There's Something About Pinterest

As an entrepreneur, a blogger and someone who just likes pretty pictures and organizing my thoughts, Pinterest is genius to me. When I see a cute pair of wedges in a fashion magazine or a recipe I want to try, I love to tear the pages out. Yes, I’m that girl on an airplane who goes on a tearing spree that garners quizzical looks and annoyed stares. But once the pages are torn, they go into a file folder never to be seen again.

Pinterest has come under fire recently and is being likened to Napster for the legal concerns it has raised around copyright laws. A lawyer and former Pinterest afficionado named Kirsten Kowalski even wrote a blog post entitled, Why I Tearfully Deleted My Pinterest Inspiration Boards.

While I’m sensitive to those who have been adversely affected by the sudden rise in popularity of the virtual bulletin board, I won’t be deleting my boards anytime soon. Finally, my ideas, passions and the information I want to share have a place to reside on neatly organized, visually appealing pin boards.

I use Pinterest to:

Build Community: I love connecting with friends from high school and businesses in a way that doesn’t require conversation or peering into someone’s personal pictures but bonding over similar tastes in clothes or an interest in health eating.
Business Marketing: Building a brand has been easy and fun because I not only get to share about my business, but also share about myself in an authentic way which lets people in on who am as a person.
Sharing Information: I share not just my own blog posts about wellness and healthy recipes but also those of other blogs I follow like this one on juicing vs. blending. It got many re-pins and I felt good about spreading the message.
Inspiration: I’m a big fan of inspirational quotes and everyday I see a good one on Pinterest. I also can’t get enough of pinning recipes I want to try, home decor for the dream home I’ll own one day or my ideal office space.
Procrastination: Who doesn’t love killing a few minutes during the day looking at pretty pictures and drawing inspiration from what others are sharing? You know you do. I came across this stat that the average use spent 89 minutes on the site during January 2012. I believe it!

I’ve had to limit my time on Pinterest so that I don’t get sucked in (yes, that fully happened while writing this post). I could seriously spend ALL DAY pinning.

Of my 14 boards, most of which I’ve organized into terms that describe me or areas of my life I’m jazzed about, these are some of my favorites:

Integrative Nutrition: Where I share wellness information pertaining to the school and movement that changed my life, Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Healthy Hot Spots and Women and Wellness: A place to catalog my two current blog series, Women In Wellness (inspiring women in the wellness field) and Healthy Hot Spots (the healthiest dishes in NYC).