ArtProMotivate.com and FineArtTips.com discuss Pinterest! Have you checked out our Pinterest Boards?
http://pinterest.com/artfestivals
I’m Hooked! 10 Reasons Why Artists Love Pinterest
http://www.finearttips.com/2012/01/im-hooked-10-reasons-why-artists-love-pinterest/
When I received an invite to Pinterest last week, I was a bit reluctant about joining. How could I possibly manage another social media site? Was this attractive network going to be a time-suck? But, within five minutes of joining I was already hooked, or should I say – pinned!In case you do not know, Pinterest is the two-year old social bookmarking site that allows you to collect, upload and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. These collections are neatly and cleverly stored in virtual pinboards. People use pinboards to plan weddings, gain artistic inspiration, collect quotes and decorating ideas, or their favorite recipes. Pinterest also lets you to browse pinboards created by other talented people.Getting started on Pinterest is quick and easy. Once you’ve set up your account, it is simple to drive traffic back to your product. I am just a newbie at pinning, but I already see the huge marketing and branding possibilities for Pinterest users.
Here’s 10 Reasons Why Artists Love Pinterest: 1. Pinterest is growing at a phenomenal rate. According to CNET News, in the week that ended December 17, the site received nearly 11 million visits – almost 40 times the number of visits it received during a single week six months earlier, according to Experian Hitwise, which measures and analyzes consumer behavior on the Web. According to ‘the big hitter on Twitter’, @askaaronlee says, “Pinterest is one of the top 10 most visited social networking sites. It has more traffic compared to tumblr and Google+.”“Pinterest is a great place to get inspiration and sources, a place to interact with friends and associates, a place to research trends, and a place to market. It’s a place to get yourself ‘out there’ in order to promote your brand as a writer, artist, photographer, designer, architect, sculptor, musician, or any other arena.” ~Cheryl Greenfield, Chez Blanche Designs
2. Pinterest is a visual feast for the eyes! Pinterest is filled with beautiful imagery and inspiration. Be warned, it is a great escape and you can easily get lost in its alluring pages. Set an egg timer to snap you out of your pinning stupor!
Here are a few of my pinboards…
3. No more scrap-filing. Most all artists and creative people that I know have file cabinets and folders that are filled to the brim with magazine clippings, photocopies, images, color chips and other inspirational scrap material for future projects. With Pinterest, you can say bye-bye this labor intensive work. Now you can easily pin your ideas into virtual pinboards. Stop wasting ink and paper – you might even save a tree!
4. Share your art. Pinterest is a great way to share your online portfolio. Get your art in front of a targeted audience of designers, fellow artists, galleries and prospective customers. You can upload images directly, or you can pin your portfolio directly from your blog. This way the images will link back to their original source. However be tasteful about it, “Avoid Self Promotion Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.”
- Pinterest is FUN
The great thing about Pinterest is that it is actually FUN to explore and check out other pins. This site is literally filled with artists and others from all walks of life. Browsing the thousands of pinboards can be a very rewarding and inspiring experience for artists. It is certainly a great place to find inspiration for artworks and projects. Pinterest is basically the best the web has to offer. If suffering from creative block, I don’t think you will be for long by spending some time here. - The photos at Pinterest are large and optimally displayed
Images of art are large and displayed in a very attractive way, surrounded by a neutral light gray color. The focus is the photograph, and not image and text as in Facebook and Google+. 
Art Collections
Pinterestallows artists to create full collections of artworks. A short message may be included at the bottom, along with a website link.To add a pin on the site, click the Add+ button. This brings up a box which includes options for creating a new board, uploading a photo from your computer, or inserting a web address or photo link.- Fill in the pin description
Include a brief summary. A url may be included here, and also within individual post descriptions. Try to do it discreetly, as Pinterest frowns on shameless self-promotion.
If you pin your own websites and profiles, a link is included back. When others share your pin, the link is included as well. This is actually a very effective link building strategy to help your art site achieve higher ranking. - Variety
A pinboardcan be created based on virtually anything. They may be a collection of artworks, recipes, interesting websites, design ideas, bookmarks, etc. Basically, whatever one may think of can be collected and shared. If inspiration is needed, Pinterest is certainly the place to find it!I am planning on a few pinboard collections, and you may use the same ideas if you want:Facebook pages – artists that I am inspired by on Facebook
Google+ posts – a collection of my favorite postings there
Web designing sites – some of my main sources for learning html, css, and general webpage design
Favourite Youtube videos – Tutorials for video slideshows, art studio tours, and more
Photoshop tutorials – I am always interested to learning new ways of utilizing Photoshop for web designing and optimizing images of artworks.
Artist Spotlite Websites – A collection of the websites of artists featured at Artpromotivate! - Sharing Pins
The pins can be easily shared by liking and repinning.
The liked images appear under the likes section in the Pinterest profile. Repinsare added to a collection, and can be continually repinned, with the source link always remaining intact.Suggest a pinto another member by including @ in front of their name. Other users can be mentioned in comments or descriptions. They will also be notified when doing so.Others may contribute to a board. Find the edit button on a pin-board, and select “Me + Contributors”. Then enter the name of any of your followed members, so that they can add their own contributions to the pinboard. - Pin and Follow Buttons
These can be added to any website, and are included on the Goodies page. A “Pin it” bookmarklet is available for Google Chrome, for instant pinning directly from a web browser. - Artworks can be priced!
The $ or £ symbols can be placed right before the artwork price. This allows for artists to sell their art directly from Pinterest.
