Have you heard that Pinterest is a powerful search engine? I’ve seen that first hand. Not only can anyone search for and save pictures of anything through Pinterest. But the images from Pinterest also show up in Google image search. Starting out on Pinterest for writers and bloggers can be daunting – there are guides about themes, or posts about signing up to promotional tribes. This advice here is free – no app needed. All you need to do is play on Pinterest!
I had always pinned a few things; travel ideas, quotes. Then I started using Pinterest for research for my historical fiction. I searched for original artworks from the 18th century showing what life was like and I noticed people were re-pinning my stuff a lot more. You can see from the screenshot below how my Pinterest hits increased hugely over the month of May.
The above is an image of my Pinterest account for May 2018. Quite a dramatic increase! Well, it was for me – I realize some people have 10k followers. But you have to begin somewhere. As you can see, I started off with very little traffic. I had 25 followers. Then in April, two of my pins started getting re-pinned a lot. I needed to find out more about how to access this traffic.
So I did some research into how Pinterest works. I started using Pinterest for Business and being an active Pinner. I’ll give you some tips on what that means.
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Starting out on Pinterest for Writers and Bloggers
Pinterest Basics
- Create a business account – this doesn’t cost anything and gives you access to more statistics
- Verify your website or blog
- Put a Pinterest button on your blog. This enables users to pin your content.
Written Content
I’m a writer. So how do I translate my words into an image-based platform?
Starting out on Pinterest for writers is not as easy as it is for those with a clear product to sell.
For writers, your product is yourself and your words.
- Create how-to posts: Great content is a must for a start ie fact-based articles, procedures with clear instructions, ideas and tips on how to create a specific result.
- Use Titles that will capture interest and get readers to click-through
- Show readers that you are an expert in your field ie. because I am writing historical fiction, I write articles about 18th century France. You may be an expert in writing descriptions or settings.
- Writers like clicking images of books, witty prompts, poems, memes about writing or quotes
Pins
I use Canva to create pins. Plain background, vertical pins with some white space are popular. People like titles written over the top. Pinterest users seem to love quotes. Either quote your own work or a famous author on the front of the Pin.
In your Pin description, add a snappy call-to-action ie Dialogue tags can be tricky. Click through to find out more.
I love this article on designing beautiful pins.
These two have been popular pins. As you can see they are very simple and to the point:
I’m loving this Infographic with stats on what sort of Pins are most clicked.
Boards
Name: A name that is keyword-rich and describes exactly what is in the board.
Category: Choose the correct subject. This will help your board get seen if people search by category.
Cover: This should be a pin that is clear and concise. It will show as the first pin in your board.
Description: Apparently, board descriptions are important for search. Use valid keywords in your description. Note: I need to go through and update my board descriptions.
Interact:
Think like your audience
Pinterest users are looking for inspiration or how to do something. If your blog audience are female readers looking for parenting tips, you might want to post images of educational games, books for children, party ideas, healthy family recipes. Get inside the mind of your reader and imagine the images they would search for. You can do this by searching on Pinterest for what your blog topic is. [Example: how to write dialogue] Click on the first Pin that comes up ; the algorithms mean that this is the most popular pin for that query. Click through to the author and have a look at what boards they have. This will show you their interests and what they (your target audience) pin.
Embed Boards in your blog posts
Readers can see the beautiful images you pin directly on your post. Step-by-step advice here on the Pinterest developer site.
Repost old posts
Try different graphics and different headlines until you find out which pin has the best click-through rate and saves.
Pin other people’s content
Follow a few influencers (pinners with lots of followers) and pin their content. You will show up on their radar and they may just follow you back.
Pin popular pins
Pinterest ranks Boards higher if they have a high re-pin rate ie they are a ‘trusted board’. So if people like your content (even if it’s not your own posts), you will rate higher in the search engine.
Join some Shared Boards
Shared Boards are Pinterest boards that multiple people can pin to. The boards then have a greater viewership with all the combined followers. They can be tricky to find and join. Search for Shared Boards or Group Boards. You normally have to email the owner with a request and the name of your Pinterest account. They are not the be-all and end-all some would have you believe as they can get clogged up with rubbish posts, so be choosy about the ones you join.
Analyse:
Look at your stats
When you use Pinterest for business, you have access to Analytics; statistics on who is looking at your images, which pins are the most popular. Use them. Look at them each month and determine who your audience is, what they like, what sort of pins get saved and clicked the most.
Keep up to date with Pinterest SEO
Just like Google, Pinterest is changing the way its bots display content all the time. Check out what is changing and keep improving your pins. Read more about Pinterest SEO.
There is so much to learn about this traffic source. My next aim is to find out how to get people to click through more pins to the actual blog! Although I think I will need to be patient, it will be worthwhile with 200 million active users searching every month.
- 200 million + users per month
- More than 100 billion pins
- 50% users outside the US, Ireland and NZ fast-growing markets
I hope this has given you some confidence about starting out on Pinterest for writers.
Follow my Pinterest for writing prompts, inspiration, writing tips at My Pinterest (you can see a preview in the sidebar).