How to build your Pinterest following? This is a question I get asked all of the time! Some of you may know that I have a kinda big following on Pinterest – currently I have 3.6+ million followers (check it out here!!).
I often get asked how did I do it? Can I share the secret? Unfortunately many of you aren’t going to like the first part of my “secret” – I got lucky! I was one of the earlier users of Pinterest, I was pinning before pinning was a verb! Let’s just say I was a bit obsessed. The Pinterest gods took notice and highlighted my boards when new people signed on to Pinterest. This gave me my first initial million followers. From that point forward, I took it and ran with it – which brings me to my second part of my secret……
Don’t listen to the “experts” – Pinterest is a very personal thing. It is about YOU and what YOU like – every single Pinterest user is unique – that’s what makes Pinterest AWESOME! Each user is like a fingerprint – no two are the same. You may like my board on dinner recipes – but you may hate my board on fashion – what is wonderful is that you can follow all or one of my boards – just see what you like in your feed!
So here are my Do’s & Don’ts on Pinterest:
DO: Be Authentic!
The best thing you can do to on Pinterest is be authentic – pin things that inspire you, things that speak to you, things that you like! Don’t pin things that you think will just pin well – your audience will know and abandon you.
DON’T: Feel like you must follow a schedule
Many “experts” will tell you to spread your pins out by XX number of minutes or just pin XX number of pins at a time. Pin what YOU like when YOU are inspired. There are times I go on a total shoe tangent. I can’t stop myself…. I MUST pin each one of these beautiful shoes right now. If my followers don’t like it – they will scroll past it in their feed, but if they do….. we can then share our love of that beautiful shoe together – they repin, like or best of all comment on my pin – and for that brief moment we are connected by that shoe pin….. it is a beautiful thing!
Never EVER Purchase followers or repins
Did you even know you could… well you can – but don’t! These are SPAM accounts and will be removed.
DO: Have a good pin? Pin it again!
You may have been told not to do this, but I personally disagree! I have repined items many times over. BUT, what I try to do is repin it at a different time of the day. Remember we spoke earlier about every Pinterest user is different – they have different habits, a different number of people they are following, different times of day they typically use Pinterest. So you may have people who use it ONLY in the morning, or ONLY on the weekends or ONLY late at night. So you may have pinned a great recipe or DIY idea and only your afternoon Pinners saw it – so pin it again at night or to a different board or on the weekend. People will scroll down their newsfeed and if it didn’t jump out at them one time, it may the next. You don’t know the other things that were on their feed at that particular time that they are looking at it – so don’t be afraid to pin and pin again!!
DO: Comment, Comment & Comment More!!!
I love people who interact…. I want to know what they like and what they hate (as long as they say it nicely). Many times, I will follow back the people who are interacting with me. Which then will benefit you because you will show up in my feed and I may pin something of yours!
DO: Join group boards
Group boards are a great way to build your Pinterest audience. When someone “follows all boards”, they are following all group boards too! This gives you much more exposure to a larger audience who will then follow you and all of your boards.
DO & DON’T: Feel like you have to have a million different boards
The majority of my followers are on my “Want… Need…. Love” board. This is the place where I do most of my pinning. Many “experts” will tell you to have lots of different specialty boards – while I have 85 boards – 90% of what I pin is to my Want…Need….Love board (trust me, there is a lot that I want, need AND love! – much to my husbands dismay). I would say have a diverse board which covers all of those things that you love – it could be a recipe, a dress or a project. But, feel free to pin the same pin to that board AND your more specific board!
Remember – if you look at many of the “experts” on Pinterest, their following is probably not much to speak of. There is no magic spell or golden key to build your Pinterest following, you just need to stay true to you, love this amazing tool and the followers will come!
Coming soon – The best Pinterest tools for bloggers (don’t miss an article – subscribe to my site by clicking on this link: Subscribe to Princess Pinky Girl by Email) Be sure to click on the confirmation email that will be sent to you!!
WAIT – did I mention…. Follow me on Pinterest!!!
This is SO refreshing to hear! Blogging is a joy for me, but social media is a necessary evil to have a successful blog. I am so put off by all the “scheduling” suggestions when it comes to social media! I don’t want it to feel like a job. I have a family, too and that has to take first place, so I’m on the pin-and-share-when-I-can plan. While that may not get me a million followers anytime soon, your advice takes the guilt away and allows me to stay true to myself when pinning! After all these are supposed to be “OUR” inspiration boards. 🙂
Hi Christy – thanks so much for you message! I have the same guilts that I am working through too!!! Gotta bring it back to FUN!!! That’s the reason we started, right!!
Great tips, Pinned 😉
Your the only person I came across that doesn’t come of as an “expert” and know it all ! I love your honesty and down to earth tips !
Xo Yasmina
Yasmina – that MADE MY DAY! I wrote this post after reading an article from “an expert” and it drove me crazy because she had NO followers! Thank you SO much!
Just loving these great tips, Jennifer. Oh to have been on Pinterest from the beginning!! Thank you so much for sharing this at our Best Of The Weekend party. This was the most viewed link so you will be featured on all FOUR of our blogs when the party goes live this eve at 8PM EST. 🙂
Have a great weekend!
Claire – thanks SO much! I am honored to be featured on your blogs!! Thanks again!!
This was a helpful post – thanks for sharing!
Kelly
You were right, I was a little bummed about your first tip. I knew about Pinterest when it first came out but I wasn’t too serious about my blog back then. Kicking myself now. Thank you for sharing your tips!
So you were pinning before pinning was cool! Thanks for the tips. I was just sitting here thinking my boards aren’t true enough to “my brand” and are too personal. After reading this I say screw it!
GO Jenn!!!! Yes – say screw it!!!! (and BTW, yay on the two ‘nn”‘s in Jenn – I am a 2N Jenn too!!
You was Just Lucky and that’s it no secrets here… lol
Thanks so much for Sharing, Jennifer! I have recently started a blog, so have been trying to drive traffic toward my Pinterest account (with little success, I’m afraid). I’ve noticed that when I click “like all” to follow someone, it doesn’t include their group boards, so I have to scroll through and click “follow” on those as well. Also, I didn’t realize that in order to add someone to a group board I created, we have to be following each other. That makes it a little more difficult.
Thanks for the great tips, I’ll just keep on pinning, and keep my fingers crossed.
And by the way, I have a board for pinning shoes, too 🙂
Thanks Tamara for your comment! Im learning a lot i didn’t realize you could create a group board. i thought that was the magically Pinterest fairies that grouped boards together to suggest to followers. Feeling foolish but knowledge is empowerment right? Thanks have a great day!!
Great tips! I personally love Pinterest… like a lot of peeps. But, not everyone seems to know pin etiquette. Spreading the word … 🙂
I’m certainly trying to learn this etiquette because me LOVE Pinterest!!! Thanks!!