Join Us On Pinterest!

We now have an account on Pinterest (thunderous applause) and we would love for you to follow us! (Okay, so we are begging...) Plus, please tell all your writing friends and reading friends that we are now on Pinterest, too. Click here to follow us.

If you haven't clicked on the link yet and you are still wondering: why do I need to follow WOW! on Pinterest? Then I'll tell you. . .

• Boards full of writing tips and inspiration
• Individual boards for fiction writers, nonfiction writers, YA/children's writers, and memoir writers
• A board highlighting our wonderful blog posts
• One-spot "shopping" for articles, blog posts, and memes that can help you find an agent, edit your manuscript or market your book
• Information on writing contests and publication opportunities

So...if you still aren't convinced, then I'll tell you how I've come around to Pinterest, which like all social media can be overwhelming and time consuming.

It is all about being choosy when you pin. Let's say, you are a fiction writer. Then you should follow our fiction board. Maybe you also want general writing tips and inspiration, so you follow that too. But you don't have to follow all boards, if that seems overwhelming. 

On your own Pinterest account, you would have a writing board (or maybe more than one depending on how you want to organize your pins). On this board, only pin things that you think will help you in your career. I think this is where the problem with Pinterest lies. People get PIN happy. They pin recipes they will never use. They pin every cute shirt they see. They pin an article on memoir writing because it's interesting, but they have no plans to ever write a memoir. Then what happens is when they are looking for the fiction article they pinned, they can't find it because the board is full of posts/articles that were interesting, but they will never use. 

So as a Pinterest user, ask yourself: why am I on Pinterest? What kinds of information will help me accomplish my goals? Maybe you have answers, such as: I want to remember different ways to begin a novel. I want help finding an agent. I want inspirational articles and memes for when I'm feeling down as a writer. Asking yourself this and then organizing your boards and following other writers who pin this type of stuff will help you. The purpose of Pinterest is to save and organize things you see on the web or your friends see on the web, so you can refer to it later and use it again and again. 

So...don't forget to follow us or at least some of our boards on Pinterest...and let us help you organize useful information for your writing career! 

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2 comments Margo L. Dill, pinterest, Pinterest for writers, social media

How do you get readers to click that link?

Most of you have probably spent time crafting a Facebook post on a business page to look at the stats a few hours later and think: "Did anyone even see this?" Then you check out your site and realize no visitors came from Facebook after the update went live. You feel frustrated, and you're not alone.

Tweeting with a link may help your site get indexed by Google.

So how do you get your followers to leave the social media site and check out yours? That's what I'm talking about over at RealMatch.com in the post, "From Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to Your Publication: Getting Readers to Click That Link." So hop on over there and share your thoughts! We'd love to hear how you get readers to click that link.

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Leave a Comment Facebook, pinterest, RealMatch, social media engagement, social media promotion, twitter

Using Pinterest To Your Advantage

I like Pinterest. I like it so much that:

1. My husband told me I was online too much and had accumulated too much stuff for Pinterest projects I "promise I will get to, one of these days" and
2. Received a notice from the website that I am one of the top pinners. (I bet they say that to every user. ;) )

Until recently, I didn't think I was using Pinterest to my advantage as a writer. After Facebook posting articles and sharing links via Twitter, in addition to engaging with readers, it's tough to find time for one more social media account that showcases my writing talents.

But then, I began posting some of my writing on one of my Pinterest boards. A few of them have been pinned and repinned and repinned and repi---, well, you get the point.

Why do some posts tend to make a bigger splash than others? I wish I knew the truth here, but I'm going to take a guess:

1. The pinned article helps someone. Perhaps the information helps a reader/pinner solve a problem. Pin and repin.
2. The pinned article contains precise information. It's direct and to the point.
3. The pinned article tells a clear story. No fluff, just facts (and preferably, facts that can be used).
4. The pinned article posts during a targeted time. Predict when highest number of potential pinners/readers will be online. Compare it to Facebook pages, where you get data about the number of friends reached. Pinterest works in a similar fashion, so select key times to draw in pinners and readers.

If you want to use Pinterest to connect with your audience and create potential readers, these pin guidelines may help you increase your readership.

And isn't that the ultimate goal?

Do you have a Pinterest strategy? Share how you make it work for you. 

by LuAnn Schindler

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2 comments LuAnn Schindler, pinterest, Pinterest for writers

How Writers Can Use Pinterest

Way back in March, I wrote a post about Pinterest.  At that time, I had been contemplating using it to save images to use in my research.  Given potential copyright issues, I decided it just wasn’t worth the bother.

That was then.  This is now.

I still don’t use Pinterest to save images found while researching various writing projects.  Instead, I use it to pick new topics.  After these projects are published, I use Pinterest to attract new readers.

Research

If you aren’t familiar with Pinterest, members visit this site to do image searches on anything that interests them.  There are categories for Animals, History and Science and Nature.  You can also do keyword searches.

When I am researching new topics, I click on “Popular.”  Granted, this isn’t as focused as a search on Photography or Weddings, but it does tell me what people are Pinning (this is the Pinterest term for copying an image to your own page, called a Board).

One of my primary writing gigs is for Education.com.  If I click on Popular and see numerous pins that involve initials or various words or blocks of text used in craft activities, I brainstorm something along these lines for grader school students.  The same goes for string art, polymer clay and food served in ice cream cones.

Pinning Down New Readers

Once Education.com publishes my activities, I Pin the images back to my own boards.  I have a board for Activities and Crafts and another for Science Projects.  Because I took the photos and link back to Education.com, with their permission, there aren’t any issues with who owns what and thus no copyright hang ups.  And, if someone repins an image to their own board, that’s more traffic driven our way.

I don’t stop there.  I’ve been taking a lot of nature photos to use in my blog posts about writing.  A board labeled, obviously enough, Nature Photos links back to my personal blog.  Another board, What I’ve Been Reading, links back to either my book review blog or my personal writing blog.  On days someone repins one of my photos, I see a bump up in traffic.

What if you don’t write book reviews or crafts?  Then think about what you do write.  If you write fiction, where is your novel set?  If it is a real place, and it is someplace that you visited and took research photos, then put up a board.

Maybe you took scads of photos of clothing and furniture so that you’d be certain to get period details right.  Create a board.

Food.  Animals. Health and Fitness.  Geek.  All of these and more are categories on Pinterest. Not that this has to limit you in any way.  After all, people can find you with a keyword search.

Get out your camera.  Brainstorm about your book and start promoting yourself.

–SueBE

Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writers's Journey.

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8 comments copyright, marketing, photography, pinterest, self promotion

Pinterest: The Good, the Bad, and the Undecided

Not long ago, a writing buddy told me about using Pinterest in her writing. She is doing the research for a steampunk novel and was sick of finding the perfect brass-clad do-dad only to lose it again in the vastness of cyberspace. Enter Pinterest.

On Pinterest, you create one or more boards. Each board holds a variety of images. Find an image that you like online and save it to your board along with the URL and you have it “pinned.” The image itself forms a visual link back to the original site.

As a highly visual writer, this clicked with me. Some time ago, I was researching a new character. This character had to have a specific look and I needed to have it down pat before I could write about him. Why? Because he lies about who he is and, suspecting this, my main character is judging him literally based on face value. I never found a model with just the right look, but I found a number that were close. Unfortunately, even with my links, re-finding many of these images proved impossible.

With Pinterest, problem solved. Or so I thought.

The first problem came when I tried to sign up. This isn’t like Facebook or Google Calendar where you simply register. With Pinterest, you have to request and then wait for an invitation. I was ready to research my next project NOW.

While I was waiting for this invite, I did some blog reading and found some warnings about using Pinterest. Apparently there are some copyright concerns. If I pin an image and the person didn’t have a Pin among their share icons, I have taken away their control of the image. It they are a photographer or artist, this can be a really big deal.

But Pinterest has a definite upside–its ability to drive traffic. According to this article, Pinterest drives more traffic than even Twitter. If I can find a way to use it to drive traffic to my site and/or blog, this would be amazing.

But that’s not how I want to use Pinterest. Not right now, anyway.

For now, instead of creating Pinterest Boards for visual inspiration as I research a new project, I’m going to start creating collages in Adobe Illustrator. As visual research, this will work just as well for me and that is my primary concern. For socialization, I’ve always got Facebook.

--SueBE

Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.

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7 comments copyright, pinterest, visual research