Have you heard of Pinterest? Someone mentioned it to me in passing a while back but I never really checked it out to see what it was all about. Recently it was brought to my attention again and this time I gave it a closer look. And this time, I was hooked. What is Pinterest? Well it’s like a bulletin board but instead of hanging it on your wall and pinning up recipes, pictures of home decor ideas, craft ideas from magazines and other such items that strike your fancy, you can find things on the internet and "pin" them on your virtual pinboard.
I’m one of those people who finds a kajillion ideas around the internet that I love and then copy and paste the links to said ideas into documents, attempting to sort those into some kind of categories, and then filling my computer with folders of these links. There are a couple of problems with this. One is that I can never seem to find the perfect way of storing these so that I can find just that one certain idea that I want at that moment again. Another is that it takes quite a bit of time to collect these and quite a bit of space to store them. Pinterest solves many of these issues. It has a "pin it" button that can be added to the toolbar on your browser. Whenever you find something, you can simply click "pin it", choose the photo associated with this link that you would like to save, and save it with a brief comment to your desired category. It’s much faster for me than opening up a Word document and copying and pasting to the document. Even better than this is the picture that I’m able to associate with this file.
When I go to Pinterest, I see a wall of colourful photos and it’s so much easier to find the idea I’m looking for because it’s in visual format for me. It can even function as an online vision board or you can scan through your pinboard and let it help you find inspiration for new projects that you’re working on. What’s more, you can follow other people on Pinterest and if they post something that strikes your fancy, you can repin it onto your own board. As much as I love reading blogs, this is such a timesaver for finding some new inspiration. The other fun thing about Pinterest is that when I find something, I can also choose to share it on Facebook or Twitter quickly and easily.
Pinterest, as with many new social media tools, is only available by invitation. You can request one at http://www.pinterest.com or by finding a friend who has Pinterest to invite you. I have some invitations available and if you’d like one, please leave a comment and I’ll hook you up. If you’d like to check out my boards, just follow this link: http://pinterest.com/cydlee61/ If you want to follow me, you’ll find me under Cynthia Gagen.
Natalia says
Hi Cynthia,
I discovered Pinterest this morning and am already aching for an invite. It really does seem like a visual feast and I recently got engaged and am interested in collecting images that move me without having to buy any physical magazines, etc. Also just feel like having a beautiful way to procrastinate. 🙂 [email protected] if you wouldn’t mind sending an invite!
Thanks!