Pin It!

One of the perils of a social media-centric work life* is a digital life littered with accounts on channels that didn’t make it. I spent part of my holiday staycation deleting some of these, while also getting started on Pinterest, a new(ish) site that’s getting a lot of buzz right now.

Pinterest is, basically, a virtual pinboard where users collect pretty pictures of interesting things. I’m not gonna lie, when I first heard about it I thought it sounded kind of dumb. (This despite using my cube walls at work as an actual pinboard of notes, comics, pictures, and the like.) But, after just a week or so of poking around – and sticking mostly to food and travel – it’s kind of fun. You can follow friends/acquaintances/random people and see the things they pin, or you can look at general boards that are full of… I don’t know… jillions of pictures. So far, I’ve been using it mostly to find recipes – and I even made one, Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili,** this weekend. Jury’s still out on how I can best use it for work purposes, but there are so many pretty pictures of buildings, I am sure there’s some opportunity there.

Right now, it’s still an invitation-only site, but it appears as though I am able to invite anyone I want, so let me know in the comments if you want one. Oh, and if you’re on it already, please follow me!

Oh, and Mashable has a handy guide that explains things better than I do.

My Pinterest chili.

***

* Officially now, by the way. The social media thing is now no longer just a sideline at work – my new gig (at the same org) is associate director of social media strategy. Fun!

** Very tasty. The only alteration I made to the recipe was adding a tablespoon of hot chili powder, when it came out too mild for my liking.