When to Pin to Pinterest

When it comes to pinning content, timing is crucial. No matter how adorable that kitten meme is, it’s not going to get any repins if nobody sees it So, when to pin? In this blog post we try to find out when is the best time to Pin to Pinterest.

So you’ve started your Pinterest account. All your boards are set up, each one bursting with creative content. You have boards designed to promote your own interests, and a few fun boards as well. Each one is full of what you consider to be prime Pinterest material. But something’s not quite right. Although you have a modest amount of followers, you aren’t getting a satisfactory amount of re-pins. So what’s wrong? It could be as simple as timing.

How could timing have such a profound effect on re-pins? Not everyone lives in the world of social media marketing. It turns out that normal people actually look away from Pinterest every once in a while. For hours at a time. Crazy right? The hard part is figuring out when your followers are going to be on the site. This infographic shows the average peak times for the platform:

So, when should you Pin to Pinteres? The above image indicates that the best times to pin generally seem to from 2pm to 4pm and 8pm to 1am.  Other sources tell us the best days to pin are generally Thursday and Saturday. But it’s worth noting here that these stats cover a multitude of different types of pins. Different users too. So you should realize that different types of content need to be pinned at different times. For example, scholarly infographics are going to be viewed at different times than wedding dresses or inspirational nature pics.

This ties neatly into our next point – when deciding when to pin, you need to keep your followers in mind. A high school student has a different schedule than a stay at home mom, and a working woman won’t be on Pinterest as obsessively as a social media fanatic. Perhaps you have a segmented group of followers, with some pieces of content being more relevant to certain groups. In that case, you’ll need to post different types of content at different times to satisfy those major interest groups.

Sometimes marketers like to create a sort of ‘ideal consumer’ that represents a typical/prospective user of their products. They can go pretty heavy into the back-stories of these fictional characters, giving them names, careers, hopes, and dreams. Even their favorite brands. This process can be just as beneficial for those of us marketing on Pinterest. Perhaps your ideal consumer is a 20-something African-American middle-class working mom with three dogs and a stay-at-home husband. Or a teenage Asian-American upper-class only-child drama queen with a brand-name obsession. Just be careful of generalizing. This is a construct, not the end-all-be-all.

Finally, we would be remiss in not mentioning how Tailwind can help you out with your Pin-timing needs. Our dashboard has a calculation for finding your peak days and times for pinning, meaning that you can make sure your glorious images get maximum exposure.

So there you have it. Hopefully you now have a better idea of when to pin. Although general trends among followers are great, pay special attention to your business’s unique situation. Take a hard look at your brand and your fans. Figure out what a typical day looks like for your top followers, and give them the content they want when they need it.

Have anything to share about timing on Pinterest? Let us know in the comments!

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