Best practices for personal brands on Pinterest
How can individuals best create and promote their personal brand? What are the best practices for personal brands on Pinterest?
Best Practices for Personal Brands on Pinterest
A personal brand— a.k.a. the image an individual puts out into the world for employers or customers— can be marketed on Pinterest to showcase an individual’s personality, strengths, or products. A professional Pinterest account should have the brand as the focal point to best present the individual and their purpose.
Pinterest is a social media platform that is under-used by personal brands because individuals don’t know how to market themselves on Pinterest, and they don’t know the benefits of Pinterest marketing. Pinterest has a ready-made audience of consumers who go to Pinterest not looking for the social aspect of other platforms, but for ideas and for things to buy. This, along with the ease of creating original content on Pinterest and Pinterest marketing being simpler than it seems, makes Pinterest an ideal platform for personal brands.
I gathered data from my personal Pinterest analytics, supplemented by analytics from the Pinterest profile of Stowaway Magazine. In addition, I looked at the Pinterest accounts of several companies and personal brands– Julia Berolzheimer, Blogilates, Chelsea As Of Late, Lisa Homsy, Etsy and Penguin Random House, to discover the best practices for growth on Pinterest. I utilized the company Pinterest accounts due to their large-scale use of these practices, although they differ a bit from personal brand usage, as their entire purpose is usually to sell a product or gain readers, rather than additionally promote themselves to potential employers and consumers. Using this data, I put together a list of the best practices for personal brands on Pinterest for pinners to strengthen and promote their personal brands.
Invest in Attractive and Original Photos
Pinterest is a very visual app, and nicer-looking photos perform better. Take the time and/or money to create and use attractive pictures. ‘Attractive’ pictures can be subjective, but they are always high-quality, and include aesthetically-pleasing things such as crafts or travel destinations. Photo trends, people and bright colors can make photos pop and attract pinners. Be sure to make your images consistent with your brand and professional personality.
Post Frequently
Post often so that more people see more of your content! Pinterest isn’t a chronological feed, so it isn’t as annoying for followers if an account posts a lot, but it looks great for consumers that click on your profile and see a lot of recent original pins. However, be careful to not sacrifice quality for quantity.
Post on Saturday Evenings
Studies show that posting on Pinterest from 8-11 p.m. EST on Saturdays yields the best results to reach consumers. However, posting whenever you can is better than not posting at all– be sure to uphold quality over quantity, however. ‘Frequent’ doesn’t need to mean posting every day.
Post Your Best Content First
The first five posts that an account posts each day are pushed the most by Pinterest, so those should be your best pins. In my research, I discovered that the first couple posts in a day for each brand I looked at generally performed the best out of all of their pins. There were a few exceptions, but these were usually lacking in multiple other departments of the best practices for personal brands on Pinterest.
Post Idea Pins or Rich Pins
A relatively new feature on Pinterest, idea pins are a great way to show what your personal brand is all about, and perform well. They’re vertical carousel pins that present information in a quick and aesthetically-pleasing way. Rich pins are pins that include linked recipes, articles or products. These pins provide a simple way for consumers to interact with the pin and the original brand’s content. Both idea pins and rich pins perform well and are pushed by Pinterest, because they are desirable to consumers.
Include a Call-to-Action
Don’t neglect a pin’s description! The description should include your Pinterest handle and other socials, links to your website and eye-catching explanations about the pin. Above all, a pin should include a call-to-action. This encourages the reader to interact with the pin and linked content, and perhaps even follow your personal brand accounts, supporting you on your professional journey.
Conclusion
I discovered that personality, consistency, and timing yield the best results when marketing on Pinterest. The best practices for personal brands on Pinterest are to post frequently, with consistent, attractive and relevant content that supports your personal brand. Stick with your personal brand’s general look to keep your content recognizable and desirable. The specifics listed in this post can help your personal brand succeed, but consistency and attractive pins are most important for this visual-based app. I created a code book for my data, consisting of 80 data points– 10 from each brand, that was analyzed by myself and an independent coder. This data yielded a Cohen’s Kappa score of .723, a substantial agreement. We found that the most successful pins were a 1 on the codebook, and the next most successful were 6-8. 2 and 4 were also relatively successful, but not as consistently. Without an attractive picture, none of the other aspects matter as much, so while all aspects are important, attractive visuals should be prioritized.