We like Pinterest, our Kelly in particular has a love affair with Pinterest. She enthusiastically says, “It used to just be a place to organize all my wishes and wants in my life–dream vacations, rooms in my house that don’t exist, meals that I don’t have time to prepare–now it seems like everyone from artists, writers, bloggers and even large corporations are regularly using it to promote themselves and spread their message. Visually. Some of them do it well and some not so well.”
While Google Images can work for specific searches, it will not cut the cake for inspiration and creative brainstorming. Spend some time on Pinterest if you’re looking for a mood, theme or visual to spark an idea… works for us!
Here are some helpful tips we gathered around the web as well as employ in our company Pinterest boards. Try these techniques to garner more followers and commenting/liking activity, whether you are a business or just a nightly Pinterest-obsessed junky:
We use a vertical rule in our naming convention.
1- Overall Appearance
-You’ll want to create your Pinterest boards in the same way you decorate your living room or organize your pantry. Your boards will look best if the pins have something in common with each other. For example, a board of quotes looks nice because they are all graphics with a sentence or 2 of type on a colored background. Pleasing to the eye because it looks so clean and they compliment each other. Another example would be a board of a favorite color or combination of colors– when viewed as a whole, the repetition of color always is engaging and encourages liking and followers.
2- Consistent Naming Convention(s)
-Develop a way to name your boards and stick with it. Is it one word for each? How about a short phrase in 1st person like, “Vacations I need.” Do you spell them out in capital letters or lowercase? What about special characters or hyphens. Emoji symbols as a fun, little graphical treatments can be overused but also show some whimsy and immediately register with a follower. Get clever and keep it consistent. This gives your overall Pinterest page a personality and cohesiveness people look for and will spend time enjoying.
3- Bountiful Boards
-No one wants to follow a board that has only a handful of pins. If you are lucky enough to spark someone’s curiosity–enough for them to visit your personal Pinterest page–don’t disappoint them. Fill em up! Visitors will scroll through your boards and if they see a lot of pin-worthy material that sets their heart in swoon-mode, then they will follow you. Of course be choosy and find quality pins. Quality and originality is always paramount and over time you’ll be sure to fill up those boards equally.
A great way to avoid scrawny boards, is to begin each as a “private board”. This way, you can fill it up until deemed worthy for the world of Pinners. You are a curator of your own show–you decide when opening night is!
4- Pin Regularly
-Make sure you don’t disappear from Pinterest for too long. Keep up with it, check in a couple times a week and add to your boards so they stay fresh. Add a reminder in your phone or calendar to visit Pinterest on a regular basis. Once in a while clean out the cobwebs too. If you have a board that follows a trend that isn’t what the “cool kids” are wearing anymore – get rid of it.
The chimp in the hoodie gets us every time.
5- Follow Others
-Following people is a major consideration when trying to attract followers yourself. For example, if you were to follow 5-10 people every week, hopefully some will follow you back. This is a good steady rate of growth without over saturation. Much like your pins, be sure to choose the companies/people/groups you follow carefully, since the idea is to find interesting (and appropriate to your boards) content for re-pinning.
To see on how many followers you have, and to accept, just head over to My Pinterest Boards and click on the “### Followers”. If it says “Follow” that means you are not following them, so click “Follow”.
6- Comment, Repin and Tagging
Take advantage of the Popular section of Pinterest and start commenting on these pins by leaving a simple complementary statement like ‘‘Great Pin’’ or ‘‘Nice Find!’. Also, make sure you actually take the time to study the images. Show them that you know and care about the subject and aren’t just trying to snag visitors to your account. Hopefully, this will inspire people to check out your page and follow you. Keep in mind, leaving too many comments is considered spam by Pinterest, which can lead to your account being suspended. Don’t be a spammer.
Besides commenting, consider repining photos from different users who interest you. Also, when promoting a company, tag other users by using “@username” in the description that you write. By linking with other companies and professionals, you can expand your reach, build your reputation and promote your business.
This image pulls at our seasonal-heart-strings.
7- Create a board for Holidays or Seasons
If you’re looking for some quick exposure, take advantage of upcoming holidays or seasons. This could be DIY decorations for Halloween, Christmas or the 4th of July. Maybe pushing jewelry or candy on Valentine’s Day. Regardless of the event, creating a board specifically designed for a holiday or Season can generate interest to your account, which hopefully converts into followers.
8- Join Collaborative Boards
Another quick way to attract followers is by contributing to popular group boards. When you contribute quality pins to these boards, their large amount of followers can become your followers, too, if they enjoy your pins.
Try searching for popular group boards and spend some time establishing a relationship with the board owner or other contributors. After you become acquainted, ask them to invite you to the board.
9- Promote Individual Boards
Since we’re all busy people, we cannot always spend valuable time going through the entire profile of a person who grabbed our attention with one AMAZING board. Some argue that most people prefer following boards on SUBJECTS that interest them, not the account of the person of who created the board.
Instead of pushing your entire Pinterest profile, you can gain followers by promoting your most popular boards. Simply go through your page and discover which of your board your most successful and promote them heavily. Perhaps it’s our “Website Design Inspiration” board that is more popular than the recently archived, but sorely missed, “Brown Snails R Cool”….
10- Run Contests
It’s safe to assume that most people enjoy social media contests, which are extremely easy to promote on Pinterest. For example, you could do something as simple as having a user pin and re-pin in order to win a prize. You could also team up with a tool like Rafflecopter to give away a few extra entries for people who follow you on Pinterest. No matter how you approach running a contest, it’s an easy and quick way to bring attention your account and gain more followers.
The hashtag versus the pound sign.
BONUS – When pinning, try to give your images descriptions that will attract visitors. The description or caption should be something original and engaging or informative. Your perspective or opinion… Not just a generic, and tried description typically found on a corporate product page.
BONUS #2 – Don’t forget the #hashtags. This is a quick way to reach more people/networks, and users taking advantage of the robust Pinterest search feature. #slickfish #awesome
Additional source: searchenginejournal
The Bubbler is a place we put all of the project bragging, inspirational, technical and sometimes witty moments which bubble to the surface while working in the design world and playing around our fine coastal city, Portland, Maine.