Pinterest Tips for Bloggers

Good morning, friends!  I have a fun post to share with you today all about my most loved and most hated social media channel: Pinterest.  I don't know about you, but my relationship with Pinterest definitely ebbs and flows: some days I love pinning outfit after outfit, dessert after dessert, and other days I realize I haven't logged in for weeks.  I used to love "old Pinterest" where who you followed was what you'd see (and in the order they pinned it), but now with Promoted Pins, Pinterest has become so much less organic that it's become harder to get your pins "noticed" (without paying for it).  That's where we need to help each other; we need to share tips and get our little blogs' pins more viewed!  Before I continue any further, I fully acknowledge that I am not the most educated Pinterest user or the Pinterest user with the most followers, but I have found that the five tips below work for me, and I simply want to share them with all of you in hopes of gaining some success, as well.

1. Create boards by season and rearrange them frequently.  I used to have a single board for holidays and outfit inspiration, but now, I separate them so that followers looking for something specific can find it more easily.  Always move the most seasonally relevant boards up to the top, too!

2. Get holiday or seasonal content out there early.  Pinterest users are not looking for Valentine's Day inspiration on February 13th; they're looking for it right after Christmas ends.  Make sure you're posting holiday content at least a month before said holiday on your blog and sharing it on Pinterest then.  Even if you have a generic board that has something related to a pertinent holiday, change the cover of that board so that viewers will see it.  For example, on my "Blog it" board, I am currently featuring my "Tax Tips For Bloggers" post since tax time will soon be on the horizon!

3. Use frequently searched words to boost your descriptions.  Just posted something awesome on your blog and can't wait to share it on your Pinterest page?  Search a generic title idea, like I did for "hand scrub" below, and see what other words and phrases users are searching for.  I went from calling this pin "Pumpkin Spice Latte Hand Scrub" to those detailed descriptions below to get more search views.

4. Join group boards.  This is a fun way to find new people to follow who share the same interests as you as well as gain new followers yourself.  PinGroupie is a great resource, and usually if you comment on a group board and ask to be added, the admins will happily add you.

5. If it fits on more than one board, then pin it more than once.  Like I said before, Pinterest is far less organic than it used to be.  If you posted the same photo to two or three boards within 5 minutes, your followers would see those photos back to back.  Now, it can be hours or days before that pin appears to them, so why not double or triple your chance of being seen by adding a pin to more than one board.  I added the pin below to my fall holidays and DIY boards and created different descriptions to be seen on more pages and in more searches.

There you have it.  Like I said, this is what has worked for me, and I hope it works for you.  Here's my Pinterest page if you'd like to check it out - I'd appreciate it!  Good luck "going viral!"

• Do you use Pinterest?
• Do you have any suggestions for your fellow bloggers?