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When a follower ask for a Link on a Story Pin

healthyambitionsteam
Loves to help

@PinterestGabby  just thought I'd share an interesting interaction with a follower. They commented on this pin https://www.pinterest.com/pin/811210951620938651/ and asked if I had a link I could share because the story pin was "tough for me to follow along"

Since the story pins are basically abbreviated instructions from a full blog post, I totally get this! 

I know Pinterest as a platform wants to provide their audience the best user experience, so this is just one example of a story pin NOT providing the user a click-through experience they desire, and quite frankly, are used to having on the Pinterest Platform platform.

Both IG Stories and Google Web Stories include the ability to include a link for more detail. 

Just something for the Higher-Ups at Pinterest to consider.

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16 Replies
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

Hey there @mollysuberthorpe the only problem with your suggestion is to read what Gabby wrote about adding links to story pins, you may get penalized & not get distributed: "Focus on building an audience on Pinterest. Adding links in text, or directly importing watermarked videos from other platforms might hinder distribution."

It's all in this thread: https://community.pinterest.biz/t5/product-faq/product-release-roundup-for-creators-3-17/tac-p/15064...

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mollysuberthorpe
Just visiting

@foodiehomechef — Ah! I somehow totally missed that post, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

This leaves me speechless, @PinterestGabby.

If adding the text of a shortlink to my story slides or description could get me penalized, then I take back all the positive things I said about them on here yesterday. I was giving this new feature the benefit of the doubt, hoping this was just in a growing pains phase. Stories have the capacity (if links are added) to evolve into something extremely beneficial to us full-time content creators, but I can see now that it’s specifically designed not to benefit the creators. It’s designed to take our well-crafted content and graphic design and distribute it to Pinterest users without any benefit to us.

I’m very saddened to understand this. 

 

P.S. @healthyambitionsteam — I’m going to be making that keto monkey bread! I’ve been keto for three years and loving it. Always searching for new baking recipes and happy to now be following you for more!

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foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@mollysuberthorpe  Sure thing... it was definitely eye-opening huh? I agree with you... it's very sad the way we creators are being treated & frankly I'm shocked. I was told that Google now has stories & they're supposed to help with SEO. AND Google lets you link out to your site! I also understand that Instagram has some sort of story thing goin' on & they also allow you to link out. So why Pinterest is being cruel to their creators is beyond my comprehension.

I'm planning to start learning Google stories toward the end of April & see how it goes.

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healthyambitionsteam
Loves to help

@mollysuberthorpe  It's the most popular recipe on my website! Even my non-keto family loves it!

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healthyambitionsteam
Loves to help

@foodiehomechef  well, I wasn't on board with story pins as it was, but being penalized for typing a link in the images seals the deal for me. I WON'T be participating in story pins. They do nothing for and frustrate my audience because they can't link to the actual recipe.

I'll revisit if Pinterest decides to support content creators by allowing linkable story pins.

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foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@healthyambitionsteam   I'm with you 1000% Cathy!

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pinperfectstudios
Just visiting

Oh man, I totally get why Pinterest is doing it and wanting to keep people on the platform vs leaving it but stories without links are useless for Pinterest. Pinterest IS different than the other social platforms and the audience is groomed to be able to click on the link to get to the original author. I understand the competition of social media but honestly when one channel tries to copy another we get mediocre social platforms. I mean look at what happened to Instagram.. it now has a million things on it (shop, reels, igtv, etc) and it's not as fun as it used to be. If the companies focused on their strengths vs compare themselves to the other channels, we'd have amazing social platforms. 

Pinterest is the best out of the others and I hope they see how they are different and better and not try to change things drastically. 

1 Kudo