Inspired Bloggers University

Did you know that July is considered the most unlucky month to get married? I have no idea who decided that, but I do know that it is ALWAYS a good idea to pin bridal ideas. Weddings are HOT on Pinterest all year long.

Now, if you are an automobile company, I do not recommend pinning wedding dresses. No. Keep it authentic to your audience. But, you could create a board for getaway cars!

If you are looking for other things to pin in the month of July to attract followers to your account, check out what I will be looking for…

The newest feature to be unveiled yesterday on Pinterest gives you the ability to customize your search. Now, you can select to search everything or just your own pins. Pinterest suggests using this to find if you have already pinned something.  But what exactly does this mean for companies who are using Pinterest to expand their reach and market their products?

 

An unreliable search engine

The search function on Pinterest has always been somewhat unpredictable. In the beginning, your search would bring up the most popular pins. Then, the search function changed and would reveal the most recent pins on your topic. Most recently, the change in the way a hashtag search functions seems to reveal an even deeper struggle by Pinterest to master the ability to provide an effective way to search billions of pins.

The newest search function seems to have even more complicated results. A search for the term “homeschool” brought up pins with various dates and interactions…

At first glance, I thought that the search results were based on recent interactions, but then how would I explain the search result that had no repins, likes, or comments? This also means that the results are not based on popularity.

I know for a fact that the search results are not based on recent pins since I am a member of a large community of homeschool bloggers who pin regularly and none of their pins showed in the top ten.

Only one thing is clear… keywords are a necessity if you have any hope of showing up in someone’s search results. For brands and bloggers, as you pin your own content, make sure that the pin description contains the words that will help pinners find you.

How does the Pinterest search work?

I would LOVE to know what you have discovered about the Pinterest search. How do you think the algorithm picks search results?

 

What is popular to pin this month? What are people looking for when they visit Pinterest?

Answer these questions and gain followers.

This is what I am pinning in June:

At a recent speaking engagement, the question was posed about using hashtags on Pinterest. Do they work with the new format?

The answer is “yes” and “no.”

If you are asking if hashtags work as well as they do on Twitter, the answer is “no.” When you search Twitter with hashtags, the search results come back with the most recent tweets pertaining to that hashtag. Using hashtags on Pinterest has never worked this way.

On the old format, you could use hashtags to search but the results would include the pins with the most interactions first.

Now, the new format has changed your ability to use hashtags even more.

How hashtags work on the new Pinterest format

If you place a hashtag in the search bar on Pinterest, your results will be the pins with the highest level of engagement with that word in the pin description whether or not it contains the corresponding hashtag.

For instance, consider this image where I search for #homeschool:

Now, if you are browsing Pinterest and you spot a hashtag, you can still use it as a way to quickly search for pins on that topic. Just click the hashtag and it will automatically search Pinterest for you.

So, in the traditional sense, hashtags do not work but in a technical way, they do. Just depends on what you want them to do.

 

If you have been looking for an easy way to know what is being pinned from your website, I recommend PinAlerts.

Signing up for PinAlerts

Visit PinAlerts to create your account. It takes seconds. Just enter all of the URLs for the websites you want tracked and the frequency of the reports.

Then, sit back and wait for your notifications.

For my websites, I receive updates once a week. I receive one email that shows the entire list of websites and the number of pins each has received.

I also receive a report for the exact pins from each website.

How to use reports PinAlerts

If you are in the beginning stages of growing your Pinterest account, you can click the pin URL and leave a personal message on the pin to thank the Pinterest user for spreading the word about your blog or product. By commenting, you are encouraging that person to return and pin again. Your Pinterest account is also linked to your comment, encouraging those who see your comment to come take a closer look at your account.

For larger Pinterest accounts, it is probably too difficult to comment on every pin but you can see the most popular topics from your website and create related content. You can also monetize those pages and list related links within those posts to capture the traffic you are receiving from Pinterest.

Do you use PinAlerts? How do you make that work for you?

Gain more followers by pinning slightly ahead of the season. Take a look at your calendar and consider what your target audience is browsing Pinterest with hopes to discover.

For my ideal customer, I am pinning the following:

In my book, Pinteresting: Pinterest Strategies for Brands and Bloggers (affiliate link), I describe how I created an email campaign to grow the subscribers of my website at MeetPenny.com.

Essentially, I created a graphic, pinned it, and linked it to my feed so that when someone clicked, they would be taken straight to the RSS where they could preview a few posts and subscribe. Imagine my surprise when that image was repinned 139 times and continues to be repinned today.

Pinteresting Email Subscription Campaign

1. Create a branded image to represent your email campaign.

• A long, vertical image works best.
• Describe the most appealing features of your website or email service.
• Include your logo on the image.

2. Upload your image to your Pinterest account and add an enticing comment about your product or services.

3. Click to edit the pin and add the URL for your splash page (featuring your email opt-in) or directly to your feed where they can subscribe.

4. Pin or repin the image to any boards that relate to your website.

This type of campaign works best when you have a significant number of followers or have a network of friends who are willing to help by following these steps with you.

Best wishes for a successful Pinterest campaign!