Having a blog taught me quite a few things; one of them being this: you can’t be everywhere at once. There was a point when I realized that I’m spending less time blogging and more time “hanging out” on social media. Okay, when I say “social media” I mainly mean Instagram because.. well… I’m just not a huge Twitter or Facebook fan. Well.. guess what? That can suck the fun out of blogging. I suddenly realized that replying to my Instagram comments or posting on Instagram became more important than creating content. And that is something I knew I needed to change.
So, I decided, that since I can’t have it all and be present on every single social media platform equally, I’ll focus on one that helps my blog the most: Pinterest. When I shifted my focus to Pinterest, my traffic referrals increased and once I came up with a good scheduling system, I no longer had to worry or stress out about being “present” on that particular platform and can spend more time doing what I love doing most: blogging.
Pinterest has over 150 million active users, so if you’re a blogger, it’s a great place to be. In this post I’ll tell you how to step up your Pinterest game in 10 minutes or less.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR BIO
Does your bio include a link to your blog? Does your profile image match your Twitter/Facebook/Instagram? These are the things that will help you out with branding. Make sure that your profile includes a short bio and a link to your blog. Your blog readers might want to find you through Pinterest, and you want to make it easy for them. You want to include your photo, blog name, a link and a CTA.
“Visit my blog”- creating a CTA. In my profile I included both my name, and my blog name. Making the most of the bio; including a link as well as blog description. Also, I’m showcasing a board with pins shared only from my blog and Instagram.
CREATE A BOARD FOR YOUR BLOG
Create a “Best Of” (or just a regular) board for your blog. Pin your most popular and loved articles- this is a great way for people who follow you to keep up with your blog posts. I make sure not to over-spam my followers with my own pins, so I share my own posts maybe every 10th pin or so. You want to make it easy for others to pin content from your blog, and you want to pin your own posts as well, but if one of your goals is to grow your Pinterest account, you have to pin quality content. Usually that involves pinning a lot of content from other blogs and website as well- not just yours.
SCHEDULE YOUR PINS
Scheduling my pins is what helped me grow my Pinterest account pretty much effortlessly. Last January I had about 600 followers on Pinterest, today I have 20k and it’s all thanks to Tailwind. I already talked about it at length in this post.
ORGANIZE YOUR BOARDS
Move your most popular boards to the top. Change up your covers once in a while, delete underperforming pins, try re-pinning them. With a tool like Tailwind you can also track your pins and boards performance; see which ones have the most followers, which pins get the most repins, etc. I’d definitely suggest that you keep your own blog board on top, followed by your most popular boards.
If you don’t already have Rich Pins set up for your blog, do so ASAP- find out how to set them up in this post. Rich Pins are Pins that include extra information right on the Pin itself. It includes things like source of the pin- your blog name and your blog’s favicon.
SELECT CATEGORIES
This is important if you want to get your pins discovered! Make sure that all of your boards are categorized. I kind of wish that Pinterest had more categories and that they were a bit more detailed, but hopefully this will change in the future. In the mean time, make sure that your board category is selected to describe it as closely as possible.
BOARD DESCRIPTIONS
Speaking of description- add one to your boards. Make it as detailed as possible. To avoid feeling overwhelmed, try working on few boards a day, if you have a lot of them. For instance, if you have a board about blogging use terms like: blog tips, blogging tips, tips for bloggers, etc. Take a look at a description for one of my new boards to get the idea:
CHANGE IT UP
As the seasons change, make sure to change up your profile. Move some of the no-longer relevant boards to the bottom (like Christmas, winter boards, etc) and move up your relatable boards to the top (like spring, summer fashion, spring/summer recipes) where they’ll be more visible and will have a better chance of being discovered. I also like changing up my covers once in a while, updating my board descriptions- those all seem like small changes, but it all adds up.
I know that I say this in pretty much all of my Pinterest-related posts, but I’ll say it again; if you’re a blogger and haven’t taken advantage of Pinterest yet and all that it has to offer, you’re missing out!
Don’t know where to start? Check out how some of my other Pinterest posts:
+How to grow your Pinterest following FAST + expanding your audience
+How to Increase Your Pinterest Traffic + Strategies that Doubled my Pageviews
+How to Create Pinterest-Friendly Images For Your Blog
+Pinterest for Blogging: What Are Rich Pins & How To Set Them Up
+How to use Pinterest to grow your blog
