I wrote an article on how to use pinterest. You can read the original article here with links if you'd like:
http://www.soapdelinews.com/2011/07/pinterest-creative-new-way-to-bookmark.htmlIf you're a regular reader of Soap Deli News, you know I've mentioned my boards on Pinterest in a few of my blog posts as places you can go to discover more topic related craft projects and recipes. But just what is Pinterest? Aside of being one of my new favorite finds, Pinterest is a new kind of social bookmarking that allows you to share your bookmarks as well as plan things like weddings and birthdays or even decorating your home, planning your wardrobe or keeping track of the books you want to read or have read and would like to share with others.
Described as a Virtual Pinboard, Pinterest is my favorite new way to bookmark and share any and everything I love on the web. As long as the web page has a photo, you can pin it! (Though if there is no photo you can upload your own.) I like that it gives me an overall view at a glance of everything I have pinned with photo thumbnails. It makes it quick and easy to find things again and to organize my pins into categories for visual reference. This is especially handy when planning things like weddings and birthdays or decorating your home or restyling your closet. But I also like it for planning out blog articles or finding inspiration.
The trick to pinning, is to pin things you've found - that you like, of course! - to boards that you create. Each board is unique. While you are given a handful of blank boards to start with such as Products I Love, My Style Pinboard, Favorite Places and Spaces, and Books To Read, you can easily delete any boards you don't need and create ones that you do! You can be as broad or as specific as you like with your boards so you can have general categories for DIY Craft Projects or create more specific boards such as DIY Paper Crafts. This is also great for recipes! You can categorize boards for desserts, dinner, lunch, and appetizers to find things easily the next time you refer to Pinterest for reference in case you need to say, plan for a last minute dinner party. You can also create wishlists of things you want to buy or that you're looking for others to buy for you for holidays and events.
You can pin anything you find on the web with a photo. So whether it's an ecommerce site that showcases those shoes you love or a blog with a home decorating idea or tip, you can save it for an organized pictorial reference later on. There are currently two ways to pin - or bookmark - your favorites. You can either visit the Add a Pin page under Add and manually insert the url you wish to bookmark. This also allows you to choose the board you wish to add it to - you can add boards under Add as well - and a description. If for any reason, the page you want to bookmark does not have a photo you can upload a photo from your computer with this option. Alternately - and this is my method of pinning my favorites - you can drag the Pin It link to your browser toolbar and easily pin any page you happen to be on without ever leaving the page by simply clicking the Pin It button on your toolbar. It allows you to choose a photo from the page, your category and add a description. When adding a pin, you also have the options of auto-tweeting or auto-sharing your pin on facebook.
In addition to collecting your pins, you can also share your pins with others by allowing others on Pinterest to follow you. You can also follow other Pinterest members' boards that you find appealing and when you visit Pinterest you will see the latest pins from the boards you choose to follow. Alternately, you can also discover new pins by browsing their topics found under Everything - which is everything from Art + Architecture to Film + Music + Books to Fashion - or browse by Gifts. There's also a terrific search function that shows you what you are looking for. Search results are shown with the latest pin in that topic first so you always see the freshest pins. For easier browsing, you can tag your pins with keywords by using a hash mark (#) before each word or designate products for sale by including the price with a dollar sign ($) before the price.
Pinterest is still relatively new so right now you can either sign up by requesting an invite or receiving an invite from someone you know. Once you have an invite you can easily join by manually creating a new account or signing up automatically through your facebook or twitter accounts. I hope you'll consider visiting my boards on Pinterest and giving me a follow once you've signed up. You can find me here. Some of my boards include DIY Bath and Body, Jonesing for Crafts, Pretty Packaging, Printables, and Office Organization. In total I currently have 24 boards and 1,070 pins. And that number somehow just keeps growing. Maybe because aside of being such a great tool, it's also pretty addicting. And apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. Pinterest gains millions of new pins every week from people all over the world. So be sure to check it out for yourself, request an invite and sign up! You'll love it!
