I’ve been blogging for over three years, but Pinterest was always a completely mystery to me…until now!
I admit I still have a lot to learn, but I wanted to share how developing a Pinterest strategy took my personal Pinterest account with a handful of followers to a business account with more than 170,000 monthly views. And, I did it all with only about 10 minutes a day for a couple of months!
Using Pinterest Like A Business
I’d been using Pinterest for a while for personal pinning, but really had no clue how to use it for blogging. I had created a few (ugly) pins just because I knew I “should,” but beyond pinning them on my own boards, I never did anything with them.
I downloaded the Pinning for Pageviews e-book during one late-night blogging session, and I can’t even tell you how much I learned from this one resource! Seriously, it spoke my language and de-mystified Pinterest for me. I got started right away implementing the strategies.
Caroline from The Basics of Blogging is a wealth of information and so helpful! As a bonus for buying the e-book, you get access to the Basics of Blogging Facebook group, which has been a fantastic way to ask questions, get feedback, and learn more every day.
Some things I did immediately:
- Converted to a business account
- Set up rich pins – super easy with this tutorial
- Created a “best of” board for my own pins
Using Group Boards
Before I read Pinning for Pageviews I had never heard of a group board. If you’re new to blogging or living under a rock like I was, group boards are one of the key ways to get more eyes on your pin by expanding your reach, re-pins, and click throughs.
A group board has multiple contributors, and you’ll know it’s a group board because of the little circle on the board.
Because Pinterest uses an algorithm like Facebook does, even people who follow your Pinterest account won’t see all of your pins. The key to getting your pin in front of more people is leveraging other accounts’ followers through group boards.
When I converted my Pinterest to a business account three months ago, I had less than 400 followers. A group board typically has way higher numbers of followers, typically at least 1000 but anywhere up to 50,000+. So you can see why joining group boards is a smart strategy!
How to Join Group Boards
A quick Google will bring up all sorts of great tips on joining grouping boards, but I did this the old-fashioned way. I found group boards by looking at other bloggers in my niche and seeing what boards they were pinning to.
When I found a group board, I followed the instructions in the description on how to join. Some boards require an email while others might ask for a comment. If there weren’t instructions on how to join, I messaged the group board owner. The owner will be the profile in the first little circle you see to the right of the board description.
My message was:
Hi, I blog a www.PracticallyHippie.com about life, motherhood, and home decor, and would love to join your group board “Insert Name Here.” I will re-pin group content and follow the rules. My Pinterest email is [email protected]. Thank you!
Don’t get discouraged!
The first few weeks I spent a lot of my time on joining group boards. I only got responses back about 25 percent of the time, but don’t get discouraged. Just keep sending emails and messages and you WILL get accepted to some boards.
How to Pin to Group Boards
Now that I learned what group boards were and how to join them, I still had no idea what to do with them. The key to a successful pinning strategy for me as a busy mom short on time was joining Tailwind.
Tailwind is a scheduling tool, and it’s AWESOME! You can get do a free trial and get a $15 credit when you sign up through my link here.
I used a strategy outlined in Pinning for Pageviews for pinning to group boards so that my own pins were being sent out to all of my boards at regular intervals. Every time I created a new pin, I just make sure to add it to my schedule so it’s getting pinned regularly.
A huge part of Pinterest is not just pinning your own content though. You’ve got to pin other people’s content, and quality matters. Group boards are great for sourcing quality content too!
Each day, I spend 10 minutes adding content from my group boards to Tailwind. In 10 minutes I can schedule about 3 days worth of pins. I try to keep about 30 days of content scheduled on Tailwind at a time.
A Pinterest Strategy That Works
Remember that I started with less than 400 followers on Pinterest? Today I’m reaching more than 170,000 people on Pinterest! Views on Pinterest are great, but I really want views on my blog, and within 30 days of reading Pinning for Pageviews, my blog page views more than doubled.
And that’s with spending only 10 minutes a day on Pinterest. And I still have so much more that I can implement like starting to use Tailwind Tribes. Once you start digging into Pinterest, you’ll see that 170,000 is really NOTHING, and the opportunities are HUGE. Now that I have the basics down, I’m ready to see things take off.
I know how confusing Pinterest was for me just a few months ago, so I hope you found this helpful! Let me know if you have any questions at all, and I’d be happy to help!
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