My Pinterest Experiment (Part II)

As part of a recent Highlights Foundation Workshop I attended, Alison Myers offered to do a "social media critique" for each participant. Because I was already blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking, Alison suggested I try Pinterest.

Initially I set up Pinterest boards that focused solely on my book. Most of the material I put on the  boards came from either my website or my blog. Alison writes, "That is a time savvy move." But then she says, "Remember Pinterest is a SOCIAL networking site so you need to reach your tentacles out into other boards that will draw folks to your boards. Meaning you visit similar author's boards and 'repin' their work." Aha! It works much like Twitter and Facebook. I need to make friends.

I was surprised by all of the historical pictures on Pinterest. It's an excellent resource for visual research. Because my book deals with tuberculosis, I typed that word into the search function. Lots and lots of pictures popped up of sanatoriums, advertisements, medicines, x-rays. In the future, I will be adding Pinterest to my research arsenal.

Alison says you can use an aggregator to automatically notify your Twitter and Facebook accounts when you pin something new. I haven't looked into that function yet, but I plan to.

As a teacher, Alison says she uses Pinterest for "inspirational ideas and visual content" to share with her students. She recommends that I focus my Pinterest strategy on becoming a resource for teachers. Alison writes, "Imagine that you are a teacher getting ready to teach a unit on the spread of tuberculosis in the 1920's. You visit Pinterest and find a board with photos and facts. The board is found on Shannon Hitchcock's page, which also happens to have a book...that you can purchase...and an author who will give a Skype visit about her research! Now that is something to sink your teeth into." Indeed it is. I have my work cut out for me.

You can visit my Pinterest boards here:

If you have experience using Pinterest, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment and let's discuss.