Pinterest has been around for a while now, but if you ask most users what the benefits are, they’ll probably just um and ah.
What is the point of Pinterest? (Pardon the pun) It’s a social bookmarking website, a “virtual pinboard” – you can collect links to things to make, do, buy or that are just pretty. It opened in 2010 as an invite only service, but it’s now open to anyone who wants to join. You can collate your links or “pins” on “boards” which makes it useful when you have a few pins around the same sort of topic.
Pintrest is pretty useful for bloggers to get their posts seen as it has a larger audience that isn’t just made up of other bloggers. People who pin your posts don’t even need to know what a blog is – they see the pin, like it, and repin it (which is the Pinterest version of retweeting to your followers)
One of the main ways to ensure that your posts will get noticed is to have good photos on every post. It seems so obvious, but since Pinterest is so visual, good photos, or even specific images for people to pin (that might have the title of the blog post written on, or some other info that might be useful) will attract more viewers.
Pinning your own blog posts might seem a little strange, but by doing so, and by including any useful hashtags, you’re likely to see a boost in your stats. (As with Twitter and Instagram, don’t overdo the hashtag use. #Not #every #word #needs #to #be #hashtagged. See how annoying that is to read?) If you’re worried about annoying your followers, keep your self pinned blog posts to a separate board, so they can choose whether to follow it or not.
In a future post, we’ll share how to make your own customised “pin it” badges for the images on your blog, but to get started, check out this page on Pinterest about the different ways to pin items. You can even do it from your phone!
If you’re a Pinterest fan, leave us your links in the comments. You can find our account at pinterest.com/bonjourblogger where we also pin useful resources for bloggers like blog layouts and favourite fonts!
I’m a big fan of Pinterest! I tend to neglect it for a while, then go back and have a pinning bonanza… I’m at pinterest.com/distractliz
xx
I love Pinterest! Definitely my favorite way to kill a few minutes. Okay, let’s be honest, more like a few hours. My page is pinterest.com/devyyynh
I look forward to your next Pinterest post, I definitely need to utilize Pinterest more often! H x
I absolutely love and am obsessed with Pinterest, it brings a fair amount of traffic to my blog too x