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October 15, 2018

Ten Things You Can Do with Your Pinterest
Account to Make It a Part of Your Author Platform

By A.Y. Berthiaume

I’ve been dedicating a lot of time over the last month or so to getting my author platform set up. I’ve thought concertedly about which online spaces I’ll try to command a presence within, erring on the side of choosing those social media sites that I’m already comfortable and familiar with in order to get going and start off on the right foot.

Pinterest has always been a favorite of mine because of it’s ease of use, the versatility in content, and the way you can organize things into "boards" For me, it plays to both my creativity and my organizational skill set. I’ve had an account for years, but never have I looked at it as anything other than a personal account. Determining how to transition it from purely personal to useful in branding myself as a writer and having it connect with the rest of my platform was a fun challenge.

Now I am happy to share with you some of the things that I have done to change my Pinterest page from personal-focused to platform-driven in hopes that you find this list useful. Here are ten ways you can make your Pinterest page a part of your platform. The first five I have already gone ahead and done, and the last five are in my phase two approach for this site. (And remember, this is just based off my own approach, it’s not an expert opinion.)

1. Have your name appear as you would have it anywhere else (for example, I've decided to go as A.Y. Berthiaume as a writer, so I've changed my profile name to that—minus the periods because they don't allow those characters.)

2. Use the same head shot as your profile picture that you would use on the other sites that make up your platform.

3. In your description or profile bio, use your tagline, logo, motto, or actual bio to describe who you are. (For right now, I'm going with my tag line.)

4. Choose which boards to keep public for your followers and which to make private for yourself. (Having some boards just for you to see allows you to keep just one Pinterest account while still ensuring a little more privacy using it occasionally for purely personal reasons.)

5. Your boards are a way for people to get to know you as a person NOT just as a writer or business owner. Don’t solely rely on the images you have pinned to each board to share these things. Consider making the titles of your boards and their descriptions in your VOICE and offering something engaging to your followers.

6. Create boards or new sections that are specifically dedicated to a current book project; these images could be things that give you inspiration for a character or a setting or are about your writing process in working on this project.

7. Consider uploading your own pictures or ideas to show your followers that you are not just following other people on Pinterest but you are also offering new ideas to people on Pinterest. Let the world know that your creativity goes beyond words.

8. Find other writers whom you enjoy or admire who are on Pinterest and follow them.

9. Keep content fresh; add new things; don't let it all stay stagnant.

10. Add the Pinterest icon to your website or find a way to announce that you are on Pinterest elsewhere (post about it on Facebook, Tweet about it, etc.)

Go ahead and find me on Pinterest to see how I’ve applied some of these things to my own account.

 

Happy pinning and happy platform creating!

 

Laptop photo by Charles Deluvio / Phone photo by rawpixel / both on Unsplash.com

 

A.Y. Berthiaume is a native Vermonter, aspiring writer, practicing feminist, recovering middle child, hobby junkie, wannabe superhero, and a mom who’s pretty sure she’s just “winging it” most of the time, but hoping she makes it look good. None of these things pay the bills, so by day she’s an admin assistant and hides her cape under her cardigans (though she’s pretty sure everyone has figured out she’s super). She set intentions for the year instead of resolutions, and they included being present and patient (mostly in the momming-it category) and committing herself to positive thinking and pursuing her passions. If she could conjure her own Patronus, it would be a heron. She was once voted as most likely to star in a romantic comedy. People generally find her amusing and her laugh is the loudest you can hear in a movie theater. Though she loves the F-word for its versatility, you won’t find it in any of her LVW posts (because those are the rules). You can find some of her other writing on the Burlington VT Mom’s Blog (you won’t find the F-word there either). Berthiaume holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Northeast Ohio Masters of Fine Arts Program and has a number of book projects and an author website underway. Writing for League Lines Live provides the chance to offer other members of the writing tribe honest (and hopefully humorous) accounts of the trials and tribulations of aspiring to be a writer even when everyone else already thinks you’ve made it. Having only recently discovered her writing voice and made the decision to write under her own name, Berthiaume offers the following advice to her fellow word-wielding friends: Be brave. Be you. It’s time.