Pinterest is known for the highly visual and creative content that’s shared on its platform. In fact, the company’s mission is “to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love.”

Pinterest is a great place for people looking for recipes, home decorating ideas, travel inspiration and so much more. Did you know it’s also a great place for digital marketing?

Using Pinterest and growing your following on the platform can help your brand generate awareness, increase website traffic, build credibility and connect with new potential customers. Here are five tips to help you grow your Pinterest following.

Pin Consistently

Just as with most other social media platforms, you can’t just create an account and get lazy. Achieving success on Pinterest requires you to frequently and consistently pin content. Get in the habit of pinning content on a regular basis – daily, if you can manage it. Even Pinterest itself recommends creating new, original pins at least once per week. The pins should be a mix of content from your own website – such as blog posts – and repins of other users’ pins. This can end up being a lot, so organize the pins into boards based on topic; this will help tame the chaos as well as give your followers ways to follow specific kinds of content. Pinterest users can follow your account or just specific boards you have created.

In addition to pinning regularly, try to pin during times that your target audience is most active. Popular times include afternoons and evenings, although your best time might be different based on your particular audience.

If posting on a regular basis sounds intimidating, try using a scheduling tool. This will allow you to schedule content ahead of time and let the scheduling tool post it for you so you don’t have to manually pin content every day.

Share Quality Content

When it comes to sharing content on Pinterest, quality is important. Pinterest is a highly visual platform, and people expect to see creative, high-quality images. When creating pins, make sure your images aren’t stretched out or blurry. If you make a graphic, such as an infographic or quote, make sure that the text is readable. Additionally, consider creating pins with vertical images rather than horizontal or square images. 85% of Pinterest users have the Pinterest mobile app, so there’s a strong chance people will be looking at your content on their smartphone; in this case, vertical images will look best. 

Creating quality content isn’t just about visual appeal – it’s important to share content that provides value to your target audience as well. Always create and share content with your ideal customer in mind. What information will they find helpful or entertaining? Focus on pinning content that provides some sort of value for your followers.

Additionally, when creating pins for blog posts, make multiple pins per post. Try using different fonts, colors and imagery, as people will respond differently to the different pins. You can then use Pinterest analytics to see how each pin is performing and gain a better understanding of what your followers like to see.

Engage With Other People

While pinning quality content on a consistent basis will help you grow your following, you’ll also want to make an effort to interact with other Pinterest users. One way to find people who might like to follow you is by identifying accounts or boards that are similar to yours, and follow their followers. The idea here is that if those people find value in following the other account or board, they’ll find value in following you/your boards as well since the content or topics are similar. Following other people will also help you see new content to interact with.

Using group boards is another great way to get your name and content in front of more people. Group boards are collaborative boards that allow multiple people to pin content. Creating your own group board or joining an existing one is a great way to find new content, find new people to follow, and share your content with new people.

Use Keywords

Using keywords in your pin descriptions can help you optimize your pins for SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. This will help potential followers find your content when searching specific words or phrases in Pinterest. Be sure to use keywords that are relevant to the pin and your brand.

To find ideas for keywords, search a relevant term in the Pinterest search bar. For example, if you’re sharing a pin about digital marketing, do a search using the term “digital marketing.” As you type, you’ll see additional suggested search terms appear below the search bar, such as “digital marketing strategy,” “digital marketing tools” and “digital marketing quotes” for this example. Once you hit the enter button, you’ll see even more terms and popular topics you can use, such as “Design,” “Creative ads,” “Agency” and more for this example. You can also perform searches on Google and see what related search terms it comes up with.

Pin descriptions have room for up to 500 characters, so there’s plenty of space to include a variety of keywords. However, remember that your description should still be helpful to the reader and not just a bunch of keywords thrown together.

Optimize Your Website

While finding and attracting new followers within Pinterest is helpful for growing your following, you can also reach people outside of the platform and drive traffic to your Pinterest account. A great way to do this is by adding a button to your website that visitors can click to follow you on Pinterest, or using the Pin It widget to make it easy for visitors to pin content from your website on Pinterest.

Claiming your website on Pinterest is also beneficial. It gives you access to additional analytics, ensures your profile picture appears next to pins from your site, and more.

Want Assistance?

Staying active on Pinterest is a great way to grow your following on the app and potentially grow your customer base. However, it does take time and energy.

Luckily, Healthy Dash of Social can help! Whether you need some assistance creating content, want Pinterest fully managed for you, or something in between, our experts are ready to help you succeed. Visit our services page to learn more and schedule your free call.