Pinterest Pointers

By now everyone knows the basics, but there are some tricks to navigating Pinterest that will allow you to "roller skate" when everyone else is walking! We love the "Kid in a Candy Store" feeling we get when we're pinning, finding great recipes, ideas, new products and just plain old inspiration.... but if you aren't careful, you will end up with dozens of boards, hundreds of pins and not use Pinterest to REALLY improve your life. So while you are pinning, take the time to use a few of these tips.

Use keywords in your descriptions. More than "Cute!" or "Great Idea!" I'm guilty too, I do the ♥ on way too many pins. If you use keyword descriptions you can easily find the pin later in the search box. So can others!

Write your own description. Don't ever copy and paste the whole post, instead write the first few ingredients or the first few words of instructions to give someone "heads up" on a really great pin.

Edit your pins. Take the time to occasionally go back to your boards and edit your pins. Let people know if you've tried a recipe or followed a tip. Was it the best Chicken and Dumplings or up there in the Top 10 you've ever had? "Like my Mom's" says something good about a recipe... most of the time : )

Did you know you can Tag people in pins? Simply add the "@" sign to your descriptions to tag someone... @Stephanie H. lets my daughter know the recipe is a keeper!

Don't Pin for hours, space out your pins. If you're pinning a lot of stuff at once, it's kind of like hogging your place in line. Not everyone wants to see a gazillion pairs of "Rockin' Red Shoes" all at once. That also goes for me posting 45 minutes of Desserts... spread it out a bit!

Set a timer. If you find yourself squandering your time on Pinterest (um, yes!), maybe a timer would remind you that there's laundry waiting! It's that "Kid in a Candy Store" feeling that makes us forget that too much of a good thing isn't good at all. This also helps with the flooding the stream problem in #5!

Clean house and organize your boards. If your boards are all over the place and there's no rhyme or reason to your pinning it affects your following. It's all about "eye candy!"

Use "Like" as a holding place. This is a great tip, sometimes you just don't have the time to check out a pin that "looks good." Why not just like it and then go back at a later time to follow through on the link before saving to a board? Great idea!

Follow individual boards to cut to the chase. You don't have to follow ALL the boards that a person posts. Pick and choose the ones you truly are interested in and it will cut down on the immense stream of posts that appear on your feed.

 Be a detective. When you see a pin or a board you like, click on the person it came from... or the the original source that's listed just to the top right of the photo. I've found a lot of good boards to follow that way.

Hop on the "Everthing" page every once in a while. When you log into Pinterest, you'll only see the boards you're following. To find new boards to follow, click on the Everything link at the top of your screen to find new people.

Don't forget to categorize your pins. This will make your pins more easily found and will result in more people following you.

Be a Pioneer Pinner. Don't just repin what others have already pinned, be on the lookout for new pins that no one else has found. If you're like me, you see a lot of good things to post as you bloghop each day. We all do it, we read something good and think about sharing... do it! If you have Google Chrome installed it's as simple as a right click!

Personalize a board for your kids or your GRANDkids. That is probably my biggest board, I am always seeing great ideas for the GRANDS! Fun projects to do when they are here, you know... stuff that boils over or glows in the dark! And the food, fuhgetaboutit! I have enough recipes saved for all of the special occasions we'll celebrate!

Don't overlook the fact that Pinterest is a great way to promote your blog or website. Your images can be pinned (unless you have blocked pins or have a private blog) and anyone who clicks on them will be taken to your site. You can even pin your own stuff. It's allowed and why not, it's no different than pinning our blogs to Facebook or Twitter. Just don't pin ONLY your own stuff. That wouldn't be nice and we want to play nice, don't we? If you do come across an image that's yours and doesn't link back to your site, contact the person and ask them to kindly edit the pin with a link... just send them one to copy and paste! Links often get lost after repinning many times, it's one of the glitches of the Internet.

OK, here's some INSIDE INFORMATION that I didn't know....
Find out what's been pinned that is yours. Type this into your browser: http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com (replacing "yourdomain.com")

Include your domain in your Profile. While it's not a clickable link, you can still include your domain name for reference and association with your site like I did in mine HERE (shameless plug!)

Link your site to your profile. You can make a clickable icon appear in your profile if you include your web address in your Settings. This will put a globe icon directly underneath your bio. Again, see what I mean HERE.

Link your Pinterest account to Facebook and Twitter. You can do this in Settings. When logged in, get to "Settings" by hovering over your name in the top right corner and select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.

Use Pinterest to get the ol' creative juices flowing. This is how I use Pinterest the most. I get inspiration from many of the pins, even the comments on boards. It jogs a memory or makes me realize how much people love to dream big or small, no matter whether we are Living Large or have Lakehouse Love.

What do you love to Pin the most?