Pinterest boasts an incredible number of users, but those of you who haven’t signed up yet might wonder exactly what Pinterest is good for. In fact, even those who have been using the service might wonder about some new ways in which Pinterest can be used. Luckily, Pinterest is good for a wide range of activites.
From home life to marketing to writing, Pinterest has a great variety of applications. It’s a simple app that might seem like just a passing far, but it actually can be a useful too even for real work. Read on to learn about just a few of the many ways Pinterest can be used.
Business
As most of you know, Pinterest, like most other social networking sites, has an incredible number of applications within the business world. First, Pinterest is a great way to showcase the work that your business does, whether it is via a Pinterest portfolio or boards dedicated to photos of events or services provided by your business. You could then make Pinterest into a storefront, linking to products your business has for sale. If appropriate, try making “shopping cart” boards, full of products from your business. Arrange products by theme or category. Decorate a virtual “room” with your products or showcase a set of items for a particular event. Pinterest is great for market research. Just view the top pins to see what’s popular with potential customers.
Education
Pinterest is of great use in the classroom, especially as teachers continue to find new ways to use it. Content curation is a great way to use it with students – teachers can compile images for certain subjects and then share the collections with students. It could also be used to create tutorials and guides for certain projects or use the boards to help plan lessons. Students can also use Pinterest for projects like collages, or for group project collaboration.
Collecting education tools.
Healthcare
Those who work in the healthcare industry can even utilize Pinterest. It makes a great patient resource when you compile boards with information about diseases, treatments, hospital resources and more. Raise awareness for common diseases and outline basic prevention on boards geared towards the general public. You can even ask for help from potential donors, whether it is items needed for patients or general financial aid.
Children's Hospital's Pinterest is a great collection of patient resources.
Blogging
Bloggers can definitely use Pinterest for personal benefit. First, create a Pinterest for your blog and use it as a way to help grow the brand for your blog. Share popular posts, images and videos directly from your blog. Try using Pinterest as a way to find inspiration for upcoming posts. Lastly, utilize the site as an opportunity to interact with both your blog readers as well as those who inspire your blog.
A collection of blog posts done by a freelance blogger.
Authors
Bloggers aren’t the only writers to appreciate Pinterest. Those who dedicate their writing to books of fiction and non-fiction can also find great use in Pinterest as a way to promote themselves and engage with readers. Use Pinterest to showcase book covers and links to books. Create boards of fan art and work to engage in conversation with your audience. Lastly, Pinterest is a great, new way to create visual research and inspiration while writing. Use boards to research characters, locations and more.
Creative Types
Creative types of all varieties are able to utilize Pinterest for work purposes. Again, Pinterest is a great way to curate research and inspiration images without having to take up space on your hard drive. In fact, this is the way I choose to use Pinterest primarily, and it’s been great. Use a board (or ten) to save portfolio images or even videos. You can even use the collaboration features to create boards with clients – showcase media the client would like to include, allow the client to share images representative of what they are looking for, or even share and discuss in-progress work.
Event Planning
The sheer number of brides using Pinterest definitely illustrates how great Pinterest is for use in event planning. Whether it is a wedding, birthday party or any other event, the boards are great. You can have boards dedicated to potential decorations, food, clothing and more. Pinterest is also a great way to make a non-traditional registry. You can link to items from bigger stores, but Pinterest is also a great way to make a registry focused on locally produced items, or at least items made by individuals rather than corporations.
A sample registry or wishlist – great for event planning.
Home and Personal Life
Lastly, Pinterest has an incredible number of applications in everyday life. One popular way Pinterest is used is for food. You can collect recipes and organize them into appropriate boards. You can also use boards to plan meals for the week. Pinterest is great for travel planning – whether you make a board of dream destinations or use the boards to plan an actual trip. Create simple workout guides with images and videos of different exercises to include in the routine the board is dedicated to. Create a virtual “book club” where others can contribute to the board with images and links related to the current book, and then discuss in the comments. Create an entertainment board with links to books, movies and more that you wish to take in. Pinterest is even a great productivity tool when used responsibly. Create boards of articles to check out later, or make a board full of ways to motivate yourself, whether images or motivation techniques.
Exercise collections are a great use for Pinterest.
Pinterest is an extremely diverse tool with an absolutely astonishing number of ways to use it. From wedding planning to business tools to client communication, there is no limit to the possibilities. Try out some of these ideas, or come up with a completely new way to utilize Pinterest.
As always, I want to hear from you. I’ve provided a bunch of ways to use Pinterest, but what do you use it for? Share your uses in the comments below.