Pinterest: To Join Or Not To Join?

47 Replies

While researching which next social media to join, the one that spoke to me was Pinterest. It is a bit of a surprise as until recently, I didn’t think that it would be something up my alley. I read about how it can even be a good platform for writers, so it is worth considering. I’d still need to figure out how to set up boards and things like that, as I don’t want to stretch myself too much.

I was curious to hear from people who are on Pinterest. Do you like it? Is there good socializing happening there? Does it work as a solid source of inspiration? If you are a writer, how does Pinterest influence you and your social media?

I look forward to your comments and I wish you all a great weekend!

Photo Credit: Jeff Sheldon.

Photo Credit: Jeff Sheldon.

47 thoughts on “Pinterest: To Join Or Not To Join?”

  1. Y.I. Washington

    I am on Pinterest, but mainly to look at pictures of fashion and bears. I don’t really use it as a way to communicate with others unless I’m sending them a Pin that we have in common.

    That said, now that you’ve mentioned that you heard it is a good platform builder or authors, I will have to investigate to see how that could be. Maybe by using it as a way to show off book covers and author pics? Now you have my curiosity piqued.

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      The mention of fashion and bears made me giddy. I read how you can use it to give an idea of what inspires you, quotes that makes sense. As with all social media, it is about connecting and not just showing. So, that’s why I am asking for input before possibly taking the leap. The little I have in mind would include a board for book cover/blog series logo, one for quotes, one for anything writing space inspiration. I bet that there might be a few others related to things I imagine about my characters. I am pretty much in brainstorming mode right now! 🙂

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  3. winterbayne

    I use it for my alter ego the non-writer Winter. I put everything on there. It is great to help declutter my favorites and it does provide inspiration. It can also be a major time suck, so I don’t visit too often.

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  4. lizannelloyd

    I use Pinterest to collect old photos of places significant to my family history, for links to my blog, for books I have loved, to save the old postcards of Edwardian actresses I have inherited, for inspiring architecture, homes, gardens etc & cartoons that cheer me up!

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      Thank you for your comment. Reading about how people experience Pinterest is great and goes beyond the uses the platform can have based solely on what I read before. 🙂

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  5. creativityinthebox

    I don’t think it’s a great site for socialising or marketing as a writer, but I do think it’s brilliant as a tool for writing. It’s really useful as a place to collect together research and inspiration, and create story mood boards. They’ve not yet introduced sub-boards, but once they do you could have a board for each of your main characters with visual reminders of hair colour and their clothes and houses etc.

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      Thank you for your comment! I’m still debating whether to join. The whole inspiration board thing might be more for my readers than for myself, but I could find it awesome too. I know I hesitated a long time before joining Tumblr but I love the fannish inspiration I get there.

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  7. somemaid

    I use Pinterest to find inspiration for elements in my books. I have boards for fashions my characters might wear, or tools they use. I have recently started a board for illustrating a new blog series on fears. I also pin things that will be useful in everyday life, ideas for the kids bedroom etc.

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  8. (Mostly) Yummy Mummy

    I love Pinterest although I have to say that it is by far the least ‘social’ of my social media accounts. I use it quite selfishly though as my own online scrapboard. Great for inspiration and creating mood boards I can lose myself on there for hours at a time!

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      Not all my social media are very social but I was thinking about this to create visualization boards for my readers as well, whether regarding the blog or my books. Thank you!

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  9. dmauldin53

    I have been on Pinterest for a couple of years now and am still learning all the avenues it provides. I think it will be great for authors, (I’m still working on my first novel). The only thing I don’t like about Pinterest is that I get so involved with all the information and end up spending hours on the site, when I should have been writing. 🙂

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      Thank you for your comment! The time consuming aspect of social media/Internet can be a bit overwhelming. I hope that if I join Pinterest, I can find a way to make it work like I did with Tumblr. Good luck with your novel!

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  10. somberscribbler

    I love Pinterest. It is great for inspiration and for collecting things. I have boards for writing prompts, resources, recipes and art projects. I know it is also a good resource for blog traffic, although I haven’t been using it properly in that sense.

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  12. LifeAccordingtoMike

    At best, Pinterest is a blogging/writing/craft resource. At worst, colossal time waster, I love looking at pictures and MEMES (even the grammatically disastrous ones) but as a platform for self promotion or artistic expression or even basic communication Pinterest is slow, muddled and ineffectual. It usually hits near the bottom on Klout rankings.
    that being said I pinterest a fair amount, but it’s more like sharing a hobby then a forum. As a writer I make use of as many social media platforms as I can and blend between them.

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  13. NotAPunkRocker

    I mocked Pinterest for so long…then I ran out of room on my phone saving things I liked on different sites to use in later posts or in general.

    Aha!

    It clicked then. I felt like I owed Pinterest a huge apology. I went pin crazy setting up my account but it is much more manageable now. 🙂

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      You and Pinterest reminds me a bit of me with Tumblr. The day I got on Tumblr, I went Tumblr crazy for fannish goodness. Now I handle it much better and it is less time consuming! 🙂

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  14. JF

    I joined Pinterest in October of 2014 and use it to store my favorite photos of members Of Google Photo Community on different boards (people, animals, architecture, etc.).
    Sometimes I use these photos in my posts.

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  16. married2arod

    I avoided Pinterest forever…it was another social media thing to suck more minutes out of my life and I ended up joining and I both love it and regret it lol. It really is a great resource. I get ideas for party favors for all my girls parties and classroom favors (I’m crafty so it’s like a drug) and ideas and tips for photography (I’m an amateur but I recently posted a pic I took for The Daily Post photo challenge and it really came out great. The best thing I use it for is inspiration boards. I write fiction and I pin pictures of characters, settings and character details….but I warn you, it’ll consume you lol.

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      Thank you! I first thought that Pinterest was only for crafty people before I realized that it could be for inspiration generally speaking. Time consuming is what worries me most, but hopefully I can still manage to write in between!

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  18. Gene'O

    It’s a time suck for sure. I’ve not been very successful with interaction or getting followers there, but I don’t use it much. I do think I’ve figured out how to work Pinterest for traffic, though.

    Just blog good images. Set up themed boards that are appropriate for the images (don’t theme them with series titles and such; just for example, I have a board that I use to pin coffee posts sometimes, but that board is called “Coffee and Tea.”)

    If you set it up right and you blog enough images, you can build boards that lead only, or mostly, to your blog.

    But both the images and the boards have to be right for Pinterest for that to work, and I myself don’t have the time to fool around with it at the moment.

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    1. Natacha Guyot Post author

      Thank you for your input! I’m often impressed with how you seem to figure out how to increase traffic on several social media!
      That’s a good point about the board titles. I have several social media that don’t drive that much traffic, if any to the blog, but where I managed to build some interaction bit by bit.
      I also had the idea for a quote board, since I have started making some quote pictures thanks to #BeWow.

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        1. Natacha Guyot Post author

          Finding social media that work for you is important. I’m all for trying new things but I see little interest in sticking to a platform that isn’t practical to me, especially when they are time consuming.

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