Pinterest is one of the most ( if not the most!) loved social media platforms among women. But don’t get it wrong, also men like to spend hours on Pinterest, pinning to one’s heart’s content. Pins, or images with mostly back links to it, can contain any kind of content: from what kind of pet food is the healthiest for your beloved dog, to the newest Burberry bag collection. Pins don’t always have back links referring to an article though, sometimes they can just be plain images. But I’m sure you are definitely familiar with Pinterest by now 🙂
Pinterest is momentarily the fastest growing social media platform with numerous new accounts each day. So how do you make sure you get notable among all these accounts? How can you optimize your account? Growing Social Media has all the tips and tricks for you!
1. Pay attention to the header. Try to make it personal and give the brand you represent, a “face”. These are the most important things to do so:
- Use your company’s logo as the icon, this creates brand awareness.
- Use the description box wise fully. Tell the people who you are, what you do and what kind of pins they will be finding on your Pinterest boards. Use important key words in the description box!
- If you’re a business, convert your Pinterest account into a business account. This will give you more options than a personal account (e.g. Pinterest Analytics). Then insert your website in the header as well. After having verified your account, a little mark will show up next to your website link. This will let people know that your website is a trustworthy source.
- Add your geographical location.
- At last, but not least, connect your other social media links like Facebook and Twitter ( go to Settings to do this).
2. Let’s move on to the boards. The board placement does matter! Viewers automatically pay more attention to the top two boards and the center boards. So make sure that your most popular boards are in the top two rows!
3. Be very specific about your board names. There are many boards called “Places I Love”, so this won’t make you stand out. Instead, make your boards more specific by using titles such as “Central Park, NY “, “Copacabana Beach” and “French Recipes”.
4. Use key words to increase searchability! Hashtags are not only for Twitter anymore. Facebook has incorporated them too, but they’re at least equally important for Pinterest. Use relevant and niche key words in the board titles, board descriptions and pins descriptions.
5. Pinterest is all about visual content. Your Pinterest account has most likely a grey background, so take the opportunity to make your pins stand out! Use different shapes for your pins, images with bold colors, shapes and contrasts. Pinners still don’t pay enough attention to this, but it is essential that you make your pins notable to more viewers and to get them repinned!
Round corners can be a good option, it will make your pins stand out of al the rectangular shaped ones. You can use tools like Photoshop to get different shapes and corners but we think that PicMonkey, a free photo editor tool, will do a fine job as well!
6. Embed “pin it” buttons on the images on your website. To drive more traffic to your website from Pinterest, it is important that visitors of your website pin as much pictures from your website onto their boards. This means that you’ll have to make it easy for them. Embedding the button will enable the visitors to pin an image from your website directly onto one of their Pinterest boards.
7. As we said, visual content is everything on Pinterest! This applies for the board covers as well. Choose attractive board covers that represent your board.
8. Link your image to an URL (preferable an URL from your website) to drive more traffic. When someone repins your pins, the actual content does not change/get lost. So when you link an URL from, let’s say, an article on your website and someone repins it, they will still end up on your article when clicking on the image.
9. Another thing Pinners don’t pay enough attention to, is that search engines read your file names. So when you save an image on your desktop to upload, make sure it has a brief and clear description that represents the image. After all, “CaramelMacaron” sounds more appetizing than “image123.jpg” don’t you agree?
10. When you have a Pinterest Business account, you have access to Pinterest Analytics. This way, you can gain insights on your Pinterest campaigns. You’ll see what you’re most repinned pins are, how many unique visitors per day you have, what your most clicked pins are, etc.
11. And at last: engagement! To get noticed on Pinterest, having the most attractive, visual account is not sufficient. You have to be engaging. Of course, upload your own images to show off your expertise but do also repin relevant pins, comment on pins, follow important accounts (or only specific boards!) and join group boards!
Be sure to apply these tips and tricks to optimize your account as good as possible! Do you have a business account? Let us know and leave your Pinterest link in a comment below!
