Friends, Likes, Share, +1, Embed, Comments, & Now Pins

Technology and the Internet have allowed us to stay so connected that information is literally at our fingertips at all times.  However, trying to manage all of these connections and what we have shared about ourselves online can take a lot of time, knowledge, skill, and patience.  

What social media tools are the best, important, or worth our time?  I don't claim to have the answer to this dilemma but for now; I'm doing everything I can to stay up to date with most all of them since I teach digital media and computer classes to high school students who are using these services regularly for daily communication and interaction.  They also use them to get their news or information so if you aren't connected in these ways, communicating with them effectively might be difficult.  In case you did not know, teenagers consider email and web sites old-hat.  If the local newspaper, in our case the Sierra Sun, wants the younger generation to read their paper, they better Tweet or Facebook it.  Moving from print to a web site no longer makes an organization modern or tech savvy.

I just recently was 'invited' to Pinterest and signed up for my account.  Now I am asking students who already have been 'pinning' media for sometime now, how exactly I should be using this new social media tool.  If you have some good advice, please share below by commenting.  

When should I Tweet it, Facebook it, Pin it, blog it, Google +1 it, or just add it to my flickr or Picasa albums?  Please HELP!

My new Pinterest page is http://pinterest.com/truckeeteacher/  

Thanks