Pinterest makes DIY easier with new How-to Pins

Pinterest is making moves to keep more people and brands on the site. The company introduced on Tuesday a new feature called How-to Pins, allowing companies to create and share pins with DIY instructions.

The feature, which is a new take on its existing Rich Pins feature for brands, populates step-by-step instructions right within a pin across various categories, including food, fitness, home projects and beauty.

However, regular users can’t make How-to Pins themselves and can only repost ones made by Pinterest’s brand partners

To launch the How-to Pin effort, Pinterest worked with more than 25 brands and organizations to provide how-to content for the site, such as Home Depot, Cosmopolitan, Delish and more.

More than 25 brands and organizations are already proving how-to content for Pinterest

The move shows Pinterest’s gradual move away from being a service that links to other sites into a standalone website with its own unique content. The strategy started with the introduction of Rich Pins, which allow certain content to be hosted right in the Pin instead of linking outside. This includes anything from an app download button to maps and recipes.

The exclusivity of the new feature could possibility lift with a paywall in the future, creating a pretty clear divide between bigger content producers on Pinterest and regular users. Pinterest bringing in the big-name brands for the How-to Pins also shows its move into more revenue-building avenues. 

The How-to Pins are now available in the U.S., UK, France and Germany on the web and on Android. Pinterest said it will launch on iOS soon. 

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