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Pinterest: Secrets to Better Board Covers

February 27, 2014 By 14 Comments
Pinterest: Secrets to Better Board Covers

Pinterest: Secrets to Better Board Covers

One way to get more people to see your Pinterest boards is to change the board covers occasionally. Changing the cover image is a fairly easy way to get a whole new look, and you can still keep the same content on your boards. Here are some ways I like to make mine look fresh. By the way, if you’re a startup just getting started on Pinterest, you might want to read my Pinterest Tips for Startups.

Change Your Covers Every Month

I like to change board covers every month. You might have a favorite pin that isn’t getting enough traffic. Why not make that pin the cover for your board? While you’re at it, edit the text so that it’s easier to find in search (I love Pinterest’s search, by the way). Give some thought to your board covers–your pins might not go viral, but you’ll be rewarded with more likes and repins.

Use Seasonal Colors

February Pinterest Board Covers

February Pinterest Board Covers

I particularly like using the same color for board covers. For February, for instance, I used green. Since I’m a nature lover, I like to incorporate seasonal changes. Here in California, spring really begins in February, so I chose green for all my covers. Some people love black and white photography, so they always choose black and white. Winter could be white, Easter could be pastel, and so on.

Make Your Covers Tell a Story

What story would you like to tell? If you’re an animal lover, maybe you could have closeups of animal faces on your covers. You could make a visual story that moves from top to bottom, left to right. If you sell books about Python (the language) your covers could include a giant snake, that winds around the board covers, with the head at the top left and the tail at the bottom right. Or how about a simple white line across a black background? Pinterest is a visual medium, so there’s lots of room for creativity. Think of how Google changes up their Google doodles.

Create an Uncluttered Look

How about using similar imagery across all your board covers? A simple image, perhaps a circular theme, would be wonderfully zen. What if you took a simple texture from Flickr’s Creative Commons and wrote the name of your cover on it, and did that for each cover? For instance, Love, Simplicity, Organizing, Play?

Use Your Most Popular Pins

How about choosing your most repinned pins as your board covers to give your fans an idea of what they’ll find on a board? This is like crowd sourcing in a way.

Do You Change Your Board Covers?

What do you want your Pinterest account to convey?  Leave me a comment below!

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Pinterest Group Boards: Pros and Cons

August 6, 2013 By 5 Comments
Pinterest Group Boards: Pros and Cons

Pinterest Group Boards: Pros and Cons

If you’ve been on Pinterest for any length of time, then you’ve been invited to participate in a group board. A group board is easily created by having two or more people able to pin on a single board. For some businesses, a group board is a wonderful idea. For others, a group board can quickly become an out-of-control party, akin to spending a long weekend in Vegas with alcoholics.

First, the Pros

Pro: A Place for Friends to Gather

Pinterest Group Boards: Pros and Cons

Pinterest Group Boards: Pros and Cons

A group board can be a place for friends to share things that they find entertaining, educational, or funny. For instance, your group of knitters might like to share “yarn bombs,” those funny knitted thing-a-mabobbers that have been popping up all over the place! Finally a place to share those images, right?

Pro: More Eyes on Your Product

For a brand or startup, a shared board can mean more sales. For instance, if you sell iPhone apps, you might consider finding and then asking to join a large group board, and then regularly pinning to that board. More eyes on your product means more repins, likes and comments, and potentially more business.

Pro: More Overall Likes

Another pro is that when someone likes your group board, you’ll probably get more followers. If you’re a brand, in particular, I recommend having a group board and inviting others in your circle to pin to it. When people find your group board, chances are they’ll also find you and that may cause more people to find your brand.

Cons

Now for the downside of group boards.

Con: Spammy Pinning

I’ve seen some group boards taken over by spammers while the group owner does nothing. And I’ve left those group boards because what they said they were didn’t jive with what they became. By the way, here are a few ways to avoid newbie mistakes on Pinterest.

Con: You Don’t “Own” New Follows

The person who starts the group board gets to count the new follows on their account. So if you’re trying to get new followers, that might bother you. In that case, you can start your own group board!

Con: You Can’t Control the Board Cover

On boards you own, you can create a pleasing tableau by matching the themes of the board covers, which you can’t do if you didn’t create a board.

What Do You Like or Dislike About Group Boards?

I’d love to hear from you!

 

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Pinterest: Tips for Startups

July 25, 2013 By 5 Comments
Pinterest Tips for Startups

Pinterest Tips for Startups

You’ve been using Pinterest for your startup for awhile now, but aren’t quite sure what to do. You pin sporadically, but have no strategy yet. Your new intern is already complaining about doing too much! What to do? Let’s say you’re a high-tech startup, as an example.

Branding

If you already know what your company stands for, you’re way ahead of the game. Make sure the entire team is talking to one another and ensure that you give the person doing the social media a very high overview of your brand and what it stands for. Is your brand down-to-earth? Techie? Do you specialize in video for the startup market? What words describe your brand? Your social media manager needs to have that list of words. You might also want to avoid a few newbie mistakes.

Consider Your Audience

Although everyone at your startup may be technical, your audience probably does not have the same level of expertise and know-how that the average engineer does. If you don’t know who your audience is, consider modeling yourself after a competitor. Ask yourself what they’re doing right, and also what they aren’t doing that you could do on Pinterest. Keep it simple.

Make Ten Boards

Use some of the branding words to design your boards. Ten is a good number to start with, so this process isn’t overwhelming. You can add more later, as you come across content that doesn’t fit neatly into any of your categories. For example: “Apps,” “3D Printing,” “Ted Talks,” “Movers and Shakers,” etc.

Have a “Bait Board”

Create a "Bait Board"

Create a “Bait Board”

This is a silly board–I don’t know what else to call it. It could be high-tech dog beds, or funny race cars, but something that humanizes you as a brand. Mine is called “Kittehs.” It is extremely silly, as you might imagine. Pick something like “Dogs at work,” or “Big Cats.”

Create a Schedule

Before you start madly pinning, create an editorial calendar. So for example, you may want to pin 5 pins twice a week about your field. If you’re a 3D Printing Startup, that might mean pinning 5 pins about 3D printing on Tuesday and Thursday. Keep it manageable because it will take some time. You don’t have to go crazy with pinning every day. The important thing is to be consistent and not make the intern crazy!

Start Following

Follow a few pinners whose pins resonate with you, and whose businesses might not be in direct competition. And if you decide you don’t like what they’re pinning for whatever reason, you can unfollow those pinners later.

What Has Helped Your Startup on Pinterest?

Do you have any ideas you’d be willing to share? Please leave a comment! Thanks!

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Pinterest: Five Newbie Mistakes You’re Making

June 13, 2013 By 11 Comments
Pinterest: Five Newbie Mistakes You're Making

Pinterest: Five Newbie Mistakes You’re Making

Since Pinterest showed up on the social media scene, people have been flocking to it like ducks to water, or maybe like addicts to a new video game. People who weren’t that visual became more visual, and those who didn’t know they were visual, are suddenly spending hours on this visual site. So what are a few things to avoid and what should you be doing to have fun for yourself or your brand on Pinterest? Here are some simple fixes to common errors.

Keeping Default Boards

Fix: decide on the boards you really want. Say you are a small business selling hand knitted leg warmers and other trendy items for chihuahuas. You might want to create boards such as Tiny Dogs, SPCA, Local Doggy Events, and of course a board for your own homemade doggy outfits. You might also want to create boards for different types of outfits, such as hats, vests, paw warmers, etc. Keep in mind that you can change the names of boards later if you like. To change the board name, click on the board, go to “Edit Board” –>Title (don’t forget to save your changes!).

Ugly Board Covers

Fix: Make Each Board Beautiful! To entice people to see the contents of a board, pin the most visually beautiful cover you can. To change a board cover, simply hover with your mouse over the board. Click on “Edit Board Cover” to choose a photo. You can position the photo if you like, at this point. Then click “Set Cover.”

Following Nobody

Choose the Best Covers for Your Boards

Choose the Best Covers for Your Boards

Fix: Follow people you already know or whose pins you enjoy. Although unfollowing people who don’t follow you isn’t easy, you can unfollow people later. Note: like other forms of social media, there is spam out there! So beware of people who have 40 boards with just one photo on each board, or who don’t appear to be real people, or who only sell things like wrist watches.

Not Commenting

Like other forms of social media, Pinterest is social. So “like,” repin, and especially comment on others’ pins! People will appreciate you, and they will be more likely to reciprocate!

Not Having Your Business Name in Your Profile

Fix: Along with your business name and logo, you might want to include a few things about you. A photo of you or a logo also legitimizes your account. People want to know a little about you! To make changes, click “Edit Profile.” You can use the First Name line for your business name. Don’t forget to click “Save Profile” when you’re done. Note: Pinterest has recently partnered with brands to add information to pins, which is very useful for brands.

Not Pinning on Sundays

Fix: Take Saturday off and pin on Sundays! Sundays are the busiest days on Pinterest. So even just pinning a few pins will really help you with traffic and getting more eyes on your content.

What Have You Learned About Pinterest?

Have you changed your strategy along the way with Pinterest? What has helped you the most? Please leave a comment below! Thank you!

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