Social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Vine (R.I.P.) have garnered a lot of attention for being spaces for people to effectively attract attention and grow their brands. A social media site that I haven’t seen much coverage on, however, is Pinterest – and I don’t understand why. In my experience, Pinterest has consistently proven itself one of the best places to share content with the widest possible audience – something that us vain millennials crave, right? All jokes aside, it’s becoming ever important in this day and age to develop a strong digital presence, no matter what industry you’re looking to get into. Here’s a look at my analytics page on the Pinterest business account (@coppermakeup) I’ve been curating for the past year. As you can see, in just under a year I’ve already gained over 200k monthly viewers.
It took me a while to master the basics of the platform and figure out my strategy, but once I did, it absolutely paid off. Here are a couple of key bits of advice for anyone looking utilize this platform!
1) Upgrade to a business account
One of the first things you’re going to want to do is trade in your standard profile for a business account. To do this, you’ll need a business/brand Facebook page. Once you’ve got that, Pinterest will pretty much do the rest for you. If you want instant access to your analytics, growth rates, and engagement stats, a business account is the way to go.
2) Optimize your profile page
You’ve created a business account, great! Now, you’ll want to start making your actual profile look organized and inviting. If you don’t already know what your brand is, spend some time figuring that out. Is it a personal brand? Lifestyle and health? Beauty and fashion like me? Reflect well on what you want your brand to be because once you have it, you need to stick with it. I chose to focus on beauty and fashion in general, but instead of only creating 2 or 3 boards, I have 26, all with carefully planned aesthetic layouts. By making my boards as specific as possible, I’m able to attract more viewers with niche interests.
I also utilized the ‘showcase’ feature, which lets you present your favorite or most beautiful boards at the top of your profile page.
3) Pin often and mix it up!
Unlike Instagram or YouTube where posting more than once or twice a day looks spammy, Pinterest is made for multiple scheduled posts a day. Because your audience doesn’t all live in the same time zone, you’re going to want to consistently pin at regular intervals throughout the day to reach as many people as you can. I recommend pinning 2-3 images in a row 4 times every day. Also, don’t just post your own content. Repin other images you like to diversify your content and potentially gain new followers!
4) Create good pin descriptions
One of my biggest pet peeves on Pinterest is seeing pins with a bunch of links and hashtags. No. Save the hashtags for Instagram. Try to use SEO rich words, but caption your pins in a clear, very concise way that still sounds like a human and not a bot wrote it. If you want to give your profile extra coverage, add your profile name at the top of each pin.
5) Follow other pinners/boards
This kind of goes without saying, but if you don’t follow anyone else, your profile will look unprofessional at best, and snobby at worst. Don’t go out and follow everyone and every board you see, but try to follow those pinners and boards who have similar interests as you, or you admire. Another small tip: Into cooking and baking? Find a big brand’s profile, like Food Network, and look at their followers. Follow the ones that look like they’re active on the site, and chances are, they’ll follow you back.
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