August 1, 2012

The Lowdown on Pinterest!

by Robin

My name is Robin and I am a Pinterest-a-holic. It’s been about an hour since my last pin and I have no intention of quitting… EVER! Seriously, it’s that fun!

Not following your favorite divas on Pinterest yet? (GASP!) Find us here: http://pinterest.com/thedatingdivas/

What? What’s that you say? You don’t even know what Pinterest is all about?? AUGHHH!!! We need to get you on board, girl! If you have been hearing about “Pinterest” and “pins” all over the place, but still have no clue what all the rage is about, you came to the right place! {Even if you DO know about Pinterest… this post may teach you a thing or two!}

WHAT IS IT EXACTLY?

So… remember when you used to come across a website and you really, really liked it? An awesome recipe, perhaps? Or a sweet date idea? Maybe it was a project with the kids. Either way, you knew you didn’t want to lose that website and so you would BOOKMARK it, or add it to your “favorites” through your Internet browser. Later, when you wanted to find it, you would open your favorites/bookmarks, and find the page. Well now, you shall bookmark no more! Because, da-da-da-da: we have Pinterest!

Pinterest is basically this: an online pinboard where you can “pin” all of your great website/blog/tutorial finds in one place! You have GOT to try it. Not only do you get to store all your favorite things in one place, but you get a PLETHORA of great ideas because you get to see what all your friends are pinning too!

To start, go to http://www.pinterest.com

You will see a little something like the image below. Now, you can push that big, red, ‘request an invite button’ but sometimes it takes a LONG time to get an invite. The fastest way to get on Pinterest is to get a personal invite from a friend. So…no need to fear, the DIVAS are here! ALL of our readers are friends of ours! If you would like an invite to Pinterest, just  let us know in the comments below. {We can see your email address on the backend of our site so no need to retype that.} We will invite you ASAP!!

Once you have an invite, you can log in. The first thing you will want to do is to set up your account. You can sign in using your Facebook or Twitter account. I recommend logging in this way because then Pinterest will show you which of your Facebook/Twitter friends are already using Pinterest and you can follow them to see what great ideas they pin! But, if you don’t have one of these accounts, or don’t want to use it, the good ol’ email/password combo works great, too.

Right after you sign up, you will be prompted to create a few “boards.” This is the part that threw me off when I first joined Pinterest. I was like, “Whoa hold it. What the? What is a board? How do I even know what I want??” I would suggest just accepting the boards they suggest for you and move on. You can edit those boards & change the titles later after you figure out how it all works.

Now when you’ve gotten this far, and if you’ve signed in with Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest will automatically have you start following your friends from that account. Don’t forget to find your diva BFF’s! Here is our Pinterest account:

http://pinterest.com/thedatingdivas/

You just push that red “follow all” button to stay updated with all of our ideas! Not only do we post dates here, but you’ll find links to recipes for some man-pleasin’ meals, fun ideas for the kiddos, and all sorts of creative gift ideas!

Here’s a little bit of what’s happening on OUR Pinterest boards right now:

101 Handmade Gifts for Men

Double Braided Crown

50 Breakfast Recipes

15-Min Date Ideas

You want to know what else we have gathered up for you? Just 12 of the BEST sites ever!!! We’ve done all the searching and researching for you and found the COOLEST 12 sites out there. Check out Tara’s post here to see which sites they are as well as what they do EVERY week… just for us!

12-MUST FOLLOW Websites

Now…it’s time to create some of your own boards and start pinning away! You can edit the boards you created earlier, and also add new ones at any time.

For example, I found this little deliciousness on Pinterest the other day. I DEFINITELY want to save those babies for the next time I’ve got a cinnamon roll craving (mmmmm…..cinnamon rolls)! So, I hover my mouse over the pin I like, and the option to “repin” will pop up in the upper left corner. Click it!

You then get a pop up that looks like this. There is a drop down so that you can choose which of your boards you want to pin that particular item to. I’m having these cinnamon rolls go to my board I’ve named, “Treaties.” Then you click the red ‘pin it’ and YAY! You did it!

To find those cinnamon rolls later, I just hover over my name in the top right corner of Pinterest’s main page and click “Boards.” This will bring up all my Pinterest boards.

From my boards, I click “Treaties” to see everything on my treaties board and VIOLA! There they are! I can then click anything I want on that board to be taken to the link/recipe/tutorial that I pinned. What’s not to love??

So get on over there and try it out! If you’ve been too intimidated before, now is the time to give it a shot! You can refer back to this post anytime you get stuck. There are some really great Pinterest tutorials here too if you need some extra help:

I am Momma Hear me Roar: A few things you may not know about Pinterest

The Daily Digi: Pinterest 101

And because we LOVE her, check out what one of our fabulous designers has done here!

“My Life in Pins”

Can’t wait to see you in Pinterest Land!!!  Once again, here is where you will find us: http://pinterest.com/thedatingdivas/

HAPPY PINNING!