Hi bestie. You’re here because you want the tea. I get it. And I’m going to share.
I wish I could just link the Threads post that started this all, but frankly the convoluted way the conversation is nested is almost impossible for me to follow, and I took part in it.
So the easiest way to share what went down on February 13, 2024, is to share this blog post with you, complete with screenshots. Let’s get started.
The Inciting Incident
I received a text from Sara at BTL Copy with a screenshot of someone’s email reply to her sales email about the Pinterest Blogging Workshop.
The text of the reply reads: “Your Pinterest Manager gets 9 monthly visitors per month. Why is she teaching us how to get traffic? Sounds bad.”
I don’t know how you respond to rude responses, but most people tend to ignore it.
As Sara put it, “If you’re a hater, you’re moving to the bottom of the email priority list.” Fair. That’s probably what I should have done.
But Daisy’s reply brought up a common objection that I’ve heard before — why does your Pinterest suck if you’re a Pinterest manager?
So I wanted to take the opportunity to address the objection and educate my audience. This was on a weekend, so I turned to Threads, which is where I tend to “test” my ideas before bringing them over to Instagram. This is what I posted:
I shared the screenshot, without her personal information, and included my “rebuttal.”
- My clients’ results are a more accurate depiction of my skills than my own
- It doesn’t make sense for me to market on Pinterest because my target market isn’t on Pinterest
Did I really need to add “If you don’t understand how service providers work, just say so”? No. I’ll admit it. But I was feeling a little hurt and this is pretty par for the course as far as my level of sarcasm and sass goes.
I didn’t expect anything else to happen from this. I was going to do some more education around the topic and call it a day. But yesterday I checked Threads and found a response.
(From here on out, it will mostly be screenshots, FYI.)
Daisy chose to double down on her name calling, calling me rude, gross, and bad, once again. So of course, I responded back. I fully acknowledge I could’ve stopped responding at any point, but here we are. It keeps going.
My intention throughout this whole conversation was to keep a professional yet firm tone. I was matching her energy.
Also, although she is on paper my potential market (service-based business, interested in Pinterest), I had already long considered her not part of my potential market because of the way she’d been interacting with me and the fact that she was already so determined to question me and not trust my expertise. My clients trust me implicitly, and if they have questions, are kind in asking them.
Here, the conversation diverges a bit, so let’s follow this short tangent about “trust” before continuing with the conversation…
With this Thread, I realize that Daisy’s issue with my expertise and qualifications actually has nothing to do with Pinterest, but instead about her assumption of the traffic I receive on my website. To the best of my knowledge, the metric she’s using as the “9 monthly visitors” is an estimate I was able to find on Ubersuggest that predicts the amount of organic traffic a website generates from search engine results.
Not only is that not indicative of a website’s total traffic, the number is also incorrect. Based on my analytics in Google Search Console, I received 108 visitors from search results in January 2024, and over 800 total site visitors in the past 30 days from a variety of sources.
I attempted to clarify the misunderstanding, but received no response. And as I also said, driving traffic from Google search isn’t a priority for my business at the moment, nor is it indicative of my Pinterest capabilities. That was the end of this particular offshoot, so let’s return to the main Thread.
Where we left off: I told Daisy she wasn’t my target market…
Here we begin to get to one of the issues Daisy has — not receiving a response from Sara, whose email she originally replied to.
I attempted to provide her with the information she seemed to want. My understanding was that Daisy wanted to know what my qualifications were for educating about Pinterest and driving traffic.
At this point, I start trying to de-escalate a bit. I’m acknowledging her very valid concerns and I apologize if I came off as rude. I still don’t think I really did, but that’s not entirely up to me to decide, so I apologized anyway.
The conversation has become incredibly circuitous now. Daisy persists in bringing up how she is unable to find the information she’s looking for, and she reemphasizes that I am “rude” and the workshop “sounds bad”. She does not once acknowledge how her behavior is also rude; in fact, she positions it as doing a service/favor for me.
Once again, another attempt to provide her the information I thought she wanted. Also, I have never intentionally sold to her. To my knowledge, she isn’t on my email list, doesn’t follow me on Instagram, and I had no clue she would see the original Thread where I promoted the workshop. The internet is a public space and I was not intentionally barging into her private spaces and selling to her.
It was getting late by this time in the conversation. I think it was around 10-11 pm my time when the above reply came in. But I’d like to bring your attention to the little pencil and circle icon next to the “12h”. This Thread has been edited. Unfortunately, you can’t see the previous edit history of Threads and I didn’t take a screenshot of the original message, but here is what it said before Daisy edited it:
“At this point I just want you to stop being a 🐝”
I’m sorry, calling me a bitch is a step too far for me. Especially considering I’ve done nothing but respond, try to give her information, and politely (yet still firmly) stand up for myself. So, naturally, I ask for proof of just how I’ve been bitchy in Daisy’s opinion.
I’ve got several issues with this last message.
- “Deflection” — No. I’ve answered every question and addressed every point she’s brought up. If anyone’s deflecting, it’s Daisy.
- “Out of my way” — I didn’t ask her to research me. It sounds like she’s been learning about me for a while, so I’m surprised she still feels so uncertain about my qualifications.
- “Your friend is selling it FOR YOU.” — Nope, we’re both selling it because it’s a training we’re both hosting and providing information about.
- “You don’t use the thing you sell your services about?? It’s [fishy].” — It’s not fishy. I don’t need to use Pinterest to drive traffic to my website because most of my audience is on Instagram and that’s where I get the majority of my leads.
So I said as much:
Aha! Now we’ve come back to the traffic issue! Daisy wants to learn about Pinterest traffic from someone who is using it for themselves. Totally valid, we’re just not a good fit, cool.
“Sounds bad” is the most negging, rude way I’ve ever had an objection brought up to me. Why would I want to justify myself to someone I don’t even know. There are so many more ways to actually ask a question than simply stating “sounds bad” and hoping you get an overexplanation of all the ways I’m good at my job. It’s a $149 workshop — I don’t need to put in that effort just to get you to attend.
I really want to sort out this confusion about the traffic, because as someone who offers SEO and blogging services, I’m curious why she’s fixated on this number “9”. (Between you and me, I’d be curious to know what her traffic is, too, but that’s not worth bringing up.)
And that’s where we’re at now, as of 12:38 p.m. on February 14, 2024. I’ll update the post if anything changes, but for now, remember — you get to stand up for yourself.
I’ll admit I’m making an… interesting choice in sharing this with you. Partly it’s because I’m an oversharer anyway, but partly because the things I’m saying are important to tell you.
I am a Pinterest marketer who doesn’t market herself on Pinterest. But I have a catalog of incredible client results, case studies, and testimonials. I also constantly invest in learning more about Pinterest marketing (and marketing in general) so that I provide my clients with the best service possible.
The way I run and market my business actually has very little to do with my knowledge and qualifications. In fact, I’d argue that intentionally choosing not to market on Pinterest demonstrates my understanding of the platform. It’s not a right fit for every business, and I’ll always be honest with my clients or potential clients about that fact.
Beyond the marketing and qualification component of this “drama,” this Threads conversation highlights something even more important — personality. While yes, my “target audience” is service-based business owners, I also look for people who share my same values. Who are kind and considerate. Who admit when they’re wrong and do the work to educate themselves. Who will question me, yes, but also accept my response.
The relationship between a service provider and business owner is one that requires flexibility, collaboration, and excellent communication.
I do not hit the mark on the head 100% of the time. But I try, and I try very hard to make sure no one in my community feels the way I’ve been made to feel over the past few days — questioned, doubted, attacked, misunderstood…
This isn’t going to horrendously shake me. But 3 years ago? It would’ve crushed my confidence. No one should have to feel that way, but unfortunately people are people and sometimes they have bad days and take it out on someone else. I hope by my responses, I’ve showed you that there is another option beyond “ignoring it”. Choose what’s best for you and lean on your friends and support systems.
Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day! 🤪🫶
