Originally published at Social Web Daily

What do sculptors, jet setters, philosophers, foodies, and collectors have in common?

They can all make great use of Pinterest, the pinboard-channeling new social network. With a stream-lined interface, and plenty of opportunity to engage with and get inspiration from other Pinterest users, there are an endless number of creative ways to use the new site.

Here are five of our favorites:

1. Collector’s Showcase

Hobbyists and special-interest enthusiasts can put Pinterest to good use by uploading pictures from your personal collection, or collecting images from around the web. Whether you collect salt and pepper shakers, stamps, or just love the look of cupcakes, you can proudly display your special interests and hobbies using Pinterest.

2. Sage Scrapbook

If only we had a pen for every time someone said something insightful. Thankfully, Pinterest allows you to keep all those sage words of advice in one place. Great for philosophers, writers, or anyone who loves meditating on a thought-provoking quote, Pinterest is an ideal platform for storing inspiring quotes and categorizing them for an effortless pick-me-up anytime.

3. Digital Cookbook

Now we’re not sure about you, but our cookbooks are dog-eared, stained with pasta sauce and threatening to give at the seams. We’ve got recipes tucked away on notecards hiding among its pages only to disappear right when we need them (of course!). Finally, Pinterest lets us store all those recipes—and future dishes we find around the web—all in one easy-to-maneuver place. It’s a great spot to store grocery store lists, and entertaining tips as well.

4. Artist’s Muse

Don’t wait for the muse to strike—be proactive and fashion a Pinterest board to channel creativity. Pin your favorite art pieces, colors, lyrics, and photos to create a digital inspiration board. It might be exactly what you need to get that paintbrush moving.

5. Travel Itinerary

Let Pinterest help you plan your next trip. Whether you want to go to Bali, San Diego, or the Arctic, Pinterest can help you keep all of your travel dreams in one spot. Think of it as a beautiful digital bucket list of all the places you hope to one day go. You can pin articles about great restaurants, sights, and killer hotels. Plus, you can take pictures of your jaunts and pin ‘em up post trip.

How do you use Pinterest? Let us know in the comments below!

Even better, all images on Pinterest are links to whereever you found them, by default. So if you want to buy that cool pair of shoes your friend pinned, click through. If you want to see more info on an inspirational poster or what beach your friend took a photo of, click through.

When you create simple, yet limiting constructs as social media platforms, innovation will follow. Twitter has proven this, Instagram is on the same path, and the same applies to Pinterest.

When I asked the lovely Nicole D’Alonzo what she wanted for Christmas, she began to put together a list for me. But seeing as we both work in social media, she knew there had to be a social tool out there that was perfect for the task.

And Pinterest was a brilliant solution. You can browse all the potential gifts as images on one page, you can comment and like, as can Nicole or whoever created the list, and you can click through to get more info or buy the item.

Nordstrom is on Pinterest and in the holiday sprit with their Nordstrom Santa board. Bergdorf has a pretty actionable set of holiday gift boards including this “Gifts for Him” board that I have to say is pretty awesome. And plenty of other brands and people are finding cool and innovative uses for Pinterest, like a Dream Destinations board of places you want to visit or Whole Foods’ recycling board showing examples of people reusing everyday products.

Are you using Pinterest?

The couch in question:

Here’s the thing, this is an awesome couch and it was on sale. But we need the chaise portion of the couch to be on the left when you are sitting down. But it was unclear to me how to order it. I either had to order LAF (left facing arm) or RAF (right facing arm).

I had no idea what those two terms meant. Did LAF mean the chaise was on the left when facing it or when sitting on the couch? I was also curious about whether they delivered the couch inside our home or just to the curb. Simple questions right.

There was no live chat on the JCPenney website which would have been my first stop, so I opted for their two other customer service channels, a toll free number and email. Here are the two questions I asked via email and on the phone:

“Two questions. We would like to purchase the Cinematographer
2-Pc. Chaise Sectional this weekend if possible.

1. When sitting on this couch we want the chaise to be on our far left.
Is that the LAF or RAF version?

2. When shipping, will the couch be delivered inside to our living room?

Thanks for your help.”

Their email customer service was a complete fail. First of all it took 4 days to get a response, and when I did get a response, it did not even reference my question. It basically said they were sorry the couch was out of stock. But it was in stock, still is, and that had nothing to do with my email. Full text here:

“Hello Jason

Thank you for inquiring about Cinematographer 2-Pc. LAF Chaise
Sectional. Our item selections are carefully planned in advance.  We try
our best to have the merchandise available when you place your order.
Sometimes items are more popular than we originally anticipated and we
are not able to obtain additional quantities.

Merchandise selections on jcp.com are updated daily and new items are
added.  Once all sizes and/or colors are depleted from our inventory the
item is removed from the site.

We appreciate your interest in this item and are disappointed that we
were unable to fulfill your order.  Customer satisfaction is important
to us and we appreciate your feedback.

We invite you to check jcp.com frequently for our latest selections.”

Here is the thing. How can it possibly take 4 days to respond to an email with a crap automated response?

So, while they worked their email magic, I attempted to make two phone calls to customer service. Both times it took about 30 minutes on hold to get to anyone. Both times the customer service rep had zero  product knowledge. They had no idea what LAF or RAF meant. They had no idea when the product would be delivered or how.

Ultimately the first operator disconnected us while asking for help with the LAF question. Which was actually better than the second operator who managed to keep me on the phone the whole time. She clearly had no idea what RAF or LAF meant for the majority of the call and then I guess had an epiphany that I needed the LAF couch. The more I asked her question about how she knew, suspecting she was just making it up, the more rude she got.

After all that, I went to Google and found out that LAF meant the chaise was on the left when you are facing the couch. This was of course the exact opposite answer that I got from the second operator, the only answer I got in 3 attempts.

2 phone calls, 1 email, 90 minutes of my life, and one answer to my question that ended up being wrong.

JCPenney clearly is very committed to being the anti-Zappos.

The story is familiar. Girl sets up twitter account, follows a few people, tweets twice, doesn’t get it and never goes back. Many of us have “been there done that.” It only took me another two years to come back around and try again. Once I finally got the hang of hashtags, mentions, and retweets, there was no turning back. This girl was hooked.

After reading hundreds of blog posts and listening to hours of webinars, I subscribed to the 80/20 rule and believed in the “less is more” philosophy. The experts tell us 80% of the time should be spent sharing informational links, answering questions, supporting others, retweeting, showing our human side, and joining other conversations. 20% of the time can be self-promotion.

Out of the 150 I follow, 1/4 of them are abusers of the system. They send 60 or more daily tweets that are mostly self-promotional in nature, and quite frankly not very interesting or helpful. Ironically, these are also the self-proclaimed experts telling the rest of us “don’t do what I do.”

What if twitter announced a cap of 20 tweets per day? In addition, what if everyone had to agree to the 80/20 rule? What would our experience be like? I argue the following:

1. Our timelines would be sprinkled with the diverse faces we choose to follow and want to hear from
2. Our opportunity and capacity to learn from many would increase
3. More prospective tweeters would sign on, participate, enjoy the conversations and not give up
4. Tweets would be even higher quality and more creative
5. Retweets would really catch our attention
6. Only the best of the best blog posts, pictures, and videos would be shared
7. Self-promotion would be strategic and targeted
8. When we ask for help, we’d get responses
9. When we show our human side it would be done with passion and meaning
10. We’d spend more time really paying attention and listening to what others say and less focused on our own agendas

Next time you are logged in think about the marathon tweeters who seem to never sleep. Also think about how nice it would be to catch a thought or two from ALL those you follow. Let the truth be known that less is in fact more. It is definitely easier to keep up with each day.