Getting Followers on Pinterest

After being active on Pinterest for nearly a year using the same strategy, I have just crossed the 1,000 pin mark!

This is a huge achievement in my opinion because it signifies growth, repeated action, and consistency.

For an entire year I averaged 2-3 pins a day while on the platform.

Showing up to create original content in both video and static image form took a lot of work for me as a solopreneur.

As the number of pins posted on Pinterest grew so did my views, impressions, and follower count.

Today I’m proud to share that I grew from 31 to 235,000 followers in less than one calendar year.

Across the 1,000 pins there are themes that show up that tell me exactly how I got followers on Pinterest. The exponential growth I experienced on the platform is really unheard of and I share the main points on how I did this in the bullets below:

1 second rule
Solve a problem
Delight, Entertain, Educate
Be Consistent and repeat

Apply the 1-second rule

Long gone are the days where our audiences on social media or the internet have attention spans of a goldfish.

The rule used to be that we have 6-7 seconds, the attention span of a goldfish, to capture the attention of our viewer.

This is no longer true, if it ever was.

You have one second. That’s it.

It’s painful to take in this figure because it gives you, the creator, virtually no time at all to make an impression and hook your audience in with your content.

Within a literal blink of an eye you either win or lose your fight for your audience’s attention.

It happens that quickly.

How you treat that first second of you content is the difference between success or someone scrolling on Pinterest.

So, what do you do about it? I’ve said this many times before, but if you’re new here let me share with you how important movement is in your content.

Whether that’s animation or video, movement is the best way to capture your audience’s attention, incentivizing them to watch more.

Because we are naturally curious, people want to learn and the fastest way to convey an idea to your audience is through video.

You have one second to reach your audience and the best tool to use to do that is video.

During the one year that I’ve been actively using Pinterest to market my business I created nearly 200 videos, including both idea and video pins.

If you do the math, you’ll see that 20% of my pin content across the 1,000 pins is video content. This is also where a significant portion of my impressions come from.

With your 1 second, how will you choose to capture your ideal customer’s attention and slow their scroll?

If the pinner gets past the first second and continues to watch, you then have a shot at gaining their trust and their follow because of your stellar content.

Solve a problem to getting followers on Pinterest

Pinterest is a unique platform and it should be treated as such.

Monthly active users head to Pinterest to get information.

Pinners are seeking unique and creative ideas and are primed to learn something new to solve their current and future challenges.

They are also seeking ideas that inspire and motivate them to action. How well your content does to solve your ideal customer’s problem is the key to gaining the loyal follower.

A monthly active user on Pinterest will follow your content if it adds value to their life. When we solve common problems in our ideal customer’s life we are rewarded with a follow and likely a repin and pin save.

Solving your ideal customer’s problems is a sure-fire way to getting followers on Pinterest.

Delight, Educate and Entertain

The content that you create goes beyond sharing an idea.

It must also delight, educate or entertain.

If your content manages to do all three you have hit the Pinterest jackpot and pinners will view you not only as the expert in your field and niche, but will come back for more of the same type of content.

Delight your audience

What does it mean to delight your audience?

This is content that brings joy to your ideal client.

There is a place for joy in our content creation and when we evoke this emotion with our audiences, we are delighting them in a way that is memorable and unique.

Bring joy through visual imagery, humor, or just by showcasing your personality.

It doesn’t have to be complex to delight your audience and simplicity often wins in this regard.

Educate your audience

Educating your audience can be as simple as sharing a quick win, by breaking down a multi-step process.

Just like delighting your audience, the process that you share doesn’t have to be complex to educate.

For example, if your audience is targeting early childhood education, you could show a quick multi step video on how to tie a shoe lace.

This is a highly sought-after skill and is educational.

Many child care providers including parents and care-takers would benefit from this type of educational content.

So don’t hesitate to teach something because you absolutely are in a position to educate on a subject where you are at least one step ahead of your ideal student.

Entertain your audience

In addition to delighting and educating our audiences, adding another layer and entertaining our audiences will go a very long way.

Although Pinterest is a place for knowledge sharing and ideas, if you entertain in the process, your content will undoubtably stand out and have your audiences wanting more which will secure a follow.

Be Consistent and Repeat

There is not a single social platform where you can post once in a while and gain a large following unless you are a celebrity, a famous person, or you purchased followers.

You’re likely a small business owner like me so the path to gaining followers is through creating consistent content that appeals and speaks to your ideal customer.

I’m not the first to tell you that consistency is key.

You’ve heard it many times before from your personal trainer, business coach, and even your parents.

Results happen when you show up consistently again and again.

Now, there is no room for perfection here. I’m not suggesting you create perfect content every single day.

There is no such thing.

And I’m also not saying you have to show up daily without a break. There is also room for rest.

But you must show up to create the connections with your audience in the form of idea, video and standard pins on a consistent and routine basis.

There are tools out there, both paid and unpaid that can help you achieve your consistency goals.

Utilizing the power of a scheduler is a must when establishing consistency on Pinterest. The Pinterest platform has the native scheduler that allows a pinner up to two weeks to schedule in advance for no additional cost.

If you choose to spend some money for a social media scheduler, you can find a long list of content marketing partners that work with Pinterest:

You get to decide what consistency and routine looks like for your and your business, but you got to keep up with it to sustain your followers and your audience.

Conclusion

Going from 31 to 235,000 followers in less than a calendar year is not overnight success.

It’s a result of repeatedly showing up and creating consistent content.

I understand that content creation is challenging, but when it gets tough, you rest, not quit.

Follower count also doesn’t equal revenue or indicate how profitable a business is or isn’t. It’s important to acknowledge what follower count signifies.

Follower count is a representation of our audience that likes and gains value from our content.

Continue to serve your ideal customer in the ways that I shared in this post and you’ll start to see that getting followers on Pinterest takes some strategy and consistency.

Also note that follower count is not linear to the amount of effort you put into your strategy or content on Pinterest. We are still using a free marketing platform to reach our audiences which means we exist under someone else’s rules.

If you want a detailed list of all the pieces I used in my strategy on Pinterest, head to the button below to grab a copy of my free Pinterest Account Checklist.