Why Pinterest?
When I heard about Pinterest about 6 months ago and joined it, I didn't have a clue about it and simply thought, "Yikes, another social media thing to learn and use for business". Guess what??? I am addicted to Pinterest for my own personal use and only occasionally will share something from Beads and Dangles on a board related to my Pandora style beads business.
What is Pinterest?
I
think of Pinterest as the best bookmark ever for anything found on the
internet. How many times have you surfed and found something you just
loved on a website? Did you email yourself a link to that page and then
have to find it in your mailbox weeks later? Or worse yet, not find that link again at all? Pinterest is the ultimate organizer of all the things you find on the internet that you want to easily find again!!!
Pinterest
can be your own personal pin board or you can choose to have others post to your boards. Simply create
several boards according to your special interests and you will know exactly
where to go when you want to revisit those pictures that caught your
attention in the first place.
Pinterest is pure eye candy! Make it your own by creating boards that reflect your interests. They can be ANYTHING!!!! I love inspirational quotes, that was one of my first boards. I also love healthy eating so that was another. Everyone loves to read about being more organized, so that's another suggestion. More about category choices in a minute.
Pinterest is by "invitation" to join, but simply visit our home page on the website, www.beadsanddangles.com or click this link, Beads and Dangles, and find the Pinterest "follow me" banner. Just fill out the request form and you will be
invited by submitting your email request through the link.
There are some great "Getting Started" tips in the HELP section which you can read at your leisure, but here are some things that I wanted to share with you.
Pin It Button is a must
It's easy to install on your browser bar and the Pin It link is what you will use to "bookmark" your favorite things on to your boards. Here's a link to the video tutorial on installing the Pin It button to your browser bar. Pin It images from websites often referred to as a "bookmarklet links" because the source of the image when pinned with this button will always be retained, no matter how many times it is re-pinned.
So, now picture yourself on Beads and Dangles website where you love the beads just posted in New Arrivals. Click on the Pin It button you just installed and you will get an array of all the images that the internet has just found on the page you are on. Scroll over all the images and when you find the one you want to post to your board, click the Pin It logo on the center of that picture. A dialog box will open from our Pinterest home page and you get to select the board you want to pin it to.
As you run your cursor over the images, the Pin It button appears and when you find your favorite, just click the button.
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| http://pinterest.com/marjisbeads |
What happens next
Almost there. You now have a chance to write a description (up to 500 characters, so be specific about what you are seeing, put in links to websites if you like, and before you hit Pin It, please note that Pinterest always opens to the last used Board, so be sure to check the drop down menu and select the board you really want to use!
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| http://pinterest.com/marjisbeads/pandora-animal-beads/ |
Select Twitter if you also want to Tweet it, or just hit Pin It and your board now has a new item.
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| http://pinterest.com/marjisbeads/ |
Here's my home page. Pinterest will add the boards you have most recently created to the top left position. I have not re-arranged mine yet, but I believe it is quite easily done. Also easily changed are the pictures which are featured as the main image. Just click on edit and not only can you add lots of text describing the board but this is where you will switch leading pictures.
You can also decide whether to allow others to pin to your board or keep it just to yourself.
It's all in the HELP section, but here's a quick reference: To add contributors to a board, go to that board and click the Edit button in the top-right corner. Change the setting from "Just Me" to "Me + Contributors".
Naming Categories
I started out with just a few very broadly-named categories and then as I found more fun things to pin, I transitioned them from "Healthy Eating" to more specific categories that really interested me like "Smoothies", "Quinoa", "Chocolate", etc. You can't do anything wrong on Pinterest when it comes to category choices and you can add, edit or delete anything. Michaels.com has a Pinterest page with what feels like a gazillion boards, so just have fun
Pins, Repins, Likes, Comments
A "pin" is any image you post to a board and it can come from a website using the Pin It button in which case it always is linked back to the source.
A "repin" is any image you find already pinned on someone else's board that you want to put on one of your own boards. When you re-pin, you should also add a description about the image, and be specific rather than just saying something generic like "Love this". Even consider adding a link to a website as a courtesy to the original pinner.
Likes will only be added to your boards "Likes" section. It does not get added to any of your boards.
Comments can be added and with the use of "@username", you can relate this pin to someone on Pinterest you are following.
Summary
Hopefully, this little summary of Pinterest will pique your interest and help to get you started. I have already connected with so many new friends and found a host of great recipes, inspirational quotes, fabulous ideas for the home, new books to read, etc. etc. etc. Pinterest is much more than Facebook and Twitter because it is so visual.
Click the banner below or use the one on the home page of Beads and Dangles to join the fun. Please follow me on Pinterest by searching People and using Marji Bitterman as your search term.
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| http://pinterest.com/search/people/?q=marji+bitterman |
