They’re on Twitter. They’re on Facebook. They’re on Google+… They’re even on Pinterest too! Wherever people are online, scammers will always be there to try to lure people to their spammy sites. They will steal your pins or your boards and use them as their own. They hurt business’ reputations!
Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in pinning that we don’t notice the inconsistencies of who’s pinning and what they’re pinning. Adam Levine has found a strategical way to discover just that. He’s been using Pinterest to market his product, Wrap It Up Gift Bag, a product he invented, and in the process found out about these spammers (ran by bots).
“It’s a viral problem,” he says, after realizing just how fast these bots can clog the Pinterest news feed. He’s even written a two-part comprehensive article on his self-investigation of these spammers here Pinterest Recipes, What are these Pinterest Scammers Cooking Up? and Pinterest Scammers are Cooking Up Some Kind of Recipe on Pinterest!
There are tens of thousands of pins getting shared every day, how can we tell which pins are coming from a real account or a fake account? How do we identify spam on Pinterest and what can we do about it?
We definitely need to do something about spam on Pinterest before it hurts more pinners and businesses online. Adam Levine shares with us more of his insights on this plus how he uses Pinterest to market his business successfully.
In this episode…
Announcements
On the personal side of things, we’re moving! My husband got a job offer he just couldn’t refuse and we have to move our entire family in less than 30 days. We’re saying goodbye to Fort Worth, Texas and hello to Charleston, South Carolina. I’m going to be out of the country for an entire week to speak at Social Media day Belgium at the end of May. And, I’m about to launch a brand new video course. Life is never boring around here!
I’ll do my best to keep up the publishing schedule for both the blog and podcast as I make this transition with my family. Would you be willing to help? I’m looking for guest posts about Pinterest. If you’re interested let me know, send me a message cynthia(at)ohsopinteresting.com.
Who is Adam Levine?
Get to know who our awesome guest in this episode. Learn about his invention and how he created a company around it. He’s been using Pinterest even before he started using it for marketing his business. He also has a blog that includes content other than organization and gift wrapping and has also started the video series Bring the Neat done on Google+ Hangout with a few guests discussing all about organization during the Holiday and Spring season.
How to identify and handle spammers on Pinterest
Unfortunately, spammers on Pinterest seem to be increasing in numbers. How do we spot one and prevent spreading their bad pins? Invest some time and patience to check on people’s Pinterest profiles and description and check their activities. For example, do the numbers make sense? Are the numbers realistic enough with regards to the number of followers they have relative to the number of boards they have? If it looks suspicious, maybe it’s a fake. As they say, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.
What can we do about these spammy Pinterest accounts?
Taking the time to refine your following can help you identify spammers. Read their profile descriptions, check their activities, and so on. You may want to block them or even report them to Pinterest so they can improve their system in spotting these bot activities on Pinterest.
How to use Pinterest as a marketing tool for your business
Adam gives us some useful tips to help you market your business more effectively on Pinterest. Learn why it’s important to use #hashtags and to stick to Pinterest descriptions on meta tags. Images are most important but, make sure that you know how to control the information that comes with it when it gets shared on Pinterest (or other social media sites for that matter).
Links Mentioned
Wrap iT on Pinterest
Bring the Neat Spring YouTube
Adam Levine on Pinterest
