Question About Using Pinterest

personally i think that place is a total waste of time. and i don't see how posting other people's work help you any. Mathius has some pay for guide that helped him at least once, not sure if he still gets sales from there or not.

i know i don't get anything. especially now that i can't enter text when i post. i have lots of boards other people made, that i have no control over, but they do take links away from my store. they are hard to find on that site, nearly impossible if you land there accidentally. the views there make no sense at all. why some are popular, why some a rich pins and shows the prices and others don't. the site makes little sense. i only posted there to control the text and where the link came from. but since them removing the text, i'm not sure why i bother posting there.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Pinterest has made little sense to me in the past, but thats probably down to me not looking into it and trying to understand it more.

I am now trying to 'diversify' a little on FAA/Pixels by having items more suitable for home decor (cushions, tote hags, shower curtains etc) and have a feeling that Pinterest may be a better option than FB or Twitter for marketing this type of product (at least for me). Apparently, Pinterest is currently used more by women than men, and home decor is supposedly a popular category, so trying to market home decor on P boards sounds worth trying.

I suppose the down side for someone like me at the bottom of the pile is trying to get sufficient followers to see my pins anyway, so building up that level of interest is probably going to be an uphill struggle. Still, marketing that reaches just a few people is presumably better than no marketing at all !!

If nothing else, from Pinterest you will get flooded by Beverly Hills bots. Consider carefully if you really need that.

Yes, I posted quite a few pins on my boards yesterday, and later noticed on my FAA stats every Pinterest post had a visit from the Beverly Hills bot!

You have been warned...

https://www.pinterest.com/dogfordstudios/

And why would you not want a "Beverly Hills Bot"?

Raising your visibility is a good thing, not a negative.

Like any social media - provide something useful and people will seek it out. Fill a need - humor, distraction, product information, how to, entertainment etc.

https://fineartamerica.com/blogs/social-media-fill-a-need-and-people-will-show-up.html

Edward, just looked at your Pinterest link.

Noticed you have lots of boards, but many have a small number of pins. Do you think thats a better strategy than having your pins spread across just a few boards?

Tibor, thanks for the pin :-)

Just thought I would share this link in case you don't have it ,,,https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=5135992
Also if you put Pinterest in the search message bar there are several others., I gave up on Pinterest.

Judy, thanks for the link, some homework reading for me.

I will try not to notice that you gave up on Pinterest !

Welcome...I'm not excited of Pinterest either. I am there for 4 months or so, but until now I have to agree with Mike: 90% is waste of time.

"Consider carefully if you really need that."

Yes, you need that... you NEED all the bot hits you can get because that is how your images get into the search engines. And not just Google, ALL search engines.

According to Google Analytics, Pinterest is equal to Twitter in bringing hits to my FAA pages.

I hardly ever go to my Pinterest page. The only time I post to the P is when I upload a new image.

I post to Twitter nearly every day. So P being equal to Twitter on GA tells me it is actually doing a much better job of driving traffic to my account.

As far as being a 90% waste of time, posting to Social Media is primarily institutional advertising. Much as people like to think it is targeting marketing it really isn't all that targeted in most cases. A 10% success rate is fantastic!!

Also consider what Google is saying regarding posting other people's art to P.

What they are saying is, they are not going to give your P page as much search ranking if you only post your own work.

When you use P or Twitter or FB or any Social Media to get into the search you have to understand it's their game. You can scoff at the rules but they control game through their rules. They want you to play the game. They want you to play by their rules. Play by their rules and they reward you accordingly.

Everyone understands you need the highest search ranking that you can get. That is what it is all about. If you are not willing to play their game by their rules, then yes, it is a waste of time.

Philip,

I'm with Floyd on this one. I have 28 boards and 1900 pins and that has more than doubled my bot visits and hopefully a few real people!

Rich

Floyd, i hear what you are saying about the importance for ranking purposes of posting other people's work on Pinterest as well as your own, but do you have any knowledge/thoughts on the pros and cons of keeping your own and other people's pins on separate boards? It would be easy to only pin my work on boards created by me, and put other people's pins on different boards, but I have a feeling that would be recognised and 'downgraded' for search purposes????

Rich, that's useful to know. Do you post other people's pins on your own boards? It still seems counter intuitive to post competitors work alongside your own!

Philip,

Not Intentionally! LOL!

When I first started Pinterest, I think I was averaging about 300-400 "visits" a day, and now the average is closer to 1,000 and pretty sure the bots are probably 80-90%???

Rich

Rich, I would be very happy with 300/400 visits per day, bots or otherwise!

pinterest won't get you that kind of viewing, as far as i can see. i only push the PP site, and i get maybe 3 hits a day from there if i'm lucky. but there are also fine art links there, one i just sold and it shows as popular so maybe it did well there. but we have no stats on the main site, so its hard to know if they come from there or not.

i'm only there because others were uploading my picture, getting it from google etc, and going around the pin block on this site. they did it anyway. at least i can sort of keep track.

daily i seem to get a lot of impressions, but that doesn't mean anything to me. did they look at my art? or was i mixed in with some other work and that counts?


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Philip,

I'm sure that having more images helps with the bots too....nice stuff over at your place...

Rich

Mike, according to my stats on pinterest, I currently have 6 followers, so expecting 300/400 visits a day is fantasy land right now. Will try posting every day though to see what happens, but think I mostly need to do more research and figure our the best way to use it.

Rich, thanks!

looking at my daily count there, people that click on it show 25. and that's it. thousands of view but few clicks, i don't even know where to find the followers.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

What is a bevley hills bot?
I have had loads views from bev hills

Watto,

Welcome! BOTS are things that search engines use to find stuff and the more bots that find your stuff, the better your stuff will show up. Beverly Hills is one of the main bots sites and there are many others,

Rich

Thanks Rich i am getting loads of views from bev hills at the moment i posted my art on pintrest,twitter and Reddit would say reddit as got me most views upto now.

"do you have any knowledge/thoughts on the pros and cons of keeping your own and other people's pins on separate boards?"

I post anything that I sell, my own images, my wifes and my public domain images in one board called FASGallery.com. That is the URL that goes to my AW. Everything I post from other FAA members I post to a board called Art From Around the World.

I have a total of 45 boards.

Keep in mind, I am not an expert of P. The furthest thing from it. The expert, if there is one here is Matthias Hauser. Here is a link to his thread. https://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=3970864

One of the reasons I am on P and stick with it is because they come up all the time in searches.

I have over somewhere between 300,000-500,000 vintage images that date all the way back to the the 1200s. I sell them here on FAA but not that many compared to eBay. I tell people in my eBay listings that I have a huge collection of images and if they are looking for a specif image or artist I may have it.

I get all kinds of enquirers for old images. When I don't have it, I go to Google and search on the image name or the artist's name.

In almost every search I do, I get results from Pinterest. So I know they have great search engine rankings.

Floyd, thanks for the extra info. Although our image counts are vastly different, I'm beginning to think of taking your approach, eg, boards exclusively for my stuff, a separate board for other FAA members, then possibly another board for anything else I think is worth a pin. That way I will be doing my bit to post others work as well as my own. In the meantime, I still need to do some research on how best to use Pinterest.

Hi Philip, Pinterest is a long term game. You have to be consistent and persistent. The best thing you can do is to pin regularly (daily if possible). If you have enough content it is o.k. to only pin your own art. Be careful not to save the same Pin multiple times within a short period of time.

Pinterest loves fresh Pins. I recently wrote a post in my blog about this strategy, feel free: https://www.elke.com/what-are-fresh-pins-on-pinterest-and-how-to-make-them/  

That said, it can be a clever idea to pin content from others and combine it with your Pins in the same board. Pinterest loves good curation! Also, there is a way to combine your own art with useful content from others that are not your direct competitors. Look at this board and you will understand: https://www.pinterest.com/hauserfoto/home-decor-with-wall-art-tips-and-tricks-for-decor/

Hope this helps! As others already pointed out, here is a helpful Pinterest thread: https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=5135992

Matthias, thanks for the comments and links, will have a look at those to help with my research. The link about combining ones own and others work on the same board will hopefully answer my original question on this forum post, but clearly, there is a lot for me to learn!

Agree that SM is a long term game, so I'm not expecting any overnight miracles with visits or sales! But progress of some sort, even just a few more visits, will be welcome.

Matthias Hauser,

Did something change from Pixels tp Pinterest? I haven't pinned anything in a couple of months, but the old way, was to go to my Pixels site, select an image, his the "P" and then it would show up. THEN, I would hit "See it Now" and be able to "edit" it, by adding the description AND I THOUGHT, Pinterest would grab the link back to Pixels, which it seems it isn't doing now? Something change?

Rich

Rich, I added some pins from my Pixels website today and it's doing exactly what you describe as the old way, the only difference is that I save from the 'save' icon that appears over an image when you hover the mouse over it. I think you are using the FAA Pinterest pin icon in the top right of the page, which I don't use, so unable to comment if that is working.

I use Pinterest and it does drive traffic to my website, albeit it took a couple of years. Using Google Analytics, I've been able to drill down to determine that the visitors who find me via Pinterest are interested in my work. I can clearly see this when I look at the bounce rate, pages per session, and session duration. When I look at my Pinterest dashboard, I have favorable impressions, saves, and link clicks and the best part is that it is free.

A few other points. First, I don't post anything but my work. I keep everything on one board (that may change to two shortly). I don't advertise or do any promotional activity. Pretty much all I do when I do a blog entry on my website is post the link to Pinterest which takes all of about two seconds. Unlike other social media platforms, you don't have to join a group to post (Facebook), you don't have to worry about hashtags (Instagram & Twitter), Pinterest is wide open, anybody can find your work and it's like the proverbial snowball rolling downhill... in time it will grow.

ps. when I refer to my website, I'm referring to my non F.A.A. site, but it should make no difference if you want to use your Pixels site.

Philip,

WHERE is the "save" when you hover over the image? On the Pixels site? I don't see it. Yes, have been using the Pinterest "button" before this...


Rich

Chicago, good to hear your encouraging experience with Pinterest, although I note your comment about it taking two years! Also encouraging to hear success can come without paid advertising.

Re your comment about having just one board, that seems reasonable if your pins are all related to Chicago, but my pins will be quite varied subject wise, so anticipate having a few hoards. Think I also read somewhere that Pinterest encourages people to have multiple boards (????).

Rich, I should have mentioned that the 'save' icon over the image comes from a Google Chrome extension, so unless you have that installed, you won't see it. It's quite useful as it enables you to create pins from Web pages that have images, but no Pinterest save button on the page.

Philip,

I do use Chrome, but not sure about any extensions. I might just have to continue uploading this new longer way...

Also, waiting for Matthias to respond with some of his vast Pinterest knowledge. MUSt be some easier way to upload than the clunky FAA way now that it's changed....

Rich

Rich, if interested, do a search on Google for Chrome extensions, or Chrome Web store, and it should be available in there somewhere. When installed, you see a little Pinterest icon in the top right hand corner of the page when using Chrome, you then just click on that and select your pin from any image on the page (or just hover the mouse over an image, as mentioned in post above).

Philip,

Thanks, will try this when I get back, out running errands.....so the extension opens Pinterest, and does it grab the Pixel link too, or do you need to add that?

Rich

As with anything it takes time to get the exposure, maybe even doubling down and sharing a post on your Facebook to a image you've pinned. It won't happen overnight.

However, I do have an extreme caution regarding Pinterest. If you do not want your images stolen for people to use as their hearts desire you need to post the image with a good watermark and not in high resolution. The watermark preferably going through the middle of the image. Yes it can still be stolen and used, even after that, but not as easily and not as well. Chances are most your art pilfers will not bother ;)

When I was naïve to this I pinned some of my artwork early on and I have one image in particular that has been stolen, signature cropped off and used multiple and many times. I found that it is one of those "most popular" images in Pinterest stats and I usually see it pinned to boards at least once every day. I have found it in promotions in Australia, advertising in Italy and most recently as a background on a menu in the Philippines.

Yes these are the chances you take and for me is well worth it. Even with the criminals.

Rich, when the extension is installed, easiest option is go to your image on FAA/Pixels, hover the mouse over the image and a little Pintetest save icon will appear in the top left corner on the image. Click on the icon, then a Pinterest popup appears showing all your boards, select the board where you wish to save the pin, and it's done. You also see a button to 'view it now', and if you click that, you can edit the titles and descriptions if you wish. The url link is automatically pulled through. Think you will find its pretty much like you described using the FAA button, but not using the FAA button!!

Julie, overnight miracles are welcome, but sadly, I'm not expecting them!

I hear what you say about watermarks, potential image theft etc.The only way to completely avoid that is of course put nothing on the Internet, problem solved! All the images I use for social media posts are low resolution, with watermarks added. Yes, some people might steal and use them for their own purposes, and while it's happened to me occasionally through my stock photography, I personally don't find it a major problem, and there are some options available to follow up on that kind of thing. Glad you find its all worthwhile, even with the criminals!

Philip,

Okay, back. Downloaded "Image Downloader Picture Saver" but I must be doing something wrong or its the wrong extension.....

Rich

Rich, it's about 3 years or so since I added the extension, so my recollections are a bit hazy, but after adding the extension, have you got a small Pinterest icon in the top right hand corner of the Chrome page window? If not, guessing you have added something different???? You mentioned an 'image downloader' which sounds different to the Pinterest extension????

Edit - incidentally, I think the Pinterest extension is only available for desktops (my version is for windows), so don't think you will find it if looking on a tablet or smartphone.

Philip,

Will look for the Pinterest ext., maybe I downloaded the wrong extension....wouldn't be the first time.....

Rich

Philip,

Yes, I do have the Pinterest icon up in the corner, doesn't produce a "save" when I hover over one of my images...will go back to the old long way I guess....

Rich

Facts about P...

Source: Hootsuite April, 2020

High-income households are twice as likely to use Pinterest as low-income households

Pinterest’s active user base grew 26% to 335 million last year

Pinterest is now the third-largest social network in the U.S. Behind Facebook and Instagram

Pinterest is most popular with women—especially moms

There are more than 2 billion searches on Pinterest every month

Shopping is a top priority for 48% of Pinterest users

Promoted pins that align with life moments and holidays see a 22% lift in sales

Rich, if you don't get the 'hover' effect, try clicking the P icon in the top right page corner, and think it should then display any images on the page, allowing you to pin them on your boards.

Floyd, all sounds good to me, I just need to spend a year or two working on it so it works for me !!

Rich, Pinterest should always grab the FAA / Pixels / AW link. If you are able to edit the description after pinning your image depends on several factors. How did you pin, from which source did you pin, etc.

Pinterest wants to get rid of spammers as good as possible so only accounts with a claimed (verified) website may be able to edit descriptions and links. Not all accounts behave the same at the moment so I can't write more, sorry.

Philip is speaking about the Pinterest Browser Button (at least I think so). You can find it here: https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/save-pins-with-the-pinterest-browser-button

Hope this helps :-)

Philip,

Good Morning! Warm one here and muggy! Here's what's going on. I'll open my Pixels site on Chrome, select an image and just the green box pops up. The Pinterest icon, when I hover the mouse over it, shows "Pinterest Enhanced Extension", and then when I click on it,

"This can read and change site data"
"options"
"remove from Chrome"
"Hide in Chrome menu"
"Manage Extensions"

So maybe STILL don't have the right extension.....

Rich

Oh, one more thing ;-)

Ladies and gentlemen, this stat is one of the main things that makes Pinterest so pleasant for artists that want to find more buyers (quote from Floyd's post above):

> Shopping is a top priority for 48% of Pinterest users

Just saying...

Rich, this extension seems to be something completely different. It seems to give Pinterest a new User Interface. I would be cautious (never heard of this one before).

Matthias,

Then WHAT do you do to upload images from FAA/Pixels......?

Rich

Rich, you just reminded me, I also find the close up loupe box obscures the Pinterest save icon, so instead of pinning from the page with the large image preview, I pin from the smaller image displayed on the images or collections or shop page (if you see what I mean). That works fine as the closeup loupe does not appear on the smaller images.

Based on your comments above, I think you still have the incorrect extension. I don't get any of the comments you mention. Probably worth having a look at the link Matthias mentioned above.

Once the extension is installed, you can either hover the mouse over the image you want to pin, then click the save icon that appears, or alternatively, click the Pinterest icon in the top right hand corner of the page, then all images displayed on the page will appear, then just click/save those you want to pin on your board. It's all a lot easier in practice than it sounds!

Philip,

Yepper, will wait for Mr. Pinterest to respond.....

Rich

Rich, just checked, the link Matthias gave above for the Pinterest browser button is what you need to install. Don't forget, it's only for desktops (Windows or Mac).

Browser: Chrome

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pinterest-save-button/gpdjojdkbbmdfjfahjcgigfpmkopogic

Description:
Save images and pages to your Pinterest account quickly and easily with Save Button for Pinterest.

Matthias, Floyd & Edward-

I agree completely. Pinterest is the one SM site where I actually see some engagement, despite not investing enough time there. All of your boards are fantastic examples of how to approach Pinterest. Thanks for sharing.

Stefano,

THAT's IT! Thanks! NOW, it seems it grabs the title, but not the link or the description. Am I doing that right? Much better even at this!

https://www.pinterest.com/bigrichpho/pins/

Rich

The link is inserted on the image ... when you click on it you are automatically redirected to Pixels / FAA / AW.

... you can enter the description manually on Pinterest with the pencil icon "Edit this Pin" ... and also insert the hashtags :)

Pins created on my boards using the Pinterest browser button all have the url link and title / description info from my Pixels AW.

Glad you got it sorted Rich :-)

I've kind of given up on Pinterest. I think that's much more of a recipe, fashion, decorating, home improvement idea site than people looking for art. And it does get stolen more from P than the other sites from what I've seen. (Infringed, as Abbie would insist but it's still theft).

I was pinning on a regular basis, but I'm just doing Facebook, Twitter and Instagram now. I'm not bothering with Pinterest. I would assume experiences vary possibly mostly due to type of work.

Philip,

Thanks again for mentioning the Chrome extension, which I got now from Stefano. Works great. I click on the image I want to move over to Pinterest, copy the description, then back to where the Pinterest "save" shows up, click on that, then the "edit" pencil icon, add the description and SAVE!

Still haven't heard back from anyone that KNOWS, but do hashtags work better than the description/keywords? Shouel BOTH be used?

Rich

Mary, hope are you right about the decoration stuff etc on Pinterest, I am trying to diversify my portfolio a bit more to include items like cushions, duvets etc, so will probably mostly be pinning those. There is a lot of competition from the 'big boys' though, so my expectations are low, but the Beverly Hills bot seems to like my recent pins :-)

Rich, if you find out about hashtags, let me know!!

M-A-T-T-H-I-A-S!!!

Any guidance on HASHTAGS?

Rich

11.7k Followers


https://www.pinterest.com/jwremmett/

I forgot to mention something important: please follow me on Pinterest.
https://ro.pinterest.com/tibortivadarkui/

Us too! Us too!

we follow back!

https://www.pinterest.com/collegemascotdesigns/

we just started a few weeks ago, and unclear what has helped since we started doing a lot of things including Pinterest but May has been our best month yet.

Have just followed you both: https://www.pinterest.com/TinaLewisArt/

I know they say follower count isn't so important on Pinterest but it surely looks better to have a good few.

Hi Rich! I hear you loud and clear... ;-)

I would recommend using 1 to 3 hashtags at the end of the pin description. No hashtags on board or profile descriptions.

That said, please note that I'm more than happy to answer questions. I love Pinterest, and I love to help, but I have to do it at my own pace. At the moment, I'm working on an update of my Pinterest course: https://pinterest-marketing-for-artists.thinkific.com/courses/sell-more-art-with-pinterest Every one of my students gets priority support (we have a discussion forum in each chapter of the course). The first lessons of the course are free; the rest is paid content.

Matthias, thanks for the comment about hashtags, useful to know ☺.

Matthias,

Thanks!

Rich