Are you on Pinterest?  If not, why not?

For those of you not yet caught up on the Pinterest bandwagon, I found this helpful summary of Pinterest on Wikipedia:

 Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections or ‘like’ photos.

Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting”[2] via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. Founded by Ben Silbermann (of West Des Moines, Iowa), Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp [3] the site is managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of entrepreneurs and inventors.”

Need more inspiration to add yet another social media platform to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and the others you may participate in?

Here are some statistics I also found on Wikipedia:

  • On 16 August 2011, Time magazine listed Pinterest in its “50 Best Websites of 2011” article
  • In December 2011, the site became one of the top 10 largest social network services, according to Hitwise data, with 11 million total visits per week
  • According to Experian Hitwise the site became the third largest social network in the United States in March 2012, surpassing Linkedin and Tagged
  • At the 2012 Webby Awards, Pinterest won best social media app and people’s voice award for best functioning visual design

Until August, 2012, you even had to have an invite to get an account with Pinterest, but now anyone can sign up for an account.

My introduction to Pinterest came from my social media savvy friend Barbara Bailey. She is an early adapter of all things related to the Internet and social media, so I look to her for guidance on these matters.

Since I had started to hear some buzz about Pinterest in the spring of this year, I was delighted when Barbara invited me to connect with her on Pinterest. However, she wisely warned me – it can be addictive. She was SO right.

However, just because you might find yourself up to midnight searching for just the right images to pin doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a Pinterest account.

What really helped me to put Pinterest into a strategic context was a class I took at Colorado Free University.

In “Digital Marketing with Pinterest” class instructor and marketing consultant extraordinaire Jennifer Hilburn helped me to shift my thinking about Pinterest. Through examples she gave, I began to see how I could rearrange and rename my “boards,” plus pin more selectively and strategically.

Now I find that I have almost as many people “re-pinning” my pins on social media and Internet related topics as the beautiful images I have pinned just because I liked them.

What has been your experience in using Pinterest? What would you like to know about it?

Watch for future blog posts about Pinterest, as I see this to be truly an up and coming social media platform.

 

                       

Joyce Feustel, Founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, helps people relatively new to social media to become more effective and comfortable in their use of this medium. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com