Getting Started On Pinterest

DO put a description in every pin.

If you’ve ever pinned something directly from your blog, you know that it typically auto populates the title of the blog post, followed by your blog/website name. This is great, but you need to add more to the description in order to get engagement on your Pin. Tell viewers what your blog post is about – keep it concise and compelling. Your goal is to get your viewers intrigued to Pin it to their own board and ultimately click through to your website.



DON’T Pin just any image from your blog post.

If you’re able to, make a Pin-worthy image specifically for Pinterest. This includes making a vertical image, with text, enticing colors and good quality. These are the kinds of images that viewers love to click on and re-pin! You can use Canva to easily create Pin-worthy images. There is a tutorial on Canva in your Tech Tutorials.

Pinterest prefers vertical pins in certain proportions. When a user clicks a pin the expanded pin is 735 px wide. The current optimal size for your images to best be viewed is 735 px X 1100 px. Images more than 2.5 times their width are cut off in the feed, for this reason avoid these extra long vertical images.



DO Pin things daily (or almost daily).

If Pinterest is one of your primary social media networks that you are using as a Lead Source, then you need to be Pinning on the regular, however, you don’t have to Pin original content every day, you can Pin other people’s content. The important thing is that you are consistently Pinning good quality content – a mixture of your own and other people’s content. Focus on Pinning 5-20 Pins a day (or most days). Anything more than 30 can be overwhelming, especially if you Pin them all in a row, so do try to space out your Pins so that they don’t take up your followers’ entire feed, overwhelm them, and ultimately cause them to unfollow you.



DON’T use hashtags.

Pinterest isn’t fond of hashtags. They actually lessen the reach of your Pins. Put keywords and search friendly language in your pin descriptions, and this help your pins to get found. If you want to add some simple key words to your description, you can use a pipe (the straight up and down line) to separate them from the rest of the description, like this:

River Cruises | The Top 5 River Cruise Experiences in 2017 – Just reading about these divine experiences will make you want to pack your bags!



DO install a Pinterest Hover Button on your blog.

Install a ‘save it’ hover button on your blog. This allows your blog visitors to easily pin your content to their Pinterest Boards. When someone hovers over an image on your blog, a little red Pinterest button will appear, and then they can simply press “save it” and your blog post will be pinned to one of their Pinterest Boards. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they’ll be to share your post.



DON’T be disorganized.

Pinterest users are all about visual engagement. They love beautiful pictures, visual guides, and things that are well organized and curated. Set up your boards in an organized fashion, give them fun yet descriptive names, and be sure to Pin your Pins to the correct board. For example, if you have a board on Packing Checklists and a board on Bucket List Trips – don’t accidentally put a packing list on your Bucket List Trips board. Be organized and careful about where your Pins are going.



DO make your posts Pinterest friendly.

​Choose attractive photos and put a compelling headline on the photo that captures attention. Below are three good examples we found on Pinterest. You can make images like these using Canva.

The diagram below shows you a “Pin Layout” that works really well for Pinterest.

​Note: CTA is Call-To-Action (this is where you would pitch your IFO or Free Consult). And in most cases, you wouldn’t include a price, but if you wanted to give people an idea of what that type of trip would cost, you could include that info at the bottom. For example, if you create a pin on Bora Bora, you could let people know the price range to expect for the type of Bora Bora trip you feature in the images of your Pin.

DON’T try to please everyone.

Instead create a distinct style that attracts YOUR ideal client avatar. Set up your boards and your board names with your ideal client avatar in mind. Create Pins that your dream clients will swoon over and descriptions that resonate with them. Curate images and Pins that will draw them to you like bees to pollen.



Download your Pinterest Image Guide

​Downloadable Guide – Social Media Image Sizing

Partner Up With Another Pinner

Find businesses and brands on Pinterest that have the exact same ideal client avatar as you, and who sell something complimentary. For example, is your ideal client avatar into high-end swim wear and beach attire? Do they love and adore Tumi bags and luggage? Are they into healthy anti-aging skincare products? Do they love getting style tips from a Wardrobe Stylist and maybe even work with Stylists from time to time? Be on the lookout for brands and businesses that sell to your ideal client avatar. Follow them on Pinterest to watch what they Pin. Get on their email list, do some research on them, and then if they look like the perfect fit for you, email them asking if they want to partner up with you.

If you are just getting started, or you have a very small following, we don’t recommend reaching out to big brands like Tumi. It’s unlikely you’ll hear back. However, there are plenty of small up and coming brands out there that would love to partner up with you. Look for the gal that just launched her own organic anti-aging skincare line, or the Wardrobe Stylist that is recently launched her own business.

Set up a Shared Board (or a few of them) with your Pin Partner. Create a fun theme for the Shared Board(s), outline what types of content you are each going to Pin to the board, then get to Pinning! You could partner up with 3 or 4 different brands and all have one Shared Board together that has a fun theme that benefits all parties. You might be surprised at how much traffic you get from a well done shared board!

To set up a Shared Board, simply follow the person or people you want to share your board, and then when you create a new board choose your collaborators.



Create A Pinterest Community Board

If you are new to Pinterest or don’t yet have a decent size following, a Community Board is a great way to start getting traction. It’s similar to a Shared Board, except instead of having a one to five select Pinning Partners that you personally select, you have a dozens, or ideally hundreds of contributors on your Community Board and other contributors (people in the community) invite in more contributors.

For example, you could create a Community Board of fellow travel agents, each of whom specialize in different niches. Another idea is that you could create a Community Board specific to a destination you book. For example, if you book Paris you could create a Paris Travel Community Board that is all things Paris and get a ton of great contributors such as Paris boutiques, Parisian skincare company, Paris restaurants, Paris attractions, Paris bloggers, a luggage company, a French wine company… get creative!

If most of your contributors post to the board regularly, and they are using nice descriptions with keywords (coach them on how to do this), and if they invite in other contributors, your Community Board will get popular fast, and you’ll get more traffic to your website and more Pinterest followers.

Another great benefit of having a Community Board is that as people join your community, the follow button to your Pinterest Profile will appear on their profile. So if you have 50 people in your community, your follow button is going to appear on 50 different profiles across Pinterest which increases your exposure to your target market, and it can help attract some top talent to contribute to your board, such as a top rated restaurant located in a destination you book.

One of my friends (Simply Chic) created her first Community Board when she had less than 200 Pinterest Followers. In less than one year her Community Board had over 300 contributors and she had over 6,000 Pinterest Followers. That’s the power of community!! #WeAreStrongerTogether

To set up a Community Board, simply follow the people you want to have as your contributors, and then when you create a new board choose your collaborators. After your new board is created, you can always add new contributors any time. Simply follow them, then go to your community board, then click on the big + sign at the top of the board, then add contributors.



Join Other Community Boards

When you see someone with a Community Board that looks like the type of board your ideal client avatar would love, ask to be a contributor! When you contribute to other boards be sure you are CONTRIBUTING. Don’t just post promotional posts. Make 95% of your posts high quality content posts that are in alignment with the type of board it is – Pins that are valuable to the viewers of that board. Unfortunately you can’t search for Community Boards, you need to just come across them or be invited to contribute to one. Start by creating your own, and as you get more established on Pinterest you may be invited to others, and over time you’ll come across them.