I’ve been bitten by the Pinterest bug and have crafted up a storm, and eaten my weight in chocolately peanut buttery confections because of it. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about how to get started and am now even helping some clients get a page set up. Here’s my stab at a “How to set up Pinterest”

First you have to request an invite on Pinterest.com.  Once you get one in your inbox (it takes a couple of days), click on the link and create your login information; you can link your Facebook and or Twitter accounts here too.

Next, Pinterest will ask you what your interests are to get you started.  Select a few.

Then Pinterest will show you that they have set up several people for you to follow that they think will be of interest to you.

See the grey “following” boxes under each person, if you click it, you can unfollow that person.  It’s super easy.

Now Pinterest will ask you to create the boards to which you will pin the items that interest you.

They give you a few, but you can create your own too.  And don’t worry, this isn’t the only place you can add or delete boards.

Once you click the create button the next page will show you how to add the “Pin It” button to your toolbar.  And Pinterest is so smart, it automatically gives you the button that works best with your browser.  Just click and drag it into your toolbar!

That’s it! You are set up, and if you added your Facebook and Twitter accounts, Pinterest has autofollowed your contact list from both.  To view who you are following, click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the main screen.

Select “Boards” from your profile.

You can also chose to view all of your pins, not categorized by boards, see the pins you have liked, and see who has mentioned you in a pin.  This is also where you access your settings.

By clicking on boards, you’ll see all of your boards.

Just above your profile photo, you’ll notice that there is a follower/following count.

If you click on the following text, you’ll be taken to your list of people that you are following. And if you click on the followers, you will see that list too.

Once again, just click the grey following box and it will unfollow the person.

The other menu items in the upper right corner are Add+ and About. The Pin It button among other things is listed under About.  We’ll cover the Add+ item later.

Viewing Pins Within Pinterest

You can view the pins of those you follow, or branch out and view the pins of everyone on Pinterest.  The default landing page of Pinterest is to view the pins of those you follow.

The menu items in the upper middle part of the screen allow you to view other pins.

You can select Everything and see it all, or you can drill down to a particular interest.  You can also view videos separately, pins that have spurred discussions, and gifts.  Gifts are simply pins that have price tags included in them.  See below for info on how to add a price tag to a pin.

Now you’re all set up and ready to pin!

Start easy, and peruse the pins of the people you are following.  That page is the default landing page now that you are on Pinterest.  If you see something of interest, hover your mouse over the image.  Three buttons appear:

If you like an item, that does not show up on other people’s boards, however, the person who’s item you have liked, will receive a notification that you liked their pin.

Repinning an item is what you want to do if it’s something that you’d like to remember or revisit down the road.  Or if you’d like to share something with other people.  Once you click the repin button this box appears:

Fill out the description you’d like to add to your pin, or chose to leave it as is.  If you pin a product, you can add a price tag by just typing in a dollar sign and the price.  If you’d like to mention someone in your description, to call their attention to it, type @ and then their name, it will create pull down of names of people you follow.

If you check off the Facebook Button (and twitter if you’ve added that to your profile), you can share the Pin on those social networks as well.  When you click on the black arrow, a drop down menu of your boards will apear.

Here, you have the option of creating a new board or selecting one that already exists.  Then click create and your pin will be added to the selected board and shared with those following you.

If you’d like to pin something from another location, click the Add+ menu item in the upper right corner of the main page.  When you do this box will appear:

Here you can create a new board, pin a file that’s on your computer, or add a pin from an external URL.

If you have the Pin It button installed on your tool bar and have found something on the interwebs that you’d like to pin, click the pin it button.  This pop up will appear, allowing you to select an image:

Once you have selected an image, the board selection box appears

And once you have clicked Pin It, the success box appears, letting you know that the pin worked (because sometimes it doesn’t).

If ever you make an error and pin things to the wrong board, simply go to the menu in the upper right corner, select the pins or boards menu item under your name and select the pin you wish to edit.

Click the edit button and a whole host of options come up

From here you can move a pin from one board to another, change the URL to which the image links and edit the description of the pin.

One of my biggest pet peeves on Pinterest is when you click on an image that interests you only to find that the link doesn’t take you to proper URL.  Hence the need to edit the URL.  A courtesy rule in Pinterest, is to link to the Permalink of the item of interest.

That’s the basics of getting started.  If I left something out or you have questions, just leave a comment here and I’ll answer you!  Good luck and Happy Pinning!

* A special thank you to my mother, Sally Spilman, for letting me use her account set up to grab screen shots of the set up process.