Pinterest has 459 million active monthly users, but is often overlooked by businesses when it comes to social media marketing. Most businesses turn to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter and sometimes even TikTok, but rarely do we see businesses making use of the massive audience on Pinterest.
Maybe you’ve given Pinterest a go in the past but been quickly disheartened when your pins didn’t gain traction right away, or maybe you’re brand new to the world of Pinterest and looking for somewhere to begin. Wherever you are in your Pinterest journey, we’ve put together some top tips to get you off the ground with Pinterest for your business.
1. Pinterest is NOT a social media platform
Although Pinterest is known as the 14th largest social platform in the world, it actually works more as a search engine. People search for something on Pinterest just as they do on Google or Bing and Pinterest brings up the most relevant results based on keywords. So, when you’re thinking of titles and descriptions for your pins, instead of treating it like a catchy Instagram caption written to generate engagement, think of it more like a meta description to get your page ranked in search engines.
2. Don’t forget alt-text
It shouldn’t have to be said that the title and description should always be completed for every one of your pins, but something that is often forgotten about or overlooked is the alt-text. Alt-text is a written description of the visual content of your pin which makes your content more accessible to those with visual impairments. Although alt-text will only be read to people using screen readers to access Pinterest, this text is also written into the coding of your pins, making it a great place to hide keywords and phrases to help your ranking.
3. Get the ratios right
Like most social media platforms, Pinterest has a specific size and shape pins should be to be most compatible with the platform. On Pinterest, portrait pins work the best and Pinterest specifically recommend a 2:3 aspect ratio (e.g. 1,000 x 1,500 pixels). Other ratios may cause your Pin to truncate, or may negatively impact performance.
4. Make use of Idea Pins
Idea pins are new to Pinterest this year and are their response to story posts that have become the norm on Instagram and Facebook. Like stories on said platforms, idea pins appear at the top of your followers’ dashboard and also at the top of your profile so they are the first thing people see. Unlike story posts, idea pins stick around forever – they don’t disappear after 24 hours. Idea Pins are a multi-page canvas to share your ideas and encourage people to follow you, unlike most pins which direct people away from Pinterest to an external link such as your website.
5. Be patient
Unlike Instagram or Facebook where you will likely see how well your post has performed within the first couple of hours, Pinterest is all about the long game. As Pinterest works like a search engine, it takes time for your pins to get indexed and start appearing on users’ feeds. Unlike most social media platforms however, pins are evergreen and don’t get drowned out by more recent posts, so once you’ve cracked Pinterest, it can generate website traffic for months and years to come.