Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Pinterest-How Does It Really Work?

I have been trying to figure out Pinterest. I know how it works. Pinners basically create bulletin boards of beautiful images over a wide variety of subjects. Visual to-do lists. I love it for that. 
But...
when "Let's Add Sprinkles" got its first pin, I was thrilled because the image was darling and I thought it was worthy of being pinned. Nothing happened. The same thing happened over and over again. In fact at various times I tried to go searching for pins from my blog. I couldn't even find them through the search engine. I also tried having two browsers open when pinning something to see if I could find my pin on the main page and even on the subject matter pages. Nothing. I could never find one of my pins floating around. 
I know they float around because I see linkbacks to my blog from Pinterest. I have followed the link back and have seen my pins. 
I finally decided that that there has to be some sort of matrix or something to it. For instance, let's say that I am a big name blog or a big name site like Houzz or BHG.com that gets pinned all the time. I wonder if those pins don't get some sort of preferential treatment in a techie sort of way because of the site it is linked back to and the frequency from which stuff is pinned. I am just a little fish in blog world with not many pins, so my site isn't being featured on the Pinterest main page. My pins only float around to the people that follow the people that pinned it. Does this make sense?
I have tried to even google this question to see how or why something is featured on the main site pages. 
I have found no answers. 
I think there has to be something to it because if I search shabby and white for example, I see the same big name pins and pinners over and over and over. These same pins can be there for days on end. There may be some new ones but it is basically the same pins. I know that there have to be a million other shabby and white pictures out there. To see other shabby and white stuff, I have to change my search query. My theory (and it is just a theory) is that there are big name pinners, pins and link backs that are somehow mathematically getting chosen based on the amount of traffic they get on Pinterest. 
I noticed this with one of my pins. One picture of mine was pinned by a big blog. Thank you, Holly@Down to Earth Style. It got a lot of repins because that blogger has a lot of followers. The same picture pinned by another reader got no repins. I am assuming that reader doesn't have as many followers so not as many people saw the pin. Again, I tried a specific, detailed search query for my pin. I couldn't find it anywhere. There were not even that many images to choose from but most were from big name sites. 
Over and over out in blog world I read about Pinterest and the effect on a blog. One post I saw last week talked about how to take pictures for repinning. She noted how she went from 500 repins to 90,000 repins just by changing the picture. (I wish I could remember where I read this and I would give you credit but I can't remember. But if you have 90,000 repins you probably don't need credit from a little fish like me. ;) Let me know who you are if by some miracle you find this post.)
Anyway. I would be thrilled if one of my pictures got 500 repins. But it made me wonder about the images that get 500 pins in the first place. It brought me back to my theory. I think that has to be some sort of mathematical, statistical, matrix that Pinterest has going. The big ones get bigger and the little fish in the sea get a little more traffic but not that much. 
I think that is why some of the bloggers I follow have pinned the same picture several times under different categories so that they can increase their traffic and thus their chances of getting pinned. 
Please weigh in for me. I am still trying to determine the benefits of Pinterest as it is just one more thing to do. Sometimes there is so much to do just to publish a blog post worrying about whether pictures are pin worthy is one more thing. 
Do you have a theory? Are you pinned much? Are you confused by all the social media pressure on your blog? Help?
I was just wondering....
Katie 

  Did an experiment trying to find this image. I didn't see it.

7 comments :

  1. Do you know how to check what has been pinned? Type in http://yourblogaddress/pinterest.com and you will see what pins you have.It is also good to pin your own pins too :-)
    xx
    Anne

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    1. I do. I haven't pin to many of my own. I have started to because I think it helps the numbers. Thanks.

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  2. I don't understand it either. I just enjoy posting other's pins that I like. I'm having a giveaway on my blog if you would like to enter. :)

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  3. Thanks, Holly. You are so sweet. Your door pin was how I found you!!

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  4. I just found your blog by accident via a google search for outdoor pillows - lucky for me! And then I saw your recent post about Pinterest, which really hit home because I just started my blog, and have been trying to use it to build awareness. I've been 'pinning' on my personal Pinterest account for a long time, and seemed to have a decent amount of repins and people who started following me. But when I started another account for my blog…Nothing! Like you, I would pin something and try to find it, to no avail. I finally did find a couple of my photos, but it was weeks later (without any repins). I'd guess you are correct that there is some kind of algorithm for how things work. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to check out some of your other posts!

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    1. i keep it up because I think at some point I might get lucky but it is frustrating. I hope it helps your blog. :)

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