Did you know Pinterest has a “Source” page for your website? The page displays the most recent pins sourced from your website. You find it by going to http://pinterest.com/source/[your URL].
I am obsessed with Offbeat Bride’s source page at pinterest.com/source/offbeatbride.com, and it’s one of my browser’s most frequently visited pages. I don’t even visit Pinterest.com any more — I’ve bookmarked Offbeat Bride’s source page, and it’s one of the most effective ways I have of marketing my business. Here’s how…
1. Gauge pinner interest
Obviously, the most obvious way to use the source page is to see a real-time indication of people on Pinterest are most loving from your site. As a publisher, I’m trying to unlearn thinking that readers are most interested in my newest content, and watching my Pinterest source page is a huge part of that process. I’d estimate that two-thirds of the content pinned from Offbeat Bride is old — in many cases, several years old. It’s great market research for me to see what folks are loving.
- Check out your source page and see if you’re surprised by what people are pinning from your site. Are people interested in the things you’d think they’d be?
2. Reward pinners
I almost never pin directly from my own sites — instead, I repin other people’s posts from my Pinterest source page. This helps me not feel gross about self-pinning (…what?! I’m just repinning!), but also gives a little teeny tiny reward to folks pinning from my site. It’s a way of saying, “Hey, you noticed my website — and hey, I noticed your pin. I see you, and you’re awesome!” It’s a small thing, but it feels like a nice way to say thanks… AND share their pin with our other followers!
- Try repinning from your source page as a way to thank folks for pinning your stuff.
3. Find old posts to share elsewhere
Sometimes, when I see an old post getting pinned a lot, I’ll carry the news over to Facebook and post about it there. My theory is that if folks on Pinterest are freaking out about 18-month-old content, then folks on Facebook might too.
Often, I’ll then share these older posts on our Facebook page, which amplifies the sharing of content that was produced years ago. I like to be transparent about why I’m sharing old posts — I’ll often say things like, “Based on number of pins, this bride’s hair basically wins the internet…”
That particular post was over a year old, and then went on to get 340 fresh Likes on Facebook. I do a lot of this sharing back and forth, using shares on social networks as a way to gauge what archived content might still resonate with readers. It can take hours to write a post, but only seconds to share a post that was written (and forgotten about!) a couple of years ago.
- Try sharing the most popular pin from your source page on your Facebook page. How do people respond?
4. Develop new content or products
On Offbeat Bride, we’ve featured paper flowers many times, with have archives going back to 2008. Over the past couple months, I’ve noticed a remarkable up-tick of people pinning paper flower bouquets from Offbeat Bride. Based on this up-tick, I suggested Megan do a fresh round-up of paper flowers created by our readers, a relatively easy post to produce that then resulted in even MORE pins.
- Based on your Pinterest source page, what posts or products could you develop?
5. Watch competitor’s source pages
You can see the source page for any URL! Consider watching what people are pinning from your competitors, and consider whether there are any content gaps that you could be filling on your site. For instance, if you notice a lot of people pinning paper bouquets from other blogs, why not write your own post about them?
- Based on your competitor’s Pinterest source pages, what concepts could you be writing about more to generate more pins from your page?
Want more tips & tricks?
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