Pinterest makes me buy things.

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PartnerComm designer Delia Jalomo weighs in on the right way to push your brand through Pinterest.

You know, I’ve never been a true Martha Stewart-type. I eat tuna straight out of the pouch sometimes for dinner and glitter is not allowed in my household.

But in late September I was surfing Pinterest on a Friday evening and saw something I decided I absolutely could not live without making: metallic spray-painted pumpkins.

And with the abundance of miniature pumpkins at every supermarket in town, it couldn’t seem easier. And, the act of painting them really was. But the act of shopping for them? OK let me talk to you about how Pinterest really works:

You see something you really like. Then, because you’re so interested in say, spray-painting decorative gourds, you search for similar ideas and wind up with so many ways to dress up a pumpkin you start to create a plan to make this thing happen. This will involve shopping. I knew at one point I’d need to buy:

  1. A can of metallic spray paint
  2. Painter’s tape (for taping off stems to protect them from Brilliant Copper 65 or whatever)
  3. Miniature pumpkins
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Of course that didn’t happen.

I was walking through the craft store with two spray cans in hand when I discovered that Martha Stewart made of line of metallic acrylic paints — of which there were far more colors to choose.

An hour later I left with 2 cans of spray paint, 3 squeeze bottles of acrylic paint, and a pack of small paintbrushes for my project. Probably overkill, but I justified this with the reasoning that I remembered I already had painter’s tape at home. Even Steven. On the way out I picked up a set of tiny canvases because they were cute. I stopped by the grocery store for the pumpkins and I was set.

So, in total my list probably cost about $10 in theory. But in reality I wound up spending more than I’m proud to admit.

And, this is the deal with Pinterest. There was a lot of buzz about it being the next big thing in social media for business, then the social media blogs and business columns began to claim that it wasn’t. Ever since, businesses have been kind of in a limbo about whether or not they should get on the Pin wagon. Should you? Well, this is the thing:

Pinterest doesn’t sell products — it sells ideas. But ideas inspire people to buy things.

Maybe the key to selling a product on Pinterest lies not in selling the product itself, but in creating Pinnable content that shows people how to use the product. Maybe this product has multiple uses, or can be used in an unconventional way.

Oh no, I'd LOVE to have glue AND glitter on my hands at around the same point in time. 

Oh no, I'd LOVE to have glue AND glitter on my hands at around the same point in time. 

If you go back to my glitterphobia, it stands to reason that I would NOT enjoy making Martha Stewart’s famous glittered pumpkins. But, they were all over Pinterest this fall, and someone had the idea to spray paint them instead. I wound up at the craft store buying a product by Martha Stewart that I didn’t even know existed until I was on my way out. And what else did i buy? A whole bunch of other stuff I didn’t need.

And, I’ll probably do it again in the not so distant future. The holidays are coming up after all, and I’m sure Pinterest will convince me I need more craft supplies.