What Is Pinterest And How To Use It

In the last few years, Pinterest has transformed from social network lightweight to one of the biggest names in the industry. The scrapbook-similar social network has blown up since its 2010 inception, quietly collecting millions of unique company, while continually adding intuitive features. It'southward a tool for inspiration and brainstorming — amongst other things — and serves as a means of sharing and exploring visual content from like-minded individuals around the globe.

The site'due south massive growth is, in part, due to a search algorithm that compiles unexpected results. Pinterest claims that the assortment of interesting results tin inspire users to, say, make a new kind of martini than the one they originally intended. What's more, the platform'due south advertisers jumped from zero to 500,000 in a twelvemonth, allowing you to purchase the mode accessories and dwelling decor you run across from directly within the app.

That said, learning the ins and outs of the site may not be straightforward, even if you are tech-savvy. This guide should assist you lot spend less fourth dimension fumbling through horrendous boards and more fourth dimension pinning bluish-ribbon offerings of your own. Read on for all the details.

Getting started

Join Pinterest

Information technology should go without proverb, but you demand to activate a Pinterest account before you can use the social networking site. The service is entirely free to apply, and setting up a profile takes less than two minutes of your time, whether you opt for the the service's spider web or mobile offer.

Step 1: Head over to Pinterest —Navigate to Pinterest, or download the app on your iOS or Android device.

Step two: Sign upwards with Pinterest —Cull whether you'd similar to sign upwardly using your Facebook account or email accost. If you select the Facebook option, enter your login credentials and let the site to access your basic account info, electronic mail address, birthday, and other information like you would any other app. If yous select the email option, enter your name and email address in the resulting text fields prior to specifying your password and gender.

Footstep iii: Verify your Pinterest account —Check the email business relationship you registered with for a confirmation email. In one case institute, click the rubyConfirm Your Electronic mailpush button to verify your account.

Stride 4: Tweak your settings —Click the person icon in the upper-right corner of the Pinterest taskbar on a desktop reckoner, or in the lower-right portion of the mobile app. The settings options are indicated by a commodities icon, which is located in the upper-right corner of the mobile app or but above your name in the desktop version. Once there, you can edit various components of your user profile, such as your bio, photo, search privacy, and location. You can also use the panel to opt out of email notifications and link your Pinterest contour with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other popular services.

Learn the Pinterest lingo

Terminology is key to properly navigating any website, and Pinterest has lingo you should larn if yous'd rather not remain in the night regarding the site's various functions and features. Many of them are like to those you would notice on Facebook or Twitter, just in that location are few exceptions you should familiarize yourself with before pressing forward.

Boards:In a way, Pinterest boards are much like the deteriorating cork boards of yesteryear. The virtual walls, which are typically content-specific, provide a space where yous can mail various images and articles you'd like to both organize and share with others. Boards office in a similar manner to your Facebook Timeline, yet they nowadays content in an organized grid that makes it far simpler to find specific posts. Boards likewise help keep your recipes from your dwelling house decor ideas to make them easier to find later. The arrangement scheme is entirely up to you, whether you want to categorize all recipes under one board or divvy them up then as to keep the dessert ideas from the dinner fanfare.
Pins:Pins are single photos — and occasionally videos — that typically link to a website, serving as visual bookmarks detailing everything from y'all favorite lasagna recipe to popular picture show trailers. The posts are substantially the site's namesake and the means by which you share your content. You "pin" something to your board every bit y'all would postal service on Facebook or tweet on Twitter, except pins take on a larger visual chemical element than posts on other social networks.
Repins:If yous're an gorging Twitter user, yous tin think of repins equally retweets. Repinning content allows you to share others' pins on your own board, while showing your appreciation for others' finds and adorning the appropriate board with content other than your own.
Comments:As you might expect, comments are merely another way you tin provide feedback or respond to a detail pin. Comments on Pinterest work much like they do on other social media sites, simply unlike Facebook and Instagram, they're far less pervasive and encapsulate only text.
Likes:Again, likes on Pinterest are similar to those found on a bevy of pop social networks. If you "similar" a item pin, you can testify your interest and refer back to it afterward without having post the content on your own wall. Unfortunately, still, in that location'south no dislike button to show your apparent lack of interest.

Empathize the taskbar

The Pinterest taskbar is the convenient navigation bar spanning the width of the site, conveniently located at the acme of every page in the desktop version and at the bottom of the mobile app. The majority of the desktop toolbar is taken up by a search field, where you tin go as specific as you want or just search for general terms. When you lot begin typing a term, you'll go a list of suggested search terms, along with Pinners that have that term in their name and boards using said term.

To the correct of the search bar, yous'll encounter four different shortcut icons. The beginning — shaped like a compass — brings you to the "Explore" section on Pinterest, which brings up the trending topics of the day by default. This is where y'all become if yous're not looking for something specific but rather inspiration. If y'all're looking for a recipe for great pizza crust, utilize the search bar, but if y'all need some dinner inspiration, click the Explore icon and navigate to the "food" category.

The 2d icon takes yous to your contour — head hither if you want to find something that you've already pinned or want to adjust your business relationship settings. The third icon, which looks like a shopping bag, allows you to shop without leaving Pinterest. Substantially, this is y'all Pinterest "cart," where you go to finalize whatsoever purchases. The final icon — aka, the conversation bubble — reveals your notifications, then you lot tin meet what your friends pinned or who re-pinned or liked your pins.

If you click on the Pinterest logo on the left-paw side of the toolbar, you'll be taken to your Pinterest "home" — retrieve of it like your Facebook News Feed, but on Pinterest. Hither, yous'll run across new pins added to the boards you follow, or from other users you follow. The site's algorithms will also add suggestions hither based on the things that you've searched for or pinned in the by, every bit well equally the occasional sponsored mail.

In the mobile app, the icons mean the aforementioned thing, just they're located at the bottom. Instead of a search bar, you'll have to tap the magnifying glass icon to access the app'due south search functionality. The shopping bag icon isn't in the toolbar, either, only you tin observe it after clicking your contour.

Link your other social networks

To say everything is connected these days would be an understatement. Although Pinterest is a terrific platform on its ain, the social aspect of the service works best when you lot tether information technology with other existing accounts. To link the service with other social media accounts, click the person icon and navigate to your settings. Once there, toggle the switch directly correct of the social network yous wish to connect Pinterest with, inbound the necessary login credentials and authorizing the app when prompted.

Add together friends

Social networks are all about who yous know (to a certain extent), and while Pinterest is less virtually sharing personal aspects from your twenty-four hour period and more nigh sharing discoveries on the web, friends are still an important part of the platform. Although Pinterest recently removed the ability to instantly add your Facebook friends when the 2 accounts are linked, you can still discover other users using the search bar. Y'all tin can search past username or existent name — just click the profile and red "follow" button once found.

Engaging with others

Follow other boards

Although Pinterest volition recommend some prospective boards when you starting time sign upwardly for an business relationship, those boards are non always catered toward your individual tastes. While yous can ever follow friends, yous tin also follow a wealth of content from other Pinterest users, publications, and companies. To practise and then, search for a particular topic in the search field of the desktop taskbar, or by tapping the magnifying drinking glass icon in the mobile app. In the desktop version, yous can likewise tap the compass icon to search for new boards to follow.

The girth of topics is diverse, ranging from architecture and applied science to photography and food, with additional boards housed within theOther section.You tin can even browse trending topics, or choose one of the many boards based on a specific location (i.e., San Francisco, Stockholm, Montana). To follow a new board, tap beneath the pivot on the user that shared the icon, which will take y'all to that board, where you tin can tap "follow" on the following screen. If you'd rather follow all of the user's pins instead of a single board, click the user's contour from that board, then the follow button on the user's contour. If y'all follow a board, yous'll only see new posts to that board, but if you follow a user, you'll see that person's posts across every public board they use.

Create your ain unique boards

At that place's zilch wrong with pinning every rustic table, workout video, and travel destination you like on a board labeledme. That said, Pinterest's organizational capabilities allow y'all to create lots of interesting and distinct boards that encapsulate and organize pins based on your unique interests. Your boards are the foundation on which the social network is built, and such beingness the case, you lot'll want to build boards others desire to follow. You can make boards as broad or as specific as yous'd like, but information technology'due south often improve to lean toward the niche topics if you desire your board to pick up traction. A lath covering sports photography equally a whole is mostly less enticing than ane covering a item niche, such as rock climbing in the Pacific Northwest. Thankfully, Pinterest allows users to create up to 500 individual boards.

The simplest style to create a lath is to click the red "relieve" icon on a pin you like, a method that works in both the app and desktop version of Pinterest. In the resulting popular-upwardly window, you'll run across any existing boards equally well as the option to create a new board at the lesser. Next, all y'all accept to exercise is give the board a name and make up one's mind whether yous desire the board to be public or secret. Using secret boards takes out the social aspect of Pinterest, but it'due south kind of essential when it comes to saving ideas for a surprise birthday political party or planning a pregnancy announcement. If you lot want, you can also type in a description of the board, simply information technology's not required.

You tin can also create boards by navigating to your profile — once again, it's the person icon in the toolbar — and selecting Create A Board. Here, you can also rename or delete a board, or even invite other users to add to your board.

Pivot and re-pivot content

No board, or contour, is consummate without a smattering of pins. That said, you want fill your boards with appropriate pins that encapsulate the idea or concept backside your board. Peruse existing pins, whether using the site'south search role or the various board categories, and click the redPin itbutton in the upper-left corner when hovering over an image you want to pin to one of yous boards. You lot will then need to specify which lath you want to pin said content to and, if y'all want, provide a clarification for the pin.

In the mobile app, you tin as well click the pocket-size circle icon in the corner of a pivot and Pinterest will show yous relevant pins in the aforementioned window. The feature is handy for diving deeper into a pin that you similar, or if something is close to simply non exactly what you want.

While Pinterest is a bully tool for discovering content you may not have otherwise come beyond, it's likewise a slap-up tool for saving the things you meet while web browsing, since it saves a visual reference, notes, and the web address. In the case of websites that utilise a Pinterest widget, you typically only demand to click the Pinterest button when viewing the sharing options to designate the appropriate lath and provide an apt description.

If a website doesn't have the "Pin information technology" button, yous tin can add it past navigating to your contour in the app and clicking the plus icon. Re-create and paste the URL into the field and once the page loads, click the red "Save" icon at the top. Then, you'll see a listing of all the images on that page — just select the image yous desire to pin. Afterward, you just need to pick a board and write a brief description, or just use the ane that'south supplied.

In the desktop version, you don't even demand to navigate to your contour to add together a pin — there's a minor addition sign hovering in the lower-right corner. Click that, copy and paste the URL, click Next, and select the image you lot want to pin.

If you prefer, you can also upload your own photo. To do so, click the addition sign and then the photo option, rather than thewebsiteoption. Keep in mind that if you upload a pivot directly, however, in that location's no website for users to find more information.

Socialize with other Pinners

Sharing is the crux of Pinterest. Beginning and foremost, this is asocial site and not a dusty scrapbook. Thankfully, yous can call attention to a specific user the way you would using Twitter or Instagram by entering "@mention"in the pin description, which will send the user a notification. Similarly, you lot tin can label your pins with specific hashtags, further designating your content and making it easier for people to discover your pins and follow your boards.

You tin can also "like" and comment on pins you'd rather non post yourself in a similar style to other social networks. Simply click the gray eye button when viewing a pin to "like" information technology, or enter your comment in the text field beneath the pivot and click the redCommentbutton to add to the conversation. When viewing a pin, you tin can also click the Send push button to ship the pin to a boyfriend user.

Pinterest is also a social network designed for trying out a recipe or DIY project — and the interaction options reflect this. Afterward clicking to view a pin, y'all'll see a "Tried it!" icon at the elevation. This is where you go to rave virtually the aforementioned chaff recipe, or talk most how information technology needed more flour than the recipe originally chosen for. If you want to come across what other users that accept tried it are proverb, you can tap "#Tried It" underneath the pin to read their responses. Of course, Pinterest has no style to vet out the users that didn't actually try the project, only the feature however tends to be helpful.

Avant-garde techniques

Searching with Pinterest Lens

Pinterest Lens is a recent addition to the mobile app that allows you to accept a picture of an object and, using artificial intelligence and object recognition applied science, generate like pins. Say you run across something you lot beloved at a domicile decor shop, just information technology's besides expensive. Y'all tin can snap a moving-picture show and Pinterest will find similar items, including DIY versions and online stores that sell similar products. Pretty sweetness, huh?

Lens also allows you to search for more than specific items, or for things that you can't describe in words. The characteristic will identify what the object is, and so gene in things such as color, style, and design when determining which results to evidence offset. Given it's a new feature, Lens doesn't work beyond every topic — just home decor, apparel, and food — but we await to see more than as Pinterest irons out the kinks.

Lens is only attainable through the mobile app, since you need a device with a camera to use it. In the app, navigate to the search tab and tap the ruby-red camera icon next to the search bar. You'll need to give the app permission to admission your camera. Then, just point the camera at the item in question, snap a photo, and Lens volition generate similar pins using the visual starting point instead of a text keyword. If the results weren't particularly accurate, tap the addition sign and enter what the camera should take picked up to help meliorate the feature.

Shopping on Pinterest

Pinterest is no longer just for gleaning inspiration — it's likewise a terrific tool for making purchases. Buyable pins are pins from businesses that allow you to buy an item in question without leaving the platform. This ways you lot tin buy the shoes for an outfit from one seller and the top from some other, without navigating to another storefront. You will, however, take to check out separately if using different sellers, merely yous tin can choose to salve your address and payment data for faster checkouts.

When working with a buyable pin, instead of icons to visit the website, you'll come across an option for adding the item to your bag. If you're searching for an detail where buyable pins are bachelor, Pinterest will also listing buyable pins at the top and you tin can click See More to eliminate anything yous can't buy straight on Pinterest. After choosing to add together an item to your cart, you'll be asked to select any options — size, color, etc. — if they be.

Once you've finished shopping, navigate to your contour and click the shopping bag icon, which is available in the toolbar in the desktop version of Pinterest and on the profile page in the mobile version. From here, you can fill out your shipping and billing information and consummate your gild.

Add thePin It push

Not every site on the web provides quick-hit options for pinning content to your desired board. Thankfully, calculation thePin Itbutton will allow you to pin a item image to your board with a single click. To add together the button to your browser, navigate to the Pinterest Goodies folio from inside the browser of your selection and click the redInstall Nowpush button. Once installed, click the scarlet "P" in the top-right corner of your browser window, or hover over an epitome and click the resultingPin Information technologypush to automatically pin something to your desired board. For frequent pinners, this simplifies the process of saving a pivot you've discovered outside of the Pinterest platform.

Embedding a pivot

Much like on Facebook or Instagram, if you desire to embed a pin to your website, you can do so in Pinterest by copying and pasting the code into the HTML. To admission a pivot's HTML lawmaking, navigate to the pivot and click the three dots abreast the Tried it! icon before clickingEmbed. In the next window, you can choose whether to embed the pin, lath, or fifty-fifty the contour. Hither, you'll as well have the option to embed a button, thus encouraging new followers and pins from your website. Once you've selected the options and size, y'all'll see a preview. Below that, you lot tin can copy the code to create the embed.

This article was updated on May 17, 2017 by Hillary Grigonis to include the latest Pinterest features and navigation.

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