With all of the hype over Pinterest lately, you’re probably tired of hearing the name. And, with so many new users and brands popping into the stream, your experience there might be a bit lack-luster of late.

Whether you were once in love, or are a newbie trying to figure out what the attraction is, here are some tips for adding a spark to your Pinterest relationship to keep the fire hot…

Kick those default boards to the curb. 

Why use pre-fab boards and titles? Step out of the box. What is it that you want to see, save, and share? I love food and household projects as much as the next person — what will make yours unique? Do you have a love for miniature elephants? Are you planning a trip to Rome? Create boards not for the sake of re-pinning, but that will be useful for you and describe what makes you unique.

Optimze for a wider reach.

If you’re curating content on Pinterest, as with any social network, it behooves you to optimize that content to ensure the widest possible audience can find it and connect with you. Use descriptive keywords in your profile and in the descriptions of your pins. Pins each have a unique URL and can be found not only via the Pinterest search engines, but others as well. And, don’t forget to categorize your boards as well for greater findability.

Step out of Pinterest.

I’ve heard it dozens of times – “I just went down the Pinterest Rabbit hole and it took me hours to get out!” I get it. There’s a lot of lovely stuff in there, but how about stepping out and taking some time to explore the web, and then, share new and valuable finds in Pinterest?

If you haven’t already installed the “Pin It” web browser bookmarklet, do it now. (Seriously. Now. I don’t even care if you don’t come back to finish this post, it’s that important.) Pinterest is, at its core, a social bookmarking site. If you’re going to spend hours perusing others’ pins, do your network a favor by contributing, as well. (Not to mention the fact that it’s great way to save and archive your favorite web finds for future use.)

Next…get the Pinterest bookmarklet on your iPad. That’s where you do a ton of browsing, right? Adding this little gem is a little tricky, so I’ll outline the steps for you here…(Or, see more detailed instruction in this post.)

From any web page, click “add bookmark” and then name it “PinIt” (Or give it a name you’ll recognize as Pinterest.) Click save.

Then, open your Bookmark list, and click “edit” and select the PinIt bookmark you just created.

Then, paste the following script into the address field:

javascript:void((function({var%20e=document.createElement(‘script’);e.setAttribute(‘type’,’text/javascript’);e.setAttribute(‘charset’,’UTF-8′);e.setAttribute(‘src’,’http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.jsr’+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)}());

When you’re done, it will appear in your bookmark bar and clicking it will open the “Add A Pin” feature on the Pinterest mobile application.

Go the extra mile.

Sometimes sites aren’t terribly Pinterest friendly, but, you can – and should – work around that if this is truly “pin-worthy” content. Here’s how…

If the site you are pinning has an image that is not being detected, you can copy the image URL and then go to Pinterest and “add” the pin, pasting the image URL and clicking “find images.” More detailed instructions on this process can be found in this post. 

Share your own original content. 

It’s not just about what currently lives online. We all have the ability to publish and share. Photographs of your favorite places? A unique project you just completed? You can upload and pin images from your hard drive:

Think twice, and then maybe three times, before publishing to Facebook.

Just because you can push everything that you pin into your Facebook feed, doesn’t mean your friends are going to want to see it there. Let them follow you on Pinterest to see that. Turn off the frictionless sharing to the Timeline and, if you come across a pin that is so wonderful you must share it, manually select sharing to Facebook or Twitter.

Click THROUGH the pin.

Go to the source…if you like it enough to repin or like it, go look at it! Cool infographic. Repin. Yummy pasta dish. Repin. Funny quote. Like. Don’t forget that each of these images is a visual representation of content. Click through to the original source and read the post that goes with that infographic. Check out the ingredients for that recipe. See who actually generated that funny quote – heck, maybe you’ll want to subscribe to their blog.

Pinterest is a powerful social platform and its audience is growing. Stay fresh and unique to that audience by making the most of these features and putting some care into what you curate and share.

And, we’d surely love it if you would like to make us a part of your Pinterest experience and follow our Kane Co boards.

Photo by emdot. Flickr Creative Commons.

UPDATE: Since this post was published, we’ve learned a lot about Pinterest’s terms of use and copyright issues associated with it. Please tread carefully, especially if you are using the platform as a brand. This post offers a thorough explanation from the perspective of a lawyer.