Are you using Pinterest?
If not, you could be giving up a new outlet for showcasing your writing, whether you’re a freelancer or author, or do other type of writing.
In case you’re not familiar with it, Pinterest is an image-heavy, information sharing website that lets you save, organize and share pictures and links you find elsewhere online in folders called “boards.” You can follow other people – called “pinners” in Pinterest-speak – and “like” or comment on their pins. You can also link your Pinterest account to your Facebook or Twitter accounts. The service is still in closed beta, which means that you need an invitation to join – but invitations are easy to get, anyone who’s already a member can invite you.
Although Pinterest has been around for two years, it’s grown like gangbusters in the last couple quarters, and according to a recent Experian report, recently surpassed Google+ and LinkedIn to become the third largest social network, behind only Facebook and Twitter.
That’s a lot of pins.
More of those pins are being added by writers, who are using Pinterest as a bulletin board to collect ideas, share links to their work and more.
How I Use Pinterest
I’ve been using Pinterest for about a month; here’s what my account looks like. At first I gave myself permission to just play around. I pinned pictures of cute clothes, gorgeous home interiors and yummy looking recipes.
But the more I explored, the more value I saw in using it for work. In recent weeks, I’ve created boards for subjects I write about, including job hunting and careers and technology. I also created a writing board so I could collect ideas for posts for this blog, and a reading list of books I want to read for pleasure or work.
Most recently I created a board for the 2012 WordCount Blogathon. I’m using it to share links to posts about blogging, so I can point bloggers who sign up for this year’s to it if they need inspiration for what to write about, or how to get started. After the event starts on May 1, I’ll be pinning my daily blog posts there too.
How Other Writers Use Pinterest
But enough about me. For the past couple weeks, I’ve also been collecting examples of how other writers are using Pinterest.
Writers are using Pinterest to:
1. Support blogging. Innisfil, Ontario, parenting blogger Allison Rouble uses Pinterest to suport her blog, GenDMom. “I am setting my boards up to reflect my blog, any writing/webpages I am a part of and topics that pertain to my blog,” she writes on Twitter.
2. Drive traffic to a blog. Fellow Portland writer and writing teacher Sarah Moon uses Pinterest to drive traffic to her book blog, Clear Eyes, Full Shelves. “Pinterest is the #2 driver of traffic to my book blog,” Moon writes on Twitter. Moon’s a smart lady: she’s added Pinterest’s Follow button for Websites to her blog posts making it super easy for her readers to pin the posts to their own Pinterest accounts.
3. Help with story development. “For my writing I use it to map out characters and scenes. It’s been really helpful,” Perth, Australia, author Krissy Bradfield shared with me on Twitter.
4. Get inspired. If you’re writing a novel, “Find the house that your main character lives in and put it on a board,” writes Caitlin Muir in 3 Ways Authors Can Use Pinterest Guilt Free on the Author Media blog. “That’s what I do on my Book|Placesboard. There are something about the pictures on the board that speak to me. I know that a scene from one of my stories will fit into those pictures,” she says.
5. Keep tabs on the media business. Davenport, Iowa, journalist Joanne Phillips curates a board called Newspapers on Pinterest, an alphabetically listing of more than 123 papers using the service. You can also follow her Newspapers on Pinterest blog.
Just Getting Started?
If you’re just getting started, consider these Pinterest trends identified in an analysis of 11,000 pinned images that social media scientist Dan Zarrella shared today (April 11). Right now, the most repinnable word on Pinterest is “recipe.” If you’re a food writer, you should be sharing links to your published work and make sure that the word “recipe” is prominently mentioned.
Other takeaways from Zarrella’s analysis: descriptions of about 200 words long are the most repinnable; pins about food are very repinnable, and images about design are the most repinned.
This Mashable post, 7 Useful Pinterest Tools to Supercharge Your Influence, shares links to apps you can use to measure which of your boards and pins are most popular, take a screenshot of an entire web page, convert a block of text into a pinnable images, and more.
You’ll find lots of other Pinterest tips on the weekly #pinchat, which takes place Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific. Today’s chat features Sony Electronics. You can also join the #Pinchat Facebook page to carry on the conversation with fellow pinners throughout the week.
Copyright
One note about Pinterest and copyright: Pinterest isn’t a copyright-free zone. If you’re pinning other people’s stuff, you need to be aware of copyright law. If you’re using a copyrighted image, make sure you’re linking back to the source. It also helps to include the name of the source in whatever description you’re adding to an image that you’re repinning. According to Pinterest’s copyright notice, If copyright holders complain, Pinterest will delete a pin and send the pinner a copyright complaint notice. Get too many notices and you could get kicked off the site.
If you have copyrighted images on your own website, you can install a piece of code that will block people’s ability to pin them. Read these instructions from Pinterest for putting the code on your site.
Using Pinterest?
If you’re using Pinterest in some way, I’d love to know about it. Please share your experience in a comment.
With all the recent articles about Pinterest, I appreciate your writer-centric tips and resources. I also use Pinterest as an additional venue for my copywriting portfolio with all the pins linking directly back to my website. While I can’t speak to results yet, I do like having this additional way to get my freelance work in front of new eyes.
Jesaka:
Thanks for sharing. How do you track traffic coming to your site from Pinterest?
Michelle
So far, Pinterest is showing up as a “referrer” and I’ve also noticed an uptick in hits on specific portfolio pieces on my site. It’s not a lot of traffic, but I’m curious to see where it goes. Thanks again for the interesting post, Michelle.
Jesaka
I appreciate all the good advice, Michelle! I’m going to try some of these techniques out.
Early on, I tried Pinterest as a sort of Evernote for holding source material for stories. Obviously that was dumb because anyone could see what I was working on, which isn’t necessarily desirable.
I find it hard to use Pinterest as a reporter because so many of the things I write about don’t have great images to accompany them. I read a ton of interesting studies, but they have no accompanying picture for pinning.
Having read your post, I’m now going to go back and try Pinterest again. Thanks for sharing! ~Beth
Elizabeth:
I’ve heard rumors that Pinterest will eventually add the ability to keep some (or all) boards private, which would answer your concern about keeping story source material private.
On the image issue, it has made me keenly aware of the need to include an image with every blog post I write, so I have something to pin. However, one of the Pinterest tools in the blog post that I linked to can be used to turn a block of text into an image. I was thinking that I could use that tool to create an image for a post that I didn’t have any other type of art for.
If you use Pinterest let me know, I’ll follow you.
Michelle
i started doing Crossfit in January, and i take an iPhone photo of the day’s workout, which i then pin to my CF board. i note how i did that day. i don’t send them on to FB, although my followers will occasionally see them.
it’s almost like a personalized, easier-to-use Tumblr. it’s more compact, the board sits on my Pinterest home page, and is easy to use. once the primary election is past, i’ll be using it more in conjunction with other blog-related tools.
i love Pinterest. it’s fun & useful, a great combination.
TA: Thanks for sharing that great example.
I’ve also chosen not to link what I pin to my FB or Twitter accounts. I’m afraid I’d turn off my FB friends if I pinned too much. And I already tweet enough, my Twitter followers don’t need to see everything I pin either.
Michelle
I can expand a bit on why I think Pinterest has been so helpful for me (and I apologize in advance for the stream of consciousness here):
With Pinterest, it’s important to state that I’m pretty lucky because “my audience” is pretty active on Pinterest already (namely, women and readers have a lot of crossover with the avid home cooks and crafters that dominate Pinterest). Plus Pinterest comes with the built-in board, “Books Worth Reading,” which helps me a lot.
I think I’ve done well with it also because I’m finding unusual things to pin that aren’t self-promotional, so people’s interest is piqued in the blog as a whole, because I’m trying to tell our story and capture our voice visually with Pinterest. We also write about books that aren’t just the book du jour, so the ones that are promotional probably get people’s attention because they are different that what they’re seeing in their favorite RSS reader–no shock, voracious readers tend to read “all” of the blogs. (Again, the Pinterest activities are a reflection of the content they’ll find on the blog.)
I also made the decision to pin as me (unlike a lot of book bloggers who for one reason or another use only their first names or a pseudonym, I’m out there about who I am–a nice freedom I’m allowed because I’m a freelancer), as opposed to the blog, which helps too because it “feels” more like there’s a real person–and I don’t just pin bookish things.
I’ve noticed that a lot of book blogs have hopped on Pinterest in the last few weeks and their pins don’t feel very human as they’re largely cover “reveals” that everyone and their aunt is also “revealing” at the same time as well as links to their own reviews. Since I pin quotations, interesting things, arty stuff, etc, there’s more value–which fits with the mission of the blog, as we’re trying to be more than your typical book blog (I sure hope we’re successful in that so far!).
What I’m seeing a lot of with my traffic pattern is that people are coming from not just the smallish percentage of my pins that link to my posts, but they’re coming from my Pinterest profile to the blog landing page or from my Clear Eyes, Full Shelves Pinterest Board.
I think I’ve piqued people’s interest in the blog through Pinterest because that’s where they are (and I’ve focused on reaching readers as opposed to other bloggers) and I’ve kept them reading because they’re encountering something new and different when they click through to the site so I see that they come back regularly (I am a stats dork, so I look at a lot of the patterns for individual site visitors). It’s taken a fair bit of experimentation on my part to figure it out. I have a lot of other Pinterest strategies floating around in my head, because I think it’s an interesting medium for a blog like mine and I’m seeing far more success with it than I am with Facebook or even Twitter (though Twitter has been helpful in connecting with industry folks).
Here’s a recent screenshot from my stats program that illustrates how well Pinterest has worked for me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seschloss/6872416198/in/photostream
I really like the Pinterest account author Jenn Bennett set up this week that’s inspired by her Arcadia Bell series (which is loads of fun, by the way, if you like urban fantasy): http://pinterest.com/arcadiabell/ I’d love to see more authors and publishers take an approach like this with Pinterest, because it furthers readers’ interest in their work (most are just promo, promo, promo).
Anyway, I’m happy to share my experience with Pinterest–obviously, your results may differ, particularly if your audience hasn’t hopped onto the platform in great numbers yet.
Sarah: Thanks so much for sharing such detailed observations!
Michelle
I am using Pinterest personally for various interests. However, I am also pinning some of my own photos. I don’t know if it is increasing traffic to my blog but some of the photos have been repinned. One frustration I have is that I would like to add a “Pin It” button to my blog but there doesn’t seem to be a good way to do this on Blogger. I asked a blog challenge I am participating in now for help, and still can’t manage to do it.
Unfortunately, the native Pin It button doesn’t work with Blogger (Blogger has some weird coding that is problematic for interactive buttons like that), but I know a few folks have used these instructions to add the Pin It button to Blogger blogs: http://www.bloggersentral.com/2012/02/add-pinterest-pin-it-button-on-blogger.html (You’ve got to be comfortable editing your template’s html.)
Michelle, your post was a much more detailed and thoughtful example of ways for writers to use Pinterest to their advantage. While I haven’t made that leap yet (I’m still in the playing stage), you’ve given us a lot to think about regarding image-based sharing for word based work. Thanks again for your always thoughtful and thought-provoking posts.
Thanks Laura
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
What a great post! Great actionable tips and examples.
It definitely seems to be the trend to visual, so much easier to consume
Thanks so much for mentioning #PinChat ~ love the community and passion for Pinterest.
Kelly Lieberman @tribe2point0
Founder and Host of #PinChat
Thanks
Kelly: Thanks so much for chiming in. I promise one of these weeks I’ll make it to the #pinchat; meanwhile, I’ve enjoyed monitoring the #pinchat conversations on your FB page.
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
First of all, I have been loving your Pinterest boards. I’ve been repinning you like crazy!
Second, great post! Here’s how I’m experimenting with Pinterest:
– a “Good News” board that I invited journalists I admire to post to. Who knows if they’ll post but at least they’ll see the invite, right?
– a “Most Unwanted Board” for my followers with inappropriate material/images that I feel detract from my professional-friendly Pinterest personality. Pinterest doesn’t have a “block” feature yet, so I thought this might be a good workaround.
– Pinterest helps me keep my blog relevant for people I want to hire me. It offers a better outlet than Twitter or FB for stuff I think is interesting enough to curate, but wasn’t right for my blog. Hence, my favorite board: “Business Loungewear”… which I appreciate your help with Michelle 😉
Interesting to see how other writers are using Pinterest in ways I’d never thing of, thanks for sharing.
BTW, you can report images that you think are inappropriate to Pinterest.
Michelle
Great posts and interesting comments from other writers using Pinterest in different ways. I’ve yet to sign up with Pinterest but I do intend to and this has certainly given me some things to think about while building my profile and looking around.
Just a few days ago I posted a photo of a pineapple plant (my photo) on my blog, then pinned it to my DIY projects on Pinterest. I had 360 page views during the next twelve hours.
The pineapple photo was a prop that I used for a related story. I couldn’t believe how successful it was in redirecting traffic back to my blog.
I agree wholeheartedly with every point you make in your article. It is a fantastic site.
That’s a great example of the power of Pinterest for driving traffic to your website, thanks for sharing.
Michelle
Hi, Michelle! This information on utilizing Pinterest to boost one’s writing is excellent! As a freelancer contemplating a blog, I’ll be pinning this article, and looking for more tips on your blog and Pinterest account.
I have another very helpful tip for writers using Pinterest: be sure to backup your pins, so you don’t risk losing them to hackers or accidents. My company, Pin4Ever, can save a copy of all of your pins, boards, and likes on your own computer. Go to pin4ever.com today to download a free backup of your whole Pinterest account!