Pinning 101

I hear lots of people say, "I'm on Pinterest, but I don't really get how it works." If this statement applies to you, read on. Pinterest can be as simple or as complex as you make it. For many, simply installing the app on your phone and repinning other people's pins is sufficient.

Here's how I approach Pinterest: I log on and go to the "Explore" screen. I really just focus on a few categories that interest me the most. These include: Design, DIY & Craft, Education, Food & Drink, and Home Decor. For all intents and purposes of this blog, I will focus on the Food & Drink category.

When I find a photo of some food that looks good, I click on the photo, which takes me to the site from which the photo was pinned. Often, the pin comes from a food magazine. Other times, the recipe comes from a food blog-these are the pins that excite me. After I look at the recipe I am focusing on, I snoop around on the blog for other great finds. Typically I stumble upon several other recipes that I immediately pin. If I absolutely love the blog and think it would be worth keeping up with, I click on that little RSS feed button (pictured above) that most blogs have on their homescreens. I add the blog to my RSS feed reader.

Now onto "What is an RSS feed reader?" There are several readers you can download from the app store. You can also use google, yahoo, or another engine as your reader. I personally use "Flipboard."

This is the icon for it so you can find it in the app store. Readers work like this: Anything you choose to subscribe to, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news, etc. will all be sent to the reader location. That way, you can open up one site (if reading on a PC) or app (if reading on another device) and read all of your subscriptions at once.

Back to Pinterest. When I find a blog I want to follow, and I add it to my reader, then every time the blog gets updated with new information, the info gets sent to my reader. Gone are the days of switching between checking Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, Daily Candy, DMagazine, and all of the blogs I read.

I hope all of this makes sense. I tried to break it down like I would like it to be broken down. For those of you that thought "That's way too much work," while reading this post-I would stick to happily repinning from your app. :)