by Helium01

Created on: January 21, 2012

Pinterest is a way to shop, dream, plan, design, inspire, laugh and ground yourself. Are you wondering how to jump into this new online craze? Or are you someone who hasn’t heard of Pinterest or does not understand the amazing value of it. Some people are confident they don’t have the time for it. Don’t discard Pinterest before giving it a try.

Once you have decided that Pinterest is at least worth a look, it can be confusing to figure out how to get access to your own boards. You need an invite and there are two ways to get one:

1. Request an invite from www.pinterest.com . Wait a week or two and you will get an invite via your e-mail inbox.

2. Ask a friend who is on Pinterest to invite you. They need your e-mail address or they can do it through Facebook or Twitter if you have one of those accounts.

Whichever way you choose to get an invite, simply follow the links. Once you have secured your account, it is time to have fun. Keep things simple in the beginning to make it easier to learn. You will need to do a few things to get started:

1. Find friends to follow.

In the upper right hand corner, you will see your name. Click on it. Click “Find Friends”. Here you will see a few lists depending on how many social networking accounts you have. You will find a “Friends already on pinterest list” (based on people you are linked up with on Facebook or Twitter) and you will find lists of people that you can send invitations to that aren’t on Pinterest yet. You can also invite friends by clicking on the envelope and invite at the top left hand side. Click on the red follow button corresponding to people you may share interests with. It is these people’s pins that will come up when you log in or when you click on the Pinterest logo.

2. Explore/Repin

something that you want to be able to come back to. This is a place to inspire you. The only thing you need to worry about when you pin is that you categorize it on the right “board”. Boards are the system of organization at Pinterest. Boards can be added by clicking on “Create new board”
Search your friends pins, search “master bedroom”, “kitchen”, “cabinet organizers”, “bunk beds”, “braids”… whatever you want. As you find “pins” you like, you can repin. This is when you pin and inserting a name for the board. It really is easy. You can edit the board names at any time.

3. Add Pins

You might want to wait until after you have become more familiar with the Pinterest world, but adding pins is something you will want to do. You will either find items online that you want to remember, or find items online that you want to share. Pinterest is full of items that others have found online or uploaded. If you find your favorite recipe for brownies online, you can “add a pin” by clicking on “Add a pin” and providing the web address for the recipe. Pinterest will look for a picture on that website. You may have to toggle through pictures until it finds the picture of the brownies, but you will find it.

Be careful! Pinterest can quickly become addictive. Be sure not to use it as a distraction from everything else that needs to get done in your life. When used properly, the value of Pinterest is that it can save you time and remind you of what you need to focus on.

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