I’ve always been a huge fan of Pinterest. Before Pinterest existed, I was totally that girl cutting magazine articles and keeping them in a binder for reference. So when Pinterest entered the world back in 2010, I was beyond stoked. I am not sure exactly when my account was created, but it wasn’t too many months after Pinterest was introduced. It took no time for me to be absolutely hooked!

Obviously, my purpose for using it then, and my purpose for using it now are completely different. However, I am convinced, having an older account and having organic followers already, are probably small factors in the success of my account.

My stats

So before we get into the nitty gritty details – let me tell you a tiny bit about where I’m starting from. I feel like everyone wants to talk about where they are at, but no one likes to share where they started and I want to be completely real about it.

So in the beginning of my blogging journey I had about 400 followers and 5,000 monthly viewers.

Now I’m a true small town girl, grew up with a graduating class of like 60 something. True story. So I don’t have a ton of Facebook friends to start, maybe like 400. Of course in the beginning my friends and I all followed each other so they were the measily lot of followers I had to start – maybe 70 – but I also gained a lot of followers organically. Not that I had a huge following – but a following already with a lot more random people than people I actually knew.

I mean I’m like that. If I’m looking at a pin I really like, or a topic I’m really interested in, I will click through to check out the board that its saved on. If I like the board, I follow it. If I really like it, I follow all that person’s boards. So I know people gain followers organically by pinning good stuff. I also pin a broad variety of stuff as I have lots of different interests.

You can see in the screen shot (in the most literal way because my PrtSc key is broken)  below – my stats steadily grew from – and this is in just 3 months! I didn’t start getting “serious” about my blog until late February. I had like one blog post and was spending a lot more time figuring out WordPress than doing anything else. But in late February, I finally started posting and promoting content.

You can see in this series of pictures, on March 19 my Pinterest monthly viewers were 7, 651. From that point on, they steadily increased pretty dramatically. By May 31^st they had spiked to an all time high of 555, 342. They then have settled and remained pretty steady in the 400-450K monthly viewers range. As of today, they are trending back up to 433K.

Now, I don’t believe this are amazing stats. They are decent, but I’ve got a LONG ways to go. My short term goal is 1 million viewers by October. I have several new strategies I’m planning to test as well. 

Want to know how?

Of course you do. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. You want to see how you can do this yourself.

So, because I’m just a blogger with big dreams, probably just like you, I’m going to share the exact strategy I used to do this.

Gain followers

Like I said, I started out with maybe 400 followers. I wish I could go back and look, but Pinterest Analytics doesn’t appear to let you track followers (If you know how – please let me know!). That is starting in March.

Currently, as of today, I have about 1,400 followers. I am not going to lie. I’ve put in my due diligence on the promo threads for bloggers, and will likely continue to do so. But…I’ve also grown organically at a rate of 5-10 new followers a week. Not a ton but it adds up.

I go a lot more into this in my blog post about How to Gain Followers on Pinterest, but the short of it is pinning good content and group boards.

All these combined have helped me grow over 1,000 followers in 3 months – and continue to grow steadily.

Pinterest has commented many times on the importance of followers, so if you are limited on your time, be sure to prioritize gaining followers.

Pin a lot and not just your own stuff.

If you want the Pinterest Gods to smile in your favor, don’t just pin your own stuff. I try to keep a mix of about 60/40 (60-others 40-my own). Many bloggers will tell you 80/20, but at the time, this is the strategy working for me.

I try to visit the trending section daily, and share a few great pins from there too. I want to pin quaility content that my followers will enjoy and save. My goal is to drive traffic, and having good pins in crucial to that. Which brings me to…

Pin appealing images

Think about how many pins you, yourself pass by daily on Pinterest. If you are like me, and on Pinterest a couple times a day, hundreds, sometimes thousands.

Now think about what makes you actually click through to a pin. Topic, obviously, but beyond that. Usually you have dozens, if not hundreds of choices for a specific pin. What makes you click through to that one pin?

For me a huge factor is the pin design. You need to make sure the pins you are pinning are something that your audience will actually be drawn to, and want to interact with. I explore the foundations of good pin design in another post, but the basic idea is to have a vertical Pin with bright, inviting images and leading text. Be sure, not only to make sure your pins follow these standards, but also that the other pins you pin are as well.

Join a ton of group boards.

You need to be able to promote your content beyond your own reach. That is where Pinterest group boards come in.

Whatever you blog about – try and find as many group boards as possible in that topic area. Personally, I join primarily parenting and crafting boards, though I do have a few other topics I write about and joined boards that work for those as well.

Pinning to these boards allows you to get your pins in front of new eyes that don’t already follow you. While there has been some debate about Pinterest’s feelings on the use of group boards, so far they have done nothing but help me! The are certainly a part of my strategy, I don’t plan on abandoning any time soon.

Create your own group board

The purpose of this is two fold. This will keep your board fluid, with other people constantly adding to your pins. Your followers, who follow you probably due to your writing, niche, get more content, hopefully content they enjoy and interact with. This increases your reach.

It also can be another strategy to gain followers. Most bloggers, myself included, request that anyone asking to join a group board followers them back. This also helps grow your following.

Tailwind

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you.

Here’s what I consider the biggest part of my strategy. Tailwind. If you’ve been on the fence, and not sure if it’s worth it, it’s time to pull the trigger y’all. I believe Tailwind was the single largest factor in my exponential growth. And they have a free trial! Give it a go. You won’t regret it. Plus, they are Pinterest approved, so you don’t have to worry about it working against you.

In fact – I’ll make it super easy for you! Sign up by clicking here.

My exact strategy at the moment is to schedule, pretty much exclusively, my own content in Tailwind. I don’t have a ton of posts yet. Maybe 50? So I’m putting out about 12-15 Pins a day, but hoping to steadily increase that as I create new Pins for old posts and create more content. Some exceptions to my own content would include guest posts I do, or roundups I participate in, or to help out a fellow blogger out.

I join group boards several times a month.  I attempt to join 10-15 at a time.  As I join more and more boards, I create board lists in Tailwind and schedule my pins to each relevant board at 1 day intervals so I don’t look like I’m spamming Pinterest.

So far that’s worked well for me. However, I think part of any strategy should be a plan to not remain stagnate. I don’t think that’s every a recipe for growth. So I do plan to evolve my strategy as time goes on, starting with some big changes I’ll be making in July.

I’ve been studying the Live sessions Pinterest has been doing, and reading other bloggers have to say about it.  From this I’ve developed my own theory about some things that may give my Pinterest profile an extra boost!

So be sure to stay tuned! I’ve got a ton of ideas for strategies to continue to grow my Pinterest reach.  And as soon as I have data to support my theories, I’ll be back to share it with you so make sure you sign up for my emails!  Also, be sure to follow me on Pinterest, as I’m pinning what I’m reading, which may help you develop your own unique strategies for success.