7 Steps to Get Massive Traffic Using Pinterest
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7 Steps to Get Massive Traffic Using Pinterest Corinne Kerston www.corinnekerston.com corinnekerston.com I’m sure you’ve heard of Pinterest. It’s one of the newer social networks, but because of its focus on images it’s quickly growing in popularity. Pinterest is great for getting recipes and craft projects. Seriously. It’s a treasure trove of things to bake, cook, paint, repurpose, you name it. But, while it’s great for all that, it’s fantastic for driving traffic to your website. So, let’s get into it. Here are the 7 steps to using this awesome social media site for getting massive traffic. Step #1 Plan for Success Sure you can just jump right in and pin things all willy-nilly, but that’s not what is going to help you achieve your goal. Start by setting up your Pinterest account properly, keeping in mind what you plan to use it for. If your site or blog uses your own name, you will want to use your name and photo for your account. If your site isn’t as personal, consider using the name of your site and your logo for your account. This will help create your “brand” for your site. Fill out the description accurately, and throw in some high target keywords. Don’t forget to include your social media channels and your site URL. Next, set up your boards according to what your target audience wants to see. Do a little research on your target audience, as well as others in your niche. What types of content is your audience pinning? What boards do others have set up? Create your own boards according to what is hot in your niche and be creative with their names! Pinterest users love to see cute and interesting board names. On your website or blog, set up the right tools to help you succeed. Add a Pin It button next to anything you would like your readers to pin. Add a Follow button so that visitors can easily follow you. You may also choose to add a button to your emails and newsletters to bring more exposure to your profile. corinnekerston.com You should also go further than your own site and integrate Pinterest with your other social media networks. Add sharing buttons to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ profiles. Any way you can get more people to view and share your Pinterest profile and pin, the better. Step #2 Make Your Content Pinnable If you pin it, they will come. Okay, that was kind of lame. But since your goal of using Pinterest is to drive traffic back to your site, making sure that all your content is pinnable will ensure that others will pin it, share it and drive others back to your site. How do you make your content pinnable? Start with the image. Consider this: the majority of the content on Pinterest is stuff that’s re-pinned. And many people re-pin based solely on the heading and the image. Since Pinterest is first and foremost a visual board anything you want pinned should be eye-catching. Choose interesting, yet appropriate, images for your blog posts. Use different types of images such as photos, infographics and videos. You can even use text. A few words on a simple background makes a great pinnable image! Just think of those “Keep Calm” memes; solid background, not much text, but incredibly popular and share-able. Use a Pinterest widget to make your images pinnable, or if you have a self-hosted WordPress site, you can use a plugin such as the jQuery Pin It Button For Images to automatically add a Pin It button to your images. Step #3 Check Your Sources Now that your account is set up and your site is ready to be pinned, you can start pinning. But not so fast! You want to make sure that you pin correctly. When pinning content to your boards, make sure that you link the original source. If you are pinning content from your own site, consider adding a watermark of your URL or corinnekerston.com logo. That way even if the pin and source get misconstrued, the image will always stay connected to your site and will continue to promote you no matter what. If you’re re-pinning content, check the source to verify that it comes from a legitimate website. I often come across pins that look super cool only to follow them and the website either doesn't exist or it takes me to some advertisement for some other product. If ever you notice that you the pin is not sourced correctly, leave a comment for the original pinner so that they can update. Step #4 Now You Can Start Pinning This should be fun! But of course, there are a few guidelines that will help you get the most exposure. Pin things to all of your boards. You want a wide range of pins on your account. But! … space them out. You don’t want to overcrowd your followers’ feed with nothing but your pins. Like a Facebook feed, seeing the same person over and over can get old, fast. If possible, try to time your pins to when most of your audience is pinning. This can be hard to discern, but if you can figure out when the majority of your followers are on Pinterest, you have a better chance of getting your pins re-pinned and shared One more thing, when pinning content, especially your own content, add descriptions. Be creative, add keywords and a little bit of humor. Not only does it help stir up interest, it’s great for search purposes. Which brings us to step 5. Step #5 SEO Your Pins Oh yes, this SEO business is everywhere. When you set up your profile, you should have included target keywords. If you didn’t, go back and do it now. Now, you want to set your pins up to be noticed. You already have great images, but you also want to use keyword-rich descriptions and captions. Include your URL in your descriptions as well for even more chance that Pinterest users will check out your site. corinnekerston.com Step #6 Be Social Pinterest is a social media site so treat it like any other. Your goal is to build relationships that will direct traffic to your site. Start by following the right people. Just as you would on other platforms, follow niche leaders and anyone else who is of interest to you. Some of these people will automically follow you back. Others will not. But don’t worry, there’s still a point to this. Whenever you see something useful in your feed (you know, something awesome that was pinned by those niche leaders you are following), re-pin, like or comment on it. The originally pinner will see that you pinned/liked/commented, but what’s better, so will others. Commenting is the best option, as others will see your comment. Think of it like commenting on a blog post. If your comment is useful or interesting, others will be intrigued. They will click on your profile, hopefully follow you too, and oh! what’s that? They go and check out your site! And that was the whole point right? If you like something, others can see that you did, but that does take a couple more clicks than viewing a comment. When commenting, you can also tag people and use hashtags. Use the @ symbol and a user’s name to tag them in your comment. This can be useful in tagging others in your niche, or someone that you can always count on to share your content. Keep in mind that the person does need to be following you in order to get the notification. Like other networks, you can use hashtags in your comments to help gain them more exposure. Do some quick research to help you figure out what hashtags are being used, and use common ones that fit your content and niche. Another social tip is to thank anyone who pins something from your website. Get ready for a Pinterest super ninja trick! Type in this URL (using your own site address of course): http://www.pinterest.com/source/yoursite.com/ corinnekerston.com It will pull up any pins or re-pins that were made from your site. How cool is that?! Simply adding a “thanks for sharing this” comment on the pins will show you care, encouraging people to share your content even more. **Note: Make sure that you do not comment TOO much. Pinterest may suspend your commenting privileges due to “heavy commenting.” Make sure your comments don’t look like spam and keep them spaced out. Step #7 Measure Your Success Now that you have your Pinterest account, website and boards set up for success, you need to track it. Check your analytics reports to see where your traffic is coming from. If you followed all the steps listed here, you should start seeing an increase in your Pinterest followers, and the amount of traffic the network brings you. Pay attention to the keywords people are using when they find you. Use those words and phrases in your pin descriptions and also your profile if possible. Want one more Pinterest ninja trick?? Do a Pinterest search on popular keywords in your niche. Check out the type of content and topics this gets you. Use them as ideas for future posts and even pin titles and descriptions.