I don't claim to be a pro with Pinterest, I have a small following compared to others and this is certainly not a post to tell you how you should be doing it because we all hate patronising tips posts don't we? This post is purely on what has helped me grow my own account over the last few months, not massively but enough to notice a difference and increase in traffic and people pinning and liking my pins. I know when I first started using Pinterest I was clueless so I hope this helps one of you.
Install Business for Pinterest
I didn't know this existed until Pinterest emailed me after I started making more effort with my own account with a suggestion to upgrade to a business account. This has been the best way to keep track of my account and analytics . I probably look at my stats once a month if I remember as I do most of my pinning on the app, not the website. It shows analytics from your profile, audience and activity to and from my blog as well as impressions, repins and rich pins. Super handy and very interesting.
Rich Pins
Rich pins are pins that include extra information on the actual pin. There are six types, app, movie, recipe, article, product and place. Article pins are what us bloggers should be paying attention to as they can include information on the article, links and enable people to save them. It's done with meta tags which can be implemented on your website which you can then apply to get them on Pinterest.
Keep your boards clean
Most people are drawn to clean, crisp photos, so why should your boards be any different? Tidy up your boards, name them with something eye catching and change your cover photos to something that would catch your own attention and everyone else's. You can also rearrange your boards and move your most relevant to the top of your profile. On the Analytics page under your profile it will show you, your top five boards then just go from there. Mine are currently Christmas Joy, Hair Inspo, Hedgehogs, Slimming World and Home Inspo.
Take some time pinning
Consistency is key with Pinterest to grow your account. I try and pin five - ten pins daily so I'm always active, it's not hard as I can spend hours on Pinterest plus it shows your followers you're still there. If I don't pin for a few days I really notice less interaction by other pinners. By pinning regularly, my followers have steadily increased and my average monthly views are up 50.75%. Try not to bulk pin hundreds at a time as Pinterest sometimes sees this as spam, just keep that in mind.
Pin your blog photos
This is something I've been trying to do a bit more of to see if it makes a difference in my blog traffic. I have a widget installed so I can pin my blog photos directly to Pinterest with the blog link as it makes it a little easier. You can also pin your posts from Bloglovin if you wanted to increase your traffic to there as well. In Business for Pinterest you can track your traffic to and from you blog to see what's popular and what's not, this is where rich pins come in too. I also have a separate board where I pin all of my blog posts so they're all in one place.
Enjoy it
Pinterest is a photo app and one you should enjoy using, don't just feel like you have to use it to benefit your blog. We don't need to use every social media platform going. I used it for a long time before I started using it to promote my blog, it's perfect for finding recipes, hacks, beauty advice and so much more. So pin, like and enjoy!
If you have any Pinterest tips please comment below, you can also find my pinterest here - alicespake.
