Discovering the Joys and Benefits of Pinning on Pinterest

2012-July-15

tags: benefits of Pinterest, online ventures, Pinterest, social media for business, using Pinterest for business

By Martie Hevia | Blue Beach Song™

Pinterest is not only a great business tool for those of us who have our own businesses or online ventures, but there is also something… joyful about it.

It is joyful collecting and looking at incredibly beautiful photographs of places and spaces, gardens and beaches, arts and crafts, food and fashion, and so much more. You discover and share all kinds of things, from recipes for everyday foods and rare delicacies, to ideas for do-it-yourself projects and solutions for fixing all types of problems. You find inspiration and motivation.

Source: rlv.zcache.com via Martie on Pinterest

Not only can you collect photographs, but you can also collect videos, music, products, and blog posts. Anything you grab from the Internet and post on a “board” is called a “pin.” You organize and group your pins by creating boards. Think in terms of a cork-board and pinning up photos and materials for a project.

Source: rlv.zcache.com via Martie on Pinterest

You can promote your business; you can showcase your products; you can plan a wedding or dinner party; you can prepare for a trip abroad; you can organize your home decoration ideas; you can prepare your Christmas shopping list; or you can just have fun collecting for the sake of collecting.

I couldn’t wait to begin, but I had to wait. Although you can request to be invited to join Pinterest, you still have to wait to be invited via email. The wait was short, however, by the next day I was up and pinning.

Source: rlv.zcache.com via Martie on Pinterest

First and foremost, I was focused on creating boards to help promote my photography and my product designs, all of which are available for sale through my Zazzle Shops. In the description of each pin, I was able to type the link to where a potential client can find and buy the photograph or the product. Later, I discovered that you can also have the price appear on a banner across the corner of the pin by typing the dollar sign with the price in the description of the pin. Very cool.

Source: rlv.zcache.com via Martie on Pinterest

My music, luckily, is posted on SoundCloud and I discovered through them that by copying the URL of each song into the “Add a Pin/Find Images” window, my song’s SoundCloud player became the pin. So, I created one board with all the songs from my first album and another board for my second album. Not only can you play the songs by clicking on the pin, but the link for purchasing the songs on Amazon is also active. Way cool.

Source: soundcloud.com via Martie on Pinterest

Although I had no intention of using Pinterest for purely fun and personal reasons, I have to admit that after creating the boards for my online ventures – my photographs, my product designs and my music – I found myself creating boards to collect pins from fellow-pinners. I couldn’t help it. As I explored what other people were pinning on Pinterest, I found myself mesmerized and inspired by amazing photographs of beautiful places, and great gardens, and brilliant ideas, and creative arts & crafts projects, and incredibly edible recipes, and fabulous home decorating, and… the list is endless!