How to Get More Followers on Pinterest

How to Get More Followers on Pinterest

After watching the significant interest in this page I made on how to get more followes on Pinterest, I decided I should migrate that information to this site. Seems natural.

So for those looking to gain more followers on Pinterest, I’ll provide the information here simultaneously. Or as closely as possible .

No doubt you’e heard of Pinterest by now, and maybe you’re one of the quickly growing group of invitees who is active on the super-popular site. Pinterest has been winning some prestigious awards for their concept and design, and marketers are scrambling to uncover opportunities Pinterest offers. Same with your humble author.

Everyone has a reason for participating on the website. Some just want to remind themselves of things they’ve found online such as recipes or a pair of shoes, and some want to market their wares on Etsy or eBay. Some want to fantasize about all the products, places and kitchens and doo-dads that constantly rain down from the top of the screen in a Martha Stewart-Matrix fashion. Whatever the reason, it makes sense that many people value large groups of followers for whatever their goals are for the site.

Personally, I have noticed a large uptick in traffic for my associated websites (http://www.MichaelMusgrove.com; http://TheHighlandsRealtor.com; http://MyLouisvilleRealEstateAgent.com) so I figure the more QUALITY followers, the greater the exposure. I sell real estate in Louisville, KY, so my goal is to put myself in front of as many prospective clients as possible. I aim to do that by maintaining relevant, narrow-niche boards with high-quality pins, timed thoughtfully. Pinterest is a perfect place to share staging ideas and general home improvement ideas and tips for clients for my real estate business, not to mention see some incredible images of amazing properties worldwide. There is no lack of castles, English gardens, private islands and other dream homes on Pinterest, believe me.

Whatever your goal, these are some tips and commonalities I have observed that seem to garner a quick, high number of quality followers. I began with the 3 tips, but I’m coming across some other good info, so I’ll add it as necessary.

3 Things You Can Do to Boost Your Number of Followers on Pinterest

1.
It’s boards, not number of pins that seem to matter. I looked at the top 10 most-followed Pinners, and they were a diverse group. Some with over 1,000,000 followers. Men, women, and not just those involved with founding the site but (a few) seemingly random folks. Most people follow individual boardsnot other Pinners, so those with super-high numbers of followers are kind of rare.

Although they all had a zillion followers, they didn’t have a lot of pins, relatively. But they had a lot of boards. And they boards they have are very specialized. People care about the quality of only a few niche pins instead of a lot of low-quality pins that are broad in nature such as “home.” That shouldn’t be too surprising, although if you look around Pinterest, there are a lot of “Home” boards.

However, be patient. The process of gaining loyal followers should be organic, which ultimately takes time. These tips should speed things along, though.

If you are on Twitter or a webmaster, you no doubt know the timing of your posts is very important. The same goes for pins. Be thoughtful and don’t clog the boards with 100 pins of 1930′s toilets at 8:00am or you will lose followers. What you DO want to do is dazzle influencers at critical times of the day. In marketing, this is known as Placement.

2.
Be picky about what and as importantly, how you pin (high-quality) and market yourself, your boards(niches) and your pins across the internet, such as on Squidoo (You can see/follow my pins at http://pinterest.com/musgrove/, for example, as well as my Pinterest Follower lens there). Install the “pin It” Bookmarklet and pin original content. Introduce high-impact Pins from elsewhere, rather than repinning others’s pins. Be sure to share interesting, focused and relevant videoas well as static images.Before you just start pinning everything you see, be judicious and empathetic towards your audience. Look and think about what you’re pinning and how you present your pin. Remember most of the people on Pinterest are women, and (this comment may spur controversy) it’s often treated as a place to fantasize about “womanly” things. I will leave that open to interpretation, but look at the pins that get the most action. Babies, home decor, diets (and total indulgence), wedding ideas, shirtless men, and so on. Cater to your audience and you will see an increase in followers.

Consider how you “come across.” Are you presenting yourself as a sort or resource? A copycat? Then you need credibility. Think about your caption for each pin. Remember the phrase that a picture is worth a 1000 words. Unless you are just pinning something as a quick reminder or Ralph Lauren or Conan OBrien, it’s usually best to let the photo do the talking when it comes to prosaic narrative. On the other hand, “Love” “Must Have” and a string of acronyms don’t help other pinners find your pins and boards.

However, think keywords. What would and are people searching for? Label your pins with that and move on. Speaking of “searching for” it’s not a bad idea to see what’s trending as well. Again…find an audience and cater to them. They will follow you and spread the word to their followers.

3.
Reciprocate. If someone like your pins, see if you want to like or follow any of their boards back, and encourage those who like your pins to come back. After all, everyone likes a compliment, which is what it amounts to. Like everything in life, the more you give, the more you get.

Above all, be interesting! Remember: you are competing for people’s attention in real-time with everyone else on Pinterest and the web. Is what you are about to pin really THAT amazing? Has it already been pinned a billion times (Like gotye’s Somebody I Used to Know”) and you just don’t know it yet? It’s easy to be an also-ran online!

How to Give your Most Popular Pins the Most Play

This is a great trick to boost your most popular pins on Pinterest and gain more new followers: While signed in, go to: http://Pinterest.com/source/YourWebsite.com/

This will show you what has been pinned from your blog or website. From here you can Repin or comment on your most interesting pins.

* Always Like and often comment on pins from your site to give them better ranking and increase their reach.
* Repin some of the most interesting and unique images. You can even repin user comments.