As you no doubt understand, Pinterest updates happen often which can be hard to keep up with.
It’s not easy to understand how to use Pinterest, many creatives give up before they’ve hardly begun.
We do know that, 300 million monthly users is a HUGE audience to tap into though, and if you don’t make time for it, what could you be missing out on?
Ask yourself. Do I really want to ignore a platform this powerful, with such potential to revolutionise my website, which could really help me achieve my business goals?
In today’s post I’ll be discussing some of the latest Pinterest changes from this year and how you can make the most of them.
Fresh Pins
Pin from Lincolnshire Fenn Crafts
Earlier this year, Pinterest announced it wanted content creators to focus on fresh content. What does this mean? Well it encourages us to create lots more fresh pins, pins that haven’t been seen by pinners before, instead of resaving lots of older pins.
If you’re still doing the latter, please stop. You’ll be harming your reach and click through rate. In short, you won’t be getting the traffic you should.
Achieving lots of fresh pins can seem daunting, but using a bank of pin templates in a tool like Canva is the answer. Drop new images/photographs into the templates, enabling you to create multiple pin images per link or landing page.
Boom. You have a collection of fresh pins ready to share on your account. (And you’ll need at least 24 for a successful strategy).
If you don’t have any Pin Templates or want some fresh ones, I have a bundle you can buy which are fully customisable in Canva. Just update the colours, text and logo to be your own.
Pin Titles
You can now add a pin title to each and every pin you upload to the platform.
They can be 100 characters in lenght but the first 50-60 are most important.
Make your titles punchy, bold and succint. Use those first few words to be clear about the message of your pin. Add in a few capitalisations to really help it stand out.
Remember, less is more.
Video Pins
Pin from Pinks Charming – Check out her Video Pins
Video pins have become more and more popular in recent months. And quite right too.
They enable you to showcase your products or services in a new and engaging way. AND Pinterest is prioritising video pins in the feed.
Beware though, there’s an art to creating them so they get clicks.
Ensure the first few seconds are the most engaging and make it clear what the viewer is seeing. Hook them in straight away.
Whilst many video pins engage a viewer, they can mean more saves than clicks (we are always striving for traffic, right?)
I teach the art of Video Pins in my membership club and the members have already created some AMAZING examples to represent their brands. It’s incredible how versatile this style of pin can be.
And that pin template bundle I mentioned above, includes a Video Pin example too.
Story Pins
So story pins have been around for a little while now and were very popular when the first came out.
They are a great way to create something engaging and interesting for the pinning audience.
A series of pin images hooked together to tell a story, they are great for reach but not so good for clicks.
In terms of using Pinterest as a marketing tool to drive traffic to your website, I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on them.
Here’s an example of one I made. It’s had over 58k impressions in a year but only 66 link clicks.
Group Boards
Well I’m sneaking this one. Nothing much has actually changed but I wanted to be clear and reiterate that you don’t need to chase and use group boards.
They aren’t a successful part of the strategy in general. And finding one that works is hard.
So, ditch them. Don’t pin to them. Just create your own personal boards that work for your and your business pins.
Hashtags
Pin from Protek Wood Stain
Again, a feature that has been around for some time, but recently had a little update from Pinterest.
Just to recap. Use them in descriptions ONLY, and add 3-4 maximum. Keep them really broad and high level.
They don’t work in the same way as Instagram, they aren’t for creating community but will help pinners find pins in a similar area.
Don’t forget to add your brand hashtag too, e.g. #jenstanbrook
Pin Design
Pin from Britmums
If you’re not desiging your pins, and simply saving images from your website direct to Pinterest, then you need to start asap.
The shaping advice hasn’t changed recently at all. We still want tall and thin pins.
The ideal size mentioned by Pinterest though is 1000×1500 pixels. The Canva template works to these measurement.
And remember, text overlays convert your saves to clicks.
If you don’t like the look of them, then you need to start thinking like a business. Remember this is a marketing tool. A utility that will allow your website and business to develop and grow.
You don’t have to like the mechanism, you just have to love the results.
Put aside your personal feelings, take away the emotion. Pivot your hobbyist pinning and convert that skill to something that will benefit your business.
AND START ADDING TEXT OVERLAYS TO YOUR PINS.
Landing Pages
Pin from Community Inspire Collaborate
Pinterest has been very clear in letting us know that you must give the pinner a good end to end experience.
If you’re using an image on a pin, or corresponding text, do not mislead them and take them to an irrelevant page.
This also goes for you businesses that still link a pin to the homepage of your website.
Please stop doing this.
Imagine if you are the pinner and you see a great product pin for someting you want to buy for yourself.
You click the pin only to be taken to the brand’s homepage of their website.
Would you hang around to hunt the website in search of that item?
Of course you wouldn’t.
As a business, you’re then increasing your bounce rate (not good), losing the trust of a potential customer, and definitely losing a sale.
Ensure you give the pinner a great experience with your pin funnel, and take them on a journey.
They’ll thank you for it.
Tailwind
When fresh pins became more of a thing earlier in the year, Tailwind responded accordingly.
It installed a feature called the Smart Guide.
This ensures that you’re following, and not breaking any of Pinterest’s best practices.
It means it can monitor how often you share a fresh pin (no more than 10 times) and it makes sure you have the right kind of interval in between saves.
It’s a great idea and was a very fast release too, so well done Tailwind!
So there we have it. 9 recent Pinterest updates from this year.
Are you on top of these Pinterest updates?
Remember, I share all this and more in my weekly newsletter, so if you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for?
PIN FOR LATER
Jen x
