Things are colorful on the web. And on Pinterest, a lot of colors are already there.
Known to help people "Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try," Pinterest is a social media that can be businesses' best friend. With millions of users, bloggers, startups, entrepreneurs and anything in between can benefit from using the platform.
For businesses to thrive on the web, they need a lot of traffic. Pinterest is somehow an underdog if compared to some popular social media platforms, especially Instagram. But still, it can work wonders for many businesses.
By turning posts into pins, businesses can ensure that traffic flows from Pinterest to their website, anytime someone finds their pin.
If they're doing it correctly that is.
With the million of pins posted each day, there are some difficulties that you need to overcome to make your pins stand out. Below is a list of strategies you can use to get more crowd coming to your site.
Create A Business Account
To know and see the real impact Pinterest can give to your site, you can sign up for a business account on the platform.
When you signed up, you can access Pinterest Analytics, which should give you good insight about your pins' behavior. But to do this, you need to first verify your site with Pinterest.
Using a business account you can also use 'Rich Pins', which allows your to provide more information to your pins than your standard pins (more about that below)
Create Boards For Your Targeted Audience
What is your niche? Know what your site is all about, and create Boards based on that.
If your site focuses on technology, there is no point of creating a Board about cooking. Instead, create Boards that are only tailored to your targeted audience. This way, you can ensure that Pinterest will show your pins to those that have interest in your post (and your website). This way, your pins would show up more often to those that really want to discover you.
To leverage SEO, you can also put some keywords you excel at, to your Board's name. This way, your targeted audience will have less of a hard time in finding valuable contents they're looking for.
Remember that There is no ideal number of Boards. You can have as few or as many as you like.
Create Branded Visuals
Pinterest is all about visuals. So here, visuals are very important.
When users see high-quality image accompanying a pin, they are more likely to visit the site based on their curiosity. But if you use low-quality images, users will probably keep on scrolling neglecting your pin.
Making high-quality, unique and original visuals can be time-consuming. But know that those images will stand out and will definitely attract more viewers.
Since high-quality visuals are also considered pin-worthy, consider your time and efforts in creating them, an investment.
Focus On Descriptions
Yes, Pinterest is all about visuals. But you still need to focus on your copy description.
When you pin something, your post can have a description below it to tell viewers what your pin is about. For bloggers for example, you can add your blog title and a little description about your post.
But to maximize the potential, your description should also be helpful, detailed, interesting and actionable.
Include Text Into Your Images
Not a must, but can certainly give your pins a little boost.
Text inside images tend to draw attention. And with great visuals and good description, you have a higher chance of generating traffic back to your website.
Text inside images can also make your pins more professional, but only if done right. Text should give pinners exactly what your pin is all about, quickly and at a glance. This should be handy, considering that your pins are showing alongside other pins, and users have less to no time in focusing on certain posts if they can see others that are more interesting.
Use Rich Pins
You can use 'Rich Pins' to make your pins more noticeable on peoples feed. Since Rich Pins are considered valuable in the eyes of Pinterest, you can have a lot of advantages when using them.
Once enabled, you get more information displayed on your pins. This includes a bold headline, your website address and your author icon.
"Rich Pins provide more context about an idea because they show extra information directly on a pin," explained Pinterest on its business page.
Get More Followers
The currency on any social media out there.
Having a large number of followers definitely help you in driving more traffic to your website. But you need to make sure that those followers are genuine, and do put an interest on your account.
What you must know is that the number of followers on Pinterest does not directly affect the amount of traffic you will get. Tto make your profile look established, Pinterest recommends accounts to have hundreds to a thousand of visitors at least, to get the more advantage on of the platform.
Join Group Boards
Why play alone if you can join the crowd? If you want to maximize your reach, it's wise to join Group Boards.
Group Boards are those places where a number of pinners collaborate on the same Board. They do this by pinning their own content and others' content that relates to the same topic. With many influential bloggers, businesses, websites and startups all in one place, Group Boards can bring a ton of followers to your account and a healthy web traffic to your website.
You can also consider starting your own Group Board. Here, you can turn your existing Boards into a Group Board by inviting other pinners to join.
Using Group Boards, not only that you're helping yourself, you're also helping others and the community to form connections that should benefit everyone involved.
Conclusion
Pinterest is a little bit shy if compared to other social media networks. It stays away from controversies and plays nicer with users and brands.
This low-profile makes Pinterest less popular to most addictive social media users. A lot of brands are also skeptical about using it. But that doesn't mean Pinterest lacks the punch when you're using it correctly.
For bloggers and image-incentive sites, Pinterest can be a great playground to test their image-making skills and marketing skills. For other businesses, websites and startups, Pinterest's unique approach in social media allows them to reach a whole lot of audience that scrambles to seek interesting things the web has to give.
Driving traffic to your blog with Pinterest can take time, but it’s worth it. Again, if you're doing it correctly.