I’m spilling a big blogging secret over here today; we’re talking all about Tailwind Tribes, how to use them, and some tips for maximizing your time on Pinterest! Pinterest is my number one source of blog traffic so I wanted to share some of the ways I leverage it. It’s worth noting that I find this a great platform to dig into; traffic from Pinterest tends to be steady and reliable on most days and crazy, insane on a good day!
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes Click To Tweet{This post may contain affiliate or referral links. I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through a link in this post. Thank you for your support of What Nicole Wore.}
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes | What Is Tailwind and What Are Tribes?
This is somewhat of a continuation of my introductory post about Tailwind from last year! {You can check it out here!} Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduler and hands down one of the best investments I’ve made for my personal brand. While many forms of social media have a life span for a post, Pinterest lets things live forever in their search engine based platform.
Sharing one of the BEST investments I made in my blog! Click To TweetRELATED: Follow Me on Pinterest
Tailwind Tribes are essentially private groups in the Tailwind site; some are private and some public. Users can add their pins to a Tribe for others to schedule onto their own boards. Most will have rules on ratios, “pin something from someone else for every pin you add,” and the Tribes allow you to extend your reach. PS. Not on Tailwind yet? Sign up here and get a free month.
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes | What Tribes Look Like
Once in Tribes, you’ll see the above screen. When you select ‘Type a Board Name’ all of your Pinterest boards will be available in a drop down. You’re able to see how many pins you’ve added to a Tribe as well as how many you’ve shared. Remember, you want to be sharing more than you’re adding! Be sure to look at the Tribe rules on the left column to see if a Tribe has ruled about not sharing to group boards, a different share ratio or rules on collage images or affiliate links.
A breakdown of Tailwind Tribes and how they work: Click To TweetRELATED: What a Day of Blogging Looks Like + Biggest Misconceptions
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes | Other Scheduling Tips
Remember the key to Pinterest is to be consistent; this is a huge part of why paying for a scheduler is such a good investment for bloggers and brands. Once you’ve set your number of pins per day, remember to continue adding to and shuffling your queue to make sure you’re pinning to a variety of boards and different content. When I add photos from a blog post into my queue they automatically go to the end and so the same photos are all scheduled to pin in one day; I always make sure to shuffle my pins so that there’s some variety.
The key to Pinterest is to be consistent. Click To TweetRELATED: Why You Need to Experience Your Own Blogging Journey
Put the app on your phone! For blog posts, I like to add them from my laptop, but I installed the Tailwind app and the mobile extension onto my phone so that if I’m waiting at the doctor’s office or bored while riding in the car I can open up Pinterest and add some content to my queue. Don’t only pin your content; I see a lot of accounts falling into this trap. I’ve found that pinning lots of other content even outside of my niche seems to have helped me reach a larger audience on Pinterest.
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes | More Pinterest Tips
It’s not about follower count. Hallelujah, am I right? While it’s always nice to have a large following so that you can throw that onto your media kit, if you’re using Pinterest correctly you’ll be able to share your monthly views instead. The big key to this? SEO and keyword research. This can be time consuming but as SEO plays a role in more than just Pinterest, I find it time worth using.
The social media platform where your follower count doesn't mean a thing! Click To TweetRELATED: Social Media Scheduling for Bloggers: How to Increase Traffic & Grow on Social Media
Before I hit publish on a blog post, I go through all of the photos and enter “Alternative Text.” This is a brief description of what the blog post is about {I use my meta description}, and then I enter some of the keywords that I want the image to show up for. For this example I may use things like, “navy shirtdress outfit,” “work wear inspiration women,” “white leather tote affordable.” You can open Pinterest to see what pops up when you search your blog post’s topic and use this relevant keywords that pop up.
Why you should be using alternative text on all blog images: Click To TweetRELATED: 15 Hilarious, #Basic, and Thoughtful Things Only Bloggers Do
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes | Even More Pinterest Tips
Do not pin horizontal images; if you have a bunch of horizontal images from a blog post, go into Photoshop, Canva, or Adobe Spark and put the images together to make a vertical {tall} graphic. These perform better and are more eye catching on Pinterest. {Square images are okay, but vertical images are always ideal.} The optimal size is a 2:3 ratio and at least 600 pixels wide. NOTE: I don’t typically resize outfit photos, I just pin those as they are.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Pinterest algorithm can “read” text overlays! While I don’t usually put these on outfit photos that I’m pinning, it can be MAJOR for the beauty and lifestyle content I produce.
How I got 500 views in 2 days from changing 1 thing on Pinterest. Click To TweetRELATED: Why I’m Not Sweating the Instagram Algorithm Anymore
Last year, I wrote a blog post about going to a nail salon and getting dip nails for the first time. I pinned an image and moved on. While going through old content this summer, I took the same image, added a translucent rectangle over and the text, “The Truth About Dip Nails.” The blog post that hadn’t been popular got over 500 views in less than two days — just from making a small adjustment to a pin. {Here’s the original pin and the updated pin.} A few people asked about numbers: this pin has had over 28,000 impressions. When I originally pinned I didn’t have the overlay, but also hadn’t input any keywords.
How to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Tailwind Tribes | Let’s Get Analytical
Finally, make sure to look at your Pinterest analytics. You’ll be able to see a breakdown of your top pins, which boards are doing well, and more information about what’s sticking with your Pinterest audience. In the past, I’d read that the more group boards you joined, the better. Not necessarily true — if a board has too many people or a handful of people that are pinning irrelevant content, it hurts you and your content. Be sure to check out analytics to see which of your personal boards are doing well and which group boards are helping you.
How to use Pinterest to help with your editorial calendar: Click To TweetRELATED: Behind the Scenes of Blogging: What Goes into a Blog Post
I mentioned looking at your individual boards, this can definitely be helpful for bloggers when trying to figure out what content to post next. While personal style posts are my bread and butter, I’m able to see what’s trending and what kind of content is also popular with my audience. This allows me to see, “oh hey, people want to know about affordable lipsticks and colors to buy,” “people are starting to look for fall outfit ideas,” etc.
Don’t forget, you can sign up and receive a free month of Tailwind & hopefully this post was helpful in figuring out a Pinterest strategy that can translate into page views for you!
GIRL- what perfect timing with this since I just tweeted I need to learn Tailwind! I think I need to sit down soon with some wine or tea and make this happen! Hahah!
xoxo A
http://www.southernbelleintraining.com