Have you discovered Pinterest Yet?

 

For those of you who haven’t discovered Pinterest, you are missing out on a valuable marketing tool and social media platform.  You are also missing out on some fun, but beware, once you start pinning – it’s hard to stop. 

Pinterest is simply a tool that anyone can use to keep or ‘pin’ items onto various personal boards.  You can pin pictures, web links, recipes, pretty much anything you can find online – you can pin it, just like you would pin something onto your own personal bulletin board.  I like to think of Pinterest as a virtual scrapbook.  The most fun part of Pinterest is that there is no limit to the types of things you can pin.  Pinterest will give you some ideas to start, but virtually any topic of interest can become a personal board. 

 

 

Getting started with Pinterest is easy enough, and once you get started you will not want to stop.  There are two basic choices when it comes to adding to your Pinterest boards.  You can go search the internet or upload your own items to pin, or you can follow what other people choose to pin and then simply click and re-pin that item to one of your boards.  This is where Pinterest has the most potential for book sales and marketing.  If you build a long list of pinners who follow your board and then decide to re-pin your book, and their followers also re-pin your book, the reach can be incredible.  Just like other social media – it takes some time and practice to build up your boards and your following.   Another great bonus, when you go on the Pinterest site, there is a live stream of items that are being pinned by strangers, so your pin may be viewed by hundreds or even thousands of potential followers. 

A key factor in the success of using Pinterest is making sure you have eye catching visuals, you have to get the attention of your reader if you want them to re-pin your post. 

I have created a Pinterest board appropriately titled “Becoming a Writer” where I share not only links to my blog posts, but loads of other helpful blog articles, images and tools for fellow aspiring writers.  I have built up a following of over 200 followers.  That number grows every day.

If you want to go check out my pins just click http://www.pinterest.com/azlaurie/

As I work toward increasing the reach of my blog and building a solid base of readership, Pinterest is another excellent tool that can help me work toward my goals. 

If you would like to read more about it, a great article with step by step instructions on how to use Pinterest can be found at http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/852875/pinterest-what-it-is-how-to-use-it-and-why-youll-be-addicted