Pinterest: Pinning hopes and dreams

It motivates Genna Shelnutt to go to the gym. It helped Jeny Tyler design her nursery. Heather Solos uses it to see what drives readers to her Home Ec 101 website.

Fact Box

PIN IT: When you create your account, make sure you drag the Pin It �bookmarklet� to your bookmarks. When you see a photo you like, click �Pin It� in your bookmark and it will bring up a window that asks you which of your boards you want to pin the photo to. Pinterest starts you off with a handful of boards but you can create your own.
GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT�S DUE: Tyler says she only re-pins photos that link back to the site it originated from. If you do pin a photo from a website, don�t paste the entire story that goes with it, Heather Solos said, because it will remove any incentive for others to visit the site. Not only is it bad etiquette, it�s possible copyright infringement, she said.
PRICETAG: If you pin a product, remember to put the price in the description. This will automatically create a banner over the image listing the price.
FOLLOWERS: Don�t be afraid to follow or unfollow, Solos said. If someone follows you don�t have to follow them back.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GROUP FEATURE: You can allow others to post on any or all of your boards. Haley Harper, an event manager from James Island, said she participated on a group board for a friend who wanted her friends and family members to post ideas for her upcoming wedding.
NO VANITY: Don�t fill your boards up with pictures of yourself. �That�s what Facebook is for,� Genna Shelnutt said.

It is Pinterest.com, an increasingly popular social media site that comes with a "bookmarklet" feature that allows users to capture their favorite photos while surfing the web. Users then "pin" the photos to their customized Pinterest bulletin boards where they easily can find the image and link later. They can also see and share what their friends pinned.

Gone are the days self-described foodies Price Cook of Charleston and Shelnutt of West Ashley would see a picture and a recipe they liked on the internet and search for a scrap of paper or email the web address to themselves, only to lose it later.

"You see the big, beautiful picture and it links back to the original source," Shelnutt, an assistant account executive and content developer at Rawle Murdy, said. "When I go to the grocery store I just go to my food board."

Pinterest is just under two years old and still invite-only (invites are easy to get, just ask a friend who has it or request one from the site) but it's enjoying a recent surge thanks in large part to women between the ages of 18-34.

Shelnutt, who created a "fitspiration" board full of motivational images to encourage her to work out, said the site differs from Facebook because: "It's less about keeping up with other people and it's more about things you want to do for yourself."

Better business

According to a recent study by Sharaholic.com, Pinterest drove more Web traffic to sites in January than Google+, Youtube, LinkedIn and MySpace combined.

That's great news for retailers, photographers and other website administrators who are seeing their photos popping up on the virtual boards with a direct link to their sites. The Post and Courier recently created its own account at pinterest.com/postandcourier to further engage with readers and help tell Charleston's story through photographs about local food, attractions and style.

Cheryl Smithem, owner of Charleston Public Relations and Design, likens the site to a "virtual vision board."

She recently helped a client pin some of her content to Pinterest to help amplify her brand but cautions businesses from overdoing it. Not only does Pinterest discourage blatant self-promotion but you're likely to lose followers tired of the hard sell.

Smithem said businesses should interact with customers and focus on their lifestyle. "It's not about the product per se," she said. "It's about the person using the product."

Pinterest made national headlines last week when the blog LLSocial.com revealed that Pinterest modifies links from its site to businesses as a way of making money from the businesses but wasn't clearly disclosing the practice. LLSocial.com later posted another story acknowledging that Pinterest's terms of service covered the practice and it's not legally obligated to disclose it. Solos, a Moncks Corner author and Home Ec-101 website owner, said modifying links is a widely accepted practice but users generally prefer to have the information disclosed.

Not just for women

Pinterest doesn't overtly market to women, yet women make up anywhere from 60 to 70 percent of its users.

The boards are full of photos of wedding dresses, cute animals and desserts. Cook, a law librarian, said she likes the girly stuff but would also like to see more boards such as the one she has devoted to her favorite sport: baseball.

Boomer Oyler, a managing partner with the Charleston-based public relations firm The Becket Agency, recently joined the site for work. Every time he posts something from Pinterest onto his Facebook he gets flak from one of his friends. "What are you doing on Pinterest?" he recalled. "You're a man."

While other sites such as Gentlemint, a Pinterest-inspired board for "manly" things, have popped up, Pinterest users say they're happy more men are joining as the site becomes more and more publicized.

"That's a cool aspect, because it's getting a little overwhelmed with wedding stuff," said Tyler, a systems engineer.