Why Pinterest?

Pinterest rhymes with interest. So you say it like this: Pin-trist. Like In-trist.

Pinterest is not just for women. In fact, there are guys on there who get it. What an awesome place to show what you’re about, what you like, what your dreams are, what your accomplishments are, what your wacked cat is up to.

I, too, was reluctant about yet another social media platform to sign onto and forget. I had just gotten over my disenchantment and disengagement with Path, and wasn’t ready to hop on to something else that would require virtual nurturing.

So I took it slow. At first I had four boards: Lavagal’s Flow, Cool Stuff, Culinary Adventures, Handsome. Amazing. I started pinning things to my boards and linked my account to Facebook and Twitter. I have the iPhone app that makes it handy for me to upload pictures that I’ve taken. I’ve since expanded to 22 boards. I expect there will be more.

I’ll tell you what Pinterest does for me. I love reading magazines. I subscribe to Oprah, Real Simple, and Bon Appetit. I will save magazines for articles, recipes, or organizational ideas. But the house gets full of magazines and scraps of paper, and moisturizer samples and coupons, and blow cards. It gets a little nuts. Now, instead of tearing things out of these magazines, or keeping months of magazines around, I either find the articles or objects of my affection online and pin them on my Pinterest boards. Or I take a photo of the page or item with my iPhone and pin it up that way. Slowly the avalanche of paper is being mined away. Eventually, every thing I admire, desire, or require will be on my Pinterest boards. Gosh sakes. I hope THAT platform doesn’t implode!

How many facets do our personalities have? I’m more than a corporate cube dweller, so Pinterest lets me share more than a LinkedIn account might. I like to write. I like to blog. I am trying to be a triathlete this year, so I have a board for that. There is a board for each of those sports, swimming, running, and riding bike. There’s a board for wishes, obsessions, local events, being a mom, 2012 goals, music, photos, and one I dubbed “For the World’s A$$holes.” It only has one thing on it. I’m picky. I’m no pin ho.

If I pin something and someone else likes it, they can repin or or like it. I cannot tell  you how many times the lemon chicken recipe had been repinned, but it is very popular. I credited WebMD with the recipe, and they republished it on their site again this week. Dudes! They should have just repinned my pin!

When you first join Pinterest, they automatically set you up with accounts that seem to be professional pinners who are really relentless spinners. I unfollowed all of them. Once I read a Mashable article about guys to follow on Pinterest, so I followed a couple of them. If someone overwhelms me with their incessant voo-doos, then I unfollow.

Sometimes when I get tired of looking at FB, Twitter, NYTimes and other media outlets, I check out Pinterest and click on everybody. It is fascinating what people are pinning. Each pin is like a little window on the disco ball of life. Click on it and you get to see something about the pinner, and maybe decide to follow them. Click on it again, and it usually takes you straight to the link of the item or article pinned. I love peaking into someone’s pin. You never know what you will find.

Businesses can use Pinterest to promote their products, philosophies, events, their employees, principals, and customers. Customers who are loyal to certain brands can repin products. Businesses can create incentives for repins. The health, beauty, fashion, and fitness genres are going great guns with Pinterest. I’m not a total fan girl, but when it comes to a product I like, I might repin it. I will admit that my Handsome. Amazing. board is rather fangirlish. My hubs just rolls his eyes. I should probably put him on it. Problem solved.

There are things about Pinterest I have yet to figure out. I know that you can have a Pinterest account and then hide it from the world. If that’s your style, you could keep it to yourself or share it with a select few. You can choose to link it to your other social media accounts. I know that your friends on social media accounts can follow you, one, or all of your boards. If you look at one of your boards and you can see how many followers it has, you cannot click on that number to see who they are. So that’s kinda weird.

Have fun with Pinterest, but maintain a level of professionalism if you are still looking at years of mortgage payments, or will be sending kids to college soon. Think about what you’re doing. Keep your boards positive, bright, honest, fun, and feel free to add an element of goofy. If part of you is goofy, own it!