“Oh, no!” I hear you say. “Not another form of social media to soak up my writing time.”
To be honest that’s what I thought when I first heard about Pinterest, and I turned my back and walked away.
Then, I started to see posts about Pinterest in my blog feeds. I read them. “Okay,” I thought. Maybe this Pinterest would be helpful with the new series I’m percolating in my head. I read the Pinterest posts again and requested an invitation.
Here are some of the articles I found useful:
Pinterest, oh, the potential by Nicole M Miller
A Few More Thoughts on Pinterest by Nicole M Miller
3 Ways Authors Can Use Pinterest Guilt Free by Caitlin Muir at Author Media
Pinterest: 13 Things Authors Should Know by Rachelle Gardner, agent
My experience with Pinterest:
1. The actual joining was very easy. During the sign up stage you tick the subjects you’re interested in and Pinterest automatically sets you up with people (friends) who have common interests.
2. I haven’t bothered searching out people to friend since my main purpose in joining Pinterest is to use it as a source of inspiration while I’m percolating new stories.
3. I set up boards for the heroines in my new series, and it has really helped me to think about facets of their characters.
4. I also set up a board for my blog, and it occurred to me that I could do a board for my latest release, Cat Burglar in Training. This is something of a work in progress, but I added a link for the board to my book page as an added extra for readers. Cat Burglar in Training Pinterest board. I included images of elements from the book ranging from ball gowns, cars and jewels to peanut butter. The purpose of these boards is to hopefully direct traffic.
5. I was so pleased with the Cat Burglar in Training board that I also started one for my Middlemarch Mates series.
Here’s the link to all my boards if you’d like to check them out: Shelley Munro’s boards.
What are your thoughts about Pinterest? Have you succumbed? If so, how are you using Pinterest? Is it for writing purposes?
I have seen it, heard friends talking about it and even clicked on the occasional link. But I have no inclination about joining yet another social media type site. Time is slipping away all day long because of all the sites I already check…lol
That’s what I thought too, Mary, but I might spend five or ten minutes a week whenever the urge strikes me. From a writing point of view it’s been very inspirational and helpful.
I admit that I joined with the same idea to do storyboards. I changed my mind and deleted my account. My sister loved Pinterest and is addicted. I have too many fun addictions at the moment. I’m going to check out your boards.
I haven’t been playing with it for long, but I don’t spend much time. I think that’s the beauty of it. There’s no pressure. I do it for me :)
Now your boards make me want to rejoin. Argh!!
I love Pinterest but I haven’t had time to do anything with it. I sign-up and put up a few pics but I need to get back to it. I actually like it better than FB. I’m just saying.
I like it much better than Facebook and Twitter too. Just saying :)
I love what you’ve done with your Pinterest account. Have you started tracking your visitors with Google Analytics? That will help you figure out it it’s a great time investment.
Keep pinning and keep writing! I”m glad to have helped. :)
That’s a great idea, Caitlin. Thanks both for your great post and for stopping by.
I love Pinterest, but I’ve seen several warnings recently about the copyright infringement aspect. I’ve been pirated, so I don’t want to be part of doing that to somebody else.
Have to admit I’m kind of addicted though. I’ll check out your boards.
Yes, that’s a good point. Pinning pictures from the source is important.
Thank you for listing my blogs, Shelly!
I’ve found that my blog traffic nearly doubled since I began pinning my blogs and images to Pinterest. I’d love to hear if anyone had similar results!
Thanks again! Great blog post and I hope you enjoy pinning!
Nicole, that’s really interesting. It’s early days for me yet. Thanks for stopping by.
It’s interesting. A grilfriend of mind introduced me to Pinterest one evening we were chilling out and drinking wine, having our own little “mom’s freedom” time. So I didn’t think of Pitnerest as a writing tool at all…until all the articles started popping up everywheren emphasizing it’s usefulness. I still don’t see it as a social media tool, but it does provide some great stuff for inspiration and creativity and the occasional tasty recipe to try as well :-)
Angela, it’s very subtle promo – the soft sell, if you will. I use it for mainly inspiration at this stage. I’ve never cut out pix etc or searched out images to help me plot, so this feeling is shiny and new.
I love Pinterest because it is easy to use and you can make boards with all the things that you like..
I like its flexibility, Savannah. That’s the great thing about Pinterest.
Have seen it mentioned here and there, but have not joined myself. Your historical board looks interesting!
Thanks, Heather. I like the fun factor.
I’m interested in it, but if I add one more social network, it’ll probably kill me. LOL.
That is such a great idea to create a pinboard for your characters. I’ve been putting up covers of books I like, but that’s about it so far.
Thanks. I find it quite relaxing :)