Legal, Policies, Ethics - Is Pinterest A Legal Matter?

I love Pinterest...the fun little pin-board social photo-sharing website. Pinning or posting almost anything that represents you such as recipes, home decor, gardening and even wedding ideas. It's a great way to pin ideas and things you spot on the web rather than keeping a never-ending list of what it is and where it's found (not speaking by experience of course). I refuse to own a Pinterest account.... but only because I would never get off it. This may change as school comes to a close and there is a much-needed break from finals. For now, however, it happens to be a "catch it when I can" sort of deal. 

Little did I know there were so many legal issues attached to this cute little thing. In fact Kristen Kowalski, photographer and lawyer, wrote a blog post that turned viral on how she realized her infringing pins needed to be deleted. The realization came on how this site where simple virtual scrapbooks of images "pinned", could turn deadly. Ms. Kowalski is now part of Pinterest's effort to push away these concerns and avoid the problem that shut down the digital-music-sharing website, Napster, in 2001. This was to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on that network although sites and other alternatives have given room to do so. 

Ben Silbermann, Pinterest's co-founder and chief executive, really did want to know what they could do to resolve these issues. He contacted the "tearfully" disheartened photographer after reading her blog of removing her pins. Word says that is currently being worked on, but for a million-dollar company, I'm sure they can decide to do whatever they want until matters get worse. Pinterest claims to repeat the rights of copyright holders and will, in fact, offer guidelines and tips for best practices. Every Pinterest user agrees to the terms and conditions read before signing up because of problems that might arise in connected with anything pinned. 

Pinterest was founded in 2009 and attracted 17.8 million users in the month of February. I'm sure Pinterest users are overly confused to hear that you can't pin anything you don't own where the main purpose of the site is to say that you can. The main difference between pinning someone else's material versus your own, is that individual images have to first be upholder and then pinned to a board previously created. 

With photographers getting ticked at the reproduction of their own imagines, Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr added an opt-out code for users of the photo-sharing website. Any user of images they don't want pinned can disable images and bar them from being shared on Pinterest. A variety of companies are now selling rights to their images via Getty Images. Some lawyers are still coming out saying that the company needs to address the inconsistency of its legal fine print if there is to place any blame. Little issues include whether the pictures pinned are copyrighted photos that can be found easily on the Internet, which would constitute the “fair use” where the images’ creators are credited, or if it can be link back to the site of origin. 

As for now, no steps have been taken as far as copyright laws are concerned. Lawyers interviewed for the article Is Pinterest the Next Napster? in The Wall Street Journal, said the courts are far behind where Pinterest could present issues based on copyright laws. So in the end, I’m not sure what the future of Pinterest will be. For now, it’s fun just to look at what other people find and have interest enough in to pin. 

QR Codes....Worth the hassle?

When I first discovered this site, I got overly excited and felt like I had discovered a brand new way of rebranding and making a digital/online profile for myself. That's what this Scan Pages does. They create a QR code and can connect whatever you want to it whether it's your Facebook profile, blog, or even contact information. Lately, an online presence says a lot about a company or individual. This is a mobile way to connect people to all social media pages and websites. A customized mobile site if you will. Scan Pages will also give statistics including where and how many times your QR code has been scanned. And it's free! So I thought, "Why not?" Why don't I create my own QR code and include it in anything and everything I produce, write, design, etc.? As I continued to read about scan pages, my social media nerd kicked in and I was prepared to share my findings with #socmeddiscuss (my handy dandy social media class). As I skipped up to the front of the room and started to describe my new finding, the energy was pulled from all thoughts and feelings I had about this little feature. Apparently QR Codes are not going to be a thing of the future? At least that's what I gathered from the discussion. We all know things are constantly changing and there will always be improvements....in fact, hopefully, one day media and technology will form to create nifty things found in this video:

But for now, how do you get your name out there? How can you provide a one-touch feature that will allow future employers or clients to access all your information in one spot? I imagine handing in a resume with a QR code up top to connect to files of all my work and past experiences.

I suppose there are some downsides to QR codes such as "Attaging" or Attack Tagging. This is where hackers will take a QR code and change the sites or even create one with a malicious site. For the most part, QR codes seem to be an amazing way to utilize technology and brand yourself.

Search Engine Optimization

I love social media. I love what is happening to our world with social media. With tagging (@), hash tagging (#)....I can't wrap my mind around it sometimes. It will be interesting to see where social media can take us when it comes to companies and branding. I've found that the more a company implements social media, the more they can seem credible and knowledgable. Most of the time, businesses can be found through the web.  That's why I found this nifty article on search engine optimization. They had 55 tips. I choose to only name 10 but knock yourself out on the rest if you so desire (these are search engine tips mainly for larger companies but can also work for individual branding). 


1. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.


2. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.


3. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.


4. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.


5. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.


6. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.


7. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.


8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.


9. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.


10. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore (Another one I liked with this one was adding viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.). 


Well there you have it. 10 ways to implement social media and better ways to search for and find your company. The more branding you can have the better marketing opportunities. And with a world continually changing with the internet, why wouldn't you want to make yourself/company known? 

21st Century Valentine's Day

Day of love. Such a great thing. I found these little beauts and thought they totally explain our world today. Poor St. Valentine....what turned out to be a recognition of your death turned into a world-wide celebration of love. Although there are many rumors involving the origins of Valentines Day, there is one I'd like to think is true. Third Century. Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that soldiers were better if they were single. He outlawed marriage and our Valentine priest continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. Awwwwww.... Cute. But then he was put to death (You'll find other rumors here). Whatever the reason, love the holiday. Just for fun here are some social media valentines....21st century style.

Taste of PR - Kick-off Dinner for PR Conference

Last Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to attend Taste of PR, the kick-off to the PR conference coming up in a couple of weeks. The guest speaker for the event was KSL Social Media Director, Natalie Wardel. She gave some really good tips that I wanted to note that are important for anyone interested in getting better with business or even personal social media outlets. She talked about different things that would classify public relations in the past that included writing and sending press releases as well as calling and kissing up to media. Public relations now (which I am SO grateful for), are more about managing your own message. This includes event planning, managing web content, listening and responding, marketing, blogging and media pitching just to name a few. This is a chance to have diverse opportunities and bypass the newsrooms. This Live News Week Instagram photo brought up another discussion on how social media is starting to be a huge part of our lives. Corporations can be a trusted voice when social media can live on it’s own 50% of the time. One of my favorite things she said last night was that social media is the ingredient and not the solution. Many companies or those not familiar with social media and what it can do think it’s the end-all. This is the driving point that will take them where they need to be. Social media is simply a tool that when combined with other great marketing and promoting effects, can take businesses or your own personal reputation to the next level. When it comes to trust and investing in a business, studies have shown that it’s usually through a friend’s mouth that recommendations are spread. Marketing Sherpa said that 87% trust a friend’s opinion over a critic’s review. Bzzagent, along the same lines, said that one word-of-mouth conversation has the impact of 200 T.V. ads. That is huge when it comes to social media and that it’s not just put out by professionals. WE have the chance to say what we feel and give our own opinions! Natalie also said that the goal is not to be good at social media but rather to be good at your job BECAUSE of social media. She gave 10 signs that let you know you are involved in public relations and the one I connected with the most was, “You find yourself performing other duties not assigned the first week of your new job.” I could relate to that because I LOVE doing the out-of-the-ordinary. Going above and beyond to do what you need to do to help a business or company be effective. Can't wait for the conference first weekend of March!  

Roald Dahl Stamps

I loved Road Dahl books when I was younger. I vividly remember my mother reading The Witches to my sisters and I, leaning on every word when hearing about these horrible creatures, wondering if they were possibly real. So imagine my happiness in seeing these darling stamps. Royal Mail has come out with this series of collectables. And to quote the brilliant author himself, they are, "Wonkalicious Whizzpoppin Swizzfiggling Gloriumptiously wonderful." 

Are they as charming as they seem?

In conjunction with my previous post, I just had to include these little gems. If only Walt knew....