What is Pinterest? A 2012 coming attraction?

I kept hearing about a new site called Pinterest. At first I was thinking ‘great another social media I need to master and talk about’- I was in a bit of a snarky mood. But once I had a snack and took some time to research it I realized it was actually quite cool and there were some interesting potential uses. It may require a bit more site development but it’s something I want you all to at least know about and keep an eye on.

How it Works
Essentially it’s an online bulletin board of photos. You pin your photos to it that you find online or upload your own and people can ‘like; and ‘repin’ your posts. It’s ideal for showcasing ideas, concepts, inventory, garnering opinions, and SHAREING! Their mission statement mentions it is not intended for self promotion. I also say this about facebook and other social medias: it’s about client and friend relations (CRM), keeping up with contacts, reminding people you are still alive, in business, and there to help- not selling!

How do I join?
It appears that this site is still in a beta testing stage. I clicked the join pinterest link when I was on the site and it sent me an email letting me know I would be placed on the waiting list. I heard from a friend you usually get off the wait list in a few days. Hopefully soon it will be immediate, but all good things in life are worth waiting for.

Potential Uses
I could see a few potential uses for real estate. At the moment it is being used by many designers to showcase rooms and ideas. So a staging board might be a great thing to have (see an example above) with ideas and examples of your own listing and work. Or a board of your listings to showcase them on this platform, I think in this instance would be acceptable. Or if you are a photography buff, and enjoy taking photos of your community, a community photos board would be great.

Will it help SEO?
Don’t know yet. From the research some of the staff here did it doesn’t appear to have tags on the photos yet- maybe in back end or in the works – couldn’t say till I get my own account! If they develop the site as other social networks have developed then it certainly has the potential to help with search engine optimization.

One criticism
At times I have trouble loading a page. My suspicion is that it is browser related, I have to use IE on my work laptop usually and I think it isn’t reading some of the pages well. The loading problem is inconsistent. I would imagine with time though this will improve. So if viewing try to use safari or firefox. It worked well on my ipad.

Share with the class
If you are currently using Pinterest or have any feedback/ideas please share with the group. I would love to hear more user feedback!