23 Jun4 Common Pinterest Mistakes

If you like it then you should’a put a pin on it. Via Frederique d’Orgeval.

1. Pinning anything.
It’s very common to see casual pinners using Pinterest for everything they like. But if you’re wanting Pinterest to be a tool for your business, you can’t pin everything you’re interested in. You have to have a filter. For instance, you might love the little nightie your friend Sarah posted, but if you sell baby clothes it’s just not appropriate to repin the nightie. This works in a less-obvious way as well. Identify what qualities your brand has that make it shine to your customers. Pin with that in mind.
Now I can’t leave it at that! You don’t want to have to manage two Pinterest accounts, so my solution that allows you to still keep track of all the pins you like (at least until they release a private pinboard feature) is to use the “like” button. Your likes are separate from your pins and most people will never look at your likes. You can easily visit your likes to scroll through pins without repinning them to your own boards.

2. Being self-absorbed.
I know you would never intentionally be egotistical. But sometimes you don’t even realize you’re doing it! If most of your pins are images of your own art and links to your own web presence, no one is going to want to follow you. People don’t like to be sold to. They like to connect with someone who they ultimately choose to buy from ahead of people they aren’t connected to. Part of the way you do this is through your art, but another way is by showing your personality. You can do that through things you pin and repin. People also feel more inclined to like you if they notice, subconsciously usually, that you’re giving and interested in others’ lives. So pin other artist’s work, pin things that would be interesting to your customers, and pin things that show off a little of your personality.

3. Not crediting the source.
This is a big problem on Pinterest. Technically, pinning an item means you assert that you have the rights to share the image. Of course, this is the internet and it’s 2012. No one expects you to have rights to all the images you share. (Though I will reiterate that, at least in the US, you could get in legal trouble for it if someone decided to go after you.) But they can expect you to properly credit the owner of the image.
So whenever you are pinning an image, please be sure the link heads straight back to the original owner and the exact page where it can be found again. So instead of pinning from the homepage on a blog, click the title of the post to get to the post’s dedicated page so that when that blog posts new content, the image isn’t buried on that homepage where no one can find it from the link in your pin. Additionally, as often as possible when you repin, you should check to make sure it heads to the original source and edit the link if not.

4. Not sharing pins elsewhere.
When you pin something particularly good, you should tweet it or post it to Facebook or anywhere else you have a social media presence. Don’t spam your following, but let them know that you have an active Pinterest account and that they should hop on board and follow you on Pinterest!

Inspiring thoughts,
Laura