Pinterest has a wide range of uses, from collecting links on a certain subject to shopping to finding new fashion looks. One thing it’s great for is organizing anything visual that inspires you, from aspirational photos to pictures of goals, like an example of what you want your living room to look like when you’re done remodeling it. Because so many people visit Pinterest for inspiration, many influencers are looking to increase Pinterest followers. There are many ways to do this, including posting stunning visuals on a consistent basis.
Professional Pinning
Many different kinds of professionals use Pinterest for promotion and audience growth. It’s especially helpful for designers, artists, home decorators, fashion influencers, and anyone who wants to showcase their wares in a visual medium.
What Are the Options for Organizing Your Boards?
You can have as many boards as you want on Pinterest, including secret boards, which you might use to collect pins for shopping or other purposes unrelated to your business or purpose in being on Pinterest. However, most people trying to grow their profiles are focused on their public boards, which can help attract attention.
If you sell many different products or versions, you can make separate boards for each product or category. Additionally, you should add other categories that make sense for your business. For example, if you’re a fashion blogger or someone who owns a clothing store, you might have boards for Skirts, Tops, Dresses, Swimsuits, Pants, Shorts, etc. You can also add boards for specific brands or styles. Maybe you have a Punk board, a Goth board, a VCSO Girl board, a Surfing Style board, a Career Looks board, an Athleisure board, an Activewear board, an Outdoor board, etc.
Color Boards
Color boards are another fun idea for combining pins from all categories. You could have a board for pictures that heavily feature the color green, for example, and another one for blue, red, purple, yellow, etc. These are interesting because you can go from a forest scene to a green sweater to a green station wagon all in the same place. It’s also a way to encourage people to visit other boards if they’ve only seen one or two.
Travel or Location Boards
These are perfect for travel bloggers or photographers, but also work if a specific location goes with one of your themes. A Hawaii theme might work for beachwear, or a European Cooking board might be great for a food-themed profile. You don’t have to limit yourself to just food—you could make a board for Germany with both Black Forest cake recipes and pictures of the baths and spas at Baden-Baden.
Other Themes
Depending on your branding focus, there may be other themes that would make interesting groupings. A western author might have boards dedicated to horses, cowboys/cowgirls, ranching, the open terrain, rodeos, country music, western-themed movies or TV shows, memorabilia from the old west, etc.
Remember when adding products from your site that some could go on more than one board. Should you pin them to multiple boards at once? For traffic purposes, it’s better if you don’t. You can make a schedule to remind yourself what item you want to pin on what board each day to help keep your content fresh while spreading it across multiple boards.
Here are some other options: You might mix up your visuals by using random boards, memory boards, or a dedicated board for eclectic or humorous categories.
Group Boards
Another interesting thing about the site is the option to participate in group boards, another organizational option that allows more people to see your pins. First, you’ll locate appropriate boards and usually request to join. Then read and follow the board’s rules, to avoid annoying other members. If not a strict requirement, repinning for others in the group usually helps build goodwill and makes people more inclined to visit your posts.
Focus on Visuals
Pinterest is the only platform that currently offers a visual search, with Pinterest Lens. So far it can identify more than 2.5 billion home and fashion items.
But when people find your items, you want them to look ideal. Invest in a good digital camera, and possibly some professional lighting, so your photos look their best. Here are some ideas:
- Staging is important. Think about the many different ways you can display smaller items, like knick-knacks for home décor.
- Ideally, if you have small, movable items, you should try taking pics in unique locations and with different combinations of other items, and see what works out best.
- Think ahead to seasonal shots you might want in the future—maybe that red vase would look great in a holiday decorating piece, but it also looks good in that living room setup with the red accents. That orange table runner might look good as a background in a Halloween or Thanksgiving spread, but you can also use it in a bedroom with complementary colors. You could add seasonal boards and repin things as needed.
- If you’re taking pictures of large or otherwise immovable subjects, such as buildings, cars, or landscapes, you can try a variety of lighting situations and angles. Or try snapping pictures at different times of day, or from different positions.
Don’t Forget to Have Fun
You don’t have to focus solely on your blog or products. Remember that posts about food, family, fun, and friends do well on the site. If you have any recreational hobbies that appeal to your target market, make boards for these as well. Someone who finds you through your cute dog pictures may end up enjoying your other content and become a regular follower.
Promoted Pins
You can pay to promote any pin on the site. Sometimes promoting a small number of pins can help increase traffic across the board, as well as getting you more followers for the future.
When deciding which pins to promote, you should focus on the most eye-catching ones that will grab viewers’ attention. However, it’s also a good idea to use ones that promote your most popular products, articles, or recipes. This is another situation where you may want to A/B test certain kinds of pins to see which do the best at driving traffic to your profile and increasing your fan count.
Promoted pins are also an excellent way to grow a following for a specific board after you’ve organized your content in a way that accentuates the visually stunning aspects of your work. For example, you could promote one post from each board on a weekly basis.
Lastly, Don’t Forget Cross-Promotion
Pinterest is a useful tool both for businesses and individuals who want to improve their online following. Using these tips to organize and promote your visual inspiration will help you reach more viewers and grow your audience. However, don’t forget that you can also reach people on other platforms. For example, using the “Tweet your pin” feature helps you broaden your audience to people who spend more time on that site.
