For the last few months, I kept hearing about Pinterest. I went to a baby shower and the creative and innovative food ideas were taken from Pinterest, and then at a good-bye party, one of the good-bye gifts was a blow-pops sucker knick-knack with a sign saying “You’re leaving here blows. We will miss you.” Thus, I sufficed that Pinterest was a hot new social networking site devoted to home decor and party ideas, and it essentially was a digital bulletin board (or pinboard).
However, it was only about 2 weeks ago that I realized that Pinterest had a much broader basis. My friend, Amber, told me that she was on Pinterest, and she showed me a glimpse of her site. She had a really pretty hairstyle that she had pinned that was inspiring for a wedding she was a bridesmaid for. However, she explained more about Pinterest, but I have to admit that I was sold when she told me how she had repined a pin called “Books Rory Gilmore read.” I used to be a huge Gilmore Girls fan, and I loved to watch the show, especially the early seasons.
As you can probably see from where this blog is going, I am on Pinterest now. I find it inspiring, fun, artsy, cool, hip, interesting, and thoroughly diverse. Here is my mini-tutorial on Pinterest, with personal insights gleaned from over two weeks of being semi-addicted to Pinterest.
Top Ten Helpful Tips and Info for Getting Started with Pinterest:
1. Please note the name is not pronounced Pin-interest, as I keep trying to pronounce it. It is Pinterest.
2. You can get a free app for it or use it on a desktop computer or laptop. However, the Pinterest website has a great deal more features than the iPhone app.
3. It is possible to login with Facebook or Twitter, but for those who are not connected that way (me and two other people), you can login with e-mail, which makes it more inclusive, in my opinion.
4. Fun things about it: you can follow people and have followers, like Facebook and MySpace. You can comment. You can like things. (Important tip from my observation and what a friend told me: when you “like” something on Pinterest but do not pin it, then you are AUTOMATICALLY signed up to follow the creator of that pin. I had wondered how I ended up with over 60 people I was following initially. I believe automatic followers may have also come from the pictures you Pinterest has you like at the beginning when you are creating your account.
5. You can add a profile photo or info about you. The iPhone app does not have this capability (unless maybe it syncs with your Facebook profile pic?), but on the website for Pinterest you click under you name, then click settings, and then upload an image.
6. You create thematic electronic bulletin boards, and you pin things onto your bulletin boards. You can repin other’s content (always with a link back to the original site for credit), download items like photographs, or pin content found on the internet.
7. It is possible to change the comment under something you repin. If you just repin, then the comment is automatically the same comment as the person you repined from. I find this slightly confusing and potentially problematic. I felt like I was plagiarizing other’s comments, so after a while I started specifying something like “original pinners comment” to clarify.
8. One fun thing about Pinterest is you can explore many categories when you click explore, such as DIY and Crafts, Films, Music, & Books, Geek, Home Decor, Kids, Photography, Quotes, Technology, Travel, and Women’s Fashion. Note: you can lose hours surfing around categories and repining things, so be careful.
9. You can set the cover of your bulletin board by editing it. This is helpful if you have a photo/pin that you particularly are fond of. Otherwise the cover is the latest pin for that bulletin board category.
10. Finally, here is the link to my Pinterest site. Feel free to check it out and see what Pinterest is all about or for getting started ideas. I only have 3 followers, so followers are appreciated, as well. Happy pinning!
https://pinterest.com/hopeandheart/#
julieannesmith 