There have been so many classes and courses on how to optimize Pinterest for your business and how to strategically pin so that you can drive traffic and customers to your website. I’ve read the blog posts, attended some webinars and watched some live classes on it. And what I have to say may be controversial, but I’m not doing any of it. I’ve seen the stats, I know it can drive tons of traffic to your site. I attempted starting some of the strategies, but it just didn’t feel right. Here’s why.
I remember the day I found Pinterest. It was a fairly new website at the time (it was back when you had to even have an invite to join!) and a blogger I followed was talking about how awesome it was and I when checked it out I quickly found that IT WAS SO AMAZING. There were crafts, DIYs, wedding ideas, and yummy recipes. So. Many. Ideas. Like any crafty (and slightly insane) girl, I was in love. (As a side note, I’m finding it really hard not to use all caps for a majority of this paragraph. It was a very exciting time.) This love affair went on for years. Pinterest was actually the place I found XO Sarah, the first blog I came across that talked about freelancing and how she quit her day job. It was one of the sparks that started my entire business. I’d browse for hours to find new crafts to do, a fun new dessert to try, or a new dream to dream.
So, why after I’ve gone on and on about how much I loved Pinterest am I saying that I’ve stopped using it “for business”?
Honestly, it’s simple. When I was optimizing my Pinterest account for business, I just didn’t love it anymore. Once I started trying to use strategic pinning on Pinterest, I found that I wasn’t liking what my feed turned into. It had become business article after business article and hardly any fun pins were showing up. I stopped even wanting to get on Pinterest because I had previously used Pinterest for creative inspiration and fun things and now it had become another extension of my work. Totally not what I wanted, you know?
Another problem I had was with the basic rules of strategic pinning. If you don’t know, the idea is that you essentially create boards that would appeal to your target market. Then, you pin about 50 times a day to these boards with corresponding pins. And within those 50, you also pin some of your own content. This way the Pinterest algorithm will see your pins getting interaction and boost your pins to more people. I’m sure that’s a dumbed down way to explain it, but that’s a cliff’s note version at least :). You might be thinking that 50 seems like a lot…and it is if you’re actually clicking through each pin and looking at the content. What is recommended is that you just pin Pins that are relevant to your boards, without even clicking on them. As long as they have a good title and a good picture, they are good Pins. There’s just something that feels wrong about that to me. Maybe I’m the only one, but I like to use Pinterest as a way to save links to web pages I want to return to because they have valuable content, not just because the title sounds cool.
Now, I completely understand the reason for this strategy…I just don’t like it. Especially for my personal Pinterest page that I’ve been using since 2011. I’ve spent years pinning things I loved and thought were beautiful, creative or interesting and informative. To just start pinning things without reading them? I just can’t do that. And I don’t think it’s really that authentic that way. Now, if you’re mostly pinning things like outfits or hairstyles or home decor or some other type of product, just going off the picture is probably fine. People aren’t always clicking through to pins like those (unless they want to buy it). But, when a lot of what my target market is interested in is business articles, I just think things like that should be read before they’re shared.
Another problem I’ve seen from accounts that are using this strategy is that while they are showing up in my feed a lot, I’ve also noticed that they’re sharing the same content over and over again. Or, I’ll see a related pin with the same content from something that users I followed keep pinning (thanks Pinterest algorithm). I know the related pins issue isn’t the fault of these other pinners, but it really drives me nuts. I actually unfollowed some of the more popular accounts that preach this strategy because their pins were clogging up my feed. And whenever I start to see too many similar posts from one account, I’ve continued to unfollow them. Maybe that’s drastic, but I’ve made the choice that I want my Pinterest page to be fun! Sure, I pin some business articles, but they’re ones that I’ve read and ones that I know have good information that I want to be able to refer back to in the future.
Because you know what happened when my feed became clogged with so many business articles?
I stopped getting on Pinterest for design inspirations. I wasn’t using it as a source for a creative outlet anymore. I didn’t have a place to see new ideas, new color palettes, or new styles. I had less inspiration to craft something or to try out a new recipe. If I had a specific need, I’d hop on Pinterest and do a search, but I wouldn’t spend time scrolling through my home feed at all.
And that’s why I’m not trying any sort of Pinning Strategy anymore. Now, am I saying that I’ll never, ever optimize my Pinterest page for my business? No. I love the fact that people are getting amazing results with it. It’s awesome that you can get so much traffic (and even clients!) from Pinterest. I’m not ruling out that at some point I’ll venture into some sort of Pinterest Strategy, but for now I’m just going to keep Pinterest a fun outlet for my creativity. I’m going to look forward to getting on it and finding a fun project for our house (…or you know, something I can art direct while my husband does the actual work) and a new meal to add to the dinner menu (if you’ve seen my Let’s Eat board, you know it will probably have potatoes in it…I guess I have a thing for potatoes). Call it work/life balance or call it stubborn and crazy, but for now I want Pinterest to be less about work and more about fun. Now, I’m off to make some Twix Brownies, Paint a flower in watercolor and DIY re-do the backsplash in our kitchen. Okay. Maybe not that last one.
And if you enjoy crafting, patterns, home decor and the occasional business or Etsy post, Let’s be friends on Pinterest!
What do you think? Am I wrong? Do you use Pinterest for your business? Or just for fun, like me? Let me know in the comments!
I love this! I stopped using Pinterest (except for work) a while ago for the very same reasons you mentioned. I think it is time for me to clean out some of the biz stuff and to start getting inspired by the other things I am really interested in!
I’m so happy you said that! I wrote this post because I thought there HAD to be others out there that felt the same as me! Glad I’m not the only crazy one :) Here’s to getting Pinterest back to everything we loved about it from the beginning.
Amen!
That’s a pretty reasonable… uh, reason for not using Pintrest for business. I don’t even want to like something on Facebook if I haven’t read it (except for things like The Onion); pinning it seems equivalent to sharing or posting it to your wall on Facebook. It basically says that you endorse and agree with it, and how can you do that if you don’t read it all? It would take a really long time to read 50 pins!
On the other hand, could you possibly have a personal account and a Ruby & Sass account? Then again, I guess that doesn’t really solve the “Doesn’t feel right to pin 50 pins I haven’t even read” thing.
Exactly! I have considered having 2 accounts…It would just be hard to keep up with, I think. Since I wouldn’t be able to be logged into both together, I’d have to log in and out depending on what I saw that I wanted to pin.
I pinned a few business articles and then, like you, hated my new feed. I use and LOVE Pinterest for home design (I’ve pinned so many white kitchens!) and recipes, so I’m just using it for that. And I don’t have time to pin 50 business-y (totally a word) things a day.
For real! I don’t have a problem seeing business articles here and there, but I want to see some of those white kitchens and another chocolate chip cookie recipe that I HAVE to try (but probably shouldn’t eat). I don’t really want to get on Pinterest to be guilted into the 10 ways I’m not doing something in my business right or some other helpful article.
I so totally agree with you! I <3 Pinterest, but have never tried to "optimize" it, because it just felt too "corporate" for me… I prefer to stay authentic. And you know what? Simply by using Pinterest in my own way (organically), I've ended up getting over 1.6K followers since May 2015! That's solely from being on there, and pinning what I love and/or am interested in. Sure, maybe I spend FAR too much time on there ((grins)). But, hey… it works. And maybe my SEO or whatever isn't going to be the best… but it still feels "right" for me. So I'm sticking to my methods, and ignoring the "gurus". ;)
Oh, and PS… I’ve lately been feeling like creating a whole new Pinterest account, as I’ve used my personal one to add a few business boards to… and you’re right. Whether it’s the algorithms, or whatever, I’m seeing far too much “business-y” stuff, and not as much of the FUN stuff that I want… which is dampening my interest. We’ll see, though.
Go you! I’m glad your strategy is working for you, t feels so much more authentic that way! I tried creating a separate account years ago and I never pinned on it! The hassle of logging out and logging in never quite worked well for me. I’m wondering too if part of my issues is just Pinterest itself. I pinned quite a few hairstyles the other day (because I’m getting a haircut soon) and now a ton of those have popped up in my feed which is annoying because I don’t need them anymore. I wish there was a “see less of this” option or something. Maybe it’s coming at some point! (hey, a girl can dream!)
You know, sometimes I feel like business sucks the joy out of social media. Social media is supposed to be FUN! And then when the strategy comes rolling it, something gets missing. For example, business + Instagram is not my cup of tea. And Pinterest I use to encourage my foodie habit. While there’s nothing wrong with a strategy, if it’s not fun, don’t do it!
I totally agree! And in my case, trying to use the strategy was keeping my from using Pinterest at all, which completely defeated the purpose! I really love Instagram for business, but I don’t use it as strategically as I should either for the same reason :)
I totally get where you’re coming from with the 50 pins a day thing. You’re right, it’s impossible to be that active if you’re actually vetting the content before you pin…even with a pin scheduler. I have a big problem with just pinning any old image that has a good title, so it’s impossible to keep up with the “power pinners.” I still use Pinterest as a marketing tool, I just know that my growth will be slower than some of my peers.
As for the business pin overload? I guess that’s a reason to keep a personal and a business account. I transitioned my personal account to a business account, but now I’m considering creating a new personal account for the fun stuff because I miss seeing recipes and DIYs.
P.S. I notice you shared this on Pinterest. :)
Haha, you’re right, I did pin it to Pinterest :) I’m not totally against using Pinterest in my business, I’m just not going overboard with a detailed strategy. Though, I do try to at least pin my posts when I write one.
My personal account is transitioned to a business account too, and I tried having two separate ones once in the past, but I never logged into the new business one I created after the first attempt of creating boards and such. I’m okay with seeing some business posts, I just don’t want my entire feed to be FULL of them, you know?
And I’m with you, I’m okay with my growth being a bit slower as long as it feels more authentic to me. :)
Oh God, this! The top part of my Pinterest homepage is just business article after business article, all rehashing the same stuff, with the same headline formulas and the same pastel/golden paperclip aesthetic. I hate it.
And to make matters worse, I don’t even pin that many business articles (certainly not 50 per day… more like 3 a week). I just happen to follow 1-2 group boards where I also post my own stuff, and that’s where all of this keeps coming from. So now I’m torn between unfollowing those boards (and lose pinning rights), or just scrolling further down to see what I actually want to see.
Luckily, I’ve never used Pinterest for design inspiration, it’s more of my “wish list” for interior decoration and clothes, and a place to store my secret moodboards. I usually pin all my content from sites other than Pinterest.
Still, it’s annoying.
Yep…so true!