A Beginner's Guide to Pinterest

With Halloween less than a week a way (and the holidays just around the corner), many people are searching for the perfect ways to celebrate. From costume ideas to amazing decoration tips, one common place people search is Pinterest. But just what is Pinterest? And how do you take advantage of this innovative social media platform? We've pulled together a beginner's guide to Pinterest to answer all your basic questions.

Pinterest is basically a virtual bulletin board. It allows you to organize all those amazing websites, photos, and videos that you find while searching the Internet. Just like a regular bulletin board, you "pin" your find on your Pinterest board. You can even add a description that reminds you why you through that site was important (i.e. "this is the perfect costume for David" or "I want to makes these treats for the party"). It's easy to keep organized by creating several different "themed" boards. This way all your costumes ideas are gathered in one place and all your decorations in another. You can divide by child, season, occasion, and even have a "future wish" board.

Of course, Pinterest is a social media site. That means that there are also ways to interact with other people. You can follow people (your friends, businesses, celebrities, etc.) and check out what is on their boards. You can also do random keyword and hashtag searches to find things on the boards of strangers. If you find something interesting, you can like it, comment on it, and/or re-pin it to one of your own boards. Your followers can do the same thing to the things pinned on your boards.

Many people love the ideas and inspirations that come from looking at other people's boards. However, to ensure that Pinterest remains super useful for you, it is important to focus your feeds so that you filter out unwanted information. The easiest way to focus your feeds is to do searches on the categories that interest you the most. The more you search, follow and pin specific types of information, the more it will show up in your general feed.

Above all, feel free to experiment! If you are afraid what other people will thing, you can create a private account or board to practice with and only go public once you feel completely comfortable. And as with all other types of social medias, the best way to learn is to do! So sign up here and start pinning today!