Pinterest Tutorial #4

This is the last in my series of Pinterest tutorials. Here are links for Pinterest Tutorial #1, Pinterest Tutorial #2, Pinterest Tutorial #3.

Today I’ll be answering the two main questions I’ve asked been asked in the Etsy forums about Pinterest.

The most popular question:

#1. How do I get more Pinterest followers.

At the time of this writing I supposedly have 145 followers, and I’m following 107. Now, I’m pretty sure the followers number is incorrect, but I do know there are a lot more people following me than there are people I follow.

I have a very simple approach to Pinterest.

Content and consistency.

Content.
Much like Twitter, I think the main reason I have quite a few followers is that I find interesting and new things to Pin. If you are passive and mainly Repin and Like then you are participating in the community, but not actively providing new content.

I get my pins from a number of sources.

1. Stumbleupon. Stumbleupon is “discovery engine that finds the best of the web”. When I see something on there that’s cool, I pin it.

2. Twitter. People are always posting links to cool blogs and craft projects on Twitter.

3. Facebook. I have a few friends who post interesting pictures and links on their wall. Pinterest won’t let you pin directly from Facebook, so sometimes I have to do a Google search to find the original source the image is taken from.

4. G+. Same thing here, lots of interesting links and picture sharing on G+.

4. Blogs. A lot of blogs have a “blogs I follow” list. Click on a few of those, and chances are there’ll be an interesting picture there somewhere.

Plus, a good reason to find new content is that when anyone repins a picture you found, Pinterest keeps track and will include this fact in the pin, either with this phrasing (sorry about the faintness of it, but this is what it looks like on their site):

or “Originally pinned by” if there has been several generations of repins.

Consistency

Consistency has two meanings here. The first is that you should Pin regularly. The second is that you should use this service with your branding in mind. What’s the image you’re trying to portray? Who’s your target audience? My target audience likes quirky, cute and geeky things. So, a few of my boards include a cute animals board, a Doctor Who Board, and a Cheese Board.

But if you sell expensive jewelry you’ll probably want to attract the attention of your target audience and get the right followers with pins about fashion or sophisticated home decor.

The other questions everyone seems to want to know is:

#2. Is it ok to pin my own items?

Yes! But keep it to a minimum. Here’s what Pinterest has to say about it, taken from their website: “Avoid Self Promotion. Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.”

I have pinned 231 items, only 4 of those are my own stuff. So that’s about 1 in 50. I pin my items to a board called “My Wooly Creations”. A popular Pinterest user, Ayca, http://pinterest.com/ayca_etsy/ has pinned 650 items, 23 of them are her own designs, and she pins them to the board “Some of my work”.

Another approach is to find someone whose work you like, and suggest that the two of you occasionally “pin” each others’ items. For Etsy sellers, you could also join a Pinterest teams.

I hope this Tutorial has helped! If you have specific account related questions you can probably find the answer on Pinterest’s help page, but it you have a general questions feel free to ask me in the comments section of this post!

And here’s my Pinterest page if you’d like to follow me:

http://pinterest.com/fibrous/