Category: Pinterest

Pinterest hyperlinks

So, you have a new Pinterest infographic and decide to pin it to one of your Pinterest boards.  You expect that other pinners will see that pin.  So, it is best marketing practice to link that pin to a corresponding web page.

Before I discuss how to do that, let me explain a hyperlink problem some people have with Pinterest.

No box for your link

When you are first learning how to use Pinterest, you may not perform things as professionally as you should.  This can cause irregularities that flag your pin as possible spam.

Imagine that you are trying to add a hyperlink from your pin to the corresponding website.  You click on your pin and then click on the editing pencil icon.

 

 

Ordinarily that will give you an editing box with a space for a website address.  However, if there is no space for a URL, the Pinterest most likely thinks the picture is a repin.

The Pinterest people found that good pins were often used for spam.  So, they made the software so that repins, even from yourself, are no longer editable.

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The solution to your hyperlink problem

If you cannot add a link to your pin, this is what you do:

1. Using a screen capture program such as Skitch, copy the pin in question from your web page.  Give it a descriptive name.
2. Then delete the offending pin from the web page.
3. Insert the copy of the pin into the same web page.
4. Click on the red Pinterest button in the upper left-hand corner of your new pin.
5. Click on the red Save button to help you pin it to the appropriate Pinterest board(s).
6. Go to Pinterest.com and find your old and new pins.
7. Click on the and then click over the larger copy.
8. If that takes to you the proper page with the proper pin, keep it.
9. If there is no working link, delete the pin.

What is a Pinterest board?

Think of a board as a folder with a group of related images.  They are given descriptive names.  For instance, all of the images on my Dogs in the News board are about dog stories that were found in the news media.

If you are using Pinterest for marketing purposes, you should have at least 10 boards.

What does pin it actually mean?

Pin it means take an image from a web page and add it to a Pinterest board.

Related YouTube video

 

 

 

 

 

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Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of the free YouTube video-creation tutorial called 7 Day YouTube.

Pinterest marketing strategy — 6 tips

As part of your marketing strategy, look at all of your Pinterest pins.  Use these 6 tips on improving your pins’ performance.

1. Repin from within Pinterest

When you pin a new pin for the first time, you click on the pin button from within your web page.

You want to let Pinterest know how popular your new pin is.  So, do not pin it to different boards from your web page; repin it from within Pinterest.

And try to repin it several times.  You may have to create more boards.  (You should have a minimum of 10 boards.)

2. Use the right pin size

A pin is more effective if people have to scroll down to see it all.  I use a width of 600 pixels.  The maximum allowable height is 1900 pixels.

I use GIMP to create my pins.  If the pin is going to be greater than 1100 pixels high (and it usually is), I create it using two GIMP images less than 1100 pixels high.  Otherwise the rectangle is too narrow and hard to work with.

After the two shorter graphics have been created, I add the two heights together and make a blank rectangle that size.  I copy and paste the two shorter graphics onto the larger rectangle and save it as my final pin.

3. Pin other people’s content

For each of your pins that you post you should post 5 to 10 pins that other people have created.  There is a strong correlation between how often you pin other people’s content and how often Pinterest will show your content to your followers.  It is built into Pinterest’s algorithm.

 

4. Enticing description

People may find your pin using a search engine. So, use a keyword tool to find the ideal long-tail keywords.

Add all of the DETAILS that describe your pin.  Use a description that will make people want to click through your content.  (This applies to both your boards and your pins.)

5. Delete your old low quality pins

As you pin more, you learn how to have more attractive pins with more effective communication.  Delete any that may have a negative impact on your brand.

6. Use appealing board photos

When you edit a board, you can look at all of the pins on the board.  Then you can scroll up or down to find the ideal image.

If you are planning on using Pinterest as part of your marketing strategy, it is absolutely essential to use great photos.  Here is a blog post telling you of 8 different websites that have Free Stock Images. I often use Adobe Stock to get very high quality images for my pins.  They cost me $3 each.

Have at least 10 boards and have each board about a slightly or greatly different topic.

7 tips for using Pinterest effectively

When you pin a new pin to Pinterest board, the idea is to get people to click on the pin and then jump to one of your webpages. You also want lots of people to repin your pin.   So, when you pin it, make sure it’s a good one.

Look at the four pins below.  What makes them good pins?  This blog post will discuss 7 things to remember  when creating and using a Pinterest pin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#1 Attractive pins to help ensure that your visitors “pin it” right

If you want people to notice your pins, make them attractive — preferably stunningly attractive.  This concept is so important that this entire page will be devoted to that point.  The rest of the tips for making effective use of Pinterest will be in the next blog post.

I went to Pinterest.com and was shown a large number of pins.  Notice how one or two of those pins jump out at you.  You do not even notice the other pins.  Here are two reasons why you want your pin to be among the most noticed:

♦ It will most likely get lots of clicks.
♦ It is more likely to be repinned.

The one that jumped out at me is the one with the m&m-type candies with a bit of text overlaid.  The text is broken into three parts:

♦ 7 tips
♦ to Write the Most Effective
♦ Calls-to-Action

Each part is typed onto a white ribbon in such a way as to stand out.  To learn what those 7 tips are, a person has to click on the pin and go to a blog post.

When the visitor gets to the blog, the blogger gets the opportunity to sell them something.

How to create those the most popular pins

1. Use attractive pictures.  I get free images from the freeimages website (freeimages.com).  I get high resolution photos for $3 or so each from the Adobe website (Adobe Stock).

2. Use a minimum amount of text.  Say what you need to say and say no more.

3. Use lots of white space.  Notice all of the white space in the skunk spray pin at the top of this page.  That is possibly my most successful pin.  Using bright colors on white or neutral space helps pins pop out to the Pinterest visitor.  (A reversal of that rule was used in the m&m ad.  Instead of a white space, there were lots of brightly colored m&ms.  The text was printed on small white ribbons.)

4. Use a high quality photo editor.  I use GIMP.  That is discussed below.

Review of PhotoEditorX photo editing suite

PhotoEditorX combines GIMP with text and video instructions in such a way as to make it easier to learn than Photoshop.  At the same time, it has virtually the same functions as Photoshop.  As I said elsewhere on this website, downloading GIMP without PhotoEditorX created a nightmare for me.

My computer became infected with distressing malware.  Not only that, but when I uploaded files to my website, the website became infected.

Using GIMP, I created the review graphic below to give you a snapshot of the upsides and downsides of PhotoEditorX.

If you would like to buy PhotoEditorX for $47, go to the PhotoEditorX page and scroll down to the bottom where it says, “click here to download now”.  Owning PhotoEditorX will greatly simplify your Pinterest pin creation.

 

 

 

 

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Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

Social Networking around a Pinterest image

To the left is an image that someone posted on Pinterest.  It is ideal for a fairly broad social networking campaign.

Until you have an established brand, your strategy should revolve around following lots of people and getting lots of followers.  This image will help you do that for several reasons:

1. The “orange dart” image will grab people’s attention & make them curious.  You can use in in Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. to grab people’s attention.

2. It is artistic enough to get people sharing it.

3. It is the right size for a Pinterest image.   To maximize the chances of going viral, this is the right size range:

♦ Minimum — 600 x 900 pixels.
♦ Maximum — 600 x 1900 pixels.

Facebook

For social networking with Facebook, I would use the orange dart picture to grab their attention.  Then I would take an idea from the main image such as “define target audience.”  I would have it link to a blog page that has my main Pinterest image.

Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

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Twitter

To avoid cropping issues, a Twitter image should be twice as wide as it is high.  Use the related blog post to help you make that.

I would link the tweet to the blog that has the image from Pinterest.

Google Plus

The Google Plus post would be similar to the Facebook post with slightly different wording.  Make sure your social networking  posts each have slightly different wording.  Otherwise the search engines could penalize you for having duplicate content.

Pinterest

To pin this image onto one of your Pinterest boards either click the “pin it” note in the upper left-hand corner of the picture or else go to the Pinterest website to click on the same text.

Remember to have at least 10 Pinterest boards and to post things or else repin someone else’s images to Pinterest every day.

SlideShare

Click to watch each slide in the SlideShare presentation below.  You can link to various pages starting at the fourth slide.

 

YouTube

The last social media we’ll discuss in this blog post is YouTube.  It can take a long while to learn how to make very good YouTube videos.  Here is a free tutorial that will help you out.  Note that in the tutorial they are using ScreenFlow.  That is an excellent video editing program that only works on a Mac.

The video below was created with ScreenFlow.

Pages related to social networking

Hashtags

The Modern Connection website says

Linking Pinterest to Facebook

The ProPaintMobile website says

Pinterest allows you to use infograhic and Facebook is the world largest social networking platform which connects millions of people everyday.
Below are some short steps on how to link your pinterest account to your Facebook account.  Read more.

How to attract customers through Pinterest

The Entrepreneur website says

In a sea of other social networking options, there are a number of reasons why you may want to pay attention to Pinterest—the networking site that allows users to create online image collages, then share those collages (called “pinboards”) with other Pinterest users—and possibly move it up on your list of marketing priorities.  Read more.

 

 

Inevitable Social Media
is a free 25 page ebook giving an excellent overview of social media
marketing.  To get your free copy, click on the picture of the ebook.

 

 

Text BESIDE your Pinterest image

If you hover over the blog button in the menu, you will notice a number of different Pinterest blog posts.  This post describes how I solved my “empty space”  Pinterest problem.  I had a long pin and wanted to have text beside it like you see in this picture.  My problem was this: I would have several lines of text beside the image.  Then the rest of the text was below the image.  That left a big gap of white space which looked rather unprofessional.

Reason for the Empty Space

After much experimentation, I discovered the reason for the problem: WordPress does not allow headings to be beside a picture.  I was trying to have <H2> headings beside the picture.   WordPress simply moved that text to the space beneath the picture.

After I discovered the reason for the  problem, the solution was quite simple: Instead of an <H2> heading, I used regular text bolded and displayed in a different color.

 

To find more information about empty space beside Pinterest, download a free copy of CurationSoft.  Then enter empty space beside Pinterest into the search box. You will be given links to some of the higher quality blogs that have information talking about empty space and Pinterest?  If you will upgrade from your lite (free) version of CurationSoft, you can become an affiliate and sell the software from your website.  You will get a commission every time someone upgrades from the lite version to the paid version.

Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Text BESIDE your Pinterest image

If you hover over the blog button in the menu, you will notice a number of different Pinterest blog posts.  This post describes how I solved one Pinterest problem.

I had the long pin you see here and wanted to have text beside it.  My problem was this: I would have several lines of text beside the image.  Then the rest of the text was below the image.  That left a big gap of white space which looked rather unprofessional.

After much experimentation, I discovered the reason for the problem: WordPress does not allow headings to be beside a picture.  I was trying to have <H2> headings beside the picture.   WordPress simply moved that text to the space beneath the picture.

After I discovered the reason for the  problem, the solution was quite simple: Instead of an <H2> heading, I used regular text bolded and displayed in a different color.

Other social media marketing tips

• The bottom of the image had a link to the skunk smell blog post.
  • I went into Pinterest to insert the link from the image to the proper page.
  • The purpose of the blog is to sell granite pet memorials to people whose pets have passed on.
  • So, at the bottom of every blog post is a subtle promotion for the granite pet memorials
• I used several long-tail keywords.
  • The focus keyword was skunk smell.
  • So, in order to keep the Google search engine people happy, the entire article had to be related to skunk smell.
  • Sometimes long-tail keywords with a relatively small monthly search volume can do wonders for your business.
  • I’m mainly promoting my granite pet memorials to the United States.  So, I looked at the keyword volume to that country.  Here are three long-tail keywords I used along with the monthly search volume:
    • Dog sprayed by skunk — 5400
    • Skunk smell — 1900
    • Skunk smell removal — 1000.
  • You may want to go to the Skunk Smell Removal blog post now to see how I integrated those long-tail keywords into the article to make the article flow naturally.
• The Pinterest pin was eye catching.
  • The heading told the story subject
  • The pictures helped to tell the story
  • The image was professional enough looking to make people want to repin it
• The Pinterest pin in my blog post had a PinIt button because I had added the correct HTML code to the website.

 

Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Pinterest links and social media marketing

Pinterest has a half life 1600 times longer than a Facebook post.  Pins are 100 times more viral than a tweet.  Cosmetics company Sephora has said that its Pinterest users spend 15 times more money on its products than its Facebook followers.  In other words,  Pinterest can be an important part of your social media marketing.

It is important to learn how to make Pinterest pins and Pinterest Links.  Months after you make a Pinterest graphic, people can be clicking on it and linking back to your web page.

Create Pinterest links in 7 steps

1. Make sure the Pinterest image is on the web page to which you wish to link.

2. Hover over it, click the red Pinterest button in the upper right-hand corner and add it to the appropriate board.  (Note that it may be a few minutes before the image actually shows up on your board.)

3. Find that image on one of your Pinterest boards.

4. Hover over the image.

5. Click on the pencil icon.

6. In the box beside “website”, add the URL of the page to which you wish to link.

7. Click the save button.

Now, when visitors click on your pin, they will see a button taking them to your web page.  See the infographic below the YouTube video to find the picture corresponding to each of these 7 points.

YouTube video

 

 

Infographic illustrating the points above

SlideShare presentation

We put a great deal of effort into each blog post.  Please use the comments box to tell us how we are doing.  How could we improve our blog posts?  Do you find these blog posts useful?

 

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Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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Pinterest marketing strategies

Integrate your brand with a plethora of things

Talking about marketing strategies, the Skyword website says

More than any other category, retail brands on Pinterest are experiencing tremendous success in driving awareness, engagement, and traffic to their websites—and many boast high conversion rates. They understand that users are in various stages of the buyer journey, and these retailers have mastered building engagement over time.  Read more.

26 tips for improving your Pinterest marketing strategies

The Rebekah Radice website says

Have you ever wondered what an effective Pinterest marketing strategy looks like?  Or what details it should include?  Questions like how to pin, when to pin and how much to pin are always at the top of the list.  Not to mention – what to track and how to track Pinterest results. The key to Pinterest sanity is simple.  Read more.

Incorporating Analytics into Pinterest marketing strategies

The Kissmetrics blog says

Many companies finally have jumped on the bandwagon and created a few boards and started pinning, but most still are flying blind in regard to Pinterest and analytics.

In this article, we are going to evaluate Pinterest analytics methods and tools, and discuss how to use them effectively to improve your Pinterest marketing strategy.  Read more.

22 Pinterest marketing tips

The turninbound.com website says

Unlike Twitter and Facebook which connect users based on who they know, Pinterest connects people based on their common passion. This indicates users are able to view content which is more likely to be of interest to them, and are more likely to lead to purchase downstream... .Let me show you my tips that you can use today and drive traffic to your website using these Pinterest marketing tactics.  Read more.

Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

7 important points to help you succeed at Pinterest:

  1.  When you look at your own pin on the Pinterest website, there is an editing icon at the top.  Click on it and make sure you add a URL to one of your web pages.

2.  While you are adding the URL, add an accurate, enticing description.

3.  Make sure you add the proper HTML code to the bottom of every page that has pictures you’d like people to repin.

4.  Create high-quality original pins once in a while.

5.  Try to get 10 or so boards with pins as quickly as possible.  Boards are like folders.  Each one has similar content.

6.  Use comments and likes the same way you do on Facebook.  It will help you to become part of the community.

7.  Repin other people’s pins often.  Repinning also helps you become part of the community.

7 points to help your pins go viral

To help your pins go viral, remember these points:

1. Use Google Adwords to help you find the right keywords.  You want keywords that people will use in the Pinterest search box. Ideally, for a world-wide search, there will be between 10,000 & 100,000 searches per month.

• For instance, the “How Canada ranks” pin above is in my social media marketing blog.  So, I looked up “social media marketing” in Google AdWords.  It had 74,000 monthly searches. Today’s blog post is about Pinterest.  I looked up “Pinterest blog”.  It had only 1300 monthly searches.

•  So, I decided to create a new board called “Social Media Marketing, Pinterest Blog” and add the How Canada Ranks pin to that board.

2. Make your pins are the right size and shape.  They should be vertical and between 600 x 900 pixels and 600 x 1900 pixels.

3. Give your pin an enticing description that makes people want to read it and repin it.

4. Create your images free of clutter and in such a way that they are easy to find during a Pinterest search.

• Note the Canadian flag is bold on a light blue background.  It jumps out at people.
• Images WITHOUT a human face receive 25% more repins.
• The title has enough negative space around it and is short enough so that it jumps out at people.
• The statistics lines alternate blue and white making it easy to read each line accurately.

5. Use fonts that are simple, easy to read and possibly different from ones people are used to.

• I went to GIMP and selected Aqua Kana Semi-Bold because it is different from what people are used to.

6. Consistently share and create quality pins that link to quality content.

• Pinterest created their algorithm such that quality pins linking to quality content are more apt to get bumped to the top.

7. Occasionally tweak your board descriptions to make them easier to discover.

 

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Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.