So the big question of this article? “How do I boost my Pinterest Engagement and Visibility?” Well here is how we do it on Infobunny
In case you hadn’t noticed Pinterest is becoming BIG. They just recently passed 200 million monthly active users and have a whole host of new features coming online. If you are not on Pinterest yet then you need to jump on and take advantage of what is on offer.
Here Are 7 Tips For More Pinterest Engagement For 2017
1/ Be smart when adding images to your site
Pinterest now has working hashtags for pins. When you are using any site that allows you to add an image title attribute to an image you have the opportunity to load up with clickable tags for Pinterest. WordPress is a particularly good platform for being able to do this.
Here is how you add a description and tags to an image
I will use the image above as an example. Take a look at the screen capture below. I am assuming you know how to edit your image descriptions on WordPress. If not just add your image and click the image to show the options then click the pencil icon and you will see something similar to what is below.
The box we are interested in is the Image Title Attribute. Simply add in a descriptive title. It is best to add in your chosen keyword or keyword phrase for SEO reasons and then add some tags.
Pinterest allows you up to 20 tags. We recommend adding 5 or 6. Any more and we feel that it starts to look a bit spammy and a bit too much Instagram, “let’s flood our post with tags because we don’t have any links on Instagram” kind of deal. (We do have a workaround for clickable links on Instagram 😉
You should also complete the Alternative Text field as well for on-page SEO benefits.
Now hover over the top image or in fact any image on this article and your Image Title Attribute appears. When an image with this field is completed is pinned the text is carried over to Pinterest.
This first tip is really all about working smart. Add your tags to the Title Attribute and when you or anyone else shares your image to Pinterest your description and tag selections are carried over This will really boost your Pinterest visibility as you appear in your chosen hashtag feeds helping you boost your Pinterest engagement. Another huge benefit when adding tags is that images that you share from Pinterest to Twitter again carry the tags making cross-promotion not only easy but more beneficial.
2/ Create Multiple Pin Boards For Your Brand And Showcase Them
Creating multiple boards on Pinterest gives your brand more opportunity to catch your audience’s attention. Go to town categorizing your posts. If you have only one or two boards with random Pins, no one is going to be interested, no one is going to take the time to look and pay attention because your profile will look a jumbled mess. If you have several well-organized boards that have distinct categories, your audience will be more likely to check them out.
Once you have created your boards showcase them. You can add your top 5 boards to your profile carousel at the top of your profile.
On your profile page click on Settings to reveal the screen below then click on Edit on the Showcase section. From there you have a pull-down menu to select the 5 boards to add to your profile showcase.
There is a new feature about to go live called Pinterest Board Sections where users will be able to split pinboards into sub-boards and further categorize their images.
3/ Make your site Pinterest Friendly
Leverage your site visitors by making it easy for them to share. We have already spoken about optimizing your images with tags, but you also need to give them a way to then easily share your images to Pinterest.
There are a few ways to do this. Firstly you can add share buttons to your site and position them at the front of a post or at the end. But by far the best way is to add a Pin button that appears on an image as you hover over it. The Pinterest pin it button on image hover plugin provides a hist of features that will help you leverage your visitors
- Show Pinterest Pin It Button On Image Hover
- Add Pin It Button In Post
- Add Pinterest Pin It Button In Page
- Pinterest Pin It Button Settings
- Customizable Button Color On Hover
- Customizable Button Size On Hover
4/ Stay on top of the Pinterest Trends
Knowing what works and what is popular helps you generate engagement to your images.
Pinontop is a free tool that sorts content by the number of Re-Pins or By number of Likes. It’s particularly useful for marketers or those using Pinterest for business.
Pinontop helps you find the most popular content for a keyword or a keyword phrase. It’s a great market research tool that helps you discover what pinners like and need. One click re-ranks the results to put the most re-pinned posts at the top.
5/ Don’t just pin your own images
This is an important tip and not only applies to Pinterest but other social channels as well. And it also applies to those who blog. If you are blogging then it’s a great idea to link out to quality content that Google likes and that qualifies what you are writing about.
It is similar to Pinterest and other socials where sharing others content grabs the original posters attention and spreads goodwill.
6/ Engage and drive the conversation
We have said this countless times here on Infobunny, but here it is again. If you want pinners pinning your images, commenting and engaging with you then you have to drive the conversation and reciprocate. When you have found some content and you pin that content, you’re going to grab the attention of the creator. The chances are that if you are pinning their content that others are as well so although they get a notification it’s a really great idea to then also comment and compliment them for what they have created.
You’re more than likely get a reply and this is how you build relationships. You suddenly become valuable to that user. Others will also see the conversation and before you know it your follows will start to go up and you’re be getting more pins to your own content.
You can take it further and use Infographics on your site that compliment what you are doing. This is an opportunity to build relationships as you first request to use the image and then direct the user to where you have used it.
7/ Cross promote from your other social channels and BOOST your Pinterest engagement
There are only so many hours in the day so when you create great content share it about on all your social channels. Of course, this can be time-consuming so just be smart. Pinterest allows you to share to Facebook and Twitter when you post on Pinterest, that’s a 3 for 1 deal. You can also share from other sites to Pinter to grow your Pinterest engagement.
IFTTT is a great free site that allows you to share your Instagram images to Pinterest. You can even share images that you tag with a specific hashtag to a board of your choice.
We highly recommend that you check out IFTTT (If This Then That) there is just so much you can do not just with Pinterest but just about every social site. IFTTT is a great tool that really helps you work smart.
Now it’s over to you. Do you have any tips to boost your Pinterest engagement?
Let me know in the comments below.
regards
Dexter Roona
Related Posts
For a full and comprehensive guide to Pinterest please refer to my
Pinterest Traffic Generation Guide
Marquita Herald
Very interesting. I have a presence on Pinterest for my posts, books, topics related to my niche, etc., but I haven’t engaged much with the platform this year in no small part because I’ve become bored with it as a user. On the plus side, because I always try to create attractive branded images for my posts, and I use a social media plugin specifically for my images, I still get quite a few pins each week. With the holidays coming up I think it’s time to do a review and consider strategies, so I appreciate your thoughtful advice.
Marquita Herald recently posted…Perspective: A New Series on Your Power to Choose
Janice Wald
Hi Dexter,
Social media articles do very well on my blog. If you’re ever looking to guest author, I hope you’ll keep me in mind.
Janice