Pinning Things on Pinterest

[goodtaste]

Hi Everyone! I am on Pinterest. I pin my blog. And I allow other people to repin my blog entries. Why? Let me just tell you. When I started my business, nobody came. Not even the flies would land on my blog. So I took a marketing course and the professor said: Social Media. So I said, OK. And I went on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc. and started posting my blog entries, and people found me and I have had a wonderful time ever since, growing a wonderful clietele and getting to know other crafters. I even allow people to re-send my blog entries through Facebook to their friends. Why? Because it has expanded my customer base, they love it and enjoy sharing my stuff with their friends and if it makes them happy, why not? If the fear is that you will be robbed of your products. All my stuff is copyrighted, I wouldn't put anything online for 1 minute without a copyright, and there are ways of protecting yourself, but for me, as a designer of the hook and as a businesswoman, social media has been a blessing. Twitter is a great help, but I even post my photos there. It was a thrill for me when LeisureArts started re-tweeting me, and when other wonderful and super-talented crocheters started corresponding with me! This would never have been possible unless Social Media had existed. Having said all that, I respect anyone's opinion on the matter, I just wanted to state that if, for example, a company on Pinterest can get 240,000 followers (The Perfect Palette) why shouldn't handmade crafters, who often are struggling yet very talented artists, get a piece of the pie? (Sorry, but I'm always rooting for more success and appreciation for handmade artists!) Social Media can be a tremendous help to you in your business endaveros, if you know how to use it.

 

Take care!

 

Clotilde

[DebraKay]

I LOVE PINTEREST! I admit I am a bit of an addict and enjoy my Pinterest boards a great deal. My Crochet and Other Needlearts board is my favorite and my most popular -- 214 followers so far!

 

If people do NOT want things pinned from their website, they should insert this bit of code at the top of each page they want to protect: <meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" /> Then when someone tries to pin a picture from that page, they will get a message saying this site doesn't allow pinning and thanks for visiting (paraphrased - see: http://pinterest.com/about/help/ for exact wording). This is such a simple solution and will make the Pinterest world so much easier for those of us who like to have one consolidated place where they can list all of the patterns they might have interest in.

 

It is so nice to be able to browse by picture and have the links imbedded in the picture! Mine all take you right back to where the pattern can be found (for those things patterns are available). It is like a picturebook index of all the crochet I love!

 

I have been busy requesting permission from designers all over the internet to ensure they do not mind me pinning their designs on Pinterest. I always credit the designer, clicking on the picture or the link in upper right corner takes the person viewing to the designer's web page, Ravelry, or Etsy page. As long as credit is being given, it is free advertising and I have had 100% approval from everyone I've contacted. Since every single person has given permission, I have started adding and asking at the same time lately. I give them a link to the place I have pinned the design and they can see how credit is given and how the link works. Then I give them the option of keeping it there or promising to remove it if it does not meet their approval. Again -- 100% have said YES, keep it pinned! I repinned a lot of designs that were already on Pinterest and have not gotten permission for all of those. If the designer themself pins them, I think re-pinning is not a problem. It doesn't really give it out to anyone that the original one did not already authorize access when you repin. I would like to see it go internet-wide that we could just go ahead and pin any item that was not protected with the code saying they did not want their designs pinned. That would be so much easier. I have gotten confused sometimes when permission came back. If they did not reference my original request, I have sometimes forgotten what I was requesting permission to pin!

 

I would love to have one place where designers could give blanket okay to pin their designs. Either that or just make it a general rule that they are all allowed unless the code is imbedded on their website. I can't imagine why anyone would want to deny permission to pin their designs on Pinterest boards. They are given credit and the links take people right to the place where they can purchase the pattern or get it for free from a blog if that is the way it is offered by the designer. Either way, it generates more traffic to their website.

 

Think of my Crochet Board. I add a design with the link to a designers website. I have 214 people who follow my board. If it is a new design, probably half of my followers will RE-PIN the design to their own Board. Then the same thing happens with their followers. IT is like a pyramid scheme with no money to lose! It just keep multiplying potential customers for the designer who sells or potential blog followers for those who are set up for that. It is a win/win proposition for designers with no down side that I can see. I have had designers tell me they are getting a LOT of orders due to Pinterest pins! The ones who are familiar with it, are all delighted to have me add their pictures to my boards. I have gotten such amazingly positive feedback!

 

BTW thought maybe I should add I have never pinned any picture from Crochetville. I think sites like Etsy and Ravelry, where they are already selling the pattern are more conducive to Pinning on Pinterest. The idea is to share with others something they too could use. So, I want to post something that will link back to where they can buy the pattern or get it free in the case of free patterns.

[DebraKay]

Hi Everyone! I am on Pinterest. I pin my blog. And I allow other people to repin my blog entries. Why? Let me just tell you. When I started my business, nobody came. Not even the flies would land on my blog. So I took a marketing course and the professor said: Social Media. So I said, OK. And I went on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc. and started posting my blog entries, and people found me and I have had a wonderful time ever since, growing a wonderful clietele and getting to know other crafters. I even allow people to re-send my blog entries through Facebook to their friends. Why? Because it has expanded my customer base, they love it and enjoy sharing my stuff with their friends and if it makes them happy, why not? If the fear is that you will be robbed of your products. All my stuff is copyrighted, I wouldn't put anything online for 1 minute without a copyright, and there are ways of protecting yourself, but for me, as a designer of the hook and as a businesswoman, social media has been a blessing. Twitter is a great help, but I even post my photos there. It was a thrill for me when LeisureArts started re-tweeting me, and when other wonderful and super-talented crocheters started corresponding with me! This would never have been possible unless Social Media had existed. Having said all that, I respect anyone's opinion on the matter, I just wanted to state that if, for example, a company on Pinterest can get 240,000 followers (The Perfect Palette) why shouldn't handmade crafters, who often are struggling yet very talented artists, get a piece of the pie? (Sorry, but I'm always rooting for more success and appreciation for handmade artists!) Social Media can be a tremendous help to you in your business endaveros, if you know how to use it.

 

Take care!

 

Clotilde

 

Loved hearing more positive feedback about Pinterest and how it can benefit the designer! I am becoming a follower of your Pinterest now and will enjoy looking through your pins! Feel free to follow me back. I don't design or sell anything. I just love crochet and enjoy looking at it almost as much as making it myself. I am going to search with the Crafty Begonia titles, but it would help if you could add your Pinterest addy along with your blogs. Thanks!

 

EDIT: Ill have to wait til you tell us what it is listed under. I had to give up after trying all sorts of combinations. It might just be me but I think I need the exact name.

[Amy]

It's good that Pinterest has made the opt-out option available. However, I really believe they should be using an opt-in method instead. The opt-out paradigm doesn't work across the Internet if that became a popular option for sites that wanted to use content that didn't belong to them: there is no way any business would be able to keep up with all the sites across the entire internet for which they should create/enter opt-out code. A much better alternative is for a site to enter opt-in codes only for those sites in which they wish to participate.

 

What's really disturbing to me are the articles I've read recently in which the founders of Pinterest are credited with saying they don't really know about all the copyright issues involved. This could just be a case of sloppy reporting, and that's now what they really meant to say. But if they created the site without good solid legal advice to tell them there were no issues with copyright law, then that's not good news. And not good business sense.

 

I do agree that for businesses selling things,in most cases, it could be a good idea to let your stuff be linked through Pinterest. There are issues in some areas (such as the licensing of photographs and other images), and there are issues with people not adding links properly to their pins. The more free publicity you can get, the better, in most cases. But that free publicity is only helpful if you're given proper credit and the pin links back to you.

 

For everyone here, just remember that because our individual members retain the copyright to any images they post here, I cannot give blanket approval to pin stuff from Pinterest. You can pin anything for which a member has included permission in their signature or by including the Pinterest smilie in their post, without needing to contact them to ask for permission. For everything else posted here, you do need to contact the individual poster for permission.

 

Crochetville is a bit different in that many members post personal, non-business photos, so they have valid personal privacy reasons for not wanting their stuff pinned on Pinterest.

[Amy]

If people do NOT want things pinned from their website, they should insert this bit of code at the top of each page they want to protect: <meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" /> Then when someone tries to pin a picture from that page, they will get a message saying this site doesn't allow pinning and thanks for visiting (paraphrased - see: http://pinterest.com/about/help/ for exact wording).

 

One more thing: that code has to be entered on EVERY page on a website. For some websites, that could be hundreds, if not thousands and thousands, of pages.

 

Is it really reasonable to expect someone to spend the time to edit every single page on their website to add their code if they don't want their stuff pinned on Pinterest? Not everyone has access to software that would make that an automated process. I dont't even want to think of how many hours it would take. I don't think so.

 

For example, what about blog sites? Would someone have to edit every single post they ever made? Or does the blog software automatically use the same header info on every page, so if you put the code in your main blog template, it would automatically populate into all your individual post pages? I haven't messed with blog code in so long I can't remember the answer to that question.

 

Just things that I think about.

[Amy]

Amy - I think it's great that you made the 2 new smilie things for Pinterest and Facebook. Is it also possible to make smilies that either have a big red X or the circle with the slanted line thru it over top of the smilies?

 

I don't know. That involves modifying their images, and their site Terms of Use may prohibit that. I would have to check into it to see if that can be done.

 

If anybody has already checked into that, and has a link directly to a page on their site that discusses alteration of their logos, please post the link here for me. It would really help!

[Amy]

So, is it okay to just randomly repin everything I like, or is that stepping on toes? Should I just use the 'like' button instead?

 

Pinterest's policies state that you agree that you will only pin photos to which you own the copyright or have been given permission to pin by the copyright owner.

 

There are many photos that have been pinned to Pinterest without permission of the copyright owner. Only the copyright owner could give you permission to repin those. Of course, it's a pretty impossible and time-consuming task to have to check every photo you'd like to repin to see if it was originally pinned in accordance with Pinterest's terms of use. (And might not even be possible without contacting the photo's owner.)

 

I can't tell you whether or not it's okay to pin or repin anything. I can only describe what my concerns are with Pinterest's entire TOS. I have a feeling they'll be rewording a lot of things in the not-too-distant future.

[RoseRed]

I don't know. That involves modifying their images, and their site Terms of Use may prohibit that. I would have to check into it to see if that can be done.

 

If anybody has already checked into that, and has a link directly to a page on their site that discusses alteration of their logos, please post the link here for me. It would really help!

 

I didn't realize that was their image. I thought you came up with them

[Amy]

I'm not that good at making tiny little images in photoshop!

 

They're little icons that they give permission to others to use for linking back to their sites. (I read their TOS to make sure I could use them here.)

[Flia]

When it comes to patterns that are for sale, I can't see why anyone would mind that the link is spread. As long as you don't post a picture with the actual pattern it's only increasing sales.

The same applies for most free patterns. As long as you only post a picture with a link to the download site there should be no problems.

 

After all, we tell each other about those limks all the time, and a picture attached to the link is good advertising.

[Mini_Sarah]

I think if you are a designer, published or for free, you put that out there for people to use, so in that case it is ok, however, we post to Crochetville for that purpose. To communicate with other like minded individuals and although Crochetville is open to the public, things like Facebook and Pinterest are very public. Making our crochet photos of our kids/family etc. more open to others. I like Crochetville like it is, here. It makes this website special. When you put it on Ravelry/Facebook/Pinterest, it increases awareness of the site, but also takes away traffic from Crochetville. If people can stay logged on to their personal FB and not have to come here to see everything, then what makes Crochetville special? Not trying to uspet anyone, but I really like Crochetville here. That makes it special.

 

Think you need to make sure that you always credit the person work in the link afterwards, under these circumstances all you are doing is just helping them get there work about! I think there is nothing wrong with that!

 

[RoseRed]

There is something wrong with it. The thing that is wrong with it is that not every designer is willing to give their intellectual property rights away - forever.

 

Until Pinterest changes their ToU I will not be giving permission for my things to be put on there. If someone wants to pin pictures of things they've made- great! If they include a link to where they found the pattern - even better!

 

Unless a designer gives explicit permission to pin on Pinterest then Pinterest does not have a license to use those pictures. If and when a designer does give permission - then go for it.

 

Personally, I think trying to force designers to add their code to websites and blogs to disallow pinning is a load of crap.

 

Do I think that 'getting your work out there' is important? Yes, I do. But not at the price that Pinterest demands of it.

 

I actually just wrote a blog post explaining my thoughts on the topic. http://rosereddesigns.blogspot.com/2012/03/pinterest-i-do-not-give-permission-to.html

[RoseRed]

They've updated their ToU. They've made a good start.

 

You can read the new ToU here

http://blog.pinterest.com/post/19799177970/pinterest-updated-terms

[wheat]

Because I probably spend as much or more time than you do <G> considering the estoric and "unintended consequences" - with both of us having been right most of the time in the long term, The "grand jury in my head" is still not sure about this whole Pinterest issue. I am, on a very limited basis, participating because it may very well have a long term "business" beneficial side to it.

 

That said, the "no Pin" would/could be implemented fairly easily "going forward" and in cases like blogs where the pages are mostly dynamically created on viewer demand, by adding it to the template CSS and/or header tags. At least it would be where one has been smart enough to keep the control of their web/blog or other on line "publication".

[RoseRed]

lololol - you make me laugh. You may be surprised there.

 

I'm not entirely thrilled with the updated ToU but I do think it's a step in the right direction. They removed the 'sell' from the ToU, added an easier 'report copyright infringement tool, re-wrote it in simpler language and added a part about not allowing self abuse/harm.

 

What I thought would happen is what did. They placated the masses with their prompt attention to the matter, only removed their right to sell others intellectual property and people stopped talking about it. What's the motivation to continue to make their ToU more acceptable now? I don't see much.