PINTEREST'S MOBILE MAKEOVER & YOU

Did you know that 75% of the users of Pinterest are accessing the inspiring social tool using a mobile device (more stats found here).  That means they are seeing everything through their phone or tablet. If you haven't opened your Pinterest app lately you probably should because things look very different from your desktop.

Gone are the days of your cover images. Instead, the first thing that a user sees is your name, photo and your recent pins. Then you'll see the board that you most recently pinned to with the rest of your boards descending in order from what you most recently populated down to the last.

So, what does this mean for you? 

1. You MUST be a good curator now more than ever. If my first impression is a series of pins that have terrible styling, content and photography I'm going to pass on following you.

2. Concise titles matter. Tell me what your board is about in two to three words. Ex: Recipes to Try. People scroll fast, so you need to be able to tell them about your content in a second.

3. Be active. Pinterest tells the viewer when you last pinned down to the minute. If you haven't been active in a week I'm going to pass.

4. Make sure you are pinning to boards that are relevant to the season. If the first board that pops up is your Christmas board because you last pinned to that and signed off, well, that's unfortunate because I don't care about Christmas right now. Sign off on a relevant note. Bonus tip: That said, it's usually best to keep general, evergreen titles to your boards so you can always populate them. Example: HOLIDAY vs. CHRISTMAS. I can pin to a holiday board year round, but I can only pin to my Christmas board once a year. 

Like these tips? See more here and here. Also, be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can get this information before anyone else!

Styling Food for Pinterest - Do's and Don'ts

Just because a picture is super successful on Instagram doesn't mean it will be engaging on Pinterest, and just because a picture is really pretty doesn't mean that it will be clicked on. When creating content for the web you always have to keep in mind a couple of things: 1) Where is this content going to live? 2) Will people click on the image? We ultimately want to capture viewers so that our voices can be heard above the noise, but too often I see people creating pretty things thinking that's enough to engage views. The reality is there's a lot of pretty out there to compete with, and not all of it gets the views it may deserve.

I think many people have the taste level and eye to style a pretty photo, but knowing what's pretty and what drives traffic are two different things. I see many photos on Pinterest that are drop dead gorgeous, but will I repin all of them? No. And will I click to view the photo on a blog? An even slimmer chance, unfortunately. So, what makes an image on Pinterest engaging and/or clickable? That's the big question! In order to answer this big question we need to break things down by subject. Let's start with food. (I'll tackle fashion next!)

Pinterest Food Styling Comparison

I did a little experiment for you guys and styled the same latte recipe three different ways. I kept certain elements the same, however.

Controls: Latte recipe Light Location Pinned to the same board

Variables: Cups Placement Text placement Font Pin description

Can you guess which photo performed the best? The answer surprised me at first, but it makes sense as to why. Latte A received the least amount of traffic with only 39,000+ impressions and only 127 clicks. Latte B received 58,000+ impressions with 197 clicks, and lastly, Latte C (the winner) received 63,000+ impressions with 213 clicks.

Why is this the case? When styling food people want to be up close and personal with the subject. Being able to see the drink through the glass matters. Photo C also has the best view of the donut even though that is not the star of the show. The donut adds an additional enticing factor for sure, so think about what complementary foods or ingredients can be added to your shots. Also, the text on this pin is the most readable, and I have the color black to thank for that.

Are all of these photos pretty? Yes, you an even view more photos from this post here to see what I mean. Readable text and being SUPER close to the subject your shooting so you can almost taste the latte matters as much as good light and photography.

For more Pinterest advice, check out these posts:

Under the Radar Pinners

How to Use Group Boards Effectively

How to Brand Your Business on Pinterest

How to Use Pinterest Group Boards Effectively

Group boards are a great tools for collaboration. When I became a user of Pinterest in 2010, I quickly saw the value of sharing inspiration with my personal styling clients. I was so happy when Pinterest rolled out the ability to share a board with another user not too long after Pinterest's launch. Rather than sending images back and forth, making Polyvore collages and making mood boards in Photoshop, I could make a group board with links directly to commerce sites where my clients could purchase their suggested wardrobe pieces. But, can you use the group board feature as a marketing tool for your business? Yes. Should businesses have group boards with influencers? Yes. How? Keep reading... BENEFITS TO HOSTING A GROUP BOARD:

1| You have an additional people helping you populate your Pinterest account with great content.

2| Your board is seen on your contributors' profiles, which increases brand awareness

3| You have a different consumer eye and perspective contributing, which can help you relate to a different type of audience.

TIPS ON SELECTING YOUR CONTRIBUTORS:

1| Review your contributor's Pinterest profile to see that the content they share is in line with the lifestyle of your businesses.

2 | Other than having a lot of followers, find out the engagement statistics of their Pinterest profile. Do they get a lot of repins and comments? That will tell you if the content they find for you would be of interest to your audience as well.

3| Choose someone who has a similar audience to yours. You want them to help reach your ideal customer, so they need to understand who that is. (Age, location, gender, etc.)

4| Create an incentive for them to contribute. Either compensate them for curating your board with product, money or allow them to share some of their work or products with your audience to cross promote themselves. This will help ensure proper care and time for their contribution.

pinterestgroupboardblog

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE:

1| The content a contributor shares is seen only by the followers of the host's board (a.k.a. your followers). If you are wanting the pins to be shared with contributor's followers they would need to host the board.

2| Choose no more than 5 people to contribute to a board at a time. Quality control is important, and that's harder to manage when you have a lot of people sharing at one time.

3| Create guidelines for how often you expect your contributor to pin. Decide how many pins total over a period time they should share. Do you want them to share at least one pin per day? Is there a time during the day and/or when your audience is most engaged? If so, ask your contributor to share their content within that timeframe.

4| If you are worried that your contributor may share something against your brand guidelines, consider making a group secret board that you contributor pins to so you can review the content before it is made public. Just remember, the more steps you ask your contributors to take the more time they are devoting to the project. Make sure to compensate them accordingly.

Have more questions about hosting a group board? Please comment below or feel free to email me, alexandra@avestyles.com.