Pinterest is the social media website where members can pin pictures of their
favorite projects and share their “pins” with others. But before you get too
carried away with your pinning, remember that etiquette and protocol extend
to Pinterest, too.
Social Media expert Celeste Rosenlof, who also writes for ksl.com shares
some rules of protocol.
Use descriptive and searchable captions
Credit designer/artist/photographer/chef/whatever of the pin.
Describe in 2-5 words. Instead of “.” you could write, “cute girl’s dress.”
Descriptions make the pin searchable, and improve the experience for
pinners, as well as for content originators.
If it’s more relevant to your uses of the pin to write, “I love the color scheme
of this room” but there are some other elements you like or that might be
useful to other people, use hashtags, which are searchable.
Don’t give it all away
Captions are great and useful, but don’t get crazy and add the entire recipe
or article. Don’t rob the original site of traffic (and revenue!) by giving away
their content and not giving people a reason to click through the link.
Remember that there are people behind every pin you see, and that images
are part of their livelihood. A simple description of the recipe (ie: “two-
ingredient chocolate mousse” or “how to frost a cake”) is a much better fit,
and interests people to click through, instead of read the recipe on Pinterest.
Link to original image source
Click through the link to make sure there’s an original source attached to the
pin (not Google or Tumblr).
If it doesn’t, do a reverse Google image search and find the source, it
possible.
Following the link trail (if there is one!) is another way to find an image
source, but it may be more tedious.
If you can’t find the original link, you can always add a note in your caption
like, “does anybody know the photographer of this?” and hope that someone
in the Pinterest sphere finds it and takes note.
Don’t be an addict
As a courtesy to those who follow you, don’t repin everything you see. Be
selective.
· My Social Agency on this: “You know how annoyed you get with those
people on Facebook, who post every move of their day – this is the
equivalent vice – don’t pin everything you see.”
Don’t repin more from one pinner than you would be comfortable with them
repinning from you.
· Pinterest is a great place for inspiration and has a huge collection of
interesting images and ideas. But it should be remembered that they’re just
pretty pictures unless you do something with them. Anna Post of the Emily
Post Institute put it simply, “don’t forget to come up for air!” If you’re
immersing yourself entirely in “inspiration” but not creating anything, you
may want to look into whether or not this activity is worth your time, or if you
could be doing something more constructive with it.
You can find more of Celeste’s ideas on ksl.com where she is a writer and
content manager.
Add comment