Since retiring in January 2017, I have had lots more time to spend on blogging, social media and learning new skills. I know that as you age you are supposed to keep your brain busy, so I treated my blogging/social media as if I was learning a new language.
I was in fact learning a new language!! This is me juggling all my social media balls 🙂
I never really had a handle on Pinterest for some reason, maybe the fact that there were so many rules – vertical pins work best, no faces in photos, writing on photos, keywords, group boards and the whole pinning regime – it’s had me bamboozled for quite a while now.
Following helpful bloggers like Elena Peters and Suzie Speaks , I setup my Pinterest boards and saved some pins but never really saw how it could work for blogging. I was determined to try to improve my understanding of this new world while I had time and the interest. I did a free e-course through Elena and managed to follow the instructions to change my Pinterest account from personal to business which gave me more options. I also fought through, and won the battle, turning my pins into what’s called Rich Pins (apparently that’s what we all want).
Rich Pins provide more context about an idea because they show extra information directly on a Pin. There are four types of Rich Pins: app, product, recipe and article.
Article Pins help Pinners save stories that matter to them. Each Article Pin shows a headline, author and story description.
I still figured there was more to it and I wanted to understand. So when I read a post in Suzie’s Big up Your Blog Facebook group, where she offered help with managing one’s Pinterest account, I decided to take up her generous offer. I sent her a message via Facebook asking for information, and voila, it was all organised very quickly and painlessly. It did help that I’d had previous contact with Suzie in regards to promoting my blog and I had completed her Twitter e-course earlier in the year. I knew her style and felt that I could trust her. Suzie stated very clearly everything she would do throughout the month and she delivered!
So how did it all work?
At the beginning of my month with Suzie I was sitting on 103 followers with little to no action happening on my boards, my pins were all wrong and I really was clueless!
Suzie didn’t judge me, she just quietly took over and re-organised things and started re-building my account. I was happy with her reaction when she found out I already had a business account and Rich pins sorted. Apparently I’m not quite the loser I thought I was!! Her genuine delight as my followers grew was catching and I found I was actually enjoying this learning curve.
Stats:
Stats at the beginning of the month:
103 followers and 1 referrer from Pinterest to my blog for the whole month of February
Stats at the end of the month:
270 followers (it had reached 318 but Pinterest had a clean out and I lost quite a few, but as Suzie told me these wouldn’t have interacted with me anyway).
Referrers from Pinterest to my blog: 83 in March, 282 in April
This is broken down to week 1 = 48, week 2 = 78, week 3 = 41, week 4 = 104, week 5 = 54
The increase in these figures speak for themselves.
My Pinterest followers, as at this moment has grown to 310, which is a huge increase from when I started this project. I owe all that growth to Suzie!
All the way through the month Suzie kept me in the loop by messaging me with what she was doing, how she was changing things and teaching me how to do it myself. I appreciated her approach and regular updates. She has sent me screen shots of how to do things and encouraged me when I started creating Canva pins myself. She was then able to pin them out everywhere on my behalf.
Another idea Suzie promotes is the use of Group Boards and she joined me up with quite a few boards that suit the style of my blog – midlife bloggers, travel, healthy lifestyles, inspiration and motivation…we also started my own group board called Sunny Days Blogging Group Board. It’s slowly growing.
During this time Pinterest was undergoing some changes to its algorithms and just as my followers increased, to what Suzie had predicted (300), they dropped significantly due to these changes – something to do with bots and a cleanout. I took this news on the chin, it was nothing Suzie or I had any control over but she did inform me as soon as she heard the news. She also shared this post by Elena Peters which explained what was happening. (I’m not sure it really made much sense to me!!) Throughout the whole month Suzie was on hand to answer my questions and talk me through what she was doing.
I couldn’t be happier with everything Suzie has done. My stats are up on my blog, Pinterest is slowly but surely bringing people in, I’m more aware of what I should be doing and I’m much more confident with the whole pinning ‘thing’.
You could say Pinterest and I are now friends – not besties just yet, it’s still early days!!
I would highly recommend Suzie’s services to anyone thinking of asking for help with their accounts – she’s a whiz!
Come join me on Pinterest 🙂 you can pin this pic!
Deb 🙂
Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, G+, Facebook
Deb's World 
I used to use pinterest as a visionboard/collage/wedding planning thing. I’m now trying to get more social with it and the people behind the pins. So, hi. 🙂
Pinned this one, of course!
Lorna x
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Thanks so much Lorna! I’m still learning and don’t always know what I’m doing 🙂
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Congrats Deb! Your post received the Most Clicks at the #WednesdayAIMLinkParty. See here: http://grammysgrid.com/wednesday-aim-link-party-17/
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Oh wow! That’s great to hear. Thanks so much.
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Well done Deb and it sounds as though Suzie is an absolute whizz. Must say I’m totally clueless when it comes to Pinterest.
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Thanks for sharing. I too am trying to climb the Pinterest morning.
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I’m new to blogging and must admit I have no idea how Pinterest could help my blog. It was a lifestyle when planning my wedding but I’m not sure how that could help for black ha. Your post has inspired me though – I’m going to set up an account and do some reading #WednesdayAIM
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I’m glad this information as useful to you. I’m like you, I couldn’t see the traffic from Pinterest to my blog but it is now getting quite a bit from there. Good luck with it all! Deb
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I love Pinterest – I have thousands and thousands of pins and a few thousand followers. It doesn’t translate through to my blog in a big way but I don’t think my blog is about stuff that Pinners are generally looking for. I have rich pins, vertical pins, and I use Canva – I also have a pinnable image hidden on each of my posts so there is a vertical image when I don’t necessarily want one in my post. So much to learn and I am happy just being a compulsive pinner of pretty things with a bit of a flow over onto my blog. So glad Elena and Suzy got you sorted.
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Yes I’m so lucky to have them both on my side! Pinterest is growing on me but I’m still learning. I love using Canva it’s so easy now that I know what I’m doing with it. Thanks for your comment and showing how it’s done Leanne, you are a whiz!
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Congratulations on conquering Pinterest, Deb. I’ve never been able to work it out. After 3 years, I finally deleted my Pinterest account last week. Social media seems to work in different ways for different people. I tried lots of things with Pinterest, but never saw any results from it, so I must have been doing something wrong. I think it’s all about which social media platform you enjoy using the most and sticking to three at the most so you can give them some time to work.
Happy pinning.
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Thanks Hugh, I’m still to be convinced but I’m having fun using the old noggin for something useful! I agree, social media is very fickle, I’m sure you did nothing wrong 🙂 I’m with you, only use those that you enjoy using, otherwise it’s all gets a bit hectic.
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Very true, Deb. I think a maximum of three is the best advice I’ve read. You certainly need to give social media time to make it work and produce good results.
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I might have to come up for a weekend and you can tell me about Pinterest. I have no idea what it’s for apart from collecting visual images – which it probably isn’t even about. I can’t handle being out of the loop!!
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Right you’re on! We’ll set up a weekend 🙂 Although I’m not really sure what I’m doing!!
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I have a love/hate thing with Pinterest. I love it so much that I can get lost in it, which makes me hate losing track of time in there!
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I know what you mean Jennifer! It’s like a lot of social media – so much for being social when we’ve all got our faces stuck in a screen 🙂
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Thank you for this terrific information, Deb. I have a Pinterest account that I seldom use. The whole Pinterest thing had not made much sense to me…and I’ve had Facebook, Twitter and Flipboard to keep me busy. I greatly appreciate you sharing this advice, and recommending Suzie.
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I’m so glad it was useful information for you Donna. I am such a little player but it helps others to know what’s involved and what can be done even on such a small scale. My stats must seem like chicken feed to some bloggers but everyone has to start somewhere! I’ve been determined to get a handle on it and I must admit it’s getting easier but I’m still way out of my comfort zone. Thanks for your thoughts and good luck with it all. 😊
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I still have absolutely no idea how to join a group board 😦 I’ve tried to follow countless “how-tos” but I’ve no idea! Pinterest is certainly my weakest social media, I’m stuck at 25 followers. I’m going to keep an eye out for a course!!
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It’s been quite tricky and I’ve had to really concentrate at times to stay focused. Stick with it and maybe find a course to do, it helped me. I’m definitely no expert as evidenced by not putting a pinnable pic in my post all about Pinterest!! 😊 Send me an email to join my group board debbieharris@y7mail.com
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Thank you so much for the mention lovely and I am so pleased that you have harnessed the power of Pinterest. The rewards will be bountiful!
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Thank you for your guidance along the way, but I’m still not sure I’ve harnessed the power just yet!! I didn’t even put a pinnable graphic in my post for goodness sake!! One day at a time 😊
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Oh Deb, how could you not? Maybe a refresher is called for?!! 😂😂
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Yes that’s true, but I have now updated my post with a pinnable graphic. I’m slowly learning.
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Yay for Suzie!!!
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Yay indeed 😊
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