As more and more businesses are flexing their social media muscle, telling your small-business-owner friends about the benefits of Facebook or Twitter might cause them to send a tell-me-something-I-don't-know chuckle your way. However, one of the defining characteristics of the social media world is how rapidly it grows and changes, and you just may be able to wow your web-savvy friends by telling them about Pinterest, a photo-based social media tool.

Pinterest allows users to develop and manage their own theme-based collection of images, organized like a pin-up board. "Pins" can also include videos, discussions and other items. So how can Pinterest be used as a business tool?

• Show customers what you have to offer. Because Pinterest is image-based, it is particularly suited to businesses that sell visually-appealing products. For example, a jeweler or catering company could post pictures of a variety of its offerings.

• Keep your page fresh. Give visitors something new to view on your page every day. If customers return to your page and see the same images over and over again, they are likely to stop visiting.

• Spend time learning the site. Pinterest is a relatively new social media tool and, while it is designed to be simple, it may take some time to learn how to best utilize the site for your specific purposes. Spend time playing around with the different applications and visit other pages to see what seems to be effective for others.

• Connect your Pinterest page to your other social media pages. This is important for your entire online presence. Make sure you include a link on your Pinterest page to your company's primary website, to your Facebook page, etc. The more connected your online web is, the more likely potential customers are to discover and explore what you have to offer.

Finally, be respectful of others' copyright interests. Concerns about infringement occurring through Pinterest and other online venues is on the rise. Make sure you're not posting others' material without proper attribution or approval. 

News releases are still a key element of any business's marketing strategy, even though most are now sent as email attachments and distributed online. A news release is simply a written announcement of topics related to your organization that seeks to gain the attention of news media. The beauty of news releases is that, if done correctly, they can generate free publicity for your company. So how do you tap into this free advertising?

• Think like a reporter. The closer your release mirrors the kind of content the news outlet uses (whether print or broadcast) the easier it is for media outlets to use it. In fact - while few would admit it - many news outlets will publish your release with little or no changes made if they find it is newsworthy.
• Write a release that could stand alone as a story. For example, think of topics that have local interest or would pique the interest of readers.
• Don't overdo it. Highlight the positive aspects of your organization you wish to bring attention to, but don't exaggerate or be overly dramatic. The point of a news release is to inform more than it is to sell. Your piece will have more credibility with journalists and readers if it seems objective and based on concrete facts and information.

So you've started your small business and you've been up and running for some time now. Everything seems to be going well. But how do you know? In other words, what metrics are you using to track the success of your small business? Is it simply profits? Growth? Repeat customers? There may not be any one right answer, but below are some important metrics to keep in mind when measuring the success of your small business.

• Cash Flow. Simply put, cash flow is the amount of money moving into or out of your business. Cash flow is often confused with revenue or profit. However, the key distinction is that cash flow represents money you actually have, while revenue could include money owed to your business. Particularly for small businesses, having a lot of outstanding accounts receivable can cripple your business, because, even if you are owed money, it doesn't help you when you need to spend some hard cash. (Tip: your monthly billings can be a great leading indicator of future cash flow.)
• Efficiency. If your company is struggling financially, it may have to do with how efficiently you use the assets available to you. For a service organization, for example, this means how much money you can make off an hour of employee activity versus the cost of that hour of activity. If you find this ratio is low, you may be able to find some areas of waste to eliminate or untapped sources of value creation. (Tip: leverage your own billable time through the use of contractors and interns.)
• Internet activity. For many small businesses, their website is the principal portal through which customers learn about the business. Using relatively cheap and simple tools such as Google Analytics can provide important insight into who is visiting your site and what they are doing while they're there. (Tip: you can find some great - free! - tutorials on how to use Google Analytics on YouTube.)

It is important to keep in mind that these are not the only, or even the very best, metrics to use for your business. However, they span three key areas of your organization - finance, operations and marketing - and therefore can give some quick insights into the overall performance of your company.