What is all this “PINNING” about?

By now you’ve probably heard about, if not already received an invite from, Pinterest, the latest (and fastest growing) social service to hit the web.  Like many others, I’m addicted so I figured a blog was in order!

Being a huge believer in vision boards, Pinterest allows me to think outside the box and expand my inspirational workspace.  Not only can I organize my images by category, I can easily add and remove ‘pins’ as my goals and focus changes.  With over 11 million users, it’s fitting to say that Pinterest is dominating the idea-sharing niche in the social world.

Still wondering what in the world Pinterest is?  Well, in short, Pinterest is an online “pinboard-style photo sharing website” (similar to that old cork board you had hanging on a wall somewhere in your house or college dorm room) where users can create various themed boards and ‘pin’ images they feel fit into the description of each board they have created.  If you see an image from someone else’s board you like, all you have the option to ‘re-pin’ the image onto your board or ‘like’ the image if it doesn’t exactly fit your pinning style.  Have Twitter or Facebook?  You can instantly share your ‘pins’ with friends and followers.

The overall idea is super cool, but the fact that you can click on an image and it will take you to the website the image came from makes it that much cooler.  See a picture of a healthy recipe you think looks good?  Click the image and BAM!…a new window pops up the website with the recipe from the pic.  See an outfit someone pieced together that you think is totally you?  Click the image the new window will tell you exactly where to buy each product shown.  This is revolutionary!

Here are a few images I’ve found on Pinterest to give you a better idea.  The image won’t link to the original website (you have to have a Pinterest account for that), but you can see the wide variety of things you can search for.

Happy Pinning!