Pinterest is now being used for people on a how-to quest. How to pursue a project or interest. Pinterest reports informative pins are up to 30% more engaged than other pins. Want to bury your pin? Just make a simple pin with a picture. To make them more informative, however, you might want to take a college course on colors, form, and journalism or buy ebooks, webinars, and read, read, read informative blogs. Or, try employing these six techniques:
- Add advice or instruction using detailed descriptions–but don’t give it all away–leave some mystery.
- Make sure your description is SEO rich. Research advises keeping any description under 200 characters
- Go ahead and make the pins with beautiful high-res, sharp images in an appropriate setting. Follow a visual dominance theory.
- Don’t overdo your sales pitch by making it look like an ad. Keep the logo at a tasteful size so it doesn’t overwhelm your message.
- Stick with your branding image–determine your best colors, fonts, and graphic style and be consistent. Keep fonts easy to read.
- Don’t forget the call to action! Invite your viewer to click through.
(From my “Ships and Sales Board,” above, an example of what NOT to do! No description, no link, no call to action.) There are so many fascinating and popular programs out there that gain increasing attention, such as Pinterest, upon which I’ve touched before. From Instagram, Flickr, to Etsy, however, I’m still trying to decipher exactly what to do with them. I actually opened a Flickr account, see my latest in the left column below, and obviously it’s another platform for posting photos; apparently as is Instagram, only Instagram adds some form of public news(?). And Twitter…what IS the purpose?? Don’t know, but I continue to get new followers. I guess that’s a good thing.
But Pinterest? I guess the point here is that it went from a simple posting of what someone found interesting or pretty, (simple pictures) to unlimited lines of information–kinda like a library and the pins are your library cards. Easy analogy as it is currently called the “world’s catalog of ideas.” And really, as I’ve mentioned before, there is no how-to you can’t find–rather like YouTube.
The high quality of the image is the major point made over and over again on any website with pertinent information on pinning. Stock photos being generally discouraged, you may want to re-evaluate images you’ve considered using for pinning and use some of your own crisp, clear images. Pinterest is a visual aid platform first meant to grab attention. The pins are meant to engage and as a push to action. Isn’t the point of an attractive pin to drive more traffic, get repins, or those click-throughs to your website?
A comprehensive source for all things Pinterest is the “How to Make Great Pins Guide“ that is an eight page, free download that includes information on pictures, branding, improving engagement, and improving your repin numbers or driving click-throughs. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to go back to all my previous pins to see how they can be edited and improved. Check out the download and happy pinning! ©2016 Virginia Williams 
Rosepoint Publishing 