How to Get Followers on Pinterest – Tried and Tested Hacks
Published June 21, 2022
Anyone who wants to grow their business online would be a fool to not take advantage of Pinterest.
For one, Pinterest has about 433 million monthly active users worldwide (1st quarter of 2022). And since it’s a free platform, that means you get to promote your business in front of millions of people – for FREE!
Also, when compared to other social media platforms, a Pinterest pin lasts much longer. A single Facebook post, for example, has a life of about 90 minutes. While a Pinterest pin may still show up in search engines after 3 months.
Besides, Pinterest has a higher conversion rate compared with other major social media platforms. That’s because the platform simplifies the buyer’s journey from discovery to conversion. It also focuses on visuals which, obviously, can significantly affect buying decisions.
But like most social media platforms, the competition on Pinterest is gladiatorial. So if you’re having a hard time getting followers, you’re not alone.
No worries. In this post, we’ll give you the deets on some tried and tested hacks to get followers on Pinterest.
Before that, however, you first need to understand why your Pinterest follower count is sluggish.
Why Are You Not Getting Followers on Pinterest?
If you’ve been on Pinterest for a while and you’re still not getting any traction, it’s high time to review your strategy.
Some of the most common reasons why a Pinterest account fails to take off are:
- Pinterest doesn’t trust you yet. The site just amped its algorithm to filter out spam accounts. If your account has lots of suspicious activities, you may not show up in the search results.
- Your followers are bots. There are many offers on the internet promising to give you thousands of Pinterest followers. But most of the time, these services use spam accounts or bots to artificially inflate your follower count. When Pinterest shuts down these spam accounts, you lose followers too. The lesson? Never ever buy followers.
- You don’t post quality content. In the world of digital media, content is everything. Low-quality pins on uninteresting topics definitely won’t convince anyone to follow you.
- You don’t pin contents regularly. Like most social media platforms, the key to Pinterest success is consistency. If you only log into your account once in a blue moon, how can your audience and the Pinterest algorithm itself trust you?
That said, if you’ve just created your Pinterest account, be a little more patient. Getting famous on Pinterest is not something that happens overnight. It takes a lot of time and effort to establish your authority and gain your audience’s trust.
Top Tips on How to Get Followers on Pinterest
Now that you know why your account is not taking off, here are our tested and proven hacks on how to get followers on Pinterest:
1. Be consistent
As I’ve said, consistency is key if you want to succeed on Pinterest.
By “consistency”, we don’t just mean posting multiple times a day. Being consistent means that your pins should be consistent too.
Make sure to only post original, fresh, and interesting content. This not only helps you build authority but also makes you more visible in the search results.
2. Claim your website
Claiming your website verifies your site’s authenticity. It tells Pinterest (and your audience) that you’re a legit business which, in turn, increases your authority. It also ensures that the pins users are saving from your website show up with your profile picture.
When you claim your website, you also get access to website analytics. This helps you gauge your site’s Pinterest performance and what content users are saving from it.
3. Know your audience
Pinterest users come in a wide range of demographics. But not all of them are your audience. You should learn to identify which demographics your potential customers belong to.
Does your brand appeal to teenagers or old people? men or women? Is it only available in a certain country or globally?
Asking yourself questions like these can help you target audiences more effectively. Then curate your content based on those demographics. It will help you relate better with your audience and carve out a name for yourself in your niche.
4. Level up your visuals
Just like Instagram, Pinterest is all about visuals. That’s why we can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have high-quality images.
Make sure to use high-resolution images with appropriate sizes. The ideal image size, as recommended by Pinterest is 1,000 x 1,500 pixels or a 2:3 aspect ratio. Anything bigger than that could be cropped off in people’s feeds. While smaller images could get pixelated.
5. Engage with top-performing pins
To get more followers, it’s not enough to just create high-quality pins. You must engage with other users too. Like most social media platforms, Pinterest’s algorithm favors those who are most active on their platform.
If you re-pin other users’ pins or personally engage with them, it will tell Pinterest that you are a real user. So your pins are more likely to show up in searches. Besides, everytime you re-pin content from someone, that person is notified and there’s a good chance that they’ll follow you.
Make sure not to overdo it though. Flooding a pin with comments or re-pinning lots of content in a very short space of time might be flagged as spam and can get you banned on the platform.
6. Use keywords and hashtags
Pinterest is basically a search engine. As such, its algorithm relies on keywords to show users relevant content. So to make sure you show up in search results, you need to use the right keywords and hashtags in your description. The more your pins show up in search, the more likely people will follow you.
There are many free and paid Pinterest keyword tools you can use. Business accounts can also access the site’s keyword targeting feature for ad campaigns. You can also use the automatic suggestions in Pinterest’s search bar or the hashtag suggestions when adding hashtags to your description.
But like engaging with other users, you need to do it in moderation. Stuffing your pin with keywords or using lots of hashtags can appear spammy. Instead of getting followers, you could end up getting kicked out of the platform.
7. Start or join relevant group boards
One of the most effective ways to find users who are interested in your niche is to start or join group boards. It not only increases your exposure but also lets you gain access to the followers of the people you’re collaborating with.
Start by searching for the most popular boards in your niche. Most of the time, instructions on how to join are already included in the board’s description like this one:
But if no instructions are available, you can email the board owner. They’re usually the first name to show up when you click on the board’s follower list.
8. Describe your pin in detail
Describing your pin in detail allows you to add more relevant keywords without it appearing spammy. This not only helps you become more visible in search results but also tells people that you really know what you’re pinning about.
Remember, however, that Pinterest limits pin descriptions to 500 characters including hashtags. Though you don’t really need to maximize this limit. Most pin descriptions are only about 100 to 200-character long.
9. Consider Promoted Pins
Promoted pins are Pinterest ads. If you have the budget, this is a great option to gain followers too. It increases your exposure and also creates better brand awareness if you’re building a brand for your business.
10. Take advantage of holidays
Since Pinterest is a popular source of DIY guides and gift recommendations, its users are most active on the platform during holidays. So if you want to increase your exposure, you need to create seasonal pins.
But don’t post the pin on the day of the holiday itself. Remember that Pinterest users mostly use the platform for planning. So make sure to share seasonal content at least 45 days before the actual holiday. Or if you can, plan your holiday pins three to four months in advance.
11. Promote your Pinterest page
Getting more followers on Pinterest also involves promoting your page outside the platform.
For instance, you can include a Pinterest follow button on your blog. So if you have readers that are on Pinterest, they can easily check out your page and follow you.
Some bloggers also add Pinterest hover buttons on their blog images. This allows readers to easily pin those photos, gaining more exposure for your blog and your page.
You can leverage the power of social media too. Post your Pinterest account on all your social media channels. Don’t forget to tell all your friends and family about it too.
12. Set up Rich Pins
Rich pins are pins that automatically sync with the information on your website. Any changes on the page it links to are automatically reflected in that pin.
Say you created a rich pin for a recipe. It will add the title, cooking time, ingredients, rating, and diet preferences that you pin from your site. Whenever you make changes to that recipe, it will automatically reflect on the rich pin you created for that recipe.
But before you can start using rich pins, you need to validate them to ensure that the data is synced properly. This involves adding meta tags to your web pages and validating them using the Rich Pins validator. Approval for rich pin validations usually takes 24 hours. But after that, all the pins you create for those tagged webpages will appear as rich pins.
13. Brand your content
Like in most platforms, branding your content will also help you gain more followers on Pinterest. Aside from lending you more credibility, it also creates better awareness for your brand. Besides, it will make it easier for your followers from other platforms to identify pins from your brand since they’re already familiar with it.
Adding simple things like a logo or using the same format for all your pins can already go a long way. Take a look at this page for example:
All their pins have their logo and use the same format. So when their followers from other platforms see this logo, they’ll know that that pin is from their favorite travel blog.
Thanks to their branded content, among other things, the page was able to gather more than 4 million followers and counting.
Ready to Get More Followers on Pinterest?
Getting more followers on Pinterest doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of consistent effort, dedication, time, and money. So don’t expect to have it easy. Even established brands struggle to get Pinterest followers. Be patient and apply the tricks listed above. One day, you’ll be surprised that you’ve already surpassed the follower count you were aiming for.
(Related: 5 Ways to Attract Social Media Followers)
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About The Author
Judy Ponio is a professional writer and SEO specialist based in the Philippines. She works hard to cross check reputable sources to ensure her work uses accurate facts. She is the lead author for several prominent websites covering a variety of topics including law, health, nutrition, and more.
