Pinterest for Beginners Class Description: Interested in learning about Pinterest? This class will provide an overview of what Pinterest is, how to set up a Pinterest account, and how to use Pinterest. Class Length: 2 hours Objectives: Class Schedule Learn how to set up a Pinterest account. Have a basic understanding of the purpose of Pinterest. Learn how to use Pinterest to communicate. Setting up a Pinterest Account o Sign up with Email or Facebook Pinterest Dashboard o Home Feed o How to Pin o Finding Friends o Toolbar o Pin Board Profile o o Editing your Profile Privacy Settings
What is Pinterest? Pinterest is a social networking site that is set up as a virtual pinboard. It helps you to share and organize pictures that you find on the web. You can also browse other people s boards and pins. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest is not about personal sharing or status updates. Why use Pinterest? Pinterest can be used to collect ideas, recipes, crafts, or sayings that relate to topics you are interested in. For example, if you enjoy cooking, you could use Pinterest to find and collect recipes. Pinterest is particularly useful to people who enjoy crafting or other hobbies. Uses for Pinterest: 1. Share your projects, ideas or recipes with your followers via photos/pins. 2. Find new ideas or projects by searching other peoples pinboards. 3. Follow people with common interests. When You Sign Up When you sign up for Pinterest, you can choose to sign up using your Facebook account or your email account. Pinterest asks you to choose one of these options to protect the site from spam. If you sign up using your Facebook account, you are allowing Pinterest and Facebook to communicate with each other. This can be useful if you are interested in sharing what you are pinning on Facebook. If you choose to sign up with Facebook, it will ask you to sign in to your Facebook account. Once you have signed in, you are automatically signed up for your Pinterest account. If you choose to sign up with your email account, it will take you to a screen that will ask you for your name and email address. It will also ask you to create a unique password for your Pinterest account. Once you are finished filling in your information, you simply click Sign Up.
Pinterest is now going to ask you what some of your interests are by asking you to click on a few pictures you like. Select a few pins that interest you and Pinterest will automatically sign you up to following Pinterest users based on your interest. You can always unfollow these users later. Now you are ready to pin! Your Home Feed When you first log into Pinterest, the first screen that opens is your Home Feed with a view of the pins from people or boards you follow. Find Friends: This allows you to search for your friends using Facebook or email. Pinning To pin, all you need to do is find a picture you like and would like to save on one of your pinboards. Place your cursor over the picture and some buttons will appear. Simply click on Pin It to add it to your pinboards. A new window will appear that gives you a choice of what board you would like to pin it to and allows you to add a description. When you are finished, click Pin it. Pin your picture.
You can also send the pin to a friend via email or on Pinterest. The little heart symbol is the like button, which allows you to communicate to a friend that you like their pin without pinning it to one of your boards. Send it to a friend. Like it. Finding Friends To find friends on Pinterest, simply click on the Find Friends button when you first open your Pinterest Account. You can find friends on Pinterest by allowing Pinterest to connect to your Facebook or Twitter profile. A list of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers will appear. Click Follow to start following any of your friends pins. You can also choose to invite your Friends through Facebook, Google+, Gmail, or Yahoo if they are not yet on Pinterest. When you invite friends, Pinterest allows you to send a personalized email to them encouraging them to join the site. Pinterest Toolbar You can use the Pinterest toolbar to navigate to different pages or options on your Pinterest account. Search bar: This allows you to search for boards, pins, and friends. Subject: This allows you to browse pinboards by subject. Plus: This menu allows you to upload a pin from your computer to Pinterest, add a pin from a website, or create a new board. Notifications: This menu shows you who has pinned, commented, followed or liked your pins or boards.
From your toolbar, you can also navigate to pages to view your boards, pins, and likes. If you click on Your Boards, this will take you to a view of all of your Pinboards. Pinboards are virtual pinboards that allow you to pin images on different topics from other boards, websites, or your computer to organize them. It also shows you the profile information that you have available to the public and allows you to edit that information. If you click on Your Pins, this will take you to a view of all the images that you have pinned over time. Pins are the actual images that you pin to a pinboard. If you click on Your Likes, it will show you images of all the pictures you have liked in the past. Your Boards You can Create a new board by clicking on Create a board on the Your Boards page. 1. Fill out the name you would like for your board. 2. Fill out a description if you choose. 3. Choose a category for your board. 4. Decide if you would like your board to be viewable by the public. 5. When you are finished, click Create Board.
You can view what is displayed on your boards, by click on the name of your board. On this page, you can see your pins, add a pin from your computer or edit the settings of your board that you set when you first created it. You can also view your pins, likes, people who are following you, and people you are following via the buttons on the Your Boards page. Your Profile Your profile is also available on the Your Boards page. It is pretty basic and includes a profile image, your name, and your bio. You can change your profile picture by placing your cursor on top of your profile pic and clicking Change Picture. You can also edit your profile information by clicking the small pencil icon in the lower right-hand corner. You can edit your profile picture, bio, location, and website under editing your profile.
Privacy Settings Whenever you have an account on a social networking site, it is important to be aware of the privacy settings you have selected for your account. Any account you create will have default settings which may or may not meet your expectations of privacy. To see the privacy settings for Pinterest, click on the drop down menu with your name. Click on Settings. Under these account settings, you can determine how your profile can be searched or personalized based on your activity online. You can also set your email notifications and determine which social networks you would like Pinterest to connect with to log in. Works Cited: GCFLearnFree.org (2013).Pinterest 101. Available online at: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/pinterest101. Schaumburg Township District Library (2012). Pinterest 101. Available online at: http://schaumburglibrary.org/files/2012/11/pinterest-101.pdf