Well, It’s been a few weeks since I joined Pinterest after being inspired to action by Kathy Alpert and her take on the site. (read the post: Pintriguing Possibilities)
Here is what I’ve done and the many, many questions I have about Pinterest.
It doesn’t feel as user friendly as I expected… I don’t feel like I can easily see what the people I follow are pinning… it feels random which is a bit frustrating. Does this get better with time or do others feel this way too?
I’ve pinned 124 things on 16 boards.
I’ve changed the names of each board at least once and I’m not sure I’m done yet… I’m also not sure how important the name of a board is… does it affect SEO? Others finding your pins?
I’m following 143 people – a few of whom I don’t recall saying I wanted to follow at all. A few men, in particular, who pin lots of men’s fashion – really not my thing. Leads me to wonder if Pinterest assigns people in addition to us choosing who to follow…
On that subject – if I search a category do I only get to see pins by those I am following? So many questions…
I’ve found some cool inspiration and ideas for my house, yard and holiday gifts. I found this foot scrub recipe that I just made yesterday and have yet to try – if I like it, lots of friends and family will have soft feet after the holidays! 🙂
Just before I joined and did the post about Pinterest, I mentioned it on the Art Licensing Info Facebook page. Artist Erin Sparler told me about her blog post – THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR PINTEREST? Apparently in the beginning of Pinterest, you weren’t allowed to use it for self-promotion. Now that you can, she is finding it becoming a bit too commercial – people using it to drive traffic to websites to sell things, etc. and she thinks it is de-valuing the site. What do you think? Should we, or others, be allowed to use Pinterest to raise awareness of our art, products, services etc or should it just be a visual board that has no marketing implications?
In summary – at this point, I find Pinterest interesting. And confusing.
If you have experiences and examples of how you have used Pinterest to help with your business, I’d love to hear and post them. Any other thoughts also welcome!
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. Find me on Pinterest: ArtistTaraReed
P.P.S. Find Kathy Alpert: PostMarkPress
Hi,
I just commented on facebook, but reading more here… I tend to use Pinterest predominantly for reference and to collect images I love, esp pics of architecture, homes, countries, animals and artists, photogs, illustrators, etc I do have several boards with my own work, but have not considered so much as a tool for business. I have noticed that ‘following’ can feel random, but I’ve enjoyed finding particular people who I share a sensibility with and then going to their boards & seeing who they’ve pinned from. I swear, images repeat enough that it seems you will eventually, at some point see everything on there. When I 1st joined, it was through facebook, so I was initially following any facebook friend already on there. I don’t know if they throw in others without your knowledge or not. My biggest problem has been to stick to it for research and not lose hours to mere distraction when I’m procrastinating. I think it’s ok that it’s used for marketing, but I hope it isn’t taken over by that, which is a real possibility. I have to say I’ve learned about numerous artists & illustrators that I’d never seen before. I have friends like me, who love it and others very suspicious or bored by it. It will be interesting to see what it morphs into. For now, I’m obviously a fan 🙂
Thanks for your feedback! It’s good to see what others think and how they are using Pinterest – I may have to quit my job so I can have time to do all the cool DIY projects I’ve found so far! 🙂
Pinterest is popular, but I also don’t understand it yet… I’ve add some success with a site called weheartit.com …It’s a lot like Pinterest, but it’s audience is mostly young women. There’s also the sites wanelo.com and Kaboodle.com …Which are all about products.
Dear Tara,
Thanks for the mention. Have you seen this fun and funny explanation of social networking going around?
http://instagram.com/p/nm695
Erin
PS. We ended up naming our son Elon with a hard E. 🙂
That’s a good one – now I want a donut! 😉