Social media has helped spur revolutions. It’s helped bring criminals to justice. It’s even given voice to the millions of individuals who wish to be heard. A couple of years ago, few could ever imagine the impact the MySpace epoch would place on other outlets that followed it—Facebook, Google+, Twitter and the newest player, Pinterest.  Social media serves as a personal compendium; live journals that can display what someone is thinking, doing or interested in.

Unlike other media outlets before it, Pinterest does not attempt to dethrone Facebook but collaborate with it using pictures and opulent layouts to allow users to display their ideas, interests and thoughts. With only 2.7 million users, the social media outlet continues to grow and gain notoriety as the new player.

About Pinterest  
Web browsers made it possible for individuals to bookmark favorite websites. You just hit the bookmark tab and out comes your saved entries. It’s quick. It’s effective, and most of all, it’s easy. Pinterest works as a virtual bookmarking tool used for “pinning” photos. It’s Facebook coalesced with Instagram.

Viewed as an interactive, social scrapbook, individuals can pin up favorite movies, clothing, accessories, projects for their PhD program to remember, purchase or use for inspiration at a later date. With an opulent layout, people continue to love the ideas and inspirational images scatter across the outlet. As with Facebook, Pinterest users can add friends, follow users and share ideas.

However, unlike Twitter or Facebook, subscribers need an invite to start using Pinterest. It may seem unorthodox, but with 2.7 million users and counting, it appears the executives at Pinterest seem to be doing something right.

Receiving an Invite
Facebook emerged from the hallways of Harvard and found its way to neighboring campuses as the exclusive, college networking and social media outlet. Students simply needed an “edu” email address to qualify for a Facebook. After its initial launch, the “edu” requirement was abandoned for use of a regular email.

Facebook started off exclusively for a set group of individuals, and it seems Pinterest aims to start the buzz by making it exclusive to users. Except receiving is fairly simple. Individuals interested in a social scrapbook of their lives can visit the website and receive an invite within a day. Folks can also receive an invite via a friend to get started.

How Pinterest Works
As with Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest includes its own “news feed” and “post” threads where individuals can share information. Instead of posts, individuals “pin” information, e.g., photos about an idea or item they wish to purchase, make or use. Individuals can join “boards” similar to Facebook’s groups in which individuals collaborate ideas and images that interest them.

Pinterest can also function as an application for Facebook in which individuals can “pin” a photo on their Facebook to link to their personal Pinterest account. Images can be pinned using the “upload” feature or as a bookmarklet links. In order to upload images, the user will need to have downloaded the picture onto a computer in order to share, while a bookmarklet link will direct users back to the original image and website.

Proper Usages
Using pictures as the basis of your social media platform presents a few tricky situations, particularly when it comes to copyrights. According to Pinterest, all users should aim to find the original sources and cite them. For example, if a user were to site a website template from a student pursuing a degree in web development, they would need to credit the original source.

Copyrights aside, Pinterest also specifies certain guidelines, including being respectful to others, being authentic and reporting objectionable information. While the company may be starting off, it appears to be headed in the right direction, and with plenty of feedback generated from users, Pinterest will continue to grow.