Pinterest: The New Chocolate

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Especially popular among women. Enticing to the eye. Addicting as hell. We love it in our kitchens & weddings (and we would put it in our wardrobes, if we could). Pinterest is the new chocolate. What more is there to say? We’re all catching Pinfluenza, and you should too, if you haven’t already.

Why? Because Pinterest is the next big thing, and if you don’t jump on the bandwagon soon, you’ll be left behind with that pinferior cloud of confused men who never understood the power of this social media phenomenon in the first place. So, get pinvolved and follow these tips to increase your pinfluence on the web!

1. Follow, follow, follow. Follow your friends, your favorite bloggers, and companies you like who are using Pinterest to promote their brand. You are your own brand, so get out there and sell it! People are much more likely to follow you if you follow them first.

A few of my fave Pinterest brands: BNDWGN (I pin their posts!), Chobani, SouthWest Airlines & Whole Foods.

2. Post the good stuff. Be sure to post good content. People won’t re-pin or engage with your boards if they aren’t interesting. Some quick tips:

  • Make sure whatever you’re posting actually leads to its source website, especially if it’s food—we want to see the recipes!
  • This goes without saying, but don’t post anything vulgar or inappropriate. Pinterest runs a no-nudity, no-nonsense, show.

3. Post often (but not too often). Generally, the more posts the better! But try not to post like crazy, or you’ll fill up your followers’ home pages and they might get annoyed. If you sit down at your computer and you feel a posting frenzy coming on…

  • Grab a glass of water, a snack, and go to the bathroom. Let’s be honest, this could take a while.
  • Try to pin a variety of pictures to different boards so your followers aren’t receiving a flood of fifteen flower-adorned table settings you’re considering for your dream wedding.

4. Try not to use too many hashtags. Using #too many #hashtags makes the #comment #box look #messy!

5. Download Google Chrome. It’s by far the best browser out there for using Pinterest. Google Chrome offers all sorts of tools that’ll change your Pinterest life. These are just a few of them:

  • Pinterest Pin It (by Shareaholic) – Lets you pin images from any website, straight to your Pinterest boards from the icon in your toolbar. The icon also shows you the “pin count” for each web page you visit (how many times the content has been pinned).
  • Easypinner for Pinterest – Whenever you hover your mouse over an image on the internet, a Pinterest button appears and you can pin it right away.
  • Pin Search – This adds a “Search” button any time you hover over a picture in Pinterest, allowing you to perform a Google Search on that image to see similar pictures & results
  • Pinterest Right Click – With this app, you can right click on any image and immediately pin it to Pinterest
  • Pinterest Image Expander – This expands images on Pinterest when you hover over them, zooming in so you can see the picture more clearly.

6. Start using Pinterest analytics. These sites all help you track your site’s traffic and much, much more: Try Pinreach, Pinpuff, or Pinerly (it’s invite-only, but you can put yourself on the wait-list). I like Pinreach, but I’m also on the wait list for Pinerly, so we’ll see.

7. Try out some Pinterest tools. There are websites specifically designed to enhance your Pinterest page and help you pin better content. Check them out!

  • Pinstamatic – Lets you pin snapshots of websites, songs from Spotify, calendar countdowns, locations, sticky notes & quotes. LOVE IT.
  • Pinwords – Lets you add stylized text to any image to make it even more pin-worthy.
  • PinAlerts – Sets up notification emails for when someone pins something from your website.

8. Add the “Follow Me on Pinterest” button to your blog. It’s easier than you think! For those of you with blogs on WordPress.com, here’s how:

  • Go to: http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ and copy the HTML code of whichever Pinterest button you like best.
  • Go to the Widgets page of your blog’s dashboard (Appearance –>Widgets) and drag the “Text” widget over to your page (I put mine in the “Sidebar Widget Area”).
  • Paste the HTML code in the text box, and “Save.”

Still have some pinquries? (Last Pinterest pun, I promise.) Leave a comment and I’ll be sure to respond!

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