You mean I can Pin about GC77? Sweet!
by Susan Kleinwecher, social media coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth
What Pinterest is: CNET says, “If Tumblr and StumbleUpon had a baby, they would likely give birth to Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board with pins; users grab things from around the internet and pin them to boards. Boards, owned by a user, possibly with other contributors, are the organization tool, organized loosely around a topic or inte
rest. The shareable content is called a pin; it is usually an image of some kind, with a description, links, and descriptive tags. In Pinterest the focus is on on quality images. It’s about (1)content (2)sharing and (3)sharing & commenting. Got that? Sharing is real big on pinterest.
Getting Started: Go to Pinterest.com and request an invite; Pinterest is invitation-only now, but don’t let that be intimidating; it helps them manage their exponential growth without overloading their infrastructure and disrupting your access. The email address you use is the one Pinterest will issue an invitation to. Activate the invitation following the instructions in the email you will receive. Set up an account, upload your image/avatar.
Tutorial: http://pinterest.com/about/help/ http://www.gcflearnfree.org/socialmedia
At the start: After you create an account, create at least one board. Search for “Episcopal Diocese Fort Worth” and find the General Convention board. Follow it. By following it, the owner can allow you to contribute to it by authorising you and sending you an email. Follow any other boards you see that you like.
Get ready to Pin: Install the pinterest pin button (bookmarklet) in your browser (chrome, firefox, safari, IE) http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/
Connect with the diocese: search for “people” named “diofw” and follow the diocese at http://pinterest.com/diofw/. Follow the diocesan general convention board: http://pinterest.com/diofw/episcopal-general-convention-2012/. Once you follow the boards, an admin may invite you to become a contributor.
Become a contributor to our convention board: Our convention board is set to “Me + contributors.” Our convention pinners need to follow the diocesan GC pinboard http://pinterest.com/diofw/episcopal-general-convention-2012/, and be allowed as contributors, to contribute to it. Users added as contributors will receive an email notification. They can choose to remove themselves at any time.
Go Pin: You can find things to pin on most websites, or on Pinterest. In Pinterest, it’s easy – you search, and you RePin, or you comment. You may find great resources on other sites; for example, the Episcopal Diocese of Maine will have a daily video blog on their convention site http://indy300.net/.
Good descriptions are essential content: Regarding pin descriptions, what you should ask yourself each time you write the description for a new pin is, “what would I search for if I was looking for this pin?” and “what do I say about this pin to convey the story I want to tell?” The more descriptive your pin is, the easier it will be for users to find, and for search engines to find, and the more valuable your pin is. Add URLs whereever you can. Also, it is very impotant to ADD TAGS (hashtags, keywords beginning with #)! You can add multiple hashtags at the end of your description. For example, you might use any or all of these tags for a pin about convention: #gc77 #episcopal #church #worship #event #deputy #deputies #bishop. Add as many as you want, but keep them relevant to the image.
Best practices: Pin from the original source, pin from permalinks, give credit and include a thoughtful pin description, using URLs where you can. If you pin from OUR blog or website, please remember to attach the URL to the pin and link the pin to relevant pages of our website.
@Mention: To mention another user in a pin description, use the form @username.
Go Mobile: When you’re comfortable with using Pinterest in your computer browser, if you are an iPhone user, you can download the Pinterest iPhone app. There’s no official app for other mobile devices. Instead Pinterest implemented a HTML5 experience inside of your mobile browser. Pinterest seems happy with that interaction; others find it clumsy and unsatisfying and wanting an app.
What tags do you recommend for GC77? How will you use Pinterest at Convention.