How to Go Viral on Pinterest: Marketing 101

Pinterest is one of the most versatile and affordable social media platforms when it comes to marketing. The users have the highest purchase intent compared to any other social platform, with 33% more than Facebook, 71% more than Snapchat and 200% more than twitter. 

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 A recent study on 4,000 weekly users was conducted by Pinterest and the results found that over 90% of these pinners use the platform to influence their purchasing decisions.  “66% of these people ended up making a purchase after seeing a brand’s pin” 

Whether you’re a small or large business and you’re not sure if you should be spending time on Pinterest, the answer is YES!!! It’s pretty evidential that whether you’re trying to sell a product or service, you should be taking advantage of Pinterest.  

We broke down exactly what you should be doing to make the most of the platform, how to make your pins go viral and increase brand awareness.  

Make your image or video visually appealing:

This one may seem pretty obvious but you’d be surprised by how many people don’t pay attention to it!  Since Pinterest’s main focus is on visuals, it’s important that your content is aesthetically pleasing.

 Here are a few points to keep in mind when thinking about the visuals of your content: 

• Take clear shots.  Never upload anything that’s blurry, nobody wants to repin something they can barely see!
• Follow your brand's colors and overall theme when creating content. 
• Brand everything.  Always include your logo somewhere if your posts, just don’t make it too big.  
• Don’t use tacky filters or text overlays. 
• Use the right dimensions for all of your pins.  The preferred image aspect ratio is 2:3 or 1:2:8. The minimum width of a pin is 600 pixels and the maximum is 735 pixels.  Don’t make your pins too long or they will get cut off.  

If you’re not comfortable using programs like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe XD to create your pins, check out Canva! It’s free and allows you to use templates if needed.‍

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Create the perfect description

In order to get your pin onto people's home feeds, you need to go crazy with the description.  Spend some time crafting a keyword-optimized paragraph by doing your own research through Pinterest by seeing what the top pins in your niche are doing or use a keyword research planning tool for this step.  Your description can include 500 characters but, keep in mind that only the first 50-60 characters of your description actually show up in the smart feed.  So, put the most important information at the beginning.    

Next, you’ll need to add some tags.  Always keep hashtags related to your post and don’t use any more than 20 hashtags.  Using more than 20 risks getting you shadowbanned which is even worse than using no hashtags at all! If you’re having trouble coming up with hashtags that are related to your post, try searching the title of your pin into your Pinterest search bar and see what suggested tags show up (you’ll see this right under the search bar)  

To finish off your description, you’ll need to add a link.  Again, keep this directly related to your pin.  For example, if you’re a food blogger and your pin is about “How to make the best banana bread”, insert the link directly to your recipe on your blog. ‍

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Never use clickbait! 

It may be tempting to give a pin a title that does not correspond with that of the blog post because it's really clickable but DON'T DO IT!

Although it may get you more views, your bounce rate (the average time that people stay on your blog) will decrease drastically as people will just click on the pin and head straight back to Pinterest. You won't gain loyal readers, get comments, or subscribers.  

Get to know the algorithm:

In late 2014, Pinterest updated its algorithm to the new “smart feed”.  Prior to that, the home feed was organized chronologically, meaning that you didn’t need to pin the best content to be seen at the top of users’ feeds. You just needed your pin to be the newest. The current algorithm gathers more information and filters out the lower-quality content. 

The four factors that influence your pins' ranking: ‍

1.  Domain Authority:  This refers to the quality of the linked website.  Make sure that the website you’re linking to your pin is designed well and optimized for mobile and tablet use.  Over time, the more content that is uploaded that’s linked to your website and the more users engage with it, the higher domain authority it will have on Pinterest.  
2. Pin Quality: This is determined by engagement.  The more repins, comments, and reactions your content has the better. 
3. Relevance: This has less to do with the pin quality and more to do with current trends.  To get some insight on what’s trending, check out the new “Trends” feature that was implemented by clicking the “Analytics” dropdown menu and click “Trends” 
4. Quality of Pinner:  This relates to your reputation.  If you’re already a high-profile blogger or brand, your pins will be seen by more people.  Similar to how an established and well-known blogger is more trustworthy than an anonymous writer.  

Consistency is key

Pinterest favors accounts that upload frequently.  Pro-pinners recommend uploading a minimum of 5 posts per day but see even better results when they upload 10+ per day.  To make it easier on yourself, schedule your posts directly through Pinterest.  Do this by creating a post as usual but instead of clicking “Publish Immediately”, select “Publish at a later date”.  

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Engage with other users

Just like every other social media platform, engagement is extremely important.  To have engaged followers, you must engage with other users.  Spend some time every day engaging with other profiles in your target audience.  Follow some accounts related to your niche, react, repin, and comment on their posts.  A great way to attract your target audience is by going to your competitor's accounts and engaging with their followers and people who engage with their content.  Whenever someone engages with your content, return the favor, and say thank you!  

That’s how it’s done!  Remember to be patient and consistent and in no time, you will start to see results.  Once you start to see results, look into your analytics to see what does best and repeat.  Happy Pinning!