Pinterest has taken the business world by storm since its founding in 2010. The site had 5,000 users in August 2010… by April of 2012 it had 17 million! So, if your social media marketing strategy includes a Pinterest account, you’re definitely not alone. But with so much activity on the site, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle.If you want to get noticed and take your Pinterest marketing strategy from okay to excellent, we’ll show you how..
These best-kept Pinterest secrets will help you fine-tune your social media marketing strategy and really make a splash.
Ready to start creating pins that will capture the hearts of pinners everywhere? Read on!
#1: Schedule Pins To Post Throughout the Day
Can’t be online during Pinterest’s prime hours? (And, as one of the best times to post is between 2 and 4AM, we sincerely hope you’ll be sleeping instead of working for at least part of Pinterest prime time.) Well, no need to worry! You can schedule your pins in advance.
How?
The easiest way is to use a designated social media management tool. For example, the popular social media tool Hootsuite lets users schedule Pinterest posts in advance using the app Tailwind. Other tools include Buffer and Viraltag.
#2: Use A Dedicated Brand Board For Pinterest Marketing
You’ll want to share pins from a variety of sources. If you’re a foodie, you may have a dedicated recipe board. If you’re marketing for a clothing retailer, you may have a lookbook or a fashion inspiration board.
Whatever other boards you create, when you’re using Pinterest for marketing there’s one board you absolutely need: a dedicated brand board.
Use your branded board to share your blog posts or photos of your products. This board serves as a platform to share all of your great content. Your fans can follow it to find all of the cool stuff you have to offer in one convenient spot!
Because a branded board includes so many links to your website, it’s a great way to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your site.
#3: Long Images Perform Better
Want to share images that will really grab readers' attention? Use long images!
The width of an image on Pinterest is fixed, but the length is flexible. That means that longer images take up more room in the search results and draw more eyeballs.
Just remember that the maximum vertical aspect ratio is 1:2.8. If your image is longer than 2.8X its own width, it’ll get cut off.
Tip: Infographics and DIY tutorials make great long images!
#4: Join Group Boards
Two of the goals you set for your social media strategy should be getting more exposure for your content and building new relationships.
One great way to do this on Pinterest is to join group boards.
Pinning to a group board lets you network with industry influencers and share your pins with your group member’s followers.
The creator of a group board can invite anyone they want to add content to the board. All they have to do is add the other participant’s email addresses in the “collaborators” field when creating the board.
If you know a colleague or influencer you’d like to network with, check to see if they have any group boards you can join. If not, set one up and invite them!
Use the site Pin Groupie to look for group boards you’re interested in.
#5: Use Links That Won’t Be Marked As Spam
Pinterest blocks links if they use a URL shortener like bit.ly, or if they link to a redirect.
Yikes!
Avoid broken links by linking directly to the source! No shortcuts.
You don’t need to worry that your URLs will be long and unwieldy. Unlike links on platforms such as Twitter, the link itself isn’t visible in a pin, just the image you share.
#6: Take Advantage Of Secret Boards
A secret board is a board that hasn’t been publicized. Only you, and those you invite via email, can see the board and the pins you add to it.
Secret boards offer some really exciting opportunities:
- Use them to offer exclusive content.
- Use them as guinea pigs to test marketing ideas before they go public.
- Use them to save things for later and organize pins before you publish them.
It’s easy to set up a secret board - when you’re creating a board, just switch the “secret” button to “yes.”
#7: Verifying Your Website Comes With Awesome Perks
Verifying your website with Pinterest lets you:
- Automatically add your logo to all images pinned from your site’s domain.
- Use Pinterest Analytics to view stats on all of the pins shared from your website, not just the ones you create.
Cool, huh?
You can verify your website with Pinterest by pasting the HTML tag they give you into the tag of your site’s index.html file. Find the tag to copy by going to your Pinterest Analytics page and clicking “confirm website” on the right side of the page. Follow the instructions in the pop-up window.
Pinterest marketing can be crazy-effective. This social media platform lets you build relationships with an audience that’s enthusiastic about your product. Pinners want to save your infographics to their boards and share them with their friends. They want to add your products to their own boards so they can buy them later. These secrets will help you share your pins with a wider audience, so that you can find the loyal customers you’ve been looking for.
