How to use Pinterest
Are you using Pinterest to promote your business or your work? If so, then it’s a good idea to make the most of the service every time you pin an image from your blog or website.
Using Pinterest to your best advantage requires no special skills. It simply means that you have to use the same basic common sense that you do when you are working online.
The first thing to remember is that for every article you write on your website or blog, be sure that there is at least one pinnable image.
The site likes images that are large – a small image is unlikely to get attention.
Because of the layout of the site, portrait (vertical) images tend to look better. Some people advise that images should have descriptive text but this is a debatable issue. Your image should be able to speak for itself.
Over several years, I have experimented with images with and without text and found that text adds no advantages when it comes to what’s important – hits to your website. There are disadvantages too. One is that ‘funky’ fonts can detract from an excellent image. The other is that it takes an additional few minutes in Photoshop to add text – I don’t have the time, especially when text has been shown to have no advantages when it comes to clickthroughs.
You will, of course, have pin buttons above every page or article on your site. This not only makes it easier for viewers to pin your articles if they don’t have the browser button, it also means that you don’t have to waste time going to Pinterest yourself when you promote your work. Publish – view – pin via the button. Done. Two seconds.
Be sure that your pin has a good description that accurately describes what your article is about.(This is what in the old days we would have called ‘keywords’). Remember that Pinterest is a service to its viewers just as search engines are. They want to present the best content to their users – make sure that yours is the best content.
Ever since beta, Pinterest’s search facility has been less than ideal. It has improved over the years but bear in mind that it isn’t Google and make allowances. Whereas Google will return search engine results for ‘meat-free recipe’ when a user searches for ‘vegetarian recipe’ the Pinterest search facility is far more haphazard. So be sure that your description says, for example ‘vegetarian meat-free recipe for stuffed green peppers with rice’.
The fact that you correctly <alt> tag the images that you are going to pin will help in searches too., as will a caption. Be sure to vary the two bearing in mind what people will be searching for on Pinterest.
Show Pinterest that you are an active user and pin at least once a day. Create a pinning schedule in your editorial calendar and follow it daily, bearing in mind time-sensitive articles and images. Be aware too that Pinterest itself has analysed which pins do well on particular days of the week. See an article here to learn more.
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