A. Pick the right profile pic. I see a TON of people signing up with ewhore type photos and nonsense generated names, come on. What is the main demographic of pinterest? Who are you trying to appeal to? What demographic spends the most money? What kinds of photos do legit accounts with many followers have? Let me spell it out for you-- middle aged women. Middle aged women that want to trust your opinion on something they want to learn about. The best photo is a normal looking adult woman, on the pretty side, but not unattainably pretty. Approachable, normal, but something to aspire to. Blend in.
B. Have a first and last name, a normal, real-sounding one. Don't brand your profile. They want to think they are getting a real reference to a great idea/product/food from a NORMAL person, not a brand. Pinterest is full of thirsty-ass going-nowhere food bloggers-- don't set yourself up as a food blogger, you just look like competition to the real food bloggers. If I were a real food blogger, I would pin my shit from satellite accounts that looked like normal people, that's how important this is.
C. Make a lot of boards, and make them mean something. Throwing up boards with names like "recipes", "drinks","yum", etc., is follower kryptonite. Once again, look at what the successful people are doing. Micro niche boards with interesting names are where it's at. When people visit your profile,they look at those first few boards in your profile, and that's when they decide to follow you or not. For instance, if you're doing food, you could make a board called "Chocolate Chip Extravaganza", and pin only chocolate chip related things to that board. Make sure the first pin, or cover photo, for each board is an AMAZING picture. Pin at least 20 items to each niche board, and know that you eventually will need at least 100 pins in each of these niche boards to really start cooking with gas. You need a bare minimum of 5 boards like this, 10 is better, and the more the merrier. Place your best, most interesting boards at the top of your profile, and do not have any shit boards in your profile. You have the ability to make secret boards. If you are working on a board, keep it secret until it has 20 good pins in it or more and is fleshed out, then make it public. When people come to your profile and see interesting organized content (like they don't have), they will follow you.
D. Put a little about your persona in your profile. Sound normal. Don't pump yourself up or hype your website. Put shit about your life in western Massachusetts and how you love your corgis and your passion for scrapbooking.
E. Feel free to put a website in your profile, throw up a MFA blogspot if you want, or whatever you have. I recommend a MFA site with high paying keywords and adsense. People are gonna visit that site when they see it in your profile, and will sometimes click. Don't miss the chance to do something with that space.