I’ve been hearing more and more about Pinterest so I decided to take spend some time with it over the last couple of days. It’s very addictive and it seems to be a social commerce site. And the commerce part seems to be working because one of the first images I clicked on was an item for sale on Etsy that was a perfect Valentine gift for my daughter, which I purchased. This intrigues me because I am not a shopper – I tend to think I have what I need, don’t want new clothes, don’t feel the need to upgrade my gadgets, etc. The only thing I willingly shop for is books. Anyway…
I decided to see what WordPress resources were available for Pinterest. Here’s what I found.
The Plugins
- Pinterest Plugin for WordPress – This plugin will add a Pin It button to your WordPress site. In the Admin Settings, you can set where the button should appear. The plugin also provides a short code, if you only want to use Pin It with specific posts. This plugin works like Pinterest’s bookmarklet.
- Pinterest RSS Widget – This adds a widget where the feed of a specific Pinterest user can be added to your sidebar. It includes the images and the size can be set. There is also a shortcode if you want to display the feed in a post or page. I wish it would also limit by board because most users have multiple boards and some would apply to the site more than others. If the images don’t display, check the FAQ on the plugin page.
- Ultimate Photo Widget – This plugin will add a widget that you can add to your sidebar that will pull photos from Twitter, Flickr or Pinterest. Their are different layouts or the images can appear in a slideshow.
- Pinterest Pinboard Widget – This plugin adds a widget to your sidebar of your recent pins on Pinterest that looks very similar to the Pinterest layout. It uses the thumbnails from Pinterest, which are cached every 15 minutes to help with the performance of your site. I would like for this to also have a shortcode so it could be added to a post or page instead of only the sidebar.
- Pin It on Pinterest – This adds a Pin It button the the bottom of your posts and will show the number of times that the post has been pinned. The FAQ says that Pinterest has a bit of a lag time so it may take 15 minutes for the Post to appear on Pinterest. The plugin page includes a video tutorial.
- Slick Social Share Buttons – This set of share buttons includes Pinterest in addition to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and more.
- Pretty Pinterest Pins – This plugin will add a sidebar widget that displays thumbnails and captions from your pins. Any Pinterest username can be added in the settings so you can also display the pins of another user.
- Social Discussions – This adds 10 sharing buttons to your posts, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. It also includes the ability to auto-post your content to 30 social networks. The buttons can be added automatically or through template code for manual placement. The buttons can be used with and without counters.
- Subscribe / Connect / Follow Widget – This widget creates a series of Follow Me icons in your sidebar for social networks that you participate in. Pinterest as well as Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other services are included.
Do you use Pinterest? What do you think of it? Have you added any Pinterest plugins to your site?
photo credit: ohmeaghan
These are awesome – just what I’ve been looking for, thank you!! :)
Hi! Great – I’m glad they are helpful.
Great list of incorporating Pinterest on WP sites! I use it for a hair stylist client. It’s a great way for her to speak with her clients about their preferences.
I’m giving a talk about Pinterest in April (http://bit.ly/pinterestsession) — to my great surprise (and delight), over half the seats are filled! Clearly people are anxious how to incorporate this platform in their social strategies!
Hi – A hair stylist using pinterest to discuss things with client is a great and unique use! Good luck with your talk.
Hi Kim,
Wow, I just finished an article that mentioned Pinterest and wondered, ‘what in the world is that?’ This is an awesome tool and your article was excellent, as usual! Gotta go check it out.
I started playing around with Pinterest about a week ago and while I can see why people say it’s a social network for women, I, as a guy, found it fascinating. I think the rise of incredible DSLR cameras makes a site like that so much better, I just flip through pages of pictures of food, home projects, and other clever things.
I try to avoid it during work hours because it’s kind of addicting. :-)
Thanks for mentioning my Pin It button plugin. I’d love to hear what people think of it and what they’d like to see added to it. If you have any feedback head here:
https://pinterestplugin.uservoice.com/
I was referencing plugin #1 in the list btw. :)
Hi Phil – Thanks for making the plugin :-)
You have to love WordPress, and the developers who work around it. The plugins they develope are just fantastic. I had a look at this one on its own site, it looks great.
Wonder what they will come up with next?
VERY Cool List… Thank YOU!!!
I’m pretty late to this party but thought I’d add the following plugin to your list: Social Sharing Toolkit. It will add a “pin it” and/or a “follow me on pinterest” button, plus buttons for a bunch of other social networks that you can choose. I also really like that it has widgets for both “share” and “follow” –which too often get confused!
Thanks for posting your suggestions!
I don’t understand. You completely neglect to say that this is totally impossible (to use plugins) on a wordpress.com site!! I presume, as a beginner trying to work out what I can do with my blog, that you are only talking about wordpress.org sites??
I don’t know if this has been covered, but can I add one of these plugins to my blog (rather than to a wordpress site)? I can’t seem to find anywhere to upload plugin folders to within my admin panel?