Dear Amy: The #SMEtiquette of Pinning

I spend a lot of time talking about lots of different social media etiquette issues, but realized I hadn't talked about Pinterest yet. Today's question is one I see coming up from time to time. There are many different reasons why this might happen - though most cases of this are likely spammers trying to make use of your hard work.Has this ever happened to you on Pinterest or any other platform?Don't forget to submit your question!

Dear Amy:I started following this woman on Pinterest and she just has the BEST pins. I like almost everything she pins. And her board names are so clever.So I started my own boards and started repinning everything she had. I couldn’t help but use the same board names, too – they were just so perfect. Then she got upset and commented on one of my pins that I was stealing all her pins and told me to stop doing it.I really thought she should take it as a compliment. Don’t they say “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”?Sincerely, Puzzled Pinner

Dear Puzzled:Technically, you are completely within your rights to do what you’re doing. You’re repinning her pins, so she’s getting credit for having pinned it before you. No one has a lock on board names, and I’ve often seen the same clever name on multiple boards from people who probably have never seen one another’s boards.Being technically within your rights, you’re still committing a breach of etiquette by your behavior.Anyone seeing your boards would probably think you came up with the names. And unless they clicked through to the originator on your pins (and even if they did), they are unlikely to see that this woman has boards named the same as you.And let’s face it – unless they are really paying close attention to your pins, most people aren’t going to notice you’re repinning everything from this woman.So let’s step back a moment and answer this question: Why are you repinning everything from this woman and even using her board names?Surely there are other people on Pinterest who post things you like.Surely you could come up with at least some new names for your boards.This reminds me of when my sons get mad when the other is copying him.“Mommy!”echo “Mommy!”“He’s copying me!”echo “He’s copying me!”It drives me nearly as batty as the boy being copied.The person you’re following has worked to find the things she’s pinning. She’s worked to come up with these clever board names, and has spent time on her account to make things just so. At least, I imagine she has, or else why would her pins be so attractive for you to repin?So that brings us back to why you’re doing this.There are people who do things like this because they’re trying to gain followers, and so they’re copying the style of someone who had a lot of followers, in hopes that the strategy will pay off similarly. That’s a sort of plagiarism, an intellectual theft – not doing any of the work to find the content, but reaping the dividends.Even if the reasons aren’t quite as nefarious, there’s something a bit creepy about someone who’s copying everything we do, especially if we don’t know him.So why wouldn’t you be repinning other people’s pins? Would it be awful to stop repinning this person? I can’t imagine that there’s no one else on Pinterest you would be interested in following and repinning. And if there is no one else, then maybe Pinterest isn’t the platform for you.