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How to Go Viral on Pinterest?
If you’re blogging for some time now, I guess this is not the first time you wondered “How to make a viral Pin” or “How to go viral on Pinterest”?
And if you haven’t achieved that yet, don’t feel disappointed.
The truth is that creating a viral pin requires many factors and luck is one of them.
This way, don’t believe anyone that guarantees you that your pin can go viral 100% of the time.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything to increase your chances.
If you follow the below-mentioned strategy, you will see a huge increase in Pinterest views even if your Pins don’t go viral.
By being patient and with some luck, there’s a chance that some of your Pins will skyrocket and drive a lot of traffic to your blog!
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links from the products I use. If you purchase anything after clicking these links I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you)
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How to Go Viral on Pinterest?
If you haven’t figured out yet the ideal Pinterest strategy for your blog, I suggest you read this post immediately: The Best Pinterest Strategy for Bloggers
There, I wrote about how I increased my Pin clicks by 500%
It’s a simple, free, and effective strategy that every blogger can use in order to drive significant traffic from Pinterest to his/her blog.
In this post, you’ll learn some specific actionable steps you can take every time you publish a new Pin in order to greatly increase your chances to go viral on Pinterest!
- Create irresistible Pin images
- Use the right keywords
- Participate in Pinterest Re-Pin threads after you publish a new Pin
- Link to quality content that readers want to Pin on their boards
- Give them an actual reason to click and save your Pin
- Re-Pin it in relevant personal and group boards in the following days
- Maintain a good Pinterest user rating
- Be consistent and patient
- Create Pinterest-friendly posts
- Track your analytics
1) Create Irresistible Pin Images
No sh1t Sherlock, I know…
But I can’t stress enough how important this tip is. Having a beautiful and attractive image is sometimes enough for a Pin to go viral.
But I still see many Bloggers who try hard to attract traffic from Pinterest but they use mediocre images.
If you’re just looking for some beautiful, eye-catching ready-made templates to increase your Pinterest Traffic, look no further than this offer: 100+ Feminine Pinterest Templates only for $47!
Creating Pins is time-consuming. You can use these templates that are proven to drive impressions & clicks. You can slightly modify them to use them again and again!
But, why Feminine? No matter what your niche is, the 80% of Pinterest users are women. They’re attracted more to feminine templates!
An image that looks amateurish or low-quality makes users think the same for the content it leads to and vice versa. A beautiful looking Pin makes us think that the content will be high-quality as well.
A few basic tips for creating images that users click and save are:
- Use bright and warm colors
- Use a mix of clean and script (calligraphy fonts)
- Use strong call-to-actions
- Use real photos (stock photos too) instead of plain graphics or a combination of both
- Use 2:3 ratio (600x900px, 700x1050px, 800x1200px)
Fortunately, you’ll have no excuse for this step!
There are free and easy-to-use tools like Canva that are made for non-professional designers like us, bloggers.
Further, you can still watch some YouTube videos about creating attractive Pins with Canva and writing click-worthy titles.
Personally, I use these headlines tips and my results have greatly increased.
Creating Pin images with text that the reader can’t resist but to click and save the post is a skill that requires time and practice.
If you try every time you make a new Pin to create beautiful images along with a catchy title, you’ll become really good eventually!
However, you shouldn’t write click-bait titles. The secret is to find the perfect balance between a catchy title and a post that can deliver what the title promises.
2) Use the right keywords
If your Pins show up when users search for relevant terms, the chances for your Pins to get clicked and saved are much higher.
How to identify the right keywords to use for your profile and Pins?
I wrote a more detailed guide on this post: The best Pinterest Strategy for Bloggers.
With a few words, use the Pinterest built-in keyword tool (it’s free) and the Pinterest suggested keywords to find the right keywords.
To access the built-in keyword tool, click Ads -> Create Ad. Leave the 1st page blank and go to 2nd page and enter your keywords in the keywords box.
These are Pinterest’s “suggested keywords”
Then, use these keywords on:
- Pin’s description
- the Pin’s title
- Pin’s alt description (this description will appear when a user saves your Pin from your blog)
- The first board you’ll save the Pin. Ideally, the board should contain the keywords on its description and the Pin’s main keyword on the board’s name.
- Your profile’s description and name
- The text of the Pin’s image
If you’re in a very competitive niche on Pinterest, you won’t be able to rank organically for every Pin. But the higher engagement a Pin receives the higher that chances are for ranking high.
As a result, implementing the right keywords is a step you can’t afford to miss.
3) Participate in Pinterest Re-Pin threads after you publish a new Pin
Here comes the best strategy for boosting your Pins immediately after you publish them!
With some practice and luck, this strategy can skyrocket your Pins!
Well, after you publish a new Pin (assuming it has an attractive image and text on it) participate in Pinterest Re-Pin threads.
The more clicks and saves a Pin receives (especially while it’s still fresh), the more exposure it will receive from the platform.
It means that Pinterest will trust it to promote it to more of your followers and the organic results.
The best 4 networks to find these threads are:
- a) Facebook Blogging Groups
Almost all Facebook Blogging groups have a specific day for Pinterest threads and specific rules. Make sure you read each Groups rules and reciprocate.
Some of the best Facebook Blogging groups I participate are:
- Golden Bloggerz Online Blogging community (you can post your Pins on the threads every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday)
- Bloggers Camp
- Connect & Cultivate
- Blogging for New Bloggers
- ASelfGuru – Biz Blog Community
- Blogging Babes Collective
- Blogging Newbs
- Becoming a Blogger
- Bloggers Supporting Bloggers (this is an actually a FB page but it functions as a group)
- Pinterest Pals
Note that these are hand-picked quality groups with high engagement. I’m highlighting this because there are many groups for spammers that do not return any engagement.
Avoid those groups as they are a waste of time.
Tip #1: On the above-mentioned or similar groups you’ll have to reciprocate as well. Try to identify bloggers that are in a similar or the same niche as you and interact with their pins.
This way, they probably return the favor and save your Pins. As a result, your Pins will appear in a brand new audience that is interested in your niche!
Tip #2: When you post your Pins on a thread, ask members politely to also click on your Pins and promise to do the same for their Pins.
Clicks increase greatly the impressions of a Pin!
This is free a network/website for boosting your Social Media shares and specifically Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. It has payment option but the free plan is enough for our purpose!
After you register on the site, you’ll receive points for every Social Media share you make from a list of other members’ posts.
Then, you can exchange these points for Shares or Re-Pins on your chosen Pin/post.
Again, try to reciprocate posts that are relevant to your audience for the above-mentioned reason.
This is a website/app that functions similarly to the Facebook Blogging groups. It has stricter rules (you have to reciprocate to all members).
Their threads aren’t limited to Pinterest, so you can boost your other Social Media channels as well and also your blog traffic.
However, they are plenty of Pinterest threads to join as well.
These networks are more than enough to join after you publish a fresh Pin!
Of course, you don’t have to participate in all of them every time. I suggest you experiment with them and eventually you’ll understand what works best for your Pins and how to join them more effectively and quickly.
4) Link to quality content that readers want to Pin on their boards
This tip may be an obvious one for some bloggers, but many still miss it.
Linking to high-quality content through your Pins will not only make your followers trust you more but it also boosts your Pinterest profile.
Pinterest’s algorithm prefers boards and users that Pin to quality content and trust them more.
For this reason, Pinterest will promote more this user and its Pins.
Further, if your posts have something valuable to offer and are well-written, it’s more likely that users want to Pin your posts for future reference or to share it with their pals.
It’s also important not to save Pins with low-quality images or content. Neither the platform nor your followers will appreciate it.
5) Give them an actual reason to click and save your Pin
With every Pin you create, you have a few words to convince a reader to click on your Pin and read your post.
Use them wisely!
Focus on the exact benefits the reader will get after reading your post. Promise something useful that you can deliver through your post.
Do you have a freebie related to your post? Mention it on the Pin!
Not only you’re giving users an extra reason to click through your Pin, but they will probably become your subscribers too.
6) Re-Pin it in relevant personal and group boards in the following days
No matter how good or bad a Pin performs after the first day, you should not just Pin it one time and forget it.
Pin it at least one or two times a day to other relevant personal and good group boards.
This way, the Pin will get much more visibility.
Further, it’s important to find the best times to save your Pins.
When you save a brand new Pin for the first time, it will gain more exposure to your followers’ feeds for the first 20-30 minutes.
This way, it’s important to experiment with different times and understand what times of the day your audience is more active on the platform.
Fortunately, you can use the built-in analytics tool (assuming you have a business account) to identify those hours.
7) Maintain a good Pinterest user rating
Pinterest team has claimed that maintaining a good Pinterest rating will help you to expose your Pins more.
You can’t see this rating directly, but you can see its results.
You can maintain a good Pinterest rating if you:
- Pin high-quality or trending Pins and of course linking to high-quality posts of yours. You simply have to save Pins from the “More ideas” tab or from the Pins that show up when you enter a popular search term
- Avoid Pinning low-quality images or link to low-quality content
- Avoid Pinning irrelevant to your niche Pins
- It’s better to focus on 1-2 niches/topics and Pin stuff relevant to them
- Create at least 1-2 new boards each month. For every new board you create, save some trending Pins in order to boost their ratings
8) Be consistent and patient
Pinterest prefers users who are consistent with their pinning, no matter how much they Pin.
This way, it’s better to plan ahead and Pin the same amount each day. For example, if you save 140 pins each week, try to save about 20 Pins each day.
Try to establish a daily routine that you can easily follow (e.g. create 3 fresh Pins and save 7 other high-quality Pins).
If you find manual scheduling difficult, you can try a cheap scheduler like Tailwind.
Not only you can schedule a whole month’s Pins in a matter of minutes, but you can also boost your blog traffic using “Tailwind Tribes”.
These Tribes are groups of content creators on the same topic that save each other’s Pins.
Keep in mind, Pinterest’s growth takes time.
Although it’s possible to see some results from day 1, you have to be patient to see much traffic from the platform.
However, the more you follow these tips the faster you’ll see great results.
9) Create Pinterest-friendly posts
This tip might be obvious for some but I can’t count how many times I’ve read a post I want to Pin but I can’t find any “Share” or ‘Pin it” buttons.
Further, I’ve seen many bloggers that participate in Pinterest Repins threads without having share buttons or even an image optimized for Pinterest.
Pinning an image that is not optimized for Pinterest looks ugly so the grand majority of readers will pass.
I hope you get the point!
Make it easy for your readers to save your posts on Pinterest. It’s a necessary step if you want your Pins to go viral.
All you need to do is to add “Social Media Share” buttons or a “Pin it” widget.
There are countless plugins for this purpose. Personally, I use “Monarch” plugin from elegant themes and the free “PI button” widget that lets you embed your boards on your sidebar, add “Pin it” buttons on your images and more
10) Track your analytics
Assuming you have a Pinterest business account (if you don’t have one, change it to business now!), you have access to your profile analytics.
Spend some time looking at your analytics, then ask yourself the following questions:
- What kinds of Pins attract more impressions and more clicks/Saves?
- What types of Pins are attracting the least number of impressions and clicks?
Then, focus on creating more Pins similar to your high-performing ones and stop using the style of the Pins that don’t attract any kind of engagement.
Keep in mind that the text you write on each image plays a huge role as well.
How to Make a Pin Go Viral
Let’s summarize the steps you need to take to make your Pins go viral.
First of all, make sure you follow the basics by creating irresistible images with a catchy text using the right keywords.
Every time you publish a fresh Pin, promote it on the above-mentioned or similar networks. Don’t forget to Re-Pin your Pins in quality group boards with a catchy title while being consistent with your Pinning schedule.
Last but not least, Tracking your analytics and optimizing your blog posts for Pinterest should be among your priorities!
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