Pinterest – What is all the Interest?

Ok, so I have finally decided to see what all the fuss is about over there at Pinterest.  I only ever started an account as it was a little task we had to do in one of the groups I am in.  I set up a username, but that was about it.  Then every day I was receiving notifications that this person and that person were following me. Great! Every time I received an email I cringed a little inside.  I knew my Pinterest profile was rubbish and that I did only have one board titled ‘Other People's Pins', as I did not have a clue what I was doing.

I also had the little voice in the back of my head telling me what I have told many a new person on social media – ‘Don't open an account if you are not going to set it up properly, it is like opening up a shop and having nothing to sell'. By this time I was a complete hypocrite.  The articles about Pinterest were swirling round the internet and I had been trying to pretend that this whole thing was not another social media site I needed to know about and that it would just go away.  Well, clearly it is not going away anytime soon.

There were a few final things in a row that had me finally pull my head out from the sand and start taking a good look at this Pinterest craze.

1. I subscribe to quite a few blogs and practically every blog had at least one article about Pinterest.

2. In my email this morning before I could even look at the real emails – I had to delete, no less than, 28 emails telling me that ‘so and so' was now following me on Pinterest. (cringe, cringe, cringe..)

3. In a casual conversation with one of my friends I mentioned that sometimes before I go to bed I might play a game of solitaire on my iPad.  She said, ‘Oh, Stacey, really, I would much prefer to have one last check in on my Pinterest account before going to bed, it is much more interesting than that'.

So, I went investigating this craze that had turned my perfectly sane and rational friend into a pinning frenziest!

I logged into my account and stared blankly at my empty boards and wondered what the heck I was going to do with them.  Ahh – YouTube will have all the answers.

The first video I found was this one – short and to the point, it explained what Pinterest was and how big it was getting, but not what to do.

Then I looked around for some that were going to tell me what to do and then this video caught my eye. Pinterest SEO – now we are starting to talk my language.  Thanks Kathy Dalpra! Kathy is a wedding professional that helps other wedding professionals with social media.  Her video is coming from that context but can be modified for any niche.  I personally found it quite informative.

Being the original thinker I am, all I could come up with to make a board about were my favourite books.  I found the Pinterest Chrome extension so that I could ‘pin' from any website and off I went, straight to Amazon.  Pinned a couple of books and then was bored of that and went off to find other things to do on the internet that were of more interest.

Not one to give up that easily I went back in for another go and found this little ‘how to' video that Beth Hunter made.

I was slightly inspired by her pumpkin board and went off to make a board of my favourite colour – Purple.  It started off well but then I kept forgetting to change the board name when I pinned something and had to go back and change everything around after I had finished, which was kind of frustrating. [A little word of warning for you!]

It does erk me that you have to leave a description for each of the pictures – is that not an oxymoron to – ‘A picture is worth a thousand words?'

So, that will give those of you, like myself, that did not have a clue what they were doing an idea of how to get started on Pinterest.  In an upcoming post I will share a few of the hundreds of blog articles out there about how to use Pinterest in your business.  Until then, I think I will stick with my favourite quotes and books. If you would like to check out my exemplary boards you can find me at – https://pinterest.com/staceymyers/.

Would love to hear if, and how, you are using Pinterest.

Leave your comments below!!

Stacey is a coach, trainer and speaker who supports Authors and Aspiring Authors create an online presence through WordPress and Social Media training. Stacey's hands-on style, supportive nature and extensive knowledge make her the perfect go-to resource.