8 ways to be better at pinterest

Isn’t Pinterest the best? I became obsessed with it long before I started my blog. You can find anything on there – inspiration, recipes, shopping ideas, whatever. And if you’re a blogger, it’s an amazing tool for your blog too. Here’s what I’ve learned and 8 ways you can be better at using Pinterest too!

Timing is important

Just like anything else, timing is important on Pinterest. I’ve read in multiple sources that the best times to pin on Pinterest are around 2 pm – 4 pm and 8 pm to 1 am (EST). But play around with your timing and see what works best for you.

… But timing isn’t everything

People go on Pinterest at all times, so if you pin at non-peak times, that doesn’t mean your pins won’t be seen. I try to pin at different times during to day so I don’t have a ton of pins all at one time.

Hashtags work

Even if people don’t follow you on Pinterest, they can find your pins later by searching for something specific. Add a few hashtags to your posts here and there, but don’t go too overboard and clutter up your pins with too many hashtags.

Have diverse boards

Even if your brand/blog focuses on a few topics, you can have a diverse range of pin boards. This study shows the most popular categories, with these as the top 10:

1. Food/drink
2. DIY/crafts
3. Home decor
4. Women’s fashion
5. Weddings
6. Design
7. Hair/beauty
8. Art
9. Kids
10. Photography

Don’t post about these topics if they have nothing to do with your blog, but keep these categories in mind if you want your pins to reach more people.

Use fabulous images

Pinterest is a visual platform, so having beautiful photos or graphics is a great way to get re-pins or clicks. Since all pins are the same width, taller pins do better, with the optimal size being about 400 pixels wide and 700 pixels tall. Plus, you can easily add words to your photos by using a program like PicMonkey. This will be an easy way to get your graphic noticed and re-pinned. For images where I use words (like the one for this post), I like to also add my URL. That way if the image gets un-linked from my blog, people can still find me.

Verify your website

You want to have that little checkmark next to your blog URL. It means your profile has a better ranking, so your pins will be ranked better too. It’s easy to get verified – go here and get it done!

Pin to different boards

If you have a pin that is relevant to a couple different topics, definitely pin it to all of those different boards. But don’t do that all the pinning at once because then your followers will have all the pins come up at one time which is annoying. And you don’t want to annoy your followers.

Strategically arrange your boards

You want your most popular boards in the top two rows since those are the ones people will see first when they check out your profile. If you have a board dedicated to your blog or brand, you want that up top too. For any holiday/season specific boards, move those to the top during that season.

So those are some easy ways to up your pinning game. Anything you’d add to this list? Or have you had any success doing these types of things?

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