A blogger’s quick start to Pinterest

If you’re a blogger and you are trying to figure out how to incorporate Pinterest into your blog post promotion routine then you’ll want to read this post. For many bloggers, Pinterest is their number one source of traffic. Why? because they've created gorgeous pins to go with their valuable blog posts.

Pinterest is a wonderfully creative visual display of many users' pinboards, and their compelling images; pins. Pinboards are a lot like “vision boards” that you can create to help keep you motivated, or a collection of items on a topic or subject.

But it’s also more than this. Users of Pinterest use it to clearly paint a picture of what they want, what they did, where they’re going, where they’ve been and everything in between! It’s amazing how creative Pinterest users are, and you have to visualise how your blog's image will enhance a pinboard.

Is My Target Audience On Pinterest?

Image Credit – Sprout Social

The majority of users are female on Pinterest. 42% of the users are female. The most popular age bracket for users is 18-29, though 30-49 comes in with a 28% share. 50% of users have children and a median household income of $100,000. Does this sound like your target audience?  If it does then you’d better start pinning!

How Does My Audience Use Pinterest?

According to the above-mentioned study, users stay on the site almost 16 minutes each time they visit and many people visit several times a day. “Pinning” has become something people do during lunch breaks and while they’re watching television at night or waiting in a queue (yes, there’s a fab iPhone app).

There are several ways you can use Pinterest. The most popular way is to browse existing pins and boards and to repin images to your own board. Additionally, when you join Pinterest you can install a “Pin This” tool to your browser. This makes it easy to pin images to your board when you’re visiting other sites and see an image you want to collect.

For example, if you’re redecorating your kitchen and you’re browsing the web for appliances, countertops, lighting and so on you might collect images to create a “wish list” for your kitchen. With the Pinterest browser tool you can simply pin a photo of a refrigerator (and a link to the website it’s from) onto your  board, along with the glass splashbacks, cutlery trays and spice racks. You keep all of the ideas in one central location.

Why Do People Use Pinterest?

The motivation to pin comes from a few different places. People pin to establish social credibility and define their persona online. With boards like “My Style” or “Quotes I Like” you can quickly see how everyone is branding themselves and subconsciously creating their online identity. However, few would actually admit that is what they are doing.

Instead, they’d say that they use Pinterest to…

• Find motivation – for example a health and fitness board
• Get organised – for example, a DIY ideas for the home board
• Find ideas – for example, a recipes for dinner board

According to one source in 9 tips to boost your Pinterest use via Inc.com, “I love Pinterest because it’s like getting a whole bunch of magazines without adding clutter in my house and without the cost.” This individual  goes on to add, “there are so many great ideas and recipes, and it’s all organized on the computer so I can access my favorites at anytime.” Money-saving and convenience.

And they’d most certainly say they use Pinterest because of the beautiful images – it really is a lovely and visually engaging site.

As more and more businesses get on board with  Pinterest  you will see that people are using it to drive traffic, sell products and connect with their audience. In fact, major retailers are finding tremendous success with Pinterest. Whole Foods for example, has 262,000 followers at the time of typing.

Finding and Connecting With Your Audience on Pinterest.

Because Pinterest is a site that uses images rather than the written word, your strategy is going to be different than it is with other social networking sites. However, you can integrate your Pinterest activities with both Twitter and Facebook. Think of it as the next level of social networking.

What can you share on Pinterest?

• Share Your Blog — Simply create a blog post with an image, or a vlog, and pin it on Pinterest. If you’re a photographer, cook, or just a blogger talking about your niche you can create pinboards that showcase particular themes.
• Create Backlinks — Due to the fact that when you share a blog post, it links back to the site it came from you’re creating backlinks. These are no-follow, but even these have power – they'll grow your audience.
• Promote Products — Edit the link to go straight to your affiliate product’s review post.
• Promote Yourself — Looking for a job? Have a service based business? Build Websites? Why not create pinboards showing visuals of what you can do including pinning your resume?
• Build Relationships — Share the wealth by pinning other people’s blogs, websites, and products too by commenting on their pins and repinning for them.
• Get Ideas for Blog Posts — Just like you get ideas from forums, message boards, Google searches, Facebook, and Twitter you can also get ideas to fill your blog with interesting posts by looking up a relevant keyword on Pinterest and looking at other people's pins.
• Integrating Pinterest with your website, blog and other social networking activities is the key to building a large and engaged following.

No matter how you look at it, Pinterest is an amazing tool that you can use to build your brand, create a larger following, and boost your creativity.

Sarah

If you want to learn more about what Pinterest can do for your blog, join the Pinterest traffic challenge, it's free.

PS If you're wondering why I'm talking about Pinterest when everyone else is raving about Instagram, the answer is simple – traffic – my audience is on Pinterest.