Social Media Marketing: Creating Great Pins

Some key tips on making Pins that stand out on Pinterest (and other social media).

Many of you might have received this email from Pinterest today, but if you didn't, here's the essence of their message:

We studied thousands of Pins to figure out which ones people engage with most. Here are our top 3 tips for making your Pins stand out:

1. Bring your best ideas: Great Pins are inspirational and actionable. Create Pins that help Pinners do things in real life.

And this Pinterest advice: Content relevancy matters more than anything else on Pinterest. Focus your energy on creating great content that’s tailored to your audience’s interests and needs. … When you create new Pins, start from your audience’s perspective. Why do they use Pinterest? What kinds of ideas are they looking for? How can you help them make decisions?

Note from John: Pinterest users are action takers so they look for help to do things in real life! Help them do what they love to do!

2. Use a 2:3 aspect ratio—Vertical Pins look best in Pinterest’s column layout. We recommend a minimum size of 600 x 900px.

Note from John: I like the 720 x 1776px size for tip-o-graphic Pins. It’s much longer than the typical pin but it allows me to share more tips. And tips are what active Pinterest users want to see, share, and act upon.

3. Write helpful descriptions so people know what your Pin is about, and feel free to include #hashtags.

Note from John: Use descriptions and #hashtags that are accurate to your Pin. Don't deceive people.

Bonus tip #1 from Pinterest: Pin regularly. Most importantly, save Pins weekly to keep your audience engaged.

Add new Pins over time rather than uploading a bunch at once. This helps you reach a wider audience. You can schedule Pins up to two weeks in advance with our scheduling tools.

Note from John: Yup, you don't have to Pin a dozen pins a day. 3 to 5 good ones a week will drive as much traffic as dozens of bad or mediocre Pins.

Bonus tip #2 from Pinterest: Get ahead of seasonal trends.

When it comes to holidays or seasonal events, people use Pinterest to plan long before they turn to other platforms. Remember to factor this timing into your Pinterest content strategy.

We recommend that you start saving seasonal content about 30-45 days in advance. Activity will keep picking up as you get closer to the big day.

Note from John: Active Pinterest users love seasonal content, not just Christmas or Thanksgiving, but also Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the 4th of July, and the local and religious holidays of people around the world.

Bonus tip #3 from Pinterest: Pick a landing page that says more about your pin.

When someone clicks on your Pin, they want to learn more about it. You can link Pins to your site, blog or any other website. Make sure to pick a landing page that feels like a natural progression from the Pin, to your site.

For example, Pins that feature a product should link to a page where people can buy that product. If your Pin features a do-it-yourself project, it should link to the article on your site with full instructions.

Note from John: Since 80% of Pinterest use is via a smartphone, be sure any landing pages you create (sales pages, blog posts, podcast pages, etc.) are mobile-ready. And be sure the pages that you send Pinterest users to provide value for those users (based on the Pinned images you shared).