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Interesting support answer to repinning

carachace
Just visiting

Hi there community!

I have been seeing some weird metrics on my own Pinterest business account for my Pins. I'll get a huge impression spike for a day or two, and then nothing for days (like single digit), then huge spikes, then nothing.

I reached out to support to see if I've been flagged and why that is happening. They assured me I'm on the safelist, and suggested I no longer repin anything.

Here is a copy of the clarification I asked for and how they responded:

If I have a fresh pin of my own original content that I pin to the most relevant board, and then I put that pin on a different board days later (which both Pinterest and Tailwind have said is in line with best practices) is that considered a repin even though it's a new pin on a new board? ---- when you pin your original content from one board to another board and if the destination URL is same it is considered as a repin.

And if a repin is also curated content from another profile, are you saying now that I should NOT curate content from anyone else? ----- Creating pins from other profile is considered a repin. So, I request you to please publish your own original new content. Creating a pin directly from your website is a new pin.

Not repinning others' curated content is not how the normal Pinterest user actually uses Pinterest. That's like saying tweets shouldn't be retweeted and inspirational quotes on Instagram shouldn't be shared.

If I am being told to NOT repin others' content that I find valuable for my audience, then it makes @tailwind communities not useable. If I'm no longer allow to repin my own fresh content in line with best practices that we've been given by both Pinterest and Tailwind (SmartGuide), then.... (insert awkward face here).

I have also been told by Pinterest that one of my clients was flagged because they were repinning ideas and inspiration for internal branding and products to secret boards on their profile - and because that threw off their repin to fresh pin ratio (even though it was to secret boards), they were marked as spam.

Seems to me like in an effort to not have "marketers ruin everything", they have squeezed out any ability to use Pinterest like a real person.

More info:

The Pins that have gotten the most impressions in the last week for me are repins of my own content, not fresh pins.

When I was likely flagged for spam in the fall, I was paying for Promoted Pins. My ads rep couldn't figure out why they weren't working for me. 

@PinterestGabby - I would love some insight as to what is the best way for me to move forward, and what the guidelines actually are, so I can continue using Pinterest.

Thanks so much for your support here,

Cara

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9 Replies
hudsonfarmhouse
Posts regularly

I think they are saying to your responses here is to pin as a "regular" user would pin. Regular users aren't going to pin the same thing more than once. But they will pin other people's pins to their own boards. Just my take on it...

0 Kudos
carachace
Just visiting

Hey Corey, thanks for your response. That's not what they stated actually - Creating pins from other profile is considered a repin. So, I request you to please publish your own original new content.

I get what they're saying about 1 pin 1 time to 1 board, but they specifically said to not save others' content. Again, I also have a help desk string where they said my client pinning others' content to their own secret boards were counted against their repin to fresh pin ratio and affected their reach.

I do actually pin the same Pin multiple times if they pertain to multiple projects or ideas and it's really great content, so :shrug:

We'll see how this shakes out! Thanks again.

0 Kudos
thehalcyonhive
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Thank you so much for your insight, Cara!  This is quite discouraging as a fellow Pinterest marketer.  I also got a similar response from Pinterest support about a client that wasn't getting any reach last Nov/Dec.  They stated that there were too many repins on the account and to create more fresh pins.  Since I took on the account last October, I was ONLY creating original, fresh pins for their account...BUT I was scheduling the pins to a handful of boards via Tailwind interval scheduler.  I love Tailwind as a productivity tool to batch schedule out pins, but this makes me wonder if it's no longer going to be worth the investment.  😢 

The secret board thing you mentioned has me concerned too because I use a lot of secret boards for my own personal use (unrelated to my business) as well as my clients.  How do you find the pin/repin ratio?  I'm wondering if it's safer to have a separate personal Pinterest account now for that kind of stuff? 

3 Kudos
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@carachace   Hi Cara & thanks for making such a detailed post regarding your issue, it makes it so much easier to understand when people go into a lot of detail.

I have found the same issue & have a lot of the same questions as you do. I have been here at PBC since it's inception, read a few other posts like this one of yours on the same subject & never have a seen real explanation as what to & what not to do.

I am also on Tailwind & since Pinterest & Tailwind are basically "partners" of a sort... I find it hard to believe that you shouldn't pin other people's pins!

I wish someone at Pinterest would write a detailed post regarding this issue, so we can all understand what to do & what not to do!

@PinterestGabby @Anonymous @PinterestJanice @PinterestBrad  @pinterest ANYBODY (lol)

3 Kudos
carachace
Just visiting

@thehalcyonhive There's no way to actually see that ratio unless you're manually tracking them yourself (that I know of) - the support person cited those numbers to me.

1 Kudo
carachace
Just visiting

@foodiehomechef it's hard to try and weed through sometimes. I think the issue I have is you'll have a great video like the one @tailwind did with Pinterest here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFqlec4vMSo&t=1347s - where they clearly say what is and isn't ok. But the actual experience of data, stats, and results, combined with the answers from support, aren't congruent at all. I'd love to have an update straight from Pinterest as to what is happening.

Lucy Matthews, Partnership Manager at Pinterest, is joining us again to talk about some of the most-commonly-asked questions we get about what works on Pinterest today. Including: What's the best way to get more traffic on Pinterest now? How can I make MY Pins more engaging and successful today? ...
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foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@carachaceYup, couldn't agree more Cara... straight from Pinterest would be the best!

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jeswes
Posts regularly

I just got this same response to a ticket I submitted.
It didn’t really answer my concern, but it did get me thinking.

I had been treating my account like a personal account, which includes re-pinning because it’s what I do for fun on my downtime. It had been working for me for my personal inspiration and it passively got me views and followers which was nice. My account went from 1.7 million this time last year to 13m+ as of yesterday.

At first this new analytics change made my account appear to be still growing, I hit 10+ million in impressions and monthly viewers. Yesterday, I hit 13.6 million impressions, my all-time highest! And then overnight, it went down to 3.6 million. I’ve dipped down a million or two before, and I wasn’t concerned then. But a whopping 10 million in 12 hours seemed *really* odd! 

I think not just the “way we look at analytics” changed, but the actual algorithm itself changed, and it started rolling into accounts over time, and finally a switch was flipped and BOOM! My account finally got affected. And it’s not just the dip in the actual graph (I know to click “include saved pins”) But the big numbers shining in my face when I log in. That was enough for me to submit a ticket to see if I was marked as spam or something else I needed to address. Well, he didn’t actually answer the question, I got the response you got. So I’ve gotta figure this out myself!

I think corp saw that there wasn’t enough fresh content and wanted to reward those who have the new content with a new algorithm. You know how people figure out how to beat the algorithm, so companies (like Google) constantly need to change the way their system works so people don’t take advantage. I can’t say for sure that’s what happened, it’s only my guess. I think corporations don’t straight up answer questions because they can’t tell us how to get ahead of the curve because then everyone will get ahead and then no one is ahead. And most importantly… the help desk people aren’t the engineers. They have no idea how it works.

I can see why business accounts owners may want to consider a separate personal account if re-pinning will be an issue that penalizes their accounts. That was exactly the strategy that worked for me and now it’s looks like the opposite. I like being inspired so I’m going to do what I’ve been doing for the past 10 years. Getting all the views was fun while it lasted. Pinning and blogging doesn’t earn me any income so it’s not a loss. I just have to laugh at the situation and makes memes.
pinstats21121.jpg

I saw your account @carachace, I can see why this is a huge concern for you! This is your business that's on the line! When I hit 10 million, I started to write a blog post on how I use Pinterest and how I hit 10 m+. Uhhh nevermind … that post is scrapped.

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karen_whitworth
Posts regularly

@hudsonfarmhouse wrote:

I have also been told by Pinterest that one of my clients was flagged because they were repinning ideas and inspiration for internal branding and products to secret boards on their profile - and because that threw off their repin to fresh pin ratio (even though it was to secret boards), they were marked as spam.


What?!
This is terrible! I had been using secret boards to do everything from planning birthday parties and home renovation projects, to business strategy, materials sourcing, and design inspiration.

0_0 

Does this mean I have to move all this activity to another platform to prevent it from tanking my new pin/repin ratio? I would think Pinterest would want us to use the platform as much as possible to increase the number of ads it can serve us.

@PinterestGabby is Pinterest working on omitting secret boards from being included in the new pin vs repin ratio metric for a future update?

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