I'm a self-acknowledged nerd. I love stuff. The more esoteric and unconventional the better. I like being aware of what the next big trend is, though - even if only to avoid being trendy on accident. I'll do and wear things that just so happen to be the New Big Whatever*, of course, but only if it's something I really love. And I will hang on to styles long after they have fallen out of favor. They always come back around, anyway.
This all brings me to Pinterest. I was a holdout for a little while, because I already had Tumblr, and I thought they were very similar concepts. But, it turns out they aren't. Tumblr has become (to me, anyway) the frontier of the GIFmakers and the meme posters. I love that stuff. But it gets old, yo. I've let Tumblr effectively fall off my internet radar, at this point. It won't be the last site I more or less stop finding a good use for, I'm sure. I'm honestly having this same issue with G+.
I signed up to Pinterest based on an invite from my mom (Hi mom! :waves:), just to see what the fuss was about. So what does it do, what's it for, you're asking? Well, it can be a lot of things, but one thing it is not is a blogging site. It is not designed for rants or screeds or diatribes. Of any kind. What it really is can be hard to define - or explain. According to the website:
"Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."
So, in essence, it's an aggregator. A personal repository for all things cool, inspirational, delicious...It makes the old internet "bookmark" look antiquated. With Pinterest, when you find something you like on the internet, you can save it to a board with a visual cue via any image on that website you found, which can be used to create a direct link back to that URL. And you can make that board available not only to other Pinterest users, but via Twitter and Facebook as well. All of your favorite recipes, garden ideas, decorating wishlists, news articles - all in one place, and accessible from any internet-capable device. In fact, I have the app on my iPhone.
Just like other social media that is now considered kind of "old hat", each user will eventually figure out how they want the site to work for them, and what it is for in their specific case. For me, it's kind of like...
There are no hard and fast rules, no true right and wrong (although common internet etiquette applies, of course), but if you're looking for more information or tips, here are some links to point you in a direction of starting:
What The Atlantic has to say
Get help from USA Today
Business Insider offers a step-by-step guide (warning: slide-show)
A beginners guide to Pinterest
Infographic via mashable.com
*Whatever is The New Black, by the way.
3 comments:
This afternoon was the first time I ever even looked at Pinterest, and here you are,writing about it. I guess maybe I need to check it out more thoroughly. Unfortunately, what I saw there just didn't trip my trigger. Guess I'll look harder.
You can post to it as well as "repinning" things that are already there. I'm using it to hold recipes and sites I was to refer back to at a later time, and one board as a "look book" of styles I like so that when I go shopping I can be reminded of the type of things (cut, color or fabric design, shoes, etc.) I want to look for.
Really it's just one more thing that may or may not be very useful. It's all in how you think you might be able to make it work. If it looks unappealing or seems not that useful, there'll probably be something else that comes along in six months or next year that is more interesting. Personally, I wish there was something that acted as a platform for all of the sites I use, so I could see them all at once.
this explains it much better than other explanations I've heard in the past. THANK YOU! I pin stuff all the time, but it usually takes the form of clutter and ripped out magazine articles and design schemes for when I get my own place. a virtual pin board is a great idea (except when the URLs become inactive in a few months) but I think when I can clear my head I will sign up. I have lots of stuff, in theory, that needs pinning!
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