ELENA PETERS | MIDLIFE BLOGGER

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Creating your profile and setting up your boards on Pinterest should reflect your brand and your blog. It should be easy for others to recognize that this Pinterest Account belongs to that blog. This can be done by using the same profile pic, bio, colour scheme, board titles and pins. Consistency and ease of identification should be evident at first glance of any of your social media profiles.

Your Pinterest account should be no surprise for your readers. There must be a consistency between the topics you discuss on your blog and the boards you create. The followers of your blog should know what to expect on your Pinterest account and conversely, someone who finds you on Pinterest, should not be surprised by the content on your blog if they click-through to your blog from your Pinterest profile.

This homogeneous branding across your social media accounts is very important to build a strong readership. The goal is traffic but you do not want a million clicks that bounce right out of your blog. You want the people you are targeting and are in your niche to become regular, engaged readers. Fulfil their expectations and you have a loyal reader. The rest are not for you, let them go.

Creating Board Titles

• Board titles should contain keywords but also be concise.
• Use board descriptions to expand and include more keywords organically. Pinterest does not use hashtags and there is some evidence that they are harmful in excess.
• The last line on the description should always contain your blog url. It is not a clickable link, however, if a pinner, through an organic search, views your board, your link to your blog is available to them without any more clicking.
• Ensure that both the blog title and the description can be completely read on a mobile device and that there is not a … at the end. 80% of Pinterest traffic is on mobile devices.
• You have one chance to grab attention and titles that roll like “Places I love to eat in…” may have users leave your board instead of clicking through to see the complete description.

• Pinners should be able to easily scan your boards and immediately know what to expect, what your blog is about and what you pin.
• Personal interest boards allow pinners to see your personality and other topics that interest you besides your blog niche. This gives them a glance at who you are.

Populating Boards

• It is better to have fewer boards than boards with few pins. If you don’t have the time to pin and fill, create one board at a time. Accounts that have many boards containing few pins look like the blogger was creating an account to have a presence on Pinterest and that they really have no intention of engaging. Always remember, Pinterest is a social media platform.
• Once you begin a board, try to populate it with at least 10 pins to start.
• Choose a board cover that has a great image and that fits the space. Make sure any print on the image can be completely read and not cut off. Board cover image should be consistent with your brand colour if possible.
• Each board cover should be different.
• Each board cover should be your own personal pin from your blog.

Order of Boards

1. Your blog board. (Contains all of your posts)
2. Boards based on categories/tags most used on your blog.
3. Topics relevant to your niche.
4. Group boards. (yours first, then others)
5. Personal Interests.

Group Boards

Joining group boards when you start on Pinterest is a great way for your pins to be seen by more than just your current followers but everyone following that group board, This can give your pins a wider audience and potentially acquire readers as you begin to grow your followers.

As well, group boards give you more places to pin. You don’t want to keep pinning the same pin to your own boards. That would make your boards look boring and like you do not have much content.

Being a part of very large group boards allows you the opportunity to pin the same pin, several times a day without them ending up back to back on that board. If your pins appeared one after the other, you would look like a spammer.

How do I find group boards?

The easiest way to find group boards is to look at Pinterest accounts you follow already. Many group boards allow existing collaborators to invite new pinners to the group board. Look at your fellow bloggers’ Pinterest profiles and see if they have any group boards you would like to join. They may be able to add you.

Usually group board owners include instructions in the board description about how to join. They may request for you to comment on their last pin, follow the board and/or them, or email your request.

If they have not included instructions, you will have to send a message to the board owner to receive an invite. Note that the board owner must follow you back for you to be able to send a personal message to them on Pinterest. Try to contact them through their blog or other social media accounts to get an invite if they do not follow you back on Pinterest.

Many large boards cut off accepting collaborators so don’t take it personally if you do not receive an invite.

How to identify the owner of the board

What to look for in a group board:

• similar niche or all inclusive topic board
• large number of collaborators
• large number of pins

Always check the rules of the board as set out by the board owner. You will find that in the board description. They may have limits on daily pins and that’s fine. Just follow their rules if you want to be a collaborator on that board. Make sure you don’t abuse the privilege of your invitation and risk being removed.

All your group boards do not have to be large. They all have to start somewhere. I am part of a few group boards, set up by bloggers and we are trying to build our audience and our community.On smaller boards, keep track of what, when and how often you pin. The group board leader would probably not like to see you dominating their board.

You also have the option of creating your own group boards and inviting others to pin. I find this especially useful for topics that I do not cover extensively. For example, I have a board for fashion but I do not cover it to any great extent on my blog. I do pin to it a lot with things I find but why not give some exposure to my fellow bloggers that do cover fashion. I let them pin their blog posts. It fills my board and builds a community of sharing with other bloggers.

Any of your boards can be made into a group board. Click on edit for the board you would like to make into a group board. Click on collaborators. You can then enter names into a search field and once you see the person you want, click on invite. An invite will be sent to that pinner. When they accept your invite, you will get a notification. You can revoke invitations and remove collaborators using the same method at any time.

Whew! That is a lot of info on boards! Lucky I did it in point form or you could be reading all night!

To summarize:

• boards/first appearance of profile should reflect your blog
• board titles and blog topics should be similar
• make boards look good and reflect your branding
• make board titles and descriptions using keywords and make sure you can read them on a mobile device
• fill them up with great looking pics and topics
• join group boards to expand your reach

Related Post:  100+ Pinterest Group Boards Directory

Are you ready to pin?

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