Pinterest: Followers and Following

I was recently part of a discussion on Facebook where some Pinterest users were expressing frustration about the ins and outs of pinning. It can be tricky at times and yes, a little frustrating. There is a bit of a learning curve. But I am here to tell you, it is worth it to learn! I have tried so many new recipes and learned so many new things. I have recently been referring back to some of my boards for Christmas present ideas for my boys that I pinned months ago. I love Pinterest. I am a pinning fool.

The purpose of this specific tutorial today is to address the issues of "following" and "followers". If you have other questions leave me a comment and I can help with those in the future. Shall we begin?

Start out by going to pinterest.com. Once you are logged in you should see a page kind of like this (but with all your own information). This is your home page. On the left are categories to follow people you may know and to invite people to join. On the right you should see your name with a drop down menu (right above that red "Invite Friends" button).

This menu allows you several options, but for our purposes here we are going to discuss finding, following and unfollowing friends. So, to start out, click "find friends".

Clicking "Find Friends" will take you to a page that looks kind of like this one (above). On the left is an option to invite friends who are not already on Pinterest. On the right is an option to follow friends (from Facebook ) that are on Pinterest already. This allows you to find the friends you already know.

 Now to find out who you are already following and who is following you, click on your name and it will take you to the page with all your boards.

 

On the left you should see your picture and name.Under your name you will see two categories: followers and following. Click on "following" to see whose pin boards YOU FOLLOW. (Clicking "followers" will allow you to view who is FOLLOWING YOU and allow you the option to follow them back). When you sign up for Pinterest, the program automatically follows all of your friends from Facebook who are Pinterest users and even some other pinners that you may not know according to what is popular or what your preferences are. You may not really want to follow all these people.That's okay.

 So now you should be on the "[insert your name here] follows" page. Keep going down. . .

Click on "More Pinners" to see the next page (if you have a next page). Look for names that you don't want to follow as you go.

When you come to a name of someone you want to "unfollow", simply click on the gray button beside their name. It will turn red and say "follow". You have successfully unfollowed all of that individual's boards.

You can also click on the person's name. This will take you to their page with their boards.

 

You have the option of clicking the gray "unfollow" button under their name here if you haven't already done so on the previous page. It will turn red and read "follow all". That means you are not currently following their boards. To re-follow boards, just click the button again.

But what if you don't want to follow all? Let's say you want to follow one or more of the boards but there are others that don't interest you. For example, I'm going to say I want to follow David's "Bamboo" board. I just click the button underneath the particular board I want to follow instead of "follow all". You can choose as many or as few boards to follow as you would like.

A few more things about followers/following on Pinterest:
1.) As of right now there is no way to control who follows you so privacy is a little bit of an issue. Don't pin something you don't want others to see.
2.) Not only is Pinterest a visual bookmarking system, it is also a social tool. I have many friends who pin awesome, amazing, out-of-this-world things, but I have also found some of my favorite finds by following people that I don't know in real life but who have similar styles  and the same tastes as I do. I personally think it is okay to follow strangers but this is up to you and what you feel comfortable with.You really don't have to interact with these people at all other than repinning their items unless you want to. I comment on my friends' and family's pins but only rarely ask questions or put in my $0.02 on a stranger's pin. Again, if you are worried about privacy just make sure you don't pin personal things or get too personal in filling out your profile information.
3.) If you aren't already on Pinterest and you'd like to be, let me know and make sure I have your email address and I will send you an invite.
4.) If you are on Pinterest (and actually have pins on your boards), chances are I'd like to follow you. If I know you and I'm not following you, it may be because last time I looked you didn't have any pins for me to follow. Send me a link to your page (if you want to share) and we can be Pinterest buddies.

I hope that helped! And I hope I haven't missed anything. Feel free to leave any additional questions concerning this topic in the comments section, or you are always welcome to email me. I'm no expert but I have been on Pinterest since February so I have it mostly all figured out by now. Also please let me know if there are any other aspects of Pinterest that I can help with. I'm happy to oblige.

Happy pinning!