Sophie Bujold: Pins, boards and other must-knows | Travel Research Online

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Sophie Bujold: Pins, boards and other must-knows

Now that you’ve got your Pinterest account created and personalized, it’s time to start using the site and building your boards. Just to make sure you truly understand the concept behind the site, let’s take a look at the 3 basic elements you will be working with.

Pins and Pinning

This is Pinterest’s version of an online bookmark. Every pin is composed of an image and a description. Some will also be linked to an external website or blog.

Creating a pin is appropriately known as pinning.

There are currently three ways of creating a new pin:

  1. Add a pin using a web link: Click on “Add +” on the top-right and choose “add a pin” to enter the web address of the content you want to pin.  Pinterest will then ask you to choose an image, tell it which board it belongs on and insert a description before clicking on “Pin it.”
  2. Upload a pin from your computer:Click on “Add +” on the top-right and choose “upload a pin.” This will allow you to select an image from your computer, assign it to a board and add a description. This option is ideal for images that do not require a web link.Tip: If you are loading your own photos, try to use an image editor to insert your brand name and website address on your photos. That way, if the description gets lost as people share, people can still refer back to your site.
  3. Use the “Pin It” button for your web browser: Pinterest has a button that can be set up on your web browser’s bookmark bar and it’s a true life saver! With it, you can add pins to your account with the click of a button as your surf the web – no need to go back to Pinterest and add the link manually. Click here to visit the pin it button section.

Boards

This is Pinterest’s name for a themed space you create for the purpose of categorizing your pins. If you think of each board as a virtual corkboard, it often helps grasp the concept behind them.

To create a new board, simply go back to “add +” and select “create a board.” Here is where you can really get creative with your themes and names. The more you think outside the box, the more attention your boards will get!

Finding and following other boards

Another great way of getting content onto your boards is to check out what other people are posting. You can do this by searching for content by keywords in the search box or by checking out the “category” option in the top menu (hint: there’s a whole section on travel that proves extremely useful on most days)

Once you’ve found content you enjoy, you can follow its pinner very easily by clicking on their name to visit their board. From there, you can either choose to follow all of their boards by clicking on the red “follow all” under the person’s about information OR you can choose to follow individual boards by clicking on “follow” below the board in question.


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Tip: If you want to avoid pinning overwhelm, I highly recommend following individual boards more often than all boards from a particular person. This significantly reduces the clutter on your Pinterest home page and gives you only content that is likely to be relevant.

You now have the Pinterest basics covered

We’ve seen how to set up and customize your profile and how to start pinning. These are really at the core of what you need to start your pinning adventure. Tomorrow, we’ll finish this off with tips on how to actually engage and become social on the site.

Sophie Bujold is a social media strategist who specializes in helping travel professionals achieve online success. She is the creator of Take Flight with Facebook, a social media FAM trip program designed to help travel professionals of all kinds build a winning Facebook marketing strategy. Sophie also speaks at industry events and works individually with travel agencies across North America. For more insights from Sophie, visit her website and sign up for her weekly email tips (it’s FREE.)


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