Pinterest 101 - getting started and getting the most out of it

Shop Talk Social Media
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Sorry, bumping another old thread! I just created a Pinterest business account, and I’m trying to create my first pin. (Apologies if this has been answered in the thread - I’ve done a word search, but I can’t see the answer - still working my way through the thread) -

Should we put our shop address, or logo, or maybe a watermark, on our own photos when we create pins? I don’t know if other people find this (maybe I’m just using Pinterest wrong!), but so often I click on a pin hoping to find the source of the photo, but can only find the board of the person who pinned it. How can you make sure that when someone re-pins your pin, people can find their way to your shop? For that reason, is it better to create pins using your shop URL, rather than upload the images from your computer (even though Pinterest recommends using 1000x1500px, but the Folksy photos are only 600x600)?

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I pin direct from my shop, or other peoples shops. I have a ‘pin’ button on my browser so when I hover over an items photo a ‘save’ button appears which then asks me which board I want to save to. If anyone on Pinterest clicks on that pin it will take them to the item in their shop. I often pin items from the Daily challenge thread…this is the board for that:

I’m using google chrome on a PC so it may work differently on other devises.

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I installed the Pinterest for chrome extension and now any page I visit there is a pin button - just google "Add the Pinterest Save extension "

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Thanks both, I’ve started a board using the URL method, and it looks ok I think. I’ll look into the chrome extension and adding other content tomorrow (enough work for today!). x

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Can’t spend much time on here at the moment, been really busy, but I recall converting a personal a/c to a business one some years ago and it all went wrong. The system got rid of all my pins, which was deeply upsetting because I had some real favourites…had to start all over again. Maybe they’ve fixed it now.
I’ve got a SmallArt board in amongst my other personal interests and “collected pins”, whether it’s the best way or not, I don’t know, but at least all the pins have stayed put.
Pinterest seems to have a lot of functions, trying to find the best way of using them is a bit mind-boggling though.

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90

Editing Pins

I think I know why this is happening, but not completely sure and wondering if anyone else has had the same problem…

When editing a pin that I’ve created (from scratch, uploading the image, doing the title, description etc), I’m sometimes getting the message: “Sorry, an error occurred whilst editing your Pin.” This morning, I opened a dozen pins of the same type of product and edited them one at a time before saving the changes. Pinterest would let me do this for a handful of pins and then it started giving me this message - same type of pin and same type of editing. I left the ones I couldn’t save open for an hour over lunch time and when I came back, I was able to save them without any further changes!

What I think is happening is something I’ve heard about elsewhere, which is that Pinterest doesn’t like you to be overly active creating and / or editing pins and they stop you with these type of error messages when you’ve done too much. Logically, that sounds beyond ridiculous to me that I’m having trouble believing this is what it’s about.

Has anyone else experienced this and / or worked out what’s going on?

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Same thing happened to me - I’ve still not really got it sorted!

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Pinterest likes you to create new content not edit existing content. also it doesn’t like it if you do a mass edit or delete at one time, that makes it seem like scam content.

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I have noticed that you an only edit a few pins at a time (especially when editing the url) when you have reached their limit you will get the error message. You have to wait around 5-10minutes before you can edit anymore.

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If you find you receive too many emails from Pinterest then you need to edit your notifications to do this click the little down arrow on the right. Then on the menu on the left hand side scroll down to notifications and click. Then you can edit which notifications you receive via email.

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Thanks - it really is mental, although I assume they do it for a reason!

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I have been looking at all the functions on Pinterest and noticed under claimed accounts there’s a install app for (see image) now what we really need is for that to say Folksy because 1: it would be very useful 2: Folksy is far better than s***y

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Well yesterday morning I finally summoned the motivation to re-create all my pins from scratch, because the ones I batch uploaded using the URL method all had the same description (which happened twice, I couldn’t find a way to change it). How time-consuming it all is! I’ll need to get into the habit of creating a pin every time I list from now on.

Anyway, I’ve just downloaded the Chrome Pinterest extension, but now I’m having the problem that it wants to pin to my personal account. When I log out of that account, it still won’t pin to my new Business account because it says ‘User Not Authenticated’… Has anyone else had this? Is this because on Pinterest my merchant status is ‘inactive’? When I click ‘begin review process’ the first thing it asks me to do is claim my website, which I can’t do because it’s Folksy, not my own website. So presumably nobody else who sells on Folksy can change their merchant status to active either?

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Oh :face_with_spiral_eyes: I just realised they sent me an authentication email that went into my spam folder when I set up my account. Doh! So that part is working now. I still wonder about the merchant status though…

(I’m trying with the tech, I really am)

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Thanks for this thread, I have used pinterest (very badly!) for some time but did not really know what I was doing!
Thanks for the tip on the chrome extension - I have just set up a new “Quaver and Lyric for sale on Folksy board” and used the extension to pin the items for sale on folksy there. One good thing I found was that using this tool you can add as many of the images for your listing as you like. The downside of this is the descriptions will be the same as they are from the same listing. Thiswould be a major problem on google but have no idea if it has the same impact on pinterest. Just in case tomorrow I might have a look at if I can edit them.

I calimed my website some time ago - I do not remember it being too difficult, but then one of thegood things about shopify is it has apps that walk you through most of this. I am having problems getting them to accept my shop however :roll_eyes:

These items are also available on my own shopify website so there will be duplicate images with different descriptions and links on other boards. Does anyone know if this will be a problem? I am just assuming that the ones linked to folksy are more likely to get more impressions as it will have a better authority than my own website. That is if the algorithm works anything like google.

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100

Creating Pins

Following a query from Susan @itsatwinthing, here is a guide to saving a pin directly from Folksy, and also creating a pin from an image in Canva. I have tried to keep it simple, so it ignores some of the differences between Saved and Created pins we’ve discussed above - but I’m happy to explain more if people want.

DIRECT PINNING FROM FOLKSY - Find the pinterest button by hovering or right clicking on the photo in your listing, or use the SHARE function for your device and choose Pinterest (you may need to scroll through the options to find it).

Screenshot 2025-02-05 at 12-11-19 Pinterest 101 - getting started and getting the most out of it - Shop Talk _ Social Media - Folksy Forums
Screenshot 2025-02-05 at 12-11-19 Pinterest 101 - getting started and getting the most out of it - Shop Talk _ Social Media - Folksy Forums595×538 90.8 KB

Then just choose which Pinterest board you want to save it to (if you have more than 1), and click SAVE.

It is super quick to do, and it automatically drags across (transfers) the information. The downside is that you can’t edit the pin - so you can’t change the title or the description, nor add hashtags or tag other people.

You get the main photo, the listing title, and a really clear button to the listing, and the folksy logo. It also brings across part of the product description - it’s not immediately visible, but opens up if people use the click down arrow on product details. As you can see, the description gets squashed into a single paragraph, and looks a bit offputting, especially if it is long like mine.

Here’s one of mine as an example.
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PINNING FROM CANVA
You can also pin from Canva without downloading and saving the image to your device. But although the image comes across, you need to do the rest of the work yourself, adding the title, description and copying in the url (website link). The benefit is more flexibility - you can choose exactly what you want to write including adding hastags for better searchability, and you can tag (a few) other Pinterest accounts.

Once you have created your Canva image, click Share and then click on the See all button. Scroll down until you find the Social links, and click on Pinterest - you may need to click see all if it’s not showing. Then you can add your title, choose which image to use if you have more than 1 “page” in Canva, and write/copy in a description. Then you copy and paste in the url that you want the pin to link to (product listing, Folksy shop or home page etc). and then PUBLISH.

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Here is one of mine that I did for a Folksy Friday board.

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It does take a bit more time, but I think the ability to customise the text and tag people is worth it.

And you can combine methods. Although I used the canva method to pin the Friday board with a short description of the theme and the names of crafters, and a link to the main Folksy front page, I used the quick method above to pin directly to each of the individual product listings. I just saved them all to the same Pinterest board.

[image]

Hope this is helpful :grinning:

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Creating Pins - directly from Instagram posts

Although not asked by Susan, this is another direct link method people may want to try if you are not already doing it.

If you “claim” your Pinterest account from Instagram, any posts you make will automatically create a pin back to Insta. Just like it does for Facebook. You can edit it after it’s created - a good idea as not all tags will work - Pinterest only seems to allow a few.

The option to claim my Pinterest account just popped up on my screen one day and I clicked yes, so I’m not too sure exactly how to find this if you can’t see it, or whether it only applies if you have your Pinterest account set up as business. Maybe others can advise.

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I believe it does only apply if you’re set up as a Business account. I did have it on mine but it’s since being taken away as I don’t have a business Instagram account (I refuse to have one as I use my Insta for personal as well as business plus, I believe that their business accounts don’t do so well on the algorithm, so best avoided!).

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@thecrimsonrabbit @TheOldButton

I’ve just connected Pinterest to Insta. Googled instructions, it was easy enough. Also found how to share on photos (absolutely no idea why I didn’t think logically about this as I share things on FB)… brain not what it used to be :anguished:

Thanks for help :heavy_heart_exclamation:

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