Pinterest! What Is It? And How Do I Join?

I'm a visual person, so when I discovered Pinterest I was a happy girl.

Pinterest is a social networking site that allows you to share and organize images. It's fun and very easy to use.

Go to Pinterest.com and join. You can create an account using an email address and password, or you can sign up using your Facebook or Twitter sign in information. If you choose to sign up with email/password, you'll have to verify your email address (Pinterest will send you an email and you'll click a link to confirm you are who you say you are).

Once you have an account, fill in your profile information and upload a picture of yourself (if you wish).

At the top left of your Pinterest page, you'll see a button with three horizontal lines alongside a search bar. If you click the button, you can Explore Interests (find pins and boards from other members you might wish to follow), go to your Home Feed, see the most Popular pins, etc. Look around and get acquainted.

Once you start following people, their pins will show up in your Home Feed (along with yours). Hopefully, your pins will interest people and attract followers.

To create boards, click on the red + near the top right corner of the screen. On the pull down menu, choose Create a Board. I have created about 2 dozen boards since becoming a member. I have one for Recipes I Love, one for Authors I Love, one for Book Review Blogs I Love, Alternative Health, My Style, Inspiration, and so forth. Click here to take a look at my boards.

Boards can be private (only you can pin images on them) or public (two or more people are invited via email to add images). To make a board public, simply click on the board and then click "edit board." You invite people to pin on the board by supplying their name or email address. This edit box also includes the ability to delete a board if you choose.

Remember, you can always go to your Home Feed by clicking the red "Pinterest" located at the top of the page.

You can comment on the pictures that others have pinned, you can "like" the images by clicking on the little heart located at the top right of each photo, and if you REALLY like the image, you can re-pin it to one of your boards. One of my pins has been re-pinned 120 times.

To make pinning images extra easy, I have installed a Pin It button to my browser. It was as easy as clicking on the button and dragging it to my browser's tool bar. (Seriously, it was that easy!) Now I am able to pin an image to one of my boards without leaving the spot where the image is located on the web. When I use my Pin It button, I get to choose which image I want to pin and which board I want to pin it on. Super easy once you done it a few times. If you pin an image to the wrong board (which I have done a time or two) you can "edit" the image and pin it to the correct board.

Find the Pin It button on the Pinterest Goodies page.

Find me on Pinterest and happy pinning!