I was a finalist for the 2013 Shorty Award for ‘Best Pinterest User.’

In the end, no winner was selected this year, but thank you to everyone who supported me with a nomination.

I promise to try and take my Pinterest account to new levels in 2013.

This is only the beginning.

Stay tuned.

Facebook reached fame, scale and profitability before Pinterest. And that is a worthy accomplishment in the digital realm. Facebook is run by razor sharp individuals across a variety of fields. They are doing very well for themselves.

However, Pinterest offers a superior user experience. Pinterest gives you a blank canvas that you can shape and mold to your personality. Facebook gives you a very strictly designed box and has you fill in all the blanks. Facebook is good for people who want their online lives to be automated and auto filled. But for people who want to infuse their digital life with their own will and personality and taste, Pinterest is unsurpassed.

On Pinterest you can differentiate yourself from other users. You can shape peoples’ encounters with you by what you choose to feature. Facebook reads more like a social resume. It has reduced us all to the same set of data. Which it is mining for advertising.

Pinterest could well be mined too. It’s an entire ecosystem built around what people love. Facebook is centered around today, with a timeline that stretches out to our near past. Pinterest is a forward looking service. It’s a crystal ball that we can inform. It lets users plant the seeds of their own future. It deals in inspiration. There is a value in stalking someone on Pinterest. Stalking someone on Facebook only fuels idle gossip.

Pinterest has the potential to move us all forward. It has the potential to own the visual web. It has the potential to show us where we can go next. You can see Pinterest’s power by how many imitators have sprung up in the past year and a half. How many websites are imitating Facebook?

Facebook built the foundation of the social web. Pinterest is poised to leapfrog with inspiration and innovation.

Not all of the time. But most of the time.

The Internet can be our time machine. It can help propel us in the direction we want to go next. It can amplify our intentions. It can connect us with who we need to know next.

Or we can tread water. We can simply say what we are doing right now. We can over-connect and over-share. We can make the internet about cats and lunches and all of the other topics that represent us at our lowest common denominator.

When you find yourself staring at an update box, type something that will get you closer to where you want to be. Someone who might be able to help you will see it. Post things that you make, not only the things you observe. If you put effort into what you pour into the internet, the outcome might surprise you. I’ve been surprised enough times to feel the potential of the internet. And I want to feel it more.

I want us all to achieve our potential instead of merely hanging out.

I was dismissive when I first heard about ‘smart glasses.’ It sounded like innovation for innovations sake. I wanted to know the reason why wearing a computer on my face would trump my current flow that involves carrying a supercomputer in my pocket.

The simple thought that converted me was this scenario: Imagine having a real-time, fluid conversation with someone who spoke a language that you didn’t understand at all. Imagine wearing a pair of glasses that had the processing power and ability to relay real-time translations of what the other person was saying. Imagine the person across from you having access to the same power.

This is revolutionary. This is the benefit of computers WITHOUT interfaces. It’s not about the form factor. It’s about second-nature computing. It’s not about automating tasks to justify processing power. It’s about delivering real-world, never possible before value.

That is how you change the world. By allowing people to do what has never been done, and making that power available to all. We will all win in that kind of scenario.

Many people ask me how to get more followers on Pinterest.

Many people send me links to their profiles and ask me to evaluate what they are doing. I see a lot of basic things that make their profiles seem like an empty home. No profile photo. No basic information. And just a dozen or so pins. I will never follow a profile that doesn’t look committed to pinning. When I decide to follow some one, it’s because I assume that they will give me a steady stream of inspiring photos that I can use to repin to my own boards.

Beyond the basic maintenance of a profile and habitual usage, the number one most important thing a Pinterest user needs to grow a following is great taste. Taste is a very subjective term, but I get the feeling a lot of people who send me their boards don’t consider it too much.

Taste at a basic level means having photos and images that are pleasant to look at. Avoid pinning blurry or poorly cropped photos. I don’t want to follow someone who is going to pollute my stream with substandard quality images. When I am looking for people to follow, I look for sophisticated taste, unusual angles, unusual points of view, unusual subject matter. I avoid users who only pin from their own website, or who only pin infographics.

Taste can be learned and acquired by looking at thousands and thousands of images and noticing what types of images stand out after hitting your saturation point. Taste will vary from user to user, but unless you put in the time to think about it, your pins will have no point of view and you will offer me no value. Therefor I will not follow you. And I won’t be the only one.

Demonstrate great taste and pin often and you will see your followers multiple exponentially.

Click here to see my Pinterest boards, followed by over one million users across subjects like Sports, Film and Design.

You used to have to gain access through some kind of gatekeeper if you wanted to get your message out.

Now, in the connected age, we all have a soapbox that follows us around all day and all night. It looks like a smartphone.

At any moment, if my thought is compelling enough, I can reach thousands or millions of people within a matter of hours.

Never in the history of man has this kind of broadcasting power been available to the masses. A strong voice could rise from anywhere.

Where there used to be maniacs in basements who talked to themselves, now the walls of the basement have collapsed and their is a global audience awaiting the right message.

It’s not an every time thing, but the more often your thoughts are compelling or unique or hilarious, the more your audience will grow.

That goes for brands, for politicians, for regular individuals. The power is truly at our fingertips and will soon be on our faces. If you have a strong enough message, you can put a dent in the universe. Not in six months. Not after getting complicated approvals or paying your dues, but in a matter of hours.

This is how we will accelerate our future and where the future leaders of the connected age will spring from anywhere. Not only Stanford, not only certain companies.  We will see more bedroom to boardroom Cinderella stories. 

Home your voice. It’s what keeps you different, and what will win you an audience beyond your wildest dreams.

TUMBLR IS THE LOVE CHILD OF PUBLIC ACCESS, MTV AND AL GORE.
 

ANYONE CAN GET A SHOW NOW.
 

AND IT’S CREATING ALTERNATIVE CULTURE FASTER THAN THE INTERNET CAN KEEP UP WITH.
 

FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE HAVE TRIED TO DRAW NEAT CIRCLES AROUND THE WEB.
 

BUT TUMBLR IS OFF SCRIBBLING IN THE CORNER WITH CRAYONS AND SNIFFING GLUE.
 

TUMBLR IS WHERE TODAY’S POP ARTISTS HANG OUT.
 

NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THEM YET, BUT THEY ARE BREEDING AND GROWING IN NUMBERS.
 

THEY ARE CREATING INCESTUAL SPAWNS OF EACH OTHER.
 

THEY ARE PHOTOCOPYING THEIR BACKSIDES.
 

AND THEY DON’T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU THINK.
 

THEY ARE INVENTING CULTURE AND CHANGING THE WORLD
 

BUT THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT.
 

YOU CANNOT DRAW AN ORDERLY CIRCLE AROUND THEM.
 

MARKETERS CANNOT EVEN DIP THEIR TOES INTO THESE WATERS.
 

TUMBLR’S GUARDIAN PIRANAS WILL CHEW YOUR MEDDLING ADVERTISING HANDS DOWN TO THE BONE.
 

RESPECT THEM. GIVE THEM SPACE. AND JUST ENJOY WHAT THEY SPAWN.

My car is my driver.

I’m just the DJ.

I’m riding shotgun.

In this sofa on wheels.

I wish it could fly.

But I guess that’s a few years out.

Wait, where is this thing taking me.

My iPod has wheels now.

I’m riding around.

I’m mindlessly tweeting while it drives me.

I miss being responsible.

That is a lie.

I look at the other passengers.

Texting, eating, drinking while their car drives.

My car is never drunk.

I’m wasted.

I texted that.

Red light, green light.

Red fish, blue fish.

Changing lanes.

Search engine on wheels.

Meta crawling the interstates.

Geo-tagging fast food joints.

Liking the malls.

Door to door service.

I never know where my car goes while I’m inside.

In 2012, I had a pretty good year in social media.