Earlier this week, Pinterest revealed that they are beginning to roll out a new “related pins” feature which allows users to rate the pins they want to see more of as well as the content they would rather not see.
Pinterest has been pretty busy the past few months. From the release of rich pins to the announcement of promoted pins, it’s obvious Pinterest is looking to make the experience better for users and marketers alike. And their most recent release, related pins, is no exception. Below we list the five things you need to know about taking advantage of related pins in your Pinterest strategy.
1. What Related Pins Actually Are.
Slowly but surely, Pinterest will be adding more and more related pins. These pins will be marked with “Related Pin” in the bottom left corner and a small “i” in the bottom right.
When you click on the “i”, Pinterest brings up a dialogue box with the reason they choose the pin and the choice to either give the pin a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down”, depending on whether or not you like what you see.
For instance, I pin a lot of fun hair and makeup ideas so Pinterest thought I might like this “cat eye” pin. When I clicked “thumbs up,” Pinterest tells me:
If you’re not such a fan of one of the suggested pin, then you hit the “thumbs down” button and Pinterest will tell you:
So, in summary, you hit “thumbs up” if you like a pin and “thumbs down” if you don’t. Simple as that!
2. Make Hyper-Targeting Even More Hyper-Targeted.
With this feature, Pinterest is giving users even more control over their already hyper-targeted content. Now, a user can not only follow the boards they’re interested in, they can decide what content is relevant to them. Because of this, users will either choose to give your content a “thumbs up” and see more of it, or they’ll give it a “thumbs down” and you won’t spam users with little-to-no interest in your company. With a less cluttered feed, those users who are engaged with your brand will have an easier time seeing and interacting with your content on Pinterest.
3. Curate More Relevant Content.
Pinterest places cookies on your browser to track what websites you go to as a way to put content you might like in your feed. If you work at a Pinterest analytics company and your marketing manager loves to shop online and look at cute cat pictures, your company’s feed might end up looking a bit funny (not that this has happened to us before…). You can turn off the cookies from Pinterest but, alternatively, simply giving a “thumbs up” to content related to your company and a “thumbs down” to content related to your personal interest, you have more control over the pins in your feed.
4. Related Pins + Getty Images Analysis = Fewer Homeless Pins.
There are few things as irritating as a pin that doesn’t link to anything – especially for the person who created the image. For photographers, artists and marketers alike, the potential copyright issues can be a real deterrent for using Pinterest as a marketing platform. Because of this, Pinterest recently began a partnership with Getty Images in the hopes that their vast array of data around images will help Pinterest better place the original location and link of those pins without a home. Now that Pinterest is both suggesting content and helping to protect the original image owners rights, those with copyright concerns can take advantage of Pinterest without fear of their images ending up homeless and abandoned.
5. Pre-Cursor to Promoted Pins?
Although Pinterest insists that related pins have nothing directly to do with the future of promoted pins, it is supplying them with even more interest data for each user. Like Facebook before them, by collecting such detailed information on users interests and behaviors, Pinterest has the potential to offer incredibly well-targeted promotions, saving advertisers both time and money. Who doesn’t love that?
Where do you see the future of related pins going? Let us know in the comments!
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35 Comments
[…] Earlier this week, Pinterest revealed that they are beginning to roll out a new “related pins” feature which allows users to rate the pins they want to see more of as well as the content they would rather not see. […]
This is very interesting. I’m curious about ways to get your own content suggested ascrelated pins. Will using hashtags and keywords in captions help? Thanks for the info!
This opens an array of possibilities – if Pinterest decides to share that data with users, it will become a platform of super targeted advertising for businesses. Great move!
I hate the related pins!
Oh, why is that? I actually haven’t seen very many of them yet, so I’m curious to know what you’re experiencing!
Melissa, at least 75% of my page is related pins, and I haven’t seen but one so far that was of any interest to me at all. It clutters everything up so terribly that I have a hard time finding the pins that I want to see – those of my friends and family. I find the related pins very intrusive. I have read a lot of comments on their blog and their facebook page from other users who are as adamantly against them as I am. I am giving it a week or so to see if this is going to be permanent, and if it is, I am just going to cancel my account.
I agree, I am having a very hard time wading through the cluttery amount of related pins this morning trying to find pins from the pinners I actually wanted to follow. Twitter did the same thing when they started displaying Retweets from people I didn’t even follow, sigh.
As of now there’s no way to turn off related pins completely, but you can make it so Pinterest doesn’t place cookies on your browser to suggest pins from websites you visit. I have mine turned off and I see very few related pins in my stream.
To disable the browser cookie, click on your name at the top right, select “Settings”, and turn off the “Personalization” setting. It will also help if you give the related pins a “thumbs down” when they pop up.
Hope this helps!
Did Pinterest changed “Personalization” setting recently? Because on my “Personalization” setting, there isn’t any way to turn it off. Is there any other way to disable the browser cookie. I have been using Pinterest for just a couple months, and the Related pins just started to show up a couple days ago. I want them stoped!
J.M., it does look like they took away the option to fully turn off the “Personalization” setting. It seems like they’re still tweeking all of these features, so I’m sure we’ll see some improvements soon!
I turned off that personalization setting long ago, and yesterday all these promoted pins up and popped up again. It’s so annoying.
Might be behind you!! Since Dec 2013-they still won’t fix my notifications, can’t get them. Use to get many comments & exchange stuff. Plus they deleted a whole SECRET BOARD (NOT VIEWABLE TO ANYONE) Board w/ thousands of pins on medical & health.WHY? I had a partial male patient w/colostomy on him. I was researching the surgery & sites i could go back to. Anyone could tell it was a medical pic!! Some of the changes upcoming are not very beneficial for my uses. THEY SERIOUSLY NEED TO EDUCATE THEIR STAFF a whole lot better!!! So many folks complain about pins/boards deleted for nudity/sexual nature-WHEN NONE WERE PRESENT!!! happened to me on 2 occassions. People are fed up. Now they wanna junk it up more!! I fear every time I get on here….WTH is gonna be deleted now. Have enough stress!!! Sorry for rant & thank you!!!
Is there a way to opt out of Related Pins? I follow VERY few pinners in order to be able to keep up with the stream of images. The related pins are cluttering up my feed!
Sadly, no, no opt out option. I’ve had an ongoing with Pinterest customer service about this hateful new “feature.” They simply couldn’t care less what the customer wants.
My page is FULL of them, and now the option to like or dislike a related pin is not even on my page anymore..
I don’t think I will be using Pinterest much in the future..
[…] 5 Things To Know About Related Pins For Your Pinterest Strategy (tailwindapp.com) […]
[…] 5 Things To Know About Related Pins For Your Pinterest Strategy (tailwindapp.com) […]
I don’t have the thumbs up/down button 🙁
I had “related pins” showing on my feed and complained long and loud every day to the help desk. Finally it’s gone. If it comes back, I’ll be the one who is gone.
It makes no sense to advertise Pinterest as something we curate but then not allow us to do so. IRRITATING!
[…] 5 Things To Know About Related Pins For Your Pinterest Strategy (tailwindapp.com) […]
the so called “related” pins are always irrelevant and not in any way representative of my tastes or interests. I really wish we could turn them off. I spend ages clearing the junk from my page just to come back to new pins that are also in no way relevant. drives me nutty.
[…] probably won’t kick in until they’ve fully tested out how “Related Pins.” Related pins are pins suggested by Pinterest that you may like based on what you search for on […]
This is a great move. I’m a writer and research thousands of bytes of info that I haven’t the slightest interest in.
The old “You might also like” was garbage for me; as is AdWords, but that’s another story.
Pinterest has now given us the ability to validate what we like, rather than base its judgement on erroneous cookie reporting.
A similar system has worked wonderfully well for StumbleUpon for years. Give “related pins” time to get to know you and Pinterest will become, as you suggest:
A huge thumbs-up from Wolverhampton!
[…] 5 Things To Know About Related Pins For Your Pinterest Strategy […]
Related pins are a nuisance. They aren’t interesting at all, I have spend time thumbs downing them and they so clutter my page that I miss pins I subscribe to. I hate them.
I HATE RELATED PINS!! this is supposed to be a site that I curate, yet related pins add a bunch of crap i would NEVER put on my board. I think it’s a terrible idea to force them on us. I”m no longer using Pinterest because of it.
Totally agree!!
[…] 5 Things To Know About Related Pins For Your Pinterest Strategy […]
I am going to quite Pinterest if Related Pins are mandatory.
[…] Here are the 5 important things to know about Pinterest's new Related Pins feature. […]
As of today (8/20/14) Pinterest shut down the “Following” stream forcing everyone to use related pins.
I started a “Don’t Mess with My Interests Pinterest!” campaign. Please share this pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/211035932514004133/
For more information about this and how to contact Pinterest read my post … “Pinterest Does Not Care About What Interests You!”
http://u2act.com/blog/rant-pinterest-does-not-care-about-what-interests-you/
[…] regularly giving thumbs up or thumbs down to pins. Encourage your followers to do so. I agree with Melissa Megginson at TailWind when she writes: “Like Facebook before them, by collecting such detailed information on users’ […]
Despise related pins. A very bad pinterest idea.
Spam, spam and more spam. I hate them. They never suggested a related pin. I have 1000s of dog pins on my Pinterest board, and they keep putting in all of these cat and kitten ones. I put in vegan posts, and I see pictures of meat. It’s like no matter what I like they suggest the opposite, and it’s grown very old. They’d stopped for a little while, and I wish they’d go back to that.
If you are talking about the pins that pop up after you pin something, I have to say it is VERY irratating. I’m trying to just go down the line and pin items for a particular project and EVERY SINGLE TIME I have to close the pop up. This is NOT a good change. If I want to look at related pins I should be able to ask. It’s like having irritating advertisements pop up after you’ve searched (and already purchased) an item online. PLEASE make it stop!