Pinterest for Beginners

A while back I posted an infographic about how Pinterest is the one social network site that has the longest longevity. That is, something posted there might generate interest six months to a year later, whereas Twitter's influence lasts about 18 minutes. (Apparently the infographic has disappeared, but that site has more posts about Pinterest that may be of interest.)

This was the first post of my social networking series.

So, just this weekend a discussion about Pinterest began on the team's discussion boards, and I thought now might be a good time to revisit the topic.

Pinterest explains itself thusly:

Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.

I like to think of it like an online visual bookmarking tool. When I find images that I like, Pinterest is the place where I can store them so I can find them again.

As a social media site, Pinterest lets you share what you pin. Sure, you can make some of your boards private, but that negates the social part of the platform. The whole idea is to share what you find with others.

To find pins from others, you can follow them or some of their specific boards. They can also follow you. You want to follow people who have similar taste to yours, that way you can find images you might not otherwise find. Likewise, you want people to follow you...hopefully back to your shop.

A word of caution: make sure when you pin things to pin from where the image originated. It's a copyright thing. Also, that way you can find where the image originated again if you'd like to find the tutorial that goes along with the image or the shop that goes along with the image (or whatever else the image links back to).

(If you're pinning something from a blog, for example, make sure to click on the specific post, not the full blog. If the blog is updated regularly, the image will fall off the front page, and if you go looking for the image months later, you might not be able to locate it again.)

Some people pin images and then link them back to spam sites, so when you repin, be careful. (I tend to "like" images before pinning them to my boards. Only after making sure the image links to a real website do I pin it.)

Of course, the purpose of Pinterest is to have some fun. Finding images. Curating images. Looking at stuff. (Why do we love to look at stuff?)

What's your favorite thing about Pinterest? What have I missed? Oh, and make sure to add your Pinterest link so we can all follow you.

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