Have you ever kept a collection of interesting things in a scrapbook, on a bulletin board, or perhaps on your fridge door? Pictures of friends or loved ones? Drawings or school assignments that your children or grandchildren did? Inspirational quotes or sayings? Newspaper clippings of stories that hit close to home? Pinterest.com is like the Internet's version of that.
Tell me more about Pinterest
Pinterest is a website that lets you find, collect, and organize interesting image-based things that you find on the Internet, find on the website, or put on the website yourself. It does this through a series of user-created categories, called "boards," and a series of visual bookmarks, known as "pins."
Pins can be all sorts of picture-based elements: photos, drawings, videos, animations, Internet links, and so on. Some will even show you the location that they depict on a map! And boards are used for all sorts of different topics, such as do-it-yourself crafts and activities, recipes, fitness, event planning, home décor, fashion, and so much more.
How does Pinterest work?
Pinterest is what is known as a "visual bookmarking tool." A bookmark helps you remember what page you were on when you put a book down so you can pick it up again and continue from the same spot, right? Similarly, your Internet browser also has a "bookmark" function that lets you tell it to remember important or favourite web pages so you can get back to them quickly if you need or want to. They take the principle even further by letting you store collections of web pages that you find, computer files that you upload, or even things that other people have bookmarked!
The "visual" part of the name refers to the fact that bookmarks have to be — or be accompanied by — a picture, animation, or video. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes! Add visual bookmarks — known as "pins" — to your boards by searching for ones that others have posted on Pinterest, creating them from websites that you've visited, or uploading files from your computer. Then, organize your bookmarks by creating "boards."
Pinterest also functions like a social media website. As just mentioned, most things that are bookmarked by others on Pinterest can be added to your bookmark collection. Conversely, most things that you bookmark can be added to the bookmark collections of others. You can also find and connect with people you know by way of your other social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Once you do that, you can create collections that your friends can add bookmarks to as well; things get bigger, done faster, and more fun when you work together! Or, if you want to share a collection privately with your friends, create a "secret board," and only the people you specifically choose will be allowed to see it or add to it.
6 ways you can start using Pinterest today
1. Create your own custom cookbook and discover countless recipes.
Striking a balance between eating delicious and eating healthy is tough these days, and not every recipe collection will have exactly the kinds of foods that you want. So why not make your own? Create boards for recipes that are organized by meal time (i.e. breakfast, lunch, or dinner), type of dish (appetizer, snack, main course, dessert, drink, etc.), type of cuisine (French, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Mediterranean, etc.), and more! There are tons of pins that feature delectable dishes for every occasion, so go ahead and pick your favourites!
2. Plan a (surprise) party, wedding, social gathering, or milestone event.
Does a relative have a major life event coming up, like a wedding or a milestone birthday? Your boards and pins can help plan a party or reception. Set up a board, then look for pins that will help you pick out the venue, decorate in style, cater to food needs, manage everyone's wardrobe, pool gift ideas, and more! Plus, if you want your bash to be a surprise, make it a "secret board" and only invite friends to it who will be helping you with the planning (and whom you trust not to spill the beans).
3. Coordinate your fashion sense.
Whether your style is classic, cutting-edge, thrifty, or something else, Pinterest can be a source of inspiration for you. There are lots of pins that help you pick out your must-have clothes or accessories, try out a trendy new hairstyle, or learn about today's top-tier cosmetics!
4. Save money with do-it-yourself crafts and home décor.
Many Pinterest users are all about doing things yourself. They can show you great ways you can make thrifty, attractive crafts for the home, rather than purchasing them at retail cost. Search for "D.I.Y" users who can help you make anything from a cute customized clipboard to a giant set of speakers. Learn how to transfer your family photos to wood, make your own fragrant bath ball, or even build your own bookshelf out of old crates.
5. Stay fit by organizing and finding new workouts.
It's important to stay active, especially as you grow older. Pinterest can help by letting you organize pins with ideas for your daily regimen, or ones that take things up a notch with advanced workout ideas. Whether you're into yoga, swimming, biking, hiking, aquatic aerobics, Zumba, Pilates, or just plain hitting the gym, there are pins that will give you inspiration for how to stay in shape.
6. Promote your business.
Do you have a small shop or start-up that could use some more customers? "Pinterest for Business" has you covered! You can sign up as a business (or turn a regular account into a business account), and then put up pins to show off your products, space, personnel, and more! Plus, you can set up a link on Pinterest that leads to your official website; conversely, you can place a link on your website to your business's Pinterest page! You are also offered tools to help you know how many people are looking at your business's page and pins. Plus, you can create special pins that let your customers see prices, business hours, and more as they change! And it's all free!
As you can see, the possibilities for using Pinterest are many and varied! Let other users come up with the great ideas, and then put them into practice. Or start adding your own ideas to Pinterest to help others!
The history of Pinterest, and why it’s so popular
Founded by Evan Sharp, Paul Sciarra, and current CEO Ben Silbermann, Pinterest.com went live on the Internet in 2010. In 2012, the site had over 10 million registered users, making it the fastest website to reach this milestone. Pinterest was always (and still is) free to use in its earliest years, and as such, its business model did not generate much revenue. However, starting in 2014, it began allowing companies to purchase advertising space on the website. In 2016, they launched the Pinterest Store, which allows users to buy products that they see advertised instantly.
Pinterest is so popular because it allows users to find great resources and ideas, save them, and share them with others. This helps people share visual information, entertainment, instructions, and more – all on one platform. It's also free to use, even for businesses, and has historically been most popular with women.
To get started with Pinterest:
1. Sign up and let the website know what you would like to see.
Creating an account is fast, easy, and free! Just enter your name, age, gender, and email address, and then pick a password… or sign up with your Facebook account instead! Then, pick at least four categories of things that you're interested in. This will help the site show you some neat bookmarks right off the bat to get your inspiration going!
2. Create your own customizable "boards" to organize your "pins."
Before you make any bookmarks on Pinterest, you have to have places to put them! You can create categories — or "boards" — to store your bookmarks in. Give one a title and a description, and then file it under one of the pre-set topics so that it's easier to find. You can even add map locations to your bookmarks for a board, get other people to add their own bookmarks to a board, or make a board private so that only certain people can see it or add to it.
3. Add "pins" to your "boards" from websites, other users on Pinterest, or files on your computer.
Once you have some "boards" to store your bookmarks on, it's time to start making your bookmarks — the "pins"! If you have a photo, video, or animation file on your computer, you can upload it and make a pin out of that. Or, if you see a pin that you like that was posted by somebody else, you can copy it to one of your boards. And there are many websites with built-in functions that allow you to quickly and easily turn their content into pins for Pinterest!
4. Connect with friends by linking your personal account to other social networks.
Your Pinterest account can be connected to your accounts on other social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. If you do this, you can find your friends who are already on Pinterest, and then share pins or collaborate on boards together. You can even go the other way and share the things that you find with your other social networks!
Is Pinterest safe?
Pinterest is about as safe to use as other social media websites. It requires little personal information (and no financial information) to create an account, and requires password-protected sign-ins to use. You can also adjust your privacy settings in order to control how much you interact with other users.
One thing you may consider before using the website is that user identities cannot be verified. This means that anyone can appear as they like, and potentially involve other users in scams by tricking them into revealing personal information. Occasionally, fake pins advertising giveaways or contests appear on the website, so exercise caution. Question pins that appear to be ‘too good to be true,’ as they likely are.
To learn more about how to stay safe, be sure to check out our article on Pinterest safety. There, we have 5 key tips for staying safe while using Pinterest.
Pinterest pros and cons
Pinterest has become popular quickly for good reason, and here are some of our favorite reasons to use it:
- It’s completely free to use, even for businesses, and it helps you keep yourself organized when browsing the Internet.
- Whenever you find those great ideas, recipes, or other things that you generally need to remember, you can save, organize, and visualize them all!
- You can also share your boards and pins with your friends, as well as connect your Pinterest account to the rest of your social media accounts.
- Searching for ideas is so easy, especially since the guided search helps you easily add and remove keywords as you go.
On the other side of things:
- Pinterest can end up being quite time consuming, as it’s easy to get lost in all the content and ideas. Be sure you watch how much time you’re spending browsing!
- Remember that boards are by-and-large public, so be very mindful of what you put out on the website.
- Unless you make your boards secret, anyone who has an account can see what's on them, such as your friends, family members, and even strangers all over the world.
Pinterest competitors
There are a few websites out there that you may prefer if Pinterest has too many features that you don't like. One of the most popular ones is Fancy.com, which allows its users to instantly buy many of the bookmarked items that they find. WeHeartIt.com is another alternative that is used primarily for inspiration; “heart” posts that move you and participate in a large community of positivity. Trippy.com is another similar website, but focuses on planning trips and finding vacation destinations. If you’re finding the same things on Pinterest over and over and are looking for a change, one of these sites may be for you.
As you can see, Pinterest is both a way to collect interesting things to look at, as well as a social network with which to share and work together with friends (both old and new). Best of all, it's safe, easy to use, and absolutely free! The rest of our course will show you how to use the website by setting up an account and getting inspired about things to collect, creating different types of boards, creating pins in different ways, and searching and adjusting your settings.
We can teach you all about how to sign up, how boards work, and how to pin. We can also set you up by teaching you how to change your settings, how to search better, and what other similar websites are out there for you. Your free Internet scrapbook is waiting! What memories will you keep — or make — on Pinterest?
