If you are like me, you like to use pinboards to organize things, from your own marriage to a family picnic or your child’s birthday party. Pinboards help visualize those events, and that’s exactly what the online pinboard community Pinterest does. It is not the only thing though, as it adds a community element to it as well.

When you first open the Pinterest website you will notice lots of pictures right on the frontpage. All of those lead to items that Pinterest users have added to their pinboard. From pink cupcakes to clothing and paintings.

The frontpage is changing constantly with new popular items being moved to the top of the list. The items posted there can be used for inspiration. Existing Pinterest users can comment and like individual items, or pin them to one of their own pinboards for safe keeping.

Pinterest users add interesting photos or videos to their pinboards with the help of a bookmarklet that they need to drag and drop to their bookmarks toolbar or bookmarks folder. When you click on the bookmarklet all reasonably sized pictures and videos are displayed to you in an overlay. You can then pick one that you like to add to one of your pinboards.

You then have the option to open the pinboard that you have just added the pin to or to close the overlay window to continue surfing on the site you have discovered it. Using the bookmarklet is however not the only option to pin items to one of your pinboards. You can also pin items that have already been posted by another user on the site.  This is called repinning.

You can also like or comment on pins by other members, and add members to your own circle. The mechanics here are the same as on other sites. You can follow people, which means that you will see their updates on a special page, and be followed, which displays your pins to other members.

Pinterest can be best described as a visual bookmarking service with social networking features. You can obviously use it to plan events, for instance your wedding, by pinning all the things that you would like to have at your wedding to your pinboard. This can be location related, food and drinks, people or dress related.  You could even go the extra mile and take photos of things that you do not find online, publish them online and pin them to have them appear on your Pinterest board as well.

Here is a short video tutorial on Pinterest

Pinterest Invites

I have mentioned previously that Pinterest is invite only, which means that you cannot sign up until you get an invite. You can leave your email at the site to receive an invitation when they become available, or find someone that is already using Pinterest. We have Pinterest invites for you. All you need to do is leave a comment below (don’t forget your email address) and we will invite you as soon as possible.