Pinterest is undeniably one of the fastest growing social media networks around. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that it had gained over 48 million users since its launch in 2010 whilst a study by SimplyMeasured revealed that 69 of the world’s top 100 brands now have Pinterest accounts.
These stats are very telling. The top brands have recognized that Pinterest is becoming increasingly influential as a business tool. They know that the average “pinner” is in shopping mode and likely to spend more per transaction than Facebook or Twitter users.
So shouldn’t you be using Pinterest?
Regardless whether you are a blogger, a coach, a consultant or a small business owner, you can use Pinterest to promote your business. The #1 question everyone asks me is “how do I get more followers on Pinterest” so in this post I am going to share the best way to increase your Pinterest followers.
More Pinterest Followers = Virality
Although Pinterest differs greatly to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter due to its visual focus, you still need followers.
As a business you need be able to spread your message quickly and cheaply.
For the first time in history, social media gives entrepreneurs like you and me the unique opportunity to reach thousands of people for free.
You can’t pin in isolation. In order to experience the commercial benefits of Pinterest, lots of people need to see your content.
Due to the viral nature of Pinterest and social media in general, the more followers you have the greater the exposure. Remember, it is not only your followers who will see your pin, but their followers too.
How To Get Followers On Pinterest
Apart from buying Pinterest followers, which I don’t recommend, there are several ways to legitimately increase your followers. They should all be part of a holistic Pinterest strategy so before you launch into your pinning, I strongly advise you to develop a clear and effective Pinterest marketing plan first.
This will help you get results and achieve your goals far faster than many of the trial-and-error methods you read about on the Web.
3 Steps To Gain More Followers
To gain more followers, you first need to follow others Pinterest users, but you need to do this strategically.
Here’s a very simple 3-step process to help you increase your Pinterest followers and supercharge your Pinterest marketing.
#1 Use Pinterest Search
Pinterest recently improved its search feature by replacing its old buggy interface with a new slicker version that includes a Google-style “auto-suggest”. It’s only available on Pinterest’s new look so it’s worth switching over to just to take advantage of this feature.
The process is best illustrated with an example so let’s imagine you want to set up a jewelry business. Head over to the search box on the top left of the Pinterest page and type in your keyword, jewelry.
You will be presented with a list of highly searched terms in your niche as well as some suggested boards.
If you click on one of the results, Pinterest will bring up the following page.
You can choose to see pins that include the keyword jewelry in the caption area, a board that contain s the word “jewelry” in the board title or description areas or indeed a pinner who has added jewelry to his username.
#2 Find Targeted Pinterest Followers
It’s worth noting that whilst you want to gain more followers for your Pinterest page, the real objective is to find targeted ones. Why?
The more targeted and relevant your Pinterest followers the greater the likelihood of converting these people into subscribers for your blog and customers for your products and services.
Pinterest give us clue about people’s interests by its very design.
It stands to reason that if someone has gone to the trouble of creating a whole board on a specific topic like jewelry, then this is something that they are very interested in.
So in the above options, you need to select either boards or pinners, ideally both.
Using The Boards Strategy To Get Pinterest Followers
The Boards strategy is very powerful because it allows you to instantly find people who are interested in your niche.
Selecting the Boards option lets you find pinners who sell, make or simply love jewelry.
By hitting the Follow button you can follow several jewelry boards quickly without following the board owner’s account in its entirety.
A general rule of thumb is to limit your following to no more than 50-100 accounts a day. Otherwise Pinterest may try to slow down. Blatant flouting of these rules may get your account suspended so don’t ignore any warnings Pinterest sends you.
Depending on the strength of your Pinterest strategy, you can expect a follow-back ratio ranging between 20%-50%. This is a much better return than Twitter and far easier to implement than on Facebook which has a very restrictive “friending” policy.
What’s more, you don’t need thousands of followers on Pinterest to experience traffic benefits and sales from Pinterest.
Depending on your industry, even 100 targeted Pinterest followers can help you gain considerable exposure for your business.
Using The Pinners Strategy To Get Followers
Choosing the Pinners options, will get you a different set of results. These are all the people and businesses that have included the keyword you are searching for in their name and About section.
In other words, they are most likely to be your competitors.
This strategy is great for market intelligence because it allows you to find a ready-made audience for your products and services, just by following the followers of your competition.
You just need to click on the Followers tab and start to follow each follower by hitting the grey button next to the pinners name.
As you can see, the text will change from Follow (the default) to Unfollow once you are following them.
How to Remove Followers On Pinterest
To unfollow someone you have already followed, just click the same button again and it will revert to Follow. You can’t delete Pinterest followers but you can remove them from your account by unfollowing any for instance if you don’t like their content or suspect them to be spam or fake followers
You can unfollow users at any time via your own Pinterest page by going to your Followers tab, finding the account you no longer want to follow and clicking the button to unfollow them.
#3 Pinterest Followers vs Following
Pinterest is such a new social network that your nearest competitors may actually not be promoting their brand as well as they could be. In this regard, Pinterest can be a great leveller for your business.
Armed with the right knowledge, a switched-on entrepreneur can rapidly build a targeted following. One way of doing this is by checking who the Pinterest user is following under the Following tab and to follow those pinners.
By analyzing and strategically following the people your competitors are following you can connect with the power players in your industry, find new suppliers, build relationships with influentials and network with their clients and customers.
Final Words
This 3-step method is the best and most strategic way to get more followers on Pinterest. It has helped me quickly grow my following to over 8,000 followers across my accounts and get hundreds of repins daily.
What’s more, it is safe and within Pinterest’s rules so you won’t get your account flagged for suspicious activity.
What About You?
What Pinterest marketing strategies have helped you gain more followers? Please comment and share below.
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