We consider many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when it comes to building a strategy to increase traffic to our website. However, most of the time, Pinterest is overlooked. Many users aren’t quite familiar with the advantages it brings to them like increased website clicks and visits, increased ROI, etc. Anyone can create a business account on Pinterest, but the real struggle starts when your pins aren’t ranking irrespective of the precious time and effort you had put in to make them aesthetically pleasing as Pinterest is all about compelling visuals. Making your pins go viral is a worthwhile yet slightly tricky goal. Although articles describing how to grow Pinterest followers can help us increase our following to increase engagement, however, this article contains a well-researched and detailed step-by-step guide to help you go viral on Pinterest in no time.
Before diving deeper, let’s see why Pinterest is so important.
What Benefit Do I Get If My Pins Go Viral?
It may sound like a cliché. But, going viral on Pinterest has its undeniable rewards.
Planning to launch an online business? Making pins that catch the eyes of the users can turn those visitors into your regular customers.
The benefit? You get a major increment in your sales revenue and profit.
Have you just started out blogging on your very own platform? Well, Pinterest can help you grow your website traffic and make a loyal fan following for you.
Now that you are enlightened about the benefits of Pinterest, it’s time to set the right tone for your Pinterest profile. Even if you’re already done with this task, read below and tally in case your profile needs some amendments:
- Name of your account – Your name should be the same as your business or blog to not confuse the readers.
- Your profile description – Make it a little introduction about yourself. Short and interesting. And what kind of content the users can expect from you.
- Profile picture – To connect with your followers, your profile picture should display your face. The users will be more interested in following a person than a brand.
- Access analytics – Pinterest allows you to claim one website per account. Once you claim it, you will be able to view the analytics for the pins that you post from your website. In return, you will know which strategy is working best for you.
How to Make Pinterest Pins That Go Viral?
The following steps will help your pins go viral to get more traffic to your website.
Keep reading!
1. Create Enticing Pins that Users Can’t Resist Clicking
I’ve already made it clear and will do so again. Pinterest is all about appealing images that lure the person to click right away.
You should focus on your basic graphics skills and don’t fret, it is totes doable.
With a few trials and errors, you will know which image attracts the attention of the users. Follow these tips:
- Use top-notch quality images. Creating pins that are not overly crowded and have crisp, clear resolutions will entice the users to click. Whereas, pins that are blurry and low-resolution will simply lose the interest of the users. For this purpose, you can either use free stock images that are available in a wide variety on the internet to suit your niche or get the advantage of your photography skills. You can then compare which image looks the best on your pin and go with it accordingly.
- Vertical pins are most likely to stand out in the feed. As compared to the horizontal pins, vertical pins are likely to perform better as they catch the attention of the user when they scroll through their feed. More the clicks, the higher the chances of going viral. According to the algorithm of Pinterest, it favours 2:3 proportion pins. Hence, make sure you add this to your Pinterest growth strategy.
- Be ready to say “no” to DULL colours. According to research, almost 90% of the users on Pinterest are females. And most of the females are attracted to bright and vivid colours. If you want to use a bright-coloured background, go with a light-coloured font and vice versa. It will not only create a beautiful contrast for your pin but will also lure the users to click your pin and engage.
- Use large fonts. With a plethora of pins on one’s feed, small fonts make it hard to read and lose the interest of the user. Hence, using large, clear, and not-too fancy fonts will make sure the user reads the text and turns it into a website visitor.
- Brand your pin. How frequently do you stop by a post when you see the name of your favourite brand written on it? I assume every single time. This is exactly why you should always add the name of your website or your brand’s logo at the bottom or top of your pin. You should also use the same tone of colours that resonate with your brand. This way, you will be able to develop a persona for your posts and users are likely to click every time they see your content.
- Be original. With countless content available on Pinterest, you can easily be tempted to copy another user’s design and ideas. You need to stay on the right track by following your unique design and strategy that will help you stand out among the other users. Lack of originality will never help you get on the top.
2. Well-Optimize Your Pins
Simply uploading your pins will merely waste your time and effort, if the pins are not well-optimized. And optimizing them is not as hard as you think. It simply requires keywords and hashtags research and you will be good to go.
For instance,
You want to post your cool nail art design. First off, you should type in the basic keywords that others would type in to see nail art-related content. That’s “nail art”, right?
When I write “nail art” in the search bar, it gives me automatic suggestions (same like Google) that people search the most. Now I know which keywords I should be adding in my pin or/and board’s description, title, images, and hashtags.
When you press enter, you will see plenty of keyword boxes. Make sure to use them too to gain more clicks and repins.
Hence, the description of your nail art should include words like:
“Trendy minimalist nail art designs”, “short and easy steps for funky nail designs” or “simple techniques to rock trendy nail art this summer”.
Also, don’t forget to use hashtags. Pinterest allows around 20 hashtags per description. However, don’t fluff your description with all 20 hashtags. See what hashtags other content creators are using for your niche and try to use almost four to five to make your pin easily searchable on Pinterest.
3. Add a Captivating Title
For instance, you come across two pins titled as follows:
- How to Get Glowing Skin
- Five Simple and Affordable Steps to Get Your Natural Glow Back
The latter, right?
This is why the title of your pin must include the problem and the solution to ensure the user can’t resist clicking it. Higher clicks increase your chances of going viral on Pinterest.
4. Make Your Post-Super-Informative
This step indirectly relates to your blog post. How? You see, if you make your blog content super informative that contains all the information which gives the solution to the problem of a reader, they are likely to save it and repin it. This way, you will keep getting repins based on how helpful your content is, therefore, increasing your website traffic.
As opposed to a 400-word blog post that doesn’t give any value to the reader and merely contains plenty of useless and fluff words. It simply won’t lure the reader to repin it.
You can take a look at other websites to see what other ranked bloggers in your niche are writing and what other beneficial pieces of information it lacks. You know the drill now, right?
5. Self-Promote Your Pinterest Account
If you have a considerable amount of followers on your other social media handles such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you can ask your followers to follow you on Pinterest as well. You should naturally self-promote your account. Don’t make it all about Pinterest.
You can share a screenshot of your Pinterest profile to let your followers know how cool and inspiring your feed is, which will urge them to follow you on Pinterest naturally.
The Bottom Line
With the right techniques and strategy, you can make your Pinterest go viral. You should be consistent and patient as it could take a few days, weeks or months, to get your strategy working. Finding the peak hours (with some trials and errors) when the users are most active can help you gain more repins and clicks as well.
Best of luck on your going-viral journey!