Time to change up our Pinterest strategies again my friend! Pinterest has thrown in an algorithm update to display a greater variety of content types to its users. This means different pin formats, such as video pins, story pins, and carousel pins, are now being pushed to the top of search results.
As online business owners utilizing Pinterest marketing, we need to follow Pinterest’s lead and start incorporating these formats into our marketing strategy if we want to continue to get the best results possible. In this post, you will learn what each pin format is, when to utilize them, and why you should consider adding them to your Pinterest marketing strategy. Let’s dive in!
Video Pins
What they are: Video pins show content through moving picture and link to an external website. Video pins work really well for educational content like how-to’s, tutorials, and recipes. If you don’t really utilize video in your day to day business, you can easily animate a static pin and turn it into a video pin by adding animated entrances or stickers in program like Canva (a super user-friendly online graphic design program) or other design software.
Why you should use them: Video pins are killing it on Pinterest right now with 3x more views this year than last! They tend to catch people’s attention, which in turn improves visibility and engagement. The more people engage with your pins the more Pinterest will show your content to its users. There’s a huge opportunity for growth here!
Here are a few examples of great video pins to give you some inspiration for your own:
Story pins
What they are: Story pins are Pinterest’s newest contribution to the platform. They consist of a series of 2 – 20 pins linked together to tell a “story.” Story pins are best used for recipes, tutorials, product collections, and anything that explains how to do something step by step. You can add images, videos, captions, and more!
At the time of this post, story pins are still in beta and are only available to certain users in the United States. If you live in the US and would like to give story pins a try, you can click here to request access. If not, you’ll have to sit tight. Pinterest is planning on rolling these out to Canada next.
Why You Should Use Them: Because this is a new feature, Pinterest is pushing these pins out to users like wildfire and they’re getting tons of engagement! If you can, you should definitely consider taking advantage of this! I published the story pin below for my client, Emily Summer, and this is what it looked like after 20 minutes of hitting publish:
Look at those crazy numbers! Story pins are being distributed at a much faster rate than I have ever seen a static pin distributed. Ok, so there’s one downside… at this moment in time story pins are not clickable – a user can not click on the pin and be taken to your website. Don’t let this deter you from using them. Story pins are fantastic for brand awareness. They also have a follow button people can opt into on the last slide, which is great for growing an engaged group of followers that will interact with your other (clickable) pins! The more engagement people have with your content, the more Pinterest will push your content out to more and more people.
Here are some great examples of story pins to inspire your own:
Carousel Pins
What they are: Carousel pins are a series of 2- 5 images linked together to form a single pin with each image having the capability to be linked to a different url. Up until recently carousel pins were only available to use with paid ads but you can now use them organically as well.
Pinterest users see carousel pins on their feed just like any other pin and are able to swipe through each image without leaving the feed.
Why you should consider using them: Carousel pins primarily benefit product sellers because It allows them to display a product collection or multiple views or colors of a single product.
If you’re not a product seller but you’re looking to add some creativity to your Pinterest marketing strategy you could try using carousel pins to display a recipe round up or steps to a project. However, If you don’t have much time on your hands, I highly recommend focusing on incorporating video pins and story pins into your strategy. I think these pins will be more beneficial to you.
Here are some great examples of carousel pins to inspire your own:
Static Pins
Last but not least we have static pins. These are your standard run of the mill Pinterest pins – a single image linked to an external website. Although Pinterest is encouraging us to incorporate different pin formats into our Pinterest strategies, it’s important not to forget about our old friend – the standard static pin!
Static pins typically drive the most clicks to our websites and that’s what’s really important here, right? Static pins are also the easiest pins to create, which helps us to stay consistent with the platform. Pinterest loves consistency and will reward you for it!
The Take Away
To get the most out of Pinterest and their new algorithm change, it’s important to incorporate a variety of pin formats into your Pinterest marketing strategy. Although not all formats are great for driving traffic directly from the pin to your website, they’re working behind the scenes to increase brand awareness and the overall engagement of your account, giving Pinterest the green light to push your clickable traffic-driving pins to more users!
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