PINTEREST FRIDAY - PIN DESCRIPTIONS

In recent years, I have spent more of my time updating Instagram instead of this blog, but I’d like to change that. This is the one place where all of my content is truly mine, easily accessible, and searchable. My goal is to be a resource for you and always has been, so it’s time to get back to it! So, I’m starting with a popular topic of conversation on this blog - Pinterest.

Every Friday I have been sharing Pinterest tips for FREE on Instagram to help small business owners, and I’d like to share these tips here with you as well. You can access all of the past tips in my IG stories highlights, but I’ll spend time building them out for you on the blog.

Today, we’re talking Pinterest descriptions. Here are some key things to keep in mind when writing for Pinterest:

1. Write how someone searches Pinterest. When people search on Pinterest, they start their search at a very high level. Users are looking for inspiration, and they are usually beginning their customer journey on Pinterest. Many Pinterest searches consist of 1-3 words. Though you might assume much of your Google SEO knowledge applies to Pinterest, it’s kind of a different animal. When people search for a product on Google they are often more ready to purchase and further down the funnel. They tend use more terms in their search and be more specific. So, identify the high-level, key search terms that are relevant for your product (ex: short hair tutorial, short hair ideas, short hairstyles, short curly hair ideas, short hair trends, 2021 short hair), and include them in your description and pin title.

2. Cut the fluff, get straight to it. Your TOV and your language should try to solve the consumer’s problem immediately and get straight to the point. This isn’t Instagram…They are on a hunt for inspiration and information. Don’t talk like a brand, talk like their BFF. Spill the tea and don’t sugar coat it.

3. 500 Characters. You have 500 characters to tell someone all about your pin. You can include a mix of hashtags to help you do this as well and save characters. You can use up to 20 hashtags. Try to use all of the characters to give you the best advantage, but don’t force it.

4. Describe what’s in the pin. If you’re stuck on what to say, talk about what is in the photograph and the destination you are leading people to with your pin (story pins may not have a destination). Talk about the colors, the textures, the materials, the cost, the company, the quality, the ease, the destination, etc.

5. Don’t use the same description for all of the pins. Don’t use the same pin description for all of the pins you are sharing to promote a single post. Change it up so that you increase your likelihood of reaching people.

That’s it for this week! Make sure to check back next Friday for more tips!

PINTEREST GROWTH IN 2016

I have written many posts sharing Pinterest tips in the past (H, but this post is going to share some new things that I have learned and really tried to do with my profile this year. I hope you find it all helpful. Please share if you do.

Yesterday, I spelled out 10 things that helped my Instagram grow, and today I'm going to share with you just five things that organically grew my account by 37,000 followers in a year.

1. Login to Pinterest every, single day and repin 20+ pins from the Pinterest community // Logging into the platform is really important. Every social media app out there would prefer you to natively pin through their platform rather than use third party scheduling tools. And I know this because I have tested it for myself. Repins that I scheduled using Tailwind didn't perform as well as they did when I logged in. 

• Using third part apps as a tool to help you maintain activity, but you MUST login every day.
• Repinning is just as important as adding new content. In fact, I would argue it's more effective. The algorithm is based on engagement, and so it favors content that is proving to be engaging. Thus, the content will surface higher in people's home feeds.

2. Add fresh content to each board you have regularly // Don't allow boards to sit idle on your profile. The only way boards are recommended to people to follow, as well as profiles, is if they are proven to be active. Pinterest wants people to have a great experience on the platform, so why would they recommend idle boards.

• That said it's important to limit the amount of boards to 40 max so that you can easily add fresh content to them all of the time.
• Keep your board topics fairly general so that you can add a lot of content regularly. Valentine's Day boards are only relevant two months out of the year on Pinterest. Maybe try having a "holiday" board instead where you can add to it year round.

3. Pinning Tribes // There's a new thing to help people increase traffic to their website, and that's called Pinning Tribes (an alpha tool in Tailwind). You can essentially have a group of people commit to repinning content from your site. Of course, they cannot be obligated and you should only pin content you love anyway, but, hopefully, you're in tribes with people whose content you love.  This is a MUCH better strategy than group boards since group boards that host the same domain names all of the time will get flagged as spam. Instead, pinning tribes allows people to repin content to their own relevant boards with their followers, and it's more organic.

4. Try promoted pins // I tried promoted pins this year to see what it was like, and I think paying for engagement is really helpful if you are wanting to grow. 

• When you pay for engagement you are essentially paying for a longterm investment of traffic. When a pin gets engaged with it's like it gets a big push for Pinterest into the stratosphere of Pinterest, and long after your dollars are spent and your campaign has ended it will continue to perform and be recommended.
• Use pins that have already proved successful on Pinterest.
• I think experimenting with ads puts you in favor with the algorithm. I can't prove them, but I know that most social media platforms want people to have great experiences with new features are often rewarded in account growth when users try them.

5. Try .gif files // I uploaded a couple .gif files for the first time, and they definitely got more engagement than my average pins. Again, I don't know if this is because it's a "newer" feature that Pinterest is trying to promote or if it's because it draws attention more than other pins, but they worked well for me.

*All opinions are my own and not of Pinterest.