Pinterest is probably my favorite website ever. It's my starting point for meal planning, where I go to find motivational quotes, my favorite place to find homeschool printables, and my go-to for parenting tips. It's also how I make my living. I manage Pinterest accounts for other bloggers as my main source of income. With every milestone each of my clients hit, a sense of accomplishment and excitement fills me.
If their traffic starts to lag, I dig into analytics and pinpoint the issue. I create detailed spreadsheets to track everything and err on the side of caution when pinning to group boards. So when a client messages me that they were removed from a group board, I get a little frustrated. When I discover the owner removed over 100 people, changed the board name & rules, and blocked some people, I want to know WHY.
After getting a little information from other bloggers, I discover this blogger wrote a post on Pinterest which explains why she removed people (in a roundabout way) and tips on Pinterest from her 300+ hours on there. Most of what I read, I would have to say is incorrect based on my own experience, managing 20+ Pinterest accounts for the last 2 years. After talking with friends, I realized most of the issues boil down to etiquette and integrity. While integrity isn't something I can teach anyone, I can share proper Pinterest etiquette to help others avoid future issues.
Here are some Pinterest Do's & Don'ts to help you build positive relationships with other bloggers!
Pinterest Do's:
- Do have clearly defined rules on your own group boards.
- Do make sure you enforce those rules. You have a responsibility to your followers and your contributors to make sure you have a board full of relevant pins.
- Do pin quality content to any board you are on. That means pins that link directly to the post, are vertical, have a nice description, and match the content specified in the board rules/description.
- Do make sure you follow any board rules. Keep a spreadsheet or doc with the rules for all the boards you are on for easy reference or use BoardBooster (affiliate link) to pin to group boards. Random campaigns let you set a limit per board so you don't have to worry about going over & getting booted.
- Do message contributors that pin the same thing back to back. They could have a scheduler that is stuck. I've seen it happen with all but BoardBooster & Ahalogy so far.
- Do message contributors that follow the board rules, except the occasional weird post. They might have scheduled it to the wrong board.
- Do remember that your contributors help build YOUR following.
- Do repin from group boards that you are on. You get easy to find content for your personal boards and your fellow contributors reach a wider audience. It's a win-win for everyone.
- Do build your contributors on group boards slowly and be selective. It's okay to tell people you don't think they are a good fit.
Pinterest Don'ts:
- Don't spam boards by pinning the same post to 5+ boards at once. Someone could follow two or more of those boards, see you multiple times in their feed for the same post, and unfollow one of the boards. Plus, spammy practices like that annoy other bloggers.
- Don't spam the same post over and over to the same board. Pin it once, wait until it's no longer in the top 100 pins on that board, then consider pinning it again. Make sure to double check the board rules, as some are limited to every 6 months before repeating a pin.
- Don't change the rules of a group board without notifying contributors. If you loosen the rules, that's fine, but if you restrict the type of content, how many pins per day, or how often they can repin back to the board, you need to take the time to let everyone know. Jenetta from FrugalLivingMom.com actually took the time to message hundreds of contributors when she changed the rules on two very popular group boards. I'm sure it was very time consuming, but just goes to show how wonderful of a group board owner she is (and she's a pretty amazing blogger so you might want to hop over & check out some of her recipes & frugal living tips)!
- Don't delete a group board! Just don't. I don't care what you've heard about repin rates, having too many boards, or if you just don't want to deal with the responsibility of owning it anymore. By deleting that group board, you are deleting EVERY pin on it. That is potentially hundreds of thousands of hits per day, for a decent size group board. If you feel you MUST get rid of it for any reason, take the time to contact everyone on the board & allow them to move their pins off the board. You can delete the board after a reasonable amount of time & they had a chance to keep the pins that bring them traffic. Once you delete that board, be prepared for your number of followers to drop. You'll lose anyone that was only following that board.
- Don't remove a contributor unless you are willing to honestly explain why they were removed. Many times they will message you.
- Don't let others build your boards for you (and your followers), then turn around and ban them because you aren't getting enough exposure on your own board.
Basically, it all boils down to respect (my kids would tell you that respect is a word I use often when explaining why we should or shouldn't do something) – if you wouldn't want someone to do it to you or your group boards, don't do it to others.
Need more ideas on how to make Pinterest work for your blog? Check out my Pinterest Tips & Tricks and watch for my upcoming eBook!
Did I forget anything or do you disagree with one of my Do's & Don'ts? Leave a comment and let me know!
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