Making Pinterest Work For Your Blog.
I've become one of those really annoying people who's Pinterest account has become the biggest referral to their blog. Ya know the ones, they pop up in chats like oh well I am getting an average monthly Pinterest audience of over 1 million whilst everyone else is struggling to get 100 followers. Yuh that's me now (and the stat of over 1 mill is true FYI) so if you don't pay much attention to you pinning or you don't know how to start making it work for your blog , read on my loves.
- Auto Push Your Content To Pinterest. Pretty much every blogging platform has this function but if you haven't set it up so your promo photos (with blog attached) gets pushed to Pinterest you need to do so immediately. You're literally putting your content out there without even having to press anything. Love an auto function.
- Pin The Rest Of Your Content. Auto normally only works for a promo photo or the first photo in the post so if you've got a photo heavy post or a travel diary or some cute flatlays or something make sure you go back and pin all your photos with links to the original post and a decent caption for SEO.
- Have A Dedicated Blog Board. Ultimate sin if you haven't already got one! Make it easier for your followers to find you, find your still and find your content by having a board with your blog name and fill it with all your photos and blog posts.
- Pin Your Content To Other Boards. I have boards for travel, boards for bullet journalling, for fashion, for flatlays and any of my own posts or photos that fit into those categories I pin them there as well just in case ya know, someone needs more reason to find me.
- Optimize Your Pinterest Boards. It's essentially like your Instagram grid, if people have a look and don't like what they see, they won't bother looking any further or following. Name all your boards something clear, make a really good quality image the board cover and move them around so all your bets boards are on the top.
- Follow Everyone. You can't expect people to follow you if you don't share the love back. Make sure you follow other bloggers especially to share all those lovely blogging tips.
- Share Your Link. Make sure people know you have Pinterest for them to follow you! Share it on Twitter, add it to your blog, shout about it a bit and drum up the love.
- Pin Regularly. Nobody wants to follow an account that pins like one a year, it just isn't going to happen. Make sure you pin regularly to keep hitting the top of the feed and make sure to pin some original content too not just re pins all the time.
- Join Group Boards. Group boards can make a huge difference to a pinterest account. There are LOADS for all different things and if you can't find one you'd like to join- go make one! Some people will add you to group boards and others are free to join and pin to and others you need to just give the board owner a quick message to see if you can join in the party. Pinning your content to group boards introduces you to a whole new audience and potential followers.
- Write Good Content! Admittedly you're probably aiming for this already but writing content for Pinterest can be hard. Some things will work much better than others, especially something that a reader can use again and again. Use SEO for your titles to make them catchy and more likely to grab someone's attention as something they might want to use or repin and think about your audience if you're tailoring content specifically for the old red P.
- Make Good Graphics. Graphics are the bread and butter of Pinterest. For all the flatlays and white interiors and nailspo and hair goals, there are 23049832567386 more graphics that are going viral. Graphics grab people, they look official, they look like they know what you're talking about and they let people know immediately what your content is about. I make mine on Photoshop, most of the time with a box overlay and some text to explain the post but you can do it for free on Canva.
- Optimize Your Photos. Pinterest photos that are portrait do much better than those that are landscape or square. Idk why but it's a fact so if your blog layout will allow it, just include portrait photos as promos. If your blog layout is different think about making a pinnable portrait image to add to the bottom of your post to 'pin for later'. Don't put obstacles in your way, make it as easy as possible to get noticed.
- Make Shareable Content. Shareable content is what works on Pinterest. Think of Pinterest as a social media in which people save things to read later on. It's all saved for reference and for reuse and for sharing which is why things like packing lists and to dos and handy tips and tricks or crafts work so well. Making shareable content and adding it to a blog post gives it that extra summin summin, make a travel packing list, make a graphic for a recipe, make something people can share and you're onto a winner.
- Go Viral. This is where I should probably admit I didn't do any of these things to make my Pinterest successful. I do a lot of them, still not all of them but certainly a lot but when my following and engagement started growing it was not because I had implemented a new strategy. No, what happened to me was a post I did on Free Bullet Journal Printables and it went viral on Pinterest (and then some) and THAT gave me my success first off. So yeah, if you can just pray to the gods of Pinterest that something you do takes off I'm sure you'll get there...