Being a beginner on pinterest is quite daunting. I remember not knowing anything about this visual world. It was a little difficult for me to start as a beginner. Following wrong or poorly explained pinterest marketing advice, I got my account blocked in the first week! From there I started to look more into pinterest marketing and started my journey afresh!
Combined with my experiences and top notch advice from other amazing content creators, I went from the naive pinner who followed every tip and got herself blocked to a steadily growing pinner!
From my experiences, I compiled a list of pinterest tips and advice to avoid at all cost! They are damaging and may result in total pinterest failure!
Alt-text: pinterest marketing tips to avoid
NO FOLLOW TIPS:
1. Create pins that are visually appealing to females!
I believe you already know what is wrong with this tip. It is true that 71% of pinterest users are females and 60% of new sign ups are males but this doesn’t necessarily mean you should create pins for only that 71%
What about the 29% of male users on the platform? If everyone is creating pins for the larger half of the pie then where/who will the 29% turn to?
Also read 6 Video marketing mistakes you should avoid.
CORRECTION:
Make pins that appeal to all audiences, you can do this simply with Canva which I adore. You may never know which demographic your source of traffic may come from so treat every pinterest user as a piece of special family heirloom you may never want to lose and you’ll start seeing good results?
If your main target is the female audience, go right ahead and serve them with your pins. However, If your company or business serves both sides, don’t miss out on this opportunity to really serve both!
2. Repin all your pins or Pin to as many boards as you can:
Here is one thing my short and turbulent arrival on pinterest marketing has taught me:
Never pin from your own personal boards to another board!
This has been proven to reduce engagement time and I can testify to that. After I got my account unsuspended, I got back to my old pinterest ways due to lack of information!
I used to pin every single pin of mine manually to all my boards. Not long after, I witnessed my pins dropping from their hundreds of daily impressions to one or zero. Then unfortunately, I got my account blocked! From there I created my new account which is doing successfully well!
Secondly, please don’t pin too many boards. It doesn’t matter if you are a member of 1000 boards, which is not possible, Pinterest now recommends that its users avoid sharing the same pin to more than 10 different boards.
Disobey Pinterest and they reduce your pins potential leading to low views and engagement! So simple.
Also read 9 Steps To Publish Articles Frequently To Drive More Traffic.
CORRECTION:
Pin all your pins from the site or album directly. This is an accepted practice by Pinterest (although no one knows why!)
You can also go in for smart pin schedulers like Tailwind. I use tailwind and it has great and amazing benefits for all users. From analytics to tailwind share tribes, it is the perfect tool for beginners! Another cheap yet reliable auto pinner with multiple functions is Ninja pinner!
I will recommend these two for anyone beginning on pinterest! About pinning to group boards, it is a recommended practice to pin to your best group boards.
3. Follow as many people as you can so they will follow back!
This is just a no! I tried this and I got blocked! This was part of the reasons for my account suspension so just don’t try it!
Similar: Get as many followers as you can to increase reach!
Yes! The more followers you have, the more people your pin may reach. The problem here is the incomplete advice or tip this creator is giving.
Alt-text: pinterest marketing tips to get more followers
First of all, only newbie pinterest users or failing pinterest users will look for and engage with such posts on this topic so this tip is actually useless unless they provide a magic tap through which you can quickly fetch thousands of followers.
The reason I disagree with this tip is that it leads to frustration and self hate. New and desperate pinners want to find ways to increase their reach so suggesting that getting followers is the only way out is a NO BRAINER!
Plus, getting lots of followers on any social platform is not the only way to get engagement. I know people with lots of followers who barely get any recognition!
CORRECTION:
Follow people whose pins you love or relate to. It is not everyone you should follow, it doesn’t matter how many followers they may have!
Pin posts you love and enjoy to gradually build your following and reach. It may take time but that is life and as long as you love what you do, nothing is impossible!
To simply get legit Pinterest Followers without much hustle, you can use Media mister. It is safe, accurate and true.
4. Pin at the right time for more engagement.
You have probably heard of this tip everywhere. It is a great one, in a factual sense, but let me explain why I don’t agree. Pinterest is a free search engine and a social platform to share great content from your blog. This means over time, your pins will grow and get more engagement!
Alt-text: right timing is always important to post content on social media
So in my opinion don’t feel pressured to share your pins on these prescribed dates and times, pin whenever you like or may get time because I can guarantee that most of that engagement you seek won’t arrive on that day!
There is a certain pin I posted over a month ago using the best time principal and I received next to nothing. Recently, when I checked my analytics I noticed it has been able to achieve 65,000 impressions, and this all happened this week!
Plus, considering the different time zones, it is quite a stupid and lazy advice to give unless your target group is well defined.
‘What does best time even mean?‘
For example: An ice cream track waits in your neighbourhood all day, everyday. The owner promises to give an extra cup to whoever buys an ice cream on some specific days. So just like the rest of your neighbours, you flood the ice cream shop on those days just to buy your ice cream.
What then is the possibility the ice cream won’t get finished before it gets to your turn?
CORRECTION:
Pin when you are free or when you feel it is the right time. Don’t keep great posts locked up in your gallery waiting for that right moment like I did!
That right moment may never come. Just as i said before, pinning consistently with autopinners like Ninja pinner or tailwind is a surer way to success.
Also read: Pinterest For Beginners, What I Wish Everyone Knew.
5. Join group boards with high followers only for more engagement!
Group boards are a great way to get your pins recognised by pinterest users. This tip was suggested by many content creators I read and I am glad to tell you that this narrative is totally false!
Yes, joining such groups with many followers may increase your reach but, aside from that, what you as a pinner is looking for are boards whose members repin a lot!
Most high following group boards have lazy members! That is because they think that their posts will do well because of the number of followers the board has which is false. I am a part of boards with huge followers but whenever I add my pins, the highest amount of traffic I get is 3 to 10 views!
Not to mention the struggles you have to go through just to not be invited in the end!
CORRECTION:
Join boards that focus on your niche and have friendly members who love to share. Don’t forget to share their content as well! It doesn’t necessarily have to have thousands of followers, it is the community and its members that is most important!
6. Create only vertical pins or long form pins!
Pinterest is full of long vertical pins. Mainly because of the myth that only vertical pins perform well. This may be true because of how easy they are to view and include in feeds but not wholly.
My most successful pin while I had my old account was a tiny square pin I uploaded directly from my blog! It had thousands of impressions and a generous amount of saves.
So, this is one of the proven pinterest marketing tips that ‘ONLY VERTICAL PINS GET GREAT ENGAGEMENT IS NOT ENTIRELY TRUE!’
CORRECTION:
Create pins that are easy to read or see. Vertical pins don’t always mean success! Look at your pin and determine if any tweaks will destroy its beauty.
Let’s be honest here, not every image or pin looks great when it is vertical! Let Canva help you with its simple to use tools as well.
7. Join as many group boards as possible!
Well, I am glad to inform you that this is also a myth! From my experience of having two accounts, I can prove to you that this tip is a pinterest fallacy.
As I said earlier, pinterest boards are great for beginners but recently, their impact on the performance of a pin is drastically reducing! After joining as many boards as I could with my first account, I thought that was the end of my marketing!
Most of these boards had thousands of followers but my pin only received 1 impression or none at all within the first week! This goes to prove that joining as many groups as you can doesn’t always mean SUCCESS.
When I started out, I found this Pinterest marketing tip in various blog posts and I began my mission to join as many group boards as I can. Funny enough, that broke me and brought my quick pinterest downfall.
In order to join these boards, you have to follow, move mountains, share, comment and send loads of messages to these people that don’t follow you, so what would that make you look like?
A spammer!!!
My account was suspended the next day! Due to this, I couldn’t pin and my engagement kept on dwindling. I almost gave up on pinterest as they took forever to get back to me.
CORRECTION:
Join group boards that resonate with your topics. At least minimize your group invite send out to only three a day or a week. Group boards are great but having a handful of good boards is enough to ensure great content engagement.
I am a living testimony. With my new account, I asked to join only a handful at a time.
Although I am not among as many group boards as my old account, I have gotten much more engagement on my pins in my first week than I had in a whole month on my old account!
Must Read: Top ten quotes for newbie bloggers!
8. Use Sans Serif fonts in your pins!
Since when did this become a determining factor in the success of your pins? I can name 101 font types that are much more stylish and attractive than the Sans Serif.
Canva and Crello, which I love, provide countless fonts for both free users and premium accounts.
CORRECTION:
Use the right font for the right pin. Try out as many fonts during the creation stage to see the one you find most appealing! My all time favourites are Chewy, Jingleberry and Alice.
9. Make all pins funny for more engagement!
This is by far the FUNNIEST tip I have ever read, literally. So what happens if the post isn’t funny or it has no sense of humor at all?
Do I make all my pinterest pins humorous? What if I am paying a tribute to a dead person, should that be funny too?
The lack of explanation and logical reasoning backing this tip is woefully insufficient.
What then do I do to get the right amount of engagement?
CORRECTION:
Create appropriate pins for appropriate posts. If you have to add an element of humor, go right ahead but if there is nothing funny about the post, just go with a visually good image or pin.
No need to worry about being funny, just be yourself and that may be the best humor anyone could ask for!
10. Use as much colour in your pins!
This is simply a horrible idea. Using various and/or unmatching colours in your pin will be the quickest downfall for your pin.
People will avoid your pin like a plague or the Coronavirus. Here is my biggest takeaway:
When making pins, aim for simplicity and avoid clutter. I used to combine many things into a single pin and they always turned out horrible. I wouldn’t say I am great now but I can say I have become better.
CORRECTION:
Use matching and visually appealing colours. Black and white is a great and timeless combination. If you are as colour and beauty blind as I am, you can search for amazing colour pairings or schemes to create your first or next viral Pin!
Bold and eye-catching colours like red, pink, yellow and sometimes blue are perfect for Pinterest but combining all of them is lethal!
You can also use the easy to customise templates readily available to Canva users!
Ending remarks:
Winning the pinterest game will take time. Sometimes your success may come faster than others or much later but don’t ever discredit yourself and your abilities based on your analytics for the first month or week!
Everyone who creates good content wants their thoughts to be seen and engaged with, but don’t let that factor be the determinant of your happiness.
