Important Pinterest Tips You Need To Know! Blogging Tips from Amy at LivingLocurto.com

 I hate getting in trouble. I always try to do the right thing, so it makes me sick to my stomach when I get confronted by someone for making a mistake. It’s even worse when you didn’t know you did anything wrong.

I got my first email from Pinterest that a complaint was filed about something I pinned to my I Heart Faces Pinterest Boards.

Email From Pinterest:

We’re getting in touch to let you know we received a copyright complaint and have removed one (or more) of your Pins. The complaint wasn’t directed against you or your Pin; it was directed against another user’s Pin of the same content.

While many copyright owners are happy to have their content on Pinterest, we recognize that some do not want their content to appear on Pinterest, or did not receive attribution for the content. When a copyright owner sends us a complete notice per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it’s our policy to remove the Pin(s).

Again, this complaint was not directed at you, or anything you did: we just thought you’d like to know why we removed your Pin.

Happy Pinning and thanks again for using Pinterest.

The Pinterest Team

No big deal and Pinterest was very nice about it, but here is the kicker… I didn’t pin it! Or if I did, I don’t remember ever pinning it. I feel bad that someone was upset enough to file a complaint.

I think it might have been pinned to a group board by someone else. Or, maybe it was a photo that an employee pinned a few years ago? Plus, the complaint was from someone else’s pin, then Pinterest researched and found it on my boards as well.

Anyway, I don’t like to get in trouble. EEK! And want to remind you of a few Pinterest tips so you won’t get in trouble like I did.

1.  Don’t repin a photo unless you know the person pinning got it from the original source.

It’s the worst when you repin something great and it goes to a spam site, or later you get a complaint notice from Pinterest.

I usually repin from trusted friends who know how to pin the correct way. If I’m not sure, I will click through the pin to double-check and pin directly from the source.

There are some people who repin everything and never take the time to click through to see if the photo goes to spam or a copyright protected site.

How do you know if a website owner allows their photos to be pinned?

  • Most bloggers love for you to pin their images, but a photographer, Etsy shop owner or artist might not. Even though you see a Pin It button, it will be harder to tell from now on if someone wants their photos pinned, because Pinterest just announced automatic pin it hover buttons over all photos on Chrome. They say more browsers are coming soon.
  • You can also look at a website’s terms of use.
  • A website might have the no pin code on their site. When you try to pin the image, it won’t work. Don’t take a screen capture and pin it anyway. I’m sure many people do this, so it’s another reason why you should be careful of what you repin.
  • If you see a round-up of 100 full sized photos and a Pinterest button is embedded on each photo, the original artist might not have given the website owner permission to use that photo in their round-up. If you love the photo enough to pin it, be nice and click through to pin from the original source. Sometimes this might take you a few clicks to find the original. I have even had to Google the description of the photo to find the original source, as some roundups give no link or credit! See my blog post rant about this here.
  • If you are not sure of what to do, pin the photo to a private board.

 

2.  If you have employees pinning to your boards, give them specific instructions and be sure to check in on what they are doing often.

I have heard of people trusting an employee to pin to their boards and then getting kicked out of good group boards because the employee was not following the board’s rules.

FYI- Did you know you are not allowed to pay for pinners or get paid to pin products to your boards?

Pinterest says this:

A business can pay someone to help them put together a board that represents their brand. For example, it’s okay for a guest blogger to curate a board for a local boutique’s profile. We don’t allow that boutique to pay the blogger to Pin products to her own boards. 

A person can be given commission by an approved affiliate network. For example, it’s okay for a blogger to get paid when someone purchases a product that blogger has Pinned. However, we don’t allow the blogger to be paid just to Pin.

 

3. Follow Pinterest’s guidelines.

I put a snippet of Pinterest guidelines above, but if you haven’t read all guidelines in a while, read them here.

 

Follow Living Locurto on Pinterest

Have you ever gotten into trouble with Pinterest or filed a complaint before? 

 

You might also like my 10 Do’s and Don’ts for How to Use and Grow your Following on Pinterest.

10 Do's and Don'ts ~ How to Use and Grow your Following on Pinterest  LivingLocurto.com

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40 Comments

  1. This is one of those topics that we all need to be aware of. Thanks for putting this post together is such an easy to understand way! Sometimes knowing all the “rules” can be overwhelming. I also like to make sure I am creating as many of my own images as possible to use in all of my blog posts and facebook posts unless I am sharing awesome content like this! I hope it’s ok that I share your post with my followers. Please let me know if it’s not. Thanks again for a great post.

  2. I’m really glad i found this article.i was just scrolling through and it caught my eye. Idea i could get in trouble for just pinning. Thanks !!

  3. It is sounding so complicated and time consuming I am thinking I will skip Pinterest and go back to reading books. I thought it was just a fun place to see lots of neat pictures and information I could put on boards so that I could refer to them and enjoy. With all these rules and regulations and what sounds like a lot of petty people I may just opt out.

  4. Great post, it does get frustrating when pins don’t lead to an original source, but I always click through to check and don’t pin if they don’t.

  5. Whoa, what an awesome post first of all, second why is everything including dear Pinterest always such an issue for ‘some’ people. If you don’t want your images anywhere online other then your site only..that pretty much ISN’T going to happen on the internet especially Pinterest since it’s a collaboration site. I feel bad for you & the innocent others simply pinning awesome stuff to boards & getting a letter,because someone has to stir something up..Pinterest was super nice though.:))

    Great Post!
    Thank You!
    -Paige.Rose
    http://www.TheQuaintSanctuary.blogspot.com

  6. As someone who has been on Pinterest almost since the very beginning, I have received this mailing a few times, less since knowing how to prevent it. However, I received it once for a pin that actually had a pin button at the base of the post, so I protested and received satisfaction.

    BTW *that* took quite a few letters as one doesn’t simple reply to an actual person, but a bot who is very hard wired to keep you from an actual human source…but it can be done. : )

  7. I have gotten two of the emails and have no clue whose pin I pinned. I do have person who has blocked me and I have no way of finding out why. Go figure.

  8. Thanks for your advice. Something I read once, and it had worked well: When you click a pin, watch the right side to see if the pinner has some other pins. Spammers usually open several boards, allowing just one or two pins on each.

  9. Ann – Pinterest has just added code to Chrome that puts a Pin It Button on every image on the internet. You have to have the Chrome Pinterest extension. They say this is just the first browser, that more are to come.

  10. yes usually it will tell you if its a site that could be viral or nudity ,, which Im glad Pinterest does this for you ,, but I haven't had anything like this happen to me ,

  11. My thoughts exactly Ann when I got the same message as Amy and like others, it wouldn't be something I would pin and I don't have a group board…..I am very careful to go to the website before pinning as sometimes(and it's becoming more frequent) I get a virus warning from my anti-virus software so I avoid pinning!

  12. I received that email also on an image of a craft item/painted quote board. Learned my lesson and it was deleted from my board. Scared me as Facebook as stopped me from making Friends twice which I don’t understand either. Then there’s these bad spammy gross guys that try to Friend you on FB and no one ever stops them. Geez.

  13. Was it a painting? LOL Yes, I only have one group board and guessing someone from that board pinned it. So it goes to show you need to be mindful of who you invite to a board.

  14. Great tip about the Google image search!! As for the websites that use others photos, I would still be careful. I have seen many of my photos on websites that are basically spam and I have never given them permission to use my images. Those are the sites that I mention in my article who have 100+ photos in a roundup. Most don’t link back or credit which stinks. Thanks for stopping by!

  15. The owner of the photo complained. So that made me feel like I got into trouble:-) I hate that after all I do to stick to the rules and give people credit, I still get an email like this. If it was from a group board, that is just another reason to be picky and educate who you invite to your group boards for sure. I now only repin from people that I know understand how to use Pinterest, like you!

  16. Would you beleive I got the exact same email, When I looked at the supposed file, it was something that I never would have pinned, So I am guessing that It was on a group board too and not pinned directly by me

  17. Would you beleive I got the exact same email, When I looked at the supposed file, it was something that I never would have pinned, So I am guessing that It was on a group board too and not pinned directly by me

  18. you can be paid to curate for a brand, but they can’t pay you to pin their content/products to your boards

    That was nice that pinterest let you know they had to remove a pin from your boards, i don’t think you were getting in trouble. But nice reminders about pinning from a source, it’s why I rarely repin, and it I do repin and hove over the pin to see what it’s linked to. Chances are this pin was pinned by someone on a group board you own and pinterest notified you since you were the board owner.

  19. This is such an important topic and one that is too often neglected!

    I think that a big part of the problem is that many people don’t understand what pinning from “the original source of the image” means. It means that you pin directly from the image owner / photographer / graphic designer’s website. NOT from Google Images, Tumblr, etc.

    It’s also okay to pin from websites that have included images they do not own, so long as they have the right to use them and have cited them properly. So, for example, it’s fine to pin from a blog if they used an image in the creative commons and credited it properly.

    I recommend ALWAYS clicking through to check what the pin has bookmarked. It’s good to check that the website is reputable and that it’s the original source of (or has the right to use) the image in question.

    What do you do when you *really* want to pin something and the link is broken, goes to a spam site, or does not go to the original source of the image? Easy! Try a Google Image search (you can drag and drop a copy of the image into the search bar and Google will search for where that image appears on the web). Then you can click :”Edit Pin” and update the link to go to the proper webpage.

  20. Thank you for the reminder Amy! Like the others who have commented, I too am going to start going through my boards. 🙂

  21. I pin a lot of travel photos too and hopefully they are okay! I got the letter about a painting. I think artwork and photography is tricky on Pinterest.

  22. I know! I didn’t realize you couldn’t be paid to specifically pin products to your boards until reading the guidelines again. Good stuff anyone on Pinterest should know about.

  23. I received a notice about a month or so ago that read exactly as you received. The problem for me was I didn’t have a clue as to which pin it was!
    Thanks for the tips! I love Pinterest, I don’t like getting in trouble either!

  24. This is a great post and a great reminder to all of us. You have made me want to go through all of my boards now to make sure all of the pretty travel pictures I have pinned actually go to the correct website.

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