Pinterest: Can You Handle It?

I want to tell you about a great Social Network, Pinterest, that is starting to get a lot of traction. In fact, Time Magazine named Pinterest one of the five best social media sites of 2011, along with Klout and Google-Plus. I can see why. It is downright addicting.

Pinterest is kind of a cross between the words Pin and Interest because what you do is “pin”  images of your favorite foods, clothes, places, designs, and everything else, to online boards that you create. When you find something of interest in a blog post, you can “pin” it to one of your boards. If you see something you like on Pinterest, that someone else has pinned, you can “repin” it.

Pinterest came into it’s own in the midwest by women planning weddings and doing crafts. They would use it to make wish lists of beautiful things. It spread from there. This past summer more men jumped in giving it a dose of Testosterone!

When you pin something, it is strongly encouraged that you find and credit the original source. I just heard from one of my peeps who writes a food blog that her peanut butter and jelly french toast photo was pinned on Pinterest and it resulted in her traffic zooming to over 6,000 hits in just one day.

Because it is newish, and does not have as big a community as a Facebook or You Tube, you have a much better chance of something going viral and bringing traffic to your site. It is also a great way for you to communicate your ideas to a designer. Whether organizing a wedding, renovation, or a website brand and design, share your Pinterest boards with your professional to easily communicate your look, feel, and ideas without the messy miscommunication words can have when translating design ideas.

You have to be careful when you go on Pinterest. Last Sunday, when I should have been writing the Just a Digital Minute, I got on Pinterest and two hours flew by. I had the feeling that someone needed to stop me. “Step away from the computer, Judi.”

The images that are presented to you when you go to Pinterest are somewhat determined by the people you follow.You can start by following me and other people you may know but don’t stop there. Check out the boards of people who pins you like and you will most likely find you love everything they do.  But do it at your own risk, and don’t say I didn’t warn you!