To think that just a few years ago Pinterest didn’t exist, its growth has been exponential. Initially released as invitation only in March 2010, the site now has over 70 million users. If that’s not a good reason to join the party, I don’t know what is.
It’s not enough to sign up for a branded profile that then gets forgotten – you need to keep your account populated on a regular basis with interesting and exciting visual content. Stuck for ideas on how to do this? Here are some tips to help you out.
Search Popular Pins
Popular pins are pretty self-explanatory – these are the pins that have had a lot of engagement – through Likes, Comments and Repins. By exploring this content, you can get a good idea of what resonates well for users.
To access Popular pins, sign in to your Pinterest account and then click on the top left Menu icon and find Popular on the drop down menu.
Alternatively, if your business operates within any of the menu categories listed, you can always select that topic to look at relevant top pins.
As well as helping to inspire new Boards and providing a plethora of images to repin, Popular Pins are also a great resource for finding images to comment on or Like. Look for recent pins, and be sure if you are commenting to make your input meaningful rather than ‘Great pic!’ (no one likes that).
Be Pinspirational
An online Oxford Dictionary search for “pinspiration” returns this rather depressing result:
If selfie can make it in, then surely this term isn’t far behind? It’s definitely a thing, honestly.
Pinterest users create thousands of boards every day that are based on ideas, wishlists and other inspirational and aspirational topics… Not to mention recipes… So many recipes. No matter what industry you reside within, you should be using this to your advantage.
Pinterest is very lifestyle led. Brands such as Starbucks have capitalised on this by creating a mixture of boards that relate directly to their caffeinated product, along with those which cover popular topics such as interior design and food.
If your Pinterest account is just full of your own products, then users might as well be visiting your website. Whilst ecommerce businesses can benefit from Pinterest’s new Rich Pins for product mark up, you should balance these with other content.
Pinterest’s Interest Function
At the time of publishing, this function is pretty new and is only available on desktop browsers. You can find it from their left menu (‘Preview! Explore Interests’), or from here.
It will only really be useful to you if you have a good selection of existing pins, as it provides you with customised recommendations based on your interests.
To give you an example, here’s what I am presented with on my own account:
So this tells you that I like Batman, Game of Thrones, James Franco and Kitchenware (amongst other things). Pretty accurate really. From these results you can then click on the displayed image to be taken through to a selection of pins that are relevant to that topic. This is pretty nifty if you’re looking at bulking up your boards.
The powers that be have confessed that as it is in early stages, you will get a few results that “aren’t quite your thing”, so it remains to be seen how useful it will be for now. The end goal is for it to be easier for users to be able to find content to engage with – good news for brands who have plenty of content to be discovered.
Repurposing For Pins
The key to Pinterest success is to have a good balance of your own and repinned content. Of course if you have a professional photographer and plenty of time on your hands, creating beautiful photos is a must, however if you are a bit strapped for time (who isn’t?), then there are ways of creating pinnable content that can take a matter of minutes.
- Pin images from your blog posts – either create a board exclusively for your blog posts, or pin them within topic titled boards. For example, if you write a post about how to decorate furniture, pin it to a DIY or Interior Design board.
- Add visual content types such as Slideshare presentations, videos and Infographics to your Pinterest account.
- Use quotes from your content and turn them into images by using editing software or free services like PicMonkey. Simply choose a suitable image (make sure you have the correct copyright), or put together a simple clear design and overlay with the text. A simple search for ‘quotes’ can give you some ideas of what works well. Remember, the more enticing and relatable the quote, the more likely you’ll get a click through.
Holidays & Events
You’ve probably heard, or perhaps experienced the power of creating content that is connected to seasonality. Pinterest is no exception to this rule.
By being smart with timing, you can tie boards or individual pins to Christmas, Valentine’s Day and other holidays as well as life events such as Weddings.
Pinterest even has a category for these:
User-Generated Pinning
Pinterest has a great function that allows you to select users to contribute to particular boards. This is a prime opportunity to involve fans directly in your Pinterest marketing efforts. Etsy have created several Guest Pinner boards such as this one.
If you have any followers that are loyal customers and active users, invite them to contribute to your board. The customer will appreciate the invite, and it alleviates the need to continue updating it yourself. Just keep an eye on what is being contributed.
Here’s a great guide from Social Media Writing on how to invite guest pinners to your board.
On top of that, you could also create a board of Fan photos – a good example of this is Seksy by Sekonda who repin many images from Instagram of customers wearing their watches.
Brand Boards
To add personality to your brand, why not share images of your business premises, employees or even create a board that shares images that relate to your brand principles?
Ben and Jerry’s tick all of these boxes by including Our Factory, The People Behind The Pints and On A Mission boards.
By including these types of Boards, your business is projecting an image of honesty and openness which your customers will truly appreciate.
The Rules To Pinning Your Own Content
So now you have a few ideas on generating Pinterest content, here are a few points to consider when pinning your own stuff:
- Don’t overdo it – have a natural blend of your own pins and repinned content.
- Make the images you use large, clear and professional looking. It’s not likely people will want to engage with small or pixelated photos.
- Add a Pin It Extension to your browser for when you come across Pinnable content across the web.
- Try and keep your Boards as busy as possible – those with less than 20 pins look rather lonely.
Now it’s time to get pinning! Put time aside as often as you can to keep the account active.
Do you have any ideas to add for how to generate awesome Pinterest content? Let me know in the comments below!
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