7 Pinterest Tips and Tricks to Help You Gain Followers

I'm relatively new to Pinterest. I created my account awhile back but didn't start using it until this summer. I confess, the real reason that I became so interested is because I wanted to create a Dancing Groot. Yes, like this:

(The instructions are on Mashable at: DIY Dancing Baby Groot)

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to buy that flower. The price skyrocketed after the gentleman posted his how-to and those ugly flowers have become scarce. 

Instead of creating my Groot, I became a Pinterest nut. I went from having several pins to having over 78,000 in the course of a few short months. (Part of that has been due to the fact that I'm stuck in bed and unable to do much beyond television, books and the internet.)

Some things that I've learned from pinning, repinning, and just paying attention to the people I choose (or choose not) to follow.

1. Categorize your boards. I use groups to keep my account clean. I have titles like "Recipes", "Crafts", "Holidays / Seasons", "Geekery" and "Jewelry" with a hyphen and then the specific name of the board. It really helps with pinning and it helps other people to search through the boards. 

I also used asterisks to keep the boards grouped. Things that didn't belong to a specific category or were random got 2 asterisks. Categorically named boards have one asterisk and the most important boards have 3. I could have used another character but asterisks were simple and clean. (Sometimes I do break my own standards, like with "Recipes" because that started out as a single board and multiplied.)

2. Choose creative names for your boards. Even with using categories, you can come up with clever names to make your boards interesting and to make them stand out from other similar boards. I have told myself that I will not follow any more boards on a particular day only to come across one with a name so awesome that I have to follow it.

When naming, try to be consistent in capitalization. Either use sentence case (only the first letter of the first word is capitalized), upper case (all caps), lower case (no caps) or title case (every word is capitalized except for articles like "a", "an", "the", conjunctions like "and", "but", for", and prepositions like "on", "in", "with"), or even toggle case (random letters are capitalized) but try to make all of your boards the same. The board names are easy to edit so it's very simple to fix any capitalization issues. I have a couple of boards that I purposely chose not to use title case on.

3. Pick a great cover picture for each board. I have chosen my favourite picture from each board to use as the cover but I found a pin detailing how to make your boards organized and cohesive looking: 

How to Make Cute Pinterest Cover Boards. Fantastic board covers have also lured me into following them. (Here are just a few examples of my board covers.)

4. Keep the boards organized on your home page. You might not look at your page that much but other people do. If it's a mess with boards scattered haphazardly around, people might not follow you. The aforementioned categorical naming helps.

5. Try to make sure the pins on your boards link properly. If it turns out that a pin doesn't lead you where it says, do a Google Reverse Image Search to find the real source of the pin and then edit the board to show the correct source. Don't just put the true source in the comments, actually edit the source like so:

Go to "Edit":

And then paste the correct URL under "Source":

Don't forget to save your changes.

I had to edit the source for the pin link mentioned in step 3 and shown above. The original pin only took me to the .jpg file of the pin cover.

6. Make use of Secret Boards and Group Boards. Secret Boards are boards that only you (or others that you also allow) can see. Group Boards are boards where anyone who is invited to can post. You can create Secret Boards that are also Group Boards. Examples of how each type can be used:

• Secret Boards - For gift giving ideas, for pictures of your celebrity crushes (if you don't want everyone else seeing those), for projects that you don't want anyone to know you're working on. Another great use of Secret Boards is when you first create a board and you're pinning a lot of items to it, you can start it out as Secret so you don't clog up your followers' feeds with that one subject. 

* Remember, Secret Boards can become Public Boards but Public Boards can never become Secret. You can get around that by creating a new board that's Secret and repinning (not moving but repinning) all the pins to the Secret Board. However, that is time consuming so it's best to figure out ahead of time if you think you'll ever post anything there that you don't want the general public to view.

• Group Boards - For collaboration and sharing in a public manner. I have a board dedicated to the Myers Briggs Personality Type INFP. Anyone that I've invited can post INFP pins. I've also joined Group Boards dedicated to "DIY For FanGeeks", Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Polymer Clay, and the colour Green.

• Secret Group Boards - I started a Secret Board for my son. When he joined Pinterest, I shared it with him so it became a Secret Group Board. I also share one with my best friend. You can use them for work related things or to plan a surprise party. Gift giving ideas can be shared this way or plans for a vacation.

7. Don't be afraid that you'll mess up. If you overthink your boards and your pins, you'll spend all your time planning and none of your time doing. I have had to rename boards, move pins around, delete boards, etc and I'm still not completely satisfied. 

Bonus Tips: You have the ability to write a description of your page. Write about you and/or the things you love, what you hope to post, what you want to use Pinterest for. Right now mine says that I'm in the midst of cleaning up my boards which I will change in the near future.

You can also write descriptions for each of your boards. I'm slowly going through and adding them to the ones that either need more information or I've found a cute quote/poem for. 

So go out there and make your Pinterest pages and boards beautiful! Please post pictures and any questions you might have. Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest! ♥

Highway Fun

Had to repost this as a blog so I wouldn't lose it through the purging process. Plus several of my friend have not seen it.

I SO WANT TO DO THIS!!! Can you imagine me barreling down I-70 at 75mph with these things chasing me?!

Instructions for a fun time on the interstate...

Step 1. Tie balloons to truck or car.

Step 2. Drive like a bat out of hell....

Step 3. Watch people freak out!!!! :D

Bears

On a military training exercise, the British divisional command radio operators were getting very bored one quiet night, when breaking the silence a voice asked over the air, "Are there any friendly bears listening?" 

After a moment, another voice replied, "Yes, I'm a friendly bear," and then another voice, "I'm a friendly bear too!" 

At this point, the Officer at Headquarters grabbed his microphone and let loose a blistering tirade at the operators for fooling around on a radio link. When he had finished, there was silence for about ten seconds. 

Then a small voice said, "You're not a very friendly bear, are you?"
   

Poogie's Cult

I've decided that I should have a cult. I haven't figured out the rules of the cult yet but I was inspired by 1 of my top 2 favourite video games, Earthbound. In it they have the Happy Happy Village cultists who all wear blue and dance around. I want to have a happy cult like that. None of the creepy stuff. I'll work out the details and let you all know so you can sign up. 

I hope all of you that don't know me yet will understand that this is a cheeky, silly post. =)
   

Redline Radio

As I mentioned in my blog about Diana's birthday (which really should have been written almost a month ago but was, in fact, written yesterday), we saw Sarah Snead at The Hole. It was just a solo performance with one guy (not from the band) to back her up.
  

I have to say right off that I don't like many female rockers. It's not that I have anything against women, I love my fellow women, it's just that many of them get to be whiney in their music and I can't stand whining (think Liam from Oasis although I'm starting to like them better and better). So when I find a women rocker that I adore, I make sure to get her stuff. Think Gwen Stefani and No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom or Amy Lee from Evanescence. Sarah Snead, and now her band Redline Radio, are a part of that group. Sarah is a vocal powerhouse in an adorable shell.
  

Last night Redline Radio was playing at Baker Street Pub right across from where I work. We've even gone there for lunch on more than a few occasions. Diana had to go, of course, since she was there at the beginning and loves Sarah as well. She's even started calling herself a SneadHead (I'm a member too). ;)
  

If you are local in the Denver Metro Area, you MUST go see Redline Radio. They intersperse Sarah's songs (which are fantastic!!!) with covers of other songs. Her range is unbelievable. She can cover Evanescence, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, 4 Non-Blondes, Nina, Journey (YAY!) and so many more bands that I can't even remember. My lame, out of practice blogging skillz don't do her abilities justice which is why I implore you to check out their websites (www.myspace.com/redlineradio, www.myspace.com/sarahsneadlive, and sarahsnead.com/) and then go see them live.
  

Below are some pics and links to videos on YouTube from the night.

Videos:

I Kissed a Girl - Crush Crush Crush - Bring Me to Life - Tag-a-long Girlfriend (Sarah wrote this song herself)

Photos:

Sarah

Ryan

Sarah and Dean

Sarah, Dean and my best friend Diana

Sarah, Dean and Diana again

Sarah and Dean

Sarah dancing

Ryan and Diana

Ryan and Sarah

Dean

Ryan

Business Cards

I haven't even written my blog about the fact that I'm starting my own businesses but I'm posting pics of my business cards ahead of the business blog so my friends can see the cards for themselves. ;) More on the whole business situation later.
  

A Happy Day

Yesterday the monkey and I went downtown to the Denver Arts Festival. There was an artist whose work I found through one of the Facebook sidebar links. Her website is http://www.platris.com/energismpaintings.html. (Her Facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Energy-Artist-Julia/153285945646?ref=ts)

I went there specifically to buy "Path to the Light" but I also picked up "4 Dolphins" and a panda bear pic.

Nick wasn't sure about going downtown for the festival. At first he didn't want to go at all and was being grumpy about it but I've never let him down in terms of a festival or other event and I wasn't going to this time either.

We had a lot of fun wandering around the stalls and watching a Scottish street performer. He swallowed an entire balloon (one of those really long ones that artists twist into shapes) which freaked me out but Nick really loved.

We saw these really awesome giant bunny statues but they were so expensive (one of the ones that was about a foot high was $900 so I didn't date ask the cost of the ones that were taller than me).

Before we had left to go downtown, I told Nick to keep on the lookout for a bunny picture so we could buy that for him. We finally found one that he loved and it was reasonably priced so we picked it up. There was another one that we both really liked from another artist, entitled "Animal Party" but it was just a print and $120 which I couldn't justify.

I also purchased a necklace and had Nick approve it (he has REALLY good taste). I believe they're fake pearls (I didn't ask, I thought it was pretty and wanted it either way) with dark colours like maroon and forest green, silver and mauve.

Anyway, Nick and I walked through most of the festival and then stopped to rest on a bench in the middle of the 16th Street Mall. We were right in front of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and saw their delicious looking caramel apples. A couple of stores down from their shop is the Hard Rock Cafe so I suggested to Nick that we go and have dinner there. He was very amenable to that and I told him that after we had dinner, we'd go back to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and pick up some caramel apples for dessert. I was told, again, that I'm the best mom in the world. ;)

We asked to be seated outside but it soon started raining and we were forced inside. The hostess gave us a nice view of the door though so we were able to watch the rain and the people running to get out of it. The steak and mashed potatoes were delicious and perfectly cooked (they did mess up on the other side but I was too full to eat it anyway) and Nick loved his pasta and sauce.

I had called my parents to ask if they'd want some caramel apples (which I knew they would) and we went back and picked those up for all 4 of us plus some chocolate covered dog bones for their two dogs (they're safe for dogs to eat, the chocolate on them isn't bad for them).

We finished walking around the stalls and that's when we found the necklace and I bought it. Nick was getting cold so we went to TJ Max to find him a hoodie (which they didn't have ANY of!) and he started getting an upset stomach so we ran around and then finally ended up at Jamba Juice once he was taken care of. They messed up my order there too but I was in such a good mood that I didn't care (they just gave me the wrong, smaller, size). After that, we went back and waited for the lightrail. I do love taking that downtown although, on occasion, I get a bit sick from it.

The whole day was wonderful, despite the monkey getting slightly sick (he was better by the time we were at Jamba Juice). He had a blast and is excited for our next festival. I have plans to take him to the Irish Festival, Scottish Festival, Russian Festival and probably the Rennaisance Festival (RenFest).

We *might* be going to Europe in the Fall and if we do, we'll miss one of our favourites, A Taste of Colorado. We missed it last year due to me forgetting my stupid PIN number for my debit card and I wanted to go to it this year but Europe beckons. ;)

So all in all, an almost perfect day and definitely a very happy one.