How Pinterest-ing

I joined Pinterest in May 2011 (aside – why do all of my social media anniversaries happen in May?) and quickly became addicted to pinning and re-pinning favourite things. I use it primarily as a place to keep recipes or bookmark images or ideas that I my want to call upon later – such as 100 ways to organize a home office (ha ha ha ha) or a lovely necklace on etsy next time Mark asks what I want for my birthday.

I’ve read some analysis lately as to what Pinterest actually tells us about the people using it and what images are shared and re-shared – you should read Bon’s post. It’s funny, but I never really thought of it as much of a social space, compared to Facebook or Twitter, and I haven’t really thought too deeply about it. I feel like I’m reading a magazine and I’m tearing out the page that has a decent looking 30 minute supper, and on another page I find a gorgeous kitchen that I may use for inspiration if we ever renovate ours. And yeah,  you can see my pages, and I can see yours, but I’m thinking of my boards in very selfish terms. And I’m okay with that.

I recently pinned a few of my blog posts, more as an experiment than anything, but I haven’t seen anything come of it. To truly experience the Pinterest traffic increases that people are talking about, you’ve got to be a design or food blogger, primarily. Or have some other practical and visual advice on your blog. Alas I only have my words. I’m okay with that, too.

I find that there are some categories of boards of the people who I follow that I just have to unfollow (I’m glad that you can unfollow individual boards rather than the entire person’s repertoire, if it’s someone that I happen to like). These include nail polish colours (I really have no interest at all in a striped manicure, or a sparkly one, or any, really) and inspirational quotes (please, just stop it). The people that I follow are just that – people, not corporations – and so far, so good, mostly.

I tend to use the most social media while I’m holding the baby, so I’m doing a lot of re-pinning from the app on my iPod lately, and not finding original content to add to my boards. It’s interesting to see what content people share and re-share the most.

Are you on Pinterest? How are you using it?

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