5 Things Not to Re-Pin on Pinterest

This probably doesn’t come as a shocker but about 80% of pins on Pinterest are re-pins.

It’s not a shocker because you probably re-pin most of the time! Me too. On the surface, it seems like you never really have to leave Pinterest to find a little inspiration.

But the big question is: are you blindly re-pinning? 

If you always re-pin without first visiting the link, you could be.

Pinterest is full of ooooh pretties and ohhhhh cools. But it’s also a landmine full of aaahhh craps. Pins that aren’t quite what they seem. Pretty on the outside… but annoying (and potentially harmful) on the inside.

But let’s wade through it together, shall we? Here are five types of pins you shouldn’t re-pin:

1. Pins that Don’t Go To a Permalink

There are few Pinteresty things more maddening than finding a great recipe, how-to or what not, then clicking on it and having it go to someone’s home page. Ugh! Whaaaa? Now you’re telling me I have to search around a website to actually find the image in that pretty picture?

If it’s an omg-gotta-have-that-pin type of pin then I might bother to search for the post on their site. If I’m lazy, I’ll just go back and be annoyed at the person who pinned it that way.

Of course, if you’re just pinning an overall website (like if you had a board of blogs you like), then by all means, have at it. But if you’re pinning a recipe, then by golly PIN THE RECIPE POST, not the website. You’ll be happy with yourself too when you go back to try out the recipe and can actually find it.

2. Pins that Give Away Too Much

You’re a blogger. I’m a blogger. And us bloggers like traffic. So how would you like if someone described the entire point of your post in the pin description? Doesn’t give someone much incentive to actually click through to the post if all the juicy details are right on Pinterest, ya know?

This problem used to be worse until Pinterest caught on and instituted a 500-character limit to a pin description. While that curbed some of it, I still see pins like this. If you’re gonna re-pin a pin like that, then go for it! Just edit the description to entice readers to click over. I’m sure the blogger would thank you!

3. Pins with Broken Links

While this seems like a given, if you don’t check a pin before re-pinning it, you may unknowingly pass on a pin that goes to a dead link. It could be that person’s site is down but it could also be that the post was moved to a different URL or taken down for some reason.

Regardless, if you’re trying to build a Pinterest following, then you don’t want a pretty picture turning into a wa-wa-waaaaa kind of disappointment. So just take a sec to check that the link actually works.

4. Pins You Don’t Have Permission to Pin

This one gets hairy because so many people pin with reckless abandon. I did too once a upon a time.

But since Pinterest saves a full image on their site, you aren’t just pinning a “thumbnail” of an image. You’re pinning an image that the owner may or may not want you to share.

For re-pins, I visit the link and look for a Pinterest button. If the person has either a Pin It button or a Pinterest button that links to their profile, then I go for it and re-pin that puppy. If they don’t, I might ask for permission via Twitter or email. I did this before for some portrait ideas from a photographer’s site and she responded fairly quickly. Typically though, I just pin it to one of my secret Pinterest boards so I can have my cake and eat it too. (Bloggers- here are some cool ways you can use secret boards).

5. Spam Disguised as Pretty Stuff

You’d be surprised not only how much spam is on Pinterest but also how much of it gets re-pinned without a second glance. Pictures of exotic destinations, food and even DIY projects have all been tainted by the spam-monsters.

And in some cases, the spam isn’t simply annoying. It’s harmful too.

For example, if you do a search on Pinterest for “recipe” then pretty chocolate cake with white frosting comes up a ton.

With LOADS of re-pins.

But look closely. If you click on it, it goes to a strange URL with a pop up that asks if I want to download a tool to get access to “100’s of recipes using the FREE Total Recipe Tool.”

You know what that is? A malicious something-or-other that could take down your computer.

That’s why it’s so important to check a pin before re-pinning. You don’t want someone falling for this!

Such a Fun Sucker

I know, I know. I sound like a big party pooper! But it really doesn’t take too long to check your pins before re-pinning. If you’re in a rush, you can Like a pin instead then go back and re-pin when you have a minute to check the source.

That’s not too bad, right?

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In this 2-week online course you’ll learn:

• The traffic-building way to organize your boards (no, they shouldn’t all be in alphabetical order)
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