You’ve probably seen mention recently of Pinterest.com. Pinterest is “a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.” The site has grown from about 40k users in 2010 to ~3.2 million users as of October 2011. It’s invite only, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing it down. I recently requested and quickly got an invite, so if you want in, just request an invite from the site or ask a friend, who is already a member, to send you an invite. (I’m also happy to send you an invite – email me rgecweb at gmail.com)
First, here are a couple of definitions (from Pinterest.com):
Pin – “an image added to Pinterest. A pin can be a dded from a website using the Pin It button, or you can upload images from your computer. Each pin added using the Pin It button links back to the site it came from.”
Board – “a set of pins. A board can be created on any topic, such as Cool Posters, Recipes For Dinner, or Wishlist. You can add as many pins to a board as you want.”
Following – “Following All means you’ll have all of a user’s pins on all their boards shown to you in real-time on Pinterest. If the user makes new boards, you will automatically follow them. You can follow individual boards if you’re only interested in seeing a user’s pins to specific boards. You can unfollow boards and users at any time: they will not be notified.”
Tip #1 – Install the Pin It Button – the button is cool little tool that you can easily add to your browser – it makes “pinning” things super easy – you can find out more about this and other “goodies” like the iPhone app and website badges here -> http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/
Tip #2 – Create a few boards – my suggestion here is to make your own boards. Your original profile will have some generic / preset boards, but I think Pinterest works best if you personalize it from the start. I created and pinned items to the following boards when I first set-up my profile: Quote Art, Things, Style, Books-Music-Movies, Calendars (yes, I know, this one is a surprise), and Infographics.
Tip #3 – Use for Lists – I’m not really doing this one yet, but I’ve already seem others using Pinterest to build lists. For example, someone planning a wedding might use it to build lists of ideas with each board being a different subject. i.e. Cakes, Dresses, Flowers, Honeymoon spots – you get the point
Tip #4 (For Brands) – Share Product Images – OK, I know that some of you will say something like “keep you business pushing capitalist heathen crap off of my social media,” but you know it is going to happen, so just don’t follow or stop following any brands that bug you in any way on any of your social channels. I think Pinterest gives businesses a neat opportunity to share product images. It could give fans of a brand a different / image heavy means to browse products and since the images are linked back to the source, it’s easy to move from viewing image to viewing more info on or even buying the product. Brands could also use Pinterest to spot trends, styles, and get new product ideas.
Tip #5 Just give it a try – no need to submerge yourself in this. Just give it a try, set up a few boards, pin a few items, browse the Pinterest homepage -> you might get inspired.
What Pinterest tips do you have? Please post a comment to share your tips.
