What Is Pinterest?

You may have heard about a new social site called Pinterest, which has exploded from 1.2 million to 4 million users in about 6 months. Pinterest is a place to organize and share online images that you find interesting. Once they're uploaded or shared on Pinterest, these images become known as Pins, which the user can place on customized themed Boards, which can be for any topic imaginable, from cats to classic cars to cats driving classic cars.

While most people will use this for their main topic of interest, artists and bands might use it as a place for fans to pin pictures of a tour, or for behind-the-scenes pictures when in the studio, or as a place to gather artwork for an album.

Pinning is easy with the official Pin It Button, which is a simple drag-and-drop browser extension. When you come across an image you like, just click the button and select the corresponding picture, then assign the pin to a Board and add some identifying text. If the Pin is something you want to buy, include the price in the description and it will attach to the Pin for easy reference. You can also take a picture with your iPhone and add it to your Boards with the mobile app (there's no Android support yet).

The social part of Pinterest is that you can share pins on Facebook to help expand your network, and you can check out the Popular button to see what pins are trending at the moment, which is a way to find new content or Pinners who share your interests. Share a Pin with another Pinner by using an @mention in the description, just like you do on other social sites and they’ll get an email to let them know they’ve been mentioned. While most Pins are photos, you can also pin videos by hitting the Videos button at the top of the page, which allows you to see all the available videos as well.

One of the problems with Pinterest is that it's currently not open to everyone so you have to be invited. You can sign up on their website, or get an invite to someone who's already a Pinner. Either way, Pinterest looks like it might be the next hot social network.

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