Pinterest has always been the go-to platform for inspiration. But this year, as lockdown left many of us spending more time on social and starting new projects, the app experienced record levels of engagement.
Many creators already use Pinterest as a platform to re-share their content, drive traffic to their blog or website and gain inspiration for future work. If that’s you, how can you benefit from this year’s spike in interest and improve your Pinterest strategy? And if you’re not already on the Pinterest bandwagon, why should you jump onboard?
We spoke to Vamp creators who are killing the Pinterest game, and asked for their best advice on getting the most from the platform.
When writing your captions, think SEO
“Pinterest is fast becoming the platform to focus your energy on” says @leileiclaveyphotography. Lei Lei has over 172.9k monthly viewers on Pinterest and has been a dedicated pinner for 10 years.
Pinterest isn't so much a social media platform as it's a search engine.
“Think carefully about how you use Pinterest. It’s not so much a social media platform as it’s a search engine. One tip to create a successful Pinterest page is to caption your pins, your boards and board descriptions with useful descriptions. Work in relevant keywords so your content shows up in searches. For pin descriptions, you can fit up to 500 words but note that only the first 50-60 characters show up to Pinners on the home feed. For board titles, write a niche-specific title, i.e. ‘Winter Outfits’ which incorporates keywords rather than a cute but irrelevant title.”
Refine your strategy with Pinterest analytics
“On most social platforms, I tend to measure followers, likes and comments. But on Pinterest, I’m tracking impressions and link clicks the most” says @stylecuratorau. Gina has over 7.6M monthly unique viewers on Pinterest. We asked her what the best practises are for using your analytics.
My Business analytics help me understand what type of pins I should create
“Pinterest drives traffic to my blog more than any other social media site, so it’s important for me to understand what pins are performing best. Pinterest makes all this information available under their Business analytics section. It also shows your top pins from the past 30 days so you can understand what type of images, graphics and pin descriptions are getting the best engagement.
“This helps me understand what type of pins I should create (bright photography with beautiful font overlay) and what type of descriptions work (meaningful descriptions with a call to action to visit the blog). This information hasn’t just helped me on Pinterest, it’s made me a better content creator.”
Think like a Pinner, not a creator
“I like to write my captions on Pinterest as a user, not a creator. I word them the same way I would search for content on Pinterest” explains @oliviafaithofficial. She has a strong Pinterest community of over 1.6M monthly viewers and uses this logic for majority of her Pinterest strategy.
“When promoting a blog post about the ‘denim on denim’ trend, I would craft a caption along the lines of ‘How to wear double denim in 2020’ and ‘Casual double denim outfit ideas’, as that’s what my audience would be searching.”
She uses the same strategy for her collage pins. For every new blog post, Olivia creates a collage cover image which she pins to drive traffic to her blog.
The aesthetics of a Pin is what drives me to read an article or visit a blog
“I decided to start using a pin theme, but but injected trends and my own personality into them to stand out from the crowd. The aesthetics of a Pin is what drives me to read an article or visit a blog, so I knew the aesthetics part was important. A lot of my Pinterest knowledge simply comes from using and loving the platform. Just remember, when Pinning a blog heading, keep your title bold so the users are able to distinguish what they are reading!”
Become a consistent Pinner
When users land on your Pinterest page, they want to see boards full of content inspiration and ideas. This will help convert them from a viewer into a follower, as they’ll trust you’ll always be sharing loads of quality content for them to re-pin.
Unlike, Instagram where you might only post once a day, you could share 50+ piece of content a day on Pinterest – and its only going to help your profile’s growth and performance. Vamp creator @connieandluna has a Pinterest audience of over 1.1M monthly viewers and built this community through consistent pinning.
In the past, I've used Tailwind to schedule my pins
For more advice on how to get the most out of your Pinterest account, watch our recorded webinar with Vamp’s Head of Content, Lauren Thomas, Pinterest’s Creators Lead, Sophie Shepherd, and Digital Creator, Jenelle Witty.
The three discuss effective Pinterest strategies to drive website traffic, boost brand awareness and make sales.
