What is Pinterest?
Pinterest seems to be the latest craze in social media platforms. For me, it's like having all of your favorite pages of magazines in one spot. The virtual bulletin board are images that you compile of your interests and then categorize them on a board.
Warning: Pinterest is full of good ideas and browsing can become addictive, so it's not something you want to check out at work. You'll probably follow people who you do not even know because you will like their ideas.
Although Pinterest has been around for nearly two years, it's become increasingly popular in the Fayetteville and Fort Bragg community over the last couple of months. In December, Pinterest became one of the Web's Top 10 social networks, according to tracking firm Hitwise.
Terms:
Pin: A pin is an image added to Pinterest. You can link to an image from a Web site or upload an image from your computer. Pins can include captions, that are your thoughts like: "I could make this easily"
Repin: Once something is pinned, it can then be repinned by other Pinterest users. This is how content spreads virally. If you see something you like on Pinterest.com, repin it to share it with your friends.
Board: This is where your pins live. You can have separate boards for subjects such as a food, your dream home, kids stuff (mine is titled 'rugrats'), or hobby related boards for photography, art, even news.
How to follow
Build a list of people to follow on Pinterest starting with your friends that you feel share like interests with you. This will impact what appears on your homepage.
Users can follow all of a user's boards or just a single board. Linking Pinterest to Facebook lets a user see quickly which of his or her Facebook friends are on the social network.
How to get an account
Pinterest technically is still open to invited users only, which is how I got started. But, you can request an invite at www.pinterest.com and one should be sent to you very quickly.
Happy browsing. Don't despise me for recommending this to you.
(Editor's Note: This appeared on Fort Bragg Patch and editor Kelly Twedell kindly agreed to share for those of us who are Pinterest challenged!)
