EAST TEXAS (KYTX) -- It's being called the "hottest social media site" since Facebook. Pinterest, which allows you to "pin" your favorite photos, products and recipes, is now the third most popular social networking website in the U.S.
The site is less about keeping you connected and more about sharing ideas and your favorite things.
Handmade by Heather is a business that didn't exist until Pinterest came into Heather Harbour's life. "Through Pinterest I've learned how to crochet and sew," she said. "There's no telling how many recipes I pulled off of that website."
A girlfriend introduced heather to Pinterest about seven months ago. Now, she's "pindicted." "Before I had Pinterest, I would search for blogs and look for ideas," she said. "I would have a billion bookmarks on my Safari. This is so much cleaner and more organized."
Heather likes that she can see photos of a craft project, clothes pattern, or even a party idea. Then she "likes it" or "pins it" to one of her boards on her "virtual cork board." She said she gravitates to categories like DIY and crafts. "I spend the majority of my time on this category and the home decor category because I really like interior design."
At Christmas, Heather received a sewing machine, turning her pins and likes into cash.
"I've started making these coin pouches and I posted them on Facebook and people went crazy and everybody wanted one. I ordered like 50 zippers and I just made 25 and all of them are gone."
Right now Pinterest is dominated by women -- they make up 60% of its users. Two teachers at Oak Hill Montessori in Tyler say Pinterest is re-energizing their classroom with endless ideas.
"You can fill a zip lock baggy and put paint in it and write and learn with your letters, numbers," says Sam Wells, Oak Hill Montessori teacher. They enlist Pinterest for reading, science, art and sensorial lessons-- like a special dinosaur Sam uses in class to work on fine motor skills. "They really enjoy working with their pincer grasp. It helps later on their writing ability," says said.
Sam Wells teaches students 18 months to 3 years old. She uses the mobile Pinterest app so she can bring ideas from home to school. "If you're a teacher and looking for a certain art project for a holiday, it will take you straight to Valentine's Day and it will give you all the ideas of what you can do," says Wells.
And even better, the blogs on Pinterest let you know how other followers like the lessons. "We all post comments about it and whether it's good, what we did differently," says Beth Reed, Oak Hill Montessori teacher. Beth Reed uses Pinterest at home and in school. Her interest in Pinterest started with a recipe. "It was the pizza muffin recipe that I saw. You basically throw all of the ingredients for pizza into muffin tins and bake them."
That recipe spring boarded Beth into Montessori lessons like turning an egg into a bouncy ball, popsicle sticks into a puzzle and applesauce cups into a grass monster. "It's really fun to see what other classrooms around the world are doing for Montessori ideas and then to change it up and the kids get to do new and fun things every month," says Reed.
Beth calls Pinterest her inspiration and it's rubbing off on her students. "I think because I'm more excited the children are more excited too."
Pinterest is creating new opportunities for friends to connect -- not by talking, but through similar interests; and in some cases, it's creating new business opportunities.
Pinterest doesn't peak everyone's interest. Some say keeping up with Facebook and Twitter is quite enough social media in one day. If you haven't tried Pinterest and you want to-- you have to request an invitation. Because of it's popularity, that could take days or weeks.
The number of Pinterest visitors grew 400% from September to December last year. And it wasn't Facebook or Twitter, but Pinterest that reached 10-million monthly viewers the fastest.
While we're on the subject, we invite you to follow our Pinterest page -- it's kytx cbs19.
