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Pinterest 101: Understanding the Basics

by Kelly Lucas on August 22, 2012

You may have heard about Pinterest and seen the “Pin It!” button on Techlicious articles, but unless you’ve invested time into learning the ropes of the site, the benefits and lingo may have escaped you. So we invite you to dive into our Pinterest primer and learn what Pinterest offers and how you can use it to discover new things and tell others about your exciting finds.

 

PinterestWhat is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a virtual corkboard. The idea is to organize and share the great things you find online and find more ideas from the people you follow. Pins feature ideas ranging from crafts, recipes, style, home design, tech gadgets and so much more. If you can put a picture to it, you can pin it! Once you pin something to a board, it’s there for you to remember when you need it.

 

Pinteret PinWhat is a Pin?

A pin is an image, simple as that. The pin is usually linked to a website featuring more information about the pin. For example, if someone pins an image of an amazing salad or kids craft, by clicking on the picture, you are taken to the website or blog that will tell you how to make the salad or craft. You may have noticed the “Pin It!” button on Techlicious, which lets you share Techlicious ideas on your Pinterest page.

 

Pinterest Techlicious boardsWhat is a board?

A board holds your pins, just like a corkboard does. Boards help you organize all your pins by style, recipes, travel, interior design, etc. Create a “Recipes” board for all the great recipes you find, a “Kids” board for crafts and room decorating ideas, a board for inspirational quotes, and so much more. The board possibilities are endless as are your pins. Just don’t forget a “Technology” board to pin and repin tech gadgets and articles!

 

Repinning

On Twitter, you retweet, so on Pinterest, you repin. The idea is the same. You repin a someone else's pin to one of your boards for your followers to see, comment on and repin for themselves. You can also add your own text to the pin. For instance, a friend of mine recently made a “Tried That” recipes board where she added what she liked or didn’t like about the recipes.

 

Pinterest FollowingFollowing

Pinterest starts your account following a few popular people, but these advanced pinners might not be right for your personality. Start by following your friends and see if your favorite sites and companies have Pinterest boards to follow (see the Techlicious boards). A simple search in the upper left hand corner can lead you to pinners with your same interests. Don’t be afraid to unfollow boards or pinners, you don’t want to clog your page with unwanted pins.

 

How you join

Pinterest recently moved from invite-only to open registration with your email, Facebook account or Twitter account. With more and more people logging on all the time, you’re sure to find plenty of friends—old and new—to share with.


Topics

Social Networking, Computers and Software, Health and Home, Family and Parenting, Tips & How-Tos, Tech 101


Discussion loading

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From Mea on August 22, 2012 :: 12:39 pm


I wish there was a way to delete or block followers on Pinterest. I have several complete strangers, with no boards, no pins and what could only be charitably described as “streetwalker” pictures of themselves as a profile picture now following me. I know you can report pins as suspicious, but is there a way to report a profile? And why would someone follow a profile with no pins? We’re talking about 20K+ followers.

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From Karen on August 22, 2012 :: 1:55 pm


Personally, I do not have a problem sharing my likes/dislikes with strangers (but that is just me).  I do, however, take great issues with strangers profile pics; I happen to have stranger with a very inappropriate picture that mirrors her attitude on her life.  I have reported this to Pinterest and she is still there in all her glory.

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From Kelly Lucas on August 22, 2012 :: 3:50 pm


Wow! You’re right! That should be an option. I searched the Help section of Pinterest and couldn’t find it, but you can contact them yourself on their support page, https://support.pinterest.com/home

It’s something they should add. Spam accounts are so common on the internet.

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From Darlene on August 22, 2012 :: 1:57 pm


Is there a way to let everyone pin on your board? For instance, if I started a board with covers of great books to read, is it possible to make it totally open so anyone can add pins and give their book recommendations? And I don’t just mean people who I invite—I mean anyone.

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From Karen on August 22, 2012 :: 2:03 pm


When you set up a board, you can designate private (yourself) or public.

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From Karen on August 22, 2012 :: 2:11 pm


My bad, if the board is already setup, click “EDIT” and you can then invite your friends to pin on the board.  You could use the same procedure when you are setting up a new board.

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From Lauren on August 22, 2012 :: 3:00 pm


I have a friend who is trying to lose weight.  How can she “hide” or “eliminate” the pictures of all the food, recipes, etc. that seem to inundate Pinterest.

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From Kelly Lucas on August 22, 2012 :: 3:54 pm


While she can’t hide any pins, she can unfollow the boards they’re on. In the pin, there is the name of the board it’s on. If you click the board name, it leads you to the board where you can unfollow it.

So she can still follow her friends, but not their food boards. Simple and easy!

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From Cary Gordon on August 22, 2012 :: 6:35 pm


So I’ve attempted to create a new board and set it to private, but it does not appear top give me the option.  Just lets me name the board and pick a catagory.
Is there something in my account to enable before I get the option to make a board private or have I misunderstood the process?

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From Karen on August 22, 2012 :: 8:21 pm


Due to the social nature of what Pinterest is about, I do not know if you can make it private.  If you are looking for an online bookmark that you can access from any computer, there are other options-Diigo for one.

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From Mary Jane McCulloch on August 22, 2012 :: 10:46 pm


A board that I had created went missing about the same time that my account appeared to have been hacked since new weird boards I had not created were showing up on my account. How does this happen and how can I prevent it in the future?

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From Kelly Lucas on August 23, 2012 :: 10:54 am


It does sound like your account was hacked. I would contact Pinterest here: https://support.pinterest.com/home, change your password, and fix your boards. I’ve never heard of it happening before, I am so sorry. Best of luck!

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From Philip Crawford on August 23, 2012 :: 3:45 am


Pinterest sucks now it hard and takes longer to pin any thing on mobile phone they could not leave it alone like it was before NO they had to change it for the new Android phones. It more complicated than it was before plus they do not realize that every person pin the photos differently. I put every thing on the like side then I go through all my advertisement and pin that first then I go too the LIKE BOARD and pin that next. Plus if I do not like something on the LIKE BOARD I unlike it but you can not do that now. Let’s say you got person so you like 10 recipes of theirs so you put them on the like board later you want to repin them so you do but there is two recipes you do not like so you unlike them well you just unlike the other 8 because it deletes them and you don’t have them on the LIKE BOARD no more

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From Laina Brown on August 25, 2012 :: 8:59 pm


I have been dying to start a pinterest page and would like to develop one for my company as well, but their security certificate is expired and it looks like it has been for quite some time. Since it requires you to link it to your facebook or twitter account to join, this makes me really
nervous. What is up with that??

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From Lotte Reninger on August 25, 2012 :: 9:27 pm


Hi,

I have deleted my account after receiving, delivered by bailiff, a demand for nearly 10 grand in damages for infringing some blogger’s copyright, even though the image was pinned from Google Images!

I was beside myself, I don’t have that kind of money lying around.

I had to pay a lawyer who advised me to pay up, but he managed to negotiate the settlement down to 3 grand, and says I should consider myself lucky!  With his fees, my now deleted Pinterest boards have cost me four thousand dollars.

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From lace on April 03, 2013 :: 4:29 pm


I’ve only been using pinterest for a few months. I like to pin craft ideas then go back to them week I have time. I’ve noticed some of the older pins on my boards have disappeared. Is there a limit how many pins I can have on a board? Or is there a time limit to how long they stay on your board? I’m just trying to figure out why I keep loosing my pins.

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From Lennbob on July 04, 2013 :: 6:14 pm


Too bad there isn’t a way to hide someone else’s pins without “unfollowing” the board the person pinned it to. I’m finding that, while some folks have boards I’m generally interested in, some pins I’d rather not have to look at (for whatever reason) every time I check Pinterest.

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From Deb Diamond on August 20, 2013 :: 4:08 pm


Sometimes when I’m perusing the net and come across something of interest, instead of pinning it, I just press “like”. Well, I find myself w/ thousands of “likes” and am trying to go thru them and either pin them or unlike them (the pins). Its getting so confusing because they stay in my like list. Then I go away and come back and forget where I left off. I’m so overwhelmed now. I want to get rid of the ones that I pinned or unliked. I haven’t a clue how to do that. Can you help me? I realize that this is asking an awful lot. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Sincerely appreciated. Thanks, Debbie

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From Suzanne McDonald Ramachandra on November 10, 2014 :: 8:19 am


I too am having this problem hence landing here
Would appreciate any info on the matter

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From none on June 02, 2016 :: 9:52 am


if i follow someone board then unfollow but do the person get a notification that some one follow there board

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