let’s talk a little pin-etiquette

Have you heard of the latest online phenomenon? Are you on pinterest? Do you follow me?

Pinterest is an incredible tool most women spend hours on, pinning, re-pinning, liking and commenting, but do you have good pin-etiquitte? I first got on Pinterest about a year ago, when there was hardly anyone on it. It was hard to find people to follow because there simply wasn’t very many! Searching through pin categories was not really heard of because it wasn’t quite set up the way it is now. So to use Pinterest, you had to go and pin things from websites and blogs, meaning YOU were responsible for properly pinning an item!

Do you know how to properly pin a picture?

Crediting:
One of the absolute most frustrating things about Pinterest is when you find the cutest {fill-in-the-blank here}, or the most inspiring space, so you go to click on the link to the pin and you keep getting the same pin window over and over, or it takes you to the homepage of a blog, rather than the specific post that might be 15 pages into the abyss of that blog’s history. If the latter is the case, then you search and search and search, and 5-6 pages into that blog you lose interest and just give up.

So what’s the proper way to link a pin from a blog? Instead of pinning that outfit with the cute shoes with the link www.{cuteshoeblog}.blogspot.com you should find that specific post and click on it so the URL is something like: www.{cuteshoeblog}.blogspot.com/2012/01/04/cute-shoes
Now, obviously those are made up URLs, but you get my point?

When I post something on here from another blog or website, I’m always sure to give credit where credit is due with a link, this is the same with pinning! In the instance of pinning something from a blog you read that credited another source with a picture or shared on of their pins. Click on the original source before pinning, it may take a few more seconds, but that person deserves the hits and traffic, not the person who pinned the image. If you’ve repinned from someone else and you notice they have not properly pinned and credited, give it a minute to try and find the original source and edit your pin with the proper URL, you will thank yourself later – and so will your followers!

Also, don’t pin from a Google image search, click on the website of the image before pinning, capish? The picture below is wrong.

Tumblr:
Don’t even get me started. I’m so hesitant to repin a pin from tumblr because once it’s in the tumblr realm, the credits and original sources go out the window completely. It is so frustrating when you find the perfect _____ and can’t find the source.

Self Promotion:
This one’s touchy, but I stand firm on it. Pinterest is not for self promotion. It even says it right here on their website. If you have something you’re really proud of, whatever, pin it, but everything you’ve ever done should only find its way to pinterest via other people’s pins. The end. I don’t know why it annoys me so much but it does. Don’t toot your own horn to all of your followers, chances are they read your blog or are friends with you on facebook and have seen them! It will make it that much more special to have people pin things from your website, it means they were there and cared enough to pin!

Pinterest is incredible, really – and even more so when used properly, so educate yourself and your friends, and we’ll have one happier pinterest community!

Need more help? Find all the answers here, courtesy of the pinterest team!

Need an invite to join to Pinterest community? Shoot me an email at kmanndesigns{at}gmail{dot}com for an invite!