According to the web stats company Alexa, Pinterest is the 39th most visited website in the world and the 16th most visited site in the United States.
Although Pinterest is not as big as Facebook or Twitter it does send a higher percentage of referral traffic, as the image below shows.
So if you’re a website owner and you want some free bonus content then make sure to feature very graphic content and Pinterest ”pin it” buttons and your site can benefit from this significantly.
In just three months, Pinterest doubled its monthly unique visitors to a whopping 25 Million. That growth is faster than any standalone site - ever.
Here are thirty awesome tips that will help you build a following on Pinterest that will help you create stronger relationships within your network and drive more traffic to your website.
1. Connect Pinterest with Facebook
Connecting Pinterest with Facebook will enable you to share your pins with your Facebook friends and you will get some of them to follow you in the process.
2. Invite Friends to Join Pinterest
If you invite your friends to Pinterest it’s a give in that they will follow you after signing up.
Pinterest makes it easy for you to invite your friends via email, Facebook, Gmail, and Yahoo.
If you use the invite Facebook friends feature to invite more than one person at a time this will send one invite with several people copied on the message, and this will seem quite spammy, so if you are using this feature I recommend you send invites one or just a few invites at a time.
3. Tweet Your Pins
After you connect your Twitter account with your Pinterest you will be given the option to tweet new pins you post.
If you want to tweet your pin simply choose “tweet” and your pin will be posted to Twitter!
4. Use #Hashtags
Using #hashtags on Pinterest will automatically query a search for whatever word you tag.
Using this tactic will cause your content to syndicate to a stream of content that others will access when they click on the same #hashtag you used.
This means more exposure for your content, which will lead to more followers for you.
5. Initiate Connections
An effective way to get other people to follow you is to follow them first. The more relevant you can make these connections the better.
In addition to connecting with people you are already connected with on Twitter and Facebook you can find local pinners in your area.
To do this simply enter the name of your city, and the state or province it is located within.
The results will look something like what you see below:
If you follow people from the same area as you there is a good chance they will follow back since they are from the same place and there is a good chance your pins may be relevant to them.
6. Comment on the Pins of Other People
This tip is simple, but effective.
Don’t just live simple little one word comments, if you want to make an impression put some thought into what you say, and add a unique interpretation to the content that was pinned.
If you make a positive impression on another pinner by commenting there is a good chance that they will follow you to encourage more of your comments.
7. Install a Follow Button into Your Website
Installing a Pinterest follow button will help you connect with your website visitors who are active on Pinterest.
Pinterest Follow buttons can be found on the Pinterest Goodies page.
8. Content is King
Perhaps the best way to get more followers on Pinterest is to post very compelling content. If the content you post is awesome then the chances of it getting liked, repinned, and commented on is significantly higher.
Higher levels of engagement and sharing of your content will lead to more links back to your profile and ultimately more followers.
9. Try to Get Your Pins to the “Popular” Page
Although this feat is easier said than done you can get some insight into what type of content is popular on Pinterest by checking out the top pinners.
The website Repinly tracks Pinterest pins, boards, and pinners and has a section of their site where you can sort the most popular pins by category or even view the most popular pins of all time.
10. Pin Your Blog Content
The easiest way to get traffic to your blog from Pinterest is to post content via the URL it is published on.
To do this go to the top right of Pinterest and click the “Add” button, then select “Add a Pin” and enter the URL.
Once you click “find images” you will be able to choose the image you want to pin and pin it. Easy as pie.
11. Install “Pin it” Buttons into Your Blog
Pin it buttons make it easy for people to pin your content, so more people will pin your content if you use them, and you will get more traffic and followers as a result.
To install a Pin it button go to the Pinterest Goodies page or if you have a self-hosted WordPress blog and want to install the floating social sharing plugin you see to the right it is named Slick Social Share Buttons.
12. Use Simple Calls to Action
If you want to get more Pinterest followers simply come right out and tell people that they should follow you on Pinterest.
For example: You should follow me on Pinterest here.
Dustin Curtis did a similar showing that this exact wording gave him the best results for getting more Twitter followers (see tip #3).
13. Curate a Variety of Content
Although Pinterest has more women users than male, you should pin a variety of content so that your pins appeal to everyone. When some of your pins appeal to everyone then everyone will have a reason to follow you.
Delicious food is something that everyone enjoys so one idea you might want to use is to create a “Favorite Foods” board or something along those lines. I noticed that several of the most popular pins of all time on Repinly are pics of healthy & tasty treats.
14. Use Pinterest to Create Tutorials
The next time you create a step by step tutorial you could create an image with text for each step and then pin those images to a Tutorial board.
15. Give your Pins & Boards Great Descriptions
Many people neglect this step and give their pins a simple dot or slash for a description. These people are missing out on a huge opportunity for plenty of Google traffic to their pins.
I have noticed Pinterest pages popping up more and more in my search results and other search engines index it as well.
Always give detailed descriptions of the content you are pinning so your pins can be found by people searching the web.
Describe your pin boards as well since I have seen these collections of images popping up in Google even more so than individual pins.
16. Pin High Quality Images
If you are going to pin an image to Pinterest and you notice it is low quality you can use a Google images trick to find other (usually better quality) instances of the same image.
Simply drag and drop the image you have over top of the Google Images search field and a “drop image here” box will appear. Simply drop in the image and Google will do the rest.
17. Grab a Pinterest gig from Fiverr
A quick search on fiverr for Pinterest reveals that there are many people willing to help you get more followers and re-pins for just five bucks.
Use these gigs with caution since I am skeptical if the followers they deliver are legitimate.
18. Use StumbleUpon to Discover Content
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that consistently delivers quality content. It is good to source your content from multiple places but if you are at a loss of where to look StumbleUpon is a cool place to start.
19. Add a Pinterest App into your Facebook page
An awesome company called Woobox recently made a Pinterest app for Facebook pages that is as simple to install as simply putting in your Pinterest username and choosing if you want to display only some of your boards.
If you have a Facebook page this is one easy way to make your Facebook page more powerful.
You can see what this app looks like via the image below or you can go straight to my Social Media Power Facebook Page and check it out live.
20. Install a Pinterest Widget Into Your Site
If you have a WordPress blog then the best options for a Pinterest widget are available to you.
The first option is a Pinterest RSS Widget. This plugin has over 10,000 downloads currently and describes itself as a widget to display thumbnails and titles of the latest Pinterest Pins from a specific user via their Pinterest RSS feed.
Another option is the Pinterest Pin Board plugin which Displays thumbnails of your latest Pinterest pins on your website.
I also found a tutorial for installing a Pinterest widget into Tumblr using widgetbox, and this tutorial could be applied for installing the widget shown into many platforms besides just Tumblr.
21. Emulate and Engage With the Top Pinners
Several of the most Followed Pinners have over a million followers on Pinterest and the top Pinner Jane Wang is closing in on 3 million followers fast.
Check out the content that they share since it has certainly been vital to their success and sharing similar content could help your presence on Pinterest grow as well.
22. Add Pinterest to Your Email Signature
Using the email tool Wisestamp you can easily insert a Pinterest icon into your email signature.
You can include just a small icon, like the example shown above, or you can upload a custom image such as a “Follow me on Pinterest” button to make the Pinterest call to action really stand out.
23. Use Pinterest on the Go
For those truly addicted to the site, Pinterest has an official iPhone app which makes it easy to take your account with you everywhere you go.
You can pin photos you’ve taken, or saved, through the app. There is not yet a Pinterest Android app but with the millions in investment they have gotten I doubt if it will be long before one arrives.
24. Share Screen Shots on Pinterest
We probably all have our own personal method for taking screenshots on our computers. If you tend to share a lot of screenshots on Pinterest, the website Url2Pin.it gives users a pretty efficient way of getting it done. Url2Pin.it is a great way for Web designers to easily share their live work with their Pinterest followers.
25. Get Creative With Your Boards
If you want to get creative with your Pinterest boards, like we’ve seen some Pinterest users do, a great free service discovered by Mashable which will help you is PicSlice.
PicSlice makes it easy to split a square photo into 9 individual images, which you can then download from the site one by one, or in one go as a zip file. Just upload the image to PicSlice, select the ‘Slice’ tool, and put 3 for both the vertical and horizontal slices, and hit generate.
26. Use Pinterest Consistently
These days I keep a “Pinterestables” folder on my desktop and whenever I see something cool on the web I want to pin I save it and drop it in there.
This way whenever I have some spare time for Pinterest I am never short of cool stuff to post.
27. Tag other Pinterest Users
You are trying to promote a company and a good way to do this is by tagging other users by using “@username” in the descriptions that you write.
You can promote your company by linking with other companies and professionals in order to expand your reach and build your reputation.
28. Watermark Your Images
If you are going to upload compelling images you created or modified take a few seconds and add some stealthy text with the URL of your website or Pinterest account.
If your image is widely shared this could cause many new people to discover you because of that link. Don’t assume that most people will just credit you as the source, because most people won’t.
29. Use Offline Marketing
In our increasingly web savvy world people often overlook the power of traditional marketing methods.
One method I am particularly fond of is getting 250 free business cards from Vista Print and using these for the sole purpose of getting more Pinterest followers.
If I end up using this method here is what I am going to put on the cards:
Follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/GarinKilpatrick
I will also include a snazzy Pinterest graphic and I might also include a link to this post in the design.
30. Know the Pinterest Demographics
According to TechCrunch 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women.
Although the gender split of the actual user base is not quite this steep the main demographic on Pinterest is still mostly female with 87% of Pinterest users being women between 25 and 54.
Keep this demographic stat about Pinterest and if you post female friendly content there is a good chance it will be well received.
Feedback
What is your Pinterest username? Post it in the comments below and leave a brief description of what you like to pin so people can find and follow you!
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