Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're joined by Faye Strange of Strange social. And we'll be talking about Pinterest. Welcome, Faye.
Hello. Thank you for having me.
You're very welcome. So Pinterest is a platform that we've probably all heard of, and probably most people don't use, at least not for their businesses. They might use it for personal use. So it'll be really interesting to hear who and why and where and what and all the others about using Pinterest for your business.
Yeah.
So what kind of businesses would you recommend use Pinterest, in your opinion, Faye?
So with Pinterest, there's this myth that Pinterest is just there for people to find recipes or to go to if you've got a DIY project or you want to find a kid's craft idea. But actually,
Or you're planning your wedding
Or you're planning your wedding. Yes, absolutely. But actually, there's a lot more to Pinterest than that. And it's an opportunity to reach a worldwide audience on Pinterest. So the businesses that I would recommend for Pinterest would be businesses who have well, I guess you've got your two types of businesses. You've got your product based businesses and you've got your service businesses. So if you've got a product or a service that you can sell remotely or a product that you can sell worldwide, Pinterest is absolutely for you. It can be for any type of business, as long as you are able to provide that service, to say, a customer in America or in Scotland.
Okay. So it's a more global audience, really. Are there a lot of people in the UK on it, or do you find that the majority of the audience are in the USA, Canada?
Well, the USA and Canada, obviously, they've got a massive audience over there. The UK is one of Pinterest's biggest audiences, but it's very under utilised over here, especially by businesses. So there is a real opportunity to make an impact on Pinterest, especially at the moment. They're really kind of pulling out a lot of stops to get creators and businesses on board at the minute. Like in 2022, they are going to be introducing monetization for creators as well. So that's an exciting development to look out for next year.
I wanted to ask, exactly how much time do you think businesses need to spend working on Pinterest? Because there are some platforms that are moderately busier to manage, like Twitter, for instance, is massively busier to manage, whereas Facebook would be less busy. So where does Pinterest stand amongst the social media platforms?
So with Pinterest, you need to spend a bit of time at the start, optimising your account. So that includes doing your keyword research, making sure your profile and your boards are optimised with your keywords. So it takes a bit of an investment in your time at the start. Then you really need to get yourself into a routine of pinning. Pinterest loves regular content. It loves you to be consistent, so you can't really expect I'll just turn up once a month, throw a load of pins at it and walk away to get the best results. You really need to kind of drip your content. So like one pin a day or something or one pin every two days. If that's more manageable.
How important is repinning? You've got your own pins that you create. But how important is it finding other people's pins and repinning those. Is that integral?
No, it is not actually, not anymore. Pinterest really want their creators and their businesses to focus on their own fresh content. And when you're repinning other people's pins, it can throw your statistics off and Pinterest have actually said to people that they do not want you to be pinning other people's stuff so much. So the odd pin here and there is okay, but I wouldn't make it part of your Pinterest strategy. You need to focus on your own content.
Okay.
So you mentioned there about optimising and keywords, so that sounds very much like Google and SEO. So how scary is that for businesses?
So it's not scary at all. And you know Pinterest, they want to help you as much as they can. When you type a sentence into Google, and it comes up with the list of the most search for phrases. Well, that happens on Pinterest as well. So if you've got the keywords associated with your business, start off just by typing that in and see what suggestions pop up. And they also have this tool called Pinterest Trends, and you can find this in your analytics under the Analytics tab. And that's where Pinterest will tell you what people are searching for most frequently. And you can type your keywords into that as well. And you will get the top keyword searches and you can see how they are searched for throughout the year. So that's a really useful tool for planning your content for the next twelve months.
Sounds like Google Adwords, doesn't it?
It's very interesting. And you were saying about dripping your content. So one pin a day. So is there time savers platforms that people can use that can help them? Or does Pinterest frighten upon that? And then we're talking algorithms and that sort of thing that we all know Zuckerberg and stuff don't like you pre scheduling or using other tools to schedule into their platform. Is Pinterest like that or are they nice?
Well, Pinterest say that it makes no difference. And yes, there's a whole variety of schedulers that you can use. There's TailWinds, and you can schedule through tools like Later and loads of other ones. If you want to publish a lot of pins, and that's good to use those tools. However, Pinterest also has its own in-app scheduler that you can use on the website, which is what I use for my clients.
Okay. Wow. My mind is completely blown because I've been using Canva.
You've been using Canva to schedule into Pinterest?
Yeah, I create the pins and then I schedule them. It's become a bit of a crux for me.
Yeah, but okay, so that then leads me to another question. Are there specific sized images that Pinterest favours over others?
Yes. 100%. So your standard Pins are 1000 x 1500 pixels, and Pinterest likes that because it fits in the feed better. You're going to get better search results. It's easier for it to read when it's indexing your Pins. So when you submit your Pin, it goes through the indexing process where it reads what it's about for SEO, which can take a little bit of time. So if you're making sure that you're optimising the size of your Pin, then it's all just going to help the performance of that particular Pin. And there's also another thing called Idea Pins, which are brand new on Pinterest as well. And those are the same as I mentioned as an Instagram story or a TikTok.
What are they? What are "Idea Pins"?
So Idea Pins are the new kids on the block on Pinterest. Pinterest are really encouraging the use of Idea Pins at the moment. So I would say they're like an Instagram story crossed with a TikTok. They're the same dimension. You can have multiple screens that people tap through. You can incorporate video, animation, all of that good stuff to make it as engaging as possible. You can tag your products into them now as well, which is really good. So people can shop directly from your Idea Pins, and they're really designed to kind of increase the engagement on your account and to increase your follower number on Pinterest. The only thing with Idea Pins is that you can't link back to a website, which is why when you're using them in your strategy, you need to think of them in terms of engagement and getting your follower numbers up, and then they in turn, will see your standard Pins when you come to Pin those.
So how long do they last? Are they like stories? Do they disappear after 24 hours?
No, they're there forever, and they're going to be searchable as well. So making sure that you've got all your good SEO juice in them as well is important.
When you say SEO juice. Is that hashtags?
No, not hashtags. You know, your keywords where you're writing them into the titles and into the little description. And also you can add Tags to them. So when you come to post one on Pinterest, you can select up to ten Tags, which helps the indexing process. Again, it helps Pinterest decide who might be interested in seeing that and how to categorise it.
There's just so much in my brain is now going, I need to be on Pinterest. Hang on, hang on. Are there any businesses that shouldn't be on Pinterest or that it wouldn't really benefit them, but they shouldn't, but that it wouldn't really benefit them to be there. Did you just say the police.
Prison service.
So I would say if you've got, like, a small local business where you serve local customers, like feet through the door, then it's probably not worth so much effort to be putting that into Pinterest. But if you can reach people all throughout the UK or you want to reach people in other parts of the world, then yeah, definitely go for Pinterest.
Do you have to be, like on Instagram, where it's pretty pictures and pretty images and pretty everything. Is that important? Or can it be sharing your blog posts with just your one image or sharing about your services with just one image? How many, like pretty pictures do you really need?
So this is an interesting question because different visual styles appeal to different people. And obviously it's important to kind of find a style that's going to stand out on the feeds when someone scrolling. But also again, remembering different things appeal to different people. So I always recommend trying a load of different visual styles. It doesn't really have to be consistently on brand. There's this thing called "Ugly Pins". It is. And you're saying, oh, my gosh, that Pin looks so ugly, but it does so well. And also if you want to rank for a particular keyword, it's a good idea to produce a few different Pins and different styles. So when someone searches for that and all the results come up, you're going to have a few different pins there in different styles. So people aren't necessarily going to think, oh, that's the same Pin as that one. It's going to look fresh. So chances are they might not want to Pin on that one up there, but they might like the look of this one down here. So they'll click on that one instead. So it's a good idea to have a varied approach
When you say different images, so infographics and can you do carousels like you can on other platforms too?
Yes, you can do carousels on Pinterest. You can have video. Video really stands out in the feed because not a lot of people really use it and Pinterest really do want you to use it. So if you can put some video on, then that's great. I find that really nice, striking image that takes up the full area of your Pin works well. And then you can have your text overlay as well. You can just have a play about and see what works.
I didn't know actually about video. So how long can the video be?
I wouldn't recommend more than 60 seconds because people are just scrolling and they're not going to stop and watch much longer than that. And you want them to click through to your website.
Good strong call to action within the video as well.
Yes, absolutely. And another thing to remember that not a lot of people know is that when Pinterest is indexing your Pin that can actually read the words on your Pin image, so it's always worth making sure that they are keywords optimised and the font of the writing is easy to read, and it's not when you get those swirly fonts. If you're using one of those, it's still easy to read.
There's this RSS feed that you can get from your website that it can track Pins. Is that correct? It can track stories and blogs that you put up that you can then create into Pins. Is that correct?
I'm not sure about that.
Neither am I to be honest with you. There's something wrong with my RSS feed and I'm thinking "I have one?".
Every website has an RSS feed.
Oh, I know, but I didn't think it was attached to my Pinterest, but apparently it's having trouble.
Maybe you attached it years ago and forgot.
I get an email two or three times a week, saying there's a problem with my RSS feed.
I don't know. I think a lot of businesses probably thought when they opened Pinterest is about 10/12 years old now, isn't it? And so when it started and it was invite only, I remember it was invite only at the start and nobody complained about it being invite only, unlike some recent platforms that everyone's complained about. We probably all set up our Pinterest accounts, at least personal ones when we were allowed or when we were invited to do so. But if they just lie there dormant or if they've got a few things on there, do they still generate SEO and still generate links or feedback back to your website? Like what would be the ROI, the return on investment of being on Pinterest?
If you've got an old account, there are going to be Pins that may still be doing very well. I would make sure that your links are still working and that they're not leading somewhere that doesn't exist anymore. So if you've got an old personal account like that, you've got a couple of options. You can either turn it into a business account, revamp it, keep those pins on the board somewhere, or you can start a new business account from fresh. Maybe if you haven't got any Pins that are performing and you just want a clean slate, you can start a brand new business account if you want to convert your account and you've got loads of old Pins there and you don't know what to do with them. I would say archive them, don't delete them because then you can lose the followers associated with those boards. So it's always best to archive, never delete.
I just wanted to ask, does Pinterest advertising work very well?
Yeah, it does. I'm not an expert in Pinterest ads myself, but I know that they're brand new. Pinterest I think only started introducing ads last year, maybe the year before. Not a lot of people are using them at the moment, so there's a great opportunity there to be seen and also, just something to bear in mind is that they work differently to Facebook and Instagram ads. Your results kind of accumulate over a longer period. I think it can take four weeks before you can start to see results.
Gosh really? That is a long time.
Yeah. Like I said, I'm no expert in ads, but it's all about them gathering the data on your Pinterest audience, and it takes them four weeks to do that.
Like Facebook. It involves an element of before they actually find out the ads. That makes sense. And I suppose as it's a new tool and not many people are adopting it then it's a very slow moving one.
Wow. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm very keen to try out a few Pins on Pinterest and see how they go and see what works and what doesn't. But what would be one final top tip to someone who is just starting out on Pinterest and just wants to see some initial results before they decide to continue using the platform?
My top tip would be to start by experimenting with Idea Pins. If you want to start seeing results quickly, then Idea Pins are going to start getting you engagement and interaction quicker. So if you can start doing that to get seen by more people and then start publishing your standard Pins in the background. So while you're building your following your standard Pins will be starting to push out to your followers. And it can take a little while for those standard Pins to be indexed to search. It can take like a few weeks for that to happen. So don't be disheartened if you're typing in search and your Pins aren't coming up. It's because that process can take a little while.
So Strange Media what is that? Is that training or consulting or management or a combination of all of them? What do people approach you for directly?
So I do Pinterest management, and I also do Pinterest strategy and training. So I work with business owners. I audit their account and train them and give them a plan of action on how they can move forward as well as full management.
And where can people find you?
They can find me at my website, which is www.StrangeSocial.Com. And there's also like a free mini course on my website as well. If people want to learn a little bit more about Pinterest and how it gets used and how they can use it for their business.
Brilliant. Thank you very much for joining us today, and it's a topic that we haven't discussed. It's the first time in over 100 episodes that we have discussed Pinterest, but I think as marketers, it's definitely something that we need to look into and know about to be able to inform our clients whether it be useful for them or not, and something that even the general public should be on and looking for ideas. And you're doing up your house. So go on, Pinterest.
Yeah, I think it's definitely a platform to watch, especially at the moment. I'm talking with a few business owners who want to move away from Facebook and Instagram, and they're thinking about Pinterest. So, yeah, it's definitely a great platform to be on.
Yeah, it's definitely one to watch. Yes.
Thank you.
We'll be back next week with more Monday Morning Marketing until then, bye bye.