Now that you know that Pinterest is here to stay, you are probably looking for ways to increase your Pinterest following. Pinterest is similar to Facebook in that the more followers you have, the more likely people are to see your pins and pass them along to others. In my experience, using Pinterest to get my new posts “out there” is second only to sending out a weekly email newsletter. In fact, often they go hand in hand.
Every time I log in to Pinterest the first thing I do is see how many people are following my boards. Just by daily pinning my new posts, as well as the posts of others, I have seen my following slowly increase.
In the past couple of months, however, I have added several specific techniques that have tripled and even quadrupled the rate at which I am adding new Pinterest followers daily.
Maximize the Use of Pinterest Tools
Pinterest has several tools you can use to make it easy for visitors on your web site to follow your Pinterest boards. When I first signed up for Pinterest, I put one of these buttons on my site and saw a slow, steady daily increase in the number of my Pinterest followers.
One day I realized that not everyone wants to follow all of my Pinterest boards. Especially when you become a “power pinner” and have a hundred boards or more and thousands of pins. Because Pinterest allows a person to select individual boards to follow, there is no reason for a person to follow all of another person’s boards. I decided to make this even easier for my visitors by taking it one step further.
On popular pages of my web site I created a link to my Pinterest board that corresponded to the content of that page. On a recipe page, there is a link to my “Favorite Recipes” board on Pinterest. After I implemented this technique, I noticed even more people signing up for certain boards. I can’t emphasize this enough, make it easy for people and they will respond.
Take Full Advantage of Your Email Newsletter
I send out a weekly email newsletter in HTML format. I also saw my Pinterest following start to increase when I placed the Pinterest button in my newsletter every week. I took this a step further and started placing the “pin” button directly in my newsletter for new articles posted on my site that week. Every article contains a short description, a photo, and the button to pin the article on the reader’s Pinterest board. This encourages current Pinterest users to pin my content while also encouraging potential Pinterest users to check Pinterest out.
After I started using Pinterest in my newsletter is when I really saw my following start to climb. In less than three short months I had more than 1,000 followers, and the numbers continue to increase daily.
You might ask why you would want to have people who already read your newsletter also follow you on Pinterest. Your newsletter readers like your content or they wouldn’t read your newsletter. They are much more likely than others to share your content with their followers on Pinterest, sharing the content of your newsletter with potential thousands more people, every time you send out your newsletter.
Follow Others and They Will Follow You
Last but not least, an easy way to gain more Pinterest followers is to follow other people on Pinterest. Many people will follow you just because you follow them. Find people with similar interests and content, and when they re-pin one of your pins, your pins will more likely be seen by others with the same interests.
I admit it, I am guilty. When I am browsing web sites these days, I will leave the site if it is not easy to post their articles on Pinterest. Make it easy for your visitors to pin your content, and encourage them to sign up and follow you on Pinterest. Let it work for you and make it easy for people to find you. More followers = more traffic to your web site.
There are actually still people out there who have never heard of Pinterest or have heard of it and don’t know how to use it. They may not respond to your Pinterest buttons immediately, but if they see them on your web site and in your newsletters over and over again, eventually they will respond and you will have yet another Pinterest follower. If you learn to use Pinterest to your advantage, it will become a great way to bring traffic to your web site.
Editor’s Note: Jason Bayless is a professional blogger that gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice. He writes for BestSEOCompanies.com, a nationally recognized comparison website of the best SEO companies in the United States.
