To be successful in the blogging world you must use an integrated strategy. You cannot just live in one corner of the internet such as posting solely to Facebook to promote your blog. You must expand your strategy by creating content that can be re-purposed in engaging ways. Pinterest is a valuable tool in helping you be creative with your blog promotion.
Here are some key tips to using Pinterest to boost blog traffic:
1. Post Must Be Pinnable
Statistics show that articles with images receive 94 percent more total views that articles without images! There are still many blogs out there that don’t take advantage of this fact. To start off, go back through your past articles and pair them with an enticing Pinterest image that demonstrates your business personality and the content of your blog. This allows you to create new content for your Pinterest boards as well as refresh your old article post, driving new traffic and potential clients to your blog. All you need is a shareable image; one that is high quality, straightforward and captivating.
2. Don’t Be a One-Trick Pony
When it comes to blog promotion you need to be everywhere. Utilize your resources. Pin your blog articles to Pinterest and then share your image on other social networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. This gives your fans a chance to find your content on the site that is most familiar to them and then you may use a Call To Action to direct them to Pinterest and then back to your original blog. It is a win-win here. You gain blog subscribers while increasing audience growth on other social media channel.
3. Show Your Brand
When using custom images, you are creating a memorable brand experience. Your own images, logos or custom media will help audiences connect with your business and make your content easily identifiable.There is a psychological component to branded images. According to psychologist Jerome Bruner, while people only remember 10 percent of things they hear and 20 percent of what they have read, they’ll remember 80 percent of what they see or do. Stand out and use your brand! Use tools such as Canva to create custom branding graphics.
4. Use Search to Capture Attention
Images are a very powerful way to capture attention. It is statistically proven that more than half of consumers prefer search results that include images and may even be more inclined to contacting a business that includes images online when searched. If you want your business, product or service to shine in the spotlight, you need to use images for your blog to gain attention. When you add these images to Pinterest, you are increasing your chances at having your blog found in a search. Pinterest has even added a Guided Search feature that allows users to search faster through millions of boards and billions of Pins efficiently. When they search, descriptive guides pop up to help sift through other good ideas from Pinners allowing the user to steer the search in whichever direction.
5. Optimize your Pins
Use industry keywords and hashtags to optimize the search results. Think about your target audience and figure out what they would type to search for your product or service and use those keywords in your Pin descriptions.
6. Optimize Image Size
Infographics are all over Pinterest because they are fun and engaging, however, they aren’t always the optimal size for your blog graphics. With the ideal size, design and content, your image is perfect for Pinterest as well as other social media platforms. Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest all favor vertical images. Infographics do well with an aspect ratio of 2:3 and 4:5 because they will more likely get repined as opposed to very tall images. A good size is around 735 x 1200 but has t be tested depending on the image.
