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Best Pinterest Tutorial: What is it and how to use it

Madison Brown

Madison Brown

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UpdatedUpdated with new content on how to use Pinterest

When it comes to boosting creativity and sharing ideas, it’s challenging to find a better app than Pinterest. Many businesses and freelancers are using it for their own sites, while others are pinning URLs for others with similar interests to read. 

You may be wondering what Pinterest is and how to use it, or what does Pinterest do? We’ll show you how it works and some excellent tips for making boards and sharing them.

Best Pinterest Tutorial: What is it and how to use it

What is Pinterest and what is it used for?

In essence, Pinterest stands for pinning interests to a board. It’s like a discovery channel that uses visual and text elements for inspiration and creativity. When you find a site or idea you like, you can quickly save it to your Pinterest channel for your followers to follow.

Pinterest is one of the easiest social media platforms available. It’s mostly used by people that want to share online content, such as music, recipes, lyrics, and so on. You’ll also find it ideal for organizing your ideas and thoughts on one page.

pinterest

How does Pinterest work?

All you need to do is enter a site with ideas that you like and pin the link to a board. These categories help to separate content so it’s easier for your followers to read and view. If you add the Pinterest extension to your browser, it’s as simple as clicking on the Pinterest logo for a quick save.

What is the purpose of Pinterest?

The primary purpose behind Pinterest is storing ideas and visual content that you can save on boards. There are millions of online pages you can store, and it acts as a shortcut on your channel. Anyone following special hashtags or topics will see your pin appear on their daily feed. They can also follow your boards.

Tutorial and tips: starting on Pinterest

Now that you have a better idea of what Pinterest is, we’ll share some tips on how to use it. There are a few easy steps to get started, after which you can get pinning away!

Creating your profile

After entering your email address and creating a password, you’ll enter more basic information like your gender, preferred language and country.

Pinterest screenshot 1

You’ll then be prompted to install the browser button. This button allows you to save things to your Pinterest account that you see while browsing online outside of Pinterest.

Pinterest screenshot 2

Imagine that you’re planning a birthday party for a friend and while browsing the web, you come across an awesome layout for a dessert table. With the browser button, you’ll be able to save the link to this page to a Pinterest board full of ideas for the party that you can come back to and reference later, so we definitely recommend installing it. Once installed, a little Pinterest icon will show up in your browser’s toolbar for you to click whenever you want to save a webpage, and another page will open that explains how to save a link.

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Before Pinterest cuts you loose to get sucked into the black hole of architecture designs and Etsy wedding dresses, they ask you to choose a few things that you like in order to get an idea of what to display on your feed. You can choose as many as you like, and the cool part is that whenever you search for something, Pinterest will remember and curate more pins like it.

Pinterest screenshot 6

Customizing your profile

Pinterest will save your name as the email address you use to sign up, so to change this, just click the three grey dots in the upper right-hand corner of your web page, then click on ‘edit settings.’  Under ‘profile’ you can change your name, add a photo, and a biography.

Pinterest screenshot 4

You can also navigate to other areas where you can also edit your email address, password, and privacy settings. For example, if someone were to Google workout tips and you don’t want your fitness board to show up,  you can toggle that option off.

What is a pin on Pinterest?

Pins work like bookmarks to other sites where you found interesting information or images. If people are looking for specific content, they can search for topics, and the results may show your pin. You can also use pins to link to your site and share your latest products.

What is a board in Pinterest?

When you want to separate your pins into categories, you create Pinterest boards. It helps organize your content and thoughts in a more efficient way that people can more easily follow. It’s especially helpful for businesses that have different types of products to showcase across various industries.

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Socializing on Pinterest

Another great feature is that you can share pins or entire boards to people that don’t have Pinterest accounts. Just click on a pin, and click on the icon with an arrow pointing up. Then you can send it to someone directly by email, or you can post it on social media accounts.

Pinterest screenshot 8

If you’d like to chat with a friend who does have an account, you can use the messaging box.

Pinterest screenshot 9

Some of your favorite bloggers and companies have Pinterest boards! If you’d like to follow their boards,  you can search their name in the search bar. You can also click on the ‘following’ button on the top right corner of the page and follow Pinterest boards by category and see what popular boards are currently trending.

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Pinterest for businesses

If you’re a blogger, Pinterest is a great way to gain more exposure by upgrading to a free business account. You just link your blog, connect your social media accounts, and when someone saves one of the pins you’ve created from any of your posts you can see how much traffic that each post is getting.

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You can also consult with a Pinterest ad team to help you create ads to expand your reach even further.

Whether it be professionally or just as a fun thing to do in your spare time, Pinterest has something for everyone. A world of video game memes and obscure fruit art awaits, so, what are you waiting for?

Madison Brown

Madison Brown

Madison Brown is a Social Media and Tech Journalist for Softonic. In her spare time she likes keeping up with the newest and best in technology and gaming.

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