Is anyone using Pinterest as a marketing tool?

[cottageguru]

It's interesting to see that Home Away has embraced Pinterest and is using it to showcase some of the best features in their listed properties. I wrote a blog post http://cottageblogger.com/2012/01/how-p ... ntal-buzz/ about this today and am keen to find out if anyone here is using it, or considering doing so.

I think it would work well to show off images of a local area around a property; feature food images from local restaurants; post interesting photos of wildlife, sunsets, etc.

The great part of Pinterest is that it is quick and easy to post an image and build a pin board so adding it to the overall social media marketing mix isn't time consuming.

[Giddy Goat]

Thanks for flagging this up Heather; it's been around a little while it would seem without crossing my radar! I love your pinboard!

It seems a great idea and I like the fact that you're helping others' interests and businesses as well as your own.

[Jimbo]

Elizabeth Holford wrote:

There are many ways in which images can be shared and I suppose there are ways in which we can find justification for swiping someone’s photo for our own benefit.

As you might imagine, an organisation that encourages people to scrape copyrighted images off the internet and publish them for commercial purposes without the owners' knowledge, permission or payment for their use, hasn't been warmly welcomed in photography circles.

However, below is a link to photographer Elizabeth Holford's blog in which she (and her readers) kick the ball around from both ends of the stadium.
http://tinyurl.com/7d44r9c

Jim

[Ju]

I am a bit of a pinterest adict - I use to for the crafty/sewing things. The trouble is it moves so quickly I'm not sure useful it would be as an advertising tool; I think if one has a blog which is photo heavy then you could do it - but I think time past vs returns are not great.

Jimbo - surely the problem is the whole internet, not just pinterest. After all pinterest only takes photos that are already out there on the internet.

[Giddy Goat]

I wondered if they were only taken from other people's pinboards - but I guess when it began they had to start from somewhere so that notion was a nonsense!

Off to follow your link Jimbo!

[Jimbo]

After all pinterest only takes photos that are already out there on the internet.

Ju, much of my photographic archive is 'out there on the internet', but that doesn't give anybody the right to use my copyright pictures without my permission. Your website is the same - does the fact that its 'out on the internet' mean that you'd be happy for anybody to use your pictures and copy for any purpose without your permission?

I appreciate that much of pinterest is likely to be 'social' and may even be beneficial for those photographers whose pictures have been taken. But, I'd guess that some are using it for commercial gain.

Jim

[Giddy Goat]

I appreciate that much of pinterest is likely to be 'social' and may even be beneficial for those photographers whose pictures have been taken. But, I'd guess that some are using it for commercial gain.

Don't users of Pinboard have to give your website when they display your image? Isn't that one of the key objectives - link juice and all that?

[cottageguru]

These are really interesting points and I have to admit I hadn't really considered any of them when I embraced Pinterest at the outset. I just read the Halford article and all the very relevant and reasoned comments following it and have better insight into how photographers feel.

I relate this to the articles I write on my blog and the frustration when I find them re-posted elsewhere without crediting them back to me. However, most are fully credited and the link back to my site brings additional visitors. In the same way, I've seen a few of my photos from my rental agency site being pinned elsewhere, but my URL is credited.

When I see a photo I like on a pin board I tend to click on it and get back to the original site before I pin it again. Isn't that the purpose of having an internet presence anyway - so it will be found? It's the nature of social networking.

Makes me look at it a little differently though.

[Martha]

I think it's a really interesting idea - though the issues raised in Ms Holford's linked article are very valid and something that many photographer friends of mine are struggling with.

I agree pretty much 100% with her guidelines - it should always be linked back and always not for profit. This is absolutely not always the case at the moment and is a bit of a problem...

From my own point of view, I would be pretty peeved if another chalet used my photos of the area to promote Chamonix and I'm mot sure how you'd stop them - though having said that, it's not as if it's a big place and you'd hope people wouldn't do that.

Interesting idea though and I may well try it and see what happens. I like Pinterest and often use it at work for quick moodboards.

[Ju]

After all pinterest only takes photos that are already out there on the internet.

Ju, much of my photographic archive is 'out there on the internet', but that doesn't give anybody the right to use my copyright pictures without my permission. Your website is the same - does the fact that its 'out on the internet' mean that you'd be happy for anybody to use your pictures and copy for any purpose without your permission?

But on pinterest all you do is post a link to the original website. The link itself is attached to a photo. So when you build a board, all you are really doing is building a list of web pages that you like.

Does that in itself breach copyright?

[Giddy Goat]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ho ... lating.php

[e-richard]

In a nutshell:

If you care about copyright, do not share photos.
If you want to share, then Pinterest is a great vehicle.

Pinterest, like Facebook, is all about sharing. Its not about protecting copyright.
Facebook is incredibly successful because millions of people do not care about copyright.

Neither of these (and a huge swathe of new thinking social networking/sharing websites) are suitable for or aimed at professional photographers or designers. That's what Getty Images and that ilk are about.

[Holiday Ray]

Just a thought on those 'backlinks'

IF one was to receive hundreds of backlinks, which I'm sure some do - how would google view them ?

If some pics went viral, could they end up being perceived as like links coming from 'link-farms' and should we not be trying to obtain links from sites that have a good PageRank (preferably higher than our own), so as not to damage our own PageRank !

[Sue Dyer]

I joined a while ago but hadn't done much with it. Thanks to this thread and some followers I'm now hooked. I love collaging and scrapbooking so it is just ideal for me.

I'm not using it for the cottage at the moment, like Ju I like the craft stuff. I've used it to feature some bits of fused glass I made for myself for xmas.

I'm http://pinterest.com/soodyer/ if anyone wants to follow I'll reciprocate.

GG, love the food of the area idea, I plan to add some of my many seafood dishes from around the planet.

[Giddy Goat]

Following you Sue and will enjoy watching them grow. Ju, how do I find yours?

I have been having a ball with my pinboard! Am only going to have the one, and am using it as a vehicle to tempt visitors to the region - the theme is regional food and drink. At the moment we don't have much info on this on the website, and I have a list of restaurants which I send people but what is it they say about a picture?

Jimbo, each and every picture that is pinned has to give the url of the source. And if you re-pin someone else's, the system does it automatically.

There's also a clever little icon I now have on the toolbar so if I see something on the web I can click to "pin it" and it does the URL automatically for that as well. All you need to do is create your own description.

Apparently the etiquette allows you to post your own website now and again but you mustn't overdo it so at the moment I have only one of my own images on the pinboard, thus my url is there and nowhere else.

It may be a while before I figure out how to get the board found on the web,(if ever!) so in the meantime I'll send the link to past and pending guests, and some enquirers if it's appropriate. Now have a link to the pinboard on our website, (thank you Richard) and it in turn is supposed to link to FB and Twitter.

I'll be sorry when I've run out of ideas for it: almost have!

Here it is: (follow me please/thanks?) http://tinyurl.com/7wy33xu