Pinterest...and now the bit I forgot...

In all of my ramblings about Pinterest I forgot to tell you that after a blog post is pinned (or repinned), a Pinterest user can click the graphic and get back to the original post on the blog. So as people see either of the photographs that I pinned, they can click a photograph and zip over to my blog posting. This ability is what has all the marketing types all hyped up on Pinterest...and me too.

The suggestion that many marketers are making is that every blog post you make should contain an original graphic that Pinterest can use to make an attractive graphic for pin boards. Creating an original graphic for every post I do on my research blog (and mine are primarily text posts) might be a tall order. I've already been experimenting with how I can create an original .jpg (or .png or .gif) that Pinterest can use to make a Pin It button for each of my blog entries. I've made several abortive attempts and had no successes.

Here's my latest plan. I'm thinking of using children's blocks to spell out My McKee Family Tree. I should be able to place them on a solid background; for example, a tablecloth. If I do a square arrangement:

My McKee

Family Tree

I can then take a photograph and crop the picture to make a small .jpg, which I can place at the end of each of my blog posts. I've noticed that several societies that have been pinned use the society logo as their Pin It graphic. This use is perhaps just happenstance rather than a conscious choice by the societies or the pinners. As people are pinning, Pinterest may be making the choice to use the society logo for the pinner and the society.

Anyway, in the stream of Pinterest pins, my pinned (and repinned) blog posts would be readily identifiable because I would be using the same graphic each time. The pitfall might be that new posts will be missed because it's the same graphic each time. If I adopt this method, the challenge will be to add a description for the pin that clearly labels the blog post as new material. Tis' a puzzlement.

At the moment, the Pin It buttons I added to my blog posts do not work...or at least, I can't make them work! I'm assuming it's because there's no graphic to include in the Java code that Pinterest generates to create the button. The instructions at Pinterest would indicate that the Pin It buttons should work on text-only blog posts. I just haven't had much time to spend on this yet. So perhaps I need to devote a Saturday to learning the ins and outs of Pinterest.

I'll keep you posted on my successes and failures...