Pinterest Best Practices
Guidelines put in place by Pinterest.com will be upheld by DSC Academic Support Services accounts (http://about.pinterest.com/terms/).
Pinning & Following
- Remember that Pinterest is a visual tool, unlike Twitter, which is mostly text. A new pin should always include a relevant and high quality visual element.
- Use the description box to give plenty of information, especially credit to the original author(s) or source.
- Instead of re-pinning, track down the original website and pin directly.
- Don’t rely solely on Pinterest to generate new pins (e.g. use other sites such as Twitter, StumbleUpon).
- DSC Academic Support Services accounts will follow back other libraries, academic support centers, writing centers, educational boards, publishing companies, academic institutions, DSC departments/organizations, and similar organizations.
Creating & Maintaining Boards.
- Create boards that are specific to DSC, examples include locations, staff pictures, ongoing events, and college history.
- Ideally, boards should include at least six pins.
- Keep in mind that boards are enduring, unlike Facebook and Twitter where content gets pushed further down the page. Choose boards that can be updated with regularity, but won’t become obsolete.
- Academic Support Services Pinterest pages will share relevant boards with one another (e.g.Pizza and Paws, Movie Night, Research Guides).
- Staff taking pictures of Academic Support Services students will obtain verbal confirmation, at the minimum, to post photos to various social media. Ideally, students will sign the “DSC Talent Release” form.
- Due to copyright laws, only fair use and public domain images will be published to the Academic Support Services Pinterest pages. When using sites like Google Images, conduct an advanced search and select the “free to use or share” usage rights. Give credit to images from sites like Flickr that provide specific creators.