Are you on Pinterest?

If so, how do you use it? As the ultimate time suck, spending whole evenings pinning first birthday party décor schemes (even though you don’t have children) and searching for inspirational quotes (because that’s easier than actually getting on with the task you’re dreading)?

Or in a professional capacity, driving traffic to your blog and sales to your funnel?

As you may be able to guess, I don’t use Pinterest for the latter. But some folks, such as Sarah Von Bargen of the Yes and Yes blog, do so with huge success.

I don’t use Pinterest for the former either. Well, not much. I did once end up down a rabbit hole about Turkey Cake (even though I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving).

However, I do use Pinterest a lot – pretty much daily, in fact.

I use it as a pin-board.

It’s hardly revolutionary, I know. The name of the platform suggests that’s what it’s there for.

However I don’t pin a huge amount of content from within Pinterest. The majority of what I add to my boards comes from other websites. In the same way that back in the day, you might have torn an article out of a magazine and literally tacked it to a cork-board, I electronically stick all of the stuff I read and find interesting into Pinterest.

I’m telling you this because It. Has. Changed. My. Life.

No more searching through my browser history trying to find the article I mention to a friend and they are really interested in (I’m sure it was the New York Times. Hmm, may be it was the New Yorker…).

No more unwieldly Internet browser bookmark folders with lists so long that I can’t find anything and filing systems that I forget I’ve introduced.

No more giving up and accepting that the amazing content I find online is then destined to disappear into the ether, never to be seen again.

No more random post-it notes in bags, on fridges and in diaries with scribbled names of books.

Friends, now I can read things and know I have a safe place to store them – a safe place that looks pretty when I go back to it!

The boards may also be of interest to you as I most regularly add links related to my professional interests and the topics that I write about:

Maybe you’re also into ethical and sustainable fashion – or ethical beauty, ethical jewellery, ethical lifestyle

Maybe you also want to know what’s happening in the fashion industry at large

 

Maybe you’re also self-employed

Maybe you’re also a magazine geek or want to learn about the latest news from the magazine publishing world

Maybe you also don’t drink – or are thinking about not drinking

Maybe you also take an interest in mental health advice and experiences

If your work in anyway involves online material, I honestly can’t recommend starting some dedicated Pinterest boards enough.

They’re also a great way to curate content linked to random interests, hobbies or fandom that you have.

For example, I’ve long been obsessed with names and naming practices. As a tween and teen, I’d check baby name dictionaries out of the library and read them cover-to-cover. Now I have a special Pinterest board so rather than just being some random part of my brain, I have a little Names collection going on!

The same applies to all the other topics that I love knowing about for no reason other than curiosity (Jackie Kennedy) or may one day wish to write about (Jane Fonda, soap operas, the royal family and fashion).

What could you start a Pinterest board for?