"Just pin and they will come", said no communications or social media professional ever. When it comes to Pinterest – 70-million-user strong online visual bookmarks platform – it requires a lot more than just pinning nice images and waiting for the repins, likes and followers to pile up.

A successful Pinterest account for business requires a carefully crafted strategy that not only has visual storytelling at its core, but also advertising as well as search engine optimisation (or as I call it Pinterest optimisation) too.

You may wonder, "What does advertising and SEO have to do with a visual social network?" Read on to find out.

As with any comms and social media strategy, one of the most important initial steps is truly knowing your audience and understanding what makes it tick specifically on the platform in question.

As Pinterest itself puts it, the network allows people to discover ideas for any project or interest, hand-picked by other people (or brands) they like. Boards serve as to-do and wish lists or as a "walk down memory lane" of past experiences.

Did you know that countless fruits and vegetables are needlessly thrown away every day by mass producers, yet the only thing wrong with them is that because they are disfigured, ugly or misshapen they are deemed unworthy and out of the norm? In reality, they are just as delicious and just as good for you as the "pretty", perfectly shaped ones. This is why French supermarket company Intermarché decided to do something about it. They launched a film, print, poster and radio campaign called the Inglorious Fruits&Vegetables, promoting the beauty of not-so-perfect fruits and veggies and so fighting food waste.

French consumers can not only enjoy healthy, fresh foods, but also save money as the previously deemed unfit for consumption fruits and veggies are offered at 30% less. The French supermarket chain buys the foods from farmers who would usually throw them away. This way the company also supports local production.

The overall aim of the campaign was to send an important message: it's not what fruits and veggies look like, but how they taste that matters – disfigured, hideous or ugly fruits and veggies are just as delicious and should not be tossed simply because of their "looks".

Every brand has a story to tell, but not every brand has mastered the art of telling its story in a way that is meaningful, attention-grabbing and long-lasting.

Just as people, some brands have a "way with words" – they are natural storytellers – while others find it a little bit more challenging and need to acquire the relevant skills first. Learning from the best in class is one step ahead at becoming a masterful storyteller.

But who are those brands that we can learn from? Who are the masters of storytelling? What do they stand for and what is their purpose?

That's what a recent study by Aesop tried to find out. It surveyed 2,000 consumers in the UK, asking them to rate companies against nine key storytelling elements:

• unique character/personality
• clear opinion
• vision/purpose
• intrigue (that urges us to learn more about them)
• credibility
• unique world
• shareable, worthy to talk about content
• entertainment
• memorability

The combined ranking result is enlightening:

Global warming, extreme weather events, resource scarcity, food and water crisis, instability of financial institutions – these are all interconnected global risks that we are facing today and that require us to act as fast as possible as they have major systematic impacts. But do you ever wonder who is going to solve these issues? Is it governments? Or companies? Or non-profits? Or regular people? I'm afraid I don't have the answer, but here's an interesting suggestion – it might be a whole generation.

Meet Generation Z – the bold rebels with the cause to save the world.

Gen Zers are the ones born after the mid 1990s. They now account for more than a quarter of the world's population, with that number rising steadily.

In many ways, Gen Zers are the opposites or extreme versions of Millennials, aka Generation Y – the previous generation.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and about a hundred more social networking sites... The choice is overwhelming and expanding by the day. Smart marketers and communications professionals know that establishing a social presence on the right platforms is crucial to successful social media that adds real value for business. But how do you make that choice? How do you determine the right social networks for your business or client?

The first step towards deciding which network to be active on is defining your target group – that's Marketing 101. So, who is it that buys from you? Who is it that are you doing business with?

Once you've defined your audience, you need to get to know it – what is it that your customers like, do, talk about, where do they congregate online, how often, for what purposes? How do they make purchase decisions? To what extent are those decisions influenced by what people are saying, liking, sharing on social networks and on which platform exactly?