To get more followers on Pinterest we need to have a deep understanding of the platform and how it works. Are hashtags still important? What really works today? How do you find your audience?
Luckily, there are some simple tweaks to your Pinterest marketing strategy that can help you increase your followers, your reach and grow your business.
The secrets to getting more followers on Pinterest
There’s a lot of work that goes into building a successful profile on any social media platform, and this social network is no different. However, the great thing about working on your Pinterest account is that the lifespan of a pin is much longer than that of a tweet or Instagram story.
With a little work up front, you can set Pinterest up to generate traffic and sales in the long run, and get your products in front of new people in the process.
Treat Pinterest like a search engine
One of the things that makes Pinterest so different from most social media platforms is that people often use it as a search engine. For example, they’ll have a regular feed with pins from accounts they follow, but they’ll also go straight to the search bar when they search for “easy vegan recipes.”
That’s why keywords are important everywhere, from the titles of your boards, to your profile description and the descriptions of your pins. You can create a list of keywords relevant to your brand directly on Pinterest.
Let’s say you sell nursery decor. To start your keyword list, search for “nursery” on Pinterest.
For your main keyword ” nursery “, you can see a list of possible two-word keywords that get a lot of search traffic. Those keyword combinations can give you ideas for your pin descriptions, board titles, or even ideas for the type of content you could create for your store.
Join or create collaborative boards
Search isn’t the only way to reach new audiences and followers on Pinterest.
Group boards, where you collaborate with other Pinterest users and you all have permission to add pins to a shared board, can help get your pins in front of your collaborators’ followers.
Here’s how it works.
- When someone follows you, they follow all your boards.
- They will see the pins from your boards and your group boards in their feed.
- When you add pins to group boards, your pins will be shown to your followers and your collaborators’ followers.
However, before you jump into joining any group boards that welcome you, it’s important to consider how your group boards will work with your overall aesthetic and how they fit in with your current Pinterest followers.
- Consider how it fits with your brand. If your pins are completely different from the board, or your products don’t align with the board, it may not be the right fit for your company.
- Tailor your email. When you send a note requesting to join a group board, try to personalize the email with details about why you want to join the board, and how your business would be a good match for the board.
- Make sure you fit the criteria. If the group board has any specifications for new members, make sure your business meets all of them before sending a request to join.
Schedule your publications
Since Pinterest is different than most other social media platforms, your posting schedule will also be different.
You can post more frequently than on other platforms without annoying your followers, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend hours a day posting to several different boards. You can also turn to scheduling software to plan your pins in advance.
One of the most popular tools is Tailwind, which helps you schedule pins based on defined time slots, similar to how you would schedule your posts on Facebook or Twitter. You can also join Tailwind Tribes to share your pins with others who are looking for relevant content to post on their boards.
Take a look at the statistics
When growth is your goal, numbers are your friend. There are a few ways to identify new ways to grow your account using Pinterest analytics.
Pinterest will show you which of your pins are performing best during a specific time period, in three different metrics: impressions, saves, and clicks. These three numbers can help you figure out what styles of pins and types of content are performing best with your current audience.
- Pins with a lot of impressions are being seen by a lot of people, but if the other two numbers are low, they are not driving them to take action.
- Pins with high saves are being repined by your audience, but if the number of clicks is low, it’s not driving anyone to your website, where you can convert them.
- Pins with lots of clicks are the ones that get results. They drive people to your website, but if they don’t get impressions, you’re losing web traffic.
Let’s take a look at an example to increase followers on Pinterest.
Imagine you have two pins, both of which are getting different results.
The first is the pin with over 1,000 impressions, but only 10 clicks. You could try optimizing the image and description to increase traffic to your website, and you can look at which boards it’s on to find out why it’s getting so many impressions.
The second is the pin that got 28 clicks. Look at the image, description and headline. Clearly this pin is resonating well with your current audience: how can you make more like it, or get more impressions for this pin?
These growth tactics are a good place to start if you want to grow your followers on Pinterest, but your performance with each can vary depending on your content and your brand. As with any new marketing tactic, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your results and use what you learn to optimize your efforts.