How to drive more traffic to your blog with Pinterest

 

The latest social media craze – Pinterest — is not only fun, but can help to drive traffic to your blog. Who would have thought that pinning photos you like could be so addictive, but this social media newcomer is getting more trust and interest from women than Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

Besides adding the follow button to your website, what other ideas and best practices can you use to make Pinterest help your blog traffic?

• Be social. Since Pinterest is a social network, you can use many of the best practices you already use with your blog and other social networks. That means you need to spend time with Pinterest, engage with the visitors, regularly update your Pinterest account, perhaps incorporating some of these ideas into your social mix. I love how Pottery Barn creates new content around holidays that gives me ideas on how to decorate for special holiday get-togethers, like their Red, White & Blue pinboard for the Fourth of July.
• Consider hosting a contest.  High Point Market conducted a Pinterest campaign last October to promote High Point Market Week to recruit and showcase top home fashion trendsetters as their Fall 2011 Style Spotters. They re-pinned top boards of favorite products and trends to their Pinterest page and asked followers to vote on the boards.  Take a lead from High Point Market or hold a contest where users create a pinboard to show why they like your brand or niche. Perhaps its photos of fun and unique places they’ve been wearing your line of clothes.  They send you their pinboard link, you check them out and award the best pinboard with a prize that aligns with your brand.  But make sure that you abide by Pinterest’s terms of use to make sure it’s okay in Pinterest’s eyes.
• Host a User-Generated Pinboard for testimonials and fan engagement:  Engage with your followers by dedicating a pinboard to their pins. Pinterest lets you open up a pinboard to other contributors, so ask a few of your top followers to pin images on the board that reflect how they use your brand or live the style that you advocate on your blog.
• Leverage hashtags. For your next campaign, create a pinboard with interesting and original content, and tag it with the hashtag that you are using on Twitter to track interest across the various channels of your campaign.
• Don’t forget to take advantage of the image text. It’s not only about the image, spend time to write the accompanying copy since it will be included with the pin when people re-pin the image onto their own pinboard. Consider placing your website’s URL to let users find out more about the product or your blog.

Make sure to follow iFabbo on Pinterest here