Going viral on Pinterest
Pinterest has been “all the rage” for a while now, and some sites are saying 75% or more of their traffic comes from Pinterest! While I don’t recommend relying on Pinterest for the long-term, there are a few simple steps you can take to get your post(s) to go viral on Pinterest.
What does going viral mean?
“Going viral” means different things to different people. If you usually only get 10 visits a day, having a post get 100 views on Pinterest can be considered viral. If you already get hundreds of views a day, thousands of views will be viral. If you’re like Six Sisters’ Stuff and get 6 million++ visitors a month, you’d have to get CRAZY views for a post to be viral. A good tip is to have multiple posts going on Pinterest at once – so just in case one doesn’t do as well, you can get views with the others.
1. Have a good idea.
There are so many ideas on Pinterest! It’s like information overload 24/7. To stand out, you have to have a great idea. It doesn’t necessarily have to be 100% unique, but don’t rip someone else’s idea off and claim it as your own. Pinners don’t like that.
For me, the posts that do best on Pinterest are crafty posts, or recipe posts. Any post that solves a problem will do well, but for your post to go crazy, you want it to look yummy or creative – or both. Weight loss posts also do well, but not quite as well as the recipes and crafts, in my experience.
Holiday posts also do well. It’s August, and my post that did well this weekend was about Halloween.
2. Take great photos and make them easy to pin.
The only way I pin something is if it has a good photo. I’m not terribly picky, really, but most pinners are! If your photos aren’t amazing, you need to work on them. You don’t necessarily have to have a ridiculously expensive camera, you just have to have good lighting and angles. Check out digital-photography-school.com for tips.
On my other site, I have this plug-in called “Pinterest Pin It Button For Images”. In your WordPress dashboard, go to “Plugins” (under “Appearance”), and “Add New”. Then search for it by name, install it, and activate it. This makes it super simple and easy to pin your photos! And the best part is, your TITLE will go in the caption part of the pin on Pinterest, so nothing even needs to be changed. Use #hashtags in your post titles to get your post seen even MORE on Pinterest.
3. Build your following, return the favor.
There are many ways to build a following on Pinterest, but the easiest way is to follow other pinners and to “like” and comment on their pins. Don’t spam or ask for follows back! If your Pinterest following isn’t growing, consider teaming up with other bloggers and trading follows – or join a Pinterest group on Facebook. When someone follows you, return the favor! Also, when you pin something of yours, consider putting a link back to your blog or a @YOURNAME so they can follow you on Twitter.
If you leave your Pinterest link in the comments after following me, I will follow back!
Related posts:
I’m following you :)
My pinterest: http://pinterest.com/rachelcotterill
Rachel Cotterill recently posted..Bakkerij Bart, Gouda
Plug in is added and activated on all 3 sites now and we follow each other already!
Heather Bryant recently posted..The Next Big Thing in the Blogosphere: The Parking Valet
Great article–very helpful! Thanks! (Following you!)
Ann Williams recently posted..Teaching Young Kids about Money
Hi Sadie, the best posts I pin seem to be other websites that I run across and think the image would work well on Pinterest. Then the likes and repins start coming in and I’m like, “Why doesn’t that ever happen with my posts.” lol
That’s great advice about the #hashtags in post titles. I’m using Andy Bailey’s plugin so I’ll have to look into that.
Brian D. Hawkins recently posted..Rapid Fire Q&A Session