It’s pretty safe to assume that if you have spent the last couple of weeks on this earth then you will have heard of the new social media phenomenon that is Pinterest. But what is it and what’s it all about? This blog aims to answer just that and to highlight the main features that Pinterest can offer.
First of all to access Pinterest you will need either to be invited to use it by a current user or to request an invitation from the site yourself to get started. Don’t worry, I haven’t heard of anyone who has been rejected yet so this seems a simple formality. Once invited you can sign in with either your Facebook or Twitter account. This is great as it means you can share content with three social media platforms at the same time, to reach three different audiences.
The whole idea behind Pinterest is that users create boards. Pinterest will suggest some boards for you but you can also create your own. Once you have set up your boards you then add the Pin It bookmarklet to your toolbar. Then you can start populating or pinning stuff to your boards. For example, if you see a funny video and want to share it on your comedy board, click Pin It on your toolbar. It will then ask you what board you would like to pin it to, so you can select comedy, give the item a description and away you go. That video will be added to that board.
You can classify your pictures and videos too. For example if you like black and white images you can search for “black and white images” in the Pinterest search tab and all the images within Pinterest that have been placed in this category will come up.
Like Google+ and Twitter, Pinterest encourages following. You can follow anyone and anyone can follow you. You can re-pin content and your content can also be re-pinned by somebody else. Pinterest has aspects of all three of the major social media, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You are encouraged to comment on other peoples’ boards and to share content
that you like.
The only criticism I have of Pinterest is that it seems to offer little value to businesses; it’s more a place to share funny or cool videos you have found rather than your own pictures or videos. It’s a media sharing social media and although a business page sharing cool content will be noticed, this is not the place to focus too much of your social media efforts on.
This is a very brief overview of Pinterest, but the best way to understand it is to request an invitation and have a go yourself. Just like all other social media it will keep changing and adapting its features to match its users’ requirements. Let us know what you think of the newest member of the social media ocean.
Tags: Bookmarklet, how to set up pinterest, Pinned, pinterest, Pintrest, Social Media, what is pinterest, What is Pintrest
