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How I use Pinterest

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I promised you when I celebrated my one year anniversary of starting this blog I would share a little of what I learned along the way.

There are so many opportunities for bloggers, or anyone for that matter, to share with others what they love through Social Media.

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If you try to do all of them, actively, you’ll lose your mind and a lot of sleep trying to keep up.

The biggest advice I can give anyone, blogger or not. Chose the 2 or 3 you enjoy using and go with it. Don’t worry about the rest.

The two I’m most comfortable with are Facebook and Pinterest. These are also my top two referral sites to my blog. That old saying, “you get out what you put into it” is true.

Pinterest is the fastest and easiest way to start getting exposure for your blog. Set up an account and start pinning away. Now if you want followers, you need to pin more than just your own posts. Hopefully you’re blogging because what you write about is something you love (or at least like.) Let that show through in your pinning. If you love food, like I do, pin all those delicious, mouth watering photos you see everyone else post.

I use Pinterest as a virtual recipe box. No more printing out recipes then forgetting what I did with them or wondering is this what it is supposed to look like?

Just look at these Rolo Bars from A Little Bit of Everything
I love them, I will be making them. I Pinned them!
The more things you pin, good things, that you like, the more people will want to follow you on Pinterest. Then when you go to pin your recipes/crafts/ tips-your posts, the more people will see them, repin them, come visit your blog to see more information about that wonderful photo that lured them in to look in the first place.

Make sure you fill in that header space. This is your opportunity to lead followers somewhere else! Link up your website, facebook, twitter. The more ways you give someone to follow you, then the more likely someone is to check it out. If you have a logo or button for your blog, use that as your profile picture. Branding. You what followers to see the same thing every place they go. Also put your website address in the description. Put in your city and state or if your not comfortable with your city, just put your state. People like to follow their neighbors and it can open a line of conversation.

Organize your boards!  What do you want people to follow? Put those first. If you are all about the food, don’t put fashion, gardening or favorite places to visit as your first boards. PUT FOOD! Also, if you have a board for your blog posts, don’t put that in the first few rows. Mix it in with the rest of your food boards. You want people to Follow All. If followers see things they don’t like in the first few rows, they will start picking and choosing boards. Then when you create new boards, they won’t know about it. Follow all is your goal. As you can see, I made my boards Alphabetical but since I’m all about the sweets, I did move Cookies to my first board. Appetizers is not want I wanted people to see first. I want the sugar fiends following me! At First glance the sugar fiends will see Cookies, Bars, Candy, Cakes, Cheesecake and Chocolate Recipes! Hopefully they’ll just hit that Follow All instead of scrolling down to find Ice Cream, Pies /Puddings and Sweets.

Now I have some boards that are odd ball boards but still food related. I put those after my alphabetical list. This is also where my group boards are. And you see, my blog board is down there too.

Speaking of boards, do you have a blogging board? You should. Makes it so easy to save all the tips, like this one, that you’ll come across.

While I use Pinterest to promote my blog, I also use it for myself, to remind myself of things I like, projects I want to try so I have boards for Gardening, Sewing, Crafts, etc. I just put those at the end, in alphabetical order.

There’s so much more to how I use Pinterest so when you’re ready, check out How I Pin to get the most exposure for my posts. For now, go organize your boards and pin away!

Thanks for stopping by and if you’d like a pinterest invite you can leave me a comment or privately e-mail me at mrsjlhayes@gmail.com and I can send you an invite.

I’m sharing this at some of these great parties!

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grace

About Grace

When I was younger, I was constantly in the kitchen helping my mom bake. It was fun getting to play with the flour and always getting to lick the spoon. I’ve always expressed an interest in baking and now I feel that it’s the right time for me to take over. I am a college student working towards a nursing degree as well as a full-time aunt to the sweetest little kids (they might pop up in some of the posts). I’ve learned most of what I know about baking and cooking from my mom, and I am continuing to self-teach through trial and error, which means plenty of sweets to be eaten. Read more...

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Comments

    • Joan Hayes says

      Thanks Betsy, I found that once I took the time to organize, my following increased. Plus it made it much easier for me to go back and find things I had pinned.

  8. Tiffany @ Fizzy Party says

    Great post. I changed my Pinterest header because of this. Shortened it up. Now I just need to figure out how to move my boards around. Great idea. I too am a Pinterest addict. At least I try some of the ideas I pin :)instead of just being a hoarder ha ha

    Reply

  9. Ann @ The Scrapbooking Housewife says

    I don’t know what I would do without Pinterest now! I also use it for recipes! I do post the odd photo from my blog and it gives me a ton of traffic. 🙂 But sometimes I worry that I have too many boards/pins; but is that even possible?! LOL!

    Reply

    • Joan Hayes says

      I think maybe if you’ve got a 1000 or so boards it might be cumbersome but then again, that would just show others how organized you are! I wish they would come up with sub-boards. The I could divide my Main Dishes Board up with beef, chicken, pasta, etc. Pinterest is always in my top 2 for referrals.

  11. cathy@my1929charmer says

    Stopping by from Nifty Thrifty. I love pinterest, and really have not utilized it for my recipes? These are great tips and I thank you for that! My fingers are crossed you’ll share your creative inspiration tonight with Sunday’s Best – many bloggers would love to this information!

    Reply

  14. Anita at Hungry Couple says

    I agree that you have to pick and choose your battles when it comes to social media. And I agree that Pinterest is super simple and fun. I use it pretty much the same way you do…and I follow you, of course. 🙂

    Reply

    • Joan Hayes says

      Thanks Bonnie! Pinterest is first of all, MY place to store all the wonderful ideas out there that I love and want to try out someday. It’s a great bonus that we can use it to drive traffic to our blogs.

  16. Angie Granata says

    I thank you for posting this. I am still trying to learn this blogging thing.
    I have tried pinterest, but I am still having some trouble with it. You need so much time to read up on it.

    Hopefully one day, I will be able to do it correctly. I am good with twitter, am getting familiar with facebook. Thanks for your advice.

    Reply

    • Joan Hayes says

      Angie, once you get your account set up, just start pinning what you love. As you pin more, you’ll find you need to create more boards and then organize them. It’ll take some time but Pinterest will give you a great following.
      If I can help with anything, please feel free to ask.

  17. Nancy @ gottagetbaked says

    Thanks so much for this super useful info, Joan! I signed up for a Pinterest account over a month ago but haven’t done anything with it because a) I have no idea how to use it and b) I just don’t have the time to learn. It’s hard enough keeping up with my full time job, house work and blogging. i totally agree with you about focusing on just a few social media forums that I enjoy using. It WAS making me a bit mental signing up for all these different sites and trying to keep up. I’m glad I’m not the only one experiencing this!

    Reply

  20. Shiloh Barkley says

    I just started my blog on august 13th, and I have no business training/education whatsoever, but let me tell you, I’m all over this branding shit!! Pinterest, Facebook and twitter! Score! Plus I made sure I made my social media icons for my page right away. Now I just have to figure out how to put in the right HTML code to fix my email link. See how much I’ve learned and it hasn’t even been a month yet!?!!

    https://www.shilohstaste.com

    Reply