Pinterest is a visual bookmarking website that allows you to "pin" images and videos that you find online and want to save or share with others onto virtual pinboards. It's similar to popular social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon, but you can only pin images and videos on Pinterest. People can follow you or your pinboards on Pinterest, and they can repin the content you share that they like, which adds it to one of their own pinboards. You can do the same thing with content pinned by other people. Users can also comment on each other's pins and "like" them.
More Pinterest Feature Details:
Pinterest is very visual and very social. You can create as many pinboards as you want and categorize them for pinning in any way you want. For example, you can create a pinboard called "Things I Like" or a pinboard called "Movies I'll Never Watch Again." It's up to you. Since all pins are either images or videos, Pinterest is a highly visual experience.
Pinterest offers a handy bookmarklet that you can add to your web browser toolbar, so you can instantly pin any image or video you come across as you're browsing the Web. You can also add a Pinterest button to your blog, so it's easy for people to follow you on Pinterest or pin your content at anytime.
When you see a pin on another person's pinboard that you like, you have five choices. You can follow that person, follow that pinboard, like the pin, comment on the pin, or repin the pin onto one of your own pinboards, making it easily accessible to you and visible to your followers. When other users perform the same actions when they find your pins, your audience grows and your pins' exposure grows. That means more potential traffic to your blog and more relationships that can lead to blog traffic and growth.
Who Is Using Pinterest?:
Pinterest is currently used primarily by women between the ages of 25-35. However, the site is growing incredibly quickly, and the audience is getting more diverse. Many individuals use Pinterest just for fun. It can be a hobby to pin things, similar to scrapbooking for many users.
Businesses use Pinterest to share images from events, to show off customized product collections, and to show customers using their products. Pinterest's terms of use policy clearly states that the site should not be used for direct promotion, but creative businesses find great ways to share their products and services without using blatant self-promotion tactics.
In other words, there is room for everyone to use Pinterest for a wide variety of personal, professional, and business purposes. Even nonprofit organizations can be found using Pinterest to share images and videos of events and stories.
Is Pinterest Right for You?:
Pinterest is a great choice for people who don't need to write lengthy blog posts and don't require a robust blogging application like WordPress or Blogger. It's a better choice than Twitter if you want to share primarily images and videos rather than text. And it's a better choice than Tumblr if you don't have a desire to share text and audio in a blog format, but prefer the pinboard style of Pinterest. Furthermore, if comments and two-way conversation are important to you, then Pinterest is a better choice than Tumblr which offers a more limited commenting feature.
Bottom-line, if you want to share, find, and discuss images and videos in an easy-to-use setting that mimics a billboard concept, then Pinterest is a great choice for you. If you want more features than image and video bookmarking, sharing, discovery, and commenting, then you should look into using a microblogging or blogging tool.
By Susan Gunelius, About.com Guide