When I first heard about Pinterest a few years ago, I didn't understand its appeal. I love clothes and fashion and shoes and home decor, but not enough to sit for hours in front of the computer looking at what other people would like to wear or decorate their house with. Then, I stumbled upon some teaching boards and I was hooked! There are so many incredible ideas I've learned about from Pinterest. However, I've learned a lot from trial and error, so I thought I'd share my seven tips for using Pinterest.

#1: Click on each pin

Pinterest can be so addicting, it's easy to just pin away. However, if you don't click each pin before pinning it again, you might not realize that you're pinning spam, or that the pin has no link...or that it goes to the wrong link (more on that in a minute). If you take that one extra second, then your followers will pin your pins more often (instead of getting excited only to find out that the pin doesn't go anywhere!) 

#2: When pinning, make sure you have the correct address

This is a very common mistake when pinning from blogs. My blog address is www.mrsmiraclesmusicroom.com. However, if you were pinning my blog post about using iPads, you'd want to make sure to get the whole link. In the first picture, I just have my blog address. 

Even though it shows the correct post, the pin will go to the most recent blog post instead of specifically to this blog post. To pin specifically to this blog post, you have to click the title "10 tips for iPad group work." Now check out the address:

Now if you pin, it will go directly to this blog post.

#3: Create your own pins

I am guilty of simply pinning from Pinterest, but have had to remind myself to go out and find new pins instead of always just pinning what others have pinned. By creating your own pins, Pinterest will remain engaging and interesting. To create your own pin, I highly suggest installing the Pinterest button (click here to install the button.) Once you install it, you can click on the button to pin a site, like shown below.

You can go to Pinterest and click the plus button in the lower right hand corner, then choose an image from your computer. Once you click "pin it," you have to go back and edit the pin, and add the web address.

#4: Watch how much you pin products

I am so thankful for how much my TpT store has grown because of Pinterest. However, I have noticed in recent months that Pinterest was turning into more products than free ideas. For that reason, I quit pinning products as much. At its heart, Pinterest should be mostly free ideas, not tons of products. Pinterest has changed the way it displays home feed, though, and from what I understand, it'll make it harder for products to be pushed onto people. While I do appreciate the free marketing, I also totally get where they are coming from. That being said, if you sell products, be careful how much you are pinning your own products. Vary your pins. Add freebies and ideas people can immediately implement. Many collaborative boards have rules about how many paid vs. free pins you can pin to their boards. Be careful of those rules, so that people don't quit using Pinterest simply because it's too product-heavy.

#5: Search for pins and pinners 

I'm a Kodaly-inspired music educator, so to find pins that would interest me, I can go to the search bar and search "Kodaly music education." If I do that, I see this:

(Interesting...the art obviously has nothing to do with my search, but I see that it is a promoted pin, a very new thing Pinterest is trying.)

Anyways, I immediately see some things of interest to me. I can then click on "boards," and follow boards dedicated to Kodaly-inspired teaching (all of them, thank you! OK, maybe I'm going to have to come back and click "follow" another time, because this could take a while!) Now my news feed should show tons of pins of interest to me!

#6: Pin often

I'm not saying you need to spend hours every day on Pinterest. I know some people who schedule their time on Pinterest, but I'm just not that organized. So I do it when I think about it, like when I'm in the car (on my phone) or during commercials. Sometimes I pin for a half hour, sometimes just for a few minutes, sometimes I don't at all, but I do try to make sure I pin fairly often.

#7: Create a board for pins you'd like to use soon

This is an idea that just came to me. There are SO many great ideas on Pinterest, but it's easy to lose sight of that great idea you read about five months ago. So today, I create a board called "Ideas to use soon," and went back through my boards to look for ideas I'd like to use in January. Then when I lesson plan, I can check Pinterest for those ideas. And when I'm done using that idea, I can delete it from the board and add another!

Update: Here is a video I created with Pinterest's new search features!

If you're not following me on Pinterest, check out my profile here. I'd love to read your Pinterest ideas...feel free to comment below! Happy pinning!