Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Kate All
Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of the Simple Pen Podcast. Today I'm going to be tackling something that I really wasn't planning on talking about in 2025. But with the rise of the questions I've been getting about AI images on Pinterest for the last six months, I figured it was time to do a podcast. I've watched videos, I've seen people's take on it, and I've even interviewed some people who are leveraging these for their business. But after spending a few hours the other evening diving into what is being taught regarding making money on Pinterest using AI, I kind of figured it was time for me to tackle the subject. So this is a little bit different than what I normally do, which is sometimes teaching or walking you through a new feature on Pinterest. This is a little bit of my perspective, how I feel about AI in general and where I think we're going from here. Before we dive in, if you would like to work with SimplePen and our team in 2025 with your Pinterest marketing, whether it's images which are not AI generated management, paid ads, we would love to support you. Simply click on the link below in the show notes or the description to book a call with us and we can help you determine the next step. And as a reminder, our podcast is both on YouTube and over here in your podcast app, assuming you are listening and not watching or vice versa. So if you are a podcast listene, keep on listening. But if you want to see this live my beautiful face in the she shed where I do all of my recording, then you can hop over to YouTube and just search Simple Pen Media. You're listening to the Simple Pen Podcast. Pedest for business advice that goes down smooth and easy. Here's your host, Kate all okay, so AI and Pinterest. I did a recent webinar where somebody was asking me about that. I've had emails, I've had people really upset, I've had people really curious and all of those questions coming at me. In the last six months, there's been an element where I've heard them. It's kind of like they've been this noise that's there. But I haven't really taken a dedicated amount of time to sit down and really look into it and form my own thoughts and really come up with this, I guess, belief system a little bit around how I view AI and Pinterest and those going together. So I want to tackle it in a few parts that I think will help lead up to kind of how I formed my current opinion. And listen, 2025 opinion might not be 2028, but for where we're at right now and what I see, this is where I feel pretty good about landing. I sent several messages to people and said I'm wrestling this out. What do you think? And even ask them like, do you think I should talk about this? Do you think people even really care of what my thoughts are or opinions are? And they were like, absolutely, you should do it for sure. So here I am giving you my thoughts. So here's the parts that I'm going to tackle it in How I feel about AI in general. My view of AI images on Pinterest, where I think the Pinterest engineering team is at or rather answering the question do I think Pinterest knows the tactics that are currently being taught and how I believe trust with the consumer will win out and then where do we go from here? So let's start with how I feel about AI in general. I've been having a lot of conversation with friends of mine, colleagues and true the elephant in the room is I am in my late 40s if you couldn't tell by the gray hair and I'm of a Gen X mindset. I approach lots of things with skepticism. I'm not as quick and easy to buy into technology. I didn't grow up up with it. I remember my dad talking about the Internet when I was in the ninth grade. I remember getting my first email address when I was in college and then using dial up in college trying to scam it from the campus line. Like all these things that now are like ages and ages and ages ago. So I lead with skepticism. So when something like AI comes on the scene, it's like what's wrong with it? Like how's it going to screw us over? Is a little bit of how I think about it. Like I side eye it. But as we were talking about it, I think there is a use case for an ethical use of AI in general. A consumer use and a business use. 1 I believe it shortens your time, it makes life a little bit more fun. My husband got the Chat GPT app on his phone on New Year's and he cannot stop creating images and types, texting him back and forth to his friends and like just giggling under the covers while he creates like this kitty in a dragster car being stopped by a sheriff. Like he's literally having so much fun with it. I believe in business, it can streamline systems, it can create amazing spreadsheets and figure out formulas, which is like a godsend, right? It does a lot of good. But as with all good, we can also have the element of the bad taking other people's work, feeding it to the GPT to copy Open AI versus Closed AI, how you use it in programs. A good friend of mine says if we don't embrace AI, learn it, understand it, play with it, our businesses will be obsolete. We absolutely have to embrace these tools and use them ethically and responsibly. There is a place for it, but I think we're still so new in these early days that we're still trying to figure out what does that look like? What is the line that we're going to bump up against? I've listened to lots of different podcasts with Sam Altman, who started Open AI and all of that. Like I'm curious about it and I want to stay curious. I don't want to bury my head in the sand. So that's how I'm approaching AI in general is how can I use it to better my life, better my business, streamline some things, but use it ethically. That leads to then My view of AI images on Pinterest I believe small owners start their businesses from a place of service. Whether it's selling a product or writing content. They have a passion for their business and they want to do good in this world. A great book that I read when I first started my business was the book called E Myth. I will leave it in the show Notes. I'm gonna write myself a note right now. I always forget, so I'm going to put that in the show Notes for you in the description. It is an excellent small business book. I believe that it will transcend the whole AI thing and it gets to the heart and the root of why people start businesses. They have a passion for something. If they are using Pinterest to promote their business and they then take great pride in their images, they can use AI to create images, especially if they're struggling. Again, we're touching on responsible use for how they are promoting their content and their products with the goal of building a sustainable business. Right? Then there are those who mass produce images, content and pins for one goal, monetary gain. I've seen it on Google, I've seen it on YouTube, I've seen it all these places, there's a gap in the system and they run right through it. The connection with the end user, it doesn't matter. There's not much thought put into it. Get in, get out don't get noticed, but make money. This is not a new thing for Pinterest. This has been on Google, this has been on Instagram, this has been on TikTok. It is what fuels some people in their business. They would consider it a passion to find the loophole and barrel right through it. I definitely have a problem with that second model. And our company does not work with people who use this model. We have no clients that use this. We support clients that have a customer consumer relationship that they want to build on for years to come, as well as make money to support their family and their teams. And SPM Simple Pen media. This won't change. I don't want to support a business that is finding and exploiting a hole in the system. And that applies to our client work. That's all I'll say there. So we believe in using AI images on Pinterest responsibly and without compromising the platform as a whole. Therein lies the tension because we see a lot of really great creators who have had their content overridden by the second model that I just referred. And that's really tough, right? It's really tough to watch someone who has put their heart and soul into this get overridden by somebody who endorses the second model. Now listen, this is perfectly legal to do this model. There is nothing wrong with it. It is definitely down to an ethical question. It would be the same way as if people were creating Google content a long time ago and they would just put these things that would just have massive links on it or a massive amount of ads. Like people will always find ways to do that. But again, we believe in using AI images on Pinterest responsibly and without compromising the platform as a whole. So where do I think Pinterest engineering team is at? And do I think Pinterest knows? Of course they know. These things are on their radar. Just as every other company is wrestling with how to tackle AI, they are as well. My assumption, and this is not based on anything, is that this whole thing will settle itself. Kind of just how Google figured it out. They figured out how to demote black hat content. Content that's not helpful, content that's abusive to the system. And what's hard with that tension, as we saw that the last two years with Google having a helpful content update and then bringing in some of their AI search results and some good people getting demoted. Right? But I can imagine in that there was a lot of bad stuff that was happening, some black hat that was really dying out. How Pinterest does this I'm not sure. But what I do know is that short lived tactics always die out. They always do. But that's part of the fun for people, I'm sure, is that you go and go and go until it doesn't work anymore. Well, then I'll find something else that works. And then I'll find something else that works. I'll do my best to communicate and advise wherever Pinterest asks. So far they haven't. But I think there are ways to thread that needle without hurting what I would call people first Business owners. The tactics being taught currently are ones that I don't believe builds trust with the consumer and I believe trust will win out. In a recent webinar that I did with Bjork Ostrom, we touched on this topic of AI because it was a question that came up and he gave great, great answer and said trust will always win out. People want to consume content or buy products from places and people they can trust. And my kids are so smart with this stuff. They know if something's AI almost immediately and then they move on quickly. They don't trust it because there isn't a human behind it. I believe that's also the case here. AI can't create a great recipe. In fact I'll link this as well. But it's a New York Times test kitchen. They on YouTube did a really fun video where they asked ChatGPT to make a recipe for them and they came away with that. Is that ChatGPT can't tell us like how to smell for things or how to look at the chicken or what to be aware of. Maybe in the future it can. But it also can't create a great list of amazing skin care that you have personally tested and tried with your review. It can't talk about your amazing hardware that you sell at your company, how it looks in this brand new black kitchen or how it looks over here. Just like we discovered lame Google posts, I believe we're going to discover lame Pinterest articles and that trust will win out. The consumer will get smarter, they will get savvier and they will know the difference between AI crap content and good content. So where do we go from here? There will always be those that want to make money. I've said that a couple of times now. And they don't really care about the small business owners that have a passion for what they do. They would probably argue they have a passion for finding loopholes that will be here today. And I'll be here in the future, right? AI should be leveraged on your content to make it better, make you better as a business owner. I want us to get curious, I want us to get creative. I want you to use your people focused business to create great content with these tools. In the meantime, I know that I've heard from some of you that you feel like your content isn't getting seen anymore. And for that I want to say I'm so sorry. That is incredibly frustrating. It is incredibly frustrating to work so hard and not have it get seen like it used to. Leverage your audience, leverage the people who you email every day, the people who you communicate with, ask them to have, ask them to share it on Pinterest, ask them to pin it to a board. Those are the people that already trust what it is you've created and they believe in the type of products and content that you're creating. And they want to be your cheerleader, they want to share your stuff because it's amazing. I hope this has been helpful for you. I hope this gives you a window into how the Simplepen team feels about AI, how we approach it, how we hope that the future will be different, how we hope Pinterest will be a place where there's ethically and positive, especially as Pinterest leans into being a positive environment, that they will find a way to share AI content that is people first and that is ethically created and that has an ethical goal. If you would say, I know I've used that word ethical a little bit and some people might have different views of what that is and what that isn't and what that line is. But I guess what I really want to hammer home is the People first business. And that's who we want to support at Simple Pen Media. We want to support People first creators, People first product sellers and small business owners who are getting up every morning and saying, what am I going to do to sell more products? What am I going to do to push more content? And how do I get in front of that audience on Pinterest in order for my business to be sustainable? What? We are your cheerleaders, we are your guides and we will stand with you. So just know that that is our commitment. Thank you so much for listening to this non traditional podcast. I promise we'll be back more with understanding the Pinterest algorithm. In fact, I am also going to be interviewing Danny at Tailwind about their recent two part Pinterest study that they did of all these pins on Pinterest. And I think you're going to find it fascinating. Alrighty. Thanks so much for listening and watching.