Make the Most of Pinterest: 6 Easy Tips
With all of the available social media channels, newer users can find themselves overwhelmed. Facebook is busy! Twitter is too fast! Snapchat is just strange!
One easy channel to work with and learn is Pinterest. Pinterest is like the laid back uncle at Christmas who offers up some really amazing ideas here and there and who you can ignore when he starts to get weird.
To make the most of your Pinterest experience, consider the following.
- Create boards based on the topics you write or blog about. For me, that would mean I’d have a board for Parenting tips, Health, Faith, Writing, Blogging, and more. I could even break some of those down into more specific boards. My Health category might get even more specific with items like Recipes, Exercise, Tips & Tricks, and Motivation.
- Take the time to pay attention to those in your niche. You can see the “hot topics” that are being pinned, shared, discussed. Use this as a litmus test for your own pins and content creation.
- Use the portrait orientation for your pins. When you create your images, Pinterest favors the horizontal portrait orientation rather than the landscape or square. While you could still use either of those, the portrait size is going to be the best option for mobile and desktop viewing.
- Limit (or simply avoid) pinning videos. Pinterest is not the spot to really share videos, per se. You might share a link to a Vlog you created, but you would want to be certain that the image pinned is engaging and catches your targeted audience’s attention.
- Hashtags are ok. A hashtag is like a category. Think of them like file folders. Use hashtags sparingly on Pinterest, but don’t disregard their ability to help your content be found. Use relevant hashtags (you don’t need to use “funny” ones) if you’re going to use them. Some hashtags I might use for the topics I write and pin about could include #health or #holistic.
- Pinterest can absolutely benefit your purpose — whatever it is. Many people join Pinterest so that they, too, can be sucked into the wormhole of never-going-to-actually-get-to-it crafts and recipes. That’s how I started. But Pinterest is super handy for bloggers and folks in business looking for ways to branch out and be noticed in other channels. If you’re unsure about how to start pinning, return to #1. Take time to sit and think through your purpose and then what topics you typically write about or share about. Those are your boards. If you haven’t started a Pinterest account yet, it’s ok to start small. Believe me, you’ll grow as you continue to play with this tool.
And if you still need help getting more out of Pinterest or any other social media channel — or maybe you need help with your blog, your writing, your confidence in getting started with blogging — come hang out with me in my Facebook group. We’re Blogging Genius, and we’re all about the love.
I use IFTTT to schedule shares on my other networks from Pinterest. I created a “To Share” board just for those types of things. It will be good for content I want to come back to again later, too.
Thank you for sharing. I’ve never supposed Pinterest as a helpful resource for blogging