I recently began using Pinterest as another online publishing/branding/dissemination tool.
Pinterest is quite good for establishing communities of interest and sharing quick finds online. However, I quickly found a chink in the armor.
How to get good information, lacking any viable image Pinterest could 'grab' for PINNING?
Pinterest is an image-priority social media tool. So, it needs an image to PIN the information.
This was a problem that evaded me for a couple of days. That is until I decided to find a solution this morning.
Shortly into a quick note of suggestion to Pinterest, the answer came to me. I needed to create and post an image (i.e., take a screen capture of the article in-situ) and then PIN the image.
OK, but I'd already done this. Hadn't I?
I used Jing [NOTE: The parent company TechSmith replaced Jing with SnagIT®, a far better program.] Jing was my favorite go-to tool for capturing screen images as stills or in SWF video files (MPEG4 w/JingPro) [NOTE: However, since SWF files are passé such file storage is now nearly impossible to read (ARRRGGGH!, the never-ending frustration of Feature Creep). Fortunately, SnagIT® provides far superior results for the same need to create an image from any site.
Fine. Now what?
I tried PINing this image from inside the browser as a file from my computer; from a server placement; writing a blog and pointing to it. The blog writing worked. But since I write posts for a number of blogs, having to add one more was not on the table.
So, I walked away from the issue until this morning.
I knew there had to be something - so simple - that I was overlooking. And yes, when it did come to me it was a real "DOH!" moment.
I've only used Flickr for the last 5 years, so why not use an Online Photo Management site (OPM) to serve as my 'Sticky PIN' offering for Pinterest?
I posted the screencap to Flickr, pointed to Pinterst and voilà!, it works like a charm. But as much as I love Flickr, it wasn't the platform I wanted to use for this process.
The second idea came pretty fast: a GoooglePlus alert popped up. YES! Google+ would be perrrrrfect!
[NOTE: Well, again Feature Creep ruins the fine oiled machine! Google canned Google+ in 2019. It was the victim of too many offerings too close in kind and companies bent on dominance. Google has so many irons-in-the-fire as a company they don't miss tossing something like Google+ onto the fire. BUT... a lot of people placed their time and efforts into the platform. Google's passé attitude did NOT go over well with the user-base of Google+. NOT the way to good customer service!]
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For anyone interested in Ancient History, this is the Process for using Google+ as a simple enough vehicle to provide images to Pinterest a PIN it can handle... AND... increase the 'InternetSpin'
- Open Google+ account
- Click PHOTOS ( this is Google's OPM Picasa in disguise)
- Create an Album for your images
- NOTE: name this album so it becomes your Pinterest album; suggestion, PINS or Pinterest .. or something you can quickly associate with Pinterest; more said on this below regarding a potential problem.
- Upload your PHOTO/Image
- NOTE: be sure to make the image PUBLIC and do not lock it.
- Provide the image a caption
- Save it
- Open the image in its album
- Click the image again
- NOTE: this opens the image into a slideviewer like format that presents: Image Caption, People TAGS and a COMMENT block.
- Click the Pinterest Bookmarket [Pin It]
- Choose the IMAGE you wish to PIN to Pinterst
- NOTE: after you have a number of images in this Album choice my become a problem, as it seems Pinterest does not offer a scrolling function - past the current page limits - to see other images in the Album: Bummer!| Short-term solution is to Name the Album as, say: PINS.[date] this makes the Album unique, thus reducing the images to choose from; The downside of this, is a rapidly growing number of Albums in your Picasa account; working on a long-term solution.
- After you do the 'Pinterest dance' there it is, your image, all ready for Pinterest to 'grab'n'post' .
While looking at the slide-viewer screen I noticed there were interesting options.
- Post the image on Pinterest
- Post the image to Google+
- On either platform I could Post the image with or without a comment.
- I can use, with an image-only-posting, a single URL to lead the viewer to a blog post for a deeper, immersive presentation.
- NOTE: this alternate use of a URL offers an interesting change-up of delivery; adding a positive -boost to your ability to build interest.
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A very interesting way to multiply my efforts in a relative single-action. Double the SPIN - multiply my efforts. I have my solution and at the same time I get a new double-header method for multiplying my publishing. Great solution. Give it a whirl.
i65D+M
Updated: 07/11/2022
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