Hello again!

Eek! Sorry I’ve been MIA. At first I was prepping for a talk at a Social Media Analytics conference. But then my hard drive died the other day (gasp!) and I lost photos I had planned to use in posts! :( I’m still hoping I can recover my data, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share some stuff from my social networks. Let me know if you’re on these too!

1. Instagram I just got it when it came out on Android. Not thrilled that it was bought by Facebook, but I’m enjoying it for now. :) My username is katealamode.

2. Pinterest Definitely a fave. Lots of fashion, crafts, and recipes here. And I try to be super good about finding the original source for my pins. :)

3. Facebook I recently set up a blog page. Would love to connect!

4. Twitter just for some chitchat. :)

Those are the major ones for me! How about you?

Pinterest Hacked! How to Delete the Spam

If you’re a regular to Pinterest you might have come across this: spammy Best Buy, Starbucks, or Walmart gift card pins – or perhaps pins advertising diet pills. Some of them are labeled as Pinterest giveaways, but they’re definitely not legitimate. Do NOT click the links!

Maybe one ended up in your own stream. It seems that the pin is not deletable, but there is a way to remove it. Open the pin, type “edit” after the end of the pin URL (e.g. http://pinterest.com/pin/5555555/edit), and it will take you to the pin edit page. You can delete it from there.

Also, it may appear under your “Likes”. Just be sure to unlike the pin.

Again, do NOT click the link in the pin! I don’t know where it goes, but I suspect it can bring nothing but trouble.

Where did these things come from? I’m not sure, but it looks like the spammers were using a script to propagate the pins automatically throughout Pinterest. Interestingly, you don’t need to actually click on the pins for them to show up in your stream.

To be on the safe side, after you delete the pin, clear your browser cache, cookies, etc. completely and reset your Pinterest password. It’s always a good idea to run a virus scan, too!