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While Facebook and Twitter were once are the only social media platforms that business owners had on their radar, times have now changed. Pinterest is not only a huge driver of website traffic, the source behind five percent of all referral traffic to websites, but research shows pins are 100 times more spreadable than a tweet.
Like any social media platform, the more followers you have, the more you can build your Pinterest brand through likes, repins, comments and clicks. This, in turn, will allow you to generate more leads and increase sales in the long run.
In this blog post, we will outline the most effective ways in which you can use Pinterest to grow your audience.
Make Sure It’s Easy For Users To Pin Content From Your Sites
To encourage people to pin your site’s content on their own accounts, the most effective technique is to add a hovering ‘Pin It’ button. If your site receives lots of traffic, the Pinterest ‘Follow’ button is also a great way to divert even more visitors to your Pinterest page.
Make sure both buttons are featured in prominent places on your site, for example, on the header, footer or sidebar of your site where people’s eyes naturally wander. While some people install widgets and plugins, others create custom buttons to match their branding, so choose whatever you think will stand out on your site.
Post Throughout The Day
Don’t expect to build an audience if you aren’t posting on Pinterest regularly. Ideally, you should pin between five and 30 pins spread across the course of the day, rather than all in at once. This is particularly important if you have global users, since different times of day are popular in different time zones.
To save yourself time and ensure you are still posting consistently, you can choose to schedule Pinterest posts using Buffer. In the same way, you can also choose to create a ‘Secret Board’ where you can collect content you want to post and return later to grab the pins you want.
Make Sure Your Content Is Diverse And Interesting
The key to engaging your audience and growing your following it to mix up your content. If your content is dull and same-y, you will lose any chance of gaining the interest of new followers.
When deciding what to post, put yourself in the shoes of your users and try to make their experience as visually pleasing as possible. If you are simply posting product photos, make sure they look professional and appealing, avoiding too many colours and complex backgrounds, or anything which is displeasing to the eye.
Organize Your Boards
To ensure your Pinterest boards are as search-friendly as possible, you should organize your pins by categories, captioning images with keywords that users are likely to type into the search. Bear in mind that your boards represent your brand, so you want to keep them looking as clean and professional as possible.
While some Pinterest users choose to order their boards alphabetically, others organize by themes or subjects. Brands which promote specific products typically organize their boards into categories so followers can browse as though shopping in a physical store.
Share, Share, Share Your Posts
If you share once a day, the chances of people pinning your content are far less than if you post five, or ten times a day. This is not only important to catch the eye of your followers, but the more you post, the more Pinterest will actually recommend you to people who pin similar images.
After you’ve finished pinning multiple images, you will likely get the message, ‘also pinned to…’ This is basically Pinterest’s way of helping you find people with similar tastes, and ultimately, connecting users on Pinterest.
Contribute To Others’ Boards
Another way to grow your audience is to attract the attention of followers by posting on popular boards. You will also learn a lot if you take note of the kind of content they are pinning and how much engaging they do.
It’s important to make the effort to engage with your followers’ boards too. The more you reach out and leave comments on their pins, the more likely you will get comments back, and of course, you will be exposing your brand at the same time.
Include A Direct Link To Your Website
If a particular image on one of your boards spikes the interest of a follower, chances are they will want to check out your brand. To save them the hassle of searching, ensure you include a direct link to your site in the pin description.
You should also make sure you confirm your website on Pinterest to build trust with your new followers. This will also give you the added benefit of being able to see your logo or profile picture on pins that followers have saved, which again exposes your brand.
Connect All Of Your Social Networks
One of the most effective ways to grow your Pinterest audience is to attract friends from Facebook and Twitter. You can do this by tweeting your pins and displaying your Pinterest activity on Facebook for your followers to see.
You could also add the link to your Pinterest account in the bios of your other social media platforms. And of course, there is also a ‘Find Friends’ option on your Pinterest home page, so that’s a great place to start.
For inspiration, you can check out our Pinterest boards.
