How To Use Pinterest

I am in love with the site Pinterest. Seriously,  I could forgo all work for hours and just surf the net "pinning" things.

But how do you pin, you ask? First, get invited. If you want an invite, message me at www.badgereels.etsy.com with your email address and I'll invite you! :) Find my board at: www.pinterest.com/mamaslilmonkeys

Okay, so you signed up, now what?

**Fill out your profile and privacy/email settings just like you would on any social site. Now to pin!

**First off, add the "Pin It" button to your browser bar. (I use firefox.) To do so:

Go to your Pinterest.com.
Click "add a pin"
See the little thing tell you to drag that "pin it" symbol to your browser bar? Do that, literally, dragging it up into your browser where your most visited sites are.

Now the "Pin It" bookmarklet is in your browser. So any time you are on a website with any images, you can just click "pin it" and it will automatically lead you to pin the item.

(nice swagbucks I got there, eh?)

Okay, now what?

**FIND YOUR FRIENDS!! Pinning is most fun when you connect with your friends and repin what they find awesome.
From Pinterest.com, look at "people" in the top right sidebar and find friends. Connect your facebook or twitter accounts and find your friends. You don't have to do this, but I find it fun.

**Organize your boards. Pinterest gives you some automatic boards but I found them boring so I created my own.

When you pin something to a board, think of it as a bulletin board for online life. You can click my Organize board and see all the links I find interesting. Keep clicking til you get to the actual pinned item and it will eventually take you back to the original site, whether I pinned it or RE-pinned someone elses find.

**Give credit where credit is due when pinning!! There is a space for a description, use it! If you find the tutorial on a blog, or the item on etsy, credit the artisan!! This makes it easier also should the original post disappear, if you have written "blog.mamaslittlemonkeys.com" under the pic, the reader knows to go find my blog at least if they are faced with an ugly Server 404 or "your stuff ain't der no more" sign.

**Think outside the box when creating boards. What makes you happy? Sad? What do you want? Need? What do you have that is great and you want to share with others? Self promotion is fine but try to keep it to one board and don't forget to share the love!!

**Update who you are following. I don't know if this is a glitch, or just the way it works, but it seems, for example if I'm following my friend Merry. I follow all of her boards. But if she ADDS a board later, it seems it won't automatically show me those pins unless I "unfollow" and then "follow all" again. This could be a glitch, could be I'm not noticing the new boards, I dunno. Either way, just for kicks, from time to time, I go unfollow friends then follow all again just to be sure I'm getting everything they pin. Because, well, my friends are awesome, and I wanna see what they love!

**Pinterest is growing. I do find from time to time the servers are busy. Hang on and bear with them. I get the feeling they never knew this site would take off as it is.

Enjoy and happy Pinning!!!~~Amy