Pinterest has done great things for my blog since its start back in March 2014. It’s consistently held the top referral spot for my blog (over 75% of my views are referred through Pinterest!), and it’s where I discover new blogs to follow. Only recently did I venture into the world of group Pinterest boards, and boy was I missing out!
Group Pinterest boards are just like any other Pinterest board, but they’re pinned to by more than one person rather than just the creator. This is great for several reasons:
- More contributors means more content, and more content means more activity.
- A large group of contributors can also bring in a bigger following.
- By having a diverse group of pinners, your pins will be exposed to people who don’t follow you yet.
- Group boards often have rules that require members to repin other pins within the board after pinning something of their own, so you’re guaranteed some repins!
- If your blog graphics have a consistent style to them, the members/followers of the group board will start to differentiate between your pins and the pins of other members.
Becoming a member of a group Pinterest board can be a great way to gain exposure for your blog, and it only takes a little bit of strategizing to start noticing improvements.
Finding A Group Pinterest Board
Of course, the first step to using a group board is finding one! There are several websites that aggregate group boards in one giant list, like PinGroupie, although these types of sites can leave you searching for hours to find a good board. You can also search for a specific topic in the Pinterest search bar, and then filter your results for “boards”. If none of these options lead you to a board you like, try checking out the boards of people you follow—I’ve found some great boards this way! You can also join my group board, Blogging Is Our Jam, where members and I pin all things blogging!
Related: Blogging Is Our Jam Group Pinterest Board
There are a few things you should consider when choosing a group board to ensure you’ll benefit from it:
- Are the members active? Is there new content being pinned every day?
- How many repins does each pin on the board have on average? Are there a lot of pins without any repins? This could be a bad sign!
- Do you content that would interest the average follower of this board?
- Are the pins on this board of good quality? Would you repin these pins?
- Is there a lot of spam in this board? Do members pin things unrelated to the board’s topic?
- How strict are the rules for this board? Is there a daily pin limit?
Once you’ve found the board for you, just follow the instructions provided by the creator in the board description. No instructions? Try commenting on one of the pins asking to become a member—this doesn’t always work, but it may be your only option!
Start Pinning!
After creating some great graphics for your posts, slowly start pinning them to the new board. I say slowly because you don’t want to seem spammy, and some boards may have a limit as to how many pins you can add a day. I try to max out my pins to about 5 a day, with a couple of hours between each. This can also help you figure out when the best time to pin is!
Take note of your pins’ success
This is when the real strategizing comes in. Every time you add a pin, make note of it somewhere, and check back every once in a while to see how that pin is doing. What was the pin about? How many repins did it get? Any comments? This can help you learn a few things about your pins:
- If you’ve pinned from a specific post multiple times, but with different graphics, you can see which graphic caught the most attention from its audience.
- If your graphics are fairly consistent, a difference in the number of repins between different posts could show that your audience is interested in one topic more than the other. For example, if your pins that link to posts about blog growth are doing great, but the ones about social media aren’t, this could be a sign that your audience is more interested in learning about blog growth than social media. Use this kind of data to come up with new post topics that you know your audience will enjoy!
- Similarly to testing graphic styles, you can also test out post titles by creating graphics for the same post, but with different text, to see which ones grab the most attention. For example, the graphic I created for this post says, “How To Use Group Pinterest Boards To Gain Blog Exposure,” which is also the title of this post. However, I could’ve shortened it to something like, “Using Group Pinterest Boards To Grow Your Blog”. The takeaway here is that the text in your pin doesn’t have to match the title of your post—use whatever attracts more traffic!
Repin Other Members’ Content
More of a courtesy than anything else, repinning content from other members will ensure you keep a good reputation among the board members and don’t make any enemies. Don’t be that person who just takes advantage of the board—the only way group boards work is if everyone contributes by both pinning and repinning. Besides, there’s probably some great content to repin!
I don’t think I’ve said the word “repin” so many times before.
Are you a member of any group boards? I’d love recommendations!
