This post may contain affiliate links
If you’ve been blogging for any more than a week you’ve probably heard how vital Pinterest is to a blog. In fact, Pinterest is responsible for 99.9% of my blog traffic and was also the catalyst for my most popular post going viral.
That experience resulted in a 6,642.12% increase in page views over the course of 48 hours in September of 2016.
You can read more about that experience HERE.
Needless to say, I’m in love with Pinterest! And there are literally thousands of resources out there claiming to hold the key to your Pinterest success.
Most of them will provide you with valuable information. Much of it will be redundant and some will be hidden jewels of information.
So I literally try to read everything I can get my hands on regarding Pinterest so that I don’t miss anything in this current climate of ever-changing algorithms + trends.
One thing that I often find lacking is a selection of super duper basic resources for people who are just getting started. Like a ‘Pinterest for Dummies’ or ‘Pinterest 101’ for just Pinterest basics.
Sure, you can take the context clues from the more advanced resources and piece things together as you go; which is what I did. But that can take time and be somewhat confusing and frustrating.
So I decided to write this post to provide you a very basic framework for getting started with Pinterest from the ground up. And provide you resources for taking it to the next level once you’re ready after mastering these Pinterest basics.
.
Related Reading
How it Feels to Make a Living with Affiliate Marketing: An Interview with Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
One Year Blogging: Lessons Learned
Pinterest Basics
Getting Started With Pinterest:
- If you already have a Pinterest account it is recommended that you convert your personal account to a business account. [Tip: Make irrelevant boards secret.]
- If you don’t have a Pinterest account yet then just start off with a business account right from the get-go
- Set up Rich Pins
- Create your first 10 niche-specific boards [Tip: Create a “Best of {Your Blog Name}” board to pin to first]
- Don’t get overly creative with your board names [Tip: Use SEO-rich keywords]
- Add 10-15 killer pins to each board; keeping them as relevant as possible [Tip: No need to create your own board covers…seriously]
- Edit each board to choose one of those pins as your board cover, select a category, and craft an SEO rich description with relevant keywords.
.
This first section seems super daunting, I know. But it’s really not as scary as it sounds if you just take it step by step.
And if you need help with these Pinterest basics please check out my Pinterest services HERE.
.
Start Pinning:
- Pin every single day
- Pin 10-50 pins per day [Tip: Adding more than 50 does not help and at a certain point may flag you as spammy]
- The best ratio to start is to pin 20% your own content and then repin 80% content of other’s
- As you build content, then move in the direction of 80% yours and 20% others. [Tip: Do this gradually as you are able to increase the ratio without coming across as spammy]
- My favorite way to pin is to schedule 1/3 of your pinning via Tailwind and 1/3 via BoardBooster. And manually pin the remaining 1/3 (this is the fun part)!
- Use Tailwind to schedule other people’s content and use BoardBooster to schedule/loop your own content
.
What to Repin?
- Other people’s viral/most popular content
- Niche Specific – what your audience really, really loves
- Content that is currently trending on Pinterest
- Seasonal content – 45 days in advance
- Content that is similar to other things that have proven popular for your profile (See Pinterest Analytics)
.
And Then What?
I plan to write an entire blog post on this in the near future, but for now here are some general tips on next steps to grow with Pinterest.
- Follow 50 – 100 new accounts every day until you reach 1,000 of your own followers
- Identify and ask to join your first 5 Group Boards
- Identify and ask to join 10 Tailwind Tribes
- Join blogging Facebook groups, preferably niche specific, and participate in Pinterest sharing threads
- Monitor your brand performance using Pinterest Analytics, Google Analytics, and Tailwind reporting
- Do more of what’s working & less of what’s not…more about that in a follow up to the follow-up! ?
.
For more information on strategy and Pinterest basics I recommend the following resources that have taught me most of what I know about Pinterest:
Pinteresting Strategies eBook by Carly Campbell (Mommy On Purpose)
Pinterest Strategy Guide by Rosemarie Groner (The Busy Budgeter)
Pinterest Pop by Becca Klein (Blogs by Becca)
And if you are at all confused or overwhelmed by how to get started or need assistance in growth or maintenance then take a look at my Pinterest Management services! I welcome any questions you have, so please reach out!!
I also have a number of awesome blogging recommendations on my resources page. Anything you find there are offerings from serious influencers, really the cream of the crop, who I have learned so very much from.
Please let me know if you have any questions about anything I recommend!
.
Leave a Reply