What Cindy taught me about Pinterest

Cindy Wincek Lake’s Pinterest profile page

Pinterest may be my new favorite thing for 2012. It’s forcing me to think visually and look at crowdsourced material with fresh eyes.

Cindy Wincek Lake, marketing director at Donohoo Auto in Pelham, is a Pinterest pro. She has more than 400 followers and close to 2,000 pins on 35 boards. In asking pinners what makes their boards special, she wrote:

“My deepest darkest Pinterest secret is hardly a secret. My favorite board is one that I created called ‘Don’t Hate the Players,’ and it features some of my favorite international soccer stars in all their glory. It’s a bit ridiculous and not a board that most people would want to follow, but over 400 people who I don’t know enjoy the heck out of it.”

Here’s what else I learned from Cindy …

Don’t Hate the Players, Cindy’s Pinterest board of “fútbol’s finest”

1. Be true to your passions. I don’t know a lot of soccer fans around here, but the ones I do know are crazy about the sport, their teams and players. So it’s only natural Cindy would have a board dedicated just to players. Or should I say, to the hottest players?

A little man-candy never hurt anyone, but it’s not surprising that her fandom has attracted hundreds of followers and two other contributing pinners.

Cindy may be in the middle of football country, but her fútbol obsession helps her find her tribe.

My passion is my hometown of Birmingham, so the very first board I created features everything happening in Birmingham. It now has more than 200 followers and two contributing pinners.

2. Be clever in creating your boards. I have seen a million boards on “Weddings” and “Food” and “Decorating Ideas.” Only on Cindy’s page have I found …

• SHHH — The Queen is Sleeping!
• I’d totes wear that!
• Paint Your Face and Fix Your Hair,
• Yummerz,
• Presh!
• Crafty I wish I was,
• Bubbas,
• My Motherland — Deutschland Über Alles,
• Organization is NOT my specialty,
• Baubles, Tik Tok and such,
• STOP SOPA and PIPA,
• I mean, REALLY. REALLY?

Don’t the names alone make you want to click and see what these boards are about? A few words paint a better picture than all the tiny Pinterest thumbnails.

3. Let your friends in on the best pins right away. As you pin or re-pin items, you can tag your Pinterest friends in the comments. It may be something they should look at and pin to their own boards.

Just type “@name” and Pinterest will start to narrow down with each character entered.

You can see how Cindy used it to notify her friend Jaimee about a new product.

It is a social network after all.

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You, too, can be a Pinterest pro. Like other social channels, if you show off your passions, stand out with your cleverness and include your friends, you’ll have a more rewarding experience in very short order.

• Need a Pinterest invite? Let me know.
• Video: I need your pins for the Birmingham Pinterest board.
• Your True Pinterest Confessions

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