Protection against Pinterest spammers is no joke. Yep, it’s all about Spam.
Unfortunately there will always be those that think it’s alright to ruin you, in order to get a penny or two for themselves. On the flip side the best way to protect your reputation and stop those dirty spammers in their tracks, or at least slow them down, is to go on the offensive.
You can view the presentation here:
How do spammers target accounts on Pinterest?
- They use group boards to identify popular accounts.
- Steal your images, strip the links and replace those links with their own.
- The links can be affiliate links, spam websites or spam blogs.
Want to spot those trashy spammers you may have followed inadvertently? Here are some clues:
- The account is foreign or the description is not in english. I love my international following as much as the next entrepreneur, but I’ve found that if it is an unreadable foreign profile it’s spam in 90% of the cases. (My opinion only) Hey don’t automatically assume that this is the case. Verify that it’s indeed a spam account by checking for other clues.
- The account may only contain group boards. These type of spammers lure followers in by having tons of pins, but none of the pins are originally posted by the owner of the board.
- Pins within the boards don’t match the board description. Does it look like the pins were just thrown in with no rhyme or reason. You may be looking a spammer.
- There is no description on the profile. Hmmmm… If the person didn’t take the time to write a simple description then it should be a deal breaker for you.
- The boards may contain lots of affiliate links. It’s probably all about money for that pinned. That’s a sure fire clue that this may be a spammer you’re looking at.
- There may be times your boards get a surge in followers within a small period of time. Take a look at the pinners. If you see the same pins on the different profiles, then that is a dead giveaway.
Here is what you should do before you unfollow unsavory Pinterest profiles:
- Investigate first. You don’t want your valuable followers to become innocent victims of circumstance. Look for spam clues first.
- Report spammers by clicking the flag on the lower right hand corner of the description box. There you can select the appropriate reason for your suspicions.
- Then block them. Once you’ve hit the block button the spammer can no longer see you, can no longer interact with you and their naughty pinning activity will not show up in your feed.
It’s always necessary to be proactive when it comes to blocking Pinterest spamming activities:
- Try not to follow spammers in the first place. You can do that by initially looking for clues before you follow.
- Watermark all your original images. Make it as tough as possible for the spammers to use your photos.
- If you suspect spam, report & block it. Unfollowing without reporting will only allow those criminals to continue their negative practices without being seen. We don’t want them to continue to fly under the radar. So do your part.
- Last if you manage to track down your hijacked pins, leave comments (warnings to others) to let people know it wasn’t you being deceptive.
Now you can get back to the fun stuff and continue pinning until your heart is content. I still have a tip for you. Don’t sign off yet.
Don’t forget to leave a comment on this tutorial. Also leave a thumbs up on Youtube & share on all the social networks you participate on. You can use this handy info graphic for later if you like.
Now here is a tip You may not know.
Here is a great Pinterest resource for finding meaningful and focused group boards.
PinGroupie
This a free tool that allows you to search for Pinterest Boards using specific filtering functions.
You can filter by
- Categories, which correspond with the categories on Pinterest.
- Sort order by pins, collaborators, likes & repins.
- Select descending or ascending order.
- Or you can choose a specific title or description
Hover over the description to get more information on each group.
Click on the group link which will take you to the actual Pinterest group board.
Remember to look for the spam clues I gave you earlier and all will be fantastic in your pinning universe.
How do you combat spam on Pinterest?
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