Increasing your Following and Networking

One of the best ways that you can make your business presence on Pinterest grow larger and attract more followers – which of course leads to more traffic to your site – is by networking with other Pinterest users and becoming part of the community. It isn’t difficult to grow your follower list, but people need to be able to see a face behind the business, and you have to know what (and when) to post that will make you indispensable in the eyes of your followers. Here are some tips on networking with others on Pinterest and increasing the number of followers you have.

Networking

When you join Pinterest, what you are actually doing is joining a community. You may not see the other Pinterest users face-to-face, but they are there and it is important to realize that. You’re not operating in a vacuum. The way that you should look at Pinterest is a community that you belong to and you should make sure that you have something valuable to contribute to the community.

‘It takes a village’ is an apt saying here. You want to actually engage with other people around you and care about what they are posting, because the community is what makes the site so successful.

In order to network successfully, you have to follow a few easy rules. Here are seven things that you need to keep in mind if you are networking on Pinterest.

1. Figure out who your audience is. The first step is to know who you are trying to network with. If you are trying to network with too many people then you are just going to be spinning your wheels. Make sure that you have a clearly defined audience that isn’t a so broad that you cannot compete in the niche.

2. Set some goals for yourself. You want to network but you can’t just start building relationships without a goal in mind. Make sure that you know what you are working for and when you have reached milestones.

3. Look for easy ways that you can connect with other people. Sometimes you just need the simplest thing in common to connect with someone on Pinterest, but look for the easiest ways that you can engage as many people as possible.

4. Find a way to help someone. Look, here’s the thing about human connections: they are made stronger when there is a foundation like help at the beginning of the relationship. If you want your followers to connect with you as a real person, and you want to have the most success at networking, then look for ways, even small ones, where you can help someone else, whether that is with advice or encouragement.

5. Post for people not positions. Even though you really want to be up there drawing in tons of traffic that might lead to sales you need to remember that you are creating for humans and not for the search engines or the Pinterest algorithms. Keep that in mind and design your profile and boards accordingly.

6. Be fascinating. Make your company look as intriguing as possible through the posts that you are making. Make readers think that there is something new and unique going on over at your profile.
7. Give, and then take. No matter what social media site you are talking about, you always need to give before you take. Make sure that you are adding a great deal of value to the Pinterest community before you have the Pinterest community give you value.

Increasing the Number of Followers You Have

The second thing that we’ll talk about is how to increase your followers. While many of the above tips will help you in your overall quest for more followers, these are much more specific suggestions that have the goal of enticing a person to follow your profile or boards. Once you have them on your profile, you’ll be in a position to communicate with them and possibly make them into a customer. Here are three ways to increase the number of followers you have in the shortest amount of time possible.

Post Original Content

Want to be in the top 20% of all Pinterest posts automatically? Then post original content that you have the rights to. Over eighty percent of Pinterest posts are repins so when you post original content you automatically get a boost for doing so. These can be things that you made yourself in Photoshop, like an infographic, or they can be pictures of your products. You obviously don’t want to be too commercial, but if you have original content to post that you think people will actually appreciate, don’t be afraid to pin it.

Repin Content from Other People

Just because you are posting original content doesn’t mean that you should neglect reposting other people’s content. When you repost something, you’ll get some traffic coming in that can help you build up your own content and profile as well. Plus, when you repin content from others that you find useful, you are going to feel like part of the Pinterest community, and more importantly, they will feel as if you are part of the community as well, adding value to the time they spend on Pinterest.

Don’t Forget to Follow Others

Just as with Twitter, when you follow others on Pinterest you get some of them that will follow you back. This is a great way for you to build up your own audience, but you do want to keep in mind that the best use of this feature is to find people in your specific niche and follow them, hoping that they’ll follow you back, because they will not only be more apt to enjoy your content, they will probably spread the word to others that are interested in your particular niche.