Lately I've been focusing on building my following on Pinterest. If I enter group giveaways, I try and make sure that Pinterest is one of my follow links. When I first started blogging, I didn't care much about Pinterest, or about building a following on there. But as I started getting deeper into Saturday Sessions, graphic design, weight loss, sports tutorials and even randomly saw my pins being repinned by people who didn't even follow me, I realized how beneficial Pinterest could be to a blogger.
Then I realized, wow, I have lots of pins that I thought were beautiful and/or helpful but were never getting repinned. So here are some of my tips I've learned through trial and error on how to maximize your Pinterest account.
The majority of my images are wider rather than taller, because that is what looks best on the blog. I try to remember to have the image on the post that I want pinned to be taller rather than wider.
For example, when I first started doing Saturday Sessions, I used this as the image for Pinterest...
Not only does that get lost because it is so tiny in the Pinterest feed, all you see is Saturday Sessions, you can't really focus on what the tutorial is.
Now compare this image, which jumps out on the Pinterest feed and you know exactly what the tutorial is for.....
Pretty big difference right?
This is probably pretty obvious after reading the first tip. But don't forget to make an image for each post that you want pinned. Otherwise, if people want to pin your post, they're likely to pin something random and out of your control. Someone once pinned a selfie I had on the sidebar, not exactly what I had in mind.
I shake my head at the screen when I see a full recipe listed in the description of a pin. Come on, man! Don't give it all away. You want them to click to your site, right? Not have everything they need right there in Pinterest. That isn't doing you any good...
What do you offer your readers? A good laugh, tutorials, fashion? Use that to your advantage and utilize Pinterest over every other social media platform. People follow you via Twitter and Bloglovin, but you actually reach even more people through Pinterest. Having 1,000 followers on Pinterest is going to go 8x further than having 1,000 followers on Twitter. I just made that number up, but I think it is probably pretty accurate.
Sometimes on Pinterest, you need to focus on the excitement of being secretly Pinterest famous! For example, the pin below has been repinned thousands upon thousands of times. Guess what, that isn't helping me at all. I'm not getting extra traffic because no one is going to click this image, because there is no need to visit the website it came from. But I'll just settle on knowing that I'm the one who made this. Go me.
On the flip side, just because a pin isn't being repinned much, doesn't mean you aren't getting a whole lot of traffic from it. For example, the pin below from my post about sorority recruitment rarely gets repinned, but I actually get a lot of traffic to this post from Pinterest.
Let's think about that Sorority Recruitment post's pin again. Recruitment happens twice a year right? It all depends on which school you go to. Some schools do recruitment in August, some in January. This post originally was published in August, but it is always going to be a good idea for me to go back and repin this image again the following January, and even again the next August!
I am not a fan of the pin it button that blocks the entire image. But I am a fan of adding a pin it button that is small, subtle and still allows you to see the full image. Pins from my site have quadrupled since I added the pin it buttons to my images. Highly recommend!
So if you have a BRILLIANT post, go back and slap an image on that thing, pin it and start getting some traffic to your old posts. And don't forget to check out Helene's Saturday Session guest post from July to see even more tips!
And finally, remember you get out what you put in to blogging. Take the 5 minutes of extra time to size each of your pictures properly, take the time to design a pin specifically showcasing what your post is about, go back from time to time and repin your old stuff! Pimp that blog of yours out for the world to see!
What tips would you add to my list?
Oh, and won't you come Pin! We're open!
What a perfect post...TO PIN!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post! As a newer blogger I will soak up all the knowledge that I can get! Pinterest has definitely lead some foot traffic back to my site which is really exciting!
ReplyDeleteso many great tips! i loveee pinterest! xo
ReplyDeleteI need to get better at creating pinable images and then pinning them. Sometimes I'm not even sure my content is pinable, like my post about spring today. Does anyone on Pinterest care?
ReplyDeleteamazing amazing tips. the whole size of the image is so true. pinterest is amazing. i get hits all the time from a really old pretty pin i thought NOTHING off. you never know. put an image in a post! JUST DO IT!
ReplyDeleteoh pinterest, you dirty girl, i can't get enough of you
ReplyDeleteGreat tips!! I need to work on actually creating "pinnable" images for each posts but I have noticed a good flow of traffic from the things I do pin
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I use pinterest more now than before and I get more traffic from it than I would have guessed! Wonderful tips!
ReplyDeleteI definitely need to get better at this! Thanks for all the tips :-)
ReplyDeleteVery helpful! Thank you.
ReplyDeletegreat tips. I definitely get the most traffic from pinterest. I really need to add a pin it button to my blog. lazy.
ReplyDelete-- jackie @ jade and oak
Hmm...I deleted my Pinterest account...but then again I don't promote my blog either. lol
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I get a majority of my traffic from Pinterest and have been looking for ways to expand...I'm going to try to focus on making the images taller, not wider now. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips - and this is so Pinnable :)
ReplyDeleteThis post is SO helpful. Seriously. Thank you! I'm saving this to look over a few times :)
ReplyDeleteThese are all awesome tips! Thanks for sharing these. You freaking rock Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI need to add a "pin it" button!
ReplyDeleteAnd then to follow up from my tweets... Thank for you this post! I had been curious about Pintrest for the longest but didn't know where to begin :)
ReplyDeleteVery good tips! I need to remember to pin some of my older posts again.
ReplyDeleteExcellent article! I've been trying to get more into Pinterest as well and these are great tips. LOVE!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips
ReplyDeleteSo so helpful! Thank you for sharing :)
ReplyDeletegreat tips. I have one image from a post that is almost to 2000 repine but the image gives it all away so I don't get as much traffic as I could so tip #5 & #6 are 100% true if I had maybe done a different image about it I could be getting more than 200 a day to my blog from it.
ReplyDeleteLove love LOVE! I've been trying to do this more and more but sometimes forget! Thanks for the tips :)
ReplyDeleteRepinning is a really good idea that I never really thought about. I found out that Pinterest was the best social media for getting readers. I find that if I do a HOW TO post, and pin an image to pinterest I get much more traffic on my blog. Pinterest people love How To's I tell ya!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Thank you for the link to that monkey picture you had on Instagram. I ordered it and am hoping to frame it for my mom's b'day this weekend. She's crazy and would totally love something like that. (At least I'm hoping.. lol)
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to wrap my brain around how my Pinterest account could benefit my blog. Thanks for putting this together Sarah :)
ReplyDeleteWow, you've really put a lot of strategy into this! I know for sure that pinterest is my most-neglected area of social networking!
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ReplyDeleteLOVE, LOVE, LOVE this post! So helpful. Thanks Sarah!!
ReplyDeletePS: How can I tell how wide my post area is so I know how wide my pictures can be???
PPS: Sorry if you got this comment twice...I was on my personal Google account the first time and don't have my email hooked up for comments! My bad :)
I keep forgetting to create a pin button.. that's how much I care about it. I'm a horrible person yes I know. Pinterest and ADD don't mix well.
ReplyDeleteMy traffic is BOOMING due to Pinterest. Passionfruit just did a chat on this the other night and I learned a lot and have loved putting the tips to work!
ReplyDeleteI was experimenting with pinable images, and saw a huge boom in traffic from it! These are all good tips....i'll pin them :)
ReplyDeleteGreat tips Sarah! I've been working on my pinterest boards these last two weeks adding hashtags to pins which has been a great traffic booster, I will definitely be incorporating your advice as well, I especially like #7 :)
ReplyDeleteWell this is SUPER helpful. I hadn't even thought about using Pinterest beyond my own purposes, but these are amazingly helpful tips!!
ReplyDeleteI just got on Pinterest a few days ago. Sigh, how am I always so far behind on this stuff?! But anyway, thanks for this very timely post :-) I'm even going to pin it! (See, I'm so advanced on this stuff already.)
ReplyDeleteThese are awesome tips, Sarah! I never would've even thought of half of them. I've been starting to think about pinning my blog stuff... so glad I saw this first!!! :D
ReplyDeleteWhat great tips, thanks!
ReplyDeletePinterest is a HUGE part of my blog and it's where I get a majority of my page views. These are awesome tips!
ReplyDeleteMakeover With Aspen
I never thought about making my photos into pins until just this week when I posted yummy food pics! Thanks for this, great timing!
ReplyDeleteYou're my hero! I learned so much & want to go learn that hover trick now too!
ReplyDeletexx
This is great advice! Thank you for sharing your tips!
ReplyDeletexo, Nina
afterthe40barfinish
Great tips! Keeping this in mind while I redo my blog since I lost all my post :(
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