I believe in serendipity. For some time now I’ve been puzzled by Pinterest. The massive popularity and implications of value proposition seemed to be tantalizingly out of reach. I get it now. Or, at least a part of it. Let me explain.
I attended a seminar at New York XPO in early May, “Using Technology to Drive Innovation & GROW Your Business,” to see Laurie McCabe of the SMB Group dole out her brand of SMB technology wisdom. I wasn’t disappointed. However, before Laurie spoke, Grant Wickes kicked off the panel with an impressive presentation of an array of gadgets you can use to make your iPhone into a multimedia powerhouse. I scribbled some notes and tweeted out some links about the gadgets he mentioned (lenses, boom mics, etc) and made a mental note to follow up.
When I got back home I kept thinking about that presentation, so much so that I wanted to share some of what Grant talked about with a close friend who is a photographer. My friend is not on any social media platforms and only a casual Internet user (yes, people like that still do exist). I thought about my options for sharing: I could call him and talk to him about it; I could send him an email with links; I could blog about it.
And that’s when it hit me. Pinterest.
Why not create a Pinterest Board? I could put together a collection of images (and links) to all the items I wanted to show him, and more, in an easily digestible format. In minutes. You can see it here.
So now I get it. Every social platform allows you to communicate in a unique fashion. I’m finally starting to understand Pinterest.
As a post-script. I happened to win the drawing for a Kindle Fire in that presentation as well. Yes, I believe in serendipity.
