Pinterest-ed?

Another social network I’m “supposed to” do? According to marketing folks, anyway. Okay, I’d seen some of my Facebook friends posting some cool images from the new Pinterest site. I saw people hoping they would be accepted to the site and hoping it wouldn’t take long to be accepted so they could start pinning.

I’m thinking, yeah it might be kinda cool, but … one MORE thing to keep up with?  *sigh*

Hm, okay I caved. I’m a very visual person (wouldn’t be good not to be since I’m an artist of sorts) and the idea of stuff sorted by image was intriguing. I have a plethora of interests. I find it interesting to know what interests others. So thought I’d give it a go and I could always back out if I decided it wasn’t worth the time.

Yikes! I’m hooked! I’ve only started building my boards and I think I have 16 of them already! I did say I have a lot of interests.

It’s also extremely easy to use. Go to pinterest.com, request an invitation, wait for the email giving you access and your own page (it took a few hours for the email to arrive) and go set up your boards! They start you off with suggestions but you can name them as you please and move the boards around on your page. I haven’t found that you can move the pins on each board – that seems to be last-pinned-first-on-the-board, but that’s okay.

To find things to pin, either search the site using the search bar on top left, or install the pin (as they suggest when you sign up) to your favorites bar, and when you’re out browsing and see something you like, click the Pin It link, choose the image you want, and Pin it to the board you already have set up or create a new one right then and there. So, so easy to use! I like easy. I do enough that’s not easy. So that’s a big plus to me for any social network.

You can put your own stuff up there if you’re a writer with published books – pin your book covers! – or a crafter, painter, etc. They do have to be posted somewhere online first, but a blog works. I grabbed some of my images from my travel blogs for my Places I’ve Been board. (It’s very scant at the moment, but I’ll add to it now and then to catch up with my places.)

They do ask that you don’t go there only to promo your own stuff. Be a courteous networker. Show people your personal interests. Show off stuff you like that other people do. But by all means, add your own stuff, also.

I have a board for each of my books. I absolutely love that I can add images from the story with my book cover – kind of a visual poster board of what each book is about. Very cool.

Here’s the one for Finishing Touches so far:
I have images of art, mothering, Peoria, Chicago, riverboats, the Glen Oak zoo, even the architecture cruise mentioned in the book.

By the way, Finishing Touches is still currently a free read in ebook version. Find it on Smashwords, BN.com, and many other ebook sites (for kindle, you’ll have to download from Smashwords in mobi format). Note: when you search for my books under my name, don’t put punctuation in the LK. It’s just LK Hunsaker (like EE Cummings). Some places do have it listed with the punctuation so try that if the correct way doesn’t work. I’m trying to get them all correct on every venue.

Oh, as you pin each image, or after you pin it, you can edit the description to tell what it is or why you like it or where it was taken or such. Then people can comment on it, like it so it shows on their like page, or repin it on one of their boards.

The image up top is of two of my interest boards as they currently stand. If you want to see my interests by image, go check out my new and developing page!

And let me know if you’re already there so I can go look.

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Technorati Tags: pinterest,art,books,music,images,writing,Finishing Touches

Of course I also