Pinterest - As A Marketing Tool - ?

Good Morning -

I have been wandering around Pinterest and am confused to say the least -

Can it be used as a marketing tool? Does one create a theme board with things they find on the internet and slip some of the items they are selling onto that board? -

And then - once a board is created how is it seen by others than your followers and perhaps other Pinterest users who happen on it?

Are you using it as a marketing tool? and if so, how?

Thanks to Carolyn for inviting me into this very overwhelming world.

Marie

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Story on April 7, 2012 at 5:22pm

Old news, and Pinterest has revised its TOS since that article was published. You might want to search some of the other threads on TVV about this; there was one on another board about Pinterest and copyright. As a longtime legal secretary I know that intellectual property law is weird (at least to somebody who comes out of nice sensible personal injury litigation) and lawyers who aren't trained specialists usually don't understand it any better than laypeople do. I tried to look up this lawyer's practice and found a Martindale-Hubbell entry indicating she's with a real estate company, for what that's worth. Couldn't find any indication that she actually practices intellectual property law.

Here's what the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say about Pinterest: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/pinterests-pernicious-terms-s.... And http://blog.lib.umn.edu/copyrightlibn/2012/03/pinterest-copyright-a... points out that Pinterest's terms don't differ materially from those of other user-content-driven sites.

Permalink Reply by Marni Bakst on April 7, 2012 at 7:20pm

Interesting. I joined Pinterest but just haven't found the time to learn the ins and outs of a new site.

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on April 9, 2012 at 11:38am

Good morning all,

To add a price to an item you must put the price in the description for the pin like this: $150.00 ... I have found that if I put in the shortened version of the price - $15o it sometimes shows up as $15.00 instead of $150.00 so I always include the decimal point. I don't always add the price to a pin because some folks don't like to repin an item with the price in the picture but I do put something like 'found on Ruby Lane' or 'for sale on Ruby Lane' in the pin. Putting the price in the listing also adds the item to the Gift section but this section needs improvement so getting an item in the Gift section is not a priority for me, getting the item repinned is more important to me/us at this time.

If you copy the item title and then pin it (using the pin button on your toolbar - get this button from Pinterest) you can then select which picture you want to use from the item listing and the description of the item will automatically appear in the comment box for the pin. This will also give you the option to submit the item to Facebook or Twitter. (Your Pinterest profile is where you add the url's to link up with your Twitter and Facebook pages.)

You do want to add a description for the board and for the actual pin because the Pinterest search keys off this information. So, good keyword descriptions are important. When you write the description you can also include the url info if you choose. It does show up automatically as Jan noted but it does depend on how you pin the item. If you upload it from your computer you will have to add the information manually to the pin description.

Take a look at some of my RL pins/boards and you will get an idea of what I mean. Not all my boards have descriptions (yet) but the majority of them do. vintageartisan

I also repin items from other boards that relate to my board to be a good neighbor. I don't use items that are for sale on another site. For example I may use a picture of a cute puppy with puppy collectibles or a vintage advertisement for a vintage fashion board.

Carol

Permalink Reply by Swanky Selections on April 9, 2012 at 4:49pm

Thanks Carol, I've printed this out as I've yet to get to Pinterest but plan to. I found this post very clear and informative.

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on April 9, 2012 at 6:12pm

Permalink Reply by Holly Lane Antiques on April 9, 2012 at 6:17pm

Re: Pinterest

I know the whole object is to get people to repin your pins - but -

How should one feel when someone repins most of one of your boards - 20 -30 pins - making it into one of their boards?

Marie

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on April 9, 2012 at 6:52pm

More lookers for you. If the link to your item is included (which it should be unless you uploaded the pic from your computer and did not add the info to the description) then it is free marketing. Repins have a ripple effect the circle gets larger and larger and larger. And even if they don't have the link just go to the pin and include a blurb about where they can buy it and put the link. The more the merrier. Carol

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on April 9, 2012 at 7:05pm

PS - The other day we received an email from someone who had seen an antique engagement ring pinned or posted (she couldn't tell me which) to a Facebook page. Apparently there was only a reference to Ruby Lane. She copied the photo and sent it with her email. She wanted this ring. We suggested she do a search for the ring and gave her several keyword phrases to search on. She found it and bought it. That tells us that if folks want something badly enough they will look for it. So, you just never know. Carol

Permalink Reply by Jan Story on April 9, 2012 at 7:28pm

Just be sure they're not redirecting your links along with repinning your pins. There's a new wave of spam - it takes legitimate pins, repins them (along with comments) and redirects the link to whatever product they're spamming. So if you click on what's supposedly a chocolate cake recipe you get redirected to a probably-bogus anti-wrinkle cream.

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on April 10, 2012 at 10:55am

Unfortunately spammers do what spammers do. If you run across a situation such as Jan described then report it to Pinterest. I am sure they have methods for dealing with spam/spammers.

Permalink Reply by Graceful Antiques on April 11, 2012 at 4:48pm