Zoe Waldron
Are you hoping to double your Pinterest following in 2015? What about triple, quadruple, or even increase by 10x? It’s not as hard as you’d think to increase your Pinterest following quickly and effectively. All it takes is some planning, quality pinning, profile optimization, and creativity. Follow these steps to get you to your goal in a year (or less!).
As you can see below, we introduce a new recommended step each month for you to implement, and ask that you continue to practice all of the previous steps while adding the new ones. Become a Pinterest master by month 12. You’ll be doing these 11 steps regularly without thinking twice!
– Aim to pin 15-25 times, spaced throughout the day, every day. Add pin descriptions that include relevant keywords and positive adjectives, but don’t overstuff them in. It should sound conversational and uplifting.
Example Pin: “I want this gorgeous blue dress from ModCloth. Classic chic! Perfect for a weekend brunch or a date night.”
– Regularly follow pinners that match your aesthetic. Aim to follow at least 5 pinners a day. Search for new pinners by scrolling down on pins that fit your brand or board topic well, and see related boards. Especially try to like from, repin from, and follow pinners with smaller followings. They’ll be more likely to see the interaction and follow back.
– Share links to new or popular boards and pins on your other social platforms weekly. Aim to share on Facebook once a week, Tweet once every one or two days, and although it’s less effective – try posting on Instagram once a week with your Pinterest handle in the description. Send an email with a mention of your Pinterest account once a week or so to reach even further into your existing market. Simply make your existing fans aware of your Pinterest profile and the results will amaze you!
Michaels Stores regularly tweets their popular pins. A great tactic!
– First, go through your boards and change all board names that are too long or not likely to be searched. You want 90% to have simple 1 or 2-word titles. Although ‘Shop Til You Drop’ and ‘Delicious and Healthy Recipes’ are fun board names, your boards aren’t likely to show in board searches. Try switching to ‘Winter Style,’ ‘Healthy Recipes,’ or something else relevant. Now go through each board and make sure each is categorized and that it’s correct. This is important for showing in categories and for better Pin-SEO.
After you’ve optimized all boards, make it a habit to change all board covers. I change covers every Friday morning to keep my accounts fresh! Just make sure all covers work well together so picking a weekly color theme is a good way to showcase different pins while keeping that clean, polished look.
– Create a new group board for this year. Now invite pinners you trust and admire. Other options include sharing that group board with sister brands or a brand you admire and yours can relate to (and reach out to in advance). This group board from Whole Foods is a good example of several brands pinning together in a creative way. You can also open it to anyone, letting fans know they can request an invite. The key is to moderate well and create rules, like only 3 pins per pinner per day and no spam allowed. See this Anthropologie group board as a good example. In the following months, comment on pins thanking people for pinning and make sure any possible spammers are removed promptly.
You can also team up with HelloSociety Pinterest influencers to get amazing reach and brand awareness. On average our pinners have 1.8 million followers. You can learn more about our exclusive network here.
This group board for fans by Anthropologie is a great example of a fan-run group Pinterest board. It truly is creating brand advocates!
– Add Pinterest profile widgets, the follow button, pin it buttons or create custom hover pin-it buttons, and most-definitely get Rich Pins! Once these are all checked off, A/B test different auto-descriptions (alt text) when people pin your photos. See if adding your website name at the end of the description helps or hurts repins and clicks.
Use Photoshop or a site like Canva to create optimized pins that drive back to your site. Include anything from inspirational quotes, Polyvore-style images, collages, quizzes, ‘pin-cards’ to send to friends, and more! If you already have great images, try adding some titles to see if that helps drive more engagement. Pinterest has the technology to scan pins for words, faces, etc… so having the title including those keywords could help SEO.
Start ‘liking’ pins you find that fit the brand aesthetic. Later, go through those ‘liked’ pins to click through and verify it’s the correct source and then decide which order you’d like to share those pins in. Another great option is to pin those ‘liked’ pins to a secret board to play with board concepts. Just make sure you don’t make that secret board live expecting it to get engagement off the bat. Those pins originally pinned while it was secret won’t show in the Smart Feed to your followers. Only pins added after it’s made public will show. You can however pin directly from a secret board in that same order to a new board and it will show on your followers’ feeds.
Experiment with scheduling pins to make sure even when you can’t pin, your account is growing and getting engagement. Just don’t make it a regular thing. It can take the fun out of relaxed pinning.
That means all blog posts need at least one vertical image to be Pinterest friendly. Your website also needs to work with the pin it button. For future product or recipe photoshoots, make sure the photographer takes vertical photos so they’ll be much more likely to go viral on Pinterest. Improve engagement even more with photoshoots taken in real settings with backgrounds and quality lighting.
Creating a new board every few months is a great way to stay current. Just don’t go overboard. The ideal # of boards is between 25-45. Once you hit 40, I’d recommend stopping and giving equal attention to your existing boards. If you think of a really creative board topic, create it. Do you have a Valentine’s Day board yet?
You’ve now had a lot of experience with optimizing and perfecting your Pinterest account. Keep following these guidelines and see your following continue to multiply. Have fun pinning to success!
Do you have any tips to share on increasing your Pinterest following? What’s your following at now?
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