{"id":21306,"date":"2012-08-15T00:22:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T05:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=21306"},"modified":"2012-08-15T00:41:31","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T05:41:31","slug":"pinterest-welcome-to-the-new-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/pinterest-welcome-to-the-new-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinterest: Welcome to the New Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pinterest<\/a>Something has happened to the Internet realm this year that has altered what were once thought to be the norms. It’s called Pinterest<\/a>. Launched a little over a year ago, it has since exploded into the social media market. Well, we here are at ACNM are in the business of New Evangelization and that includes\u00a0utilizing\u00a0new technologies. So,\u00a0just like I explained Twitter to the newbie\u00a0evangelist<\/a>, let me introduce to you the darling redhead of social media. I promise it’s easy to use. That’s one of the keys to its success.<\/p>\n

How it works:<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

A Pin on my pinboard “Catholic”<\/p><\/div>\n

What makes Pinterest different from Twitter or Facebook is how it displays its content. It is not confined to a single, reverse-chronological stream of content. (It’s not a news feed.) Rather it displays photos (with descriptions) and has them organized by category.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pinterest’s menu of pinboard categories.<\/p><\/div>\n

Each user creates virtual “pinboards” (basically webpages), and when they find a pin they like, they “repin” that image to the pinboard of their choice. So\u00a0recipe\u00a0pins go on their\u00a0recipe\u00a0pinboard and travel destinations can go on their “Places I Want to Go Next Year” pinboard. The options are endless. (So are the snazzy pinboard name possibilities.)<\/p>\n

Now, this is where it gets awesome:<\/h2>\n

Remember six-degrees of Kevin Bacon? Everything’s connected, especially on the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n

While, yes, it is possible to pin content isolated from others- just find stuff you like from the various categories and pin them to your own pinboards – where’s the fun in that? This is social media, remember?<\/p>\n

Enter: Followers.<\/p>\n

You can follow a user’s individual board…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

OR<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

you can hit the “Follow All” button to follow all of the user’s pins and pinboards. (This a great option for friends.)<\/p>\n

You can follow random people whose taste you like, or link your Pinterest account to your Facebook and follow your friends who have Pinterest.<\/p>\n

All the pins from the users and boards you follow is live-streamed directly on your homepage.<\/p>\n

Driving Web Traffic<\/h2>\n

Let’s bump it up another level. So far I’ve shown you the basic what-to-do, show-you-around type info. However, that’s not all there is to it.<\/p>\n

There are two kinds of pins. (1) Those that are uploaded by the user and are static. (2) Those that are pinned directly from a website and are technically just photographic \u00a0links.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because of this capability, earlier this year it was reported that Pinterest\u00a0beat YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn combined \u00a0<\/strong>for percentage of total referral traffic. Yowza.<\/p>\n

And I think this is where the addictive aspect comes in. I’ve lost several hours to opening dozens pins in new tabs and browsing and then coming back to Pinterest and opening more pins. It’s a great source for creative inspiration and to learn new things.<\/p>\n

As a Tool to Evangelize<\/h2>\n

In order to effectively evangelize through this medium, here are some pointers.<\/p>\n