Pinterest.  That one word, when uttered in a group of women, will spark a conversation that can last for hours about everything from recipes, to home decorating, to that funny picture of the dog who tore up the blinds.  Men can be and are on Pinterest too, but its a site primarily used and driven by women.

If you missed Pinterest 101, Pinterest is an online bulletin board for curating images and videos on the web that you want to save.  You can create boards (think of them as categories) to organize your pins.  I like Pinterest because its all about me.  Facebook and Twitter focus on interacting with others.  Pinterest allows me to focus on me and what I like.  I don’t have a lot of disposable income and I’m always on the look out for ways to save money or stretch our money further.  With Pinterest I have more resources than I could ever go through, from people who are in the same boat I am, for recycling items for home decor and preparing meals with cheaper ingredients that still tastes good.

Before we start with Pinterest 102, I want to review a point I made in Pinterest 101.  If you haven’t already, turn off automatic posting to your Facebook Timeline.  Your friends are probably already following you on Pinterest and don’t want to see your pins duplicated on Facebook.  Log into Pinterest and click on your name in the upper right corner and select Settings.

There are two Facebook settings to manage.  The first is Link to Facebook, if this option is On you will see a checkbox for Facebook whenever you add a new pin.  Turning this setting On allows you to control which pins get posted to Facebook on a pin by pin basis.

The other option is Add Pinterest to Facebook Timeline.  This option is what you need to turn off if you don’t want your pins automatically showing up on Facebook.  I’m not sure when Pinterest added this option, but its there now so go check it.

Add a hashtag to your pins helps you, and others find related pins across different boards.  A hashtag looks like this, #StPatricksDay, and has no punctuation or special characters and no spaces.  Case doesn’t matter in hashtags but I find the longer tags are easier to read when I capitalize the first letter of each work.  You can then search for that hashtag and Pinterest will search all available boards.  For a tag like #StPatricksDay, you will see crafts, decorations, and recipes returned in the results.  You do not have to use hashtags and the only reason to use them is to make it easier for you and others to find the pin, especially if it relates to a holiday or special event.

You can also tag fellow Pinteresters in a pin.  This is similar to a Twitter mention and that person will receive a notification that they’ve been mentioned in a pin.  To add a person tag, type @ and the first few letters of that person’s name.  You should see a list of names to pick from.  There’s a lot to look at on Pinterest and tagging is a way to call attention to a particular pin.

Adding a price to a pin is a feature I frequently forget about but is so easy.  Just add the amount, with dollar sign, and the price appears on the pin in the upper left corner.  When I remember about it, I use this feature to keep track of gifts I’m thinking about purchasing for others and gifts I would like to receive.  Having the price listed in the pin saves me time since I don’t have to try to track down the price later.  If you ever need gift ideas for me, this board will get you started.

With all the pinning we do, its easy to forget or not have time to actually do all the cool stuff you found on Pinterest.  Don’t just pin, actually do it!  I’ve made a monogram out of buttons to hang in my living room, I’ve done crafts with my stepson, and most recently made these brownies which are amazing!  But be careful, the satisfaction of finishing a project is highly addictive and will result in a need to do more projects!

Why do you like Pinterest?  What are your favorite pin types?  I like recipes, quotes, home decor, and humor stuff (anything with animals talking like humans cracks me up).

Follow me on Pinterest and I also have a board setup for Beyond The Defaults to keep track of all the technology related goodies floating around on Pinterest.

Did you know Beyond The Defaults is now on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up to receive new posts delivered directly to your Inbox!

Dog Image Source: dogs.icanhascheezburger.com via Abby on Pinterest

iPad Case Source: invitel.wordpress.com via Abby on Pinterest

 

Have you heard about Pinterest?  Its amazing and completely addictive, so proceed with caution.

Pinterest allows you to create virtual boards out of images you find on the internet.  You can create as many boards as you want, but only create as many as you can manage.  I have boards for recipes, crafts, home decorating, ideas for my home office renovation,  and my favorite board contains things that I find funny (warning: some language may not be suitable for work).  Its your own corner of the internet for all the images you find interesting.

And not only can you curate your own content, but you can repin content other people have posted.  I would way 70% of my pins are repins from other people’s boards which means its even easier to find new content because everyone else has already done the work of finding the content for me.

To get started on Pinterest, you need an invitation from a current member.  I anticipate they will change this at some point, but for now, you can email me at abby@beyondthedefaults.com if you want an invitation.  And sometimes the Pinterest site is unavailable, but its never been a big issue for me.

Once you receive your invitation via email, you create your account, add a profile picture, and start pinning!  When you add a new pin from another website or repin a pin, you have the option to select the board and add any comments.  I use the comments to add a note about why I pinned it.

To save yourself some headache, I suggest you change a few default settings first.  To get to your settings, click on your name in the upper right corner and select Settings.

• Email Notifications – I have most of the options turned off.  I am really only interested in knowing when someone new is following me.  I also choose to receive one email a day versus one email for every action.  If I want to see any activity like repins and comments, I can check out the recent activity stream on the left.
• Turn off push updates to Facebook and Twitter – You can connect your Pinterest accounts to Facebook and Twitter, but don’t publish every pin to your Facebook wall or Twitter feed.  Your Facebook friends that would care, are already on Pinterest and don’t want to see your pins duplicated on Facebook.  And your other Facebook friends probably don’t care, so keep it to Pinterest, okay?
• Install the bookmarklet – Drag the Pin It bookmarklet to your Favorites bar of your browser so you can pin images you see on the internet.  Don’t see your Favorites bar?  Go to View – Toolbars and select Favorites.

We will cover more about Pinterest in Pinterest 201.  Your homework today class is to create your Pinterest account (remember you can email me at abby@beyondthedefaults.com if you need an invite), follow me on Pinterest, and start pinning!