Ahh, Pinterest, how I love thee!
Pinterest is my go-to place for inspiration. I could spend hours just drifting through the beauty that is to be found.
It’s not only beautiful, it’s a powerful tool for collecting, organising and sharing images – both other people’s, and your own!
I’ve got 2 screencast videos for you today, taking you on a tour of Pinterest, and discussing how and why to use it. (Password as normal: shescrafty)
Note: Pinterest have had a little makeover since I recorded these a few months back, but the important stuff is the same 
Pinterest – Part 1 from Jessica Van Den on Vimeo.
Pinterest – Part 2 from Jessica Van Den on Vimeo.
Talking about ‘rules’ – here are Pinterest’s own list of rules, and they’re worth following:
Also – Pinterest now have a whole lot of buttons and badges you can use, yay! Go here to check them out. In fact… why not come on over and 
Still need some convincing as to how important Pinterest is for your business? Check out this infographic, which shows just how powerful Pinterest is becoming.
Finally – check out this article from The Next Web, which has heaps of great tips and ideas on how to use Pinterest really well!
Activity
- Head on over to Pinterest and use the ‘find friends‘ feature to find some people to follow!
- Make sure to install the Pin It Bookmarklet in your browser to make pinning easy-peasy.
- Create some new boards on themes that you know you want to collect images about – maybe art, or jewellery, or vintage fashion, or ceramics… the list is endless!
- Start pinning! Every time you come across an image you LOVE, make sure to pin it – it will soon become a habit
- Pin one or two of your own product images a week – but no more! Remember, we want to share, not spam
- Make it easy for people to find you on Pinterest – tweet out your profile, tweet pins that you love, share them on facebook, put a badge on your blog…
Tomorrow is all about Flickr – see you then!
hi Jess, just catching up (heh). I have Pinterest app on my iPhone and its good, much the same look but more limited. Its a little slow scrolling through everything but same functions (mostly) as on the desk top. good eye candy if you’re stuck somewhere.
Jess, I am doing ‘catch up’ today and have a Pinterest question. I cannot figure out how to put a Pinterest badge on my blog, or website, or etsy store. Just cannot figure it out.
Diane – what sort of badge do you want? Just one on the sidebar of your blog that links to your pinterest page?
To do that, just visit pinterest, log in, and click on ‘about’ up the top, then ‘pin it button’. Scroll down to:
“Follow Button” for Websites
Then click on the button you like, copy the code, and paste it into a widget in your blog sidebar from your blog dashboard.
Otherwise, just type (or copy/paste) your pinterest url where you want it – for example, I have that in my Etsy profile, ’cause you can’t add code there.
Mine is: http://pinterest.com/jessicavanden/ – just go to your pinterest profile and copy/paste the url from the address bar