Pinterest is big. If you’ve spent any time on there, you understand the draw. It’s the most gigantic image candy store you can imagine. In this post, I’ll briefly cover the basics and then share tips for driving traffic to your site.
What is Pinterest?
It’s a place to save and organize images and videos you love from around the web. In Pinterest terms, these items, like visual bookmarks, are called “pins.” Your “pins” (think, pinning things to a virtual bulletin board) are visible to other Pinterest users and you can see the boards of others as well.
How does Pinterest work?
Here’s the basic process:
Surf the internet.
See an image/video you like.
Pin that image/video to one of your Pinterest boards to keep track of it and to share it with others.
How do I get on Pinterest?
Go to Pinterest.com to sign up.
Use the Pinterest browser button
Simply add the button to the browser of your choice. Once it’s installed, whenever you come across something great to pin on the web, simply click the “Pin it” icon in your browser to quickly save an image and the accompanying web address on one of your Pinterest boards.
Repin right on Pinterest
As you use Pinterest, you’ll see pins added by others that you might want to add to your own boards. Look for the “Pin it” button by hovering or on the pin’s main page. Edit the description and choose the board you want to pin it to.
Use keywords in your descriptions
A lot of people leave inane descriptions (“Cute!”) on their pins. I’m guilty too. However, keyword-rich descriptions will help get pins and boards found more easily via search. Great for all of us!
Write your own summary description
Don’t copy and paste the whole post, the whole recipe or all the instructions from the original post directly in your pin. Not only does it clutter the images with unnecessary text, it’s not good Pinterest manners. Plus, posts are copyrighted so pasting them in their entirety is copyright infringement.
When you pin something to one of your board, write your own description or use the description many site owners back into their images.
Edit your pins
If you need to edit a pin, while logged into your account, hover over your pin and click on the “Edit” button that appears.
If you need to find the pin first, hover over your picture in the top right of your screen, click on the “My Profile” link in the dropdown menu and then “Pins” at the top of the page. This will show you all your pins listed by the most recent. If it’s an older pin, click on the “Boards” link and you can find your pin by topic.
Pin from the individual post, not the home page
When you’re pinning from a website, make sure you are pinning from the individual post on a site, not the site’s homepage. (To get to the individual post, click on the post title. If you can see comments at the bottom, it’s a sign you’re on the individual post.)
There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking through a pin, only to realize the post with that image has long been pushed off the home page.
Add a price tag to a pin
You can do this easily by adding a “$” or a “£” in your description. This works well, let’s say, if you are pinning from an Etsy shop or something similar.
Space out your pins
Before Pinterest introduced the smart feed, pinning a lot of things at once would often overwhelm followers. For example, if you were researching black shoes and spent an hour pinning a gazillion pairs of black shoes to your “Rockin’ Black Shoes” board, anyone who followed you would just see a sea of black shoes in their stream.
These days, this isn’t so much of a problem since the smart feed uses an algorithm to determine which pins to show to whom and when. Still, it’s still a good idea to space things out when you can.
Set a timer
If you find yourself squandering your time on Pinterest, why not set a timer? Allow yourself a set number of minutes to browse and when the timer dings, you’re off to something else.
Organize your boards well
If your boards are clean and organized, you’ll get more followers than if everything is hodge podge and there’s no rhyme or reason to your pinning. Vague board titles aren’t so helpful either.
Take the extra time to see if a pin is a good one
Have you ever clicked through a pin only to discover that it leads nowhere? Frustrating, isn’t it? So, before you repin, make sure you check it out first. We gotta work together to weed out the dud pins. Speaking of dud pins…
Use “Like” as a pending place
One of my readers said, “Sometimes when I don’t have time to ‘investigate’ a pin to see if it is a good one, I’ll just ‘Like’ it. Then I can go back to my likes when I have time and look into them a little further.” Great idea!
Use secret boards
You can use secret boards for a holding place just as you might use the “Like” button as described above. Secret boards are also handy when you want to save images for a project or on a topic you don’t want the whole world to see.
Follow individual boards to cut out the noise
One of the nice things about Pinterest is that you can follow individual boards. You don’t have to follow a person and therefore, all of their boards (although you can do that too). To subscribe to individual boards, simply click on the name of any Pinterest user and you’ll see all their boards. If you follow the person, you’ll follow all their boards. Otherwise, just pick and choose the boards you want.
Find people and boards to follow by reverse rabbit trailing
That is, when you see a pin or a board you like, click on the person it came from. Or click on the original source. I’ve found a lot of good boards to follow that way.
Categorize your boards
This will make your pins more easily found and will potentially result in more people following you. When you create a new board, or edit one, you’ll see the option to choose a category for that board.
Don’t just be a repinner, be a pioneer pinner
In other words, don’t just repin what others have already pinned. Always be on the lookout for new pins that no one else has found. If you’re like me, you see a lot of the same pins come through. I pay attention, though, when I see something fresh and new. I’m much more likely to follow that person too.
Personalize a board for your kids
You might consider making a board especially for your kids so when you’re out and about and you need to kill some time, they can look at the things you’ve found especially for them. Supervise of course!
Use Pinterest to drive traffic
If you don’t yet have your own little space online (like a blog or website), I highly encourage you to get one. Everyone. Why? Because as things become more and more digital, this will be one of the primary ways we connect. Think of it as one place that you can call “home” online from which you can organize and centralize all your other online activities.
How does Pinterest benefit us? Assuming people use it as it’s intended, your images can be pinned and anyone who clicks on them will be taken to your site.
Get a business account
If you make money on your site, or hope to, get a Pinterest Business account. It’s free & will give you access to analytics and more. Here’s how to do it.
Confirm your website
This puts your picture of you on any pin from your site. It’s good for branding and recognition. Here’s how to do it.
Enable rich pins
When rich pins are enabled, your pins get extra bells and whistles. Here’s how to do it.
Pin your own stuff
Just like other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is a great place to promote your own stuff. Having said that…
Don’t only pin your own stuff
Pin your own stuff, yes, but pin others’ stuff too. I think this spreads good will and it builds community.
Join or start group boards
You can create a board and allow contributors to pin to it as well. This would be great for collaboration projects. To allow contributors Edit your board and invite collaborators.
Joining a group board has also been known to significantly boost traffic since you are pooling your reach with others. Always follow group board rules. Contact the first person listed on a board to join.
Find out how many times something has been pinned
When I come across an older post, I often use Get Your Site’s Pinterest Pin Count to check how many times something has been pinned. If it’s already been pinned thousands of times, I often move on and try to find something more original.
Of course, you can also use the tool to find out how much your own stuff has been pinned too.
If you come across an image that’s yours but doesn’t link back to your site…
Contact the Pinterest user who pinned your image and ask them kindly to edit the pin. Be friendly and offer a link to the pin to make it easier for them.
Consider creating a board for your own stuff
A “Best of {Your Site}” board is common so people can get an idea of your content in one spot. I recommend you put this board at the top of your profile.
Include your Pinterest follower counts in your media kit and business cards
Just as you would include your Facebook and Twitter follower numbers, your Pinterest numbers provide PR and advertising folks another glance at the influence you have.
Use Pinterest for topics that don’t fit into your blog niche
After blogging a while, a lot of bloggers want to branch out from their main niche. If you are someone with varying tastes, encourage your readers to follow a particular board on Pinterest for “more on that subject” if you are concerned that it doesn’t fit within the scope of your blog.
Find out what of yours has been pinned
Type this into your browser (replacing “yourdomain.com”): http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com
Create keyword-rich board titles and board descriptions
Just as you should make your pin descriptions full of relevant keywords for better searching, do the same for your board titles and descriptions (instead of vague or cutesy). To edit your boards, simply click on your name in the top right and then click the “Edit” button underneath the board you want to change.
Include your website address in your Profile
Click on your picture in the top right corner and select “Settings” from the dropdown menu. Scroll down to the Profile section (or click on “Profile” in the left column). Add your website URL in the space provided.
Use images in your posts
Pinterest is all about images. Your posts are much more likely to get pinned if there are images in them. Obvious, right? Tall and narrow images have historically done the best on Pinterest.
The common image dimension size for image(s) is 735 pixels wide and 1102 pixels tall.
Go back through your posts and add or improve images
Now’s the time to go back through your old posts and add images if there aren’t any already, or upgrade if they could use improvement.
Don’t use Pinterest images to make your posts look pretty
Assume all images are copyrighted. If you’re browsing Pinterest and you see an image you’d like to use, ask the owner for permission. They might just grant it, you’ll be making a connection and you won’t be violating copyright.
Use text in your images
Tools like Canva make this easy to do when you use their Pinterest template.
Be particular about your images
If you’re like me and don’t do the image thing very well, less is more. Some bloggers can include a dozen images in a post and they are spectacular. If I did that, I’d spend about 20 days writing one post. For the rest of us, take the extra time to find really excellent images.
Link your Pinterest account to Facebook and Twitter
You can do this in Settings. When logged in, get to “Settings” by hovering over your picture in the top right corner and select “Settings” from the dropdown menu.
Use Pinterest to get your creative juices flowing
If you need some post ideas, do a search on Pinterest with relevant key words from your niche. Note which pins have a lot of repins and/or comments. These are hot topics. Find your own unique angle and write on the topics people are already interested in.
Capitalize on the seasons
If there’s one thing people pin, it’s seasonal stuff like recipes, crafts, decorating ideas, gift ideas, etc. Use an editorial calendar to plan ahead. Write blog posts that coincide with the seasons. Post them early so that they can be pinned and get a little traction before the holiday passes.
Also, move your seasonal boards to the top of your profile as the season approaches.
Make your site sticky!
If you notice a lot of traffic coming to a particular post from Pinterest, think of ways to optimize that post for Pinterest users. Find ways to make it better and more importantly, get them to stay on your site a while. I wrote some tips for this in my post 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Exit Pages.
For example, if they’re coming from Pinterest to your Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie recipe, add links to your Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream and Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares too.
Ask for followers
Blatantly ask others to follow you on Pinterest. You can use the widgets Pinterest provides to create a button to put in your sidebar, like this:
Ask for followers in your posts
You can also ask for followers directly in your posts as well. Simply link to your Pinterest page with the following code:
<a href=”http://pinterest.com/amylynnandrews/”>Follow me on Pinterest!</a>
Pin a coupon for your product
Got an ebook or other product? Why not pin a coupon, exclusively for Pinterest users?
Use Pinterest to connect with brands
You’d better believe companies are taking notice of Pinterest. Of course, we, the little people, have an advantage. That advantage? We’re small enough that we can dive in and get our hands dirty quick. Big companies, on the other hand are sometimes a little slower to the punch. What about approaching a large company you don’t see on there, let them know of the rage that Pinterest is and suggest ideas for the two of you to work together? Be respectful of course, but lead them by the hand and make suggestions from which you can both benefit.
Create a “Reader Feature” board
Create a board just for your favorite readers. Or if you’ve done a tutorial, create a board where you highlight those who have used your tutorial and pin what they’ve created. Spread the love!
Connect with others
Don’t think of Pinterest just as a fun place to whittle away your days and get lost in your own world. Comment and follow and interact just as you would Facebook or Twitter. This is part of networking too!
Get creative
I think we’re going to start seeing all kinds of creative ways people market their blogs and products via Pinterest. Brainstorm. What kind of fun things can you do with Pinterest? If your house is for sale, direct people to your Pinterest board showcasing it? Hold a contest (read the Terms first of course)? Create a scavenger hunt? Word scrambles? A board in lieu of a blogroll?
How to Add the “Pin It” Button to Posts
You can manually add a “Pin It” button for each post by using the goodies (scroll down to the “‘Pin It’ Button for Websites” section) made available by Pinterest. This is a bit cumbersome, but if you only have a few posts you’d like pinned, this might work just fine. Is a bit cumbersome to add to each individual post. There are also all kinds of plugins that do the trick.
Pinterest Copyright Issues
There has been a lot of talk lately about copyright and how best to use Pinterest to avoid infringing on copyright. I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty here, but here are some tips and some additional resources that touch on the subject.
Watermark your photos
Put your full domain on your photoses, put your full domain name so if your image starts floating around, at least people won’t have to guess what your domain is.
Don’t want people to pin your stuff to Pinterest? I recently asked on Facebook whether people prefer to be pinned or not. There’s a simple line of code you can add to your <head>. Dave Taylor spells it out in Block Pinterest Users From “Pinning” Your Content.
How to Report a Copyright Infringement (pinterest.com)
Why I Don’t Mind Pinterest Hijacking My Links (blogworld.com)
Information for Bloggers and People Who Use Pinterest and Pinterest is Changing How I Blog (livinglocurto.com)
How Pinterest Uses Your Content Without Violating Copyright Laws (readwriteweb.com)
A Lawyer Who Is Also A Photographer Just Deleted All Her Pinterest Boards Out Of Fear (sfgate.com)
How your business could get sued for using Pinterest (bizjournals.com)
Avoiding Copyright Pitfalls on Pinterest (savingforsomeday.com – Sara is also a lawyer)
A Word of Caution for Pinterest Users (plagiarismtoday.com)
Is Pinterest a Have for Copyright Violations? (greekgeek.hubpages.com)
*There are affiliate links in this post.
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