What Is Pinterest? A Tutorial

Over the holidays, I was talking to some relatives about Pinterest and was trying to explain how cool and addicting it is. They just didn’t seem to get it though – until I brought them to the computer and showed them. Then there were “oohs” and “aahs” all around.

For this post I blurred out member names and avatars for privacy.

I remember when I first started on Pinterest, I didn’t get it and had no idea what I was doing. It’s actually not that difficult of a concept, but sometimes for a beginner it can be a little confusing. I’m now officially addicted to Pinterest, so I thought I’d write up a simple tutorial and help others enjoy the fun.

What is Pinterest?

In their help page, Pinterest says it best:

Once you open a Pinterest account you can browse all of the “pins” which are images and videos that your followers have pinned. So it’s like a Facebook wall or Twitter stream, but for pictures and video clips.

And even better, there’s no real interaction required. You can sit back and look through thousands of recipe ideas, holiday decorating suggestions, inspiring quotes, diy projects and you don’t have to say boo to anyone.

You can create boards for all kinds of things. Here’s a look at some of mine:

First Things First

Signing up for Pinterest – to sign up for Pinterest you need an invite. You can request one on the Pinterest home page or feel free to leave me a comment below requesting an invite, I’ll be happy to send a few if there’s interest.

After you’ve been invited to Pinterest, you need to set up a profile. First, you must sign in through your Facebook or Twitter account.

Setting up your profile – creating your profile is simple. Just fill out the information requested, upload a picture of yourself, and you are ready to start browsing!

What Is A Pin?

Your Pinterest home page will be filled with lots of thumbnails of pins (see the first image in this post). A pin is an picture or video that someone has added to Pinterest. If you click on the pin, a new page opens up with more information telling you a bit more about the pin including: how it was pinned, who likes it, and who repinned it.

Pinterest Pin

The fun part of Pinterest is that every pin is linked to the site from which it was found. So if you see a picture of a recipe you’re interested in, you click it (and it opens like the turkey pancake pin above), then click it again and you are taken right to the original site.

Clicking the Pin picture opens the link for the original site.

One recommendation I make here is when you are on the home page with all the thumbnails and you see a pin you like, right click the image first and then open it in a new tab or window. That way you can go right back to where you were after you’re done checking out that recipe, craft idea, or up-do tutorial and won’t lose your place.

What Is A Board?

A board is just like a bulletin board or folder. It a place to store and organize all of your pins. When you start out Pinterest creates 5 boards for you:

• Products I Love
• Favorite Places & Spaces
• Books Worth Reading
• My Style
• For The Home

Feel free to change the names of those boards by clicking the edit button below each board. And, of course, add new ones as you like.

Here’s a look at my Christmas Board:

People have Boards dedicated to everything imaginable including: holiday ideas, Disney trips, cupcakes, hair ideas, fitness inspiration, shoes, coffee, beauty tips, Elf on the Shelf ideas, photography tips, cats, dogs, bucket lists, kid stuff, craft ideas, diy projects, and much, much more.

What Is A Repin?

Whenever you like something that someone has shared in Pinterest and you want to save it to one of your Boards, simply click the “Repin” button at the top of the image. If you are viewing a thumbnail of the image hover your mouse over the image and the “Repin” button will show up, if you’ve opened the image in the full-size view the “Repin” button will be at the top.

After you click “Repin” a new box will pop up with the image in it. Select which Board you’d like to save it in, change the description if you’d like or leave it the same, and then click “Pin It.”

Now that pin is saved to your Board for later reference. Pretty simple!

The pin will also be shared with your followers and it will retain the link, so if anyone clicks it they will be taken to the original site too.

Liking A Pin

If you click “Like, the pin will be added to your Likes – it will not be added to your Boards.

How To Get More Pins To Appear

When I first started on Pinterest, I only followed a few people. I became frustrated because nothing new ever showed up. Then it hit me, the more people I follow the more pins I’ll see.

Also, another way to see new pins is by hovering over the “Everything” tag just below the Pinterest logo on the home page. All kinds of categories pop up and you can browse pins in every category there as well. These are pins from everyone on Pinterest, not just those you follow so you’ll see a wide variety here.

You’ll notice there’s also a “Videos” tag if you just want to browse videos and the “Popular” tag is always fun too. It’s full of pins that many people have repinned, so you’ll find lots of great ideas there. There is also the “Gifts” tag with a wide variety of gift ideas broken down by price.

Also the search box at the top left is a great resource when you are looking for something in particular. I typed in Valentine’s Day and here’s just a few of the results:

How To Add Pins

The easiest and most fun way to add pins is through the “Pin It” Button.

You can put the “Pin It” button right in your internet browser toolbar. See it there below the home icon on my toolbar?

Now whenever you are visiting blogs or other sites and see something you would like to add to Pinterest simply click the “Pin It” button. This will pull up all of the images on the site page and you select which one you like best. Next just type a description and then click “Pin It!” That’s it, you’re done.

It’s easy to install and instructions can be found on the Pinterest Help page here.

Misc.

There are a two other things to know about Pinterest.

• If you put the “@” symbol before the username of someone you are following it will mention the pin to them.
• If you put the price of something in the pin description it will include the price in a banner over the image.

That’s all you need to know about Pinterest! If you have any questions, feel free to ask away in the comments. If you’d like an invite also feel free to request one below. And if you are already on Pinterest you can follow me at https://pinterest.com/2wired2tired/. I’ll be happy to follow back!

Happy Pinning!

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