I can't help it...

...I'm blogging about Pinterest again!

Bear with me, I just think it's funny which of my pins people repin.

Take for example, my pin to the song "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen. 215 repins.  Why does this amuse me?

Well...


One of my favorite things about social media in general is finding your own uses for the program. As Pinterest increases in popularity, I find myself having conversations similar to those I had with people in my Twitter prime.

I just don't get Pinterest. 

I have an account but I don't get what you do.

Why do I want to "pin" things?

What is its purpose?

That doesn't really seem like my type of thing.

My response is usually something along the lines of, well, you can use it however you want. (I'm not going to even get started here on the marketing and branding power of the site. P.S. It's awesome.)

How do I use Pinterest? Basically as a image-based bookmarking tool. I mostly use it for ME. To save things that I know I'll reference often. To organize information into categories so I can find what I need, when I need it.

Examples?

Oh how about my "Work Cmas Card ... Ah" board. Or my "Timeline Display," Color Palettes," and "Stock Images" boards. These type of reference boards help me organize my creative process and give me one location to reference. As a whole, I don't think these are that interesting to many other people.

But there is one board that surprises me. My "Music I Want" board. Yes, this is the board "Call Me Maybe" was repinned from.

Here's a secret about me: I use a lot of music. Teaching Zumba has only enhanced that usage. Here's another secret about me: I am very cheap and try to spend as little on music as possible, while keeping it LEGAL! How do I do this? Well I use programs like eMusic, earn Amazon gift cards through Swagbucks, religiously follow musicians who regularly offer free downloads, jump to redeem Amazon.mp3 download codes (my sis and I have an agreement that I get to use her downloads), and am the first to find out about programs such as Free All Music which offers a free download every week. (Although they are currently in hiatus, arg!) I also pretty much avoid iTunes like the plague. Unless of course it is for the free download of the week.

Because I am so cheap about this, I don't just buy music when I know I want it. I wait for the right opportunity. I wait for my Swagbuck points to accrue enough to qualify for Amazon credit. I wait for a free try-us-again offer from eMusic. I wait for a new Amazon.mp3 offer code. I wait until I have a free download available.

I'm kinda a major dork, I realize. (Side note: A great gift for yours truly would be a music credit of some sort. Just saying.)

So MY purpose for my "Music I Want" board? To save the songs that I am not currently buying, but know I will buy as soon as I can. (There is nothing worse than having an offer for a free song mp3 and not remembering a song you want to download! Okay....there are actually a lot of things worse than that....) 

I update that board A LOT. I add pins. I delete pins when I don't need them anymore. I add notes about where the songs are available for free. I constantly refer to it when I'm "purchasing" music.

Do I see any purpose of pinning the album cover of "Call Me Maybe" just for the purpose of saying, "Oh hey, I like that song." No, I don't. But that's the great thing about Pinterest.

215 people have no idea why *I* created that pin. But they all have their own reasons. And that pinning popularity certainly reflects the increasing popularity of the song.

This is a rather long, boring post. (Hey, that's my style.) So if you've made it through, I think you should enjoy this video of Call Me Maybe featuring Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale, and others.