Party Planning with Pinterest!
Wedding Wednesday blog post “Party Planning with Pinterest!” from Invitations4Less.com.
Party Planning with Pinterest!
Are you on Pinterest? If so, you’re already aware of the addictive nature of this burgeoning new social networking site. We’ve recently joined the fun and we’re actively working to set up our boards and contribute regularly to the community with ideas for wedding planning, unique Bar & Bat Mitzvah decor, new and different graduation party themes as well as a few things we just couldn’t resist sharing on our “Just for Fun” board. Of course, we’ll be showing off our favorite invitations, too!
If you’re not yet on Pinterest, you’re missing out not only on a social networking explosion, but an opportunity to make your event planning so much more visual, not to mention simple!
Pinterest Board 3
What is Pinterest?
Here’s a brief primer on the new site that is taking the Internet by storm: Pinterest has been compared with pinboards seen on campuses and in social venues, with the user pinning things of interest for themselves to keep track of and/or others to note. While pinboards may host anything from items for sale to announcements about events and gatherings, Pinterest is a visual version of this concept with primarily images and video postings to share.
Although it’s quickly becoming a household word, Pinterest is still in its relative infancy, having just debuted in Beta form in March 2010 and only gaining national exposure in August 2011 when Time Magazine included Pinterest on their “50 best websites of 2011” list. Now at over 11 million unique user accounts, Pinterest is the fastest website in history (as of the date of this blog publication) to break the 10 million unique visitors mark. And yet, Pinterest is still available to invited users only. (Don’t worry, we’ll be happy to issue an invitation for you – keep reading).
So, how will this help you plan your next event? If you’ve been scouring the Internet searching for ideas to fit your theme, then trying to keep track of all those URLs and pictures of what you’ve run across, Pinterest will take care of all that for you.
Pinterest Board 1
Getting Started
Once you’ve set up an account, you’ll be asked to identify your interests so that Pinterest can match you up with other Pinterest users who share similar goals. You can search for more by typing in what you most hope to find (i.e. bar mitzvah favors; rustic wedding or Sweet 16 party) and then choose to re-pin images you’d like to save to your own boards (top image on this blog) for future reference, “like” the images or even follow the user who pinned the images you choose to re-pin since you share similar taste. Pins of all the users you follow will show up in the feed presented to you when you first log in (or click the Pinterest logo at the top of the page from anywhere in the site).
So, let’s say you’re planning a wedding and thinking about your new home at the same time. You don’t want to mix all your pinned images onto the same page. You’ll want them to be organized into categories: Bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, reception ideas, and home decor, just to name a few possibilities. This is where your boards come into play. Create your boards by clicking the “add +” button at the top and name your boards. You can have as many or as few as you like! Here we see the Wedding Ideas gathered by the staff of Invitations4Less.com, which includes everything from complete theme inspiration boards to groom’s cakes, but you could have one for cakes, one for bridal accessories, shoes, gowns, favors, and the list goes on…
Pinterest Board 2
Let’s Get Started!
You can always add and delete boards and pins as you go to keep your boards and pins to only what you want to see when you return.
Now that you have your boards set up, add pins by using the “add +” button to take an image from any website you visit (the link will automatically be appended so you can get back to that great invitation you found without having to write down the URL!) or by re-pinning images you find in your Pinterest feed. Once you understand the basics of using Pinterest, you’ll wonder why someone didn’t think of this sooner!
And if you’re not on Pinterest yet, we’ll be happy to issue an invitation for you. Just contact us and we’ll send it right away!
Looking for more help? See our Party Planning with Pinterest Video Blog!
