We’re nearly a quarter of the way through 2013 and there have already been a lot of changes on Pinterest. While change is good, this list of Pinterest changes in 2013 may impact your current social media strategy. As a result, be prepared to spend some time analyzing your current Pinterest strategy as a result of these new changes.
So what has changed on Pinterest in 2013? The following 6 features have been removed from Pinterest. We have also provided a recommended fix to make your Pinterest account compliant. Be sure to update your account to reflect these changes based on our recommendations.
6 Pinterest changes in 2013
Some of these 6 Pinterest changes will require you to go back and update your account. Some of them you can leave as-is. It’s not necessarily worth the hassle to go back and fix given the amount of work it will require (and time).
Hashtags:
Previously, you could include hashtags within your pin descriptions. Within Pinterest, hashtags would make keywords searchable and linkable. Now that hashtags have been removed from pin descriptions, this means you’ll have to be more descriptive with your descriptions.
Also, because hashtags have been removed, be sure to get more creative with your pinboards. For example, if you used to use a hashtag for #infographics, you should consider creating a specific pinboard for Infographics and include the word “infographics” in your pin description.
So what do you do with pins that included hashtags?
Recommended fix: If you included hashtags in your pin descriptions, I recommend leaving them. Just make sure you don’t include them in your pin descriptions moving forward because they serve no purpose.
Tweets:
Previously, you could tweet out pin while you were pinning an image. This feature has also been removed from Pinterest. This means you’ll have to perform double-duty and copy your URL and tweet it out on your own.
Recommended fix: While this may mean more work, if you use HootSuite, you can install the Hootlet to make it easy to schedule out tweets from your pins on Pinterest. The same works for Buffer as well.
Profile descriptions:
In the old design for Pinterest, you had 200 characters to be able to describe yourself. This number has changed. Now, you have 160 characters for your profile description.
40 characters may not seem like a lot, but it is.
Recommended fix: Be sure to go in and tweak your current Pinterest profile description. Make sure your profile description fits within the new character count for profile descriptions. Because you have lost 40 characters, it may require writing a more descriptive profile description.
Liking Pinterest boards on Facebook:
This change will affect a lot of businesses and marketers who leverage Facebook to get users to like their Pinterest pinboards. Now, while your Pinterest boards still show on your Facebook Profile, you can no longer like a Pinterest board. This is unfortunate, but also means you’ll have to do a better job outside of marketing your pinboards.
Recommended fix: Facebook isn’t the only tool to market your business or your products. Be sure to leverage your blog, YouTube video descriptions and your email newsletter to let customers know about your Pinterest account so that they can follow you and stay connected.
Embedded links:
If you want to link to a pin on Pinterest, now, you have to embed links.
Recommended fix: If you direct-linked to any pins on Pinterest, you’ll need to go back and fix these. Any direct links to a pin still work, your images are now broken though.
Links within pin descriptions/comments:
This last Pinterest change in 2013 is going to affect a lot of profiles and businesses. Now, you can no longer include a link in your pin description. You also cannot include a link within comments either.
This is unfortunate, but also a good change from Pinterest because it means less bogus links in comments and hopefully more quality links back to website content.
Previously, you could link to anything and have your image go somewhere else. This was deceiving for most users who clicked an image, only to find it took them to something they were not expecting. For example, clicking a recipe image, hoping to view the recipe took someone to a larger version of an image.
Recommended fix: If you used to add a link to your website in your description, the only change you can make is to be sure to add “pin it” buttons to your blog posts and make sure all of your images are pinnable. This way when users click an image that is pinned, it goes directly back to your site.
Overall, while these Pinterest changes in 2013 may cause you to have to re-think your Pinterest strategy, I think they’re a good change. What do you think?
Question: Which of these Pinterest changes in 2013 will affect you the most? Leave a comment below or send me a tweet.