It’s time to get to the 2nd Pinterest post finished. This post was nearly complete the day I delivered my presentation but I let things get in the way and fell for every distraction I could.
I began this Pinterest presentation (at SAE Nashville, Friday, July 18, 2014) by outlining my social media activity. As of this morning, my social media numbers:
My website http://www.emichaelmusic.com (112 blog posts)
Facebook (2,926 friends) https://www.facebook.com/emh2625
Twitter (2,339 followers, 22,100+ tweets) https://twitter.com/emh2625
Pinterest (2,253 pins on my 28 boards) http://pinterest.com/emh2625/
LinkedIn (2,555 contacts) http://www.linkedin.com/in/emichaelharrington
Google+ google.com/+EMichaelHarrington
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/emh2625
Re.vu http://re.vu/emichaelharrington.
WordPress http://www.emichaelmusic.com
Tumblr http://www.tumblr.com/blog/emichaelharrington
Vimeo http://vimeo.com/11749071
Foursquare (6,551+ check-ins, 63 badges) https://foursquare.com/emh2625
(I’ve also been only moderately active on Reddit, Digg and StumbledUpon and not enough to mention.)
I showed the above social media so as to preach to young minds (an audience of mostly students) that they MUST be active in social media in order to learn about events, creations, creators, ideas and expressions of ideas, the dissemination of the expression of ideas, the proximity of a tornado when inclement weather is present and much more. Social media, especially Twitter, is my newspaper / updater / life leader.
(My new social media playgrounds are Ello and Super. On Super, I will be “emh” and not my usual, “emh2625.”)
Some Advantages to Using Pinterest
1. It is always online and available unless you are a Comcast customer. In that case, Internet access is always a concern.
2. Memory for the number of pins and boards seems to be limitless. I don’t expect to see a negative number, such as -8, come up as they do when a tweet exceeds 140 characters. Pinterest still does not tell you you’ve exceeded length, space, time or width (except for text characters under a pin).
3. Graphic/Pictorial Nature is extremely appealing. For those of us who live in the invisible world, i.e. “music,” it is so important to incorporate visual and become far more visual. One of my preaching points pertaining to helping unknown musicians become known is that for musicians to be heard, they need to be seen. An intelligent and widespread online presence is essential for developing many careers.
4. There is room for text underneath every photo (pin) and the quality of the text will improve the quality of the pin.
5. Many Links can be added to each pin – the restrictions only come with respect to the 500-character limit of the text of each pin. Occasionally Pinterest will block the link to a video within the pin to work. One can, however, copy and paste the link. I’ve found it a good practice to add such a warning before or after a link I have inserted into a pin. (It is unfortunate that Pinterest simply sees a link and thinks “this could take you to porn!”)
6. Pinterest is an open-source sharing community. Pins can be re-pinned to other boards. Therefore, one pin with text and links, can be easily re-purposed for another board, i.e., course material can be transferred to other courses.
7. It is very easy to become friends with those of similar interest. I need to make the time to look at whats others do and connect with those who share similar passions.
8. It is very easy to develop your brand this way. (Twitter has an advantage on Pinterest re recognition for one’s expertise in a subject because more people seem to tweet more often than pin and Pinterest is still not considered a place to display’s one’s intellectual heft.)
9. A course can be modified as quickly as one can pin, type and re-pin. My Intellectual Property class will have some overlap with other classes of mine – Publishing, Licensing, Survey of the Music & Entertainment Industry, Advertising, Music & Social Media, etc.
10. A pin can be many things at once – for my purposes, a pin can be appropriate in many different boards simultaneously. For example, pins from one lecture or class can work very well in another. Advertising to IP, Comedy to IP, IP to Comedy, etc.
11. My Pinterest boards, collectively, serve as a sort of easy-to-view resume although a more traditional untraditional resume already occupies cyberspace at Re.vu. My resume – where I’ve spoken including geography & photo – occupies some of my Pinterest boards.
12. Like the majority of Pinterest users, my personal/non-professional interests – bicycling, where I’ve lived, comedy, food/recipes, etc. – can be shared as well.
13. All classes, subjects, special lectures, links to video, music, readings, etc. all belong on Pinterest. I am surprised that at least 3 years after I first knew Pinterest (20111), Pinterest is not used more creatively and educationally.
14. Pinterest has helped musicians and those not inclined to think visually. If, to quote the Faber College (Animal House) motto, “Knowledge is Good,” then Good Looks Are Good Too.
15. A fun opportunity/challenge is which side will win – will photographs, the visually stunning, always be more attractive than un-stunning text? Is the posted photograph much more important the text that surrounds the photograph? For me one of the fun challenges is to make the surrounding text as or more important than the photograph. As a composer who composed a lot of music using traditional centuries old black and white notation, I find some musical scores to be nearly as great as the invisible music and sounds the black and white notation symbols describe or prescribe. Pinterest though can change the paradigm.
More Pinterest in a future post….