Monthly Archives: January 2012

Pinetiquette – On Descriptions

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I joined Pinterest pretty early on, and I’ve watched it grow enormously in such a short time. I love that it is filled with so many people sharing so much content. I love that it helps drive traffic to blogs and connect people who share common interests. But on a site where everything is user-contributed, things can get a bit chaotic. Searching for ideas can be hard when “I love this so much. OMG” and “I could totally make that” are the descriptors of choice, and the images attached are for a lucite desk and a wedding Save the Date card, respectively.

Like a needle in a haystack.

We all pin with different purposes in mind, but it’s nice to make what you add accessible to all. For that reason, think before you pin. If it’s an item for sale, include the price with a $ or £ sign and it will show up on the pin. If the maker is on Pinterest, use their handle and credit them personally. Add hashtags, too.

For instance, any recipe I come across that is for those with food allergies, I add #allergyfree. I appreciate this immensely when I’m searching. Additionally, if I post a piece of art, furniture or other item to which I can attribute a creator, I try to include it. It helps. It’s nice.

But sometimes descriptions are about more than courtesy.

I spoke with a few DIY and food bloggers because there is a huge copyright issue that concerns them specifically. Some pinners literally cut and paste the directions/recipes along with the image they pin. This is absolutely wrong.

RULE: Never paste content from a blog post onto a pin. Titles are fine, but actual content, no. This includes DIY tutorials, recipes and narratives.

JJ has a fantastic food blog called 84th and 3rd. If I were to pin one of her gluten free recipes onto Pinterest with the recipe attached, I would not only be violating copyright by lifting her writing onto another site, but I’d also be taking away her site traffic. Neither one is OK. Aside from the recipe’s name, I shouldn’t be bringing anything but JJ’s image over on a pin. Like this:

AS JJ told me, “Having our recipes/creations/art pinned will drive traffic. The ‘everyday user’ doesn’t care - and may not even know that putting all the info in a pin means that we lose traffic - they may not even know what traffic is. I guess I feel that having my stuff pinned, as long as what is written is good, will create more awareness of my site no matter what. If a user sees a pin with a full recipe they like they may well click through to see if there is anything else of interest.”

And how does she pin recipes she finds?

“I always try to pin using the recipe title and perhaps a small elaboration if it is something that will help me remember why I pinned in the first place - i.e. instead of ‘Vanilla Cake’ I would put ‘one bowl Vanilla Cake’ or ‘Vanilla Cake with a really surprising ingredient.’”

Christa Jane, of C Jane Create, makes another good point. “Over time, the person who put in all the hard work creating the project and blog post will be forgotten and someone else will end up with the credit. This also brings up the issue of permalinks … something so simple that so many people don’t understand. When I pin something, I always click through to make sure that it goes to the originating post before I pin it myself.”

Do you? (As you know from the last post, I’m learning my lesson.)

Maegan, whose Love Maegan site tutorials are found “sourced” across the web, says, “the reason I like Pinterest versus, let’s just say, Tumblr or We Heart It, is that MOST of my “pins” there do link back to my blog. I do find it frustrating when I see that someone has pasted my entire text on “how to” do the DIY in the Pinterest description section, making it unnecessary to click through to my site… Pinterest is now my second referrer of traffic to my blog (StumbleUpon is 1st), so mostly, I’m happy about it.”

JJ, Christa Jane and Maegan love what they do, and these issues aren’t going to stop them from creating and sharing what they love. But we still need to change things.

RULE: When you find a recipe/tutorial/image to repin that has original blog content attached, simply delete it before repinning. While it’s not your responsibility to be the Pinterest Hall Monitor and tell people to take down those pins, by repinning without those details you’re helping to end the cycle.

I also have a suggestion for Pinterest. Let’s decrease the character limit for the description box. With 200 characters we should be able to describe with ease and put an end to content lifting. What do you think? Do you think 200 is sufficient?

Also, if you’re trying to locate your content on Pinterest, but the descriptions aren’t helping, you can find your URL-specific content easily by typing in the following address (I learned this via a post on Yellow Blackbird last year):

http://pinterest.com/source/your URLhere.com BUT switch out the last part with your URL. Don’t include http or www. Just your domain name.

If you find your own posts pinned in a way that doesn’t seem right, report it to Pinterest. Or, if you feel comfortable, leave the person a comment. Chances are they don’t know it’s wrong, but that doesn’t make it right. xo a.

P.S. There have been so many questions about Pinterest, and I want to keep this dialog open. So, please feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have questions or concerns and don’t know what to do. This is what this cyber village is all about.

Pinetiquette – On Photos

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Pinterest is something people keep asking me about, and as a social media tool used by both bloggers and non-bloggers alike, I think it’s a great example of social media in need of rules for all. This isn’t finger pointing at bloggers. Everyone on Pinterest, myself included, is probably doing it wrong.

(If you’d like a Pinterest 101 tutorial, Lindsay created this one for her readers and has given me permission to share here.)

I love Pinterest, and find it an incredible tool for organizing, research and inspiration. But what is pinned and how it’s done is something we need to change. I’m not talking about content in terms of taste (though you can report anything questionable) but rather in terms of things like copyright**, attribution and basic respect.

RULE: When you pin something on Pinterest, only do so from a page with a proper source. Ideally, if it’s a painting, it’s from the artist’s site or a gallery or museum. If it’s a sofa, it links to a showroom or the designer’s blog. At the very least, make sure the blog you’ve decided to pin from has credited it properly. Permalinks are best. Otherwise, don’t do it.

Another issue that many overlook, and by many I mean ME, is that I repin with abandon. I don’t often think before I repin, and very often these pins are poorly sourced.

Newsflash: Cecil Beaton died in 1980. He doesn’t have a Flickr account. But I find Beaton images sourced to a Flickr photostream, where someone has had the audacity to place © All Rights Reserved on the Cecil Beaton image in their photostream.

If this were in print, and not online, this would be considered a serious offense. It is a serious offense. But here no one seems to care. Why?

RULE: Use common sense. If the image looks professional or editorial, or bears the watermark of a major photo agency (sigh) chances are the person is committing copyright infringement. Don’t repeat the cycle.

I spent a few hours today beginning to clean out my boards of content that didn’t have legit credits. I began with a small photo board - it went from 41 images to 8. That’s just about 20% remaining. Barely.

I know that I re-pin more than I pin original content to Pinterest. The site is full of great things. If I were to add more original pins and follow people who only sourced properly, I wouldn’t have this mess. I wouldn’t have cringed at every pin I removed that had been repined after me. I am perpetuating the problem.

Hey, cyber village? Today, I’m your idiot.

I’m going to go through all of my boards and cleanhouse - I’ll let you know what percentage of pins were lacking in proper credit in the end. If you decide to Spring Clean your boards too, I’d love to know how yours add up. You don’t have to do it, but you kind of should. If you love a pin that isn’t sourced properly, google and find it. Then pin it properly.

If we’re looking for places to begin making changes, this is an easy one.

Here’s a great post by photographer Tara Bradford on her experiences with misuse of her images on Pinterest. Sometimes to best understand why we need rules, you need to step into the shoes of those whose work is taken advantage of. A few clicks of a mouse may seem harmless enough.

I’m making a site badge for anyone else who wants that says they pin with respect for others. It’ll be ready later this week. xo a.

** Disclaimer: Any discussion of copyright is based my experiences as a writer, editor and photographer. I’m not an attorney.