My Pinterest Process

Blogging is competitive. Like any type of writing, there’s so much content out there that it’s hard to get your voice heard. Simply sharing links isn’t going to capture an audience’s attention. You have to attack it from so many angles.

One angle that many bloggers swear by is Pinterest. This social media platform once used for finding recipes and decorating ideas has become an image and keyword-based search engine. It takes time and practice to develop eye-catching pins and to schedule, repin, and build an audience.

Pinterest is a tricky process. It has an ever-changing algorithm and frustrating road blocks. But when it works, it’s a game changer.

Over the years I have come up with a quick and efficient process that helps to draw modest traffic to my modest site without the expense of pin schedulers or virtual assistants. Here is my Pinterest process below.

Designing banners and pins

I make my pins after I have written my post and have come up with a title and gathered images for that post. Like most bloggers, I use Canva to create a banner image and pins for each post.

When I first started using Canva, I didn’t take it too seriously. I didn’t worry about pins looking good or having a similar design or color scheme. With more reading, though, I began to understand how crucial image designs are to the Pinterest audience.

Over time, I’ve developed some templates in Canva with a blue color scheme (to match my blog’s theme). Each has pre-set, easy-to-read fonts that I overlap over photos and solid boxes to help the text stand out. Now, it takes just a few minutes to upload a photo from the post and alter the text to fit the title of my piece.

After creating a banner or pin, I download each one as a .png file and save them to my computer. Each image is labeled with the title of the piece, each word separated by hyphens, and each pin numbered.

When I’m finished, I have one banner and three pins for each post. For example, if I’m scheduling an author interview, my images will be named:

• Author-interview-John-Smith-Banner
• John-Smith-1
• John-Smith-2
• John-Smith-3

Organizing and preparing pins

Each set of images is saved to a folder in my computer that contains all of the materials for that post. Before I begin to put together my post, I take all of the images that I’m going to use in the post, save them with relevant names (separated by hyphens), and upload them to a site called Tiny Png.

This site will compress my images. Then, I resave each one, replacing the original file with the new, compressed file. I include at least one of my pins with this group since that image will be embedded into the post for easy pinning.

Before I start putting together my post, I email pins 1 and 2 to myself. That way, if I’m not at my personal laptop on the day the post is published, I can schedule my pins from anywhere.

Pin 1 will be posted to Pinterest on the date of the publication. Pin 2 will be scheduled on the same day, but it will not be published until a later date. Since you can’t schedule a post on Pinterest with a URL that isn’t yet live, I have to wait until the date of publication to do this step. So, these two pins are put aside for the time being.

Pin 3 goes into my “pins to schedule” folder to be published at a way later date in the future. I keep a folder of already made pins for older posts that I can schedule weeks, or even months, later to help draw traffic back to that post once the initial rush has died down. More on that later.

Date of publication

On the morning that my post is published, I pull up my email, download pins 1 and 2, and save them to my computer. My posts tend to be scheduled weeks or even months in advance. So, these pins are all stored in a separate folder, and I search for them by name to easily access them.

Pin 1 is pinned immediately (usually between 7:00-8:00 am when my post is published). Now that the post is live, I can add the link to the pin along with a description complete with relevant hashtags and title. Before I publish, I copy the description that I made for that pin. Then, I publish it to my board titled “Laura’s Books and Blogs.”  

The pin 1 image is also embedded in my post along with a WordPress plugin that allows readers to click on it and pin automatically to Pinterest in a popup screen. So, readers can repin directly from my site rather than trying to hunt the pin down on my Pinterest account. This way, readers who come to my site from somewhere other than Pinterest can share my link on their Pinterest account just as easily as someone who clicks on the link directly from Pinterest.

Scheduling future pins

After pin 1 is published, I create a new pin and upload the pin 2 image. I then paste the description from pin 1 into the description and tweak it a little so that it’s not identical to the pin 1 description. This saves me from trying to remember the gist of what I wrote before and which hashtags I used in pin 1.

Instead of posting immediately, I click on “schedule for a later date” at the bottom of the pin creator.  I pull up the calendar and then look for the furthest date out that Pinterest’s scheduler will allow (about two weeks from the current date).

I used to schedule my posts between 8:00-10:00 am. However, I’ve since switched to between 7:00-8:30pm, and I’m finding that I’m getting more engagement. So, feel free to play around with times to see if it affects the amount of saves and link clicks your pins receive.

The second pin I will schedule to pin to one of my group boards. Then, I’ll go back to the published pin 1 and repin that pin to a few other group boards as well to give it more exposure that morning.

Repin threads

Each day, I look for posts in the Pinterest Facebook groups I have joined and share that day’s pin in the share threads. A lot of my sharing is done on my phone. So, once a pin is published that day, I’ll copy the link to my phone clipboard so that it’s ready to share whenever I come across a share thread on social media.

Tip: Be sure to include the title of your pin in the Facebook comment since the preview often doesn’t display the pin title on Facebook.  

Not only do these group threads give my pin exposure, but they give me other pins to repin for my daily repin count. I have a specific board set up called “Blog Posts by Other Bloggers.” This board contains a number of categories that interest me and that I frequently come across in the blogging community. So, I always have a relevant board for other bloggers’ content.

I try to repin a minimum of 15 pins a day. After doing a trial-run with Tailwind, I decided not to subscribe to their scheduling platform. So, I manually repin. It only take a few seconds to save a pin, and if I spread out my pinning throughout the day, it can be just like scheduling with Tailwind. Let’s face it, we’re mindlessly scrolling through social media anyway. At least repining manually allows me to be productive while I scroll.

It’s important to follow the repin rules of a Facebook group thread. Otherwise, the entire process is ineffective. Don’t wait to see if other people are repinning your pin before you repin theirs. Do what you’re supposed to do, and if you’re regularly not receiving engagement, don’t follow suit. Just leave the group.

Group boards

I belong to dozens of group boards on Pinterest and have them organized in alphabetical order. Each day, I visit a few of these boards and repin a few pins from each one. This makes it easy to add to my daily repin count, contribute to the group board, and support other bloggers.

If I don’t think that a group board is particularly effective, I’ll leave it. If I’m not getting much engagement on my pins but am finding a lot of good content to repin, I’ll stay just for that reason.

I’ve also created two group boards of my own: Entertainment Blogs Group Board and Blogging, Reading, and Writing Group Board. This gives me a space to repin my own content and seek out relevant pins from other bloggers with content similar to mine.

Scheduling and reorganizing pins

Every two weeks, I spend a little time on Sunday morning scheduling pins from my “pins to schedule” folder. I then schedule a pin for each available day in Pinterest’s pin scheduler, leaving out the days when I have posts scheduled (typically Mondays and Fridays). Those are the days when I’m posting pin 1 of the new post.

Pinterest allows you to schedule up to 12 days out from the current date. So, this holds me over for awhile before I have to schedule again. It also keeps my content flowing on autopilot most days.

I schedule my older pins entirely out of order, pulling from a mixed bag of content. Many of my posts are evergreen, but if I do have a pin that leads to a trendy or seasonal post, I’ll seek them out to coincide with a relevant topic, holiday, or event.

After I have scheduled my pins for that timeframe, I also go through my two group boards, remove any irrelevant pins or spammy members. Members must request to join. So, I try to keep any spam or product accounts off of my boards, but sometimes they sneak through. I also move pins into their appropriate subcategories.

One of my biggest gripes with Tailwind is that you can’t schedule into a board’s subcategories. I like to keep my boards clean and relevant to their topics. I know that my followers don’t have that option if they’re using Tailwind. So, I just do this clean up every two weeks or so to keep everything looking neat and easy to find.

I also try to repin to my group boards almost daily, even if it’s not one of my pins. This makes the group board not only worth joining but worth returning to regularly.

Making progress

My progress has been slow and steady over the past two years. What has helped is creating professional-looking pins, pinning to group boards, and ultimately, finding catchy content that resonates with the Pinterest community. I can’t say that my niche of books and writing is super popular, but given that, I have seen an uptick in engagement. Pinterest is now my third highest traffic source.

It takes a lot of work, but it has also taught me a lot about creating eye-catching designs, engaging titles, and playing to my audience. And I feel that those skills have improved the overall look of my blog and individual posts.

What is your Pinterest process? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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