Marc Guberti
Pinterest is a growing social network that can no longer be overlooked, and more brands are recognizing that. Several brands such as Nordstrom and Buzz Feed use Pinterest to get more exposure. Buzz Feed said that compared to the other social networks, Pinterest was its second best traffic referrer. Although Buzz Feed has over 300,000 Pinterest followers, it also has over 600,000 Google+ followers, two million Twitter followers, 4.5 million Facebook likes, and five million YouTube subscribers. With all of those numbers, Pinterest ended up getting the second most traffic amongst all of those social networks.
How does a business owner get the same results? How does an author use Pinterest to boost sales? How does Pinterest lead to more blog traffic? Success on Pinterest comes down to effective marketing, and if you want to effectively market yourself on Pinterest to boost your visibility, follow these eight tips:
#1: Longer, Optimized Descriptions
On Pinterest, you have a maximum of 500 characters. Although you shouldn’t use all 500 of those characters (using all of them would make a pin really long, and people don’t like reading long stuff on Pinterest), your pin descriptions should consist of more characters than a tweet. 200-250 characters is the sweet spot for getting more repins.
When you write a description, also make a point to optimize that description by fitting it with keywords, 1-2 hashtags, and a call-to-action (i.e. click on the picture to get led to the article). Including the keywords and hashtags makes it easier for Pinterest users to find your content through Pinterest’s search engine. Making your content easy to find on Pinterest’s search engine will lead to more exposure for yourself and your brand as a whole.
#2: Create Group Boards
One of the most underrated ways to market yourself on Pinterest is by creating group boards. Group boards get updated by you and the contributors that you choose. If you have enough contributors who are active on Pinterest, you could systematically grow your audience and get more pins on your board at the same time.
The group boards on Pinterest provide unparalleled capabilities that you won’t find on other social networks. Imagine thousands of people adding relevant content to your social networks for free, and when you promote a product or pin something from your blog, that pin reaches a larger audience.
#3: Be A Part Of Group Boards
Do you want to interact with tens of thousands of followers without putting in a massive amount of work to grow those numbers. What if you could be given a platform in which you could promote your content to tens of thousands of people? What if this platform was given to you overnight? What if you got the platform now?
Group boards thrive and get popular as more people contribute. The reason is that when people contribute to a group board, the group board appears in their profile. When a new follower clicks “Follow All,” that new follower follows every board on the profile—even the group boards. That’s why it is easy to get accepted to group boards with tens of thousands of followers. The people who created the group boards want more exposure, and more contributors means more exposure. They both go hand-in-hand.
When you become a part of group boards, you add a variety of boards to your profile that constantly get updated. This will make your profile look more appealing to a potential follower, and when you put a pin on the group board, you are putting that pin on a board with a new audience. Pinning on the group board often allows you to tap into that audience and get more people who follow all of your boards. If followers like the content you pin on someone else’s group board, they may follow you.
#4: Pin Your Blog Posts
On social media, it is necessary to have an end-goal. Where do you want your visitors to go and what actions do you want your visitors to perform? One thing you must do is build the relationship between you and your visitors, and relationships get built as visitors read more of your content. I know who my repeat customers are, and I remember the seeds that led to strong relationships months down the road.
When you pin your blog posts, schedule them in advance. I typically schedule three pins every day for optimal times throughout the day (2 pm, 4 pm, and 8 pm are the three most popular times to pin something on Pinterest. This is notably different from most of the other social networks. For most social networks, it is good to post something at around 6-10 am eastern time.
#5: Repin The Most Successful Stuff
If something succeeded once, then why can’t it succeed again? You have pins that are doing better than others. That is true for every individual. There are also pins that are hot on Pinterest and getting attention. If you got one of those pins on one of your boards, then it would get attention.
Repinning the most successful stuff will lead to more repins. These pins may not necessarily promote your blog posts or anything of that nature, but if your followers get into a pattern of repinning your pins and returning to your profile, they will eventually repin your pins about your blog posts. This may seem like a time consuming way to get a few repins, but if you stick with this method over the long-term, and hundreds of people get comfortable with repinning your pins, then imagine how much extra exposure your blog posts would get each time you pinned them.
#6: Lead People To Your Landing Page
If you want to make a full-time income on the web, then you must have an email list. There is no way around it, and having hundreds of thousands of social media followers won’t do any good unless you get those followers to subscribe. One of the most effective ways to get your social media followers on your email list is to lead them to your landing pages.
Every other day, you should pin a picture of the free incentive you offer on your landing page and then urge people to click and enter their email in the pin’s description. That way, you have your call-to-action which will boost the amount of conversions you get from Pinterest. Remember, you have up to 500 characters to describe the free incentive, why your followers would want it, and how they would get it.
#7: Go Beyond Your Niche
Pinterest is a different social network because you can go beyond your niche. Pinterest provides its users with capabilities that allow profession and hobbies to seamlessly coexist on the same profile page. Going beyond your niche and into your hobbies allows your followers to paint a better picture of who you are as a person.
Many individuals are only known for their professional background, but one of the best ways for relationships to build is by creating some boards that are based on your hobbies. I also mention some of my hobbies and personality traits in my bio. I mention that I am a dog lover, and I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had with other social media users about dogs. Dogs have nothing to do with my niche, but being a dog lover allows me to interact with people who I would have never interacted with if I didn’t mention “dog lover” in my bio.
#8: Pictures Are Key
The picture is the most important part of the entire pin. If your picture is unappealing, then people won’t take the time to read the description or click on the picture and be led to another webpage (i.e. one of your blog posts). Even if you wrote the best description on the web, and the blog post you promote is of top value, Pinterest users will skip over it if the picture is unappealing.
When I create my pictures for my blog posts, I always use Canva. Canva is a great tool that allows you to customize pictures and add text to them. In all of my blog posts from this year and a bunch of them from last year, I used Canva, and that allowed me to add the title of my blog posts within each picture. Now, when people view the picture on Pinterest, they already know what the article will be about before they even click on it or read the description.
In Conclusion
With 70 million users as of late 2013 (more than a year ago), Pinterest is continuing to grow, and it shows no signs of stopping. If you have not taken Pinterest seriously, it is time for you to start. If you have been on Pinterest for a while, now you know how to get more visibility. In the end, these methods will only have as big of an impact as you make them have on your Pinterest audience.
Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you have any other methods for growing a Pinterest audience? Please share your thoughts and advice below.
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