In the last month Pinterest has sent me 14,324 page views. If you would like a slice of this kind of traffic, let me share my pinning strategy using Trello – a free project management tool.
People tell me they don’t ‘get’ Pinterest as a business tool. Let me try to explain. Think of Pinterest as a boutique, user-driven version of Google, but instead of googlebots crawling through your webpage so you come up in search results, you ‘show up’ in Pinterest by pinning your images (or having someone else pin them).
What you are doing is putting a tiny promotional ad (your branded+optimised blogpost image) out into the Pinterest world. My experience is that people won’t save/repin your post pin so much if you’re a story-telling blogger (because story blogs are consumable), but they will click through if you provide a great image with compelling text.
Pinterest users follow streams (boards) based on their interests. The aim is to get your tiny promotional ad into as many streams as possible without looking like a spammer. This isn’t as hard as it sounds as long as you spread your pinning activity across multiple boards a couple of times a day.
Automation
I use Tailwind to automate posting to busy group boards that are general free-for-alls. The program posts a pin scheduled from my complete collection to these big boards once or twice a day. This is a luxury rather than a necessity, and you can do without it when you start out.
Manual Pinning
I pin manually twice a day – at 9am and 7pm Australian time. This catches the morning and evening Pinterest users. I alternate between groups of pins on alternate days – Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun morning and Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun night.
Set Up
(click to zoom in)
The set up in Trello consists of lists.
1. Archive – this is where I keep the template that I copy for each new pin, and pins that have been through the pinning cycle once.
2. Waiting to Pin – this is for new pins that haven’t gone into rotation yet.
3. Morning/Evening Mon | Wed | Fri | Sun am – I usually only work on 5 pins at a time otherwise I forget what I’ve done in a session. Once I’ve pinned these posts I slide them over to the evening list. In the evening, I go through them again and then slide them back to the morning list.
4. Morning/Evening Tue | Thu | Sat | Sun pm– see above.
Cards
I create a new card for every blog post. The card has a list of my main Pinterest board, my smaller boards, and my group boards in a checklist.
This is the back view of the card. (In Trello you get to the back of the card by clicking on it).
The description area I use for the post’s URLs which are clickable. This allows me to pull up a Pinterest pin without having to search for it.
The checklist starts out listing two generic personal boards I call category boards (lines 2 & 3 in the last photo on this page). I change the name of these when I pin – in the above example I’ve pinned to “Sexy Time” and “Love and Romance”. Another post might be pinned to two different personal boards.
The rest of the checklist is self explanatory – once I’ve pinned my image to a particular group board, I tick it off.
When I’ve been through all the boards once, I add the date to the card title (see 1005 in the example above, meaning I finished the first cycle on October 5) and slide it over to the archive list on the left hand side. When the pin comes back into circulation in 3-4 weeks later, I add a fresh checklist and start all over again.
Once both cycles are complete, I change the date and the card/pin goes into retirement.
Process
1. Click on the card in the list applicable to the time of day – eg Mon am. I start with the one with the most items already completed (the highest number on the front of the card) because there are fewer choices.
2. Click on the URL of the pin which should open in a new window. Pin your image to a board you haven’t already pinned it to.
3. Check the board off the list on the Trello card. If you are pinning to a personal board, overwrite the generic title on lines 2 or 3. Slide the card over to the evening or morning list to indicate it is done and have it ready for the next pinning session.
4. Breathe a sigh of relief because you’ve sorted out Pinterest in a couple of minutes without having to fiddle around with a spreadsheet.
Extras
Trello also has a labelling feature and a reminder feature you can use to help keep you organised. I have a blog checklist on my Trello cards which I complete for every new post.
Your Turn
I have made a public Trello Board called Hello Trello for Pinterest by KatieP. You can see what a board looks like in action, and copy the setup and the template from this page.
The number in brackets after the group boards is the number of followers that board has. You can overwrite this with your own information.
If you decide to join Trello (free) please use this link – Join Trello. I don’t get any money, just upgraded to Pro for a while which is a nice bonus.
Need help? I provide the following services
- Pinterest Content Creation – Create pinnable images from your existing blog posts – from US$3.10 per image
- Pinterest Set Up – Set up your profile and 20 x boards – from US $45
- Full Pinterest Analysis and Strategy – an overview of your current account and a list of personalised recommendations – from US$79
- Full Pinterest Social Media Management – Pin images daily, find group boards to join, grow follower count, monitor analytics, create new visual content – from US$99 a month
See full list of Pinterest Services here or email me at katiep@head-heart-health.com to chat about your requirements.
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What tools do you use to manage your Pinterest strategy?
→ If you would like to join my group Pinterest board “Blogs with Brains and Heart”, please follow the board and then leave a comment with your Pinterest user name.
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Cool and amazingly helpful! Thanks for the tips – I’m going to try them today through your link. Would love to join your group board!
I’ve sent you an invitation.
Holy Shit! That’s an impressive number of repins. I am greatly impressed and overwhelmed at the same time.
Ha ha – thank you. I have a big catalog to choose from 🙂
This post is super helpful! I have already set up Trello and I’m well under way to getting my blog organised. Thanks Katie x
MargaritaChi.co
Cheers Margarita and thanks for using my link.
Wow. This is like the best blog post ever. I just signed up and can’t wait to start organizing my pinterest and general blog-flow with trello. Total game changer. Although, I think I shouldn’t be all too excited, cause this is another thing I can do instead of writing my thesis. Procrastination at its best! 😀
Anyway, thanks for sharing this.
Mona x | sheaiminghigh.com
Pinterest and procrastination are inseparable.
Hi Katie!
They say timing is everything … just as I was about to publish my latest post about my “Pinterest beginnings”, I saw the email linking to this post.
Your numbers are really extraordinary and I had to quote you, with a link to this post of course. 🙂
I plan on reading this post again and again. You’ve given us a lot of information!
Thank you.
Thanks for the shout-out on your blog. I’m happy to hear you’re joining the Pinterest Posse.
Super helpful, thank you! Am going to give this a go this week and will keep you updated with the results. Thanks Katie!
Kimberly XO
Good luck Kimberly. I look forward to hearing how you go.
My big problem will be coming up with compelling graphics. Which reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask you for some time – where the heck are you getting all those gorgeous period photos that you use? They are awesome!
It’s a convoluted process – I find stuff on Pinterest (by searching vintage fashion) then I try to find the original and work out if it’s in the public domain. I then try to find the biggest version possible (it’s at this point that a lot of photos don’t work because they are too small) and then I import it into Photoshop.
There I clean up the photo, give it a slightly blue tint, and get rid of the grain/noise.
So nothing much really LOL.
Katie, I hope this is OK to post, please delete if not.
There are a load of free-to-use image resources in this blog post:
http://coschedule.com/blog/blog-photography-tips/. I’m plodding through my blog trying to spruce it up and I’m finding some good resources in these links.
Lisa
Thank you for all these tips. I just signed up for Trello and Board Booster. You’re obviously very adept at this. However, I’ll try my best to get up to speed. That’s what I love about blogging. You think you know a little something and then realize there’s another mountain of information to learn! Its endlessly fascinating.
Love these ideas. I think Pinterest is a perfect platform for so many people. Thanks for taking time to write out all of this awesome information. Keep it up and live unstoppable!
I am yet to figure Pinterest out, Katie. Bookmarking your post to spend time over the weekend to study it. Thanks for all the information.
Great post, Katie. And great blog. I came upon it through Elena’s Linky party. Am new to Pinterest so everything sounds super complicated, but will bookmark and find my way eventually!
Thank you for all of the great info! Pinterest is my #1 source of traffic and has been for about 2 years. Checking out more on Trello this weekend. I’d do it now if I didn’t have to go to work.
I’d love to join your board. @jillconyers
Thanks again and have a fantastic Friday!
Hey this is great I have been wondering how to use Trello and i will be saving this to follow the instructions thanks #BlogShareLearn
Thanks for such a comprehensive post, and for the introduction to Trello. I think you may have found me the complement to Evernote.
Lisa @poormother
Katie,
This is a fabulous post and it’s extremely helpful. I pinned and stumbled. I can’t say that I have it all tucked away into my memory banks at this point, but I have started to organize my Trello.
Thanks,
Shellie
This is BRILLIANT. I absolutely love Trello – I use it for planning out blog posts, meals/recipes, collaborating and so much more. I may have to implement this for one of the clients I am working for. Thank you so much for sharing how you use Trello.
xo