This week's top conversational marketing stories:

Pinterest Now No. 3 U.S. Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn - on Marketingprofs    

This post from MarketingProfs garnered more than 886 likes and looked at the surging popularity of Pinterest. “Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site in the US, behind Facebook and Twitter, according to a new report by Experian Hitwise. Web traffic to Pinterest surged to 50% from January to February of 2012, enabling the invitation-only site to overtake LinkedIn, Tagged, and Google+ in total monthly visits, Experian reports. Moreover, visits to Pinterest reached nearly 21.5 million during the week ended January 28, 2012, almost 30 times the number of total visits recorded six months earlier (week ended July 30, 2011).” Pinterest is certainly becoming more and more prevalent. Are you an avid pinner or new to the scene? What value do you think businesses and consumers hold in Pinterest?

Stats I Really Want from Twitter and Other Services - on Chris Brogan               

In this Chris Brogan post with more than 168 social shares, Twitter statistics are analyzed. Among the statistics that would be preferable to see are the top 10 people talking about me, the top 10 people talking about my product, and the top 10 people engaging and responding with my product. The reasoning for this being, “If I’m MolsonCoors, I now know who’s excited about my beer, or who hates my beer. If I’m the UPS Store, I know who’s talking the most about printing needs, so I can service them. If I’m Dollar Shave Club, I can try to gauge how many people just talk about me versus how many people are brought in.” Seeing followers and following are less useful statistics and the blog goes on to argue that if Twitter, along with Facebook and Google+, is trying to tout itself as great for business users, then it should provide ample reporting opportunities. Are you happy with the way social media reports to you?

5 Ways to Make the Social Layer Pay - by John Jantsch  on Ducttapemarketing    

“As I continue to try to help small business owners and marketers embrace all things social, I’ve begun to talk about it in different terms. We’ve moved beyond the notion that social media is department or even a set of tactics, but what is it then. To me, for the typical small business, it’s a layer – a layer of data, behavior, access, engagement, awareness, and trust. And, like a typical layer, it serves to add to the whole.” This comes from a ducttapemarketing post with 437 social shares. We live in an increasingly social world and this post comes with 5 ways to utilize it to its fullest potential. Are you getting the most out of the social layer?

Let's keep the conversation moving forward! Marketing is a social game today. Pinterest is becoming stronger every day; is your business ready for it? Are the stats from Twitter and other social media platforms for business enough for you, or do you want more? Are you making your social layer pay or could these 5 methods benefit you? Are there any more that aren’t mentioned?