Virtual pinboard Pinterest helps journalists find trend stories, display their work and more.
The social networking site has more than four million users, landing it a spot on a list of most visited social media sites of 2011.
Perfect for showing off your favorite finds as you troll the web, users "pin" images to themed boards for visually-appealing displays.
Don't be put off by its "invite-only" status. Even if you don't have a friend who can pass along instant access, simply request an invite from the site and you'll receive it in a few days.
Once you're signed up, check out these seven ways journalists can tap into the growing site's potential:
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Feature your top stories. The most clear-cut way to use the site is to promote your work, as many news organizations already do: Mashable features pinboards on tips and tricks, web humor and tech and gadgets. USA Today has boards about tech gift ideas and CES. Time dedicates a board to its weekly magazine covers.
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Mobile-pin pics. If you're out in the field and news unfolds, snap a pic from your iPhone, upload and pin it to your themed board of breaking news shots. Post images to a sneak-peak board to advertise stories soon to come. You can also upload videos.
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Find ideas for trend stories. Use the Popular button to find trending pins or search for top pins by topic.
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Find pictures suitable for online stories. Heavily image-based, the site is an archive of photographs available online. Once you find a fitting image for your story, perform a reverse Google image search to find the original source and link/attribute from there. You can also embed pins into blogs or online stories.
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Photojournalism portfolio. Photojournalists could advertise their prints and sell them to the public. Arrange shots by category via boards, add a price banner to any photo and link to the website where prints can be purchased.
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Use it as an online storyboard. If you're doing web-based research for an upcoming story, pin useful items to a board dedicated to the topic. If you're collaborating with another journalist, you can share pinning access by adding a contributor to your board.
- Curate the news. Take a lesson from Scoop.it, a curating site focused more on articles than images, and make your own online magazine with the top news pins of the day.