like before you pin.

Hello again--and happy Tuesday! Some people may be tired of my Pinterest protection campaign, but it isn't ending any day soon. I view Pinterest as the ultimate inspiration central--and I don't want it to go anywhere. Last September, I shared why it was absolutely vital to clean up our Pinterest boards. In the months since that post, I have been constantly seeking a way to better manage my boards on a daily basis. I decided the "like" feature of Pinterest was my best option to capture things I liked {literally}. Many people forget about the power of the "like", so read on to see how it could help you get the most out of Pinterest!


There was a great deal of discussion about the "like" feature in one of the sessions I attended at Blog Better Boston this weekend, led Isra of The Frugalette. She and I both agreed that liking is the only thing we do when using Pinterest on our phones. It's an easy way to bookmark the things which catch your eye on the go--without committing to pinning. When pinning on the go, you risk your pin leading to a random tumblr or another blog, which wasn't the actual source of the image.

As it stands today, I have a whopping 453 likes. From time to time, I take a few minutes to pare them down, but I don't sweat that number. When I have the time to ensure these likes have proper sourcing behind them, I will actually repin them. If the source isn't correct, I do everything I can to find its origin. If I can't find it using this bookmarklet, I unlike it immediately. Though it doesn't give that instant satisfaction, it does eliminate spreading around a pin which isn't sourced correctly. It is a simple way to keep Pinterest "honest", which is everyone's best interest. 

Do you use the "like" feature on Pinterest? If so, how? I am so curious to see what you're doing! xoxo {av}

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49 comments:

  1. for some reason, i don't like "liking". i'm a real weirdo.

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  2. I only have liked four pins... ever. #whoops

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  3. I do "like," and I have taken the time to go through boards--ESPECIALLY my "food" and "kids ideas" boards--to edit them down. There's an epidemic of plagiarized recipes going through blogs, Pinterest, and Facebook right now, so to have them not be properly sourced drives me crazy!

    (I never knew how to find the actual likes before though, so thank you!)

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  4. Yeah I like things that I don't know about (like you said in this post) or that I see a bunch of in my feed and don't want to keep repinning and clogging up everyone's feed with the same things!

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  5. I do this all the time! I'm so glad I'm not alone using this system.

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  6. my Likes and Pins need a refresh/clean out...but I don't have time for that! lol ;)

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  7. I totally use like for things I don't want to pin. Or things I want to pin later. Or things I don't want my followers to see I like.


    <3
    carelessly graceful

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    1. I know your message was years ago, and you may know this by now anyway, but just in case, people can see your likes.
      I made a private board I called "the pin pile" where I throw the pins I'm not sure I want others to see

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    2. That's a very good idea Heather :)

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    3. That's a very good idea Heather :)

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    4. I'm a new user, and I didn't know about Likes for a long time. In the meantime I created a private Inbox board for pins that I wasn't ready to commit to one of my other boards yet.

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  8. I usually only hit like when I want to revisit something on a big computer then unlike when I do, it's more of a reminder, I don't see it's use otherwise.

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  9. I use this system all the time. Thank you for sharing the bookmarklet - use that all the time as well!

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  10. I do the exact same thing! Glad to know I'm not the only one!

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  11. i get disappointed when people "like" my pins but don't repin! haha i'm a loser.

    xo
    lauren
    www.annacroswell.com

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  12. i feel like im being sneaky when i "like" certain pins and then not everyone else can see which outfit i wanna buy or something. hehehehe ;)

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  13. We are Pinterest purist soul mates! I have had this post in my head for a while now, and I'm so happy you went ahead and put it out there! I am a serial-Liker. I like before I re-pin ALWAYS, if I can't find the original source, I don't re-pin, PERIOD. Keep Pinterest Pure!
    xx
    Here&Now

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  14. I created a "to be filed" board so that I could check those pins before putting them on an "official" board after your previous post. But, I like this system so much better. Thanks for sharing!

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  15. I use it the same way you do, now that I'm being careful about only pinning from original sources! I also LIKE pins that don't fit my boards, even if they are sourced properly, because I want to keep my boards on mission. (wow, it sounds like I take it all very seriously! haha)

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  16. I enjoy this method as well. I constantly clean out my boards on almost a daily basis, go through a board, learn/do the stuff I have on it and delete. But I also do enjoy making use of liking first, depending on what it is, and then going through my likes and deciding if I want to repin.

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  17. i do this! i always like things and then wait a few days. if i still like it, then i pin it. if not, i unlike it. i've been cleaning up my pinterest boards and getting rid of things that no longer inspire me. i try to find the original source for them if i can, but some are so pretty that i have to leave them.

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  18. I re-pin with abandon but this has really made me re-think it all.
    Thank you!

    Rebecca @desert girls vintage

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  19. I "like" before I pin too. I've been doing it for a while. "Liking" a pin and coming back later to pin acts as a kind of filter. That way, only things I'm really interested in go on my boards.

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  20. I use like when I appreciate the content or the work that went into producing the pin, but otherwise have no use for saving the info or visiting the website.

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  21. This is exactly how I use 'like' on Pinterest. I hate pinning things that go nowhere so I like on my phone when I have a couple of minutes then check the sources online before I repin things. I will often click through and pin myself rather than repin from a 'search' or 'newsletter' URL too.

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  22. I use the likes just like you do, but I'm not always really good at checking for sources. Your "whopping" number of likes is pretty small though. ;) What I really need to do is go through boards and weed duplicates that got there before Pinterest caught them for me.

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  23. This is me!! So thankful you put this up!! Very helpful!

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  24. This is a great post! I'm a food blogger who works really hard to generate good content on my own blog (which I want pinned and attributed properly, and not stolen) ... and to pin authentic things to Pinterest - so I really appreciate this system! But honestly, I didn't really understand it until now! "Liking" your explanation a lot! :D ~Shelley

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  25. I use it to save music so I can later go back and listen and categorize. Also I use it if I am too tired to figure out which board feels right or if I want to have a fast track to the original pinner.

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  26. I dont use the like button so much, I just go to the source and pin it from there.

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  27. Thanks for posting this, I agree 100%. I liked the 'on-the-go' tip of 'liking' so that I can avoid spam and wrong sources while still making sure I 'capture' my daily inspiration.

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  28. I'm afraid I must like the "like" pin. I currently have over 10,000 to go through. That's a little scary. I've pinned things that I so wanted to try only to discover the link goes somewhere else. I've also started putting the word "No link" and removing the link if it's something I can do without the link.

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  29. I use "Like" to keep "track of boards" of things I have an interest in but don't want to follow. (eg. Christmas ideas, Antique beaded purses, miniatures etc.) I simply choose a pin that is representative of the board.

    I use 2 secret boards. "Temp" and "Working". I use them both when I'm pinning quickly or if I'm pinning a quantity of bookmarks.

    When I'm working quickly, anything I have a "board" for is pinned to "Temp". Once I have a quantity of pins, I can check for duplicates, check the links, and I can adjust the descriptions (if needed). Then I move the pins in groups to the correct board.

    I use my "Working" board for pins which catch my interest but for which I have no board. In my leisure time I go through the pins and decide if I want to create a board and follow other boards, discard it or create a new "Like" pin.

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  30. Thank you so much for this article. It never occurred to me that i have to like before pinning. reading your articles is really helpful for us beginners

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  31. This is interesting, however since I rarely use my phone for pinterest (omg) I usually always go to the source to get a better description of what I pin. This article did miss out on the real power of "liking", it strongly affects what is shown in your feed.

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  32. I have never “liked” a post on Pinterest, unless I accidentally clicked the wrong button. I have 61 boards, 16.4k pins (increasing by an average of 150-200 a day), 391 followers (increasing by about 10 a day) – and a grand total of 19 likes.

    And I also pin to six very active (and actively pinned) group boards on makeup, runway hair, dance, doors (yeah, lol), photography, European travel and Italy.

    Generally I’m pretty quick to decide whether to pin something, i.e., I don’t weigh the pros and cons ad infinitum.

    That’s not to say that I haven’t spent an hour trying to find out whether a photo was *really* shot by Helmut Newton, who is in a Yousuf Karsh portrait, or the back story behind an Alfred Eisenstaedt or Henri Cartier-Bresson photo.

    It just seems redundant to “like” and “pin” a post. If I pin it, obviously I like it. And if I don’t like it well enough to pin it… what’s the point?

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  33. I think it's ironic given your mission to clean up Pinterest and keep things correctly sourced that I found this article while scrolling thru Pinterest's "DIY" main category. I really HATE it when things do not have sources sited on Facebook and YouTube, but on Pinterest I've always clicked on the poster or now on the "view" link - this is because it's mostly knitting or craft instructions. I don't pin it if it's a dead end. I do like the idea of using "like" as a holding pen for later

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  34. Thanks for this post! It was actually neat to see how differently people use the 'Like' feature.

    I seem to only 'like' things on Pinterest because I may want to use them for:
    - future social media campaigns
    - blog post, newsletter, or other writing inspiration
    - reference material

    Once I use a pin in one of these ways, I 'unlike' it as to not clutter my 'likes' page. Unfortunately, it tends to get cluttered and things I haven't seen in years are still out there. I won't even say how many likes I have now! (Spring cleaning, anyone?) :)

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  35. Where is the Like icon to click?

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  36. Years ago when I first starting using Pinterest I would pin things to look at for later. I have since realized that a lot of things I pinned were going to places like tumblr or not even to the article. So I agree - I have since learned to like things first and go back and make sure it is a legit site before I pin it. Thank you for posting this - I am going to pin it :)

    Rose | http://www.hertaintedlips.com

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  37. Wow! You really do learn something new every day. I didn't even think about the possibility of getting spammed from a pin. I do like more than pin and I'm glad now. Thanks for sharing this.

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  38. I hardly ever bother liking anything - when I'm in the zone and dozens of pins catch my eye I don't have the patience to like AND pin - there's just too much I'm interested. I will sometimes go back over to delve into a pin only to be disappointed that it is a dead end (i.e. just an image, a tumblr, or some site that throws up a warning from my spam blocker). It doesn't happen A LOT, but when it does happen it's typically some idiot Etsy store owner who pins a really nice image that a) links back to their Esty shop and is "no longer available" - as if it ever was, or b) leads to their shop and it's some crappier looking version of he professional image. Both things really tick me off - if you have to trick people into going o your Etsy shop you should probably just close it since obviously no one is visiting it ON PURPOSE. So I have to check ANY and ALL Etsy pins as most are dead or fraudulent "bait and switches." Unfortunately I learned this AFTER repinning many Etsy pins. I hate when pins just lead to a Flickr or Tumblr page when they're supposed to be a tutorial or something. GRRR. And one particular wedding dress pinner always sends up spam warnings, but they obviously have pinned thousands of things already so that's annoying. Then, finally, I hate when someone pins a specific item to a general blog instead of the actual page on that blog. I wish people would pin only the actual original page that the item comes from. I see your logic in liking first, but I don't have the patience to do that and then go back and check sources and then sort the pins. I pin exactly to the page the item belongs to and if I go back to explore that pin and its dead or bogus or useless - I just delete it.

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  39. I never thought about it that way but that's a really good point!

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  40. "Liking" like commenting, leaves a permanent footprint that you've endorsed a pin, while PINning it on an organized board is not leaving behind .... to me, liking is like "eh, pretty cool, but not worth PINning" ... a PIN to a board is like a commitment to me. I can't recall LIKING and PINning.

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  41. Using the LIKE option is an excellent idea. However, I always check the source for ALL pins. If it doesn't take me to the original source, it get's deleted immediately .... especially if it leads to an advertisement for something other than the item.

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