By
What are the habits of Pinterest power users? Would you like to be a Pinterest power user?
Pinterest power users are always on their toes on the social network. They are the ones who regularly share quality pins and are constantly on the lookout for building their network, following best practices and getting maximum exposure. Being a Pinterest power user is the key to thriving on Pinterest – if you become one you will be able to find the best images, share pins that people love to interact with, gain more followers, etc. Check out the habits of Pinterest power users below and use them to turn yourself into one…
1. Share a wide range of topics:-
Pinterest power users share pins on a wide range of topics. They know that Pinterest isn’t just about creating a good page, but a collection of great boards that make up an excellent page together. So they have a wide range of boards on which they share pins on different kinds of topics and attract more board followers. They also stick to one topic per board.
It will be a lot easier to attract board followers than complete page followers as people will prefer subscribing to specific topics (boards) than an entire Pinterest page.
So create several boards and optimize your page to get more board followers. I have written more tips on getting board followers in the post How to Get a Million Pinterest Followers.
Gaynor Park of Social Media Mamma has a lot of boards on a variety of topics on her brand page. This gives her the opportunity to attract a lot of board followers who are interested in different topics.
2. Distribute pins:-
Pinterest power users know that it isn’t just enough if you create a lot of boards – it is about maintenance too. So they distribute their pins across their boards so all or the most important ones are updated regularly. They also make sure that their most popular boards are updated more often as these are the boards that can help their pins and profile receive maximum exposure.
Make sure you add your pins to all your boards and not just a handful and at least add one to three pins a day to your most popular ones. This will benefit your boards and your entire page.
Monica McPherrin does a great job in distributing her pins across the various boards on her brand page M2 Media Management. You can see this in her pins section.
3. Time Pins:-
An easy way to lose followers is by sharing everything at once and drowning your followers’ feed with your pins only. You might have noticed this quite often where users share everything at once and all you see in your feed is their pins, instead of a collection of pins from the various people you follow. Doesn’t this bother you? A better solution would be to time your pins using a tool like Pingraphy or Curalate, instead of pinning everything at once.
Sharing several pins at once can help you gain followers, but it will also drain followers. Also your pins won’t get all the attention they deserve, as there will just be too many distractions. If you want to make sure your pins get the highest number of clicks, repins, likes, etc. then time your pins to come out at intervals of one or two hours, so that each one gets all the attention.
4. Find great images to share:-
Pinterest power users always make an effort to get hold of the best and freshest images available on the internet. They do this by following users who share great pins, subscribing to blogs through rss, social media accounts, newsletters and using tools that help locate the latest content and images. For tips on how to find great content to share, read the post 10 Ways to Find Great Content to Share on Social Media.
(Note: Would you like to become a Pinterest power user too? The checkout The Complete Pinterest Marketing Bundle)
5. Build relationships:-
Pinterest might seem like a closed network without a way to directly contact other users like on Facebook or Twitter, but power users defy this and connect with their users in the methods available. There are a couple of ways to do this – one of them is by leaving comments on pins and the other one is through mentions in pin descriptions.
Pinterest power users regularly pay attention to users who are repinning their work and display appreciation by commenting on their pins and thanking them. They also look for people who are pinning from their website and comment on their pins.
When you do this make sure you stay inside the comment limit (which is around 2 to 3 per day) as Pinterest considers too many comments as spam.
Pinterest power users also regularly mention other users in their pins. So when you share a pin from someone’s website or blog make the extra effort to locate their Pinterest handle and place it in the pin description. Also add a comment letting them know that they have done some good work.
Krishna De mentions other users in her pins, as seen in the above pin. This helps her form strong relationships with other users. Doing this can also help you standout as very few people mention others on Pinterest.
You don’t have to contact them on Pinterest itself – you could also contact them through their Twitter account, the link to which can be located on their Pinterest page. Another option would be to email them. This can actually be better as you can write a more detailed and personal message.
6. Make the most of guest boards:-
Guest boards are probably one of the best features on Pinterest as it can help you reach larger audiences and build better relationships. Power users not only create guest boards for their own pages (where they invite others to contribute), but they themselves also contribute to popular guest boards created by others.
When you contribute to popular guest boards, you get to reach a new audience which can get your pins a lot more exposure and can help you attract more followers. When you create boards and invite guest boards, it benefits you as you get a fresh supply of pins from contributors, it also help you attract followers as your board will be displayed on the contributors page. So therefore by doing both, you can take advantage of both benefits. To learn more about guest boards and how to use them, read the post How to Invite Guest Pinners to Your Pinterest Boards.
Daniela of 007 Marketing contributes to other users boards and has boards of her own like Social Media Marketing World where she invites guest pinners. This is a great way for her to gain followers and give her pins more exposure by reaching a larger audience.
7. Combine with other social networks:-
Combining Pinterest with other social networks is another important habit of power users. In the beginning, when you are getting started with Pinterest, this will help your Pinterest account gain attention, but as time goes on and your page picks up popularity it will benefit the other social networks also.
Initially after creating your account you can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and find friends and followers you already know to connect with on Pinterest. You can also easily share your pins on Twitter by tweeting them and on Facebook by adding the Pinterest app to your account, which displays your latest Pinterest activity in the Facebook news feed.
You could also share images on Facebook and display links to the pins (of quotes, pictures, comics, etc.) on which the same image can be found to drive traffic to the pin. I have written how Amanda Patterson of Writers Write does this in the post 12 Common Pinterest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
As links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts will be displayed on your Pinterest brand page, it will help attract followers to those two social networks.
8. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and practices:-
As a Pinterest power user, it is necessary for you to stay up-to-date with the latest trends to help you share images that your audience will find interesting.
You can do this by checking out the latest trends on the web and on Pinterest itself by visiting the ‘Popular’ section where you can find pins that people love to share.
It’s not just enough if you stay up to date with the latest trends, you need to follow the best practices to make sure you can use this knowledge to yield great results. So follow blogs and Pinterest experts and listen to what they say. Experiment with these practices to see if they work for you – retain practices that provide results and discard ones that don’t.
9. Make the most of available tools:-
There are so many Pinterest tools. With many of these tools you can do almost anything you do on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Power users make the most of these tools to schedule pins, get the latest insights, create better images, etc. as it will help them save time, reach more people and build a bigger audience. So look for the best tools available and use them to achieve better results on Pinterest with lesser effort. The post 26+ Pinterest Tools and Tips to Enhance Your Pinning Experience by Wong Ching Ya contains a list of some fantastic Pinterest tools you could use.
10. Patience:-
An important virtue of Pinterest power users is patience. Power users won’t give up and completely stop using Pinerest when things are going slow. They know that, as with everything it takes time to establish oneself on Pinterest and are ready to wait for their time to come along. They become power users because of their patience.
You have to understand that Pinterest is very different from Facebook, Twitter and other top social networks. On Facebook and Twitter you will probably get the most number of likes, shares and retweets in the first few hours itself. After that it is very unlikely that anyone will ever interact with the post. But on Pinterest your pin can lay dormant for a long time and then suddenly get active and receive scores and scores of repins and likes, thereby helping the rest of your profile and pins receive some attention too. So therefore Pinterest can be effective in the future, even though things might seem bleak in the present.
So make sure you stay patient and avoid giving up on Pinterest when things are going slow.
By following all the 10 tips above, you can become a Pinterest power user too.
For more Pinterest marketing tips, watch our Free Pinterest Marketing Video Tutorial which can be accessed by Signing Up to our blog updates.
What are the other habits of Pinterest power users? Have you got any Pinterest tips? Please leave your comments below.
Would you like to create a Pinterest marketing strategy and use it set up the perfect page and get yourself followers, repins, traffic and sales? Then get The Complete Pinterest Marketing Bundle…
