Things I've Noticed

Pinterest has certainly caught on!  The traffic on my pins has increased and I'm getting a few new followers every day.

The main thing I've noticed is that people are no longer signing up with their REAL names.  I remember when this happened on Facebook.  Suddenly there were people with names like Annie Gameplayer, and IM Happy.  Not real people.

Same with Pinterest.  More than half of my new interested people have bizarre names.  We all know that the computer is traceable.  So it really doesn't matter what name you're using, unless you consistently use the computer at the library or an internet cafe.  Who you are is really there, somewhere!

I've also found I have a few International followers!  I love that the pictures are the same, but the comments and board names are often things I can't read and/or understand.  It's fun and I'm all for having International friends on Pinterest!

There are also more men becoming Pinteresting.  The men tend to pin manly things, and I find many of their boards particularly interesting, as I hadn't yet pinned trains, or boats, or sports.  The men that share Pinterest with me also seem to have a great sense of humor.  I get lots of grins following some of these boards.

Mostly I'm happy with where my Pinterest account is going.  When I signed in one day to find they had changed how our boards look I was a bit upset.  They went from being in groups of nine (3 down and 3 across) of the last things you pinned to one big photo with four small photos underneath.  This large picture didn't always represent what you'd just pinned. Only a portion of the pin shows!

This makes looking at other people's boards rather difficult.  You can't get a good idea of what is contained in the board because the photos aren't representative.  My own boards look uninteresting as well.  I always want to repin a photo that represents the board at the end of a pinning session.  However, since I have over 150 boards, this isn't realistic.  On a positive note, you now have to actually click open a board that sounds interesting to see if it really is.  I find I spend more time on other people's Pinterest Pages because I'm afraid I'll miss something wonderful otherwise :)

Pin Pals

 My interest in my Pinterest account is  gaining momentum.  After brooding about the rules, and realizing I was not going to let it scare me off, I got back to it slowly.

I wasn't pinning much, because suddenly everything looked vaguely familiar, and I didn't want lots of repins.  The only way to avoid it is to actually scan your boards.

I'm over 17,000 pins now, on 140 boards.  So, the chance of me repinning something I already pinned is pretty good.  Especially when I realize that I gravitate toward things I like.

So, I went back to my g-mail account and started thinning the list of people following me. (SMILE)  I go to the person's page and look through their boards.  I try to pin a few images and like to follow one or more of their boards.  Quid pro quo.  Often I find that the person is so new that they don't have much to look at.  I smile and move on.  I know their boards will fill up.

Occasionally, I get on the page of someone with similar interests to mine and find myself spending HOURS looking through their pins, and repinning.  One thing leads to another and suddenly I've invented another board!

I've begun thinking in terms of my Pinterest boards.  While we were driving around the countryside last week, I kept looking at the scenery and mentally putting in on one of my boards!  It was fun and pathetic at the same time.

On my mini vacation from work, I've spent the equivalent of an entire day doing Pinterest.  My imagination has been goosed and I keep finding something new to do, or say.  I've begun adding my OWN comment to the pin.  Usually I just pin whatever someone else said, but recently I've begun to realize that saying something is half the fun.

Plus, the e-mails from Pinterest are containing the comments people make about my pins.  I'm embarrassed to find they are commenting about something I didn't even write.  Slap on the wrist.  I'm doing better, making it authentically mine.

Meanwhile, I've created some more boards.  My official count is 146 boards, and 18,522 pins.  The addiction is back!

See the results at www.pinterest.com/pinterest4jan/

Figuring it Out

At first, I didn't know how to see more of the kind of pins I like.  By trial and error, I clicked on one of my pins, it took me to the larger picture and told me who had pinned it.

I clicked on their name and voilà I had access to all these pins and boards.  Then, I found I could do the same thing from a pin I found on these new boards, and another name would appear at the top and I had access to more pins and boards.


Eventually I found I could select "Follow this Board" and the new pins from this board would appear on my pin page.


Within a few days, the kind of pins I wanted to see began to appear with regularity.  Also, I noticed the names of women appearing with regularity.  My followers and the people I followed were becoming a really interesting mix.


Of course, now I want to spend more and more time pinning!  It's a dilemma.