Are You Using Pinterest?

Are you using Pinterest yet?

Maybe you've seen the Pinterest icon on the sidebar of my blog or seen it on Facebook, or Twitter and wondered what it was.  If you don't know what it is, go click on mine to check it out.  Go ahead, I'll wait for you.  The link is right there on my blog.  Go scroll down a little bit - it's on the right sidebar and it's in red, so you can't miss it.  It says "follow me on Pinterest."  Just click on it and it will take you to my boards.

I think of Pinterest  as a huge bulletin board where I can hang up pictures of stuff I like.  Only it's all electronic and the images are linked to websites.  Pinterest makes it super easy to hang up pictures of things you like, with the links back to where you found them.  You also have the option of following other peoples boards.  Say you find someone who has similar tastes to yours - you can follow them, either all of their boards, or select boards.  Then when they pin something to those boards, you can access them.

You can set up boards for yourself in any category that you like.  Some of mine are Foods, Crochet & Knit, Crafts, Home Organization.  I also have boards for different bloggers who have items for sale that I really like.  It's a great way to keep track of things I'd like for myself, so if someone wants to buy me a present (hint,hint) all they have to do is look at my boards for some great ideas.

One of the really neat things about Pinterest is that it's a great way to track what other people are really interested in.  Say I pin something.  Whenever someone else re-pins it or "likes" it, I get an email telling me so.  Each item on my boards also has a list that shows re-pins and likes.  Yesterday I pinned something from another blog onto my board.  Within ONE hour, that pin got re-pinned 147 times!  OMG!  That was an all-time high for my pinterest boards and told me that people really liked this item that I pinned.  Want to know what it was?  Of course you do.  Click here to go see what this phenomenal item was.

I've only been using Pinterest for a couple of months and I really like it.  It's proving to be another great source of traffic to and from my blog.  I am finding that people who might not be followers of my blog still stop by and pin things.  Or, someone is driven to my Pinterest board by one of my pins and then hops over to my blog and becomes a new follower.  I encourage people to leave comments on the individual pins because that gives me additional feedback.

One thing I've been trying to do now is this - when I pin something I try to write a description of exactly what it is and then the direct link to where I found it.  This does 2 things.  First, it helps me and other bloggers know exactly what the item is, which is especially helpful with food items.  And second, it links directly back to the original source, so other people can find it and so the original poster gets credit for the item.  That's only fair, right?   I've clicked on items on other peoples boards that they've re-pinned and the link is broken, so I have no idea where the item originally came from.  That's really frustrating when I want the recipe or to buy something, and now I can't find it.  Also, the person who originally posted the item wants you to come to their website or blog.  So please, for the sake of yourself and the original poster, be sure to link back to the original.

That's really all there is to it.  Check it out.  It gets really addicting!