My sister tried to tell me about Pinterest.com twice before I actually decided to check it out. I didn’t know what she was saying about some sort of online corkboard and pictures, but she seemed excited. I had to see things for myself. Boy am I glad I did!
What is Pinterest?
The best way to describe Pinterest is as an online scrapbook. You can post images with links to things, or see what others are posting (this is called pinning). Anything from DIY crafts to cool furniture can be seen on Pinterest. Your first step in becoming a Pinster is to create boards. Boards are pages where your content will go. For example, you can create a board called ‘my wedding’ and then pin photos that inspire you to design your wedding. You can re-pin another Pinterest members photos or find your own online.
Pinning Photos From a Website
Once you become a Pinterest member you will go through a process to set up your account. During this process Pinterest asks you to add the Pinterest bookmark to your browser. This book mark will allow you to pin things from any website with a photo. You simply visit a site, click the ‘pin it’ bookmark, and a pop up window will come up and ask which photo you want to pin. You then click the photo, select the board you want it on, write a short description, and click ‘pin.’ Your image is then on your board! So easy!
The Community
Your Pinterest home page will load recent pins from other users. This page will show anything recently posted by anyone on the site. You can follow people just like on Twitter, choosing to follow everything they pin or just certain boards they have. You can select a category you want to see, such as Fashion or Fitness, or you can look at what is popular at the moment. From here you can comment on a pin, re-pin it to one of your boards, or simply ‘like’ it.
WARNING: Pinterest can be habit forming!
Pinterest has made keeping up with the things you love very easy. Before Pinterest I had scrapbooks at home with ideas for DIY projects and folders on my computer to plan my wedding. The site shows you things to do and make and plan that you had no idea you were interested in! As one Pinterest image recently articulated: “I should probably get off Pinterest and make some of these things I have been pinning for the last 3 hours!”
Pinterest membership is by invitation only. If you know someone already on the site you can get them to send you an invitation. If you don’t know anyone, you can request an invite on the homepage and wait about 2 weeks for a response. (As the site gains popularity you may have to wait longer as the waitlist grows.)