Using Social Media/Pinterest to Grow Your Blog & Brand

As difficult and stressful as life can be sometimes, I am so thankful for this thing called blogging and the blogging community of wonderful people that I have been blessed to have met through it.  One of the main reasons I was looking forward to speaking at the Haven blog conference was to be able to get to spend some face to face time with people I mainly keep up with through their blogs.



Although I wasn't able to go, I followed along on Instagram (@honeywerehome) and today, you can read recaps of the conference at A Thoughtful Place, Hi Sugarplum, and Our Fifth House.  We are also sharing the highlights from our panel discussion: Using Social Media to Grow Your Blog and Brand.

My original goal for blogging was to share my passion for creating an inviting, comfortable, pretty, well-organized home and to get inspiration from other bloggers since I was a new SAHM to a then 4-month old baby.  This blog has grown steadily and organically in three years by being featured by other bloggers (thank you!), having original content, and through social media.  My second biggest blog referrer is Pinterest- I think because images from my blog are pinned and repinned (thank you!)and because I'm highly active on Pinterest (I genuinely love it)! Let your blog readers know you are on Pinterest too!



Below are my top 7 tips for growing your blog with Pinterest:  

1. Make it easy for people to pin images directly from your blog by adding a “Pin It” button to your blog posts. I used a great, easy tutorial by Code It Pretty to create a simple button, but she has more advanced tutorials for a more customized button.  I like the button that I have that allows people to see how many times an image has been pinned. 


2. Post high-quality content with pin-worthy images.  This is super important since Pinterest is a visual social media. Create a pinnable image in PicMonkey (or other photo-editing site) by adding text to describe or label the project, but don't do on every photo- people prefer clean images. Not all of your readers are looking to pin, so don't clutter up your post.


3. Make sure your pins link back to your blog (test them out).  It’s annoying/frustrating to click on a pin that leads nowhere or not to the post the pin generated from (i.e. the home page).


4. Tall, long images pin best (twice as tall as it is wide) and the best time to pin for repins is between 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. EST and 8:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. EST.


5. Schedule your pins with Pingraphy or Ahalogy. You install a bookmarklet in your web browser’s bookmarks bar (just like the “Pin it” button). When you find an image you want to pin, you just click on the button to post to Pinterest or schedule. Pingraphy features a stats program that shows repins, likes, and follows.  It's free for 30 days, then subscription based.


6. If you've been blogging for awhile (pre-Pinterest) go back and create pinnable images for your old content.  Or repackage your old content  - maybe you've done a lot of projects with a particular product i.e. rub 'n buff, spray paint, mod podge, etc. - create a new post rounding up those projects with a pinnable image to gain traffic from your old content. 


7. Be nice and genuine.  Repin other bloggers' good content and thank bloggers for pinning your good content. 

You can read Carmel, Cassie and Courtney's tips for growing your blog too:

Twitter: Carmel {Our Fifth House}

Facebook: Cassie {Hi Sugarplum}

Instagram: Courtney {A Thoughtful Place}

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