What is Pinterest, and Why You Should Care
Business Technology | March 14, 2012
Tired of social media? Ignoring it all together? Well, get on the bandwagon, because it’s not going away! In fact a brand new site recently popped up that is becoming popular: Pinterest. Pinterest is a bit different than sites like Facebook and Twitter, since it focuses purely on the interests of the users. This encourages creativity by allowing you to share your interests with other people instead of just posting updates about your day-to-day life.
But what exactly is it all about? The name of the website is a hint. Pinterest is a combination of the words “pin” and “interest”. Once you’ve got a Pinterest account you literally create “pinboards” and “pin” images of stuff you like or have an interest in, building a collage of your tastes.
Creating Pinterest Categories
For example, you might make the category convertibles. Then you can paste any images you can find online of the new Volkswagen Beetle convertible, along with a link to the page where you found them. You can also attach any photos of convertibles that you took yourself as well as add notes to these images. You can then share these pinboards with other Pinterest users.
The Social Part of Pinterest
Just like Facebook and Twitter, you can choose to follow coworkers and friends. You do not have to follow all of a friend’s collections; for instance, you can decide to follow only their collection of art, while choosing not to follow the restaurants they enjoy in their area.
Joining Pinterest
This is the most difficult part about Pinterest. You must be invited to join. You can go to pinterest.com and request an invite but there’s no telling how long it will take to get your invitation. One surefire approach is to ask a friend that has a Pinterest account to invite you.
Tired of social media? Ignoring it all together? Well, get on the bandwagon, because it’s not going away! In fact a brand new site recently popped up that is becoming popular: Pinterest. Pinterest is a bit different than sites like Facebook and Twitter, since it focuses purely on the interests of the users. This encourages creativity by allowing you to share your interests with other people instead of just posting updates about your day-to-day life.
But what exactly is it all about? The name of the website is a hint. Pinterest is a combination of the words “pin” and “interest”. Once you’ve got a Pinterest account you literally create “pinboards” and “pin” images of stuff you like or have an interest in, building a collage of your tastes.
Creating Pinterest Categories
For example, you might make the category convertibles. Then you can paste any images you can find online of the new Volkswagen Beetle convertible, along with a link to the page where you found them. You can also attach any photos of convertibles that you took yourself as well as add notes to these images. You can then share these pinboards with other Pinterest users.
The Social Part of Pinterest
Just like Facebook and Twitter, you can choose to follow coworkers and friends. You do not have to follow all of a friend’s collections; for instance, you can decide to follow only their collection of art, while choosing not to follow the restaurants they enjoy in their area.
Joining Pinterest
This is the most difficult part about Pinterest. You must be invited to join. You can go to pinterest.com and request an invite but there’s no telling how long it will take to get your invitation. One surefire approach is to ask a friend that has a Pinterest account to invite you.