How to Get More Repins And Attract More Pinterest Followers

They say that picture is worth a thousand words but Pinterest is not just about pinning a bunch of pretty pictures. There’s an actual science to it. Social Media Marketing is now a full blow certified profession.

Be sure to check out the links below and read the important information based on social media marketing research and case studies that show exactly why people like, repin, and share certain images more than others.

Here are the most common questions I get asked about pinning and repinning: 

1) What should I repin?

1. Pin from various sources vs. one specific site or pinner. You’ll get more visibility this way.

2. Repin images with the most number of repins (Go to “Popular” tab on Pinterest).

3. Pins that go viral are visually startling, unique, funny, or helpful (photo shown below)

2) What should I include in my pins?

1. Make sure to complete the “board” category.

2. Make the time to edit you pin description.

   a. Choose specific keywords that could show up in the Pinterest “search engine” as shown below “Food & Drink” category. For example if you’re pinning a slice of pumpkin pie make sure to include the words “dessert”. Social media marketing is a science like SEO is a science.

b. Combine a call-to-action pin description which brings an 80% increase in engagement.

c. Use #hashtags (no more than 2-3). The image below is borderline excessive use of hashtags but hey it still received plenty of repins.

d. Add these words to get you more repins. http://bit.ly/12LQKNN

e. Add price if applicable. Pins with price get 36% more likes than without.

f. Descriptions that contain about 200 characters long are the most repinnable. http://bit.ly/14fnfKB

g. Do not use bitly. Pinterest thinks you might be spamming. As a result, when you click on the image a pop up box that says “Blocked Link” pops up.

3) What kind of images should I be pinning?

a. 80% of your pins should be your original images. http://bit.ly/18osiLJ

b. Taller images are more repinnable.

c. Tutorial & guide/DIY & recipe pins see a 42% higher click through rate.

d. Pins related to trending topics see an average increase of 94% on click throughs. Here’s an example the week of July 14th Catherine Duchess of Cambridge was expecting.

e. The science behind what images gets the most repins. http://bit.ly/17m09QP

1. Images with multiple colors get repinned 3.25 times more than the ones with a single dominant color.

2. Medium lightness is repinned 20x more than very dark images. Don’t post images that are too light or too dark, stay natural.

3. 50% color saturation receives a whopping 10 times more repins that images totally de-saturated.

4. Red beats blue. The winning combination is red, orange and brown as these images are receiving 2 times the number of repins as the blue ones.

5. Images with less than 10% background get 2-4x repins than images more than 40% of white space.

6. Images without faces sport almost 25% more repins. Only 20% of images on Pinterest feature a face.

7. Images with smooth texture are repinned 17x more than images with a rough texture

4) How many images should I be pinning?

1. Pin 60 images per week. Here’s why http://bit.ly/13kwAPr

Social media marketing is a science because developing relationships and using digital tools is subject to guiding principles and proven best practices.

5) How often should I be pinning?

1. Do not pin more than 10 images at one time or you might turn off your followers.

2. Pin daily especially after dinner time and from my experience Sundays are the best day to pin. Depending on who your target market is ask yourself what day and time do you think your audience is engaged online?

3. Holiday long weekends are considered “slow times” from my experience.

4. Pin every 30 – 60 minutes.

What else would you add to this? What type of pins have you created that received the most repins? Comment below.