How To Find Out Who Is Pinning Your Images On Pinterest
By: Carolyn Nicander Mohr the author of The Wonder of Tech
A picture says a thousand words so shared images can be the strongest draw to your blog. Using a powerful image in your post may be the catalyst that drives traffic to your site. An interesting image may also be what compels readers to share your article on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest, drawing even more readers to your blog.
You know when people share your posts on Facebook and Google+ if they tag you, but how do you know when people share images from your site on Pinterest? You may have sharing buttons on your site that show a count of how many times your article was shared, but how do you discover who is sharing your images on Pinterest?
By checking to see who is pinning your images, you can identify your most helpful readers and track your traffic source more closely. You have two ways of checking who is pinning images from your website – automatically and manually.
Automatic
Monitoring
PinAlerts for Pinterest
PinAlert is a free service that will notify you when someone pins an image from your website. Head to http://pinalerts.com/ and sign up for an account using your email address where you want to receive your notifications.
Enter the domain name you want to receive alerts for: http://www.dadblunders.com, for example. You can’t just sign up for one article or category, you need to sign up for the entire web site.
You can also choose how often you want to receive the alerts: hourly, daily, weekly or immediately. You can change the frequency later if you need to.
Want to find out which images get pinned the most from your favorite store or restaurant website? Set up a PinAlert! You can get PinAlerts for your favorite blogs, your business competitors or any other site you want to follow.
You can’t get alerts from major sites such as Amazon or eBay, whose sites get pinned constantly. Here is a blacklist of sites where PinAlerts won’t work: http://pinalerts.com/index/blacklist.
If you become a fan of PinAlert, you can even follow them on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pinterestbiz/
Manual Pinterest Monitoring
DadBlunders Pins
If you want to see who has pinned images from your website (or any other website), go to:
http://pinterest.com/source/URL
Replace “URL” with the web address you want to search. For example, to search for images that have been pinned from DadBlunders, go to:
http://pinterest.com/source/dadblunders.com/
Helpful Hints
Make sure you’re not missing out on Pinterest traffic to your blog. Always use images on your blog that people will want to share. (Note, make sure that the images can legally be used on your blog post without violating copyright laws: http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/can-you-use-or-reproduce-work-others-your-website-or-blog).
Also, be sure to have a plugin on your blog with a Pin It button to make sharing to Pinterest as easy as possible for your readers!
Bottom Line
Find out who is sharing your images on Pinterest to monitor your traffic and find out who are your most loyal readers!
Do you monitor your image posts on Pinterest? Have you ever been surprised at who is sharing your images? Let us know in the Comments section below!
About The Author: Carolyn Nicander Mohr is the author of The Wonder of Tech http://www.wonderoftech.com/, designed to help you discover and learn about fun and helpful personal technology.
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Carolyn did a excellent job of explaining how to check your pins in Pinterest. Hopefully others will find this article as useful as I did! Make sure to let us know in the comments about your Pinterest account!
Read my last post here Are Men Good At Being Sick?
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Tags: amazon, Blog, facebook, google, notifications, traffic source, two ways
Hi Aaron, Thanks so much for publishing my article here today at DadBlunders. I hope it helps people discover how their posts are being shared on Pinterest!
Carolyn recently posted…Grab Yourself a Gravatar!
Carolyn,
Thank you for writing such an informative post! It was a pleasure having you here and helping out my readers with the weekly series I do on blogging.
Pinterest is one of my favorites but I have been a little more concerned about since I discovered they keep a copy of your photo in their database.
I have been told that you no longer own the rights to your photo once they are pinned (I am trying to verify this information).
Aaron Brinker recently posted…5 Ways Children Age Parents
Aaron, thank you very much for allowing my article to appear here at DadBlunders. I am truly honored to be here!
Yes, Pinterest initially had some pretty onerous terms and conditions but they softened them up after they got some bad publicity. No worries now, you won’t lose your rights to ownership of an image by pinning it onto Pinterest.
Carolyn recently posted…Hulu Plus – For True TV Fans
Nice to see you here Carolyn at Aaron’s blog
Ah…you surely chose a wonderful topic to share with everyone, and something that’s an important one too.
Pinterest is surely addictive and I remember the time when it had just started, how most of us were spending hours on it – just pinning away. It dos take a lot of time and unless you don’t restrict your visit there – you can get lost for hours.
I’ve signed up for both of these links you mentioned Carolyn, and they are surely great ways to keep in touch and let you know who has pinned your images. I get my emails from Pinterest once a day, and try keeping track of whose pinned my images too.
Thanks so much for sharing this with. Have a great week ahead, Aaron & Carolyn.
Harleena Singh recently posted…How to Create Life Options for Yourself
Hi Harleena, Thanks for your kind words! You’re right, Pinterest can be very addictive.
I’m so glad you signed up for Pinalerts. Unlike Twitter, where people can include your ID to alert you that they have tweeted your article, Pinterest doesn’t have automatic notifications when someone pins from your site. Pinalerts can save you the step of manually checking to see who has been pinning your images from your site.
Happy pinning, Harleena!
Carolyn recently posted…Grab Yourself a Gravatar!
Harleena,
I was so lucky that Carolyn wanted to do this for my blogging basics series! It was information that was needed to make the series more complete and help bloggers know more about blogging in all aspects! I know whenever Carolyn talks about anything you are going to leave with a sense of learning something and she definitely hit the didn’t disappoint!
Aaron Brinker recently posted…Talking About Infertility Isn’t Easy – Our Story
@Carolyn: Thanks for your article and sharing PinAlerts. We have been working hard on this tool, and we plan to launch a version 2.0 in the next 60 days. If you have any questions let us know, and keep an eye out for what’s to come.
@Aaron: Pinterest’s old Terms of Service did state that they owned the rights to your photos. However, they updated them in the middle of last year and that is no longer the case.
Hi Paul, I’m so glad you enjoyed my article here at Aaron’s place. I’m a big fan of PinAlerts and have been spreading the word about your fantastic service. I’m so pleased that Aaron published my article here to bring even more attention to PinAlerts.
I look forward to seeing what’s next for PinAlerts!
Carolyn recently posted…Google+ Hangouts – Fun and Functional!
Paul,
Thanks for the information about the terms on Pinterest! It was something I had planned on looking into but hadn’t had the time to check into yet. I was happy to have Carolyn here to share your PinAlerts! It is a great tool and a must have for any blogger.
Aaron Brinker recently posted…Blogging Basics – Does Social Media Help?
What a great little tool! I’m heading over there now to check it out. Thank you for sharing and for explaining it so clearly in this post. ~Samantha
Samantha Gluck recently posted…Top 10 Reasons to Self Publish
Hi Samantha, I’m so glad you found this article helpful. I hope you discover who is pinning from your site with PinAlert!
Carolyn recently posted…Score with March Madness Apps and Books!
You did a great Job, Carolyn, and I’ve already found it helpful. I’m investigating using it when compiling ROI reports for my clients’ SoMe campaigns. It’s a very valuable tool.
Samantha,
It is a great tool! It is definitely something that every blogger should have in their arsenal of must have tools. Carolyn did a great job for my blogging basics series!
Aaron Brinker recently posted…Talking About Infertility Isn’t Easy – Our Story