As if social networking isn’t growing at a rapid enough rate already with Google+ and Facebook (to just name two), we now have yet another platform exploding through the Internet with millions of people perusing the pages daily: Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?

We first thought Pinterest was just another site attracting primarily women on a daily basis with new recipes, hair-styling techniques, home décor, and do-it-yourself arts and crafts as shared by other users.

It is.

Pinterest is a bulletin board style social sharing site, known as a pinboard.  Users create themed image boards, building their individual pages with “pinned” images located online or from personal photo stock.  A “pin” is anything from a picture, video, or conversation which is then placed on the bulletin board.

The site provides a “Pin It” button which allows members to bookmark articles, blogs, and/or photos as they discover them to later share with their online friends and family.  If a user finds a particular page as one of their favorite spots to visit, Pinterest also offers a “Follow Me” button as well.

While the new social sharing site was in the early stages, new users had to receive an invitation from Pinterest itself.  Today users still require an invitation to join, but the process has been simplified just a bit and new users can accept invitations from current members as well.  In just two years, Pinterest has spread like wildfire with over 10 million unique visitors per month – the fastest growing social site in the U.S. to date.

To begin the signup process, individuals must link either their Facebook or Twitter account.  New account users are then asked to select themes that they enjoy, choosing from topics such as food and beverage, sports, arts and crafts, travel, products, apparel, home décor, and beauty.  Pinterest will then suggest other users to follow depending on the personalized preferences selected.  Next, the new member creates their very own pinboards before dragging and dropping the “pin it” button to their bookmark toolbar.

All that is left at this point is pinning away, building our personalized pinboards.

Members do not immediately have to set up boards.  We actually highly suggest paying close attention to anything “pinned” that doesn’t originate from a personal collection (for copyright issues), but we’ll get more into this later as we maneuver through and learn more about this new sharing site ourselves.

And be warned – be mindful of the time spent on Pinterest.  We’ve heard it can be extremely addicting. Some even recommend setting a thirty minute time limit daily.  We do have other things to do than to get lost on the Internet…

Pinterest seems simple enough, right?  Oh, but there’s more.  Come back next week when we continue our blog series focusing on the new sharing site sensation.