First, there was MySpace. Then, there was Facebook. Eventually, Twitter popped up. Instagram (@tofurious) hopped on board. Google decided to play with Plus. And now, we have Pinterest.
How do we keep up with all of these things on top of blogging? Simply put – you just do. In fact, you have to. While more social media platforms will continue to spring up, Pinterest is here to stay.
There’s one interesting feature about Pinterest that sets it apart from all of the other social media streams – it’s not a stream. In a way, Pinterest is not designed as a web or news “feed.”
Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and etc. are all streams. Newer news is syndicated on top, which naturally pushes older news below. Therefore, if you miss a segment of the day, all of that news is theoretically replaced with more current events.
Pinterest, on the other hand, keeps all of your “pins” or images in an organized pin board. Although the images are updated, your board stays in the same place.
This Pinterest profile acts like a landing page that is representative of you. And what better way is there to express your interests, thus transparency? It also helps that millions of people are on it (and increasing very quickly).
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
- Dr. Seuss
While it’s difficult to maintain a presence on all of these social media platforms, it’s critical to have a clearcut strategy, which is what I emphasized in my book Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers. Platforms will always change, but rules for engagement and evangelism remain the same.
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See you on Pinterest,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. You can read about the interview of Ben Silbermann (co-founder of Pinterest) and my post on “The Joy of Failing Forward” here.
P.P.S. My book Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers is now available on Kindle! And very soon, it will be available in Spanish. Sweet!
I loved your book : )
Did you happen to have a chance to ask the guy who invented pinterest about the stealing issues some photographers are upset about over there? Would love to hear your take on that.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Silbermann addressed that issue as an issue all tech companies face – even DropBox. However, they are taking steps to allow people to block pins.
As a photographer, I have to confess I find Pinterest a somewhat disturbing development – unlike Facebook you have no control over what gets pinned (unless you block Pinterest altogether) – and their terms and conditions claim a right to perpetual royalty-free use of any of your own content that you pin.
By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.
While I can see the appeal of Pinterest to end-users, I worry about its impact on photographers’ rights – and the message it sends that “it’s OK to grab images from people’s websites without asking”.
Wow. That is so bad, I am actually going to remove some of my photos I pinned to Pinterest! No way am I granting the right to use or sublicense without royalty!! Suddenly ad agencies will be mining Pinterest rather than paying any photographers for work.
Definitely valid concerns. I saw that there’s Printerest now, which prints your boards.
Ultimately, it’s up to the end-user to decide whether its something worth pursuing and protecting against (there are unpin plugins).
Good observations.
Ditto the above. As much as I love Pinterest, I don’t see how it gets away with copyright murder the way it does. I know one blog that has already forbidden its images to be “stolen” on Pinterest (It was an interior design blog as I recall). No matter what they say about the “track back” features, that information seems to be lost more often than not….and a lot of what gets pinned was illegally posted and not credited in the first place. With everyone grabbing “screen shots” there is really no solution for photographers except watermarking. Granted, no one really cares who took the photos, for the most part (except when that is the point). But as a photographer who regularly contributes photos to other blogs for free in exchange for the links back to my website…I find Pinterest sort of infuriating (though beautiful). Someone is going to sue them…and it won’t be pretty….which is too bad…because Pinterest is very pretty…
What would then stop Pinterest from quietly throwing someone under the bus to get something going where they are protected, someone gets hung out, and they get all the free publicity? They say any publicity is better than none. Crazy idea but could happen. If they are as protected as it has been stated above.
I think the Pinterest has already to many users to care about the copyrights.
For those of you using pinterest, they also got in trouble recently for stripping affiliate links from commercial posts, and replacing them with pinterest links, collecting affiliate commissions on any sales. These guys will use anything you post to.make money while leaving posters with the liability for copyright infringement.
thank you for sharing Lawrence. I haven’t got an idea about Pinterest’s importance in marketing, until today; Anna
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Interesting…I am just exploring Pinterest. So, watermarking is the only way to protect our pictures?
Watermark is the only way to maintain recognition. However, to fully “protect” or restrict Pinterest access, there are instructions on their website to not allow anyone from Pinning photos from your site.