Pinterest for Writers: Another Way to Waste Time with Social Media?

Looking for another way to waste scarce writing time with social media? Look no further than Pinterest.  The claims: It's easier to use and less time-consuming than other social media tools. It's a great way to find women readers. But other experts claim Pinterest is a waste of time. This article offers a quick overview and brief guide to getting started with Pinterest

I) Pinterest for Writers: Pros and Cons

1) Easy to Use
- I created a profile and started adding images from my blog pages and Youtube within 15 minutes. Yes, it's pretty quick to get started. After you add images, you write short descriptions of them -- no blogging or Tweeting.

2) Less Time-Consuming: Hmmm
- Pinterest has a free browser button/add-on called Pin It, which lets you surf the Web and pin Web pages. A time-saver.
- But, I could not find a free tool that lets you preschedule posts, or Pins, as a Pinterest calls them. A prescheduling tool called Viraltag has a 14-day trial period but then costs $5 a month. (Facebook has a prescheduling tool for business pages and a tool called Hootsuite provides free prescheduling for Twitter and Facebook and Linked In.)

3) Popular: If women are your audience
Pinterest has a large user base and experts claim they spend on average more time on the site (16 minutes) than Facebook users (12 minutes) or Twitter users (3 minutes.) Youtube visitors spend the most time of any social media platform (more than 16 minutes).

4) Popular with Women
- Pinterest: 84% women
- Google+ 70% male
- Linked In is also dominated by men.
*source: same Business Insider article cited above as well as Pinterest's own numbers.


5) Other Gripes
- You can get sued for appropriating copyrighted images. (Common sense suggestions for avoiding the slammer down below.)
- If men are your audience, this may not be worth your time. When I asked Pinterest to suggest content for me, it was mainly women's clothes, cookie recipes, and advice for raising children.

Content Pinterest recommended for me, a single, bald guy on a low-carb diet.

II) Getting Started

 

How it Works:
Pinterest is a digital scrapbook that lets you post images to a page you create on their site. First you create a profile. You follow people. People follow you. You can post images from your own blog or other people's sites.

Creating a profile was quick, but for some reason Pinterest could not verify my Website, even after I followed the instructions.

Installing the free Pin It button on your browser can save time populating your Pinterest page.

Setting up my page and adding Pins (links) was pretty quick. You'll want to add captions to your Pins. Pinterest captures links to pages you've pinned. I've divided my Pinterest page into different topics, or Boards.

III) Strategies for Writers

Here are a list of tips and strategies that seemed worth trying. For writers, tips tend to be focused on posting great stuff. Note: I have not tried these out and cannot vouch for their effectiveness.

1) What to Pin
- Your own: photos, blog posts, Youtube videos, audio, Powerpoint presentations saved to Slideshare. More on this.
- Other peoples' images etc: As with all social media, people will tune you out if you're just flogging your own stuff.

2) Don't Pin Hundreds of Things at once
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a prescheduling tool, so you'll have to spend some pinning images regularly.

3) If you Pin a book cover, get the image from a page selling the book or a page with a review of the book. More on this. Pin your own book covers -- if you have a book. And create a Pinterest page, or Board, for your friends' books.

4) Create a Pinterest Board for writers similar to yours The old, "if you liked these folks, you'll like me."

5) Create a Board for characters in your novel, destinations mentioned in your travel blog, other background you've used in your writing.

6) Use Powerpoint to create slides that include original tips that link back to your own blog posts.

IV) Copyright Issues

If you Google "Pinterest," you'll find scary articles written by lawyers. If I get sued, I don't have much worth taking, except for maybe my vintage car.

The babe magnet

You may have more to lose -- and you're a writer, so respecting the rights of other artists is worth a little effort.

Some common sense:
- Use photos and images you've created
- Use photos of actors, book covers, and other publicity seekers, particularly if the images are popular online.
- If a site has a button encouraging your to pin or embed their images, you should be OK.
- If you're using other people's art, include a link to the artist's site or the original piece of art. (Be sure to find the artist's link -- not just the link to a site that stole it from the artist.)
- In my blog, I use images from Creative Commons that are free for public use. I always include a link to the artist. For Pinterest, I'll cite the artist and include a link in the Pin's description.
- A clever way to attribute the image: "I found this picture on (artist's site) and it reminded me of (link to something you've written or want to promote)

Mercifully short, plain English discussions on Pinterest and copyright.

- From Possesocialmedia

- From Jane Friedman

V) More Pinterest Tips

- 12 Pinterest Tools

- 12 Tips from Writer.Ly

- Pinterest Strategies from The Book Designer Web site.

- Tips from agent Rachel Gardner

- Tips from an agent's guest-post on Janefriedman.com

- My barren Pinterest page


Top image attribution: By Pinterest-Anti-Christ (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

 

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Video, Youtube for Writers: The World's Shortest Primer

Video is a great way to attract an audience, drive traffic to your blog, and pitch yourself as a reader at libraries, literary events, and book stores. This short article offers simple advice for getting started with Youtube and covers: taking, editing, uploading, and sharing video clips. It is geared toward novices with some basic computer skills. If you already have a digital camera or phone that takes video -- you may not need to spend anything to create useable video.

I) Equipment: A Camera (External Mic and Tripod Optional)

 

1) Quick and Dirty Option: Use Your Digital Camera

Most inexpensive digital cameras can take 5 to 10 minutes of video and save it in a format you can edit with software already on your computer. I haven't posted any videos made with cell phone, but it might work for you)

Here is a short video made with a low-end, Nikon S210 pocket camera I bought several years ago. Cameras like this cost about $150. Note: the video quality isn't great -- and neither is my performance -- but it's been good enough for 270 views on Youtube. I had a friend sit in the front row, point, and shoot. (Note: all my Youtube videos start with a short ad -- sorry!)





2) A Step Up: Low-End Camcorder

For another $100, you can get a real video camera/camcorder that takes better, longer videos. Here is a clip -- shot by the same friend who is not a photographer -- with a low-end $250 Sony video camera similar to this one. The video quality is better, the audio quality is better, and we were able to shoot an hour of video. (note: the camera moves around, there is some distracting zooming in and out -- but it's been good enough to get me readings and 850 views on Youtube.)







3) Even Better: Camcorder with Mic and Tripod

This past weekend, I spent $440 on:
- a low-priced video camera ($270),
- a microphone that attaches to the camera for improved sound ($86), and
- a 16GB SD memory card ($27) that I can take from the camera and pop into my computer for editing.
- $30 on miscellaneous adapters to affix the microphone to the camera.
- One other thing you should buy if you're going this route: a tripod. I bought a cheap one for $30 last summer. (You might want to spend a little more for something sturdier.)
- Note: I am not a camera person: I went to a local camera store, asked for their video exeprt, told him what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to spend.

With this rig, I can shoot an hour of high-definition video, which you'd want to create a DVD. The price includes some adapters for attaching the microphone to the camera.

II) Video Shooting Tips

If you're shooting in a public venue, you may have limited control over lighting, etc. But here are some basic tips:

- Shoot from the side, a 45 degree angle works fine. (If you can help it, avoid shooting straight on, especially if the reader is at a microphone, which can block their face.)

- If you are reading off a page, don't obscure your face with the page. Print out the page in a large font and hold the paper away from your face or at least below it.

- Have the camera operator zoom in as close as possible to your face and upper body.

- If possible, shoot with good light coming from behind the camera.
(Unfortunately, in many situations, you will be reading with light behind or above you -- not the audience or camera operator.)

Tips on reading your work in public.

III) Editing

 

Transferring video from your camera to your computer can be time-consuming. If you camera stores video an SD card and your computer has an SD slot -- winner, you'll save time. Otherwise, you'll be transferring files with a USB cable, which is slower

For editing, consider the software that came with your computer. These programs let you easily cut extraneous junk off the beginning and end of your videos, and save the clips in a format, such as MP4, that's easy to upload to Youtube. You'll also be able to add a credits page to promote yourself, your book, and to thank the venue.

For Mac products, iMovie is highly-rated for ease of use.

For Windows users with Windows 7 or higher, Windows Movie Maker is great.

Youtube also includes tools for basic editing of your video after you upload.

For basic videos like mine, you'll only be trimming and saving the files.

IV) Uploading to Youtube

 

This can take a lot of time -- hours. For longer clips, I often set them to upload over night. (I have Verizon's basic DSL, which is cheap but sucks.)

Uploading is pretty simple:

- Set up a Youtube account.

- Enter info about your video (In the description, include links to your blog, Web site, book page on Amazon, etc.)

- Click the upload button

- Go about your day (or night)

More detail than you want on the process.

V) Sharing the Video

 

 Once your video is uploaded, Youtube provides two main sharing options:

- "Share this video," which produces a Web link (the Share this video button below)

- "Embed," which produces HTML code you can copy and paste into your blog. The code produces the nice video player show above. Ideally, you want to use this option to send people to your blog instead of sending them to Youtube. (For a blog created with Blogger, click the HTML button next to Compose on the Blogger menu bar, then paste the code, and click Compose to see the finished product. WordPress has a simpler option for adding video to a blog post.)

 

More Self-Promotion Tips for Writers

- More Tips for Reading Your Work in Public

- Promote Your Writing: Events, Readings, and Theater Festivals

- Quick, Dirty Blogging Tips for Writers and Authors 

Photo credit for top image of me performing at a fringe theater festival in Washington, D.C.: Copyright 2013 by Paul Gillis Photography

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