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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.

3 Kudos
16 Replies
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@healthyambitionsteam   Gosh I couldn't agree more Cathy! I was starting to create a Story Pin about a week ago & quickly gave up on it. Frankly I couldn't create it the way I wanted to & that was disappointing.

Here's hoping "the higher ups" (as you put it) will rethink some of the features they've built into or NOT built into the whole story pin creation experience.

@PinterestGabby @PinterestJanice 

1 Kudo
oliviawylespins
Just visiting

My users are also reporting a terrible user experience from story pins because they can't click on it. Then they get mad at me because they can't find the link for my recipe! Please please please add this as a feature.

3 Kudos
carlyonpurpose
Just visiting

PLEASE STOP CREATING STORY PINS! They are a brutal user experience, and not remotely what people are coming to Pinterest for. If we don't create them, maybe they will GO AWAY or pinterest will at least give us the option to link. 

1 Kudo
themelissavogt
New member

I HATE story pins. I feel like that's all that's pushed in front of me anymore and I skip through them because I know they don't have a link for me to go to for more details. It's really frustrating trying to figure out how to get to the correlating blog post etc.. for more info if you need it.

0 Kudos
alfrattino
Just visiting

Pinterest created them on purpose without links to prevent users from leaving the platform.
It's one of the many ways it has introduced over the past year to limit free traffic.

0 Kudos
PinterestGabby
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We take careful note of the feedback shared in the PBC about Story Pins and share internally with our teams for review. We appreciate it! 

3 Kudos
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@PinterestGabby   Here's praying that the team will add a linking feature Gabby!

1 Kudo
mollysuberthorpe
Just visiting

Yes, I totally agree, @healthyambitionsteam!

One (sort of) work around I’m doing is adding a branded short URL to the bottom of every single slide, and then the final slide is a big version of the short URL. I also put the short URL in the description so people can copy-paste it. This might be something to try, @foodiehomechef ?

Here are a couple examples:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/227291112435574273/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/227291112435536548/

Obviously this is still not the same as a live link! I hope Pinterest hears our feedback and adds that function as they continue to refine this new feature! @PinterestGabby  😀

I hear those on this forum saying they don’t want to use stories for this reason. However, I do not want to give up on story pins because my views and engagement have been absolutely INSANE compared to my static pins. I’m averaging 1.5k impressions on each story, and getting triple the repins of my static pins. 

I’m one of those people whose engagement and views have recently plummeted, and am still trying to figure it out. Of course there is no way for me to track how many people open a browser window and type in my short link (not *that* many, I assume, but if it’s even a few, that’s great!), but I’ll take what I can get when it comes to getting my brand and blog posts in front of more eyes!

1 Kudo
theburntsunsetnovel
Loves to help

Content creation is a two way street. It's a mistake for the platform not to allow users to find out more at the creator's site. If Pinterest is determined on completely losing what made it special (boards, board cover photos, profile banners with sample pins, pinning other people's content) and copying other platforms features (stories, likes, video, etc., is live video next?), the least it could do is add the same level of functionality as the sites it's trying to copy.  

4 Kudos