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    How to Create a Viral Pin on Pinterest

    October 17, 2020 · Uncategorized · 0

    Having a pin go viral on Pinterest isn’t as hard as you might think! It’s much easier than going viral on Facebook or Instagram because the Pinterest algorithm doesn’t care about the amount of followers you have. Its structured in a way to show pinners exactly what they’re looking for. If a pinner is looking for information on a topic you’ve pinned about, and your account is properly optimized, it’s likely your pin will be displayed in the search feed of that user.

    While there’s no guaranteed winning formula to make your pins go viral on Pinterest, there are definitely things you can do to increase your chances. In this post, I’ll be sharing my top 10 tips to help your pins to go viral on Pinterest. 

    1. Size Matters 

    First things first – we need to make sure Pinterest is happy so they show our pins to as many people as possible. How do we do this? Simple – we listen to what they tell us. Pinterest has come out and told us time and time again that they favor vertical images and recommend you create pins with a 2:3 ratio. So the best thing to do is give them what they want. When I create pins for myself and my clients, I find 1000 x 1500px works best. You can go higher or lower if you want, but I wouldn’t go any lower than 600px x 900px to ensure a good image quality for your pin. 

    2. Let’s talk color 

    A technology company called Curalate did a study where they examined over 500,000 pins posted from brands to Pinterest. In this study, they examined a number of pin image aspects and how they correlated with engagement on the Pinterest platform. They found that color actually plays a huge role when creating a pin you want to go viral on Pinterest – pins with a medium lightness are pinned a whopping 20 times more than pins that are really dark and 8 times more than pins that are mostly white. I think that pretty much speaks for itself. If you want the best chance of going viral on Pinterest, find a good middle ground between light and dark when designing your pins. 

    3. The Importance of a Quality Image 

    If you are using a photograph on your pin, you want to make sure that photo is high quality. Pinterest knows when you’re not using a high quality photo with good resolution and as a result they’re not going to show your pins to as many people. If you don’t take your own photos there are tons of stock photography websites to use that are both free and paid. Some of my favorite free websites are:  

    Free Stock Photos:

    Unsplash.com
    Pexels.com
    Pixabay.com

    Paid Stock Photos:

    Hautestock.co
    Ivorymix.com
    Scstockshop.com

    What to Consider When Choosing Your Photo

    Aside from the quality of the photo, there’s a few things you might want to take into consideration when choosing a photo for your pin.  Going back to this study by Curlate, they found that pictures without faces got pinned 23 times more than pictures with faces. Why is this the case? It makes it easier for the pinner to envision themselves using a product or doing an activity themselves if there isn’t already someone else’s face associated with the image. 

    You also want to take into consideration the background of the photograph you choose… this tip is more so for e-commerce sellers.  Images with less than 10% blank background are pinned 2 – 4 times more than images with over 40% blank background. So, for example if you’re trying to sell a pillow, your pin will do much better if you use a photo of the pillow on a couch in a living room, than it will by using  just the product image of the pillow on a white background. If you’re in ecommerce, it’s important to note that lifestyle images showing your product in use do better overall than singular product images.  

    Use Text Overlay To Encourage Engagement 

    Using text overlay is a great way to encourage engagement on your pin and help it go viral! Not only will it encourage engagement but it will help Pinterest understand what your pin is about and show it to the right people. Yup, Pinterest can actually read the text on your pin. It’s important that the text used on your pin is attention grabbing so your pin stands out among the hundreds of other pins in the search feed. If someone sees your pin while scrolling on Pinterest and takes interest, what will they get if they click through to your site? It’s best to put exactly what the pinner is going to get in your headline but spice it up and make them excited to click through by using descriptive words like “amazing” “the best” or one of my favorite words of all time “free.” As humans we love a good deal and it doesn’t get any better than free! Am I right?

    Fonts 

    85% of pinners use the Pinterest mobile app, so if you want to get more clicks on your pins, it’s important that pinners can read the text quickly and clearly while scrolling on their mobile devices. Use clear, easy to read fonts, make them big and bold, and avoid script fonts. If you really want to use a script font, be sure to avoid using it on the main keywords on your text overlay.

    Good SEO (search engine optimization)

    Pinterest shouldn’t really be classified as social media, it’s actually a visual search engine, more similar to google than it is Instagram or Facebook. Creating a pretty pin design is definitely an important piece of the viral pin puzzle but your pin can’t go viral if it’s not showing up in search results. If you want your pin to be found and seen by people on Pinterest, you have to tell Pinterest what it’s about. Strategically using keywords is the way to go. Without keywords, your pins and profile will sit there looking pretty with little to no traffic to show for it. To get the best results on Pinterest, put keywords anywhere you can add text – this includes text overlay on your pin design, pin descriptions, board descriptions, etc. Don’t leave these spaces blank. Avoid keyword stuffing and try to make your descriptions conversational. 

    Keep Your Content Evergreen 

    Unlike Facebook and Instagram, where your content lives and dies in 24 hours or less, Pinterest pins can live on and drive traffic to your website for months or even years! That being said, if you want to keep a viral pin viral, it’s important to keep your content timeless and relevant, known in marketing terms as – evergreen. Your audience isn’t going to be attracted to or impressed by an outdated post and they definitely aren’t going to share it. If you want to keep your pins evergreen, update your posts from time to time to keep them relevant. If you’re short on time, make your popular posts the priority.  An easy way to figure out what your popular posts are, is to go into Google or Pinterest analytics and see which posts are driving the most traffic to your site. 

    Make Your Blog Posts Pinterest-Friendly!

    Optimize your blog posts to encourage people to repin your content to Pinterest by installing a “pin-it” or “save” social share button on your website. Pins pinned straight from your website, uploaded directly onto Pinterest, or scheduled from Tailwind get more priority in the Pinterest smart feed than repins on Pinterest. This also gives your Pinterest account an authority boost within the Pinterest algorithm, essentially informing Pinterest that other people think your content is valuable  and they should increase the promotion of your content on other people’s smart feeds across the platform.  

    Expand Your Reach Using Tailwind Tribes! 

    If you haven’t heard of Tailwind, it’s a super awesome Pinterest scheduler that enables you to automate your pinning. With Tailwind you can sit down for an hour or two and schedule out your pins for the entire month! It also gives you some extra analytics features, but its most valuable feature, aside from scheduling pins, is Tailwind Tribes. Tailwind Tribes are groups of people that gather together in a similar niche to share each other’s content and grow each other’s reach on Pinterest. This is an awesome way to boost a pin’s virality.

    There you have it! My Top 10 Tips to Help Your Pins Go Viral on Pinterest! But wait! These elements won’t get your pin to go viral all on their own, they must be paired with a stellar pin design and a solid foundation to rack in the numbers you crave to your website. So before you go, be sure to grab my Free Pinterest Quick Start Guide and I know, without a doubt, your website will be booming in no time!

    Hi, I’m Shaina

    The Pinterest manager and strategist here at The Pin Perspective. I help online entrepreneurs scale their business using Pinterest to gain more traffic + leads and consistently make more sales.

    Previous Post: « How to Setup a Pinterest Business Account
    Next Post: Pinterest SEO: How To Write A Perfect Pin Description »

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    Hi, I’m Shaina

    A Pinterest manager and strategist helping online entrepreneurs get quality traffic, leads, and sales
    using Pinterest!

    Recent Posts

    • How To Clean Up And Organize Your Pinterest Boards
    • How The Pinterest Algorithm Actually Works
    • How To Setup Pinterest Rich Pins – A Beginners Guide
    • How To Grow Your Pinterest Using Tailwind Communities
    • How To Increase Followers And Engagement On Pinterest With Story Pins
    @thepinperspective
    Pinterest didn’t think there was enough chaos in Pinterest didn’t think there was enough chaos in 2020 so they decided to add a huge algorithm update to really keep us on our toes! It’s been a few months now and although we’re still trying to work out the kinks, there’s one thing that’s clear - we need to diversify the use of pin formats moving into 2021. 

In the photos above I broke down what each type of pin is and when you should use them, but I wanted to give you a little more explanation as to WHY you should consider using each of these pin formats and the benefits it can have on your account! 

📌 Static Pins - These are the easiest pins to create, which helps us stay consistent on the platform. Pinterest loves consistency and will reward you for it! 

📌 Video Pins - Video pins are killing it on Pinterest right now with 3x more views this year than last and are expected to continue to be successful moving into 2021. They tend to catch people's attention, which in turn improves visibility and engagement. There’s a huge opportunity for growth here! If you don’t use video in your content, try adding animation to your static pins to turn them into video pins! This is superrrr easy to do in canva! 

📌 Story Pins - Story pins are still in their beta phase and aren't available to everyone, or in every country, yet but if you do have access to them, you should definitely consider trying them out! These pins currently don’t have the ability to link to an external website but they are great for brand awareness and increasing overall engagement on your account. Because this is a new feature, Pinterest is pushing them out to users like wildfire and they’re getting a crazy amount of engagement. Take advantage of this! 

If you live in the US and want to try out story pins, DM me and I’ll show you how to request access! 🤗 Be on the lookout Canada, they’re coming to you next! 

📌 Carousel Pins - Up until recently carousel pins were only available to use with paid ads but you can now use them organically as well. This is a big win for product sellers because it enables you to display a collection of products or different views and colors of the same product.

Which pin are you most interested in trying out? ⬇️
    In this day and age instant gratification is basic In this day and age instant gratification is basically ingrained in our DNA 🧬 We want what we want when we want it right? The problem is, sometimes the instant gratification mentality gets in the way of our long term success. 👎🏻

When I first got started using Pinterest it was actually for a lifestyle and food blog. In my mind... I write a blog post, I put it on Pinterest, and I should instantly have hundreds of people flocking to my website to read it! In reality, that’s just not how it works and I was definitely a little disappointed... but hey you don’t know what you don’t know right? 

I decided not to give up and found out later, the results were well worth the wait. ✨

It’s not uncommon for people to come to me with the concern of low engagement in the first month of using Pinterest for their business. Pinterest is capable of driving tons of traffic to your website and funneling leads into your business - nearly on autopilot - but what a lot of people don’t realize is success won’t happen overnight. It actually takes 3 - 6 months to start seeing real results on Pinterest when you first get started using the platform. 

When done right, and given a sufficient amount of time, Pinterest can really bring home the bacon 🥓. Don’t let the 3 to 6 months waiting period deter you from the platform. Good things take time. Pinterest is definitely one of those good things with long lasting results! 

What’s your number one question when it comes to using Pinterest for your business? ⬇️
    There’s only two months left in the year! Let’ There’s only two months left in the year! Let’s make the rest of 2020 count! 

Did you know only 8% of people actually stick to the resolutions they make at the beginning of the year? Personally, I think a lot of people (myself included) give up because of overwhelm. We set huge goals for ourselves without breaking them down into actionable manageable steps and our brains say… NOPE 🤯.  

This year I decided to change things up. I started setting small monthly goals for myself and I’ve accomplished so much more than I ever thought possible. If you’re feeling overwhelmed headed into the last couple months of the year, this might help you as well! Choose a few attainable small goals, focus on one thing at a time, and take each project on step by step. 

For the last two months of the year, I’ve decided to dive into the backend of my business and head into 2021 with a bang! 

I’ll be focusing on 2 things: 

1.  My client experience - because although it’s already pretty great 💁🏻‍♀️ there’s always room for improvement and my clients deserve the absolute best! I’m talking the Pinterest management equivalent to a stay at a luxury beach front resort. mmhmm fancy! 

2. Project management organization - So I can work more efficiently and get more done in my day to day life. The more efficient I can be, the more clients I can take on, and the more impact I will have helping all you badass biz owners up level your business with Pinterest! 💃

Between client work, these two projects, AND the holidays I think I’ll be kept verrry busy but I’m so so excited to take on the work, step by step, and knock out these goals before 2020 is over! 

What do you want to accomplish in the 2020 home stretch? I’d love to hear about it! Comment below ⬇️
    Before we get the ball rolling I want to debunk on Before we get the ball rolling I want to debunk one of the biggest Pinterest myths of all time: "Pinterest is just a place where women go to find recipes, home decor, and fashion." This is just simply not true. 

For the past 10 years, I’ve been using Pinterest to plan out my entire life and there are over 400 million people on Pinterest doing the same thing - searching for all sorts of things from parenting, to online business, to fitness, to finances, to you name it. If you dream it up, it’s probably on Pinterest.

So let's get to what really matters, is Pinterest right for your business? Here's a few things you can do to find out.

📌 Do a simple search. Think about what you do, what you sell, what you blog about and type those keywords into the search bar on Pinterest. Do you see similar topics or products to what you do or sell in the results? If you find pins, boards, and other profiles similar to your business - there is a market for you on Pinterest.

📌 Ask your audience. Email your list, post in a Facebook group, do an Instagram poll. Do they use Pinterest? If your current audience is on Pinterest, odds are a lot more people just like them are using Pinterest as well. 

📌 If you have a website, check out your Google analytics. Go to Acquisition ⇒ All Traffic ⇒ Source/Medium ⇒ Enter "Pinterest" in the search bar. Are you already getting traffic from Pinterest to your website? Oooo girl, there's so much potential there! That means your audience is saving your content onto Pinterest themselves.

Side note: Did you know you can also use Pinterest to drive traffic to your Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and Etsy shops? If you don't have a website, it doesn't mean that Pinterest Isn't for you.

👍🏻 If you answered yes to even just one of these questions, it’s definitely worth considering investing some of your time into Pinterest marketing! 

👎🏻 If you answered NO to ALL 3 questions. Pinterest marketing is not for you. It would be a smart move to invest your time elsewhere. 

So, What do you think? Is Pinterest right for your business? I'd love to hear your thoughts ⬇️
    This picture was taken after a perfect day at the This picture was taken after a perfect day at the Los Angeles Flower Market 🌻 (aka my happy place) That day I brought home the cutest little pink succulent. I have to say, I regret now not taking a picture of the pretty little plant when I got it, cause well, today it’s rather grim. You see… I killed it. Killed it dead (oops!) 

Wondering how on earth I killed what is considered an unkillable plant? Because I treated it like all my other plants. It’s a plant right? Plants need water but succulents are different, if they get too much water, it will drown and result in a very very dead plant… 

Same goes for social platforms. If you’re using the same strategies and techniques you learned for Instagram or Facebook on Pinterest, it's not going to work for you. Why? Because Pinterest is different. People don’t behave in the same way on Pinterest as they do on other platforms. 

Instagram and Facebook are places for you to nurture your audience, Pinterest is a place for people to discover you. It’s the very tip top of the funnel. So if you want to be successful on Pinterest, you have to create a strategy that’s Pinterest specific.

This includes the strategies used to get people off of Pinterest and onto your content, as well as the strategies used behind the content itself to convert those people into clients or customers. 

If you’re reading this thinking, oh shit, I think I totally killed Pinterest like you killed your beloved succulent, I assure you, you’re not alone. The best part, it’s totally revivable! So if you’ve taken a shot at Pinterest in the past, I encourage you to get back out there and try again! 

It will be different this time. This time you have me on your side already cheering you on and ready to help you along the way! 💕
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