites added.
Action Item: Consider for future.

Additional improvements needed.
Google AdSense now has a "Scorecard" to help you optimize your revenue by showing areas that need improvement. Mine need quite a few, so I will also work on those issues for even more possible improvement.

A good investment.
If all of my data and assumptions are correct, I should be able to meet my initial goal of doubling what I am currently averaging with Google AdSense. While an additional $300 per month may not even seem worth writing this blog post over, much less making changes to the sites, considering that I have had my account for 10 years already, a few adjustments today could add up to $36,000 over the next 10 years - seems like a pretty good investment to me!

Google Analytics Best Practices: Plan Ahead

Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog post I wrote for Michael Q Todd's The 7 Pillars Book on June 27, 2013. Officially out of beta, Google’s new Universal Analytics should be used instead of the old tracking code. All old analytics tracking code should be removed and the new code should be placed just above the tag in your site’s HTML code. For WordPress, you should uninstall analytics plugins, remove old code if it was inserted manually, and place the new code in the header.php file of your WordPress theme, just above the tag.

Google Analytics

For many business owners, bloggers and social media marketers, analytics and other measurement tools are almost an afterthought and often forgotten entirely until they are faced with a situation in which they need to produce tangible results – and in order to do that, you need tangible data.

When setup correctly, Google's new Universal Analytics can not only provide you with metrics such as the number of visits and page views, it can help you identify conversion problems on your website, assign dollar values to various social platforms, and allow you measure the impact of your brand’s social relationships over time. The most exciting feature is the ability to identify and track visitors across browsers, networks, devices, and believe it or not offline activity from systems such as call centers systems and loyalty cards.

Analytics Intelligence

Google Analytics' Intelligence Reports and Custom Alerts can help you become aware of variations in your website's traffic or other anomalies that you might otherwise have missed. These can be set up and aggregated by day, week and month and can be customized to send you an alert when traffic patterns reach a specific threshold that you specify.

Annotations

Annotations let you leave a shared note right on the graph of your reports. These are extremely valuable to explain spikes in traffic and can act as a logbook for your marketing efforts and website changes. A launch of a new product, a website redesign, an email campaign and offline marketing are all examples of business activities that should be annotated so can later understand events that caused an increase or decrease in visits or conversions.

Webmaster Tools

Each of your properties should have a corresponding verified website in Webmaster Tools and be connected with your Google Analytics account so additional data can be available in your reports and can help with your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. The queries report is especially useful as it shows you the number of impressions your site showed in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for a given query, the number of clicks it received, the average position, and the Click Thru Rate (CTR).

Webmaster Tools will also allow you to check the "health" of your site by viewing crawl errors, index status and will help you optimize your site for search.

Custom Reporting

Custom Dashboards allow you to get a quick, organized, specific view of your data by grouping together info that is most relevant to your goals as well as providing each of your business groups with reports that are most useful for their needs. For example, a sales and marketing team may want reports showing leads, sales and conversion activity; a content marketing team may want to see content reports, SEO and social activity reports; while a tech team may be most interested in site performance and real-time reports.

Thank you to Marketworks Media for sharing seven custom dashboards that are easily customizable to meet most business needs.

Conclusion

By implementing Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools correctly and by determining your reporting needs in advance, you can define your business goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) in order to ensure that you have the reports you need, when you need them.

I recommend subscribing to the Google Analytics YouTube Channel as well as watch their June 7, 2013 webinar (below) "Measuring Success in a Multi-Device World" that discusses strategies and best practices.

9 Sources of Analytics You May Have Forgotten

If you think the only place to view analytics is Google (or Facebook) then think again! Here are 9 sources of analytics you may not be using (plus a bonus source) that can help you get an even more complete picture of your web presence. Please feel free to comment with additional sources that you use!

1) YouTube

If most of your videos are embedded on your website or a client's site and you haven't spent time developing your channel, you may have forgotten the terrific stats that are available to you on YouTube. In addition to estimated minutes watched and average view duration, you can see whether your video was viewed from an embedded player on your website or another website; from the YouTube watch page or directly on your channel; or on a mobile device. You can also find stats on audience demographics, geographic location and engagement, including likes, dislikes, shares, comments, favorites, etc.

Videos found via a Google or YouTube search will give you access to see which keywords used to find it (I would assume that this would be true if a search was performed on Google+ as well); and, if you have monetized your account, you can also see ad performance and estimated earnings. By comparing metrics such as estimated earnings based on audience engagement, you can quickly see how useful these metrics really are to a marketer.

YouTube Analytics

2) Content Curation Tools

Most content curators are using bookmarklets or other browser extensions for sites such as Scoop.it!, RebelMouse, Paper.li, Listly, etc. in order to easily "scoop" or share content from around the web. These extensions are so convenient that you may rarely even visit many of these sites after you initially set them up – and that means you probably have forgotten about the analytics that many of these sites are gathering for you. (To be honest however, and rather surprisingly, most of these sites are seriously lacking in useful or detailed statistics.)

RebelMouse Analytics

3) Social and URL Sharing Tools

Another easily forgotten source of statistics are social sharing tools such as Markerly, AddThis and ShareThis. Once embedded on a website or blog, the aggregate count shown to the public are what we tend to check as well; however, there is a lot more great info that we could be using to help us learn more about our audience, how they like to share and what content they find most valuable.

AddThis Analytics

We can even see information about overall social value compared to other sites, categories, trends and clickbacks.

ShareThis Analytics

4) Twitter's Ad Tools

Ok, this one isn't really fair to include as one you "forgot" as Twitter just opened up Tweet Performance Analytics to all on June 13th; however, unless they put a link to it in your Twitter dashboard, or if you use Twitter management tools, you will forgot soon enough. Found in the Ads dashboard, these analytics are available for free and allows you to download your info as a CSV file. To access, go to ads.twitter.com and sign in with your Twitter credentials. You don't need to complete the advertising sign-up process unless you want to advertise.

In addition to showing you how many favorites, retweets and replies each of your recent tweets had, you can also learn a little bit about your community including their top interests and who your followers also follow by percentage.

Twitter's Analytics

5) URL Shorteners

Link shorteners are a necessity if you are a Twitter user; however, even if you are not, it makes sense to use them and many marketers do. One of the best things about using shorteners such as goo.gl and bitly are the analytics (of course). I prefer bitly for its interface, including having a "profile" page to feature your shared "bitmarks."

Some of the great features of bitly include:

• a "bundles" feature which are shareable collections of your bitmarks; 
• the ability to curate bundles and invite other users to add to it; 
• the ability to make links private; 
• the ability to customize links; 
• the chrome extension; 
• the ability on mobile devices to email links to save in your bitmarks or to share on Facebook and Twitter. 

As far as analytics, in addition to what you would expect, you can also see who in "your network" (Facebook friends and anyone you follow on Twitter) has shared a URL via bitly; how many total clicks the link received as well as how many were via your shortlink; and which other bitly users shared the same link.

Bitly's Analytics

6) QR Codes

If you were thinking ahead when you generated your QR codes, you probably used SmartyTags or another trackable service; however, after a few days or weeks, the excitement wore off and you stopped checking the stats. Info about the types of devices, GPS location, city, state, postal code, etc. are all waiting for you to log back in and download.

7) Slideshare

Unfortunately, you aren't going to get much from slideshare unless you go pro; however, you can still see the number of views on slideshare vs. embedded views, likes and downloads.

8) Identity Pages

Social identity pages like about.me, XeeMe, etc. are another than can be setup and then forgotten even though they can provide a great deal of information about the people who are interested in learning more about you. You can learn how many visitors clicked on one of your social media links to learn more about you; how they found your profile, your network relevance, search terms used and whether they shared or favorited your page and possibly even whether or not they "think you are cool;" even better, you can usually see exactly WHO viewed you and how they interacted with your profile.

9) Scheduling Tools

Buffer is a terrific little app for scheduling tweets on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more that works well with lots of other apps and extensions such as IFTTT (If This Then That), Feedly, Scoop.it, Commun.it, SocialBro, Digg, Twylah and many many more. Besides ensuring that your posts are spread out nicely, you can find the optimal times to post, learn what topics your audience responds to best and see the potential exposure of your posts. To make the most out of Buffer's analytics, turn on campaign tracking and integrate it with your Google Analytics account.

Bonus Source: Empire Avenue

Empire Avenue provides a surprising amount of analytics as well as an at-a-glance look at how you are doing across various networks. Definitely worth a look!

Empire Avenue's Analytics

Please feel free to comment with additional sources of analytics that you use!

Note: This post was originally shared on July 1, 2013 as a guest post that I wrote for The 7 Pillars Book by Michael Q Todd.

A Plethora of Pinterest Tools for Businesses

Pinterest is driving traffic to websites. 
According to a recent report for the first quarter of 2013 published by Monetate in its latest E-commerce Quarterly, 55.18% of site traffic from social networks came from Facebook, down from 62.45% the previous quarter, while Pinterest accounted for 24.96%, up from 17.51%. The remaining traffic came from Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks. 

Brands can no longer afford to ignore Pinterest.
According to Monetate, shoppers visiting e-commerce sites from Pinterest had the highest average order value, spending $80.54 per order, compared to $71.26 for Facebook and $70.17 for Twitter. A study by RichRelevance reports an average order of $169 from Pinterest traffic, compared to $95 for Facebook and $71 for Twitter. Whichever study is more accurate, the one thing that appears to be clear is that Brands, especially e-commerce brands, can no longer afford to ignore Pinterest as part of their online marketing efforts.

Tools for Managing, Advertising, Marketing & Measuring:

No matter what your budget, there are tools available to help you manage, create, improve or simplify pinning and sharing content on Pinterest. I have compiled a list of the current tools available and intend to review this list periodically, keeping it up-to-date. I also created a list on Listly that includes many of these tools. I am not recommending one over another, I am merely providing links and a brief description of each so that businesses and marketers are aware of everything currently available before making a decision.

If you are aware of a tool that should be added to this list, or if you find that one is no longer available, please let me know in the comments below. Get more tips by following me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/chrisdegraff/.

Ahalogy
Formerly Pingage, Ahalogy recently announced a pin-based platform called Content Network. Content creators who have opted-in to the network are given complimentary access to Ahalogy's image editing and pin scheduling tools in exchange for allowing paying Content Network customers to source the pins for repinning on their own boards in a pay for performance model.

Curalate
A marketing and analytics suite for Pinterest and Instagram. Curalate's scheduler feature enables brands to schedule pins and batch them into campaigns. Curalate also offers detailed analytics for marketers, monitoring and consumer engagement tools and promotions that can "live anywhere and everywhere" including your website, blogs and Facebook. A free demo is available to potential clients with a decent sized marketing budget.

GoPixel
Formerly known as Pinster, GoPixel offers powerful automated scheduling to help you spread out your pins evenly throughout the day. You can measure and monitor interactions and website referrals using their analytics tool that also integrates with Google Analytics. There is also an insights tool that provides recommendations for the best time and content to pin based on your data. The free version allows you to schedule 3 pins per day for 1 Pinterest account. Basic, premium and custom versions are also available.

HelloSociety
Formerly known as Pinpuff, HelloSociety is a premier Pinterest marketing and technology platform with a suite of tools, an exclusive influencer network, leading brand partnerships and powerful analytics. Contact HelloSociety for a price quote.

Octopin
Claiming to be the most advanced Pinterest marketing suite, Octopin features a scheduling tool, a campaign manager, and measurement tools that help you identify top influencers and track competitors. With Hyatt, Volkswagen and IKEA as current customers, Octopin is targeted to larger companies. Contact Octopin for a price quote.

Pinbooster 
For advertisers looking for a pay-per-click model, Pinbooster is a platform to connect advertisers to pinners who are willing to post your pin for profit. You only pay for the originating pin, so repins, likes and comments are "free press." When a pin goes through Pinbooster, it is automatically tags to indicate that it is an advertisement so it is in compliance with FTC regulations. Contact Pinbooster for pricing.

PinLeague
There is a free starter version of PinLeague, but it seems to be pretty limited. Starting at $29/mo, the lite version allows for 1 Pinterest account, tracking for 2 competitors, basic profile and domain trends and tools to optimize your pins and engage your audience. The professional and enterprise versions enable you to track virtually everything and is used by brands such as Nike, Microsoft and Target.

Pinterest Web Analytics
Businesses can access basic metrics including impressions and reach and is included free with your Pinterest account. You can use this to tailor your website and Pinterest boards by understanding which pins get the most repins and what else people pin alongside your pins.

Pinterest Web Analytics Walkthrough from Pinterest on Vimeo.

Pinterest Widget Builder
The Pinterest Widget builder can help you create free buttons and widgets to add to your website or mobile app. Pinterest's newest tool allows you to create "Rich Pins" and apply to get them on Pinterest. The types of Rich Pins currently available include:

• Product pins include real time pricing, availability and information about where to buy;
• Recipe pins include ingredients, cooking times and serving info; and
• Movie pins include ratings, cast members and reviews.

Piqora
Piquora (formerly Pinfluencer) is a tool for advertisers and provides the ability to customize, deploy and track contests, sweepstakes and promotions on Pinterest. Future plans for Piqora include a Social CRM (currently available for Instagram and Tumblr) to help brands identify and act on purchase intent. Contact Piquora for pricing information.

Reachli
Using Reachli (formerly Pinerly), you can create posts and publish to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr accounts at the same time from one place. The free version allows you to connect four accounts, includes a link shortener and offers tracking including the number of clicks, likes, reshares and reach per social site. If you want to reach a wider audience, Reachli has a pay-per-click option and your campaign can be pushed out to publishers' blogs, websites and social sites.

ViralHeat
Social media management for various platforms; however, Pinterest is only included in the premier and enterprise versions. The premier version is $99.99/mo but only supports monitoring for Pinterest at this time.

Viraltag
The $12/mo basic account on Viraltag (formerly PinGraphy) allows you to schedule 100 pins per month and includes a free trial. The $28/mo premium version does not limit the number of pins that can be scheduled, provides access to analytics and gives you the ability to add up to 5 accounts. This is probably one of the best options for small businesses on a tight budget.

Free Search, Discovery & Other Cool Tools for Pinterest:

Hipstamatic, pixlr and Tweegram
Free apps that can add some "fancy stuff" to your images.

PicMonkey
Quickly edit, filter and apply touch-ups to your photos with PicMonkey.

Pin Search
A Chrome extension that enables you to perform a Google Image Search on any picture on Pinterest.

PinAlerts 
PinAlerts (beta) is like Google Alerts for Pinterest and will notify you when someone pins something from your website.

Pinalytics
Search pins, boards and people on Pinterest to find, track and evaluate content and interactions using Pinalytics. (Note: This didn't seem to work very well for me, but you may have to create an account to get the full results.)

Pinstamatic 
"Share more" on Pinterest with Pinstamatic including your favorite music which can be played on your board if the user has a free Spotify account, clickable maps and the ability to add quotations and sticky notes on your boards.

Pinvolve
Using the free version of Pinvolve, you can post your Pinterest pins onto your Facebook profile or business page. The pro version allows you to automatically post your Pinterest pins to your Facebook business page and you can sync a specific board or all boards.

Postris
Formerly Repinly, Postris is a tool to help you find popular pins, boards and pinners on Pinterest for a given category.

Quozio
Type your own quote or highlight text anywhere on the web and easily convert it into an image to share on Pinterest.

ShareAsImage
Formerly Pin A Quote, ShareAsImage allows you to highlight text on the web to share as an image on Pinterest.

Snapito 
A free tool to capture and share a screenshot of a website

Url2pin.it
A free tool to capture and share a screenshot of a website.

WiseStamp
This tool allows you to add an elegant Pinterest link to your email signature. It offers free and premium level accounts.

Woobox
The free version of Woobox can be used to display your Pinterest boards and pins as a tab on your Facebook business page.