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How to Start, Grow, and Maintain an Active Tailwind Community

Denise McKenzie on May 14, 2018

Tailwind Community stats on purple background

Tailwind Communities are made up of like-minded content creators who support each other and curate engaging Pinterest accounts by sharing each others content to Pinterest – right from inside Tailwind.

Community Leads and Members alike love the way that Communities save them so much time on their Pinterest marketing. And anyone can start a Community!

There are thousands of active Tailwind Communities today, with between two and 2,800 (!!?!) members in each. They range in topic from Animals and Pets, to Books, Movies, Personal Finance, Teaching, Fashion, Organic Gardening, and so many more (find your Community here!).

While Tailwind Communities have become an integral part of many Pinner’s marketing efforts, Community Leads sometimes ask – how can I keep my Community and all the Community Members in it, active and thriving over time?

As successful Community Leads will tell you, it starts with the way you set up your Communities.

Set Your Tailwind Community Up for Success

The way you create and present your Community has a lot to do with the Community Members you’ll attract, so in all aspects of Community setup, think carefully about how to make choices that will draw in your ideal Community Members.

Choose the Right Name and Topic for Your Community

Will you go broad or niche? While a broad topic can appeal to a large number of potential Community Members, a narrow topic increases the likelihood that your Community will be full of content that’s relevant for all – making for a happier Community Members and a more active Community.

Nienke of The Travel Tester, is the owner of the Dream.Pin.Go. Community where she and her nearly 200 Community Members have generated over 80 thousand shares to Pinterest. She suggests,

Once you’ve determined the vision and focus for your Community, make sure your Community name and “About” section reflect it. The “About” section is also the place to set expectations for those who are not familiar with the collaborative nature of Communities.

If you’re open to new members joining automatically or by request, you’ll also want to use relevant keywords in your name and description to help people in your niche discover your Community. Choosing a relevant category and tags will also help the right people find you (you’ll set up tags after you create the Community).  Learn More

Setting Community Rules

Your Community is your Kingdom, so you make the rules!  What kind of guidelines will make your Community a fantastic resource for you and your Community Members?

Rules can cover everything from the subject of Pins allowed, whether or not product photos are allowed, the size of images allowed, the volume of submissions allowed, etc.. Learn More

Heather owns the join-by-request Community ‘Teacherpreneur preK-6 Evergreen,’ which stays active and relevant with over 200 Community Members. Her Community Members’ content has amassed 67 thousand shares and over 218 thousand Repins on Pinterest. She explains one of the secrets to her success,

“Yes, my rules are a bit tough - but I get a thank you at least once a week from tribe members … most are appreciative that they can find high quality content through the tribe without always having to click through to make sure the content is l egit and not in direct competition with them.”

Fill Up Your Community with Great Content

The first 20 Pins added to a new Community don’t count toward your limit for the month, so go ahead and fill it up! If you already have some invitees in mind, add in some of their content, so when they view your invite and preview your Community, they’ll see that some of their content is their already – and they’ll feel very welcome, indeed!

Grow Your New Community

startup tailwind tribe screenshot - free submissions available

Leads of brand new Communities may feel at something of a disadvantage when it comes to attracting the best Community Members. After all, how appealing is it to join a Community of one? But, we’re giving our start up Communities a little boost by making the first 20 submissions to a brand new Community not count against a Community Members allotted submissions for the month.

These new “Starting Up” Communities are clearly marked to attract people who might otherwise overlook a brand new Community with only a few members. Of course, you don’t need to wait for people to come to you. In fact, it can be much faster and more effective to build your Community yourself!

Invite Trusted Collaborators

Do you have a mastermind group, some friends who create similar content to yours, or a Facebook group made up of people who are hap

py to share each other’s relevant content? Why not start your Community off this strong core of people whose content you already know and love and whom you are happy to support. You can post an invite to a group, in a direct message, in an email, or a blog post!

Alyssa Basinger owns the public Community, Bloggers & Creative Infopreneurs. Her nearly 1,000 Community Members have generated over 45 thousand shares to Pinterest. About finding great Community Members, she says,

Invite Newer Bloggers to Join

Bloggers who are just starting out or who are new to Pinterest may have more incentive to stay active in a quality Community than those with established followings.

While you can include well-known content creators in your Community, don’t leave out the newbies thinking that they have less to contribute. Pinterest loves the new, fresh content beginning content creators create, and newer content creators may be more inclined to generously share Community Member content, too.

Four Ways to Keep Your Community Active

Maintaining an active Community doesn’t have to be a full-time job. In fact, your Community will save you hours of time you’d otherwise spend searching for great content to Pin. And with your setup optimized, this part should be a piece of cake!

Here are four tasks you might want to include in your weekly Community maintenance:

Weekly Action Items for an Active Community:

  1. Lead by example
  2. Manage join requests – send welcome messages to new Community Members
  3. Preserve the quality of your Community – review the content and sharing habits of Community Members
  4. Encourage

1. Lead by Example

Set aside time once or twice a week to add your content and share out content from the Community. Set a calendar reminder if you’re afraid you’ll forget.

2. Manage Join Requests Thoughtfully

If your Community requires people to request to join (a good idea for screening potential Community Members), you’ll see notifications in your dashboard when people ask to join. Potential Community Members can add a personal message to the request or not, but you’ll always see which Community they want to join and you’ll be able click to view their Pinterest account and website (assuming they have them!).

The first thing I look at is their website. Do they have a blog? If so, would the topics of the posts fit well in my Community? Further, do the blog posts have great Pinnable images and do I think they’ll go over well in the Community? Look at the descriptions on Pins that lead to their website. Are they well written and appealing?

I’m very protective of my Communities, and have no problem ruthlessly rejecting requests when I think either they or the Community as a whole will not benefit,

If anything looks amiss, you won’t be doing them any favors if you accept their request – and you could be damaging your Community. Protect the quality of your Community by only accepting good Community Members.

Note: Sometimes people without a blog join a Community for the express purpose of sharing other people’s content. If they state that in their join request, I’m likely to let them in! Otherwise, if they have no blog and they don’t send a note, I don’t see much value for them or the other Community Members in my accepting their request.

When you do approve a new Community Member, make them feel wanted by sending a welcome chat! It can be particularly motivating and a great testimony to the collaborative nature of Communities if, when they visit for the first time, they see that you have already added some of their content to the Community.

3. Preserve the Quality of your Community

Your Community is a place where Community Members can find fresh, quality, relevant Pins to share with their audience. If ever it starts to feel like the quality of the content or the relevance of the Pins is slipping, that can quickly discourage your Community Members from continuing to participate.

So, keep an eye on what’s in the Community. Remove content that isn’t relevant or otherwise breaks the rules. And send offenders a chat to remind them of the purpose of the Community and the rules. Make sure to emphasize that you’re happy to have them and you just want to make sure this remains a valuable resource for all Community Members – including them!

Pamela Arsena owns the join-by-request Community ‘All Things Beautiful Home Decor & Art.’ Search for that Community by name in Find a Community if you’d like to join! She explains why she sometimes removes content from her Community.

Most of the time you’ll find that a Community Member shared an irrelevant piece of content by mistake and they appreciate the reminder of the purpose of the Community. If one Community Member continues to break the rules, you can always remove. Heather, quoted above, says, “I give people the boot if they don’t comply with the rules.”

Similarly with Community Members who visit the Community to drop their content in and never share anyone else’s content. If they’re not finding content worth sharing, they may be better off in a different Community – but send them a chat first to ask them if that’s the case. They may just need a reminder to share…

Appoint Administrators to Help

As your Community starts to grow, you might want to enlist some help with maintenance. Consider appointing a Community Admin or two! Community Admins can edit Community info, accept or reject requests to join the Community, remove content from the Community, and invite or kick out members (except you – they can’t kick you out!). Learn More.

Reach out to Encourage More Activity

What if, despite the outstanding quality of your Community, the relevant content that flows in daily, and the reshare and repin numbers that grow all the time, you find that some Community Members never quite get going. Or they might start out strong, and seem to lose steam? All is not lost.

Reactivate Lapsed Community Members

screenshot of tailwind tribes chat

If you see that Community Members have not started using the Community, or have slowed their activity, send them a message using Communities chat to tell them you miss sharing their content, to make sure they understand how best to use Communities, and why it’s so valuable. You could perhaps point to an example of their content that was particularly popular in the Community and let them know how many shares and saves it generated. Everyone likes to be missed!

It’s also possible, particularly if they never used your Community at all, that they do not understand how! You can send them to the Communities explainer video or give them some of your own favorite tips.

Reward Stellar Community Members

Most of us respond well to positive reinforcement – so use it for the good of your Community!

Is someone’s content doing really well in the Community? Send them a chat and let them know how happy you are to have them and how much you appreciate their amazing content.

Is someone a super sharer – scheduling out more than they add to the Community? Tell them thank you and give their content a few extra shares in return.

Finding it difficult to get Community Members to respond to Community chat? It’s very possible they’re not seeing your messages. We are working on enhancements to the chat feature which will (very soon!) make them much more prominent to all Community users. In the meantime, you might find their email addresses from their websites and send messages there.

In Conclusion

We value all the hard work Community Leads invest in keeping their Communities active and we know your Community Members do as well! With an intentional setup strategy, invite process, by sticking to a simple maintenance schedule, your Community can continue to serve for years to come.

New Ways to Get Discovered on Pinterest

Denise McKenzie on April 17, 2018

Image of light bulb with the text: New Ways to get Discovered on Pinterest with Sarah Hoople Shere Head of Product Marketing, PinterestPeople come to Pinterest actively looking for ideas to try and buy. And the best ideas come from content Creators like you – bloggers, entrepreneurs, publishers, artists, and more. To make it even easier for you to connect with your audience and get more eyes on your content, Pinterest is rolling out a new business profile that gives you more control over how your business is represented.

They’re also sharing with us specific recommendations to help us get more distribution for our Pins. Let’s start with a look at the new Profile for businesses.

Attract Engaged Followers with a New Pinterest Profile, New Insights

Screenshot of the new Pinterest Profile for Businesses

Your new profile has a dynamic cover image that lets you highlight the content you want your customers to see first. You can show your:

  • Latest Pins to all boards,
  • Most recent Pins to one special board,
  • Or highlight the most recent Pins from your site.

Whatever option you pick, the Pins in your cover image are always the latest and greatest. Here’s a quick look at the options available and how you can customize them:

Extend Your Reach Beyond Your Followers

At the very top of your profile, you’ll see a new helpful stat—monthly viewers. This tells you the total number of people who saw your Pins in the last 30 days, so you and the people who visit your profile can see how far your influence extends on Pinterest.

And remember, you can always promote your Pins so they’re seen by people who are actively looking for products and services like yours.

Most of the tabs on your profile are self explanatory and are available publicly for others to view. However, you do have the option to remove your Activity tab. The Activity tab shows all the Pins people saved from your site and linked accounts. Removing hides the Activity tab from other viewers, but you can still see it on your profile. The More menu, which for now shows Pins you’ve tried, is not visible to others.

More Ways for People to Find Your Content

Pinterest has also introduced a new dedicated space for people to discover more ideas from the people and brands they care about (like you!). The new Following tab lets your followers see your latest Pins, in the order you save them. Notice that you access the Following tab by clicking the little icon with the people on it to the right of your search box (not to be confused with the “Following” section in your profile which shows you who you follow!).

Your followers are your biggest fans on Pinterest, and they’re the first to see your ideas. They’re also the first to weigh in on which content they love most. The more they engage with one of your Pins, the more it gets shown in other places across Pinterest—like search results, feeds, and recommendations—for hundreds of millions of other Pinners to discover.  Learn how to make the most of the following tab with these ideas.

Screenshot of Pinterest

The new Pinterest Follower Tab

Pinning Habits for Content Discovery – When and How to Save Pins

Check Your Links

When you Save a Pin from Pinterest, always check the link first. When uploading Pins to Pinterest, make sure you add a link! No one likes to see their perfect idea on Pinterest only to click your Pin and get a broken link. With user experience in mind, Pinterest does not distribute Pins with broken links. Should a Pin with a broken link find its way into the feed, users are likely to flag it – which can hurt the performance of all your Pins.

Pinterest is working to naturally keep Pins with broken links out of the feed, so don’t worry about deleting older Pins, but do make sure when you save a Pin the link is good.

Double Your Chances of a Save

What’s this magic, you ask? No magic – just math! If you create one Pin for each blog post, people who see and appreciate that Pin will Pin it. If you create and save two Pins for that blog post … well, you see where we’re going with this! Multiple images can dramatically increase the distribution potential for your content.

According to Pinterest: It’s okay to have multiple Pins that lead to the same webpage. In fact, it can be beneficial to save a variety of images that might appeal to different types of Pinners. Click to Tweet

Just make sure you change up the description for each version of the Pin. Try focusing on one keyword phrase for one and a different one for the other. That way your one piece of content will show up in several different searches!

Pin Early and Often

Pinners are planners! So make your content available when they first start getting ready for a holiday, an event, or a season. That’s as early as 45 days in advance! Start Pinning then, and keep adding fresh content at a steady pace right up until the date passes. Consider starting your Promoted Pins even earlier to make sure you optimize your ads by the time planning is in full swing!

Be the First to Pin Your Content

Pinterest loves new content! So, get your content on Pinterest as soon as it’s published and your Pin will be prioritized.

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Save Pins to Relevant Boards

Relevance matters all across Pinterest, so save to the MOST relevant board first. That Pin will be prioritized in distribution. Feel free to save the Pin to other boards as well, but keep in mind that saving the Pin to irrelevant boards will hurt the reach of your Pins.

Get 5X More Saves

Adding the Pinterest Save button to your website makes it easier for readers to save your content to Pinterest – and increases saves up to 5X. It’s simple to add, too!

Pinterest will be rolling these updates out over the next couple months. If you need help getting set up, check out Pinterest’s best practices!

Want more ideas for getting your content found on Pinterest? Watch me and Sarah Hoople Shere, Head of Product Marketing, Pinterest in the replay of our LIVE Facebook broadcast, ‘Pinterest SEO, Best Practices, and Your Burning Questions Answered!’

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Image of light bulb with the text: New Ways to get Discovered on Pinterest with Sarah Hoople Shere Head of Product Marketing, Pinterest

Instagram Cleanup – Simple Updates to Make Your Marketing More Fun and Effective

Denise McKenzie on April 12, 2018

Image of spilled colorful nail polishes with the text: Instagram Cleanup - Make Your Marketing More EffectiveIt’s finally happening!

The birds are singing, the azaleas are out, and the gutters on the house aren’t the only things due for a good spring clean. It’s so easy to get into a rut with marketing, and Instagram, arguably the prettiest of social platforms, is no exception. Let’s tune up your Instagram account with some old favorites and brand new features to put the shine back on it!

If you prefer to watch a video on this topic, just scroll down! 

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Instagram Cleanup Tip #1: Update Your Profile

Is your Instagram profile photo up to date? Does it match across your other social networks? You put so much time into your beautiful posts, but your profile image may be the first one people see – so make it good! It should look professional but inviting, with plenty of contrast so that you don’t fade into the background. If you’re using your logo, make sure that’s up to date as well!

Does the one link in your bio link to a blog post from 2015? Update it ASAP and make sure it’s a bit.ly link so you can track visits from Instagram to your website.

Add Hashtags to your Instagram Bio!

Clickable hashtags can now be added to your profile. Just edit your profile and start typing! You might choose to include a hashtag if, for example, you want people to submit images of themselves using your product. That way, anyone viewing your profile can easily view all that valuable user-generated content with one click!

Instagram profile with hashtags and an @mentionIt doesn’t appear that profiles are searchable with hashtags from their bios – it looks like Instagram still looks for the phrase rather than an actual hashtag. So, don’t think of it as a way to get people TO your profile – rather as a way to get them from your profile to somewhere else within Instagram – and consider whether that is in your best interest or not.

Add Links to Other Instagram Profiles in your Instagram Bio!

Why might you do that? The ideas we came up with are all ways to spread the love or to get some extra social proof for yourself! For example:

  • If you have a personal account and a business account, you may want people looking at one to find another.
  • Or, if you want to give your employer some love, you could link to their account.
  • If you are an entrepreneur working with clients, you might want to link to some businesses you have worked with.
  • If you have recently been featured on another Instagram account or in a publication or event by another account, you could link there.

Just like adding hashtags, all you need to do is edit your profile, and start typing @(username) and the link will appear when you save your changes. What other uses can you think of for linking to another account from your profile?

Instagram Cleanup Tip #2: Get on Board with Instagram Stories and New Features

screenshot of Instagram Story with sticker tagInstagram has been hard at work on Stories, making them more prominent in our feeds. Take the hint and use them! You can add videos or still images. And now, if you’re on iOS, you can tag other users in stories with stickers! It looks pretty and it’s as easy as clicking on stickers after you make your story and choosing the @mention sticker! Just add the username you want to tag, hit “Done,” and move it where you want it. In my case, I wanted to cover up my light fixture.

Instagram Cleanup Tip #3: Take a Fresh Look at Your Posts and 9 Grid

With approximately 9,999,999 things to do in a day, it’s easy for an Instagram strategy to become haphazard. Guilty as charged! So, this is a good time for a check. Is your 9 grid a good reflection of your brand and what is important to you?

Your 9 grid, of course, is the first nine updates on your Instagram account – what people may notice first when they visit your profile. Since this has an impact on whether they decide to follow you or not, it deserves some attention. Use Tailwind’s 9-grid preview to see not only how your profile looks now, but also how upcoming scheduled posts will appear. Make adjustments where needed – and keep an eye on this.Sign Up for Tailwind for Instagram

Are you sharing all your hard work? Blog posts, podcast appearances, speaking engagements, awards won – they all have a place on your Instagram feed. Unlike your personal Facebook account, where a constant stream of “humble bragging” will get you unfollowed in a nanosecond, Instagram is all about the selfie! Feel free to indulge in a bit of “all about me” here – and make the most of every bit of content or appearance you make.

A note about sharing your blog posts. You might experiment with different image styles. You could try using a square version of the image you share to Pinterest and Facebook, or you could try one that is similar but with no text on the image – leaving the text for the description. You could also make a story image from your Pin – or make a Pin from your story image. They’re fairly similar in size, but if you’re including text on the image, start with story size (1080×1920) or your text might be cut off. This tip from Jeff Sieh of Manly Pinterest Tips.

Make the most out of what works by checking your Instagram analytics. With a business account, you have access to Insights. From your profile, click on the little bar graph icon at the top right of your screen. Scan your updates for top performers and see what they have in common. If you are using Tailwind for Instagram, use your Post Inspector to look for patterns in the post types and filters used for your top-performing posts.

Tailwind

Try Focus Mode for Photos

Have you been envious of the super-polished photos coming from your friends with Portrait mode on their iPhone 7 or 8? Well, now you can have the same effect with the blurred-out background – right from Instagram!

Focus mode is available as a camera option – just like video, boomerang or super zoom. Aside from being available for all phones, Focus also has the advantage of being able to utilize your front-facing camera. Trust me, using portrait mode for a selfie is no easy endeavor (but I did it just for you ). Here’s how they compare:

Instagram Focus Camera Mode compared with Iphone Portrait
Have a messy desk or background? Don’t let that stop you from sharing your day with the world!

I talked about all this and more with Jeff Sieh, Head Beard at Manly Pinterest Tips and the manager of Social Media Examiner’s Instagram account live on Facebook. We also took some requests for Instagram evaluations and discovered some really talented Instagrammers in the audience! Check it out:

Want more success from your Instagram marketing? Make sure you check out our Instagram Marketing webinar. It’s comprehensive, entertaining, and takes just an hour to complete.

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Image of spilled colorful nail polishes with the text: Instagram Cleanup - Make Your Marketing More Effective

The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Analytics and How to Use Them

Denise McKenzie on February 27, 2018

Group of colorful bar graph blocks with the text: The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Analytics and How to Use Them.

You probably already know how important it is to review your Pinterest analytics and to use what you learn to improve and adjust your Pinning strategy for the success of your Pinterest marketing. What you might be less sure of is how to interpret all the numbers and charts at your disposal both in Pinterest and Tailwind analytics.

It can be intimidating for sure, but stick with us – we’re about to take a look at some of the most important things to look at and identify impactful ways to incorporate what you learn into an even more successful Pinterest marketing strategy.

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Pinterest Analytics

To access Pinterest analytics, you’ll need a business account – which you need if you’re using your account to promote your business anyway! Here’s how to convert a personal account. You’ll also want to confirm your website so you can use analytics to see what people are saving to Pinterest from your site. Here’s how to confirm or claim your site.

Now that you’ve unlocked all the analytics Pinterest has to offer, let’s dive in!

Pinterest Analytics – Overview

The three charts at the top show a summary of your activity for the last seven days along with top Pin impressions for the last 30 days. They don’t give us enough information to spot trends – this is really your jumping-off point to get to the actionable analytics. So, let’s do that by clicking on “More” next to “Your Pinterest Profile”.

Your Pinterest Profile – How All Your Pins Perform

Choose a date range to see how your account has performed over time. Glance at the impression data, but then move on to what really counts by clicking on the “Clicks” tab. See which Pins people are clicking on. These will be Pins you’ve Pinned – and may lead to your site or to someone else’s.

What you’re looking for here are topics that generate clicks. So, in this list, I can see several Pins that don’t lead to my own content. After excluding the ones I wouldn’t write about (keto hot chocolate, for example), I see one I should write about – Pinterest SEO!

I should also look more closely at that Pin image to see if something about it may have been particularly appealing – the image style, the layout, the description – and use that to create more images like that for my own content!

Most-clicked Pins on Pinterest screenshot of analytics

Underneath your most-clicked Pins will be your boards with the most clicked Pins. Make sure your Pins of your own content get to these boards which are generating clicks! Use this in connection with Tailwind’s Board Insights (discussed below) and create board lists in order to prioritize activity on your boards.

People You Reach – Insights Into People Who See Your Pins

Moving on to “People You Reach,” from the Analytics menu, you can see a snapshot of your 30-day average for Pin impressions and engagement. Switch to “All audiences” in the middle drop-down menu (see image below) to see activity by your followers plus those who are seeing your pins in their feeds, related Pins, or searches. Likely you will find that your followers account for just a very tiny percentage of the impressions and activity on your Pinterest account (frankly, I compared the two and was surprised at how little exposure my Pins have with my followers).

Check out your impressions for the last 30 days, and then switch the date to look at last month and last year. In what direction are you moving? Up? That’s the idea!

People You Reach screenshot from Pinterest analytics

Now, let’s use this dashboard to learn about the people seeing our Pins. It’s a virtual goldmine of potential customer insights!! First, click the “all apps” button at the top right of the screen. Toggle between devices to see which devices viewers and engagers are using when they find you. A large number of my viewers come from iPhone – how about yours?

Knowing where your audience comes from allows you to optimize the content you share. You can also make decisions about which devices you want to target with Promoted Pins. Do you have a large number of iPhone users, but your web viewers actually engage more? Make note of that and use it to run more successful Pinterest ads.

Now let’s scroll down a bit to see the demographic breakdown of the people seeing and engaging with our Pins. If you’re marketing a product or service that appeals to a certain location (warm socks – cool locations, beach toys – warm locations) on Pinterest, you’ll be hoping to see a large number of audience members in those areas!

If you see a lot of activity from a country other than your own or in a language other than the one your site is written in, is it worth creating at least some content on your site for those viewers? It’s similar with the gender breakdown. If your numbers surprise you  – is there something you could do with your content or your Pins to cater to viewers?

Pinterest audience demographics screenshot

Now let’s switch over to the “Interests” tab. I love this one for planning an initial Pinterest strategy because it helps you get beyond just what you write about, sell, or offer as a service, to reach a wider audience by appealing to related needs and goals. Lately, the number of Interests displayed has shrunken in analytics, but it’s still worth a look. Here’s what I see:

Pinterest

If I don’t already have a board for Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs, this would be a good hint that I should! Now, some of these you just won’t be able to make fit – but with a little creativity, I might be able to make a “Home Office Decor” board that would work! Don’t hesitate to create new boards if you can keep them filled up. Specific niche board titles are helpful for search. Always create a new board rather than dividing a more general board into sections – sections do NOT help your SEO and general board titles don’t either.

Always create a new board rather than dividing a more general board into sections - sections do NOT help your SEO and general board titles don't either. Click to Tweet

If you scroll down just a bit you’ll see Boards: Boards with lots of your Pins. I like to look at these to see how people are categorizing my Pins. I don’t have a board that uses the term “Traffic” in the title or really with a focus on website traffic in general – but maybe I should! Evidently, that is how someone sees what I’m Pinning and maybe I could appeal to more people like them by creating and maintaining a board with that focus and keyword.

Next, check out Brands: Businesses your audience engages. You could think of them as your competition – OR you could take a cue from what they’re sharing and adapt it to yourself. What is it about the Pins on these accounts that appeal to your audience? Almost every account will show Buzzfeed, ETSY, and Tumblr, here, but you’ll be looking for anyone more closely-related to your business. My analytics turn up Tailwind as a brand my audience engages with. Imagine that!  When I click to see more, I do see another couple of Pinterest bloggers I should check out. You can always learn from your “competition.”

Pinterest boards with lots of my pins screenshot

Pinterest Website Analytics – Your Content on Pinterest

This is where it all comes together – the impact of Pinterest activity where it matters – on your website! All the activity here is limited to Pins that link to your website.

Impressions and Saves are interesting and give you an idea of which of your Pins linking to your own content are getting lots of exposure and engagement, but what really counts is Clicks! Switch over to that tab. Here’s what you’ll see:

Most clicked Pins to my website Pinterest analytics screenshot

The Pin type “P” is promoted, so it’s no surprise those are showing up. I’m going to ignore those since I paid for those clicks. “R” means it’s a Rich Pin. All Pins from my site should be Rich Pins.

Now, here’s something interesting. Oftentimes infographics get a huge number of Saves (Repins) but not a lot of clicks. This one is an exception. Perhaps because at the bottom of the image there is a very strong call to action promising more if they visit the website. It also just gets a huge number of impressions. Since this infographic took me all of 20 minutes to make on Canva, I should make more!

The next organic Pin that is doing well is for an article on “10 Pinterest Promoted Pin Mistakes.” Maybe it’s time to create more content that addresses people’s concerns about overspending on Pinterest ads? Maybe I should make an infographic for five of the mistakes and then my call to action should be “Catch the other five on my blog!” I should also be adding this Pin to my Tailwind Communities!

Are you starting to see how these analytics can help you refine your content marketing and repurpose what you already have?

Click over to “Original Pins” to see what people are Pinning from your site this month. No big surprises here for me. Most of what appears here are newer posts and even a page for my course. What about you? Are you seeing older content surface here? If so, try Pinning it again yourself and add it to applicable Communities and group boards.

Finally, let’s move on to the “All Time” tab and spend a few minutes with our all-time best performing Pins. Check out Most saves: Your most shared Pins and see if you can spot a theme in the content or the image style. If something stands out, try making more Pins like that!

I’m anxious to see Best in search: Pins that rank higher in search. We would all love to crack Pinterest’s SEO code, but since that’s not 100% within reach, it’s beneficial to see what you can learn from your Pins that do well in search. 

Check out each of your “Best in search” Pins, looking at who Pinned, to which board, whether they changed your description or not, etc. Look for any clues as to why this version of your Pin (if not Pinned by you) outperformed your own!

Moving on to Power Pins: Pins with a high mix of saves, clicks and more, you can see your all-time all-star Pins. Repin these, add them to Communities, and look for patterns in content and image style so you can make more like it.

Tailwind Analytics

Tailwind’s Pinterest analytics can’t be beat! And now with a full 30 days of data on our popular Plus plan, you get even more insights into what’s working and why.

Profile Performance

In Profile Performance on any Tailwind plan, you can see up to 30 days of information which gives you an overall look at the health of your account. See how your followers and Pins are growing. Watch your Pinterest Repin and comment numbers grow.

Across the top, you have four charts to choose from. By default you’ll see your Followers. Of course, everyone likes to see those numbers climb, but don’t worry too much about it as most of the activity on Pinterest these days happens in search. If you see periodic drops in follower count, this could be a result of Pinterest cleaning up fake accounts.

Switch to Pins to see how many Pins you adding this month. But wait – what’s this drop? Occasionally, someone will report a Pin as having some kind of copyright issue and Pinterest removes it from the platform. Sometimes you get an email to let you know hey, it’s not you, but we had to remove this. No big cause for concern.

Now move over to Repins. This is just a cumulative count. Of your Repins. If your Repins go down, it’s likely because some Pins were removed.

Finally, Comments. Comments aren’t real common on Pinterest anymore, but it’s interesting to see the activity.

Your virality score is the total number of Repins (saves) you’ve received divided by the number of Pins you have ever saved to Pinterest. This indicates how effectively your Pins are reaching others through Smartfeed, searches, and more.

What’s a “good” virality score? Anything that’s higher than it was before!

The 30-day average virality score can be compared with your all-time score to see how your Pins are being received now compared to all-time activity. A full gauge means you are at at 30-day high. Aim to keep those numbers trending upward.

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Engagement Score shows you how engaged your own followers are and is calculated by dividing your total Repins by all of your Pins and then by per thousand followers.  Higher is better, and maintaining a 30-day high means you are moving in the right direction.

If you notice a spike in your engagement score, look at your Pin inspector to see if one Pin has taken off this month and make sure to share it to more all relevant boards and to your Tailwind Communities to help drive more exposure to it.

Engagement Rate is the percentage of your Pins with at least one Repin. Ideally, you want all of your Pins to be Repinned at least once, so the closer you can get to 100%, the better.

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Tailwind’s Pinterest Profile Performance Dashboard

Board Insights

Want to find out which of your boards are the most successful? Head over to board insights in Tailwind. This is an absolute must  – especially if you contribute to group boards. Pinterest Group boards can be helpful for getting your content in front of new people, but if they’re not performing, it’s time to leave. You don’t want your Pins in a “bad neighborhood” on Pinterest because that can decrease the reach of all your Pins.

You also want to know which boards are working well for you so you can spend more time creating and curating content to save there.

Here’s what to look for.

Tailwind Pinterest Dashboard - Board Insights

Uncheck the “secret boards” box – we don’t care about the virality or engagement on those boards since no one else sees them. Sort by virality or engagement score. Virality score shows the number of Repins per Pin, while engagement score factors in activity based on the number of followers, so the one you choose to prioritize is up to you.

Personally, I start with Virality Score. Sorting by virality score, I look for boards with a lower than average (MY average) score and decide whether I want to keep them or not.

A board with great virality or engagement scores may seem like a board you should automatically prioritize – making sure to keep fresh, quality content coming in all the time. But it’s important to make sure it is STILL working. Kate Ahl of Simple Pin Media suggests you click on the board name to get to the Pin insights on that board and see if there has been any activity on your recent Pins.  Case in point: my board with the highest Engagement score hasn’t generated any repins in the last eight months. It seems that board is NOT worth prioritizing any more!

Monitoring your Board Insights regularly can help direct your Tailwind scheduling toward boards that perform well for both your Pinterest profile and your blog, maximizing the growth of your Pinterest profile and the traffic to your blog from Pinterest. – Chrissie Baker, The Busy Baker, as Published on Food Bloggers of Canada.

If you find that some boards are not performing well or are no longer relevant to your account, you can delete, archive, or set the board to secret and it and the Pins on it will no longer be visible to others. Just

Screenshot of board insights on Tailwind
Click the arrow in circle icon to navigate to the board you want to edit on Pinterest.

go to the board on Pinterest, click the pencil icon to edit and:

  • Delete the board if you don’t need to access it ever again and don’t mind losing followers who might be following only that board.
  • Archive it if you might want to bring it back again some day but don’t want this board or its Pins to be visible to others or to see suggestions based on those Pins in your feed anymore. You can restore the board to your profile later if you want to.
  • Set it to Secret if you still want to save Pins on this topic for your own reference and you don’t mind seeing content like that in your feed. You can always set it back to public later.

Pin Inspector


With Pin Inspector, you can look at your last five thousand Pins, whether they were scheduled through Tailwind or Pinned manually. You can filter by date Pinned and then sort by date Pinned, number of comments, number of Repins, or the board title.

When looking at all Pins, see which Pins leading to other peoples’ content performed well. Could you create something similar – either in the style of the Pin or in the topic of the content it leads to?

You could also filter by Category, Board, or to show only Pins from your own website or search for specific keywords. When you spot high-performing Pins from your own site, reschedule those and add them to your Tailwind Communities.

Now that you know what’s popular, you can reschedule this content to other relevant boards, or even to the same board. It’s a great way to boost traffic from old posts and expose it to your Pinterest followers who may have missed it the first time. – Craig Makepeace, yTravel

Tina Gammon, Pinterest Marketer, says that when she spots winners in her Pin inspector she will often write more articles about the subject and create additional images to repurpose the existing content.

Tailwind Pin Inspector Screenshot

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real-Time Top Pins Report

Have a verified/claimed domain on Pinterest? Nestled in Insights in Tailwind, you’ll find a little gem added in 2019 – the Top Pins Report.

You’ll see Top Pins for clicks and saves for the past month, along with the click and save rates for each. That’s right – no more math!

By default, you’ll see Pins from your domain which you may have saved or which someone else might have saved. Switch to “Pinned By Me” to see which Pins you saved from any source are resulting in the most clicks and saves.

Something you might miss: you can hover over the Pins and the Pinners to get more details. For example, hover over one of our top Pins and you’ll see this!:

How you can sort: 

  • 7 day, 14 day, 30 day periods
  • Most Clicked or Most Saved
  • Pins from your domain saved by anyone
  • Pins you saved (to your domain or someone else’s)

Use these insights to see what is working for your own content but also to get inspired by other people. Is there a topic that really took off when you shared it that you could cover as well? Is there a Pin design in your “Pinned by me” report that you could try for your own content?

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In Conclusion

Now that you know what all of these analytics mean, which are most important, and how to use them, it’s time to put them to work! Set a recurring monthly calendar reminder and take just 30-60 minutes to review all your available Pinterest analytics so you can adjust your Pinning strategy for more traffic, leads, and sales on your site. Include a link back to this post if it was helpful to you. You can always Pin it, too. 😉

As you can see, Tailwind analytics are the perfect complement to Pinterest’s native analytics. In addition, when you schedule your Pins through Tailwind they’ll publish at the best possible times for generating engagement. Add in the power of Tailwind Communities and you’re going to love the way your analytics look next month! [sc name=”Pinterest Signup – Text Link”]

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Group of colorful bar graph blocks with the text: The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Analytics and How to Use Them.

Auto Post to Instagram with Tailwind – An Official Partner Tool!

Denise McKenzie on February 8, 2018

iPhone showcasing Instagram profile grid with the text: Introducing Auto Post to Instagram with TailwindHas this ever happened to you? It’s the weekend, and you’re curled up on the couch, completely engrossed in a good book – and suddenly your phone interrupts with a notification that it’s time to post to Instagram? Or you’re on vacation and only the next day do you realize that you missed your Instagram post notification and thus, the optimal time to share?  Yeah, I think we’ve all been there!

Well, I have excellent news – HUGE NEWS, in fact.

Tailwind can now auto post your scheduled Instagram updates for you!

Sign Up for Tailwind for Instagram

Automatic posting to Instagram is something business owners and marketers have longed for for ages (learn more about the feature). Being able to automatically post has been one of our most requested features and now it’s finally here, available only through official Instagram Partners like Tailwind.

As an Official Instagram Partner, Tailwind is one of the first few companies able to offer this exclusive feature.  For the first time, you can get the convenience of auto posting photos and videos AND the peace of mind of entrusting your account to an official partner tool!

Just set it and forget it, and say good-bye to push notifications telling you it’s time to post – for good. Take back your nights and weekends and let Tailwind’s Auto-Post feature publish at the perfect times for you!

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Here’s how to take advantage of our new Auto-Post feature:

  • Convert your Instagram account to a business account if you haven’t already.
  • Log in to Tailwind and make sure you’re on your Instagram account. You’ll see this banner:
    Banner Showing Set up Auto Posting to Instagram with Tailwind NowClick on the “Set Up Auto Posting Now!” button.
  • Click on the blue “Connect Instagram via Facebook” to authenticate your Instagram business account. You may have completed this in the past, but the new interface requires a new authentication.
  • Briefly revel in the “Yay! Auto posting is now enabled!” message.

This whole process should take no more than five minutes.

Next, there is no next! Schedule your Instagram posts and we will automatically publish them for you!

Instagram freedom is here!

If you already have a Tailwind for Instagram Account head over to your dashboard to enable the feature. Otherwise,

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iPhone showcasing Instagram profile grid with the text: Introducing Auto Post to Instagram with Tailwind

Schedule and Post Directly to Instagram with Tailwind

Denise McKenzie on January 31, 2018

Clock, Pencils, and Plant Flatlay with Text New! Schedule & Post Directly to InstagramImagine being able to schedule out a week or a month’s worth of Instagram content for yourself or your clients that would post automatically without you needing to post it. No need to check your phone for notifications. No missing ideal times. No interrupting your vacation or weekend…

Well, you’re in luck! On January 30, 2018, Instagram announced on their blog that it would allow scheduling directly to the platform for Instagrammers using a partner-approved Instagram scheduler (like Tailwind).

UPDATE: You can now auto post video to Instagram with Tailwind, too!

It’s here! Auto Post to Instagram with Tailwind – an approved partner tool.

For years, marketers have been asking, wishing, begging, and sometimes resorting to unapproved schedulers (and sometimes losing their accounts in the process) to allow them to schedule posts directly to Instagram. And it’s finally a reality.

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The Old Way We Scheduled and Posted to Instagram

Instagrammers have long counted on Tailwind’s SmartSchedule to choose the best time to post, and then send a text notification to their mobile devices to remind them to click, paste the caption, and post. While this is great for reminding us to be ready to respond quickly to engagement, some find the process a bit more manual than is convenient for today’s busy marketers.

Auto Post to Instagram with Tailwind

This announcement from Instagram opens the way for more efficient, hands-off Instagram planning and publishing. Hooray! And now that you can auto post video, it’s easier than ever to consistently reach your followers and others.

You’ll Need an Instagram Business Account

If you were on the fence about making the change to a business account, and the improved analytics hadn’t convinced you – this will. True scheduling and posting to Instagram will only be available to business account holders. Convert your account now.

True Scheduling of Instagram Images and Video

Some of the things not yet supported in direct scheduling and posting to Instagram include using filters, shopping tags, multi-image posts, among other things. Even with some limitations, this is a huge change for Instagram marketers – and many of the features not (yet?) supported are most often used with in-the-moment posts.

Your Images on Instagram

Instagram is giving us quite a range! Keep them to a 4:5 to a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. So, if you’re posting square images, keep that up! The 4:5 ration looks like it’s about the same as a photo from your camera roll, but it’s just enough different that it won’t work. Make sure to crop before you schedule!

Instagram Image Ratios for Direct Scheduling

Make sure your images are fairly high-resolution, too – at least 150×150 to avoid distortion. Learn more about the specs and ratios for direct scheduling of Instagram videos.

Scheduling and Posting Directly to Instagram with Tailwind – Now Available!

Instagram is making this new capability available only through partner tools like Tailwind. Native scheduling from the Instagram app is not available.

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Clock, Pencils, and Plant Flatlay with Text New! Schedule & Post Directly to Instagram

Pinterest Strategy 101 – Creating Your Buyer Persona

Denise McKenzie on August 4, 2016

Who are you Pinning for? If you tell me “women aged 30-65” please know that I am dying a little inside. As much fun as it is to leap right in to Pinning all the things, when your business depends on your marketing success, you know you need to start with a solid strategy. One of the first steps to a solid strategy for Pinterest or ANY kind of marketing is the creation of a buyer persona (“avatar,” “idea customer”).

What is a Buyer Persona?

Sometimes called a “Customer Avatar” buyer personas help us picture our ideal client. You may have several buyer personas eventually, but it may be helpful to start with the person who comes to mind when I ask you, “Who is your favorite client?”

Your favorite client is someone who buys from you, is a pleasure to work with, tells others about you, and keeps coming back for more. They’re often the person who requires the least amount of your time for the largest payoff – both in terms of profit and in the way you are able to help them.

Documenting as much as you can about this one person is the easiest and perhaps most effective way to start your buyer persona. You will end up with bullet points about him or her and an entire narrative which you can then share with your team. This will inform all your marketing and advertising decisions.

Why Bother with a Buyer Persona?

To the small business owner, this may seem unnecessary, like a waste of time, or simply overwhelming to think about. But, which is easier:

  • Speaking to a room full of faceless, nameless strangers or,
  • Having a chat with a good friend whose lifestyle, challenges, and goals you understand?

Easy answer. Not only will creating your buyer persona allow you to be more comfortable and therefore more natural in your approach, you’ll also be in a much better position to help your buyers see that you understand them, care about them, and can help them. You’ll be speaking their language and they will feel understood, even relieved to see that you “get” them. You and your business deserve the time this will take.

How Do I Create a Buyer Persona?

This short clip talks about what goes into creating a Buyer Persona. Watch the rest of this clip for free and check out our new wedding course, only on Launchpad.

The simplest and most effective way is to speak with your perfect customer directly. Think also about your friends and family members. Would one of them be a good model for your persona?

If you just can’t get the information that way, you’ll have to assume. It will require you to put yourself in the shoes of the imaginary ideal. Tricky, but doable!

What Do I Need to Know About My Buyer Persona?

This will vary somewhat depending on your industry, but here are some simple things you might ask (or assume):

  1. What’s her name? Make one up if you need to!
  2. Gender
  3. Age
  4. Family status
  5. Income
  6. Education
  7. Job title
  8. Dream job
  9. Where does she live?
  10. City, country or suburb?
  11. House or apartment?
  12. Own or rent?
  13. Pets?
  14. Does she travel?
  15. Have a car?
  16. Does she make decisions quickly or after a lot of thought?
  17. What hobbies does she have?
  18. What issues does she care about?
  19. What motivates her?
  20. Where does she get her information?
  21. How does she prefer to communicate? In person, telephone, text, email, etc.
  22. Does she care about health and fitness?
  23. Introvert or extrovert? Other personality traits.
  24. What are her goals?
  25. What are her challenges?
  26. What do we do to help?

What Do I Do With My Buyer Persona?

Now that we have the answers to your buyer persona questions, we write a story about your perfect customer. Write up an outline of your buyer and then compose a brief story of her as it relates to your business. Here’s one I wrote for a wedding venue in Maine:

Ann and Mark are 31 and 34 years old. Neither is local to Norway, Maine, but Ann has fond memories of vacationing here with family.

The pair has a combined household income of around $80,000. Both sets of in-laws are helping to pay for their “best day ever”.

They are excited, but feeling pressure to make this an event to remember for their large wedding party.

They are also busy planning a honeymoon and perhaps a move. Combining households is a lot of work!

As with all destination weddings, Ann and Mark are concerned about accommodations and transportation for their guests.

Ann and Mark look for wedding ideas from friends, family, wedding websites, magazines and Pinterest. When making plans and discussing ideas, they prefer to communicate over social media or by text message.

They have a vision of a rustic, outdoorsy wedding. They feel a deep connection with nature, and love the mountains.

Like all couples, Ann and Mark also want to look great on their day. So, they are busy planning wardrobe, hair, accessories, finding a photographer – and maybe even trying to lose those last five pounds.”

Now that you know Ann and Mark inside and out, do you see the potential for some fantastically successful Pinterest boards and an overall Pinterest Marketing Strategy? Starting at the top, you might consider boards and Pins for:

  • Maine vacation spots (any valid reason to Pin travel images!)
  • Creative wedding ideas
  • Moving tips
  • Simplifying
  • Places to stay in Norway, Maine
  • Rustic wedding ideas
  • Outdoor wedding decor
  • Simple, long-sleeved wedding dresses
  • Wedding Hair Up Dos
  • Wedding photography ideas
  • Lose weight for your wedding

This just scratches the surface of what you can now do on Pinterest which will resonate with Ann and Mark. So, get on the phone today and find out who your ideal customer REALLY is – and then get more of them!

Pinterest Strategy 101: Creating a Buyer Persona

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Deleting Underperforming Pins – Good Pinterest SEO Strategy or Waste of Time?

Denise McKenzie on August 20, 2015

There is no point mourning the loss of the old chronological listing of pins on our Pinterest feeds. Those days are gone and we’ll be dealing with algorithm changes from here on out. That said, any time the topic of Pinterest SEO (or DEO – Discovery Engine Optimization) pops up, so will the tactics and iffy strategies that miss the larger points of best practice.

Some people advocate deleting pins without a fair number of repins. It is assumed that having a high engagement/virality rate helps your pins rank in Pinterest search. That has been found, at least anecdotally, to be true. So in theory, deleting pins without engagement will help.

There, I said it. It hurt.

However, there are other things you can – and should – be doing that will likely provide better results AND get you on your way to a much better Pinterest presence from here on out. As an added bonus, you won’t need to constantly monitor and delete pins. Just get back to enjoying pinning!

Deleting Underperforming Pins - Good Pinterest SEO Strategy or Waste of Time?

Get Back to Basics

Even if you had a solid strategy when you first started on Pinterest, you might find that after a few years of fun Pinterest rabbit holes, your account has become something of a hodgepodge of disparate topics and abandoned boards.

If you have no clear view of your customers (get a sample buyer persona here which you can edit for your own needs), stop pinning now. Take a few minutes to get this in mind. Write it out on paper and then take another look at your account. Do they match up? Are you the solution to their needs, goals, challenges and questions?  If not, it’s time for a reboot.

If one-third of your boards are for your business and then you have personal boards for recipes, funny memes, clothes, etc., consider creating a personal account. Then you can duplicate those boards on your new account, repin all your board pins to the personal account and delete the misfit boards on your business account. If you would rather not have two accounts, you can create secret boards on your business account and move your non-business-related pins there.

Take a fresh look at your profile description. Are the keywords still relevant? Do the same with all your board descriptions. You might be surprised to find that some of your boards don’t even have a description. Fix that now! Are your board titles clear and keyword optimized? This is not the place for cute and clever. Be sure each board assigned the most applicable category. Never opt for “other” if you can help it!

Could you make some of your boards more specific? For instance, if you started with a board for social media, but now you have 500 pins about many social networks, could you split them up by network? It’s so easy to move pins in bulk right from Pinterest now, there’s really no reason not to!

Now you have a much more focused account, which is going to make for happier followers and some added Pinterest SEO love.

Get Rich Pins

If you don’t have them already, enable rich pins on your site. Rich pins display extra information on your site that you can’t get from a description alone – and they can’t be changed by anyone repinning or pinning from your site. They also stand out in the feed, increasing the chance that someone will click, like, or repin.

Pin Better Pins

From here on out, resolve to do a better job with pinning. For your own content, make sure your images have keyword-rich image names and a good description built into the alternative (alt) text. With anything you pin from your site, write a thoughtful description which should include a personal thought, “I can’t wait to make this for my kids! 3 recipes for a healthy school lunch.” as well as a subtle call to action, such as the URL to the article.

Be more particular about the images you pin. Are they attractive? Are they vertical? If you love it but it’s not ideal, you can make your own with Canva or your favorite image editor. When pinning from websites or repinning, you don’t have to settle for the description that pops up. Make it better!

Oh, and always, always check before you repin – make sure the pin does not lead to a spammy site. There’s no quicker way to lose your fellow pinners’ trust. On the other hand, if you consistently pin well, you might find other pinners trust you and will repin your pins more often. I have a few pinners who I completely trust – I know I never have to check their sources. It saves me time and increases their exposure.

Delete Underperforming Boards You Don’t Use

Did pinning about MySpace seem like a good idea at one time? If you’ve lost interest and so has everyone else, you might as well delete it. How will you know if the board is still working for you? Check your  Board Insights page in your Tailwind analytics to see what boards are driving repins and engagement:

Pinterest SEO tip: Use Tailwind's board insights to determine whether or not to delete a board.

The same thing goes for group or collaborative boards. If you accepted too many invitations and now you just can’t keep up, leave the ones that aren’t paying off.

Now you can concentrate on your remaining high-quality boards. Pin the best pins possible and you’ll never need to consider spending your time on tactics like deleting pins.

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Pinterest Promoted Pins — Should You Pay for Engagement?

Denise McKenzie on July 21, 2015

Promoted pins have a new option: Engagement pins. Should you try them or should you keep paying for clicks?

Pinterest Promoted Pins (1)
Like many small business owners who have tried them, I’ve been thrilled with Pinterest promoted pins. Some even say they are “Stinking awesome!” Not only is the cost per click much less than any other paid social platform, but promoted pins continue to perform long after your campaign ends. This is because repins, clicks and likes keep rolling in based on activity from the original campaign.

Here’s an example of how it works. I promote an image which is then displayed 52,000 times. It is repinned 228 times, liked 27 times, and clicked on 228 times. I pay only for the clicks (around $.17 right now). From the repins, my image with the accompanying link to my content spreads. I don’t pay anything for clicks to those repins. It snowballs. I’m happy.

Promoted Pins Dashboard

Enter engagement pins, the initial announcement of which puzzled me. It is touted as a way to increase engagement and appeal to people gathering information. With the outstanding engagement click pins generate for “free” as a byproduct of promoting for clicks, why would I want to pay for that? According to Pinterest,

“Starting today, you can create an engagement campaign with Promoted Pins to reach people while they’re figuring out what to do next. You pay for each engagement (a closeup, repin or click) on your Pin.” (Pinterest.com)

There had to be more to it. I must be missing something. I thought perhaps the days of cheap promoted pins for clicks was over and click pins would soon be too pricey for many of us. Had the formula changed? Would engagement pins just be a few pennies? Could they increase followers somehow? Really, there had to be something I was missing, right?

Only one way to find out. Set up a test campaign.  The results? The engagement pin cost per engagement was indeed less than cost per click. $.07 instead of $.15. However, the vast majority of engagement actions were “close ups,” meaning someone clicked on the pin but not through to the site. There were a few residual click-throughs, but nothing to write home about.

Pin Closeup Follow ButtonWithout any kind of further action, close-ups are virtually worthless to me. There was no spike in follower count, as could have happened because of the easy one-click “follow” button on close up.

Now, if you are NOT a small business with a major focus on traffic and leads, but instead are a large company looking to remain top of mind; with a cost per engagement that’s about half the cost of clicks, paying for engagement would probably make sense to you. As with all marketing strategies, you need to start with your OWN goals.

Have you tried any kind of promoted pin? How have they worked for you? Would you pay for close-ups, repins, and likes or are you more focused on clicks?