The Power of Pinterest Group Boards and Why You Can’t Ignore Them

There are so many reasons to love Pinterest, and I have given you a huge list of tips on it before. And in fact, if you want to know what the tools the Pinterest Experts use and their top tips, that post is a great one.

But even if you think pinning is a waste of time, I am going to show you why: you can’t afford to ignore Pinterest any longer!

As Jeff Sieh, host of the Manly Pinterest Show said in a recent chat I had with him on the Mad Lemmings Podcast:

The average Pin has the longest shelf life you will get on any social media network!

Which means you will get traffic from a pin longer after you even remember pinning it. Sometimes months later.

Where else on social media does that happen?

I strongly believe that being on Pinterest is a no-brainer.

But wait, there’s more…

Explode your Pinterest Presence

If you want to explode your presence on Pinterest, and also your traffic coming from there, there is no better way than by using Pinterest Group Boards.

The results can be absolutely amazing.

Sometimes when I open Google Analytics and look at my stats, Pinterest knocks me off my chair! I started getting serious with Pinterest group boards late last year.

Below you can see the results  – Pinterest traffic between October 2013 – April 2014.     Active pinning combined with a number of targeted group boards has skyrocketed my traffic from Pinterest. Have I got your attention now?

Pinning Tip: It is also worth trying out a proper pin scheduling tool like ViralTag to help you save time and pin at the best times to get the most repins.

Twitter vs Pinterest – Who is the Winner?

I can honestly say that sometimes my Pinterest traffic even dwarfs my top Social Media traffic source – Twitter. And my following on both of these networks differs quite a lot:

• Twitter: 6500
• Pinterest: 950

So having a smaller following on Pinterest can get you far more traffic than a large following on Twitter.

So what are you waiting for? Get busy with Group Boards on Pinterest now.

** Ok read the rest of the post first, but then do it. Don’t even stop for lunch!

Using Group Boards on Pinterest

Now you are dying to get busy with Pinterest Group Boards, right? Good for you. But before you charge off like a bull at a gate, let’s go over the two sides of the group board coin:

1. Being a member of a group board
2. Being the owner of a group board

These are two very different things, so I want to go into it in more detail.

Creating Your Own Pinterest Group Board

One of the options you have is creating your own group board.

It may seem a little scary, but it can bring you a lot of… Benefits:

• People contribute to your board for you (saves you the time of pinning everything yourself)
• Your board is added to each contributor’s account (exposing you to their audience via that board)
• Anyone who follows a contributor completely also follows you (via the group board)

As you can see their are many benefits to running your own group board.

But as we all know, no one rides for free! So of course their are downsides as well such as:

• It takes time to monitor the board (checking for spam etc)
• Finding high quality contributors for the board (you need to screen carefully)
• Contributors can add anyone they like (which can be dangerous, so really screen them carefully)

How To Create a Pinterest Group Board

Creating your own Group Board is actually pretty simple. All you really need to do is start inviting people to a board you already have.

This is what I have done with a few of my more popular boards too. However, I am very selective about who contributes to them because I do not have time to check them for spam.

If you are interested in creating your own Group Board, make sure you read the following article first.

Although it is simple to get started, there are some tips and tricks that can really help make the most of your own group board.

Joining Pinterest Group Boards

I also highly recommend becoming a very active member of some group boards that

• are relevant to your niche
• have a good number of followers (more than a thousand)

There are almost as many benefits of this as there are to owning a group board, with perhaps less downsides.

Here are a few of the benefits:

• You get increased exposure via the members of the group board
• Group board members are more likely to share your content with their followers
• They are also likely to check you out and follow you

By joining targeted group boards with high-quality, relevant content and lots of followers, you are exponentially increasing your Pinterest reach.

There are some downsides of course, such as:

• All pins from your group board appear in your home stream
• People who follow any group board you contribute to are not following you (presuming it’s not your board)
• If a board has too many contributors your exposure could be minimal (too much noise)

I personally have not noticed major issues with the above, but you should always keep these things in mind.

However, unlike hosting your own group board, being a member of some is a lot less work. So maybe start with this tactic.

Finding Pinterest Group Boards

Back in the old days, before some awesome people created tools to help us, it was quite hard to find Pinterest Group Boards.

It was kind of like prospecting for gold:

1. You do a Pinterest Search for boards using the keywords you are interested in.
2. Hundreds of boards appear, and you have to scroll through them and look for the ones with the Pinterest Group icon on them (see the image on the right).
3. Then you need to see how many followers there are, check out the content and so on

So you are probably thinking:

why doesn’t he just tell us what the cool tool is? Save us some time Ashley, get on with it!

Well, I will. But you also needed to see how to do it manually.

Maybe the tool will disappear. Maybe you won’t find anything useful with the tool. Maybe the internet will explode?

Wait, that was a movie I just watched! It was horrible. No more tweets. No more likes….

Anyway, here’s the tool…

Pin Groupie – The Pinterest Boards Directory

Recently, Pin Groupie entered the Pinterest scene and suddenly made our lives easier.

Where before we were slaving away with Pinterest Search, now we are kicking back drinking cocktails!

Here is the link if you are dying to check it out: Pin Groupie.

It’s pretty darn helpful, because it is basically a powerful excel sheet that allows you to search and filter the groups to find exactly what you are looking for.

You can search and filter by:

• Pinterest Categories
• Group Title
• Group Description
• Filter by Followers, Contributors, Likes and Repins

You can really hone in on the kinds of boards you are looking for, with the numbers of pinners or repins (or whatever you like) that interest you.

I wish they had this when I was a boy! We used to have to walk to school through 10 feet of snow, with only a plastic bag to keep us dry! :>

Final Words

I have had a lot of success with Pinterest Group Boards and I believe that it can help anyone explode their exposure on Pinterest and get you more traffic.

This social media baby is only getting started, so if we can get such results with only 1000 followers on a young platform…the sky is the limit!

Imagine what the future holds?

Then multiply it by ten.

Get serious about Pinterest now.

Photo credit: MohammadHasan via photopin cc