Pinterest

Growing my Pinterest account from a few hundred followers to 22K followers, I didn’t have it all figured out in the beginning and I continue to learn as my followers grow.

Because there are so many subjects to cover from pin worthy images to algorithms about Pinterest, I hope to share something here that will help you grow your loyal Pinterest followers from hundreds to thousands too.

Before I share those tips, indulge me a second because I want you to know how excited I am to have a book coming out soon where I am a contributing author on some advanced Pinterest strategies.  I will keep you updated on the release date.

Tips to Grow a LOYAL Pinterest Audience

1.) Understand Your Audience. Did you know that the Pinterest market is predominantly women? Not just any women, but savvy, seasoned women.  Sure they are woman from all different backgrounds. They are mothers with very young children, mothers still raising older children, single working women and grandmothers.  What does this mean?

It means that a lot of them make the buying decisions in their homes and they know when they are being sold to. Sure they will buy your products, but not when you pin ONLY your products.  That is a huge deal breaker and they may never return to your page again.

The biggest no-no for a small or large company after signing up on Pinterest is to start pinning only their products. Understand this: we know you already have a website or blog for that. We can go there and look at all of your products.

This doesn’t mean you can’t pin your products, but give them a reason to buy them or love them.  Show them how your products or services are used by other women just like them. Give them worthy content from other people that fits your niche. Grow loyal followers by giving them content, not just products.

I homeschool so I don’t pin just my know how articles, but I pin articles by other homeschool bloggers who have experience with the topic I am sharing. Give them a reason to love you and be loyal and they will.

2.) Pinterest Personality Please. Whether you are a great big company with lots of assistants, managers and professionals or you are a sole blogger like me, and the only assistant is just me, add some personality to your page. Is your page personable? Look at these things.

• Have a personal picture in your profile. People relate to people, not products or logos. Then they will look at your product when they establish a personal connection. A lot of companies and bloggers like using their logo. Save that for your website and add a personal picture.
• Choose board covers carefully by choosing ones in your niche and refresh them from time to time.
• Use all the space to tell about yourself and try to include a tag line. “Selling products for x” is not inspirational, but sharing products your family will love on (insert your niche) is personable.

3.) Verify what? When you take time to verify your site, fill in twitter or facebook or both, you give a followers a place to go. More importantly, your pins and boards can now be searched on Pinterest.

I know I always like to look at the location of where a company or blogger are from. Even if you do not want to publicly broadcast where you are from, something more personable to put there as an example is “Southern United States” or just “United States” than nothing at all.  Try to add a personal touch wherever you can.

4.) Pin, pin for your life. In the beginning, you have to pin a lot more than you do later and when you have more followers.

It is not easy to find the balance when you are new between pinning too much and not being found in your followers’ stream. It’s true that followers do not want their stream flooded by your pins, but in the beginning some of that is going to happen. Just try to not flood your stream on a daily basis. In the beginning, choose a time when you notice a lot of your niche specific followers are pinning and do what I call a “pin run”. Pin a lot, then back off.

Followers wants varied content too. For example, one thing that screams run the other way is when a follower sees the recipe of a crockpot meal or any pin for that matter, pinned across all 100 boards you have at the same time. Okay, slight exaggeration here but the point is to pin that same pin to just a few boards at one time.

My rule of thumb is that I do not pin to more than 3 boards at the same time for that one pin. If those pins need to go on other boards, pin them a week or so later so your stream stays fresh, inspirational and updated.

5.) Just do it. Another problem with new pinners in the beginning is to not pin on a consistent basis. You can’t pin one day and come back even two or three days later, much less weeks and expect your following to grow. Set aside a time to pin regularly. When I first started, I only had a little bit of time in the evening to pin, but I pinned each day. Just 4 or 5 pins is better than nothing for weeks at a time.

Slow Mo Equals Go Go

Consistently pin each day and you will grow, but you will grow with the kind of following we all want and that is loyal.  I value my Pinterest followers and the power of Pinterest has changed the reach of my blog.

Love your followers by following a few basic steps, and they will loyally follow.

If you are a blogger and want to grow your blog as a business, then check out iBlog Pro for more of my Pinterest tips and other must read chapters and tips.

Hugs and love ya,