What is Pinterest ?

I see this question being asked quite allot on HubPages and other locations on the Internet. I am not fully aware why people find grasping the concept of what Pinterest is so difficult, however in this article I will explain how it works, what it does, and who is most likely to be the target audience.

At this current moment in time Pinterset is only operating through "invite only". This means that you will have to get an invite from someone already using the service or you will have to request one from the team. I am not fully sure why this is as the website doest appear to still be under development, however maybe the owners of the site are trying to control website traffic since it is taking off rather quickly.

The site is a "social site", it binds users together through photos only. I personally think that it has a feel to it similar to tumblr. I will explain why later in this article. So as I have already said it works primary through photo sharing. After the user has signed up to the service they will be asked if they want to create a "board". The "board" is essentially a specific category or group that you will put relevant photos onto it. I will share my personal "boards" as an example. I have one for photography and one for "products". So if I find a really nice photograph on a website, I can either go to Pinterest and add the link, or I can directly "pin" the image to a board via the "pin it" button Pinterest gives you to attach to your bookmarks.

After the user has "pinned" the image to a "board" of their choice, he or she will then see their image on the main homepage. Then other users using the site will see the image and will be able to comment, like, or "repin" the image. This is why I said earlier about it being similar to tumblr, as with tumblr you have similar options as to what to do with an image or post. I must stress at this point though that unlike tumblr, with Pinterest you can only submit pictures.

If a user on the site likes your photos as a whole they can follow your future pins. The user has the option to "filter" what pins they see on the main homepage.

That is basically Pinterest in a nutshell, well at least it is of mid January 2012 !

So what do I think Pinterest over all ?

I think the site has allot of potential, however, currently I feel like its abilities are very limited. The fact that you can only share photos might be a good thing, and might make the site unique, but I do think that if they were to introduce other elements to the site they might have a larger audience that would want to use it. I think its certainly worth a try for anyone that has a passion for photography. I usually only see very good quality photos on this site, and it is a pleasure to be able to have such easy access to them. If you are thinking about using Pinterest as a way to direct traffic to your blog, then I would advise against it. I have found that no matter how many "repins" or "likes" you receive on your image, you get no one going to the original source of the image. I think the main reason for this is the sheer fact that there is no need to, as Pinterest already has shown you the image, and therefore you don't need to see the image again somewhere else.

That is it for this article entitled "What is Pinterest." If you would like you can follow me on Pinterest by pressing here.

Please leave comments, and have a great day.