What I Didn't Know About Pinterest

I am not claiming to know the most, if anything, about social media. I will say I thought Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were the most popular and effective ways to promote yourself. One channel I never thought to be an effective use of promotion would be Pinterest. After reading Chapter 11  in The Art of Social Media, it become clearer why Pinterest can be a solid resource. 

Pinterest is a place to “pin” pictures, articles, crafts, etc. Anything you can think of, you can most likely find and pin. You pin onto your boards and can come back to an organized array of posts. I have boards from workouts to my wedding day to favorite quotes and do-it-yourself projects. To me, Pinterest always seemed “unprofessional” in a sense. I never felt like companies or businesses were on this channel. This was until I realized I wasn’t being advertised by  “generic” companies, but by real people and their blogs/websites. 

When I am looking for a DIY craft or new recipe to try, I go to Pinterest. Once I find a post that looks like it could be what I need, I go further and click on the image. I am taken to the original source of the post and it is normally a blog or website. This is how they promote themselves. They create good content that makes people want to try what they are doing. Viewers go onto a blog and may even search for more ideas within the site. Once I realized the type of businesses that use Pinterest, I understood why it was such a good promotion tool. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have been on a blog because of Pinterest and found other ideas from the site. 

A few Pinterest tips from Kawasaki are to use secret and collaborative boards. Secret boards are something no one can see except you. Collaborative boards means multiple people can pin to that board. Another tip would be rotating your boards. You can put your most popular board at the top of your profile or move a holiday board to the top during the seasonal times. You also should be rotating which board you pin on. Kawasaki says any board with fewer than 10 pins is ineffective. Pinterest is about having many quality pins across all your boards. If you have a blog or website, try sharing your posts on Pinterest to gain more interaction with people!