Maddening Pinterest "Notifications"

I don't know about you, but constant update notifications appearing on my Android cellphone drive me batty.

I use Pinterest as basically a graphic bookmarking and categorising system, but I get the most utterly useless notifications from it. All. The. Time.

And by useless, I mean "So-and-So has added your pin to their Blah-Blah board". You click on the notification, and it takes you to So-and-So's Blah-Blah board, BUT you can't see what thing of yours they were so interested in to have pinned themselves. So it is completely pointless.

But worse is that you don't appear to be able to turn the blasted notifications off.

I have turned off every option that I can (view the options here). I have scoured the help files on the website. I have complained to Pinterest themselves several times. I have answered surveys telling them that this one irritation is nearly enough to have me pack in using their product. To no avail.

And then today I read a wonderful little post from the Android Widget Centre which solved my problem. I could simply tell my cellphone not to let Pinterest post notifications on my phone. So I did. And while it shouldn't. It still did. <sigh>

So I deleted the app instead. And NOW it doesn't.

Ah, the bliss.


Sam

• Reference: Android Widget Centre (n.d.). How to Disable Notifications on Android for Selected Apps. Retrieved 20 April 2017 from http://androidwidgetcenter.com/android-tips/how-to-disable-notifications-on-android-for-selected-apps/

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Apps that create images for pinning articles to Pinterest

I use Pinterest a lot to keep track of website pages that I want to return to.

I am quite a visual person, so I find it easier to link an idea to a picture. I always add an image to my articles, so that people can pin the article if they want to.

One problem that I have with Pinterest is that some articles do not have an image with them, making it impossible to pin them.Sometimes, despite there being no image, Pinterest creates a plain text image for the page which allows me to pin it. If that doesn't happen,sometimes I will copy the article to my own blog (ensuring I attribute it appropriately), adding an image, so that I can pin it.

Creating a Pinterest-pinning image can be done, but it is a little convoluted. First you must create an image (ie, creating your own image, taking a screenshot of or clipping part of the screen), saving it to your computer, then using the "Add a Pin" function on your pins page, and up loading and emerge from your device. You create the pin using your uploaded image, then edit it afterwards to add the link.

All a bit exhausting, really.

However, I figured that a coding somebody must have created a widget or an app to do this for us more easily. Somewhere. On the Interweb.

Today I decided that I needed to find that tool for creating Pinterest images. So I went looking.

I found an article by Cynthia Sanchez, entitled "No Picture, No Problem You Can Still Pin it to Pinterest". Cynthia identifies a tool called Shotpin, which does just that: creates a Pinterest image so you can pin a link. However, the tool no longer works. Arrgh!!!

Luckily, one of the commenters on Cynthia 's blog post - Chris Hunt - advises of another tool which has replaced Shotpin. Called, Pin My Screen, this tool can be downloaded from the ChromeStore.

Another alternative I found is Pin4ever. You install the free Pin4ever app, select the mini toolbar option, and under the power tools menu, you will find a camera icon. There are paid aspects of this app that you can buy into should you want to (however, I don't have the need). Use the camera icon to an image that you can then add the item URL to, add a description, then pin.

Both apps are very easy to use: give them a try.


Sam

References:

• ChromeStore (n.d.).Pin My Screen App. Retrieved 12 March 2016 from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pin-my-screen/elgdgldoladmljdbhjndldjmgchmehgg?hl=en
• Pin4ever (n.d.).Home. Retrieved 12 March 2016 from https://pin4ever.com/
• Sanchez, Cynthia (2014). No Picture, No Problem You Can Still Pin it to Pinterest. Retrieved 12 March 2016 from http://www.ohsopinteresting.com/no-picture-no-problem-you-can-still-pin-it-to-pinterest/

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Creating blog images

I ran into a situation recently where I wanted to pin a friend's posts to my Pinterest page, but was unable to differentiate the pins... because my colleague doesn't use images in each post. Thus, when I pin them, each post looks exactly the same.

I am an image junkie. I can't remember which post is about what without that image cue. This is why I use Pinterest as my bookmarking system: I have much higher rates of recall if I use images.

Images, despite the web being pretty much open access, need to be our own creations, or must be borrowed from others with express permission. There are some rough exceptions to the permission aspect: if you were doing a supportive review of a product or service, you could probably use the logo or a product image to illustrate your review without worrying. A company is unlikely to pursue someone for copyright over free advertising.

It is easier to create an image than to get permission to use an image belonging to someone else.

Like all of us, my friend is VERY busy (and a prolific and very thoughtful blogger). I had let him know a while ago about my problem, and he had tried to solve it. However, he had not been able to find a good solution that suited his branding.

Today I said to him "Leave it to me. I will find you a simple and free solution".

My friend brands all his posts with his profile photo, and a blog header photo. So I thought that using his profile photo embedded as a picture in picture - PinP - within each blog's background image would probably work with his branding. The PinP image could equally be a logo, a banner, or a phrase box or call out symbol. This is our brand 'anchor' image.

So here is my solution, for all of us:

1. While we are out and about, take lots of close up photos of things that relate to our brand using our phones. I say phone, because we nearly always have our phones with us. Download our images to our computer, and use these as our background image.
2. Create whole page words or symbols in MS Word or PowerPoint and save as a jpg. Use these as our background image (like the copyright symbol above)
3. If we get stuck for illustrating images, then we can try word clouds using key words from each of our posts at http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/ or http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html. Again, send our images to our computer, and use these as our background image.
4. If we want to make a quote image, we go to Recite, at http://www.recitethis.com/#/
5. Download Gimp. Gimp is image manipulation freeware that allows us to create PinP graphics.
6. Watch Pocket Lenses (2015) video clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnIGX8rHfP4 to see how to create those PinP images. Use our key brand anchor as the PinP image (like my example on this post)
7. Import our newly created image into our blog post. Align it somewhere near the left top corner (if that suits our branding), as images have the most eye-appeal in this position. Done!

I hope that helps all of us :-)

Sam

References:

• Gimp (n.d.). Downloads. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ 
• ImageChef (n.d.). Make Word Mosaic. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/
• Pocket Lenses (2015). How to make a picture in picture collage using GIMP. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnIGX8rHfP4 
• Recite (n.d.). Turn A Quote into a Masterpiece. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.recitethis.com/#/
• Tagxedo (n.d.). Tagxedo - Creator. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html  

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Pin to LinkedIn

I use Pinterest as a visual collector of things that I like: about careers, about leadership, about learning, about tech, and about communications. It is also a great resource for my students to be able to trawl and pick up extra resources that have already been filtered by me as being relevant.

It is useful because I get an image with everything I have posted, I get to write a wee explanation, and it has a more user-friendly search than other tools I have used in the past

What I don't use Pinterest for is things like cooking, crafts or clothing. For me the Pinterest tool is not for private stuff; it is useful for my work.

Currently when you create a pin, you can post it to Facebook. However, for work use, this is not useful. What I would REALLY like to be able to do is to be able to post my pins to LinkedIn.

Of course, I could use Hootsuite to cross-post between digital media platforms. However, while this used to be free, apparently now you have to pay.

It appears as yet that this is not possible. So I thought that I would post an article asking for the facility to post between Pinterest and LinkedIn.

I would be interested if you think this is a good idea.

Sam

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Posting Quotes to Pinterest

If you have any favourite quotes, you will probably want to save them for posterity. And, if you are like me, then part of that 'saving for posterity' will mean that you want to post that great quote to Pinterest.

Creating a graphic that presents your quote well takes quite a bit of time, effort and skill. It is often much, much easier to see if you can find a version that someone else has done before you.

The trouble is, the exact quote you want can be hard - or darn near impossible - to find... or be mis-attributed when you do find it. For example, the strategic planning guide, told to me many times by my old management lecturer, Jonathan John. I haven't found this online as yet, so have no idea who wrote it originally (Michael Wilkinson calls it his "Driver's Model", but it is an model older than Michael, I suspect).

How would I post that? I would have to make my own poster, and faff about to get it looking just right... or I could find an app that will do it for me. Then all I have to do is choose a format and key my words in. All I would need is an app...

And yay! There are a couple of free cloud apps that allow us to do just that. They make our quotes look pretty darn spanking, with minimal artistic and creative decisions. Then we can post our favourite 'words in a row'.

While they are a bit limited in quote length and layout options, the emphasis should be on 'free'. It makes all constraints worthwhile. The sites are:

1. http://www.recitethis.com/# and
2. http://pinstamatic.com/

With these two applications, you need nothing else. Happy pinning!

Sam

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