17 Easy Ways To Boost Your Pinterest Following

So you want to gain traction on Pinterest and amplify the number of followers you have.

Don’t we all?

Pinterest is a game-changer for entrepreneurs, bloggers, and even large corporations. It’s mind-blowing how many businesses and bloggers are having massive success with this marketing gold-mine.

It’s no wonder when 70% of all pins saved on Pinterest come from businesses.

If you’re not leveraging Pinterest to grow your business – you’re missing out, big-time.

A whopping 200 million people are now on Pinterest, as of September 2017. That’s a 40% increase from the previous year.

Like other platforms, more followers equals more credibility and authority in your niche. But in the case of Pinterest, a visual search engine – it means a whole lot more.

What can Pinterest do for you?

Build credibility and authority in your niche
Rapid growth in website traffic
An increase in email subscribers
Free marketing for your business
An increased income and bottom line for your business

Do you want to increase your Pinterest followers, and reap all the benefits that come with it?

Well of course you do! So let’s dive into 17 proven strategies to gain more Pinterest followers.

1. Be active and engage with Pinterest

Pinterest is one smart cookie. It comes down to making friends with the Smart Feed. Outsmart the smart feed, and you’ll have followers flocking to you.

Using a pin scheduler like Tailwind is crucial to gaining followers and skyrocketing your blog traffic with Pinterest.

But the winning combination involves being present and engaging physically on Pinterest, too. This can solidify your Pinterest ranking.

How can you be active and engage on Pinterest?

Manually pinning on a regular basis
Go to the ‘’Explore’’ and ‘’Trending’’ pages and re-pin from there
Pin other people’s pins manually
When you see a ‘’Board to Follow’’ in your feed, follow them if they’re relevant.

Below is how the “Boards to Follow” will look inside your feed:

Another effective tactic to engage with Pinterest is checking out your Pin Activity and re-pinning what others have pinned of yours.

Click on the red notification button:

Find where it shows “X of your pins were saved”. Click on those.

When you click on one of those, it’ll take you to your Pin Activity:

Scroll through your Pin Activity, and look in each board for your pins. Re-pin your pins.

These strategies will show Pinterest you’re physically on their platform. And they’ll reward you by showing your pins more often.

That’s when the magic happens, and the followers begin to accumulate.

2. Follow your competitor’s followers

If you’re sitting around waiting for followers to flock to you, you’ll be waiting a long time.

A powerful tactic to generate followers is strategically following your competitor’s followers.

Since you both have the same target audiences, chances are, if they followed your competitor – they’ll follow you, too.

A quick way to find competitors:

Search for terms that may be on your competitors profiles in the search bar. For example, if your content is about blogging, you might search for ‘’blogging tips’’.
You’ll see four different options – click on ‘’People’’.

Anyone who has ‘’blog’’, ‘’blogging’’, or a related term in their profile will show up under ‘’People’’:

Begin looking through your competitor’s profiles, one by one. From there you can start following their followers, and you’ll begin to see many of them will happily follow you back. Easy-peasy!

3. Utilize the search bar

It’s no secret that keywords are invaluable on Pinterest. Keywords help searchers find what they’re looking for.

But most importantly: they make it easier for followers to find you. Never underestimate the power of Pinterest SEO.

2 billion searches are made every month on Pinterest. And 87% of pinners bought something because of Pinterest.

Now, don’t you want a piece of that pie?

The best way to find relevant keywords that you’ll use in your board titles, board descriptions, pin descriptions, and on your profile – is to use the search bar.

Let’s say your blog is about making money at home. To find relevant keywords you could type ‘’make money’’ into the search bar to start:

You’ll be given loads of suggestions. I suggest getting as specific as possible – by taking a general keyword and turning it into a long-tail keyword.

For example, the general keyword you began with: make money.

See the suggestions below? You can create excellent long-tail keywords, such as ‘’make money at home’’, or “make money blogging”.

4. Start using Pinterest sections

Pinterest introduced a new feature called ‘sections’’, which is basically categorized boards within a board.

Sections allow you to organize your pins in a way that appeals to your target audience.

It’ll ensure your audience finds exactly what they’re looking for, without having to rummage through hundreds of pins.

Just go to the board you want to arrange into sections, and click ‘’Add Sections’’:

Create as many sections as you want. Put the most relevant categories for your target audience at the top.

5. Take advantage of promoted pins

If you’re already using Pinterest for marketing purposes, you probably already have a business account. It’s the first piece of advice Pinterest pros give, for good reason.

One of the perks of having a business account is being able to promote your pins.

Promoting pins is when you pay to run ads on Pinterest, to get greater exposure and visibility on your pins. Similar to running Facebook Ads.

Ready to start spreading your content far and wide?

Go to your Pinterest feed and click on the button that says Ads:

From there, you can create your first promoted pin, and watch your number of followers start to accelerate.

6. Jump on the hashtag bandwagon

Pinterest recently changed its tune on hashtags, and hashtags are now popping up on feeds everywhere. They’re a way to see what pins are the newest and most relevant – now that we can’t see re-pin counts.

If you want to be found by followers who fall into your target audience, now’s the time to dive onto the hashtag bandwagon.

You can use relevant hashtags in your pin descriptions like these pinners have:

To use hashtags type ‘#’ and then the keyword you want to use. You’ll notice it’ll provide popular suggestions. Those will be the types of hashtags people will be plugging into the search bar – so select them strategically.

7. Use an older account

Pinterest’s Smart Feed looks at a whole slew of components to determine if a user is a “worthy pinner.”

In the eyes of Pinterest, the longer you’ve had your account – the more trustworthy you are. If you’re considered an established pinner, your pins will appear in the feeds more.

What can you do if you don’t have a business account?

Use any old Pinterest account you have and convert it into a business account. This’ll show Pinterest you’re an authoritative pinner right off the bat.
Create a new business account. If you don’t have an aged account, you’ll just have to work exceedingly hard to build your followers. Using the strategies you’re learning today. Make no mistake – it’s no easy feat, but it’s entirely possible!

8. Start your own group board

Group boards are all the rage and can be marketing power-houses – if used correctly. And they’re known for increasing website traffic like nobody’s business.

But are you aware of their potential to amplify your followers?

To start a group board, you can do it one of two ways:

Start a new board
Use a board you already own

Once you have a board created, click on the plus sign to start adding contributors:

The key to using your group board to gaining new followers?

State clearly in your board guidelines (in the description) that to join they must follow the board and you. This is standard among group board creators, and it’s one of the quickest ways to accumulate followers quickly.

9. Craft compelling infographics

There’s good reason for the infographic craze in content marketing. They’re captivating and we as humans are drawn to them.

Why they’re effective:

Infographics are 30X more likely to be read than text blog posts
They convey data in a visually-appealing way
Infographics stand out in Pinterest feeds
40% of people react better to visual information than plain old words

Here are two outstanding examples of infographics that would stand out and draw people in:

Incorporate viral infographics into your Pinterest strategy and you’ll notice the amount of followers you have begins to maximize – along with your click-through rate to your website.

10. Give Pinterest a nudge

We’ve established Pinterest is intelligent – but when it comes to identifying and categorizing your pins, it can use a tad of help.

It can recognize some features of your pins – like colors and size. But it needs assistance when it comes to categorizing them.

The solution?

When you pin your new blog posts onto Pinterest, pin it to a relevant board first.

Let’s say your pin’s about influencer marketing. Post it onto a board of yours that’s clearly related to influencer marketing. Of course, ensure it’s optimized with keywords in the pin description – to further help Pinterest identify your pin and what its context is.

This will help to categorize your pins so that when people use the search bar, you’re more likely to come up. Resulting in more followers.

11. Optimize your profile name

If you’re not utilizing the space in your profile name by optimizing it with keywords – you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to grow your Pinterest followers.

This pinner has several quality keywords in their profile name:

With an optimized profile name, like the pinner above, followers can easily find you through the search bar.

Do some research and decide on 1-3 quality keywords that you can incorporate into your profile name.

12. Use the right tools to attract followers

When tools for Pinterest are mentioned, your mind probably immediately goes to pin scheduling tools – like TailWind or BoardBooster. But, there’s actually more tools you should be aware of for your Pinterest strategy.

Think of it like building a house. The materials, people, and plans are all essential – but without the tools, you wouldn’t have a hope of completing the project. The same goes for your Pinterest strategy.

In order to gain Pinterest followers, there’s a variety of tools that’ll help build the foundation:

TailWind or BoardBooster to schedule your pins and save you major time. While manually pinning is critical – it’s equally as vital to pin at various times during the day to group boards and to your own boards. That’s where a pin scheduler comes in.
Designing software like Canva, PicMonkey, or Photoshop to create stunning pin graphics.
Social sharing plugins to make it simple for your audience to share your posts on Pinterest. The social sharing plugin Social Warfare is especially perfect for Pinterest users. It allows you to upload Pinterest-specific images and even descriptions (among other features).

In order to be successful on Pinterest, and in your business in general – investing is a non-negotiable.

If you’re not going to invest in yourself and your business, why should anyone else?

13. Delete poor-performing pins

Isn’t the point to get as many eyes on your pins as possible on Pinterest?

Typically, yes, it is. But if the pins aren’t performing well, or what you’re posting isn’t quality content – it’s not doing you any favors. In fact, you may be penalized by Pinterest.

Why would you delete pins?

If you have duplicates of the same pin, but some have extremely low re-pins
You have pins from years ago that aren’t cohesive with your brand
They’re not performing well

So how do you find out what pins need to be chucked?

Go deep into your Pinterest analytics
Use TailWind’s Pin Inspector feature to see which pins are performing well and which ones need to be deleted
Are you a BoardBooster user? You can give the Pin Doctor feature a go. It’ll tell you exactly what pins need to go, too

Be ruthless when deleting your pins. They have the ability to skyrocket your followers, website traffic, and income.

But they also have the ability to make or break your Pinterest strategy. Poor-performing pins can bring down your Pinterest ranking significantly.

And if you’re not ranking well on Pinterest, targeted followers aren’t going to find you.

14. Pin only for your target audience

I think it goes without saying that honing in on a specific target audience is essential on your blog, right?

Well, the same goes for Pinterest.

Something that’s easily forgotten is your Pinterest profile needs to be relevant, helpful, and 100% for your audience.

You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t find other content on Pinterest appealing and want to pin it, though.

And you can – on secret boards. Secret boards work the same as regular boards. The only difference is you’ll be the only one to see them.

We go to search engines for a reason, right?

So give your audience what they want. Create outstanding content that directly resolves their pain points or offers valuable information. Then carry that over to Pinterest with your profile, boards, and especially your pins.

15. Conquer awe-inspiring branding

Devoting the time for eye-catching branding is essential on Pinterest. It is a visual search engine, after all. Not to be clumped together with social media platforms.

What should you focus on?

A professional profile photo
Captivating Pinterest graphics
Cohesive board covers

When selecting a profile picture, choose something professional that lets your personality shine through, and conveys your brand well.

It’ll take time to find your feet when creating the perfect pin.

But there are ways to make your pins stand out from day one:

Use tall images. Using Canva or PicMonkey you’ll have access to Pinterest templates
Create multiple pins for each blog post for maximum exposure
Use more white space in your images
Stick to 1-3 fonts that mesh well together
Don’t use human faces. This study says pins without faces receive 23% more repins
Call to Action (if you have a freebie for that post)
Always brand it with your logo or website URL

16. Revive older pins

Sometimes we get carried away creating new content, that we forget about our older content. Even if it’s evergreen content that’s brought us many social shares, blog traffic, and even income.

It’s vital to keep your most popular content alive on Pinterest.

The lifespan of pins is more than a week – which makes Facebook pale in comparison, which has a lifespan of only 80 minutes.

This is why sometimes you’ll see a pin only start to gain traction on Pinterest months or even a year later.

How can you revive your older popular pins?

Re-pin those pins constantly to group boards and your own boards
Create multiple pins for those popular posts

You never know when a pin will go viral – that’s the beauty of Pinterest. So keep putting your best content in front of their eyes, as often as possible.

17. A/B test your pins

Similar to crafting multiple pins for your posts – A/B testing is a surefire way to see what resonates most with your audience.

And you won’t get your pins in front of loads of eyes if your followers aren’t re-pinning them. Testing your pins out is a great strategy so you can find what works best for your audience.

How to A/B test your pins:

Create 2-4 different pins for a post
Use different variations of headlines in each pin – try utilizing various power words
Get creative! Try out different colors, fonts, and images.
Give them at least a week to see how they perform
Use Pinterest analytics to see how they’re performing

Wrapping it up

Pinterest may seem like a daunting task to grasp in the beginning. But like anything – it gets much easier with time.

Recently there have been loads of changes happening around Pinterest. Which makes it crucial to keep up with the latest strategies.

Once you implement some, or all, of these tips – you’ll be swimming in followers.

And as we’ve established, growing your Pinterest following will open many doors. You’ll develop massive credibility and authority in your niche, a surge of blog traffic, more email subscribers, and your business will turn into a money-making machine.

What more could you want?

Related reading:

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