*Note that because I am not currently producing Instagram-specific content, my Pinterest is largely on Hiatus as well. Overview I was admittedly late to the game on Pinterest, and had really only ever used it for research, and the occasional pin. Then one day, I casually pinned a few of my videos, saw promising results, and developed a strategy that led me to 100k followers and 10m+ monthly views in less than a year. There are as many strategies to pinning as there are people, but this module is going to detail the strategy that has worked for me. I will also kick it off by saying this: we likely all already have so much on our plate. Designing, making, Instagram, collaborations, email, photography, shipping, you name it. So when it came to adding Pinterest, I was looking for a low time investment, high-results strategy. And I found just that. Getting Setup Your Pinterest Account Create your FREE Pinterest Business account. (If you already have a personal Pinterest account, you also have the option to Convert it.) Go into Settings > Claim to connect all your accounts Your Boards Create at least 12 boards to fill out your channel. Choose topics that visually represent your brand. Let your first few boards be strictly your own content, divided in a way that makes sense to your offerings. Brand Name, Crochet, Knit, Yarn, etc. These few boards will quickly speak to what your brand is about. Latter boards: These could be color palettes, moods, holidays that you enjoy designing for, home decor that your pieces might fit into, etc. Avoid the assumption that you need to be pinning your competitors pins to your own page. You don't. Instead, pin that West Elm pillow that is absolute goals, the Anthropology living room set with the color palette that you want to show up in your fall collection, and that jute basket that you want to turn into a crochet pattern. Add beautiful covers + arrange in an inspiring order. Make a few secret boards. Of course. You've got some things you want to pin but maybe they don't vibe with your brand, but have inspired you anyway. Or maybe it's a great resource but you want it for you but not necessarily to share. Pin all that, privately. Contributor Boards Contributor boards offer you access to an audience much larger than your own, and are a very unique function on Pinterest with no real parallel on Instagram. I love a good metaphor, so let's try this on for size: On Instagram, this might be like if a large account, say @etsy, @michaelsstores, or @lionbrandyarn regrams your content. Your work is now on stage in front of their large, perfectly targeted audience, and you're receiving massive exposure. But with Pinterest contributor boards, it's not just a one-time share, and you're not waiting on those accounts to find your work. You are showing up, and putting your work on that stage at your own schedule. Yasss! Contributor boards are hosted by another pinner (or small group of pinners), have a particular focus, a dedicated following (often large), and can be pinned to only by those invited to the board. So now that your Pinterest Business Profile is setup, all your accounts are connected, your boards are filled out...it's time to peruse Pinterest for applicable contributor boards. The best way I've found is actually to visit the pages of your favorite designers in your space, and see which boards they are a part of. You can sort any users boards by 'Group boards at top.' Not every contributor board they are in will make sense for you, so narrow accordingly. To recognize a contributor board (right) from a normal board (left), you'll notice that contributor boards have a series of headshots under them. Click on any contributor board and you'll find an intro at the top that provides more information about the goal of the board, who can pin, and how to request contributor access. Here's a sample inquiry: Subject Board Contributor Body Hi <Name>! My name is ________ and I'm the designer behind <@insta> and <www.website.com>. I am passionate about all things maker focused, and currently offer modern crochet patterns. I'd love to contribute to your Pinterest board "<insert board name>." Here is a quick peek at my Pinterest profile. I look forward to hearing from you! <Name> You'll either be invited in, or not hear back at all. I believe I only had 4k monthly views at the time I began reaching out, so don't feel like you need to have any major metrics before asking for a seat at the table. Just get out there and ask. It's also worth creating a small spreadsheet to keep track of who you've reached out to, as many of the board names start to sound similar over time. Final note. Many of these boards will likely have a different brand aesthetic from you. That's okay, we're just looking for a topical match. But aesthetically speaking, it's worth arranging these boards at the bottom of your Pinterest page so that your own branding comes through first. Video. Video. Video. Now that we've covered all the details of getting technically setup, it's time to talk content. Video. Video. Video. You may recognize this heading from the Instagram module. The very same videos that were game changers for me on Instagram, quickly became game changers for me on Pinterest. There are truly no short cuts in running a small business, but this overlap in content creation is a huge win. With your video content already made, your Pinterest strategy now comes down to distribution. Let's dive into the good stuff... Distribution Now that we've got contributor boards setup, it's time to take advantage of the huge audiences that they offer us! With so many boards (individual + contributor), we're done manually pinning. It's time to automate your pinning across all boards. Meet: Tailwind While not free, think of your monthly subscription to Tailwind as the equivalent of hiring a person to handle your entire Pinterest account, but for a fraction of the cost. Scheduled vs. Smart Loop Tailwind offers scheduled (ie. automated) pinning, meaning you can queue up all your pins and tell it when and where to pin, weeks to months in advance. It is an immense upgrade from manually pinning, and was one of my favorite tools...until they launched SmartLoop. "Stay Consistently Active with Minimal Effort: Save hours and hours of manual Pinning and ditch the complicated spreadsheets. Add your Pins to SmartLoop once and we’ll re-circulate them for you - indefinitely." SmartLoop is basically scheduled pinning, but looped. So instead of scheduling a particular pin to go to x board on y day at z time (and then it's done forever), you set it to pin every 4th week, or every fall, etc. Set it, and forget it: Step 1: The first pinOn Pinterest: Manually upload your pin (video or photo), pinning to your own brand board. Note that Pinterest takes up to 24 to review and approve video content. Step 2: Board Lists On Tailwind: From the left menu panel, select board lists. The goal here is to categorize your boards, both individual and contributor, into main lists. Eventually, you'll set a pin to rotate through an entire list, saving you the hassle of individually selecting all relevant boards each time. For me, I simply broke down all my boards into 2 lists: Crochet, Knit. Step 3: Board Rules Click SmartLoop from the top menu, then the blue 'Board Rules' button on the left. At the top of contributor boards, the hosts may name a few rules. For example, no pinning to the same link more than twice in one month. Add any relevant board rules before moving onto the next step. Step 4: New Loop Click SmartLoop from the top menu, then the green 'New Loop' button on the left. Each screen will prompt you through questions about when, where, and how often to loop the selected pins. Test out different numbers until you feel comfortable with the outcome. Note that Tailwind has a built in spam safeguard that will warn you if you've set inappropriate numbers. Step 5: Add to the Loop Click SmartLoop from the top menu, select desired loop from left column, then 'Add Pin'. Every time you upload a new pin (video or photo), you'll need to come manually add it to your SmartLoop. The Data Anything I recommend, I like to prove with numbers. Here is a peek behind the scene at how my Insta videos have performed on my Pinterest, using SmartLoop, with 10 contributor boards. To be clear, I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't do static pins. Pins are pins. But if you're looking for a low time investment, high-results strategy, the data behind video pins is extremely compelling. Overall Performance (last 90 days) Video Board Performance Note that this board only has 39 pins, and yielded over 40 million impressions, 300,000 repins, and nearly 20,000 link clicks. Sample video pin performance A Few Technical Notes Comments: I personally prefer to turn off comments. Unlike Instagram, there is little rapport between myself and customers on this platform. And just to be perfectly frank, the comments tend to be a bit...rude. "This was too fast, too slow, I can't see, why isn't this free, why did you use white yarn..." etc. So, consider just turning them off :) Messages: Ignore. You'll get a million, and most of them are just people sending you their own pins. Notifications: Ignore. You'll get a million. If you want to know how your posts are doing, review your analytics.
