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Tag: pins

  • Pinterest Gives Businesses a Way to Get in Front of More People

    Pinterest Gives Businesses a Way to Get in Front of More People

    When it comes to advertising, Pinterest says it’s about “mapping your business goals to the steps Pinners take to plan their futures.” With that in mind, Pinterest is now offering some new types of ad solutions to “give businesses a unique way to get in front of more people” on a path to purchasing. These new advertising options were rumored to be in the works a couple of months ago.

    Sure to be more eye catching, Pinterest is debuting Cinematic Pins. Calling them “thumb-stoppers”, Pinterest says these Cinematic Pins are its “most beautiful type of Promoted Pin” yet.

    Cinematic Pins, at first glance, appear to be Pinterest’s answer to video ads on sites like Facebook and Instagram – but that’s not entirely accurate. Cinematic Pins move when a user scrolls by them, which is pretty much the opposite of a Facebook video ad, for instance, which plays when you stop on it and stops playing (audibly as well) when you start scrolling. It’s clear that Pinterest’s goal here is catch eyes with that motion in the hopes it’ll make people stop and click or repin.

    Is Pinterest part of your business plan? If so, how’s it working out? If not, do you think you’ll turn some attention to Pinterest in the near future? Let us know in the comments.

    Pinterest is starting to roll out Cinematic Pins with a handful of big-name partners like Gap Inc. (Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic), L’Oreal USA (L’Oreal Paris, Maybelline and Garnier), Nestlé, STX Entertainment’s new movie The Gift, Target, Unilever, Visa Checkout, Walgreens and Wendy’s.

    Apparently it’s worked in testing, at least according to Pinterest.

    “Users want to feel like they’re in control, and we’ve done a bunch of user testing—users are delighted by this experience,” said Tim Kendall, Pinterest’s gm of monetization, to AdWeek. “They wind up scrolling back and forth. They love controlling the motion.”

    Pinterest is also unveiling targeting options for Promoted Pins, allowing brands to target to specific subsets of users based on interests like millennials, foodies, gardeners, and travelers.

    These new ad options – Cinematic Pins and audience targeting – are what Pinterest is describing as its “Awareness” tier of a three-pronged approach to advertising.

    As you can see on level two, Pinterest is rolling out a new Cost-per-engagement model.

    To know if your audience thinks your content is save-worthy, it’s best to measure their engagement through repins, closeups and clicks. In addition to our existing premium CPM and CPC Promoted Pins, we’re now rolling out a cost-per-engagement (CPE) model that’ll help you track future intent.

    Also, if you spend enough on Promoted Pins, Pinterest will help you craft them with a new “Pin Factory”.:

    We want you to have a great start with Promoted Pins, which is why we’re offering a few new services that make it easier to create great, promotable content. The Pin Factory is our Pin creative studio for brands. For a minimum spend, we’ll create beautiful, helpful Pin images and descriptions that get you results.

    Pinterest has been taking steps as of late to look better to businesses. Last month, Pinterest announced its new Marketing Developer Partners (MDP).

    “The program helps businesses optimize and scale their Pinterest marketing and improve Pinterest for Pinners,” a spokesperson for Pinterest told WebProNews. “The initial MPD program is made up of a limited, carefully selected group of developer partners who meet the needs of existing businesses on Pinterest and align with Pinterest’s core value of putting Pinners first.”

    This program is designed to make it easier for marketers to find content to pin, and ultimately to pin said content in the best way possible.

    The company also just launched its Developers Platform, a suite of APIs for building apps and integrations that Pinterest says will “bring pins to life.”

    “The Platform will enable developers to tap into the Pinterest interest graph of more than 50 billion projects, places and products to build and grow their apps,” Pinterest spokesperson told WebProNews at the time. “With the new APIs, developers will be able to reach millions of Pinners with apps that make Pins actionable and help people take their ideas offline.

    With these new options for advertising and with Pinterest making steps to make its platform more efficient for marketers and users alike, it’s just another reason why businesses shouldn’t ignore the power of Pinterest.

    The other reason? Traffic.

    Here are some recently-shared stats from Pinterest:

    The stats:

    • 50 billion Pins collected by people onto more than 1 billion boards
    • 80% of traffic comes from mobile
    • Each year, Pinterest serves more than 1.5 trillion recommendations
    • Recipes: Over 1.7 billion recipe Pins
    • Shopping: Every day nearly 2 million people Pin product rich Pins
    • Articles: More than 14 million articles are Pinned each day
    • ⅔ of all the content people Pin is from a business’ website

    If you’re a business, the last few points here should make you take notice – two million product pins daily and the fact that two-thirds of all content is from a business website. Hard to argue with that proportion.

    Are you utilizing Pinterest to its full potential? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Pinterest

  • Pinterest’s Ads Will Now Appear in Your Home Feed

    Pinterest’s Ads Will Now Appear in Your Home Feed

    Pinterest’s “promoted pins” have been appearing on the site since fall 2013, but until now they’ve only shown up in search and in specific category feeds.

    Today all that changes, as the company has just announced an expansion of the ad initiative. Now, users will begin to see promoted pins pop up in their home feeds, the most visible area of the site.

    “Your home feed is the first thing you see when you come to Pinterest, so we want to make sure you’re always welcomed with Pins that are beautiful, relevant and tasteful – and that includes Promoted Pins. Of course, if you don’t like a Promoted Pin, you can always hide it from your feed and tell us why you didn’t like it. We’ll use your feedback to improve what you see in the future,” says Pinterest’s Annie Ta.

    Pinterest has been cautious in rolling out their ad product. Not only did they take well over a year before moving it to the most-trafficked element of the service, but it was just last month that the company announced an imminent expansion to all partners. For most of 2014, promoted pins were only available to select partners.

    At the time, Pinterest dropped some stats that make a pretty compelling case for the efficacy of promoted pins, from a marketer’s perspective.

    “Brand advertisers achieved about a 30% bump in earned media (free impressions!) from their campaigns,” says Pinterest Head of Partnerships Joanne Bradford. “That’s from people who saw a Promoted Pin and thought it was good enough to save to one of their own boards. Engagement is strong— the average Pin is repinned 11 times, and that remains true for Promoted Pins (if not higher).”

    “Promoted Pins perform long after a campaign ends. Since Pins are evergreen and last forever, we often saw an extra 5% bump in earned media in the month following the end of a campaign,” she adds. “Brands both in and out of our core categories found success. From financial services to food to auto, brands from a wide array of industries saw results. Auction-based Promoted Pins (CPC) are seeing success, too. Many of our self-serve beta partners are seeing major gains in traffic and impressions. We’re still making tweaks to the product and want to make sure we get it just right before we roll it out to all businesses.”

    Third-party data confirmed that Pinterest’s promoted pins are really good at getting clicks. According to eMarketer data, 30% of U.S. Pinterest users between the ages of 13 and 64 said they clicked on promoted pins at least weekly

    Image via Pinterest

  • Pinterest’s ‘Promoted Pin’ Ads Make Their Debut

    Pinterest’s ‘Promoted Pin’ Ads Make Their Debut

    Today is the first day that you might see some advertisements on Pinterest.

    The company has just announced that their “promoted pin” test, which they announced a couple of weeks ago, has officially begun.

    “We wanted to let you know that we are starting our first test with promoting pins today, so you may spot a few in your search results or category feeds on the web or in mobile apps. They work just like regular pins, only they have a special “promoted” label, along with a link to learn more about what that means. Remember we’re still just testing things out right now, so we’d really like to hear what you think. We’ll be listening closely to what you have to say, and will continue to keep you posted about how things go,” says Pinterest.

    As you can see above, the pins are clearly marked as promoted – but other than that they seem to fit right in with the rest of your organic pins.

    This is all still in its testing phase, so it’s not going to overwhelm your feeds or anything.

    “Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future. That’s why for us, it’s so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we’re going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses,” said CEO Ben Silbermann a couple of weeks ago.

    In other words, we need to make some money. Ads are always going to pop up on your favorite services, eventually. It’s inevitable. Just ask Instagram.

    Image via Pinterest Blog

  • Pinterest Ads Are Coming, CEO Promises They Will Be Tasteful and Useful

    Pinterest Ads Are Coming, CEO Promises They Will Be Tasteful and Useful

    Pinterest is finally going to start experimenting with ads.

    CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann made the announcement today on the Pinterest blog, promising that the new promoted content with be both tasteful and useful.

    “Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future,” he said. “That’s why for us, it’s so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we’re going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses. I know some of you may be thinking, ‘Oh great…here come the banner ads.’ But we’re determined to not let that happen.”

    No, you won’t be seeing any flashy banner ads on your Pinterest homepage – but eventually you will be seeing some promoted pins. Just like any sort of promoted posts on any other social site like Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest’s promoted pins will allow companies to pay to push a suggested pin (yes, an ad) to your feed.

    Silbermann says that all of these promoted pins will be transparent, in that you’ll know when they’ve been paid for.

    They will also be relevant to your tastes.

    “These pins should be about stuff you’re actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that’s your style,” he says.

    The first batch of promoted content will come in the form of paid pins in search results and category feeds. He calls this a “test,” and you know that it’ll likely expand if things go smoothly.

    Pinterest laid the groundwork for an ad network this summer when they started tracking users’ movements across the web and recommending certain pins based on those movements. It’s an opt-out feature that Pinterest said would give users a more “personalized experience.”

  • Pinterest for iOS Gets Cool New Swipe to Pin, Like, or Send Shortcut

    Pinterest for iOS Gets Cool New Swipe to Pin, Like, or Send Shortcut

    Pinterest has just released a small, but pretty awesome little update for their iOS app – one that is sure to make pinning even easier. Version 2.6 brings a new swipe motion that allows users to quickly swipe to like, pin, or send any pin.

    Users can now tap and hold any pin they encounter, which will bring up a mini-menu. From there, users can simply swipe upward to pin, swipe northeast to like, or swipe to the right to send.

    Here’s the full update list that shipped with V2.6:

    • Press and hold a pin to quickly like, pin or send it (iPhone)
    • Tap Edit Home Feed to easily add and remove stuff from your home feed (iPhone)
    • Send pins not just from your iPhone, but from your iPad too!
    • Crash fixes

    Pinterest has made a few tweaks to both their iOS and Android experience over the past couple of months, but nothing very significant since May when Pinterest added notification, mentions, and search improvements to both apps.

    Last week, the company announced that they were going to be tracking users’ web activity by default – in order to help provide better personalized pin recommendations. Pinterest is doing this automatically, but is giving users a chance to opt out of the cookie-based tracking via Do Not Track.

    You can grab the new Pinterest update over at the App Store.

  • Pinterest Launches New French-Focused Version with More Local Content

    Pinterest Launches New French-Focused Version with More Local Content

    L’histoire, les arts, la cuisine et la mode…depuis l’année dernière Pinterest a été traduit en Français mais la langue n’est qu’un élément de la vaste culture Française. C’est pourquoi nous lançons en France une nouvelle version localisée de Pinterest, créée spécifiquement pour la communauté Française.

    Pinterest is turning its focus on France. Although Pinterest has been available to the French since last year, the user experience has basically been the same as any other user’s experience in the U.S., U.K., or elsewhere. Today, Pinterest is announcing a new, localized version of the service which will cater to French users.

    French Pinterest users will start to see more local content when they search or browse categories. More pins will link to French sites and they’ll also see more pin descriptions in French.

    “We hope today’s updates will help French pinners discover more relevant pins, and faster than ever before. We’re so excited to offer a tailored experience for our French community and we definitely couldn’t have done it without help from native French pinners,” says Pinterest.

    French users should see the new local focus on the web and on the Pinterest mobile apps.

    Of course, international expansion is key for Pinterest’s continued growth and eventual monetization. Pinterest is available in a few non-English languages – German, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese. But tailoring content to a specific international audience is something new (they did something like this in the U.K. last year) – and something that we may seen Pinterest do more of in the future.

  • Pinterest Now Lets You Search You Own Pins, Makes Itself a Better Recipe Book, Wish List, and More

    Pinterest Now Lets You Search You Own Pins, Makes Itself a Better Recipe Book, Wish List, and More

    Pinterest has just announced a small but potentially useful new feature – the ability to filter search results to locate just your own personal pins.

    This feature could be especially useful to high-volume pinners who use their Pinterest account as a sort of depository for everything they want to do, eat, read, watch, buy, etc. in the near future.

    “When you type a word into the search bar – like San Francisco, beaches or BBQ – you can filter results by clicking “Just my pins”. We’ll show you everything you’ve pinned with that keyword in the pin description. Be sure to add words in your descriptions that will help you find that pin again,” says Pinterest Software Engineer Hui Xu.

    So, not only is Pinterest making it easier to find previous pins, but they’re suggesting that you do some better tagging. If you’re looking to use Pinterest as a recipe book, wish list, or other personal catalog, things have just gotten a lot easier.

    Pinterest says that they are currently rolling this out on the web, and it should also appear on mobile soon.

  • Pinterest Makes Sending Pins to Friends Easier

    If you’re browsing Pinterest and you see a specific pin that you know your friend would like, you’ve always been able to send that pin to them. The process was annoying, however, and involved email.

    Today, Pinterest alleviates this annoyance with the new send button. You can now send pins directly to your friends and family on both mobile and the web, as long as you both follow each other on the network.

    “Just tap Send from either web or mobile to send a pin. You can send pins to fellow pinners (if you both follow each other), Facebook friends, or email contacts. We’ll show you the most recent people you’ve sent pins to for easy access,” says Pinterest. “You can even include a message to give it a more personal touch!”

    When you send a pin to another user, they’ll be notified. If they make an action on that pin, including commenting, liking, or repinning, you’ll see that in your notifications as well. It’s a nice little fix to a previously irksome issue.

    According to Pinterest, users should start to see the new send option rollout over the next few weeks.

    Speaking of notifications, Pinterest finally added them to the mobile experience (both the iOS and Android apps). That update, which launched earlier this week, also brought mentions and improved search to both apps.

  • Pinterest Adds Notifications, Mentions, and Better Search to Mobile

    Pinterest is one of those services that is not yet as potent on mobile as it is on the desktop. At this point, I do most of my tweeting and Facebooking on my mobile device – and I’m not alone. But not so with Pinterest. I know for a fact that many of my Pinterest-fiend friends simply choose to not bother with Pinterest at all unless they’re sitting in front of their desktops. It’s just plain easier that way – that convenient little pin button in your browser, multiple tabs to find all of your Pinterest-worthy content to pin, you know, the things that make Pinterest a breeze on the web.

    Today, Pinterest is taking steps to make the mobile experience better with updates to their iOS and Android apps. Pinterest for iOS v 2.4 and Pinterest for Android v 1.5 are now available.

    First up, Pinterest is unveiling new search suggestions inside the app.

    “We’ll now suggest search terms as you type on mobile. You can also see recent searches you made from other places, so if you searched for a soup recipe from your computer, you can do the same search when you’re at the grocery store with just your phone to help you. It’s easy to delete these searches from your settings if you want to,” says Pinterest.

    As you can see, searching for something like “apple” now yields suggestions for apple-related content. This also works with user search. It’s a small, but useful improvement.

    The other additions to come along with today’s update are a long time coming, quite frankly. With the new versions, you can now @ mention other users. Both iOS and Android users can now get notifications as well.

    “Now you can see who commented on your pin or mentioned you whenever you have your phone handy. And if you can’t get enough, we’re also introducing push notifications so you can find out what’s happening without even opening the Pinterest app,” says Pinterest.

    The iOS update also brings a couple of new features, including the ability to “pin from more places more easily from the web.” This amounts to a prominent “+” button on the homescreen that lets you enter in the url of the item you wish to pin. Not quite as easy as with the desktop version of Pinterest, with that handy pin button, but it does help. iOS users can also now invite friends to group boards from the app.

  • Pinterest for iOS Updated with Better Pin Discovery, Profile Editing

    Pinterest has just launched an update to their iOS app that brings two important functional features to the app and one minor, but fun cosmetic improvement to the iPad.

    With today’s update, you can now edit your profile inside the app – something that was a long time coming.

    Individual pin pages have also received a tuneup to help promote discovery. Scroll down to the bottom of a pin page to see the new “people who pinned this also pinned” section.

    This “people who pinned this also pinned” feature is the same one that Pinterest recently rolled out on desktop. It was part of a larger rollout of their brand new UI redesign that they said was all about discovery. Individual pin pages on desktop now feature pins from the same board and pins from the same source alongside “people who pinned this also pinned.”

    The desktop redesign also brought bigger pins, better browsing, and more.

    You can get a more detailed (close-up) look at your pins with the new iOS app as well, but only on iPad.

    You can grab the new Pinterest app from iTunes today.

  • Pinterest’s Discovery-Focused Desktop Redesign Rolls Out to Everyone

    Back in January, Pinterest began to test a brand new design that featured bigger, more informative pins and better navigation. Today, they are rolling out the new design to all users. If you don’t see the new design when you log on to Pinterest, just wait – you’ll get an invitation soon.

    The new look is all about discovery, as Pinterest wants users to spend more time browsing and pinning. To this end, Pinterest’s new look strongly affects individual pin pages. These “close-up views” now feature other information for people to use as a springboard for other, similar content.

    Each individual pin page now features pins from the same board, pins from the same source, and a widget for “people who pinned this also pinned,” which Pinterest notes is exactly what it sounds like. Each of these new content boxes allow users to discover new content from similar users.

    Pinterest says that they hope to bring these additions to their iOS and Android apps soon.

    Pinterest has also made some updates to how you navigate around the site:

    “We wanted to make things simpler and cleaner, without requiring you to learn anything new. What you’ll find are some subtle but useful changes, like bigger pins, so you see more of what you love. We also responded to some feedback from pinners who told us they hated losing their place while browsing. Now, when you scroll through pins and click on something that interests you, the back button lands you right back where you were no matter how far you’ve gone.”

    Improving discovery is important for users, but it’s also important for the site, who is looking to show potential marketers that Pinterest is worth their time. Earlier this month, Pinterest debuted an analytics tool for site owners. Currently free, Pinterest Web Analytics shows site owners how many people have pinned from their site, the reach of those pins across Pinterest, and the traffic referred to their sites from Pinterest.

  • Pinterest Tests New Design with Better Navigation, More Informative Pins

    Pinterest, which hasn’t seen a significant redesign in quite some time, has announced that they will be testing a fresh look in the coming weeks.

    Pinterest says that the changes stem from user feedback.

    First up, Pinterest wants to makes it easier to find content across different categories on the site. The test makes navigation “faster and more intuitive,” and puts a new button which drops down to contain tons of options – both categories and more broad sets of content like “popular pins.”

    Next up, Pinterest’s test make individual pins bigger, and more full of content.

    “Pins are bigger and we’ve added more information related to pins, so it’s easier to find things you’re interested in. For example, on each pin, you’ll see pins from the same board, other boards this pin was pinned to, and a whole slew of related pins,” says Pinterest.

    The result is less whitespace and more relevant info to spring off from when you’re done looking at the particular pin. Related pins could be a huge deal to get people to delve deeper into the content offered on the site.

    Pinterest also says they’ve made the whole site experience faster.

    Not everyone will wake up to the new Pinterest design test. They say that it will only be previewed to a “small group of people over the coming weeks.” After that (and after some more user feedback), Pinterest will roll it out to additional users.

  • Pinterest Finally Lets Users Create Secret Boards

    Yesterday, we told you that Pinterest may be working on private pinboards, an often-requested feature that Pinterest had mentioned in the past, but never enabled. Now, users can rejoice in their newfound privacy – Pinterest has just launched “Secret Boards” in time for the holidays.

    Starting today, users will have the ability to create up to three Secret Boards. If you want to create a new secret board after your three slots are filled up, you’ll have to delete one. Pinterest says that it won’t count as one of your three boards if you contribute to a friend’s Secret Board.

    “When you add a pin to a secret board, it won’t show up anywhere else on Pinterest—the only place you can see it is on your secret board. Right now, you can’t make existing boards secret because others people may have already repinned from your board,” says Pinterest. Users can’t create a secret board, make it public, and change it back to secret either.

    You can create a secret board in a couple of different ways. On the web, there is now a Secret Board box at the bottom of your profile.

    Pinterest Secret boards

    Also, there’s now an option to make a board secret when you create a new one via the “Add+” tab.

    Pinterest secret boards

    On the latest version of the Pinterest mobile app for iOS and Android, there is a “create secret board” button inside the boards tab in your profile.

    “We hope that secret boards will make Pinterest even more useful. You can use secret boards to keep track of holiday gifts, plan a special event, or work on a project you aren’t yet ready to share with the rest of the world. You can keep your secret boards to yourself or invite family and friends to pin with you,” says Pinterest.

    Users have been wanting private pinboards for a long time, and Pinterest finally delivers. Of course, this is good news for holidays shoppers using Pinterest to gift plan. But moving forward, Secret Boards are a good thing for the service. Just think of how many boards have yet to be created and how many pins have yet to be made because someone was previously embarrassed by it?

  • Is Pinterest Finally About to Enable Private Boards?

    If there’s one most-wanted feature that Pinterest users have been clamoring over for the past few months, it’s private boards. Users want the ability to pin without the prying eyes of their followers or the rest of the Pinterest community at large. Who can blame them, really? Not everything is meant for public consumption.

    Now, there’s a little bit of evidence that suggests the company may be thinking about some version of this concept. Mashable noticed a funny message from Pinterest when attempt to edit a pin. “Keep in mind: you can’t move pins to secret boards,” it says.

    Secret boards, huh? I’ve played around with Pinterest and found no such message. There is also no option to make a board private when you create it – as of now.

    It’s not like private pinboards are completely off Pinterest’s mind. Back in March, the company altered their terms of service and as a part of that announcement said that it was their intention to launch private boards.

    But many months later, still no option for private boards. It seems like every time Pinterest announces a new feature, commenters ask about them, however.

    “What about those who might have a desire to start pinning baby things before announcing to the world that they are pregnant, or pinning gifts without their family/friends seeing those gifts, pinning wedding ideas or party ideas for a surprise party?” asked one user in the Pinterest blog comments.

    “Can we get some security restrictions now too please? I want to block my kids from seeing certain stuff (boards),” said another.

    Private boards would be a welcome feature for most Pinterest users. Let’s hope that the company decides to roll them out sooner than later. Sometimes, you just want your pins to be secret.

    I’ve reached out to Pinterest for comment and will update this article accordingly.

  • Sex.com’s NFSW Pins Banned From Pinterest

    Sex.com’s NFSW Pins Banned From Pinterest

    Earlier this year, sex.com underwent a huge redesign and came out the other side looking like a Pinterest for porn. Sex.com, which was part of one of the most famous domain name legal battles ever, has seen many different looks throughout the years. But the latest incarnation is all about pinboards.

    “Sex.com lets you collect, organize and share all the free porn you find on the web! People use pinboards to bookmark and organize all their favorite porn videos & pictures. With just one click, you can pin porn from anywhere on the web and add it to your pinboards,” they say. That’s fine and dandy. But what if users want to pin content from sex.com on the actual Pinterest site? Up until recently, that’s been ok.

    Now, according to sex.com founder Iain MacNeil, Pinterest has blocked content from sex.com. That means users can’t use the site as a source for their pins.

    Here’s what MacNeil had to say, courtesy of TechCrunch:

    Without contacting us, Pinterest banned all activity from Sex.com. Pinterest users can no longer pin any content from Sex.com nor can they view the site from older pins. We’ve unjustly been marked as spam. Our attempts to contact Pinterest have been fruitless. We want to know why they banned their adult community from seeing an alternative. Is it as simple as Pinterest is afraid of losing the adult content community despite the fact they do not respect users who use their site for adult content? Or is it that Pinterest does not believe a female audience for Sex.com is inappropriate?

    A quick search of “sex.com” on Pinterest only shows one pin originating from the site. And if you click on the pin, here’s the message you see:

    In the Pin Etiquette, Pinterest does say that “we do not allow nudity, hateful content, or content that encourages people to hurt themselves.” Their Acceptable Use policy makes no mention of nudity or sex, however.

    And if you search for something like “sex” or “nude” on the site, you’ll be greeted with this message:

    Reminder: Pinterest does not allow nudity. Pinning or repinning photographs displaying breasts, buttocks or genitalia may result in the termination of your Pinterest account

    Even if Pin Etiquette says Pinterest doesn’t allow nudity, Pinterest allows nudity (NSFW).

    So, what’s the real story over at Pinterest? No nudity, some nudity, the right kind of nudity? I’ve reached out to Pinterest and will update this article when I receive a response.

  • Sex.com Now Fashions Itself As Pinboard For Porn

    Has anyone visited sex.com recently? Unless you’re an 11-year-old first day on the internet kid or a retired guy with their first cable connection, probably not. If you’re looking to find porn, going to sex.com or porn.com is just one step below going to Google and searching “sex” or “porn.” It’s 2012 – let’s just say there are better ways.

    Sex.com, which was the focus of one of the most famous domain name legal battles in the dotcom era, has apparently shifted gears. As of now, the site is now branded as your “virtual pinboard for porn.” Yes, the popularity of Pinterest and the rise of “pinning” as the “it” term of 2012 has led (surely) one of the most visited sites on the planet to adopt a pinboard format.

    Here’s what sex.com says about their new site:

    Sex.com lets you collect, organize and share all the free porn you find on the web! People use pinboards to bookmark and organize all their favorite porn videos & pictures. With just one click, you can pin porn from anywhere on the web and add it to your pinboards.

    Best of all, you can also browse pinboards created by other people! Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new content, sites and pornstars from people who share your interests.

    They go on to say that their goal is to connect porn lovers through shared tastes and interests. Per that goal, sex.com allows users to browse the most popular pins, the latest pins, as well as specific categories – just like Pinterest. However, categories like Art, Fitness, Photography, and Wedding have been replaced with Amateur, Fetish, Asian, and Threesome.

    But seriously, sex.com now looks exactly like Pinterest. See for yourself:

    Just like Pinterest, sex.com’s pinboards are marketed on discovery, sharing, and saving. With the boards, you won’t lose your favorite pics or clips, and you can find stuff that other with similar tastes recommend.

    Of course, sex.com isn’t the first property to attempt to capitalize on the Pinterest craze. Snatchly says that it’s your online pornboard and well, looks a lot like Pinterest with boobs. There’s also the (duh-ly) named Pornterest which has even fashioned its logo to look exactly like the half-cursive Pinterest logo.

    Like Pinterest, sex.com’s pinboard works on the same pin button principle. You install it as a browser extension and when you stumble upon the porn you want to share, just click “pin it” and you’ll be prompted to add a category, description, and choose a pin photo.

    Just make sure you are careful of which pin board you’re pinning your porn.

    [Via TechCrunch]

  • How to Make the Most of Your Pinterest Pins Part 2

    A couple of days ago we shared with you an Infographic on how to get the most engagement from your Pinterest Pins. Tips included the best times to pin, what types of things to pin, and what to write in the description.

    This Infographic from DanZarrella expands on this and adds some new insights.

    The description length statistics are pretty interesting. A description of a little less than 200 characters tends to get the most re-pins on average, although there is a huge spike at around 300 characters with a drop off to almost none directly before and after. This is probably just a strange anomaly for this data set, so keep your pins at around 200 characters.

    If you are aming for re-pins, the top words to use in the description are about food. Obviously, every picture or article you pin will not be about food, so in cases where it is not, try to stay topical. As the previous inforgaphic points out, relevant topics always do better.

    Typically larger photos get the most repins, specifically taller images. This probably has to do with the nature of how Pinterest pins appear on the page. Taller items take up more space on the page even though most images are shrunk to fit. Images like infographics take up a lot of page room and therefore draw more attention.

  • MapQuest Makes Pinning Maps on Pinterest Easier

    MapQuest has just made it easier to pin maps onto Pinterest. The social media site has been picking up tremendous steam over the past few months, and this new addition is sure to add a lot more pins.

    People has started using MapQuest to pin the places they have visited, where they are going, and how they are getting there. Road trips can now be given more detail and more insight as people share what they’ve done scrapbook style.

    The method is easy. Just create the map you want on MapQuest. You can choose a single destination, or directions, show the locality in great detail, or relative to the entire country. Once you have what you want, press the Pinterest button in the top right corner of the MapQuest page, and boom, a map image and link is created for you to upload on your pin board.

    This new technology is great for documenting vacations and business trips, letting people know you’re traveling in style.

  • Pinterest Users Combat Thinspo With Anti-Thinspo Pins

    To be completely honest and upfront about my feeling on “thinspo” (Thin+ inspirational), I actually have mixed feelings. On one hand, I feel like social media users should be able to share pictures, motivational images, etc. that promotes a lifestyle choice that they have made – to stay thin. Even if some people disagree with the message or think it’s harmful to the minds of impressionable people, I’m not sure that it’s their job to police it. Plus, you don’t see a huge controversy over content that promotes over-eating or over-consumption of alcohol, two activities that also could be deemed unhealthy.

    On the other hand, however, I understand how images of skinny girls and motivational phrases like “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” can be dangerous if you put them in the “thinspo” context. Eating disorders are a serious problem, and you can’t really argue that content like this can exacerbate the situation.

    Having said all of that, it’s been interesting to watch the commentary roll in from users of Tumblr and Pinterest, two social sites that banned this type of content outright. Tumblr did it first, and Pinterest soon followed suit. Pinterest‘s terms of service were amended to prohibit “pins that explicitly encourage self-harm of self-abuse,” and direct mention was made of the “thinspo” content.

    Well, that ban didn’t really work. Pinterest told me that “Pinterest relies on its community to help identify and flag offensive content,” and “once offensive content has been reported, Pinterest reviews it on a case-by-case basis and immediately removes any pin that violates the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy or Pin Etiquette.”

    So basically, it’s up to the users to flag content that violates the rules and Pinterest scraps it as they see fit. Fair enough – that’s the policy of many social networking sites. But soon after Pinterest announced the ban, a search for the “thinspo” tag revealed hundreds of pins. And today, a few weeks later, that search still returns images of impossibly thin girls and motivational edicts from those that have “completed the journey,” complete with before and after pics. Once again, my mixed mind about this rears its head. From someone who’s done the whole weight loss thing, congratulations – but oftentimes the message isn’t simply about healthy weight loss.

    Anyway, it appears that some Pinterest users are combating the thinspo content by hijacking the tag. A search for thinspo now nets plenty of anti-thinspo content as well. We’re talking pictures of more full-figured women, images with anti-thinspo messages, and more. One particular image is everywhere –

    anti thinspo thinspo pins

    If you can’t read that, it says, “There’s a 0.02% chance she’ll be a teacher. There’s an 81% chance she’ll have dieted by age 10 because she’s afraid of being fat.”

    Other anti-thinspo content?

    and…

    A recent study looked at how Facebook was affect body image. They determined that Facebook might be fueling the fire when it comes to eating disorders. Just over half of those surveyed said that seeing photos of their friends and comparing them to their own photos made them conscious about their body and weight.

    There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be thin and healthy. There’s also nothing wrong with not being a size 0. Eating disorders are bad. These are all things that most people can agree on. For Pinterest users, there’s a debate happening about whether “thinspiration” is actually inspirational, or dangerous.

    What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

    [h/t Business Insider]

    [Lead Image Courtesy]