The world of Pinterest continues to develop at a breakneck speed. This post will be an update that will contain some of the most helpful new features and stylish changes on the website. If you haven’t read any of the previous posts about Pinterest featured on Indies Unlimited please check out the following posts:
This post will assume that you have a profile already set-up and that you understand the basics of the website.
There is a new look available that is sleeker than the old one and increases the size of the pins. Rather than having a long column to the left listing all of your Pinterest interaction, now you simply need to look to the upper right of your profile picture. A red pin box will contain a number that is an activity number. Click on it to see how many times a photo you pinned has been repinned. It will also let you know when you have a new follower. Click on the red script Pinterest centered at the top of the page to go to the home page and see what the people you follow are pinning. Group board invitations and friends from your other social networks who have recently joined Pinterest still list there.
Group boards are a good way to meet other like-minded pinners and gain followers. Once you accept the invitation the board will appear at the bottom of your profile page. If you do not want to see all the activity click on the box to the right of your profile pic and then click on settings. Scroll down and you will be able to turn off the notifications. If you don’t your e-mail will show every time a pinner pins to the group pinboard.
You can put your pinboards in order by hovering over an individual board on your home page, holding down the control bar on your computer, and moving the board. I have a MacBook so your method may vary. I like this ability to organize my pinboards because I have a board featuring Independent authors that I like to be the first one pinners will see when visiting my page.
I love recipe pins and was frustrated in the past by the lack of detailed cooking information. Pinterest also addressed a similar need for additional product information for merchandise and movies. This new feature is called rich pins. Just click on a rich pin that features a recipe, merchandise, or a movie to get better detail. To enable this you need to install meta tags on your website and then apply for the pin to be accepted by the administrators. It appears that only business accounts can utilize this feature at the present. This involves installing a bit of code on my blog, so I am going to attempt this and I will report back on my experience.
Looking for a certain category of pin? Click on the far left box that is red with three horizontal lines. Here you will find the major category listings. Check out the popular pins. These are pins you should be repinning to become part of the action and gain new followers as well as meet creative pinners you want to follow.
Have you ever seen a pin and thought that a friend would love it? Click on the pin and at the top of the photo click on the share button. You can share it on social media or send it via e-mail. This can also be done from a smart phone, but I do not use Pinterest on my iPhone because I am afraid that I will never put my phone down.
The introduction of invisible boards is a potential solution to Pinterest’s goal of maintaining a no-nudity policy similar to Indies Unlimited’s “safe for work” guidelines. The administrator of the board can invite other pinners to pin to the invisible board. This is a more appropriate place for the nude photos and other questionable content.
Obviously, concealing questionable content is not the only use of an invisible pinboard. I used an invisible board to load it with pins before revealing it to the Pinterest public. It is a pet peeve of mine when I see sparse, poorly curated boards. You can see my profile http://pinterest.com/loislewandowski. There is a plethora of beautiful content available to fill out a board of any subject. Other authors have told me that they use the invisible board feature to pin landscapes, character preferences, etc., for a future novel.
I have been investigating the advantages of converting my existing Pinterest account to a business account. There are many companies, consultants, retailers, healthcare providers, etc., who are actively using Pinterest as a visual branding mechanism and to directly sell their product or service. This link http://business.pinterest.com/best-practices/ is worth checking out to see if converting your user profile to a business one makes sense for you.
Would converting to a business account sell books and increase the traffic to my blog, the Culture and Cuisine Club.com? Perhaps. There are statistics available on pin activity beyond the normal amount of likes and repin detail. A business pinner has the ability to use the rich pins mentioned above. I have decided that I am going to do some serious research on what the benefits would be to an author and blogger and then decide what to do. This will be a marketing experiment.
If you have not visited Pinterest yet you are missing out on a opportunity to expand your social media network. I hope to meet you there.
Thanks for the update, Lois. I need to spend more time there.
Pinterest is one of those time investments that I believe will pay off in the long run.
See you there…
Oh, Lois, I haven’t even made a start. After your initial Pinterest article I had all the best of intentions; however, like so many other things on my agenda, I struggle to find the time. I do have all your posts backed up though and I will get down to it before the year is up.
Thank you so much, Lois, for all your diligent work on the subject.
TD, I may harass you until you create a martial arts board that reflects your expertise. 🙂
Lois, you are the Pinterest queen! 🙂 Thanks for the info. I think I stumbled onto one or two of the features you mention (repositioning the order of boards on your, uh, board, for one) on my own, but there are a bunch here that I didn’t know about.
I wear a tiara while I write. 🙂
Pinterest is a great site for expanding your network. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for authors and businesses. And, it’s pretty.
Thanks for this post, Lois! I’ll definitely be checking this out…
Leine needs a board of her own. 🙂
Yep, going to get right onto filling out my sparsely-populated board as soon as I’ve finished completing my Goodreads profile and updating my Amazon author page and linking my Facebook page to my Twitter feed… And I ain’t even started on my blog yet – eeeeek! See y’all sometime next year! (Thank God I’m managing to write some books in between all this stuff.)
Bev,
Give yourself fifteen minutes each day for the next week. Log on to Pinterest, click on the left box (three horizontal lines) and start with some Popular pins. Follow where the pins came from, and pin a couple of pins from those pinners. This builds depth and fills out those boards.
Good luck and have fun!
Hooray, a tutorial. I need to spend some time on these links. I am still at a bit of a loss when trying to figure Pinterest out.
Can anyone tell me how to remove an item pinned to the wrong board?
Never mind. I figured it out.
Hi Kathryn,
Congratulations on adding Pinterest to your social media platform. After you’ve read the tutorials let me know if I can help you.
You said that you figured out how to remove a pin. The edit feature is used on rearranging boards, changing which board a pin is pinned to, and lots of other things.
I move a pin from time to time when I create a board it fits better. I also have pins pinned to several different boards. The best way to do this is click on the little pin it button on the upper left of the pin and add it to the new board. It will not delete it from the original board unless you tell it to.
Good luck. 🙂