Getting more Pinterest pinners pin your post takes more than just posting cute photos. The key is to find what your Pinterest users like, and is, therefore, valuable. Then start sharing that relevant content.
However.
First, know your Pinterest audience. What is it they like?
Unlike Facebook, where a friend could push a post in their timeline by asking other friends to look at it, Pinterest is entirely different.
No one’s telling the pinners what’s on their mind and expecting them to respond.
The pinners are on their own. They pin posts because it appeals to them. They just pin away!
Figuring out who the pinners are and their preferences seems daunting, but the process is simpler than it seems.
You don’t need a premium social media management tool to figure that out nor would you need to pay for an over-priced masterclass to learn what pinnable pins to create for your Pinterest content strategy.
In this blog, I’ll show you where to find the information.
Then, I’ll give you some examples on how I’d use it. Although the examples may not be your own niche (because it is impossible to cover everyone!). My hope is that the examples will help you uncover ideas on how you could use your [own] data.
Why should you bother knowing your Pinterest audience?
- Better outcome. With informed decision, you can predict the outcome of what you are pinning because you are no longer guessing what works.
- Better budget. Keeps you from wasting your money and resources on social media tactics and social media ads that may be off-target.
- Better planning. When you know your audience, planning your content strategy and allocating your limited funds and resources become more efficient and effective.
- Better messaging. A well-defined audience makes crafting content that is valuable to your Pinterest audience easier to create. If you know them, you understand their needs. They can identify with your post because you speak their pain; you are “one of them.”
- Better leads. Connecting with your target audience narrows the pipeline, leading you to a specific group of people who will benefit most from your posts, and ultimately your product.
How to find your Pinterest follower’s demographic information?
Nowadays, social media platforms have made this information available to everyone. Ten years ago, we don’t have this information. It is hidden behind the platforms’ walls. Now, it’s available for all of its users to harness.
So to find that information…
1. Locate “Analytics”on the left of Pinterest, and click it. Then, you will see “Overview” and “Audience Insights” as options.
2. Select, “Audience insights.”
In this case, go over “Audience 1” under Social Success Marketing, not “All Pinterest users” because you are trying to find out who your audience is. Also, that will give you an idea whether, or not, you are attracting the RIGHT audience on Pinterest, especially, if you have been there for awhile and have not done this.
3. Then, under Audience 1, click the drop down arrow next to “Your Total Audience,” then select the “Engaged Audience” option.
Note: Engaged audience pins posts. Since we are gauging what contents get pinned more, that would be the best metric to use.
What demographic information is available to you on Pinterest?
Pinterest provides business accounts information on:
- Age range
- Gender
- Top metros
- Device they use
- Top countries
Note: Your business is as unique as other businesses out there; hence, what you see here may not be the same as what you will see in your Insights. This is from one account that my team is managing.
3 Tips on how to use Pinterest audience insights to create pinnable content
- Tip 1: Looking at the above data, if this small business client whose desired audience is the seniors, it is plain to see that they are not as engaged, in fact engagement for that age range is tapering off. Hence if this were a small company that is characterized with very limited resources, the best course of action for this company is to stop wasting money, time and energy on Pinterest, and use it elsewhere.
- Tip 2: Another demographic information you have to check is the information regarding country.
And why is information regarding country that important? For example, if you are a U.S. realtor and your top audience happens to be located in the Philippines or Pakistan, then your social media community manager is doing it totally wrong.
- Tip 3: Further on tip 2, the same concept goes for metro or cities if you are a business selling to a particular area. If that area is not showing here in the report then, you would need to tweak what you are posting. Perhaps, post topics that are interesting to pinners of that metro or city to attract more of them.
There are other ways to use demographic information, but I hope that’ll help you start thinking.
Understand what motivates your Pinterest audience to pin your post
Unlike on Facebook and Twitter, where users have to actually think of new content to post, Pinterest is not about what is happening right now. Users are not prompted to think about “what are you doing?” In fact, they are not prompted to think at all, they are prompted to feel.
…each user is motivated to find things that interest them… In the process of collecting items of interest, users share their tastes and preferences in a much richer way than competitors such as the Facebook “Like” button can hold a thumb to. This is because users never have to think to “Like” anything, once again reducing their cognitive load through simplification.
By Nir Eyal, Psychology Today
Interest is what motivates a pinner to pin.
Remember, whatever topic sparks their interest is a valuable content to them.
And that is the topic that is most likely going to be repinned more often by them.
What topics do Pinterest pinners prefer
There are at least two ways to find out the contents that are relevant and interesting to your Pinterest audience; which, therefore, you should create to get more pinners. These are:
- Top pins: these are your audience’s most saved pins; and,
- Categories and interests: these are topics they will most likely pin according to Pinterest’s algorithm gnomes.
Where do I find the Top Pins on Pinterest
- Go to Pinterest “Analytics.”
- Then select “Overview.”
- Then, find the “Top Pins.” The default metric is “Impressions.” In this case, since we are trying to understand the posts that your audience pins often, use “Saves” as the key metric for this.
How to use Top pins to get more pinners
The “Top Pins” information is a gold mine. It is your low-hanging fruit. It tells you content that was repinned over and over.
Most importantly, you know that it already (!) works. So what to do with it?
- Tip 1: The quickest option is that if what you’re seeing are old pins coming from your content, give it a fresh look. Change the images. Also, change the description. And repin it. That’s a quick way to do it. You can find more information about the importance of visual content here.
- Tip 2: Check the “Other Pins” use it as an inspiration. Is it outdated? If so, create a better and updated version of it. Do not plagiarize it. Do not spin it. Create your own.
- Tip 3: Check “Your Pin.” Do instructions no longer work? Then, it may be time to edit it with current information.
- Tip 4: Repin your most saved pins. Also, don’t forget to add hashtags to reach new pinners.
- Tip 5: Check,too, if you have Pinterest-sized images. Meaning, image with these dimensions: 600 pixels X 900 pixels.
I know it’s a hassle that each platform has its own “perfect” image dimensions, right?
However, it really looks nice if we stick to their dimension.In regard to Pinterest, here is why if you want more repins.
On the web in general, tall images are easier to read than wide ones because it’s much easier to scroll vertically than horizontally. The same concept applies on Pinterest: Taller images — those containing more “content” — tend to get more repins than shorter images.
Dan Zarella, Hubspot
Finding what interests your audience
How to find the categories and interests of your pinners
This would seem familiar because you’ve skipped this when you checked the demographics, but here it is, anyway.
- Click, “Analytics.”
- Select, “Audience Insights.”
- The default is “Your total audience.” Click the drop-down button and select, “Your engaged audience.”
Creating pinnable content using categories and interests
- Tip 1: In categories and interests, we trust!
Zoom in to what interests your audience, then create contents about it. Looking at the image above, this particular Pinterest business account’s audience key interest is home decor. Then when I clicked home decor, Pinterest shows a granular information of what it is that they are interested in.
So instead of grappling for ideas on what content to create and share, use that information. That simple. - Tip 2: Personalize content.
Again, using the audience of this client, they have a lot of millenials as followers. The data also gives us a bit of an idea about the tastes and preferences of the millenials. They like their living space to look nice; hence, they like to decorate it. Now, since compared to their parents they do not have a lot of money, they like money-saving ideas. Hence, to this client, if they want more millenials pinning their pins, I’d recommend that they create pins on DIY home decors that are easy to create.
- Tip 3: Increase visibility.
Combine the terms that you find in the categories and interests in your pins’ descriptions, as long as it is relevant, in context, and makes sense. When you use appropriate words in your pins’ descriptions, your posts could become part of not just one but many interest groups.
That means, it will be seen by more Pinterest users. And the more eyeballs that see it, the more potential pinners.
It’s a Wrap
Use the information you already have. And like what I always advise my folowers, don’t forget to measure it.
How do you create pinnable posts to get more pinners? Chime on in! If you need help to figure out how your social media content strategy for Pinterest to make your pins work, let me know!
