Let’s cut to the chase, Pinterest is different to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and any other social media platform you can think of.

Pinterest is also not a social media platform. Even though you can do a lot of the same things on the platform that you can on other social media platforms.

The platform is actually a bit of a hybrid, which is why I tend to call it a social platform. It can be used in a social way and it is a platform.

When people use Pinterest, they are generally looking for ideas. When ideas are found, they are pinned to boards. Each board is a collection of different ideas that is then used to create something.

For instance, if you are about to renovate your home, you would create different Pinterest board for each room being renovated in your home. For each board you would search for ideas and pin to it, creating a digital mood board. From there you start looking for products to buy.

The same process is used for businesses. An example here would be trying to learn how to set up and get people to join your mailing list.

Yes, you can search using google, you can also do a Pinterest search.

Just enter a keyword or key phrase such as ‘mailing list’ into the search bar and you’ll get lots of images that pop up. Each image is associated with information about setting up, creating and collecting email addresses.

You can then pin the images and captions that strike you most onto your board and then go through the blog posts at your leisure.

Doing this in Pinterest makes it more of a search engine rather than a social media platform; and it is this reason why Pinterest is thought of as a visual search engine.

As far as coming to grips with how Pinterest works, there is plenty of information online. Unfortunately, reading all that information leaves you with more questions than you started with.

This was a position many people find themselves in when starting out on Pinterest.

Thankfully, with the help of Facebook, there are groups that are able to answer all Pinterest related questions.

If you have general questions there are 3 closed groups that are worth joining.

Pinterest Ninjas

This group was created by and run by Megan Johnston from lovefamilyhealth.com and all posts have to be approved to be published.

The great thing about this group is that it is a one stop shop, in that you can ask questions, get advice, post pins you want repinned and get new followers to your Pinterest as well as other social sites.

This is all done through the use of daily threads, where each day allows you to promote something different.

There is also a Pinterest Ninja ebook that is very reasonably priced.

Simple Pin Pinterest Strategy Group 

Created by Kate Ahl from simplepinmedia.com. All posts in this group do not need to be approved by moderators before being published. As it is a strategy group, there is no posting of pins or link sharing allowed.

It is the place to go when you want to know more about new strategies, monthly reporting, Pinterest updates or to check your sanity when things aren’t going as you hoped.

BoardBooster Official User Group

Created by Dennis Kashkin, this group was created to have your questions answered and to develop successful Pinterest marketing strategies. There is no pinning of pins in this group.

By being part of 1, 2 or all 3 of these groups, you’ll find all your Pinterest questions would be answered. More importantly, you can discuss ideas and thoughts you have about how to improve the clicks back to your own site from Pinterest.