Connecting on Pinterest

When you go to someone’s Pinterest account, you will notice alongside their name and bio is a button that either says ‘follow’ or ‘unfollow’.  This is how you sign up to follow or unfollow someone on Pinterest. 

In that respect, it is similar to Facebook and Instagram – those people will appear on a list called ‘followers’ which is alongside the likes of ‘pins’ and ‘boards’ on your profile page.  Here you can also follow these people back if they are in your niche.

Just as you would with any other social media channel, start by using your social media strategy and Topic Planner for Pinterest.

Authentic ways to grow your Pinterest followers:

• Join group boards – look for those niche-specific group boards and join some.  It is a great place to find content to pin and people to follow who might also follow you back because you share interests
• Follow people in the ‘following’ tab – this is another relatively new feature that makes it easy to see people in related topics to follow who might then return the favour.  Plus you get a dedicated feed of their content which again is good stuff to pin
• Ask people to follow you – sometimes the easiest way is simply to ask your audience to follow you.  Add a snippet in your weekly email or have a popup banner along the top that prompts them to follow you on Pinterest.  It is amazing how many people will do it!
• Cross-post to other social media sites – make a little graphic for your Instagram or Facebook Page and ask your audience to follow you on Pinterest.  After all, they like your stuff enough to follow you there, why not on Pinterest too?

Creating a Pinterest marketing strategy means:

• Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound). On top of gaining a following on Pinterest, do you hope the platform will drive traffic to your website, increase sales for a specific product or drive sign-ups for an event?
• Learning about the general Pinterest audience and the demographic that is most likely to use this channel.
• Learning about your brand’s specific Pinterest target audience.
• Considering what your competitors are doing on this social media platform.
• Planning and incorporating on-brand content for Pinterest into your social media content calendar.

Engage with what’s popular

Take a look at what’s already performing well on Pinterest by browsing the Popular feed. Take notes, evaluate commonalities, and consider how you could apply these ideas to your own content.

When you come across compelling content, consider re-Pinning to one of your boards, following the user, or writing a thoughtful comment. All of these actions will increase your brand’s exposure on Pinterest.

But don’t overdo it. Too many comments may be flagged as spam. Instead, focus on writing a few sincere comments that go beyond one- or two-word remarks like “Cool!” or “That’s awesome.”

Tips For Growth

• Vertical imagery. Data shows 82% of users browse Pinterest on mobile. Shoot for a 2:3 aspect ratio to avoid ending up with awkwardly cropped images.
• Consider your image and video quality. You want to avoid pixelation, so aim for the highest quality image and video that Pinterest recommends.
• Descriptive copy. Good descriptions can help you improve SEO, add context to your images, and encourage users to click on links.
• Text overlay. Consider including a headline that reinforces your visual message.
• Tasteful branding. If it makes sense for your brand and corresponds to your Pinterest marketing strategy, incorporate your logo in your Pins so your brand doesn’t get lost in the Repin shuffle.
• Make sure your links work. Broken links won’t help your brand! Make sure the link with your Pin won’t go to a 404 and that it loads quickly to give Pinners the best user experience.
• Finally, be consistent! Consistent, daily Pinning is more effective than creating a board and filling it up at once. And Pinning regularly ensures your content will reach a wider audience.

If You Use Tailwind

A Tailwind tribe is a group of bloggers or people you connect with to share each other’s pins on a common topic. Not only is it a great way to keep track of people in your niche, but it gives you yet another way to assess the pin performance, since Tailwind tracks tribe shares and repins for you.

Add relevant keywords and hashtags

Pinterest is essentially a search engine, so your content should be optimized for discoverability. Make sure your descriptions are keyword-rich and include relevant hashtags so that you appear in relevant searches.

How to find the right keywords and hashtags:

• Use guided search. Start by putting a few keywords in Pinterest’s search bar, and take note of the automatic suggestion.
• Note the key word bubbles that appear in the search results header.
• Look at the hashtag suggestions and usage stats as you add hashtags to your Pin descriptions.
• Search a relevant hashtag, and look at the tags and keywords being used by Pinners using that hashtag.
• Look at the trending hashtags in your category (only available on the mobile app).

Next Lesson: Measuring What Matters on Pinterest