Who: Kate Ahl
Blog: Simple Pin Media
Freebie: The Ultimate Pinterest Planner

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Who is Kate Ahl

Kate is the founder of Simple Pin Media, a company that manages Pinterest accounts for bloggers and businesses.

Pinterest Strategies that work for Successful Bloggers
Pinterest Strategies That Work for Successful Bloggers

She got the idea from a friend to be a Pinterest VA for bloggers, started with that friend's Pinterest account and dove deep into learning everything she could about the platform.

This evolved to where she is now managing Pinterest accounts for a number of successful bloggers.

Today, her company consists of a team of 16 people that manage Pinterest accounts for 45 clients. This has allowed her to drill into a lot of data to determine how to be successful on Pinterest.

In this episode, Kate is going to share Pinterest strategies that work for successful bloggers.

Why Kate Loves Pinterest

Pinterest consists of images that link back to sites. This images (pins) are organized on boards that users can arrange based on their interests. It's also a search and discovery network that gives you the ability to find and keep new ideas in a visual way.

Simple Pin Media
Simple Pin Media

Just as an example, Kate uses Pinterest with her daughters to find recipes and other ideas.

Pinterest works very well for bloggers. It's different from Facebook and Twitter in that your content lives forever instead of for a short period of time.

You can really get an audience that is looking for your content.

It also has a viral nature to it because users have the ability to repin your pins. Your pins can become very popular based on users repinning it and that can drive a lot of traffic to your blog.

Setting up your Pinterest profile

When setting up your profile, there are a few things you want to keep in mind.

Use a business page rather than a personal profile.

When setting up a Pinterest profile for your blog or business, make sure to create a business account rather than a personal profile. By doing this, Pinterest will associate your website with your page and also provide you with all kinds of analytics.

Choose the right business name

When choosing your business name, you can choose to use your name or the name of your brand/business. Choose what makes sense based on whether you are building a personal brand or a brand that has its own identity.

BAB_Pinterest_image
Become a Blogger Pinterest Page

Describe your profile strategically

Because Pinterest is a search and discovery network, having relevant keywords in your description will make it easier for people to find you in their search results.

Create at least 10 boards that are relevant to your brand

Kate recommends making boards based on the categories of content that are covered on your blog. She also recommends pinning at least 10 posts to each category. When pinning, it's a good idea to start by pinning 50% of your own content and 50% from other people's content.

How to Grow your Pinterest Account Strategically

Here are some of Kate's tips for growing your Pinterest account.

Recommended Pinterest image
Recommended Pinterest image dimensions

Make sure to use Pinterest-optimized images for your posts

Pinterest favors vertical images with a ratio of 2 x 3. The recommended dimensions are 735 x 1185. You can do this easily by taking a stock image and add a little bit of text to it using a service like PicMonkey or Canva.

Find your top 10 posts and optimize them first

Go into Google Analytics and see which of your content performs best. Kate suggests finding your top 10 posts and making sure they are optimized for Pinterest by adding Pinterest-optimized images.

Use a Social Sharing Plugin like Social Warfare

Kate recommends this as the best social sharing plugin that's optimized for Pinterest because it gives you the ability to specify which images are shared on Pinterest (and other networks). It also allows you to control the titles, descriptions.

Pin Consistently and pin Daily

Pin daily and consistently.
Pin daily and consistently

Pinterest is not a set it and forget it platform. If you want to drive traffic to your blog, you should pin at least 10 times per day. This might sound overwhelming, but it can be done in a minimum amount of time.

You can use a scheduling program like Tailwind to schedule your pins in one hour/week.

If you are just getting started and you only have a small number of posts, you can compensate by posting more of other people's content. The key is to become someone who provides good content for people in your niche.

How to Create the Perfect Pinnable Post

Step 1: Create a great title for the post – one that's simple and easy to read.

Step 2: Write your post

Step 3: Grab a relevant image and use Picmonkey or Canva to add text (use a simple font that isn't script-like)

Step 4: Upload your image to your post. Add an alt text description. If someone pins that image, the description will go with the image.

Step 5: Specify the details to the Social Warfare plugin

Step 6: Publish your post

What the data shows

Pinterest Data
Pinterest Data

Because Simple Pin Media manages so many different Pinterest accounts, she has been able to compile a lot of data to analyse what's working and what isn't. She will be publishing this data soon on her blog, but here are some of the things she has seen:

  • Each account has its own unique culture. You can't take one strategy and apply it to every account.
  • If you have something that's working well on Pinterest, keep doing more of that.
  • Images make a huge difference. Branded images tend to do better than images that are random.

Action Steps

  • Set up your Pinterest page to represent your blog well
  • Find and optimize your top 10 posts
  • Start pinning at least 10 times/day using an app like Tailwind

Resources Mentioned

 

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245_Pinterest strategies_Infographic
Pinterest Strategies That Work for Successful Bloggers

About the Author Leslie Samuel


Leslie Samuel a business coach for high-performing entrepreneurs. As the host of the Leslie Samuel Show, he teaches how to build an online business. "Changing the world one post at a time” is the mission he strives towards. As a former university professor, he has a passion for education. He's the founder of Interactive Biology, a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers. As the head of training for the Social Media Marketing Society, he helps social media marketers get the training they need to stay on the leading edge of social media.

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