If you’ve ever been totally lost as to what Pinterest is and how to use it, this post is for you. I’ve put together the Ultimate Guide To Pinterest. After using these tips and strategies you’ll no longer be wondering how to use Pinterest.
We’ve already covered SEO for websites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Now we’re going to talk about using Pinterest to our advantage.
Pinterest is the mother of all social media platforms (second to YouTube in my opinion).
Almost all of the traffic on my personal blog comes from Pinterest. Figuring out the specific details of Pinterest + creating some amazing blog posts will help your Pins go ‘viral’!
What We’re Going to Cover:
- What Is Pinterest
- Using Rich Pins & How To Set Them Up
- Scheduling Your Pins
- Using Group Boards
- Designing Images & Graphics
- Including a ‘Pin It’ Button
Let’s do a quick overview of what Pinterest actually is…
What Is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a search engine much like Google. But instead of text links, Pinterest uses image links (aka Pins).
Pinterest gives users the ability to create an account and save Pins to various Boards. Similar to a corkboard that you pinned magazine clippings, photographs, and little nicknacks to when you were younger. Having multiple Boards allows a user to organize their Pins.
Some users pin things simply because the image is pretty or interesting, others pin items because the attached/linked article is helpful or intriguing. Creating a pin that appeals to both of these users will put you in a win-win situation. Pinterest is very much a visual platform.
Use Rich Pins To Boost SEO.
When you’re scrolling on Pinterest, Rich Pins are the ones that have website information directly below the pin. The post/article name will be listed along with your icon and website name.
Below are three examples from my personal blog.
How To Setup Rich Pins On Your WordPress Website.
If you use the WordPress platform for your blog, then setting up Rich Pins is extremely simple and will only take a few minutes.
Step 1.
If it’s not already, make sure to install the Yoast SEO plugin. (If you read my post Search Optimization Tips for Beginners, then you should have already done this.)
After you’ve installed and activated the plugin, head to the features section.
Scroll down to the “Advanced settings pages” section and make sure that it is enabled.
Step 2.
Next, you’ll need to validate your site. Hop over to the Rich Pins Validator.
Copy & paste one of your blog post URLs into the provided box and click ‘validate’.
Step 3.
After you’ve validated your site, you should see a confirmation message. Click ‘Apply now’ and after a few hours/days your pins should start displaying as rich pins.
This post contains affiliate links to help keep this website running. To learn more about affiliate links, click here.
Schedule Your Pins For Efficiency.
Constantly Pinning your Pins will mean you need to be on Pinterest almost 24/7. It can get really overwhelming and it’s extremely inefficient. Taking the time to learn how to use a scheduler will help you to easily grow your social reach and at the same time be more efficient.
There are main two services you can sign up for to schedule your pins on Pinterest – Tailwind and Boardbooster. I’ve never personally used Tailwind and from what I’ve researched, it’s similar to Boardbooster. With that being said, I absolutely love using Boardbooster.
How To Schedule Pins With Boardbooster.
When you setup scheduling, Boardbooster will create a Secret Board for the board you’d like to schedule Pins for. Then, you can pin anything you’d like scheduled to this secret board. You set up the frequency and time period that you’d like your Pins scheduled. Then boardbooster will automatically take a pin from the secret board and Pin it to the board you’ve chosen.
Step 1.
Sign up for a free BoardBooster account, your first 100 pins are free (it will last you a while). After that, it’s $1 per 100 pins per month. The lowest plan starts at 500 pins/month and it works perfectly for me. After you’ve signed in and connected to your Pinterest account…
In the menu bar, click the ‘Pinning tools’ option and then click on ‘Scheduler’.
Step 2.
Now you’ll be taken to the Scheduler dashboard. Click on the ‘add board’ option. Upon clicking this a window will pop up. Select the boards that you’d like to create a schedule for. Then click ‘continue’.
Step 3.
In the next window, you pick how often you’d like pins to be pinned and what time frame you’d like it to happen each day. After clicking submit it will take a bit to connect to your Pinterest account and set everything up.
Step 4.
After this, you can head over to your Pinterest account and start pinning to your secret board. I recommend sitting down for 5 or 10 minutes and load this secret board up so that you don’t have to do it frequently.
How To Loop Pins With Boardbooster.
Looping your Pins is another option that I highly recommend. When setting this up, you again will have multiple options to customize it to your liking.
What this does is it takes one of your boards and looks at all of the Pins. It will take the oldest pins and re-pin them, putting them at the top of the board. After a designated amount of time, Boardbooster will look at the two pins (the original and the re-pinned one). Which ever has the least amount of re-pins will be deleted.
This helps to keep your boards fresh if you’re not constantly pinning to them.
Tip: Looping cannot be applied to group boards that you do not own.
Use Group Boards To Grow Your Reach.
Multiple people can be assigned to one board on Pinterest. This is a GREAT way to get your content spread to the masses, especially if the board has a high following. Certain networks have boards just for their influencers and then influencers themselves have created group boards for others to join.
Certain networks have boards just for their influencers and then influencers themselves have created group boards for others to join.
So now that I’ve gotten you all excited about group boards, how do you find and join them?
How To Find & Join Group Boards.
The first thing you’ll want to do when searching for group boards is to follow other bloggers. (You can discover other bloggers on Bloglovin’.)
When your on another blogger’s Pinterest profile, scroll through their boards. If you see a board with a small circle of profile pictures, then you’ve discovered a group board. Here are four examples of what a group board might look like when you’re scrolling through someones profile.
Open up the group board and read the description, usually there are instructions on how to join the board (you have to be invited by someone else). Make sure to only join group boards that are relevant to your niche.
Design Images & Graphics Specifically for Pinterest.
I mentioned earlier that Pinterest is a HIGHLY visual site. With that being said, it’s extremely important that your Pins be visually appealing. Without this appeal, your Pins won’t get as much traffic as they may deserve.
After you’ve finished writing a blog post, take a few minutes to design an image or graphic to use specifically for Pinterest.
I promise this is a lot easier than it sounds. You don’t need a design background, anyone can do it!
I have a few suggestions and options for you…
Use Canva or PicMonkey.
Canva is a free online design tool that you can use to create a large variety of designs. The best part is that they offer multiple free templates for you to choose from. Here are some of the social media options that they provide…
PicMonkey is a similar service to Canva. They also have a free account option and offer some free social media templates. I have a personal preference for Canva, but test them both to see which works best for you!
Purchase Templates on Creative Market.
Creative Market is a fantastic resource for anyone that is interested in design. You can purchase fonts, WordPress themes, templates, actions, elements, anything you could possibly need to design something.
They offer tons of social media templates that you can use to your advantage. Make sure to read the details of each listing to see which programs the templates are compatible with (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign Canva, etc.)
Hop onto Photoshop or Illustrator.
If you already have the skills to use Photoshop or any of the other Adobe products, then go for it! Develop your own type of style and create a pin that specifically matches your brand.
This is personally what I use to create my pins. I originally started with Canva and then switched over to Photoshop when I started developing my own style for how I wanted my pins to look.
Include a ‘Pin It’ Button.
You will notice that if you hover over any of the images on this page that a ‘Pin It’ button appears in the center. This is a great way to provide a call-to-action (CTA) for your readers.
Tip: A CTA is a specific action that you directly tell your readers to take. So this could be signing up for a newsletter, pinning a pin to Pinterest, or even following you on Instagram.
Pinterest is such a fantastic tool to use to grow both your blog and your social influence. Taking advantage of a platform like this is key to creating a successful blog.
