Here’s a basic guide to using Instagram and Pinterest together that will help you share what you like on Instagram with others on Pinterest. To link Instagram to Pinterest is just a matter of selecting what to share. This also will show you some best practices for crediting Instagram artists for their work, which is not only proper etiquette for Pinterest, but is the right thing to do whenever sharing any artwork anywhere.
There are already plenty of resources on how Pinterest works beyond the scope of what’s covered here, so this post will assume you have a basic understanding of Pinterest and an account there. Now, let’s get started sharing the great images you already like on Instagram at Pinterest, with the help of Gramfeed.
Gramfeed is not only a great way to participate on Instagram via the web, but it also gives you a convenient way to share and properly credit Instagram images on Pinterest. And it’s easier than you might think, for your own images as well as those of other Instagramers. Just follow these five steps:
Open the image at full size to pin on Pinterest.
Browse in Gramfeed to a photo of your own you’d like to pin, or photos you have liked. “My Likes” in Gramfeed’s top menu is a good place to start — since you already like those images.
EASIEST WAY TO PIN IMAGES FROM INSTAGRAM: Using Gramfeed, just click on the photo you like and click the “Pin It” button to the lower right of the image. Select a board, and pin away. Click for larger view.
Do NOT just pin the small thumbnail images from the list page using the Pinterest tool you may have installed on your browser. If you only share from a page of small preview images, the links associated with your pins will not work, and Pinterest viewers can’t click through to the original sources. By sharing from the full-size image page, visitors can click through your pin to the artist’s actual page, thus giving the proper credit to the owner – while also showing a beautiful full-sized image instead of a small preview. This is important, since larger images get more repins on Pinterest.
Bonus Points: since Pinterest is more fun and you will gain more followers by interacting, try to say a few words about what it is that makes the photo special to you. Do you like the contrast, subject matter, or apps used? Say so in the comments when you’re giving credit and ask others what they think. Pretty soon, you’re likely to get comments and start discussions with other like-minded folks on the site.
Pinterest is a great way to categorize images you find on Instagram. Just do a search in Gramfeed for a subject you’re passionate about, then set up a new board when pinning those images (while always giving credit). Do this a few times, and before you know it, you’ll have several visually-rich Pinterest boards with your favorite images, and you’ll be establishing yourself as a Pinterest pro.
While more general-purpose and slightly more complicated to use than other networks, Flickr is a fantastic value (2 videos and 300MB worth of photos each calendar month for free accounts) and has a very robust web interface for organizing your images. You can use collections, sets, adjust privacy levels for each, and plenty more. Just like Instagram, there’s commenting, favorites (likes), followers (contacts), groups, but then there’s still more beyond that. And they have a wacky sense of humor (big points from me for that). The Flickr mobile app is also a great way to browse images and see those of your contacts.
Designed by artists for artists, iPhoneArt.com has an inherent elegance to the interface, both on the site and the mobile app. Full disclosure: I’ve been featured as artist of the day there, but as I’ve noted earlier, it tends to make Instagram look like MySpace, since one major distinguishing feature is that you can only upload five photos per day. So they’d better be good. You won’t find the deluge of mediocre snapshots all over the place highlighted for their so-called popularity, but you will find a talented community of creative folk who are into pushing the limits of what can be done with mobile photography as art. If art beyond the mobile platform is what you’re after, you might like…
No, liking it doesn’t make you a deviant (let’s hope), butDeviantArt does offer an enthusiastic community and tons of content, all sortable and searchable depending on what your interest may be. DeviantArt is truly a social network for creatives, with a slant toward the artistic. There’s not a specific app, but that’s a non-issue, since their ultra-slick mobile-friendly version of the site gives you the same experience and functionality as the full-site version.
