Today, everyone is connected. With dozens of social media sites, everyone knows what everyone else is doing at any given moment, and that’s what people want- to be connected to the world.  From “status updates” to “tweets” to “blogging”, everyone has a venue to tell the world about what’s happening in their life- their interests, their pictures, their new pet, their bad day, their favorite song lyrics- it’s all out there.

            With new social media sites popping up daily, an abundance of them don’t stick. Pinterest is one of few that have been chosen by the masses to make it to the mainstream. The purpose of Pinterest is to organize and share beautiful things that may have been lost in the depths of the Internet. Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo sharing website which allows users to create and manage their own image collections based on a themes such as events, recipes, hobbies, and much more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, and “re-pin” images to their own collections, called “boards.” Akin to Facebook, users can “like” others’ photos, “follow” users of their choice, and comment on other users’ photos.

            If you don’t already have a Pinterest, I would suggest getting one, if not for any other reason but to have another distraction from work. Here’s a quick tutorial for new Pinterest users:

Pin: the image you find, either from a separate webpage, from the Pinterest site, or that you upload on your own accord. When you sign up for Pinterest, they will give you a “Pin” button, which allows you to pin a photo onto the Pinterest page and will provide a link to the original image or webpage. You can “re-pin” anything you already see on Pinterest, if you want to save it onto your own board.

What to Pin: anything and everything. My favorites are yummy recipes so that I have somewhere to refer back to when trying to conjure up something for dinner. Pinning crafts are fun too for those rainy days and trips to Michaels. If you pin something on a separate webpage, it’s best to make sure it links to the original site to other users can read all about it and understand its origin.

Boards: where you organize and collect your pins. Each time you pin something, it will go to one of your boards, which you can name whatever you wish. Some examples are “My Future Home”, “Recipes”, “Fashion”, “Crafts”, etc. Your boards allow you to group your pins in like categories for easy future searching.

Followers: these are similar to Twitter followers, in that anyone you follow can see all your dirty little secrets- what you pin, as well as all you boards. Pinterest will suggest you follow people that you are already connected with via other social networking sites, but you can choose who you would like to follow or who follows you. 

              Pinterest's mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting" via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. At High Country Home magazine, we recently started our own Pinterest page and we are pinning some gorgeous houses in the High Country, awesome recipes from local restaurants, and other amazing inspirations for your home, landscaping, and décor needs. So now that you know the lingo, follow us and re-pin some of our awesome pictures onto your own pinboards! See you there! http://pinterest.com/