Why I’m Not Following You on Pinterest
You’re following a million people a day on Pinterest in the hopes that a few of them will follow you back. However, some of your practices make me instantly not want to follow you. Here are a few!
You Don’t Consider Your Audience
If you have women as part of your audience, consider not pinning images that are demeaning to women. And if you are trying to gain business from Pinterest, that goes triple for you. You might not get reported for porn, but you certainly won’t get followed, even if 99% of your pins are of good quality. Considering your niche and what they want to see should be part of your pinning strategy.
You Pin Too Much
Even if I like your pins, if my entire stream is filled with stuff from you, I might decide not to follow. While one or two Hello Kitty products are ok, seeing 100 of them all at once will probably make me want to unfollow. However, a thousand of them would be the best thing ever! (Joking!)
Subject Matter Doesn’t Interest Me
If you only pin ballet shoes, snow removal equipment, or feather dusters, I probably won’t follow you. But if you make those subjects interesting, I might follow you after all. Having a sense of humor about a subject matter that’s dry would probably make me admire you for the creative effort.
Too Many Boards with One Pin Each
If you have 150 boards with only one pin on each, that looks like you’re a newbie, or worse, a spammer. Fewer boards with more content on each board looks better. For one thing, your followers won’t have to scroll as much.
You Steal Content
If you steal content and claim it as your own, I’ll definitely unfollow you. Right after asking you to remove those pins, that is. Nobody likes a thief.
No Pins, No Followers, and No Boards
If there is nothing on your account, I won’t follow you. How will anyone know what to expect if there’s nothing there? There has to be some “there there!” Here are some ideas on how to unfollow on Pinterest.
What Makes You Unfollow?
Did I leave anything out? Please let me know in the comments! Thanks!
You pretty much nailed it. It’s the people who pin for two hours straight every piece of clothing they want in their dream wardrobe that drive me crazy.
Yes, seeing too many notifications can drive you insane. A few pins are ok, but 300 in a row is about 280 too many. :-)
Thanks for commenting, Bridget!
Sincerely,
Carol
When I first got on Pinterest, when it was brand spanking new and I didn’t have any followers except for my 22 year old niece, I was one of those turbo pinners! I took great pleasure in pinning all the the things I love because all the things I love are in 4 storage rooms and I haven’t seen them in a couple of years. So I think its kind of sad that you can’t just happily pin away without worrying about that (though I would never even consider it for my business boards) but I guess the private board that’s now available would solve that!
PS I am happy to report that as of a few days ago, my iPhone stopped red-lining Pinterest for spelling, though my Mac spell checker still does not accept it!
Hi Kim!
You’ve seen that “Pin all the Things” pin, right? I think we’ve all done that, myself included! Then people seem to slow down. That’s right–private boards are great for things you don’t care so much about sharing with others, but just want for yourself.
The folks at Apple must’ve added Pinterest to their spellchecker…or else your spellchecker just got tired of redlining!
Thanks for stopping by…I appreciate it!
Carol
I’m probably guilty of the “pins too much”…oops. I’m not too keen on people that over promote. If they drop the same homepage link on EVERY pin they do…just unfollowed someone for that. Otherwise, if the boards are boring or overly promotional I’m not interested. Even as a brand, you have a personality. I actually “gleaned” my Pinterest following, not following by utilizing Carol’s blog post on how to do that. #spreadsheet :)
Hello Linda,
Well, it depends on a few things. You don’t pin when lots of other people are on, so they may not see your pinning. Oh, you’re so right about the homepage link on every pin. That can be too much promotion. I always wonder if they expect others to repin along with their link in there. But Pinterest doesn’t care about those links any more (I used to add links, too!).
Aww…that makes me happy that you use that post on following/unfollowing. Thank you so much!
Carol
Thanks Carol – I try not to pin more than 50 at a time. #kittehspam LOL* The one account I unfollowed had the same link in the description as well as in the photo. I mostly pin for personal enjoyment these days. Of course I used your technique! I Googled how to do it and *voila* there was your blog post!
Hi LInda!
I don’t know why people would put up double links, especially since Pinterest doesn’t care about links in the description of a pin any more. I guess they didn’t get the memo! lol.
Thanks for telling me about the Google! That made my day!
And thanks for being such a great supporter. I really appreciate that. :-)
Carol
Hi Carol ,
I do not understand what u mean about stealing content ? Can you explain
i am disspointed when the whole board is full of repins .
I cannot stand product promotion ? if your a business i want to understand your moods , what make u tick or fuels your passion to create your product.
if people want to know more about u they will look at your profile and go to your landing page or other som sites you have provided.
i am pinning now , thoughout the day , it down time for me on summer Fridays. I am inclined to pin then . It would be great if you could schedule pins .
your articles is always informative ! thanks for sharing
Hello Natalie,
People have repinned pins from one of the brands I manage, and put their own website underneath, when clearly the picture was watermarked. So, for example, if you post a picture of baby shoes, and one of your competitors takes that photo and puts their website underneath it, the picture belongs to you, and not to them.
I know what you mean about product promotion–it can look so spammy! Yes, I like to know what a brand stands for, not just sell sell sell all the time.
People do tend to pin when they have time.
Thanks for commenting! I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Carol
Thanks for your reply Carol . Oh that is horrible , I am sorry you experienced that , unfortunately I am in the clothing business and this kind of practice is rampant .
What I found quite annoying are pinners who search your boards for pins and then go to the source instead of repining from you . I try to find pins that no-one has pinned before , however if I see that a pinner has already pinned something that I have pinned then I will go to their boards and see if there is anything pertaining to that pin subject that I can repin from them . It is about showing the love ! I love social media , but it really turns people into attention seekers ( to put it nicely ).
I would also like if you would write something on group boards , the pros and cons of !
thanks again !
Hi Natalie,
Yes, I’m certain that in the design and clothing business, you’d see more stealing.
I understand what you’re saying about people going to the source, rather than repinning from you. They don’t want to give you credit for finding the pin! And I think I know what you mean by “attention seekers.” Unfortunately, people don’t always act the same way on the internet as they would in person!
I’m going to start a post on Group Boards. Thanks for the suggestion!
Sincerely,
Carol
I don’t follow you if you have no boards and your profile pick is of your bare breasts (or worse). That is disgusting!!! No one wants to see all that and if you do, you are on the wrong website!!!
Definitely true, Bridget! There’s too much spam and porn already.