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Pinterest – A Guide to the Inspiration Tool That Will Change Your Life

Every time I throw the word “Pinterest” into the air {which I admit happens quite a lot} I'm surprised to find out that there are people who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.

“Pinterest? What is this?” are questions that often interrupt what I’m saying when I talk about a vacation I’m planning, a hair and makeup guide I have to try or even things I learned to do by myself thanks to this amazing tool.

As someone who uses this tool regularly for more than two years, I really don’t understand how people allow themselves not to be familiar with it!

It's time to put things on the table – if you're not already using Pinterest, it's time to get with it!

I'm sure you got to hear the term “Pinterest” already a million and one times {in this website alone you came across it here, here and here, and basically almost at the end of each post 😉 }, and didn’t really understand what it is, how to use it or why.

I decided it was time to clear the mess and make a simple and brief guide on the inexhaustible database of information and inspirations called Pinterest.

Pinterest – A Guide to the Inspiration Tool That Will Change Your Life

 

Let's start from the beginning – what is Pinterest?

 

Pinterest was launched in 2011 as a new social network connecting all network users with common interests. Initially, just like Facebook, it was very exclusive and only people with invitations could use the site. Since then, much has changed and at the end of 2016 there were over 150 million monthly users using Pinterest. Crazy!

If you’re asking ‘Why do I need another social network now?’- you’re absolutely right. We already have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other smaller social networks that waste our time with endless scrolling over social feeds just to catch up with what our friends did {or our favorite celebrities}, and we really don’t need another one.

It’s great that Pinterest calls itself a social network – but I got it a long time ago… It’s not like that at all.

Even though it’s possible to follow people, comment and in the past it was possible even to ‘like’ their “pins” {I’ll explain soon…} – but this really isn’t the essence of this platform, and honestly, most people don’t use it to be social.

 

So what is Pinterest? An enormous search engine that combines together in one place guides, information and endless inspiration in every field that exists on the planet.

Love cooking and baking?

Interested in design and architecture?

Planning a trip?

Organizing a party?

In the mood to start a new DIY project?

You name it – they have it

There’s nothing you won’t find in this search engine.

[hi-pinterest-profile]

And I haven’t started talking about what you can do with this tool to optimize your work…

If you’re a graphic designer, fashion designer, interior designer, or any other profession that requires creativity – you can use Pinterest to save things that give you inspiration all in one place and share them with your colleagues. For example, before our wedding, the designer of the event venue and I opened a secret board together and we saved ideas that gave us inspiration to design the wedding.

Even if your profession is less creative – you'll be happy to find out that Pinterest is an excellent tool for self-development. With Pinterest's search engine, you can find articles and guides for nearly every subject in the world. So you can think out of the box at work and also contribute to things that aren’t necessarily specific to your job.

 

Wait, but how exactly is this different from Google…

Oh, this is exactly where the magic of Pinterest begins!

The interface of Pinterest is made as a virtual inspirational board full of colorful images that can’t be ignored. When you use Pinterest’s search engine – instead of getting boring links that will make you click on things in the search results that don’t necessarily fit what you’re looking for {hey there, Google}, you'll get detailed images that show you exactly what’s in each one of the links.

For example, I searched for “spring party ideas” on Google and on Pinterest – Click on the links and you'll understand exactly what I mean.

Beyond that, this colorful search engine makes life so much easier and fun. Pinterest has a few features that make so many people get addicted to it.

First of all, with the Pinterest browser extension you can save any image or link you liked on the Internet directly to your Pinterest. Forget all of the old-fashioned bookmarks and start saving the things you love from the internet your Pinterest ‘boards’!

Secondly, and equally important – Pinterest has a visual search! This is a tool that allows to search for things that appear on the image itself. What does that mean? Let’s say you see a picture of someone with amazing shoes and you must get a pair for yourself, but you have no idea what brand the shoe is or where you can buy it. Simply mark the shoe with the visual search tool and you’ll find the same shoes, or shoes that are similar to it. Click here to see an example of a visual search.

Pinterest – A Guide to the Inspiration Tool That Will Change Your Life

And finally, remember I said that Pinterest isn’t really a social network? Okay, maybe I exaggerated. It's true that the comments and likes aren’t really relevant there, but you can still follow people and there’s a feed! So, in this case you won’t want to follow all of your acquaintances but rather follow people {even those you don’t know personally} who have the same interests as yours. After you follow these interesting people or follow specific boards that interest you – you’ll really enjoy scrolling through your feed! Not only will you have a lot of fun, you can actually learn things that are relevant to your interests or be inspired from things that you wouldn’t think to look for yourself.

 

After understanding what Pinterest is and the purposes to use Pinterest, it's time to talk about some basic terms:

Boards – An inspiration board is actually an album or folder you use to combine contents you want to save. I recommend having separate boards for different topics, like a board for recipes or a board for trips. Of course, the boards can be divided into more specific topics such as a board for healthy recipes, a board for cookie recipes or a “France” board, “Traveling Tips” boards and more. Boards can be public, and appear on the site's search engine, or they can be private, so that only you and the people you invite to the board can see the contents saved on it.

[hi-pinterest-board board=”healthy-recipes”]

 

Pins – The pin you pin on the inspiration board is actually an image or video file that represents a link to an external website. There are three ways to pin to a board :

1. By using the Pinterest browser extension – click on the Pinterest logo and a page will open with all the pictures you can pin to Pinterest. Select the image / video you want and then the board you want to save the pin to. {You should know that you can’t save content directly from Facebook to Pinterest}.

2. Through the Pinterest feed – Place your mouse over the picture / video you want to pin, click “Save” and choose the board you want to save the clip to.

3. Through the board – Go into one of the boards on your Pinterest profile, click on “Save Pin” where you can choose whether to save an image from your PC or insert a link to a site from which you want to save the image / video.

Pinterest – A Guide to the Inspiration Tool That Will Change Your Life

Repin – A term which means to pin again. The intention is when you pin a picture / video from the Pinterest feed or from another user’s board or if someone pins an image from your board.

Tried – A relatively new tool, which replaced the old button “like” and allows you to mark articles you read and tried yourself {like a recipe, makeup and hair guide or even a guide for a trip}. You can mark the “pin” as something you liked or say it really isn’t for you, and even leave a detailed comment and add your own picture…

Pinterest – A Guide to the Inspiration Tool That Will Change Your Life

 Following / Followers – Just like in Instagram, on Pinterest it’s also possible to follow different users. You can choose to follow a user’s complete profile or a specific board that’s relevant to you. After, that user’s pins will appear in your feed.

 

Okay, so how do you sign up to Pinterest?

It’s very simple – Go to the Pinterest app or website and log in with your Facebook account or register as a new user.

Say hello to your new addiction 😉

Pinterest – A Guide to the Inspiration Tool That Will Change Your Life

If this post helped you share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest!
And of course, don’t forget to follow me, too 😉

 

 


CLICK TO PIN IT!

 

How to Use Pinterest for Beginners - All the terms you need to know in order to use this inspiration platform like a pro! Click through to read more @ hedonistit.com

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4 Responses

  1. Hi Tamar, nice post! I’ve also been using Pinterest for years as a way to bookmark ideas for projects, recipes I want to try etc. But now I’m just starting out as a blogger and feel like I should be utilizing Pinterest better as a way to market my blog. Do you think you could write a post about how to use Pinterest’s social media tools to market a blog? Em xx

    1. Thanks Em! Pinterest is actually a GREAT promoting tool for bloggers – I’m going to write about that subject in the near feature, but till them feel free to check out the Blogging tools I use under the RECOMMENDATIONS category 🙂

  2. Where do I go to get details on usage, like how to write captions for my pins (and rep Ins)?

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