The 2018 Blogger’s Guide to the New Pinterest

Pinterest has been through some major changes in 2018 (and barely half the year has passed). These changes, for better or worse, have sent bloggers and Pinterest marketers scrambling to keep up. So, exactly how does a blogger make it on the new Pinterest? Good question.

In this blog post, I am going to discuss how you can make the new Pinterest work for your blog. I will be discussing what Pinterest recommends as well as what other bloggers and I have learned about scheduling and marketing on the platform.

Without further adieu, let’s dive in.

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With all the major changes, it is safe to assume that Pinterest is out to ensure that its platform stays relevant. Every year there are emerging social media platforms and new search engines that can overthrow well-known platforms, so this is necessary for their survival.

It’s easy to forget, but Pinterest is first and foremost a business. That means that its primary goal is to make money. As bloggers, you must always keep this in mind and remember not to place all your eggs in one basket. Yes, Pinterest is an amazing source of traffic, but you need to have more than one stream of traffic to keep your blog traffic (and income) stable.

Just keep this in mind as I review some of the best advice that you can use to succeed on the new Pinterest going forward. Don’t be afraid to explore new options and try new things on Pinterest and off the platform. You may find that what’s new is awesome!

What Pinterest Recommends

Unlike previous updates, Pinterest has been much more vocal and supportive about this year’s changes. They have publicly discussed the changes they have made and have helped us figure out how we can use them to our benefit.

Before I continue, if you have not already done so, be sure to sign up for my email list below. I have shared most of this information with my email list already and release news to them first. If you want to stay up-to-date, this is the best way to do so.

The information I am going to share in this section comes from Pinterest’s Best Practices for Pinterest Success and a combination of other sources. There has been so much information shared on this topic recent that I am likely to forget some of the original sources. If I do so, please contact me and I will gladly link to this information on your blog or the original source.

The First Five

This was one of the biggest changes that went into effect in April of this year. Pinterest decided that it would focus on the first five pins that you pin to the platform every day at midnight UTC. This means that the first five pins you pin after 8 PM EST, 7 PM CST, 6 PM MST, or 5 PM PST, will be given priority.

That means that at those times you should schedule or manually pin your five most important pins to Pinterest. Note that these times will change once daylight savings time ends, so you will need to adjust accordingly.

Be sure to share your newest and most active pins at the corresponding time in your time zone to grow your impressions and engagement on those pins. Also, keep in mind that if you continue to pin more pins after the initial five, those first pins are what will matter most. This is important to remember when planning your Pinterest strategy.

New Content Prioritized

Interestingly, new content is also going to receive priority. Pinterest has said that your pins will first be rolled out to your followers. Then, it will decide whether or not to share it across the platform based on the response of your followers to the new content.

New content is not only new blog posts, it also includes new pins for older posts with new pins. Pinterest is actually encouraging bloggers to create new pins for their blog posts to get the most traffic for each blog post. This is a great way to breathe new life into your blog posts and not go crazy trying to come up with unique content.

However, they have also made a point to say that you should NOT delete old pins because you never know when one will take off. This tells me that while new content has the highest priority, popular content is still given a significant amount of attention by the platform.

New Pin Descriptions

In one interview, I recall the Pinterest representative stating that multiple pins were good for your blog. This rep also made a point of stating that additional pins were good, so long as they had their own unique pin descriptions.

This was new news to me and I have been experimenting with this as often as possible. Be sure to use the appropriate keywords in your descriptions so that Pinterest’s search results can use them to categorize your pin.

Also, pin your pins to relevant boards first to help Pinterest figure out the content more quickly. Pinterest tries to match pins visually at first. When you pin new pins to boards, it will help Pinterest figure out what the pin is about faster. That means that it can get in front of more eyes quicker, while it’s still a fresh pin and has priority.

Your Pins from Your Blog

One of the more interesting tidbits that have come along has been that the pins you pin from your domain are given more attention than those from other domains or other people pinning from your domain. That means that when you pin a pin from your blog, those pins will receive more attention than any others.

This helps in some ways since this allows you the most control over your pin and pin descriptions. It also helps cut down on the performance of hijacked pins.

Your Followers Count (Again)

Having followers used to be a huge factor in the performance of your Pinterest profile. Then, that changed. Instead of the reaction of your followers, Pinterest focused on individual pin performance.

Pinterest has found a way to boost the role of your followers on Pinterest and keep accounts with fake followers from hogging the attention. As I mentioned before, your pins are first rolled out to your followers. Then, Pinterest determines whether or not it should share your pin with the rest of the world.

This does two things. The obvious one is that it tests out your pins before spreading your pins to the rest of the platform. The other it discourages the practices of paying for followers and supports true followers that engage with the brands and names they follow.

This helps ensure that Pinterest is only hosting accounts that are operated and followed by real people. This will go a long way to ensuring the prominence of the platform for the future.

Consistency Matters

One thing that I have read was that Pinterest isn’t necessarily focusing on how much you pin so much as how consistently you pin. Pinners that frequent the platform and use it consistently will be rewarded. Consistent pinning will therefore help ensure your profile and pins receive the greatest reach.

This makes using Tailwind and other approved schedulers an important for your Pinterest strategy. With schedulers, you can schedule your pins in advance and never have to worry about not having the time to pin 30-50 pins throughout the day.

Although this consistency runs on autopilot, it is a completely authorized use of Pinterest. Pinterest realizes that we can’t be on Pinterest 24/7 and supports their marketing partners in helping busy people achieve Pinterest consistency.

Timing

Other than the UTC timeline for pinning your first five pins, Pinterest says timing doesn’t matter. However, they have stated that while timing doesn’t matter to the platform, your audience may be more active at specific times. This means that it would be beneficial to post your content while your readers are statistically most active.

If you are unsure of the times that your audience is on Pinterest, try scheduling your pins between 1 and 3 PM and 6 and 8 and go from there. Once you have data, you will be able to analyze your Google Analytics data to determine the best timing for your pins.

If this sounds like a lot of work, you can simply use Tailwind to post at the best times for you automatically. That way you are guaranteed to get your pins out in front of your ideal reader at the times when your reader is most active. No guesswork. No troubleshooting.

 

Hashtags and Keywords

Hashtags and keywords are critical to the success of your Pinterest profile. Since Pinterest is a search engine, keywords will help the algorithm determine if your pins, boards, and profile match search queries.

Hashtags are very similar but don’t have the lifespan of keywords. These are short-term queries that list pins that have been added with a specific hashtag. When you search for a hashtag in the search bar, the most recent pins including that hashtag will appear.

This means that it is likely that your old pins will never be seen via a hashtag search. It is best to use keywords in your pin descriptions with a few targeted hashtags added toward the end. You have 500 characters for your pin descriptions, so use 400 to write a keyword-rich description and use hashtags for the last 100 characters.

Scheduling

There have been a lot of rumors floating around about Pinterest schedulers in the past few weeks. I had heard some bloggers discuss receiving emails from Pinterest stating that pinners should only use approved Pinterest Marketing Partners to schedule pins.

At the time, they had alluded to BoardBooster, but had not used the name in their communications. Bloggers started questioning whether they should continue using BoardBooster as it was not on the list of authorized marketing partners. I have had a lot of success with BoardBooster, so I decided to hang in there until I had clarification and confirmation.

That clarification came soon enough. On June 21, 2018, I received the following email. This is a screenshot, so you are seeing it exactly as it appeared in my inbox.

So, what exactly do we know from this letter?

Yes to Tailwind

Tailwind is an approved Pinterest Marketing Partner according to their list, which you can view here. To be honest, I think I would have been in tears if it had not been
That means that you can post to your heart’s content from your Tailwind queue and Pinterest is perfectly okay with it. In fact, they encourage you to use Tailwind for scheduling and creating a Pinterest strategy. They have had a consistent relationship which is mutually beneficial, so I don’t see this changing any time soon.

No to BoardBooster

The June 21st email clearly states that BoardBooster is NOT approved because BoardBooster did not accept Pinterest’s terms of use. If you do not stop using BoardBooster, your account is subject to immediate termination.

To be honest, I have worked hard to get my Pinterest account to where it is today. Keeping BoardBooster is not worth the risk of losing my account with over one-quarter million monthly viewers and nearly 20,000 pins.

So, I reluctantly said goodbye to BoardBooster, my old friend. I really do hope that they find a way to make it work with Pinterest in the future. Pinterest scheduling for $5 was simply unbeatable and their looping tool was groundbreaking.

I suppose we will just have to see how well the new Tailwind Looping tool can hold up. Note: I have heard good things, but apparently, it is not as customizable as the BoardBooster Looper.

What to Do Now

My best recommendation is to either use a manual pinning strategy or signup for Tailwind. I have been using Tailwind for a while now and can truly stand behind the company and their product. If you are unsure and you have not tried Tailwind, now is a great time. They have a free trial which includes 400 free pins and access of up to 5 Tailwind tribes so you can find out if it works for you.

If you decide to go Pro, they have two payment options; a monthly plan that costs $15 or an annual plan that runs $119/yr. You save a ton of money with the annual plan and gain loads more features. The $15 monthly plan includes 400 monthly pins and 5 tribes whereas the annual plan has unlimited pin scheduling.

The annual plan is by far the best option. To be honest, I have the monthly plan (for now) and love it. However, I plan on upgrading to the annual to gain all of the added benefits, especially now that I no longer have BoardBooster as an affordable option.

Alternatives

I took a good look at the Pinterest Marketing Partners page, which you can see here. I only recognized two of the marketing partners (aside from Tailwind). These two were Buffer and Hootsuite. I have accounts with both of these partners already.

There is a huge problem with the Pinterest schedulers for both of these platforms. They make it incredibly difficult and overly complicated to share and pin to Pinterest. Seriously, you have to create a new pin, just like you would create a new social media post. This includes manually adding a description and URL.

Tailwind and BoardBooster spoiled me with their ease of use. Tailwind offers a Google Chrome extension that makes it super easy to pin while I browse my Pinterest feed or blog. I can just view any pin on Pinterest and click on the Tailwind icon to share. Easy peasy.

Whereas Buffer and Hootsuite are great for social media, they aren’t the best options for Pinterest, for which Tailwind and BoardBooster were designed.

My Theories

The above items have all been taken from Pinterest and other reliable sources. The following are three additional things that I have noticed on the new Pinterest. These are just my theories and have not been confirmed by Pinterest.

That being said, they are still worth a try. They are working for me, so try them out on your profile one at a time and see if they also improve your Pinterest performance.

Pin to Your Boards

Yes, group boards are awesome for increasing your traffic. I highly recommend that you pin your pins a few times per day to relevant boards and monitor their performance. However, while focusing on group boards, it is easy to neglect pinning your domain pins to your brand boards.

Schedule pins from your domain regularly to these boards. Since your followers are seeing what you pin (and their opinions count again), this is important to increase traffic to your domain.

Be sure you also pinning “Trending” pins to your brand boards as well. These pins, from other domains, will attract new audiences to your boards and, in turn, will increase board and domain traffic.

Group Boards Are Not Prioritized

Your personal boards seem to have priority over group boards. Group boards were originally intended for like-minded people to share images and ideas, network, and collaborate on Pinterest.

Despite the fact that Pinterest is a search engine, it values social interaction like a social media platform. That means engagement matters. The truth is you are much more likely to have higher engagement on your brand boards than on group boards.

Pins you share to group boards will still be shared with board’s followers, but your pins may not circulate from there unless the pin is well received by your own followers first. This is important to remember when trying to drive traffic to your blog.

Clicks Are Weighed More Heavily than Shares

I have noticed that my pins with the highest number of impressions have more clicks than those with saves. This seems to mean that clicks are weighed higher when it comes to the distribution of your pins.

That tells me that I need to share these pins more to get the most out of my Pinterest account. I keep a secret board of pins that have reached a specific number of clicks. Once the pin reaches this number, I add it to a list that I rotate out to be shared on group boards on a rotating basis.

This is something you could try out to see how it works for your Pinterest account. I have noticed that many of these pins have waves of popularity as they reach a new audience. Many have gone viral as a result, so definitely try it out.

Experiment and Explore

As with any update, you need to experiment and explore to discover what works for your pins. Each of us has our own unique style and niche, so what works for me may not work for you and vice versa. Don’t be afraid to try something new and see if it works, even if it’s a little scary at first. You may be surprised by your results.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it using the share buttons below. I plan to have another post for you on Thursday. Thank you so much for reading!

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