Category Archives: Pinterest

Dear Martha, (Updated)

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Dear Martha,

We all know my “thing” with you started a long time ago.  Before the internet explosion I sifted through your magazines with a fine sieve to get all the nuggets of beauty out of it.  I cataloged the ideas in my head and used PostIts on the pages for reference.

And then you came out with the Index and it became my most prized possession.

Once you started an online presence, I was thrilled.  This was about 13 years ago?  There was a forum section where people would discuss topics.   I joined the forums with the name TheNextMartha.    Many years later, I would join twitter with that same name.

And now, your internet presence is enormous.

Your site has grown to be a huge resource.

You have your own apps.

You have spun off many sites including the craft department, editors, and countless other “faux Martha’s” sites like my own.

And in some ways this makes it easier for people like me to find you. (Well, that sounded a little stalker)  It also makes it somewhat harder to KEEP UP with you.

Though, let’s be honest, you sleep 4 hours a night, that’s going be hard to keep up with no matter who you are.

::pours half gallons sized cup of coffee::

So what’s my point here.

I’m a fan of yours.  A big fan.  I admire your empire.   I feel like I live in it on a daily basis in my own little way.

I was up last night at 10:30 making ice cream sandwiches for my kids today.  That’s something you would do right?

I am very project oriented and tend to get caught up doing/creating and maybe not taking the time to see.

Do you ever get like that?

I just wrote a piece on Pinterest recently and decided that I wanted to find some new inspiration to follow on there.  I decided that you probably follow some fantastic pinners so I went to your profile.

(Though I’m not going to tell you what you should or should not do, you might want to think about linking your facebook fan page and your twitter to your profile)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMYGOSH…..WHOA….WOW!

I’m not going lie when I say that I had to scroll up and down 3 times to make sure I saw what I saw.

Once upon a time you followed me on twitter.  There’s a story to that.  But as flattering as it is, I don’t fool myself to think that you actually read my tweets.  Though, I say some funny stuff, so you might want to think about it.

But this makes me think that someone somewhere in your organization is watching, maybe reading, and hopefully laughing.

So, whoever you are?  Hi, and who do I talk to about a new hot glue gun?

__________________________________________

P.S.  I’m still available to get together in NY at blogher.  Or any time between Aug 1st and 5th.    Whatever works for you.

P.P.S  Just as I finished that last sentence the song “Call Me Maybe” came on my ipod.  SWEAR TO GLITTER.

P.P.P.S  If that’s not a sign?  I don’t know what is.

 

 

Pinterest Tips for the Serious User

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It’s no secret that I am a pretty serious Pinterest user.  I was an early adopter and have been on the site for about a year.

Or maybe over a year.

Who can remember 1,833 pins and 72 boards ago?

Despite all the controversy around ownership, I continue to use it because frankly, I’m addicted.

Pinterest has grown quickly and has become pretty main stream.  Even my son’s preschool teacher asked if I got my teacher gift idea off Pinterest.  I didn’t, but don’t think I didn’t pin it there.

But many people are casual pinners and I don’t fault them for not wasting hours of their lives living in pretty land.

Of course, they’re missing out on those homemade cupcake liners, but that’s their loss, my pin.

::Adds to Cupcake Board::

Some people are more serious users.  I love to find fellow addicts to follow.    As I look over profiles, I find some of the same “mistakes” being made over and over.

So let’s get your Pinterest shined up, Martha style.

The Profile

-For the love of social media, please have your Facebook page, twitter, and website linked to your profile page.  Your Pinterest boards may not be enough for me.  I want full coverage.   You don’t know how often I come across a page and I know that person has a blog and it’s not linked up to their profile.  **update since first posted> also verify your site on Pinterest as well.  There are instructions on how to do this through pinterest and it’s supposed to increase your searchability.

 

-Have an avatar that is the same as one of your other social media outlets.  A lot of people have their Pinterest names as their actual names.  For the most part?  I have no idea who you people are. My Pinterest avatar is the same as my twitter.

-Put a short bio up.  It’s really your only chance to write about yourself. If I changed mine I might say “The Martha Stewart editors follow my boards so you should too.”    Or “You can’t handle my pins”

The Boards

This part is going to kill me because I actually have to mess up my boards to show my point.   Or find my example in someone else’s boards which won’t be hard because they’re “wrong” everywhere.

When you’re looking at your profile all your boards are presented with a board “cover.”  This is sort of like the front cover of a book.  And a lot of people have ugly covers going on.  It drives me nuts.   I will NOT follow someone if their covers are just a mess.

See that?  That is what I see more often than not.   Even with way more popular pinners than me.

You can use any image in that board to create the cover.  Pick the most visually appealing one for the cover.  When you “set to cover” it allows you some movement of that image.  Make sure you get the MOST flattering angle for that image on the cover.  It may be the best idea in that board but not the best image.  You are trying to “sell” that book on its cover.  Choose wisely.

This is the same set of boards as above but with other images selected as the cover and “set.

 

 

 

If you start a new board?  You will need to set a cover.  If you don’t, whatever you pinned last will be the default cover and it’s usually not centered or adjusted to that frame making for a book that won’t sell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Board Overload

I can’t tell you how many times I see a user with the following board’s titles:

Food

Décor

Crafts

Fashion

And each of those boards has 245 pins in it.In my opinion this is defeating the purpose of Pinterest.  When I want to find that one French toast item, I don’t want to scroll through salads, appetizers and cupcakes to find it.I think a good rule of thumb is that once you have 100 pins in a board and have at least 10 pins in there of the same topic, break them out to their own board.

 I have 10 different food related boards.

Board Order

When you start a new board, Pinterest automatically puts it at the bottom of all your boards.   I like my boards to flow together.  To tell a story.

When you go to break out a set of pins, that board gets placed at the bottom of all your boards.  It really should just be next to the board you just broke them out from.

This is an example of a messed up board order.

(which I had to do to my boards and almost hyperventilated doing it)


I have a hard time “reading” your boards when they are not in an order that makes sense.

 

 

 

These are my boards placed an order that I think works.

 

 

Until recently, I had the 4th of July board as the first board.  I usually reserve the first board positions for current events.  That could be a holiday, or as in my case now, I have seasonal (summer, gardening) boards in the first row.  Once a holiday is about a month out, I will take those related boards and place them in the first row positions and take the boards that were in 1st position and place them back into their order on the boards page.

I know you just read that and thought “You are officially nuts”

Yes ma’am and can I have another.

Pins

-Please make sure that whatever you pin or repin goes back to the original source.  It’s just decent internet usage.

-Please check pin for spam.  I’ve clicked a “Tuscan sandwich” pin to the source only to find it connects to a site that claims “Your cellulite can be gone by eating these ice cream sandwiches”

-Don’t pin the ugly.  I have seen the greatest ideas or delicious foods that just have terrible images.  It hurts a little but I won’t pin it.  I have high pin standards.  If I really want to pin a less desirable image, I wait until late at night when no one is looking.

-Don’t put the instructions of whatever the pin is in the comments.  That’s just annoying.

-Don’t  facebook and tweet every pin.  It becomes spam in peoples feeds.  When it’s extra fantastic, please share those.

I hope you learned something.  If not?  Leave me your Pinterest link because your boards are worth following.

_____________

Pinterest posts I’ve written

 

Update: My tips must have worked because this happened. 

My Pinterest Predictions

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This may or may not be new information to you.

Pinterest is the best and most addictive site ever!

Really.

I’ve mentioned it; you’ve mentioned it, and now?

Mainstream is catching up to us.

Months ago I made the prediction that Pinterest is going to be the next big way for bloggers to work with corporations.

I talked at length about this to a family member as well as Melisa.

And now?

It’s coming true.

I say this is only the beginning.

How will Pinterest connect companies and bloggers?

It’s all about advertising and influence.

We all know that Pinterest is highly photographic.  We “pin” items based on how they look, work, wants, desires, or how they make us feel.

Companies already put a lot into marketing products to hit a number of these “triggers”.  A large part of their marketing is through photography placed into ads.  There is a risk (even if small) of paper media becoming extinct.  Many catalogs and traditional paper outlets are rushing to get their media on apps that can be downloaded onto iPads and other tablet forms.

With mainstream media adding digital to their foundation, Pinterest becomes a major player in the game of advertising.

Pinterest allows these online versions of their advertising to go FARTHER than just that reader.

 

For example: say I read an online version of the Real Simple magazine.  I see this great piece on organizing my pantry.  I then decided to “pin” this story and place it onto my organization “board.”   I’ve now just shared this with over 1000 MORE people. 

Not only that, a certain percent of the people following my board will then “repin” this story on their own boards.  This is then distributes it to THEIR followers.  An item being “pinned” 500 times is actually:

(500 pins)  X (number of followers of each of those pinners) = Total Views of that pin.

Even if each of the 500 has only 5 non connected people it = 2,500 MORE views of that item.

And just because an item wasn’t pinned, doesn’t mean it wasn’t seen.

This my friends?

Is the beauty of social media.

Stuff can travel and be shared quickly.

The next thing you know this article is getting a lot more traffic and it’s even possible that the items shown in this article will be purchased by more people.

So what.   That’s great for the companies involved you say.

But wait.  This is where early adopters and successful users of Pinterest come in.

Many sites have tried to quantify ones online influence.

Klout and Empire Avenue are just a few of those.

Whether you like them or hate them, they exist.

As far as I know, there is NO program being used to quantify a “Pinners” influence:

The amount of views a specific pinner gets on a pinned item, the amount of times an item gets repined.

Pinfluence, if you will.  (Oh, you know I should make like 1.5 mil for that right?)

Anyways.

Once someone DOES figure that out, it will start.

Real Simple will then be able to see who has the top Pinfluence or Pin Power for their articles and/or products.  They might then hire them as “Product Pinners.”

This here friends, in lies the opportunity.

If you really think about it?  It’s genius.

Oh, and you companies interested in this?

Call me.

Oh, and follow me on Pinterest.

(Side note:  As far as I know I have originally used the word “Pinfluence” and totally created the “Product Pinners” title.  I have not been paid or hired by any company name used in this but should be.  Obviously.)

(Update, so I decided to google “Pinfluence.”   You know, research 101.  Though it does come up in a few ways, not in the way that I intended here as defined as “One having influence in Pinterest.”  So there.  )