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How to Promote on Pinterest Without Being Annoying

Mind your manners, even on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a great place to find and share content and it’s perfectly acceptable to share your own. However,  some people take this to an extreme and it can be annoying to followers.

 How to Promote on Pinterest without being annoying

 

Most pinners are very courteous and follow the Pinterest etiquette guideline of not using Pinterest for pure self-promotion, but every now and then some forget their manners. Lately, I’ve noticed pinners pinning the same image multiple times to different boards.

As a strategy for marketing your content, this is a great idea. Not every follower will follow each one of your boards, so it can be good to pin your content to each of the different boards that it applies to. When it becomes a bad idea is when the same image is pinned to multiple boards without a break in time between each pin.

 

A deeper look

Not sure what I mean by this? Here is a hypothetical example:

1. I just published this awesome blog post and I want to share it on Pinterest  (Please excuse my self-promotion  😉  )

Oh So Pinteresting Blog Post Sample

 

2. I pin it to the multiple boards that it will apply to, one pin right after another.

 

Pinterest Boards

 

3. After I go on my pinning spree, this is what my followers would see on their computer monitor.

 

Pinterest pins for a follower

 

 

This single image was pinned to the 3 separate boards that it is applicable to in my Pinterest account.

  • The Power of Social Media board- The podcast is about a social media network
  • The Pinterest board- The podcast is about Pinterest
  • The Podcasting board- It’s a new podcast that I want to share

The problem is, that it was pinned repeatedly back to back with no time between each pin. As you can see in the image above, this clogs the feed of your followers and it’s even worse on mobile devices.

Here’s a look at the Pinterest app on an iPad in this situation:

 

Pinterest mobile app on iPad

 

It’s even worse when looking at it on an iPhone, the 3 pins take up the whole screen!

 

Pinterest mobile app on iPhone

As a Pinterest user, when I come across this it’s very annoying, don’t you agree? As a blogger and business owner, I understand the reasoning behind it, not every one of my followers subscribes to each one of these boards and I want to share it with as many people as I can to help my blog and business grow.
A better approach is to pin multiple times throughout the day. This is better for a few reasons:

  • Some followers do follow all of your boards and possibly hundreds or even thousands of others, they might have missed your group of pins their feed earlier in the day. Pinterest only allows a certain number of pins to show in your feed. I’m not sure exactly how many this is, but on the day of writing this post, I was only able to scroll back in my feed to what was pinned in the previous 5 hours. (Accounts that follow fewer or less active pinners can see back longer periods of time.)

 

  • Your followers are in different timezones. We’ve seen the infographics and read the articles of the “best” times to pin but Pinterest is growing globally. I have international followers and keeping their schedule in mind could be beneficial for blog and business growth.

 

  • It will keep you from being annoying and clogging your followers’ feeds!

 

It’s not all about you 

Spacing your pins throughout the day is time consuming, it is easier to just pin them all at once. But, if you really want to be successful in growing your blog or business, it isn’t about what’s easiest for you. It’s about what’s best for your customers. It’s about minding your manners and being a true lady or gentleman. (There are paid services that can schedule and post to Pinterest for you.)

This reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies: Blast From the Past.

Troy: …good manners are just a way of showing other people we have respect for them…the short and simple definition of a lady or a gentleman is, someone who always tries to make sure the people around him or her are as comfortable as possible.”

Blast from the Past Movie
(Affilate link)

 

Have you noticed any annoying pinning habits on Pinterest? Share it in the comments.

If you know somebody guilty of this, go ahead and share this blog post with them, maybe they’ll get the hint.

 

***Bonus Tip***

By changing my pinning habits to pinning a few pins several times a day instead of pinning a lot of pins once a day, the number of followers I have is growing at a much faster rate.

 

Oh So Pinteresting logo

8 Comments

  1. Avatar

    Thank you so much Cynthia- you are so right. To save time I share too much at one time I different boards and was thinking it was not wise. After reading this, I will do that no longer- even if it is more tie com
    Numbing- thanks! I assume there is no
    Thing like tweet deck or hoot suite for Pinterest – or are there to help space out? Thanks. Judy

    • Avatar

      Hi Judy, Thank you so much for your comment!

      I find if I use the mobile app and just pin when I have a few minutes during the day, that works best. There are a couple of servies that schedule pins but they are paid services. If you’d like more information about them, send me an email.

  2. Avatar

    Hey there!

    Heard you on Leslie–great interview. Came to your site to check out your stuff. Changed the name of my boards a bit after listening to your advice…Thanks for the help.

    I liked this post, very funny observation…and it definitely looks spammy! I liked that you showed us what it looks like on different screens.

    Pinning is something I need to pay more attention to. It does take time, it must be an active and conscious hobby, but I see the benefits in it.

    Instagram is cool but the picture isn’t linked to anything, so I don’t see as much benefit as far as an Instagram picture bringing traffic to my site.

    Thanks again,
    Jose Cervantes
    from shortstoryguy.com

    • Avatar

      Thanks so much for taking time to come by and leave a comment, Jose! Leslie is awesome, he has been a big inspiration in growing this blog and starting the podcast.

      If you have any questions about Pinterest, please feel free to ask.

      I really like the concept of your site. I look forward to reading some of your stories.

      🙂 Cynthia

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  4. Avatar

    Hi Cynthia,

    I’ve just started to use pintrest after reading your blog entry. I wasn’t really sure how I could go about promoting our travelogue, but your tips really helped. I am still a little confused about the whole different boards thing but I’m sure I will get the hang of it.

  5. Avatar

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  6. Avatar

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