Pinterest quickly became, shortly after its launch, a highly appreciated social network used by people everywhere.
How does Pinterest work?
Founded in 2009, the network grew rapidly, reaching over 48 million users in 2013, and by early 2014 it had already surpassed 70 million users.
The online photo-sharing platform, Pinterest, works like a virtual board where each user pins images or videos they find interesting. The advantage is that you can organize these images, and at the same time, share photos posted by other users – Like and Repin (meaning redistribute).
Organization involves dividing the images (pins) onto boards. These can be named independently and then categorized into one of the existing categories on the platform. To create a new board, you access the Pinterest toolbar and choose the option "Create a board".
But what is a "Pin"?
A "Pin" or a "Bold", as it is called in the Romanian version, is the image you add on Pinterest.
To add a new entry (image or video) on Pinterest, there are several options: either by uploading them directly to Pinterest (for links there is the "Add a pin" option, and for files "Upload a pin"), or through the sharing buttons on social networks displayed at the end of posts.
An advantage of this platform comes from the possibility to follow content published on Pinterest either overall, by specific categories (Categories), or by popularity (Popular).
There is also the Following option – to follow what certain people post, as well as the option to be "followed" by others (Followers). Compared to other social networks, Pinterest offers the possibility to follow only certain categories or themes, and not the entire information stream posted by others (as is the case, for example, on Facebook).
With the introduction of the Search box, Pinterest has become easier to use, now being able to serve as a database for various projects or to more easily share personal achievements. Keywords added in the image description, preceded by the # sign, become hashtags, meaning they turn into links to pins that have the same hashtag in their description, making them easy to find in a search.
It should be noted that every image on the Internet added to Pinterest links back to the source site. For Pinterest to be truly useful for all users, it is advisable to reach the source of the respective image and post that image along with the author's name and as detailed a description as possible.
