We're loving the new 'Visual Twitter' Pinterest

Creative minds now have a ’Twitter’-like format of their own in the superb Moodboards / Pinboards utility which is ’Pinterest’. At the very top level it has similarities to Twitter - but instead of posting 140 character monologues and updates - or largely retweeting everyone else’s content. For Pinterest you ’Pin’ images to Topic-designated ’Boards’ by way of a Bookmarking button which you enable on your browser. Obviously a minority pin all the fantastic images, and the majority re-purpose and re-appropriate them via ’Repinning’. You can subscribe to the various Pinterest Users and their boards, much like you would ’Follow’ a Twitter account, although there is a little more granularity here on the topic level.

It’s not just pictures though, but videos also which can be ’Pinned’ to boards. You simply navigate to a web page, hit your browser ’Pin It’ button and select which image you wish to ’harvest’. Pinterest then does some very clever embedding to slot said image or video reference onto one of your ’Boards’.

When you start up your account - you are presented with 5 empty generic boards which you can start to fill up with original or repinned content - you can of course change the Topic / Subject matter for your Boards at any time, and you can even allow collaborations with colleagues, family members and friends - so you can pin collectively.

The uses of Pinterest are manifold - back in my Advertising days, we would have killed for this - for use as a Creative Moodboard. But it is so much more - a visual swatch or shopping list, a kind of ideas mindmap in purely picture form - oh yes - you can ’Like’ and ’Comment’ on each others ’Pins’ too. There is also a retail solution of sorts called ’Gifts’ which lists Pins (Pictures) with Prices - and then obviously links through to the relevant source eCommerce Catalogue Items.

It’s taken me a wee while to build up my 7 Boards and 160 Pins - although I have nothing on Charmaine Zoe - with her 450 Boards and 77930 Pins - including the ’Colour - Green’ moodboard pictured above.

Of course this App / Site / Utility is just in its infancy, and I can see lots more clever applications of this evolving - with further granular control and different sort orders. At Comrz, we know what there are at least 2 very distinct classes of thinkers - literary and visual. This is for all those Designers and Creatives who never really got into Twitter - as I guess is still the case for me a little. As for Pinterest - I really love it, I find it genuinely more useful and practical in my daily and working life than Twitter has ever been.

Any would-be bride that wants to plan a wedding, a couple looking to re-decorate their flat, friends working out holiday plans - the list of practical applications just goes on and on. Pinterest is already great, and has apps for all the major mobile formats, I cannot wait to see where this will have evolved to in a year or two ...