{SocialMedia2Scale}

Some tips:

Create categories.

Take a cue from Warby Parker Inc. of New York, with its Pinterest profile showcasing the brand's eyewear, combined with other images that are intended to say something about its culture and mission. Notice how its profile is separated into categories, or "pin boards," with themes such as "Fresh New Frames" and "Sunglasses are a Must."

Use images with personality.

"The images that get shared the most are funny, inspiring or emotional," says Jason Keath, a social-media analyst in New York. You don't need to invest in professional photography. However, the images you post to Pinterest should be visually striking. "People share images that make them look good," Mr. Keath says.

Be selective.

Highlight only a few of your most popular or newest items so your profile doesn't look like an advertisement.

If you own a service-based business, use images that show what your brand is about. Balance Yoga Studio LLC of Woodinville, Wash., for instance, shows photos of magazines and books on healthy living, plus graphics with inspirational quotes like "Keep Calm and Carry Om."

"It's just creating more of a yoga community online for us," says owner Michelle Michael, whose 20-employee company launched in October and created its Pinterest profile last month.

Write breezy descriptions.

The images you pin to your profile from a Web page will automatically include an embedded link to that page—but not a caption. Use this space to give users updates on what's new with your business, as well as to describe product.

"Happy Valentine's Day! We added Coral to our colors! This is the Light Duty Fish Tail Bracelet," wrote, Survival Straps, a Jacksonville, Fla., maker of utility-cord bracelets that recently started using Pinterest, in a pin earlier this month.

Use the widgets.

Add a "Pin It" or "Follow" button to your company website by going to Pinterest's "Goodies" page and following the instructions provided. You can also download the Pinterest logo to your site from the same page.

Add many links.

By clicking "Settings" and filling in the prompts, you can include links to your company website, as well as your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles from your Pinterest profile. Then, add links to back to your Pinterest profile from each of those pages.

By creating these trails for consumers, you'll help lead them to your site. "It's like a breadcrumb strategy," says Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University's Lubin School of Business.

The social network sciences have become a rich and amazing source of data based validation and hope for social networks. We can intentionally and strategically grow them. And to the degree that we don't have formal power and cannot buy relationships to formal power, we grow our influence at the rate we grow our networks. In the new world of networks, influence can be grown more sustainably than it can be purchased.

The business case for growing influence networks using the principles of the social network sciences is clear and compelling. The principles work whether we are striving to influence choices, habits, votes, opinions, proposals, or adapting to change.

Started in late June, Google+ is growing faster than Facebook and MySpace Inc. did in their early days. The service, which lets people connect with and manage groups of friends on a website, gained about 25 million users worldwide in less than a month, estimates market researcher ComScore Inc. Facebook has more than 750 million active users.

Facebook's use as a job-recruitment tool remains small, but its appeal may be growing. Some recruiters say they have all but eliminated their spending on job boards, which can charge a few hundred dollars per job posting, depending on volume. Others note that while LinkedIn contains a more comprehensive résumé database, candidates tend to value referrals from their connections on Facebook more.

The majority of social-media traffic to Waste Management Inc.'s careers website comes from Facebook, beating out LinkedIn, said Jenny DeVaughn, manager of social media and employment branding. The Houston-based environmental services company is currently trying to fill 1,500 positions—from software developers to garbage truck drivers.

In addition to posting jobs and videos of current employees on its Facebook page, the company has recruiters and other employees find user groups and join discussions.