Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I

Pinterest Grow your followers Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I

Overwhelmed by Pinterest?

Do you have a few followers, followed them back and now your family's and friend's resources are depleted?

You have been building Pinterest but your account is stagnant and you do not get lots of traffic to your blog like other bloggers?

My Pinterest Journey

I have been a Pinterest user, since 2011 and according to my Klout score, I am a Pinterest expert.  I am just sharing the information with you to proof that I have spent a lot of time on the platform and that what I am sharing, is from personal experience.

Klout Pinterest expert Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I
Pinterest profile Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I

I converted my account to a Business account in the middle of 2015.  At the time, I had a solid following of around 6000/7000 followers.  Keeping stats is important!  

To help me maintain my impressions and daily visitors to Pinterest, I used Boardbooster's looping and scheduling feature actively since December 2015 and Tailwind (paid option) since April 2016.

*Some of the links are affiliates and if you happen to subscribe to the service, the link holder will earn a commission. It would be awesome if you do make use of the link to support another blogger!

How does one grow a Pinterest following?

When you start with any new social media platform, you need to be intentional about a lot of things.  

Most of the actions required can only be done by yourself (unless you have a VA) and it does take time and a lot of effort.

You have to:

  • Take stock of your current situation - how many pins and followers you have (you want to be able to compare figures later);
  • How many followers you want to have by a fixed date;
  • How often and what you are going to pin? 
  • Are you going to use a scheduling tool and if so, which one?
  • How much traffic is referred to your blog by Pinterest at the moment;

In this post, we are assuming that you have set up a Pinterest Business account, have created boards according to your audience and interests and have at least 30 pins per board.  We also assume that you have created branded images according to the perfect pin size.

Growing my personal Pinterest account method:

1. Pins

  • Pin frequently and consistently - each morning, afternoon and evening, about *50-100 pins per day (while building your account).  I am a power pinner and I have spent days on Pinterest where I must have flooded the feeds of all my followers!  Try not to! 
  • *I have since adjusted my scheduling numbers and only pin a 30 pins a day.
  • You may ask - when I have a solid following, should I adjust my schedule?  Popular and new pins should be pinned more frequently than other.  You want to keep the momentum going on a popular pin and need to build momentum for your new pins.Less popular pins can be pinned every second/third day or weekly.  Always ensure that you pin in a way that your feed is not full of duplicate pins.  If it is, rather move the duplicates to a secret board or another board insted of deleting it.
  • Saturdays and Sundays are the most popular days to pin as well as weekdays between lunch hours and evenings. If you are not using a scheduler, use the times on the email notifications sent by Pinterest to draw a time table and pin accordingly.  Remember that people all over the world are pinning so work on your own time zone.
  • Create multiple pins per post and test which ones perform the best.  It is all trial and error and I would pin the pins to the same boards, with intervals, to test the audience as well.
  • One school of thought advocates that two-thirds of pins should be your own, and only one-third from others.  Another group says that you should be pinning 80% your own pins and 20% of others.  Test the techniques and come up with a strategy that works for your unique account.
  • Pin according to your niche and interests.  If a board does not fit your brand, make it a secret board.  After all, it is your account and you must like it first and foremost!
  • Having said that, have a few personal interest boards and if one of the pins does well on one of those boards, repin it! (even if it is not your pin - again others have the opinion that you are waisting your time re-scheduling other people's pins).
  • Comment on a nice idea or creative graphic.  Thank someone for a repin - remember that Pinterest is also part of 'Social' media'.  
  • 'Like' pins. If you do not want to repin but a pin has caught your eye, make another blogger's day.  
  • Mention other pinners in your comments by adding the '@' sign with their username, similar to Twitter.
  • 'Send' pins/boards you want to share with someone else.  I use 'send' if I come across ideas I want to share with my daughters.
  • Repin your best performing pins even if it is not your own.  It will increase the impressions on your Pinterest profile and drive more traffic to your account. People will check out your profile and other boards and be curious to see what your blog is all about!
  • If people like your pins, they are bound to follow you or the specific board.
  • When a pin performs well, Pinterest might recommend it to people searching for similar options, or in 'related pins'.
  • Ensure that your pin conforms to SEO optimization - Alt text should include the following:
    • Description of your image
    • Your URL
    • Keywords 
    • You want all your images to have the most complete and descriptive text accompanying them as possible.

You can grab the Free Pinterest Scheduler here!!

2. Boards

  • The first board on your profile should be dedicated to your blog/business.  
  • The next boards should reflect your niche/interests. Eg, if your niche is Blogging, check out Daniela Uslan's profile here.  She included 'Blogging tips and tricks', 'Pinterest tips', 'Blog conference tips', 'Logo's & Design', 'Webinar tips and tricks', to name a few.  Ideally, these board covers should also be branded.
  • Name you boards with keyword rich names.
  • Join communities on Facebook.  Most groups host special Social Media following threads and you may gain quite a few followers per event. Here are some suggestions:
  • Join Group Boards.  
    • PinGroupie is the go-to-tool for a complete list of group boards.
    • If you join an active group board, pin great pinnable content frequently, you will draw attention and ultimately more followers.
    • Other pinners with group boards may invite you to join a board.  
    • As you search in Pinterest for topics in your niche, you will note group boards of other pinners.  Follow the board and request an invite from the collaborator.  
    • Start you own group board.
Pinterest Newbie How to gain more followers free pin schedule Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I

3.  Cross promote Pinterest to your other Social Media accounts

  • When you set up your Business account in Pinterest, you have the option to link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  
  • You can embed a Pinterest board on your Facebook page.
  • Embed a Pinterest board in your sidebar on your blog.
  • Promote a related board in one of your posts.
  • Create a pop-up with a 'Follow me on Pinterest'.
  • If you use Commun.It or Crowdsource on Twitter, you may respond to a new follower with your Pinterest link and ask to be followed.

Need to grow your Pinterest following? Read the post and grab your free #Pinterest scheduler - http://bit.ly/2370Clb

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4.  Your blog:

  • Promote your Pinterest account or a board related to your post in your Newsletter.
  • Add the Pinterest Pin It button to your blog.
  • Embed a Pinterest widget in your sidebar on your blog.
  • Promote a related board in one of your posts.
  • Create a pop-up with a 'Follow me on Pinterest'.
392x71 Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I

5.  Other methods:

  • Pinterest will suggest 'Best Ideas' and 'Add more friends' for you - these will be from your Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook account.
  • The option is available if you click on the gear icon on your profile and scroll to 'Find Friends'.
Pinterest Find Friends Pinterest – How to gain more followers – Part I
  • If for instance, you want to follow 100 followers per week, follow 20 people per day, excluding weekends.
  • Reciprocate, meaning follow those who follow you back.
  • Search for influencers in the same niche, follow them and follow some of their followers.
  • You can open any pinner's followers list and all her following will be listed, reflecting each follower's total following and pins.
  • Follow active pinners.  You want to be followed by someone who will pin your pins too.
  • Find friends from other Social Media networks and follow them.
  • Always remember that you don't marry your followers.  It will be fine to 'unfollow' someone on Pinterest.
  • Keep up with trends, ie Mother's day coming up, pin ideas if you are not going to post on the subject.

Special words of caution:

  • Don't do too much too soon - do not follow too many people per day.  Some sources suggest 100-200 per day, one even suggests 100-300 per day.  
  • Be wary of fake accounts - tons of followers but almost no pins (as a rule, I don't follow accounts with less than 100 pins)
  • I have encountered on a few occassions that approximately 10 people follow me on the same day, with similar boards, lots of followers, few pins - must have been set up by the same person, even the pins are the same!
  • If you are consistently doing the same things on Pinterest, you are fine but note that Pinterest blocks 'spammy' accounts.
  • Spammers are real, even so on Pinterest.

To conclude:

​Know what you want from your Pinterest account;

Daily engage with your followers;

Give your followers what they want and expect from your account;

If you use a scheduler, do not abandon your account and expect it to grow on it's own.​

Everything in life takes time, success with your Pinterest account too;

The timing of your pin, may be one of the most important factors of a pin gone viral!​  

If you want me to follow you on Pinterest, leave your username in the comment section below, please.

If you liked the post, please share on social media and with your friends too.​

You can opt-in here for the free  Pinterest Scheduler!

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9 Comments

  1. There is some great advice here that I need to try. Pinterest is driving me crazy because it just doesn’t seem to be for me, but I’m going to keep trying. Thanks!

  2. To be honest, it does not bother me that Boardbooster is not an approved Pinterest vendor because I have experienced the results with them even before I subscribed to Tailwind! If you don’t want to use the scheduling tool, the looping is so convenient to keep non-active boards alive and I believe that is what Pinterest wants!

  3. Interesting advice! I have a very satisfying relationship with Pinterest, and it’s where most of traffic comes from. Love Tailwind, and have been curious about trying Board Booster for a while. I’d already be knee deep in it except I know it’s not a Pinterest approved vendor, and Tailwind is. Have you ever had any second thoughts about Board Booster because it’s not an approved vendor? I so wish it was, because I’d love to try it.

  4. Hi Sourav, I am glad you found the tips useful. I am so sorry about the scheduler, I will check for any hick ups. Would you send me your email address please?

  5. Hello Amanda,

    Excellents tips on Pinterest. Even though I am getting some traffic from Pintetest, but I am struggling to increase the follower count. I will follow the strategy of following the followers of someone popular.

    I tried subscribing for the free scheduler, but I got some error saying “too many subscribe attempts from this email”. I am sure that was the first attempt.

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