At Experience Columbus, we strive to help our potential visitors find great travel experiences in ways that work best for them, whether it’s in our publications, on our web site , via Twitter , on Facebook or Flickr. Recently, we’ve seen a lot of buzz around Pinterest , a social network that’s starting to gain traction. The more we looked at it, the more we though it could work well for both showing off the great things there are to see , do , eat and drink and also, as a powerful trip planning tool for our visitors.

Pinterest is a visual way to bookmark links. Whether it’s pictures of things that inspire you, DIY or craft projects you want to try, videos that make you laugh, or places you want to visit, it’s a really nice way to help yourself remember those aspirations and share them with your network of friends. Pinning these images and videos is very easy - first you need to do is pull the "Pin It" button into your browser’s task bar. When you find an image or video you want to pin, just click that button, select which of your boards you want the item to be pinned onto, then type a few words about it. It takes about five seconds. You can find images and videos to pin all across the web, or you can browse or search Pinterest and re-pin things that other users have added.

Pinterest is also great for planning a trip. For instance, if you’re planning a visit to Columbus in the spring, you can check out our boards , follow us, and re-pin on your own board images of the activities you want to do , restaurants you want to try and places you want to stay . The really nice thing about this is that you can very easily co-plan a trip with another person or a group. If you’re finally taking that long-talked-about girls getaway or getting the family reunion organized, you can invite all the members of your travel party to pin to the same board so you’re not all searching through email chains to agree on the plan for a day out.

Because Pinterest is gaining popularity quickly, you normally have to request an account and wait a few days for it to be activated. To make the process must quicker, Experience Columbus is happy to send you an invitation, which gets you in right away. To request and invitation, email me at jvargo@experiencecolumbus.com . Please make "Pinterest" the subject line of your email.

As you explore this new tool, let me know what you like and don’t like about Experience Columbus’ boards (http://pinterest.com/expcols .) What do you wish you could find, that we haven’t covered yet?

Happy Pinning!

Photo: Randall Lee Schieber

Calling all Columbus-loving friends! To help you keep tabs on dining, playing, shopping and staying in Columbus, we’ve added some new features to our blog and the @ExpCols Twitter profile. Here’s the lowdown:

Columbus Conversation

Our blog now has a page called Columbus Conversation . Here, you’ll find links to the latest posts across the Web - news articles, reviews, blog posts, videos and more. If it’s a recent link about a place to dine, play, shop or stay in Columbus, chances are good that you’ll see it there.

To stay up to date on what’s new to the page, click here to subscribe - updates can be sent your RSS reader or to your email inbox (you’ll never receive more than one email a day, and sometimes less).

Columbus Widgets

We have a couple of new widgets that you can use to share links about Columbus on your own blog or Web site:

• Columbus Conversation widget: Features the links you see on the Columbus Conversation page I mentioned above.
• Columbus Events Calendar widget: Features links to upcoming events and things to do in Columbus (the links are pulled from the Columbus Events Calendar ).

You’ll find both widgets here . Click over to check them out and grab the code for installing them on your own corner of the Web.

Twitter lists

If you’re a Twitter user, you’ve probably noticed that they launched a lists feature back in November. If you click here , you’ll find all of the Experience Columbus Twitter lists:

• A list of dining - full of our restaurant friends
• A list of playing - full of entertainment and attractions
• A list of shopping - full of galleries, shops and markets
• A list of staying - full of places to lay your head during a visit
• A list of staff - all the tweeters who work for Experience Columbus or our sister organization, the Greater Columbus Sports Commission

Give any of the above lists a follow, and you’ll have an easy way to check in on the current dining, playing, shopping, and staying scene on Twitter.

And as always, you can connect with experiencing Columbus here, too:

• Facebook : Where we post updates and send special offers to fans.
• Flickr Group : Where amateur and professional photographers across the Web share their shots of Columbus.
• YouTube : Where you can watch over a dozen videos about the Columbus experience.
• FriendFeed : Where you can catch many of our updates in one place.

Do you have…

• Questions or suggestions?
• A blog we should be watching for posts that cover places to dine, play, shop or stay in Columbus (and therefore, links we might share on the Columbus Conversation page)?
• A Twitter account that belongs on one of our lists?

Please let us know. Leave a comment or send a tweet to @ExpCols . We’d be glad to hear from you.