We know that Pinterest is a huge social network that has tremendous potential for growth in 2014.
We also know that visual assets are the wave of the future and a critical component to any successful online content marketing portfolio.
We can even see the growth of Pinterest traffic in our very own traffic reports on Google Analytics.
You know all this and more about Pinterest, so now I must ask you this:
Are you ready to start taking Pinterest promotions seriously? Let's dive in!
Getting Started with Pinterest
The first place to build a strong foundation on any social media network is by optimizing your profile. Once you've created your account, or even if you have an account already, fill in your bio and tell fellow Pinners who you are and be sure to include your keywords.
Start setting up your boards, look for related group boards to join, and be sure to feature your most popular boards on the top row of your profile.
That's right – you can drag and drop your Pinterest boards around so that your top boards appear above the fold!
Verify your blog on Pinterest by adding a snippet of code to take advantage of the free analytics and you'll also see the check mark appear on your profile next to your blog's url like in the example below from my daughter's profile.
Time For Some Bench-marking
I always say that you can't improve what you don't measure. Well, maybe that's not 100% true but my point is that you can't see how much progress you're making unless you track it. And with the current state of Pinterest Analytics you can only see so much. You need a more robust tool and one that I recommend is Tailwindapp. Let me show you how it works in this video:
Get More Pinterest Traffic With TailWindApp
Here's a list of tools and resources that will help you grow your following and help you get some real results from your Pinterest promotions. You can read the full transcript for this video here.
Customize Your Images
Take advantage of online graphics tools like PicMonkey, Canva, or Gimp to create custom images for your blog posts. Add text overlays, backgrounds, borders, water-marks – anything that will make your images pop so they're more attractive and eye-catching.
[shadowbox]Click here to watch the PicMonkey Video Tutorial I recorded.[/shadowbox]
I love the way Rebekah Radice and Ashley Faulkes use custom images to help boost their brands and draw attention to their blogs. My friend Lisa Irby created a cute Infographic for her Natural Hair blog that has over 18,000 repins.
You can hear more about Lisa's Infographic by listening to an interview she did with Cynthia Sanchez on the Oh So Pinteresting podcast. Cynthia's podcast is one you should definitely subscribe to for all the best tips and tactics to grow your business with Pinterest.
Check out this study from Curalate and what their software found about the best colors, textures and backgrounds to use in order to increase engagement with your pins.
Get More Pins and Repins Now!
Sign up for PinWoot [which is now called ViralWoot] to jump start your Pinterest promotions quickly. The free account option will help you get familiar with the dashboard but in about 15 – 20 minutes, you should be ready to upgrade to a paid package. You can start off with a small investment of under $20 just to explore the platform and find out which pins are getting the most traction.
Join Viral Content Bee! This one is a no-brainer and you should be using it already no matter what your favorite social media platform is. When Ann Smarty and Gerald Weber put together a social sharing network you can't really go wrong. In fact, it wasn't until after they added the Pinterest sharing option to the site early last year that I actually started paying attention to my Pinterest traffic.
Install the Triberr plugin! Yup, that the secret strategy for ensuring that your blog post images show up in the tribal stream. Without the plugin, there's a good chance that the images won't appear, but when they do, you can bet that Serious Pinners like myself are going to find a home for your image on one of our more active boards. (Need help with using Triberr? Go here and here.)
Get active on the network! Comment on pins, join group boards, follow like-minded pinners and keep in mind, getting repins are just as important as getting pins. Actually it's more important.
Manly Pinterest Tips
OK fellows, Pinterest is NOT just for the ladies. And if you don't believe me, just check out the episode of the Manly Pinterest Show hosted by Jeff Sieh. In this episode, special guest Luke Dean-Weymark shares his insights about growing a following of nearly 1 million pinners!
Re-purpose your pinned images
It's not always easy to use one image on different social platforms and they say that the optimal size for pins is 600 x 900 but don't get stuck on that recommendation. Your YouTube videos, your Instagram posts and even your Google + image posts can be pinned. My friend Wade Harman recommends adding a Call to Action on Google + that reminds people to Pin It For Later.
Add Your Pinterest Tips
There's lots more tips and tactics we can use to start taking Pinterest more seriously. I'm sure I missed a few. Please do me a favor and ask a question or share your favorite Pinterest tip in the comments below.
NEW: Sign Up To Get Your Brand New Pinterest Training Video…it's 100% Free!
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Hello @ileane – Thanks for sharing this useful article for us. Really, Pinterest is the best place to promote a blog and get decent traffic and also quality backlinks on the blog. I am not a big fan of Pinterest till now, but after reading this article, I will also try to use Pinterest to promote my own blog..
Hi Vikas,
I haven’t really thought about getting more backlinks from Pinterest. That reminds me of something I forgot to say in the post. Always pin more of other people’s content than your own!
Yes, you are right Ileane, that always pin more of other people content than own’s, Most of the new blogger don’t about that and instead of pin other content they always pinned their own content, that is not good for their blog and they always fell short in many factors that is necessary for their blog.
Hi Ileane,
Informative post indeed 🙂
We all know how addictive Pinterest is, and images can really do wonders if pinned well enough. I get a lot of traffic from Pinterest, especially it being the one social media where your posts stay the longest as compared to others like Facebook, Twitter, and even G+. I wish more people would realize that. Yes, Ashley’s really started putting up awesome images on his post, and I loved the video and links shared by you – need to look them all up as yet.
Thanks for sharing, and have a nice week ahead. Wishing you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year too 🙂
Harleena, are you using any Pinterest tools or plugins on your blog? I’d love to hear some of your tips for getting so much traffic.
Thanks for your comment and happy 2014 to you as well!
Nothing much, Ileane – just the normal PinIt button as you can see on the floating bar on my blog and the one right on top. Some images, if they click have been pinned more than 300 times, and continue to bring traffic, so that’s something wonderful I’d say 🙂
Indeed it is Harleena! Keep up the great work you’re doing on your blog.
Some nice tips to share about using Pinterest successfully for your brand.
I don’t use Pinterest as much and I wish I had the time to do so. It is a rising social media platform. Maybe when I get more funds, I might spend more time on there.
I remember when I was using it more than I am using it now, and all the work I did then is still bringing me results to this day without even working on it (a sign that it’s a powerful social network platform to use).
One of my tips is to get involved in as many group boards as you can, without ever spamming them with way too many updates. (This is the power of Pinterest)
Keep engagement levels high and always add creative images from your content for maximum content marketing results.
Thanks for the article!
– Sam
Samuel,
If I remember correctly you are already creating some custom images on your blog so I’m sure your content will do well on the platform. I think that part of the growth of Pinterest is due to the huge influx of bloggers that are hanging out there now, so finding and joining relevant group boards is much easier than it was before.
Thanks for stopping by Samuel. Chat soon.
Hello ma’am,
Pinwoot is a great site for promoting Pins. I used this for 2-3 months but now I can’t get much repins.
Also, I really like your new design!
Came here after a long long time.. 🙂
Superb design 😀
You should stop using Pinwoot. It’s SPAM traffic, which Pinterest is pretty good at sniffing out. Plus, by having followers that don’t engage, you’ll reduce the weighting of your future pins, meaning you’ll actually lower your virality. It’s basically the equivalent of Twitter automation or black hat SEO; may work for a little while, but eventually the hammer will drop and it won’t be pretty.
Follow Ileane’s tips and build authentic audience. You’ll be better off.
Hi Ileane
Took me a while to get over here, I need to put you at the top of my comment blogs list. (ok, just did that – I am back now).
As you now I am a big believer and supporter of Pinterest having written about it many times. And as you point out (thanks for the mention) I am a strong advocate of powerful images with the right writing on them to promote directly in Pinterest. In fact, this year I have even switched to portrait in most of my posts for even better pinning power!
There are lots of cool tips in this post, and the new one for me is the Tail Wind App – gotta go check that out. But no time now, 11pm already. Off to bed. Maybe tomorrow
take care
ashley
HA! I love being at the top of your list Ashley 🙂
Your images give me lots of inspiration and encouragement to create more custom images of my own. I think you’ll enjoy the Manly Pinterest Tips show. The next episode is scheduled for sometime later this month.
Thanks for stopping by Ashley and look forward to seeing more of you around here. 😉
Great tips on how to use Pinterest for its true purpose. I really liked your links to the picture editing and infographic stuff. I have been looking for sites to use to create custom pictures!
Pinterest is one of my 2014 platforms, but man I have so much to learn still! Love the idea of adding the “pin for later” call to action to your posts, awesome!
Delia, I think the best way to get up to speed quickly is by listening to Cynthia’s Oh So Pinteresting Podcast. This way you can multi-task and listen while you taking a walk or doing house work. I learned a ton from her and the amazing guests she brings on the show for interviews. Good luck!
Hi Ileane, funny we are thinking alike this week. I’m working on a post for Pinterest and will share a link to here if you don’t mind – I’m logging into Tailwind now. I’m used the others except for the plugin. I must admit I don’t use the viral content buzz too much. (Another place to login to) I love the versatile of Pinterest in that you can share it on other platforms and vice versa. Thanks for sharing some extra great tips too.
Hey Lisa, that would be great. I can’t wait to see what you come up with on the topic. It’s true that you need to log into VCB, but it is so worth it. They’re having a contest this month and the winner gets some big bucks! $1,000
Get the details here http://viralcontentbuzz.com/index.php/vcb-mbg-contest/
Hi Ileane, thanks for the heads up on the contest there – do you go with the Pro there or the FREE version? I think you had a banner from them too?
Lisa, I was using the free version since the site launched but I upgraded to a monthly plan just the other day.
Hi Ileane!
This post definitely goes under my bookmark-for-later-because-I’m-surely-going-to-reference-these-great-tips-again-and-again-category 🙂 So many great tips and I’m most certainly going to take advantage of all of them. I actually just installed the Triberr plugin today, per your suggestion in one of your YouTube videos about Triberr 🙂
I wanted to share the best resource I’ve found for getting article rich pins. It’s a thorough, easy-to-understand tutorial by Vincent Ng of MCNG Marketing. Here’s the link for anyone who doesn’t have rich pins yet, but is interested in getting them: http://www.mcngmarketing.com/how-to-add-rich-pins-for-articles-to-my-wordpress-blog/#.UtYLH_RDuSo
Thanks so much for your fabulous insight, Ileane! So happy to have connected 🙂
Katherine, thanks for sharing the article about rich pins. There’s a plugin that simplifies the process even further. Here’s the link if you want to check it out http://pinterestplugin.com/plugins/article-rich-pins/
Chat soon my dear!
Love it, Ileane! Thanks for the link love. I have REALLY have been slacking on my infographic creations in the last couple of months. I soooooooooooooo need to get back on it! Lots of juicy tips here, for sure! Thanks again!
Hey Lisa, I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with using Canva.
I favor PicMonkey over Canva but they released a tutorial the other day that they should have released a loooooong time ago. They show how to resize an image after you drag it into a frame and it’s so easy to do I can’t imagine why they don’t just people that when they sign up. That was one of my pet peeves – turns out all you have to do is double click the image. (doh) Here’s the video – maybe you’ll get inspired. 🙂
Cool! Gonna check it out. Thank you. I have been playing with Canva thanks to your invite but haven’t gotten around to making a video yet. Not enough time in the day! lol
Hi Ilene,
My friend on Twitter Lisa gave he a hint,
I’m just learning Pinterest so this one post was better than
a purchased program I’ve been trying to learn from. So many things you shared how to do it is amazing.
Thank you for the the extremely useful information!
C.
Hello,
Just Re-started using pinterest and I’m getting good outcome from it. Well I don’t know pinterest would get good exposure to the promotion we’ve started.
Thanks
I am not whining but for whatever reason, Pinterest never works for me. I have tried everything I can and it just won’t work.
Saqib, what kind of images are you pinning? Are you repinning other people’s content?
Also, take a look at joining Viral Content Buzz and you’ll get some pins from there as long as you have good images.
You bet! From the past 3 weeks I am getting tremendous traffic from Pinterest as I am sharing images on a consistent basis.
I would not mind saying that it will get you targeted traffic and people are generous enough to share your awesome blog images 🙂
Hi Anchit! Good for you. I love hearing about more guys using Pinterest successfully.
hi Ileane,
Very informative post and very well written. I am very much agree with you that pinterest is very great social bookmarking site but when i am using this i found that i am getting more traffic from reddit rather than pinterest.
I don’t know how or why ? but it happens to me.
Hi Diwaker,
I rarely get traffic from Reddit so please tell me your secrets! lol
sure please read this for working on reddit in a better way
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-reddit-guide-to-massive-traffic/42368/
I’ve been using Pinterest personally for years and LOVE. IT. However, I’ve recently started a new account for a client and I’m realizing how different Pinterest is from a business perspective. I appreciate all the tips and will be checking out the tools you’ve suggested.
Hello Ileane,
Thanks alot for sharing Pinwoot with your readers. We are building our new version of Pinwoot & I am sure things are going to get even better 🙂
Looking forward to have your readers on Pinwoot 🙂
Thanks,
Alex from Pinwoot
You’re welcome Alex! Pinwoot is a cool service and I appreciate you for coming by and leaving a comment.
Chat soon!
Hey Lleane, nice post. I’ve always thought Pinterest was just for the ladies but maybe I was wrong. I still do think it totally depends on your niche though. If it’s fashion, food, photography, gadgets etc then you can likely find a following on Pinterest but if you’re involved with internet marketing for example I don’t think there’s much scope to find the type of people you’re looking for there.
Hi Ileane, I’ve seen many post regarding this topic but this one was very helpful for me. Thanks for sharing.
On the beginning I used Pinterest on a regular basis to promote my blogs content but after a couple of months I stopped using it as I was not getting enough traffic that I expected from this social networking platform.
After reading this tips I think I’m on the wrong direction then . Just sharing the links is not enough to attract more traffic . I’ll surely give Pinterest another try.
Another great tips to be done here.. hope to follow all these techniques in order to see some improvements on my analytics..
Excellent tips on using Pinterest to get traffic. To be honest, I have not been able to utilise this to its fullest but I do pin images and it does seem to work a bit. But need to follow your tips.
Pinterest is a great platform to get relevant traffic for a blog but you just can’t expect results if you are not working hard on it. It is very niche specific and it has a lot of potential for the business related to events, ecommerce, hotels and food niche.
Hi Ileane, great article on Pinterest. I keep hearing about how Pinterest is one of the best ways to promote your blog so I might have to give it a shot. My blog already has some great images on it so I should probably promote them.
Thank you very much for the list of useful tools to work with Pinterest. I would definitely look into Pinterest promotion this year!
Hi Ileane,
No doubt Pinterest is one of the fast growing and popular social media site. But I personally feel that Pinterest visits are irrelevant to your business and won’t accomplish your business goals. So it would be much better to invest your efforts and time in other social media sites where you have hope to accomplish your goals.
Hello,
I’ve already used pinterest and using now also. The best thing I liked about pinterest is the promotion is really easy and we can expect lot of exposure to our content.
Hi
Pinterest is a very popular website for the web traffic and popular your pins .
Thank for sharing your tips.
Hi Ileane, thanks for sharing these awesome tips and tools for using Pinterest more effectively! I’ll be using them, and pinning to share with my followers!
Also, I have to recommend that you check out the unique power tools offered by my business, Pin4Ever. We can help you save a backup of all your boards, pins, likes, followers, and following on your computer — this includes descriptions, and links on Pinterest and the original source, too. After investing all the time and effort in creating your pinboards, it would be a shame to lose them to hackers, accidents, or Pinterest mistakenly identifying your account as spam!
Our tools can show you your duplicate pins, and let you move/copy/delete and rearrange multiple pins, to organize your boards and showcase your most popular pins. You can also see any deleted pins, and restore them to Pinterest if they were removed accidentally. Pin4Ever has even more features, and you can try them free for a week at http://www.pin4ever.com — I hope you’ll give it a try!
I am using Pinterest regularly but still not getting much traffic as expectation. I use Pinwoot sometimes and it seems pretty good for more exposure. Thanks for the tips about viralcontentbuzz.
if some one pin your post this will boost up your seo and in result give you a lot of traffic. but i still found this difficult to analyse how to get backlinks from pinterest.
My top tips are as follows:
1) Pin at the right time – try pinning at different times of day to see which times get the best results for you
2) Use hashtags – to help you appear in the Pinterest search results more easily
3) Join group boards to instantly gain access to hundreds/thousands of Pinterest users
hello Ileane Mam,
Earlier i was using Pinterest Just as a Simple Social bookmarking site. Today from your article i came to know many things about it.
Thanks a ton for sharing.
Hi Ileane,
Very Informative post. Thanks for sharing. We all know how addictive Pinterest is, and images can really do wonders if pinned well enough. I get a lot of traffic from Pinterest, especially it being the one social media where your posts stay the longest as compared to others like Facebook, Twitter, and even G+. I wish more people would realize that. Yes, Ashley’s really started putting up awesome images on his post, and I loved the video and links shared by you – need to look them all up as yet.
Thanks for such a useful information about Pinterest traffic strategy. My blog receives less traffic from Pinterest. Hope the tips provided by you will help me to build enough traffic.
Pinterest work quite well for me, since the begining for my travel related business. For my main project, not much to say, but certinly bring few odd clicks.
very true. I usually ignored pinterest as a source for my social media promotion but your post taught me the whole strategy. Thanks for sharing it mam.
Pinterest is one of the rising social media.yesterday i read a article about pinterest that this social media is very important for those people who are running a blog on beauty and cooking recipes, Because according to research pinterest has more female account then men. =D
Thank you Ileane for the lovely tips again first time i’ve heard bout picmonkey it seems like a really nice tool to use so i can switch from photoshop which is a bit time consuming . Think it’s time to boost my pinterest game 🙂
Useful information about Pinterest traffic strategy. My blog receives less traffic from Pinterest. Is there way to advertize on it to sale our products?
People around me are really into pinterest so I guess this is not in vain, thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much your tutorial is excellent, a great aid to achieve a success in Pinterest!
I use hashtags extensively – around 2 per post so that it’s not spammy. I also make sure the image is nice and often overlay some text on the image.
Have not seen pinterest drive traffic to my site though. Will continue to keep trying based on the tips on this article.
Thanks for the article. Pinterest is one of the last social media that I need to tackle!
Great post, Pinterest really does have a great potential to bring in traffic to any site just by sharing images. One of my site images have recently been pinned by many Pinterest users which brought in really a great amount of traffic to my site for a few days. I think I should now too get serious about Pinterest, seems to be a great source for bringing in traffic.
In earlier days I ignored pinterest as I thoughy this is is just a new social site but as soon as it started getting popularity and my fellow blogger started joining there I also getting serious about this site and finally joined it.After spending 6months there I got a great result from pinterest and now am just looking for the way to promote my online presence more and more there.So in that regard this is a great helpful from you,thanks for this Ileane Mam,hope you do share more such tips in near future for us.
I use Pinwoot sometimes and it seems pretty good for more exposure. Thanks for the tips about this one
Hi ,
Thank you so much for making us aware about Pinterest Promotions. Ileane I have Pinterest account but seriously still I didn’t learn how to use Pinterest & what’s user of Pinterest in our life ! Today you shared this Pinterest is a huge social network so can we do anything such like Facebook also in Pinterest.
Hello Ileane,
This is my first visit here. I am also thinking to promote my website through Pinterest. I have read your blog post carefully. Thanks a lot for providing great tips and tools for the promotion on Pinterest.
~Diana