For social media marketing campaigns, there’s no beating the power of Pinterest for bloggers. Unlike Tweets and posts on Facebook or Google+, which have relatively short lives, Pinterest pins will be repinned over and over, some even being pinned years later. They continue to gain traction for months after they are originally pinned. Here are some tips to get long-term, solid traffic referral from Pinterest.
When you get started, you’ll need to create about ten boards with a minimum of ten pins each. One board should be for your blog content and another for the general topic of your blog. It’s fine to pin your posts across several boards, but spread them out over time and pin other content in between, so you don’t give the impression of being spammy. It’s a good idea to stay active on Pinterest, to keep your presence relevant.
Use keywords when you name your interest boards and write descriptions. Pinterest is a guided search engine that helps pinners find great content using keywords. Writing descriptions with keywords to help it be found by the search is good, stuffing it full of keywords is not. Try to come up with inspiring descriptions that will help your pins be found on the Pinterest Smart Feed. They obviously need to be relevant to your content, so people won’t be disappointed when they click through. Hashtags are not used on Pinterest, so leave them out. Make sure each Pinterest board has a category as well, to help with its searchability.
Start a Pinterest for Business account – there are no negatives to this. You need to have a business account to access the analytics, but you can also add Rich Pins so each pin from your blog has enhanced meta-data.
Add a Pin-it button to your blog – this makes it easier for people to share your content.
Use a Pinterest friendly image for every blog post – it helps with repins dramatically. The elements that make a great pin image are:
- Size 735 x 1102 pixels
- Tall, vertical images work best
- Minimal and easy to read text
- Ensure your images work on mobile
- Add your logo or URL, as long as it doesn’t dominate
- Use a clear, beautiful image or graphic
It’s a good idea to share your pins on other social networks. Add links to your pins on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and LinkedIn. You can also add a link to your Pinterest presence in your email signature, or add your most popular pin of the week in your weekly mail blast. Make sure you practice good SEO techniques when posting your blogs post pins.
The final thing to remember is to follow your followers – you’ll get more engagement that way. Repin industry leaders and any other content your followers would like.
For more on social media and the effect that using them can have on your business, contact us. There’s so much going on out there – let us decipher it for you!