Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess
Those of us in the pet industry have likely found that Pinterest is the place to be. Not all businesses lend
themselves to the Pinterest platform because to harness its power you need to have a business and blog posts with images that are suited to the photo-centric social media site. Pet lovers usually have no issue with finding adorable images of their pets that can be added a blog post then pinned to their Pinterest boards.
As with all social media, there are best practices and here are my top seven tips for using Pinterest to enhance your pet blogging efforts:
- This first tip should be obvious, but you need to have images that are of good quality and are large enough to be easily visible to visitors to your board. Well-lit and interestingly composed photos that will capture a visitor's attention are crucial to your pinning success (and to having your pins re-pinned)
Make certain your website and all of your blog posts have a PinIt button. Make it easy for visitors to your site to repin your posts and photos. This will help your blog traffic as well as your Pinterest stats.
Name your boards with searchable terms. Rather than just creating a board that is named "blogging" choose a name that is more descriptive "blog posts about ferrets" "how to groom your cat" (Note: If you're only going to have one or two pins on a board you create, it would be
best to find a board it would better fit. Consider boards on Pinterest like the categories on your blog, they need to be thoughtfully planned out; try to limit yourself) Do you host themes on your blog (just as BlogPaws has designated September as International Pet Blogger Month)? If you have themes or an editorial calendar set up boards to coincide with the theme.
Take time and create information that you solely put on Pinterest. If you use Pinterest as a funnel from your blog to your Pinterest boards, those who visit you aren't getting any new information on either platform and may simply stop looking at one or the other and that will damage your traffic.
Include your URL when you pin a photo. You don't want all of your pins to become a "buy me, buy me" conversation, but you do want to prompt some action if possible with those who visit your boards.
Pinterest is another "social" media platform so make certain you are engaging in the "social" aspect of it by following the boards of others and pinning information from other blogs that you enjoy.
Use the Pinterest Analytics tool to track who's repinning your pins, what days you get the most traffic, what kind of photos/topics garner you the most likes and re-pins and use that to enhance your Pinterest marketing efforts.
What are your Pinterest best practice tips? We'd love to hear them!
We would LOVE to put a PinIt button on our photos just haven’t figured it out yet!
Thanks, great tips! Just added a hovering pin-it button on all my images! It was definitely missing!