So, you've started to recognize the marketing advantages of Pinterest and decided to set up a presence there. You've built the perfect Pinterest bio, created the perfect Pinterest boards, researched the perfect pinning schedule, and you're ready to go. The only thing missing? Your Pinterest followers.
Or are they?
We often think that for our social media marketing efforts to really take hold, we need a lot of followers. After all, is it really worth the time and energy spent on creating and posting to your social media profiles if there is no audience to see them?
One of the major advantages of Pinterest is the fact that it is not just another social media channel: it's a search engine with social media on the side. Do you have followers on Google or Yahoo? Are people still able to find you?
[click_to_tweet tweet=”One of the major advantages of Pinterest is the fact that it is not just another social media channel: it's a search engine with social media on the side.” quote=”One of the major advantages of Pinterest is the fact that it is not just another social media channel: it's a search engine with social media on the side.” theme=”style1″]
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1. Pinterest Followers Aren't the Only Ones Looking for Your Content
Like we said, Pinterest is structured to be more of a search engine rather than a social media networking channel. This means that when you've finished optimizing your profile and pins for the search engine side of Pinterest, you're going to be found by any Pinterest users who are searching for your content — not just your followers. Have an article on social media that you'd like to share? Pin it and you'll find that everyone who is interested in social media will be able to view your pin.
You can really maximize your traffic on Pinterest by using the right combination of keywords, hashtags, and by optimizing your profile, boards, and pins to be found by the search engine. And the best part is — your reach is not dictated by your Pinterest followers. It can be oh so much bigger than that.
2. Get an Objective View of your Pins
Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all have one thing in common: the first people we connect with tend to be people we already know. And each of these platforms welcomes you to your new account by walking you through how to invite your friends and contacts to come and follow you. So, these channels help you get started with building a following much faster. And because your first followers are usually friends and family, they are usually more than happy to help spread the word for you — sometimes without even being asked. While this is very nice and supportive of your friends and family, it also means that your insights and analytics might be slightly skewed.
Pinterest, on the other hand, places almost no importance on the number of people you follow or the number of people who follow you. And even if your friends and family do jump on board and start following you right away, they probably aren't doing so to share your marketing pins. So it's much easier to see exactly how your pins are performing based solely on merit, optimization, graphics, tribes, and group boards.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”It's much easier to see exactly how your pins are performing based solely on merit, optimization, graphics, tribes, and group boards on Pinterest.” quote=”It's much easier to see exactly how your pins are performing based solely on merit, optimization, graphics, tribes, and group boards on Pinterest.” theme=”style1″]
3. Spam away!!
You will almost never hear us giving you permission to spam anything, but a small Pinterest account with few or even no followers? Having no Pinterest followers means having no audience to annoy! As you're building your boards, if you want to take a few minutes to search some pins and get them filled up, now is the perfect time to do that. Once you start building a following, this advantage goes away as posting too many pins back to back can lower your reach and overall engagement.
But until then? There is no better time to pin 32 different pins for cheesecake recipes in a minute and a half than when you have no followers.
Although the social marketer in each of us longs to be able to grow a targeted and engaging tribe of followers no matter what channel we expand to, one of the major advantages of Pinterest is that your content will precede you. The size of your audience doesn't have to determine the size of your reach.
#EmpowerSocial
