Pinterest Place Boards: Tell A Story
People love stories. Stories are a way of making time stand still. All the world falls away when you’re listening to or reading a story. Did you know that you can create a story using a place board on Pinterest? Think back on those Day in the Life coffee table books. A Pinterest board can be used the same way. Here’s how.
Brain Dump
For this example, I’ll use my own Santa Cruz Daycation board. Write down everything you’d like to do in a single day. Put all the parts of the day in chronological order–I used a numbered list in a Word document to do this. Search for each item online and make sure that whatever you’re going to do is available and open for business. For instance, is the restaurant open? Can you zipline at that time of the day? Can you do yoga early in the morning?
Write Captions
Say something about each step of the day. If you love shoes, and you get to the shoe store 10 minutes before they close, that’s a “SQUEEE!!!” for sure. Rinse and repeat for each event. Add these to your Word doc. And when you’re writing those captions, consider how people search on Pinterest. Here are 18 Tips for Optimizing Your Images to Improve SEO, from Pam Dyer.
Find Images or Use Your Own
Search within Pinterest, find already-existing photos, or use your own images. And remember, Pinterest is about beautiful images, so make it pretty! Here’s a blog post I wrote about creating beautiful Pinterest covers.
Start Pinning!
Pin in reverse order from the end of the day to the beginning because the first pin will be at the bottom.
Location, Location, Location
For each pin, first click “Add to Map,” then choose the city. A map appears and will zoom into the city you just selected. Once you’ve found the city, click in the “What’s This Place Called” spot to find the location, and press enter to map it. Some locations will appear instantly while others may require more searching.
Review Your Captions
You can edit the text for each pin later if you like. For instance, I wanted more of a timeline for my place board, so I made sure to add that I was having breakfast, lunch, or dinner, without being too regimented with the times.
Have You Created a Place Board Yet?
What story would you like to tell? Leave me a comment below! And thank you.
First of all, this is another simply-put but educational post on Pinterest.
Secondly, I can see how this would be a very useful tool for a hotel who can help visitors plan out their days. They could have several idea tracks (hiking track, shopping track, dining track).
Nice job, Carol!
I hadn’t thought about a hotel using a place board, but it would be an easy way to give guests a few ideas. One thing I didn’t mention is that I put in the times to see if putting this much into one day was possible (using Google maps).
Thanks for stopping by, blogging buddy!
I think that this is a really great idea, and not just for hotel or travel companies. In a sense, you are applying the successful Instagram model to Pinterest – giving people an “inside look” at the individual behind a set of Pinterest boards in a highly cohesive way. It become a way of personalizing your pins because of the way that you are putting them together. Whether the consumer incorporates just a few of the activities you describe in the pins or all of them, you are providing suggestions of how they can mix and match the elements that they are pinning to create a personalized experience. I really want to try this.
Hi Rachelle,
That Pinterest place board was really fun to put together. The Instagram model hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re right. By pinning your favorite places, you give others a glimpse into who you are. Let me know how your place board goes!
Thanks,
Carol