Call me slow, but I still don’t get what it is about Pinterest that makes it fun. I need some help, dear people, in understanding how you use it, and what I’m missing out on, if anything, cause Mama hates being late to the party! (Actually, I’m not technically a mama and the expression makes me think of Eddie Murphy in drag, so forget I even said that.) What I’d like to know is:
- Do you start by logging in to Pinterest, or do you start by spontaneously pinning things from around the web when you’re browsing as your ‘entry point’ to Pinterest?
- What do you do more of when you log in to Pinterest? Look at your pinned stuff or look at other people’s stuff?
- Do you follow lots of boards of people you don’t know, or just those of friends?
- Do you like it for certain ‘categories,’ e.g. it’s helping you design your next new house, or is it fun for all sorts of things? What is your weirdest category?
- Do you talk to people you meet on Pinterest like you would on Twitter?
- What’s the best or worst thing about it, in your opinion?
- If you don’t use it, why?
I know, it’s a lot of questions, but SERIOUSLY, I feel like a Pinterest dufus. I’ve pinned a few things, but still default to bookmarking things in my browser if it’s something I want to find again, and I have folders for my bookmarks, e.g. travel, health, etc. So what makes Pinterest sharing so much niftier for finding cool stuff than regular internet surfing?
This post was paid for by Keep Laura Zera Clued In And Also Make Every Kind of Dairy Queen Blizzard With Cheesecake Pieces.
Updated on 10/29/2012 – A recent Fast Company article entitled “Can Ben Silbermann Turn Pinterest Into the World’s Greatest Shopfront?” gives a great explanation of Pinterest’s design-driven creation strategy and why that has made it both beautiful and popular. I found it very interesting.
Laura: I have no idea why Pinterest is regarded as fun. It is just one more piece of social media I use to promote our blogs and our books at Venture Galleries. All I know is that I get more hits on Pinterest than I do on Facebook, so I guess I’ll keep pinning.
“Are we having fun yet?” Ha! I’ve just followed you so I can see how you’re using it as an author, and maybe that’ll also get me poking around more and having fun…
I understand your confusion; I am not sure what to do with it myself. I received an invite from George Takei of all people about a year ago and then tried to register. Apparently, he invited everyone on FB at the time and I had to wait. I had forgotten about it and about 6 weeks later the actual link to register popped up in my email. Deciding to see just what all the shouting was about. I registered and then poked around on Pinterest for about 5 minutes, where upon I promptly forgot it again for about 6 months.
Then, a month or so ago (I know this is all riveting) I read an article that stated that FB is pretty much dying a slow death and Pinterest is the future of social networking. I’m really not seeing that. I’ve spent time on Pinterest and I look at other people’s boards. I find myself looking at ancient, ancient art for some reason. I’m not into houses, recipes and all that girlie stuff, despite being a female; I’m weird like that. I follow other people and it’s all pretty. I have FB friends there and new, random friends, which I like as I blog and I do like to try and widen my audience, but I don’t honestly see this as being The Next Best Thing. The interface is just too god-awful to wield and user-hateful. There’s no centrality to it; you can’t do everything on one page.
It should be noted that I’m legally blind and was an IT engineer in an earlier life, and am now extremely lazy to boot. I don’t want Hell in a box. I want a Magic button that does everything and gives me singing kittens. Nice post, by the way. I loved it.
Hi Mary, thanks for reading and for your laugh-out-loud comment. I want singing kittens, too! Yes, it will be interesting to see where Pinterest goes as I’ve heard of similar trends. As a writer/blogger, I’ve also read several posts that say Pinterest is the best place to connect with real readers (I guess the readers on Twitter are fake?!). But anyway, I am kind of like you, I can see myself using it a little bit, finding ways it can enhance some of my research, or for learning tools or whatever, but don’t know that I’ll go all pin crazy. And then there’s still all these people that are talking about the copyright infringements from pinning all this stuff (for which Pinterest takes no responsibility), so one day, Pinterest may even implode! p.s. please let me know when you find magic button/singing kittens.
Good questions Laura.
As I am also interested to read the answers, I will be back in a couple of days in a hope that someone will be so kind to indulge our curiosity.
Thanks for stopping by, Vladimir, and hope you come back as we’re getting some good input already and the day is young!
Ith a mythtery to me, too! So far I’ve mostly used it to once in a while throw up a book cover of mine or my favorite authors, hoping someone will take an interest and click on it. I’ve looked at a few pieces of mighty fine art as well. It’s sort of like the Louvre in a box. I really haven’t spent much time there at all. Perhaps one of your readers will enlighten us!
“The Louvre in a box.” That’s cool. And I love Jack’s comment about being a curator. Some of this is actually starting to take shape for me now. Thanks, Jo.
Hi Laura
1. You need an ‘invite’ to get in, because it’s so popular. Its nothing elite, you can request one, wait about 2 -3 days for it to arrive OR get someone who is already ‘in’ to send an invite. (I can do that)
2. Combo of looking at your stuff and others. The most recent pins are on your homepage as well as new pins from people you follow.
3. You don’t get to interact with people like FB or Twitter, other than commenting on pins. You can follow anyone on pinterest, either all their boards (themes) or just the ones that interest you.
4. I like it because I find all kind of new recipes on it; also some great photography. It’s also a good way of promoting your blog.
5. Best thing: easy, interesting. Mindless. Worst: Nothing really bad, but I’m of two minds of how they are letting companies onboard. I don’t follow many so that’s not really an issue
Hope that helped 🙂
As an unrelated aside, in North America it’s mostly woman who use it for hobbies and interests; in Europe it’s mostly business men who use it as a means of marketing and reserach.
Whooohooo, thanks for the input, Sarah. Somebody must have invited me at some point, because I’ve had an account for a while now, albeit relatively inactive. Good to know about the interaction aspect — that clears up a few things for me! Had not even thought of using it to promote my blog, but a few of you have mentioned this….hmmm. And how interesting that business men are using it in Europe. I wonder if it’s to learn trends in their own markets or in North America? I’ve heard a bunch about big companies using Pinterest for contests, but haven’t seen any myself yet. I did visit my homepage this morning and saw my friends’ pins, and I did quite like that ‘new pins’ view. It’s like Facebook, but different — same same but different, as they say in SE Asia.
I’m slowly warming to Pinterest, but haven’t yet figured out how some folks work themselves into such a frenzy over it. You don’t have to be logged-on to be able to pin pictures to your boards. I installed a “Pin It” button to my favorites bar that makes pinning quite easy as many websites often only seem to let a user pin the first image that appears on the site, and the “Pin It” button will allow any pic on the page to get pinned.
I’ve yet to really get out and explore the boards of those I follow. I consider myself a visual person, but really, aren’t our brains on information overload as it is already? Pinterest just seems like one more headache to keep track of!
Since it will let you follow your FB and Tweeps, I’ve been doing so, but most of the people I’ve followed are newbies just like me. I’ve created board related to my blog, but am trying to add other pics that aren’t just related to my blog posts. I do like my board that ties into soup recipes. Quote boards are quite popular as well.
The layout of Pinterest is a true testament to the changing nature of literacy and the interaction between words and images in making meaning. I think it appeals to people who collect random pics and scrapbook. To this day, I still rip cool pics out of National Geographic since I might someday use them in the classroom (even though I’m pretty sure I won’t be going back…).
I installed the Pin It button too, but I just keep forgetting to use it! Your observation about the changing nature of literacy and the interaction between words and images made me think that maybe Pinterest is more about ingesting information than social media networking and interaction. Obviously, there’s a social aspect to it because you can so easily find and follow friends, but has a strong learning aspect to it, with extra appeal to the visual learner. Thanks for your feedback, Jeri.
Pinterest, to my mind, is a form of blogging, without all the work.You are a curator of art, video, photos, recipes, writing, etc. The quality of your Pinterest “blog” is directly related to the quality of the “things” that you collect.
So what? Well, it has brought me some attention. I am beginning this month to “pin” some items from my own blog to see if my collection can be used to refer visits to my website/weblog.
I am just loving all these comments. “Curator” — YES! That’s a great concept. And if you think of yourself as a curator, then of course, quality would naturally apply! It seems like people will take on different ‘roles’ in how they use it. Some will use it more for scrapbooking, like Jeri said. They’d fill books and books and books with pictures and clippings, and now they’ll pin and pin and pin lots of boards. The ‘curators’ will create the gallery that has a few select pieces and lots of white space on the walls.
When I first heard about Pinterest, I was all “meh, so what,” but I asked for an invite anyway and then promptly ignored my account for several months. I can’t remember what reignited my interest, a tweeted link to an image on Pinterest maybe, but at some point I finally “got” it.
For me Pinterest has become a repository of images that feed my imagination and fuel my creativity in one way or another. For example, I have a “Feast of creepy dolls” board that is helping me percolate a horror story (one that might well end up having nothing to do with creepy dolls.” I have a thing about doors and windows and winding roads, so I have a couple of boards that I visit when I want to nourish story ideas that focus on risks, quests, journeys, opportunities, and so on.
It’s not all to do with my writing life, though. I have a few more mundane boards: a food-centric board, one that focuses on cool bags, that sort of thing. And I have other boards that act as virtual collections of things that I love: teapots, netsuke, and clocks and watches.
Some writers set up boards for every story or novel they’re writing (or planning to work write) as a way of collecting images that suggest the settings and characters they’re trying to convey. I haven’t done that yet, but I can see the appeal.
As noted above, there is a low-maintenance interactive aspect to Pinterest. You can comment on other people’s pins, tweet links to your own pins, and start group boards. I belong to a few group boards now, although I’m a low-activity member of most.
Re: your specific questions:
– I’m not on Pinterest every day, unlike some of the people I know, but I visit two or three times a week. Sometimes I log directly into Pinterest to see what the people I follow are pinning, sometimes I see an image on the web that I want to pin. It probably starts with the latter most often, and then while I’m there I’ll start exploring..
– Sometimes I visit Pinterest specifically to look at one of my boards and get my creative juices flowing. Other times I’ll be there to browse and let other people inspire me.
– I follow people whose pins interest me whether I know them or not. If someone I know starts following me, I’ll follow back, but I may unfollow certain of their boards if they’re of no interest. If someone I don’t know follows me, I’ll check them out and will follow some or all of their boards ONLY if the boards interest me. I’ve made the mistake of following people just to be polite, but honestly, I have no interest in images of hair scrunchies and eye shadow. 🙂 BTW–just found and followed you on Pinterest!
– My weirdest category is probably my “feast of creepy dolls category.”
– I rarely interact with people on Pinterest other than following their boards if I find them interesting. That’s one of the wonderful things about PInterest–easy peasy, minimal obligation, no burden of reciprocity. 🙂
– I think I’ve already addressed what’s best about Pinterest for me. The worst thing about it, from my perspective, is that there’s no option for private boards. I’d like to start a board for the novel I’m writing, but I’m not comfortable doing that publicly.
Whoa. That was way too long…
Very interesting, Kern. I think I may be starting to ‘get it’ too, now that I’ve had all these great insights from people. I agree — a private board idea would be awesome. You should submit the idea to the Pinterest people! I’ve also heard that Evernote can be a good tool to collect things in one place for story writing, and it is private. I’m glad you shared your follow/unfollow strategy for boards vs. people, as I could see how a home page could get full of stuff in which you have zero interest in a very short time and I was kind of worried about that.
A few people have commented about how the visual aspect helps their creativity, and that is truly a great benefit. I hope it rubs off on me that way.
Thanks for all the input!
…what Kern said :))
Ha! Slacker. Although Kern did a fabulous job at covering the relevant points.
Another one of my tribemates is doing a “chat” on the Pinterest subject. Might be worth your while to investigate!
http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog/insurance-plan-to-reach-your-audience/nexuscafe-twitter-chat-preview-marketing-with-pinterest
I missed it last Thursday but read through the comments using their hashtag. I did not know of all these tools for Pinterest analytics — Pinerly, Pintics, PinReach…
I am a very visual person so for me Pinterest is like a kid being in a candy store – that said, I don’t love it unconditionally. If you use it for personal reasons there are plenty of inspirational images, beautify products and fashions, and yes recipes, travel ideas, etc. Plus for us creative types it’s a lovely way for self-expression … I put a lot of thought into creating my boards. Professionally there are all kinds of lists available online with tips on how to market your business there … I use many of them myself. The only thing that really does bother me are the people who post only rarely, but when they do they will post 30 images – almost always affiliate related – now THAT makes me crazy.
I mentioned earlier that I see different roles for how people ‘enjoy their Pinterest’ — curator and scrapbooker have come to mind. I’d say you approach it as a curator. I like the idea of putting a lot of intention behind it. It would increase its value to me, I think. Thanks for stopping by, Marty!
I have been blown away by the beauty of the images I have found on Pinterest. However, apart from that I don’t know if it is helping my author platform that much. I have several writing-related boards but they aren’t very popular (I am following 84 people but only 22 are following back). I have to concentrate my activity on the places that work for me, and so far that has been Twitter and Facebook. I have no idea how to promote effectively with Pinterest. A lot of the posts on my website don’t have associated images I can pin.
Hi Rolando! I’m thinking that it could be a fun place to play without focusing on author platform, especially when so much energy goes into that elsewhere. That said, how much time do we have to play?! I also really like some of Kern’s ideas about collecting things that give inspiration to our writing.
Hi Laura,
I like Pinterest, I find it very relaxing.
There are a couple of ways you can use Pinterest. You can scour the net and, using the Pin It button, pin things to your Pinterest account. Or, you can simply sign in to Pinterest, and look at other people’s pins, and re-pin them or “Like” them.
Because I’m a non-fiction history writer, I mostly deal in words. BUT, Pinterest allows a different sort of creativity. I can categorize historical images to use for future writing projects, I can learn about history by following people with similar interests. So many of those old black and white images are just wonderful.
Also, I find it uplifting to look photographs of beautiful things, cute animals and inspiring people
To me, Pinterest is like having your own private art gallery right there on your computer screen!
~ Susan
Hmmm, one thing I haven’t done yet is go out and look for other people’s boards that match a specific interest of mine. I bet there are other people out there who have a crush on Nelson Mandela besides me! And I could see how it could be relaxing. I used to look at DailySquee.com at lunch when I was working on a stressful project. All the puppies and kittens and sloths and whatnot brought my blood pressure way down. Thanks for sharing, Susan.
It’s funny; I was just saying today how I don’t understand what the fun is in Pinterest. I keep hearing how it’s great and when I ask what I why I just get the same answer, “You can find all sorts of stuff on there!” The only thing I’ve seen that pertain to me, personally, are recipe ideas but I only bake once in a while. Usually I do a Google search to find a recipe for brownies or something.
I don’t have kids to make cutsey things for and I buy things from IKEA when I want to organize. 😉
My biggest problem with Pinterest is that it is solely for repinning other people’s photographs. I like to share my own photos. That’s why I use Flickr and Instagram.
I lean toward the “hate it” side because it’s the reason my Facebook friends are constantly posting photos with quotes and someecards (which was funny years ago and now has gotten way out of hand.)
Hello Suzanne, I was also under the impression you could only pin other people’s stuff, but then today, in my research, I found something that talks about uploading your own images (not that I’ve tried it yet; it’s midnight here, so that’ll be for another day): http://pinterest.com/pin/175992297909372637/
Funny, I noticed a lot of someecards when I was cruising around there, too. Maybe we should create a someecard about people who post too many of them?!
Thanks for visiting, and p.s. I love the graphic in your Tales of Missus P. blog header. Now, is your hubby’s t-shirt of Mickey or Deadmau5?
Really interesting to read everyone’s comments, including your own. I love Pinterest and my next blog will be about it.
When I was first invited I thought-what? Why? But now I enjoy putting up my own work as well as others and making contact with people who have similar interests. As a writer (but also a visual artist) it’s so refreshing to engage with visual imagery – an image is worth a thousand words after all…. And from a connection point of view, you can connect with people who will never have read your blog or your tweets. I think it also gives us a chance to explore different sides of ourselves & not be so word driven.
Like bloggers, Pinterest people (Pinners?) are a very friendly & reciprocal bunch I’ve found. My pinterest page is https://pinterest.com/artyyah/
I think also as writers/bloggers it gives people a chance to see more about who we are and what we’re interested in.
Thanks for the post.
Hello there, and thanks for visiting. I did check out your Pinterest link and can see what you mean from the kinds of boards you have put up — there’s room to explore ourselves. I’ve created boards that I thought I’d have fun with but didn’t do it very organically and may find they’re not what I want to explore… and then I shall change them! But I really like the idea of thinking of it as an exploration place, not just a pinning/re-pinning place. Gives it more depth!
I’m in the ‘not bothered’ category – it feels like one more site to eat into real time I’d rather spend with real people, or reading a book, or travelling, eating cake … I’ve reached my social media limit with twitter!
People, books, traveling and cake are all much more fun than anything online in my opinion, too. But I also want more time to goof around on the internet. Can’t we have it all? Can’t we?!! No, probably not, and so we must pick and choose and stay true to what matters most to us. Thanks for dropping by, Jo!
No use asking me – I’ve no idea. It’s all I can do to keep up with twitter and facebook, and write a blog. And then get on with my writing.
And – have a Life!!
So – if we have to join Pinterest, what do we give up to find the time for it?
I feel the same way, Jo. But I was curious to learn more about what people think because I’ve heard a couple of literary agents and pub industry people say that Pinterest is the best way for a writer to connect with their readers. That makes sense to me, because on Facebook, people are kind of just hanging out, but on Pinterest, it’s more about shared/common interests. But I still haven’t figured out how to regularly include Pinterest in my life, except give up sleep! Thanks for your comment.