Pinterest. It feels like one more wave I am missing as many of my friends (some older than me) surf this new social media space with passion and skill. Many have secretly shared with me that they have spent entire evenings wandering through this lovely virtual garden of ideas. I’ll be honest, it took me months to figure out where this secret garden was and how to get in. Once I got in, I have to say, it just looked like a virtual garden mess—weeds, pictures, pins, boards and all. It seemed like just one more social media spot I have to check every morning so I won’t feel like I’m missing something. Will it never end? My Lucky Charms are getting soggy already!
It was the day my friend came into my office, once again sharing with me her joy of Pinterest, that I decided to take my own advice, jump in, experiment and not quit as soon as I became overwhelmed. Since this particular friend is an advanced social media junkie, I asked her to explain. We pulled up the program and she showed me how to create my own Pinterest boards. She showed me her boards and the kinds of things she likes to look for. She showed me how to put the “pin” button on my Internet navigation bar so I can easily “pin” things I like. Then, like a parent pushing a child on a bike with no training wheels for the first time, she shouted “you can do it, Peggy!” and went back to work.
I fooled around for awhile, then found a topic I liked—recipes. I hate cooking and ran out of good recipes years ago so I started wandering around pretty pictures of food. Those pictures brought me to lovely recipe sites. I began pinning recipes I could make the next week. When shopping day came, I just went on my pinterest board and quickly compiled my menu. I also wandered around humor sites and found some great pictures—since visual humor is always easy to share, I pinned a few things that I can put on Facebook later when I don’t have anything particularly fabulous to say. Pinterest; I get it. Am I a Pinterest junkie. No. Can I ride through the garden without training wheels? Oh, yeah.
So here is my advice—it is the same advice I’ve given before. Don’t give up. Take baby steps and keep taking them until you find the loveliness in the tool. Find someone who uses it well and ask them for some pointers. Once we understand the tool, then we can do a better job of choosing what works best for each task. Pinterested? Yes, thank you, I am.
Peggy Kendall 