Why Pinterest?
What is an idea pin?
An idea pin is a vertical pin that is longer in size than standard pins and includes 1-20 slides. Idea pins are meant to teach your audience something, to answer their question, help them with a problem, or show them how they can achieve the desired goal, feeling, or project. Pinterest rolled out idea pins in 2020 and has been very open about how they want content creators and business owners to use idea pins to connect with their audience but not necessarily have them leave the platform. You want to give the full story, no cliffhangers or telling them to go to your website to see more or purchase something to get the rest. That’s spammy and goes against their Creator Code and community guidelines. Don’t do that.
Instead, check out the following ways to use Ideas pins for your business and to promote your blog posts.
Ways to use Idea Pins to promote your blog posts:
1. Create a step-by-step guide for a DIY project, a recipe, or a process in your business
2. Upload several videos with text overlay where you are explaining, teaching, or showing your audience something
3. Create slides with bullet points you outline in your blog post
4. Showcase a mockup of your product in a series of slides to show your audience how it’s relatable to them
5. Tell your story or a story of one of your clients, or share testimonials in a new way
How to write blog posts to easily create Idea Pins
A simple blog post template that churns out great idea pins and leads to conversion is:
How do I create idea pins?
1. I use Canva to create slides with lots of text overlay. The dimensions are 1080×1920 px.
2. Create a cover side with animated text, and a relevant and good-quality image, use your brand colors and fonts and make sure the words are keywords. Videos do amazing as the cover slide and you can still add text overlay. Canva has hundreds of ready-to-use videos for you to choose from.
3. Create additional slides to complete your idea or what it is you are teaching your audience.
4. Save each one individually as PNG files or you can save them as one file so long as it’s under 60 seconds long. Pro Tip: It takes longer to download them individually to your computer but idea pins with multiple slides get better engagement and if you ever sign up for the Creator Rewards, a requirement is multiple slides. Just something to think about.
5. After I download them to my computer, I upload them to a folder in Google Drive so I can transfer them to my phone and use the Pinterest app to upload them. Why the app and not the desktop? You have both as an option but a huge benefit to using the Pinterest app to publish your idea pins is you can add extras to the slides, like music, stickers, product mentions, and affiliate links.
6. Once uploaded to Google Drive then I open the Drive app on my phone, save each one and then head to the Pinterest app.
7. Once inside the Pinterest app, you click the “+” button then click idea pin. It defaults to your camera. Simply click on your photos and select the slides you just saved. You can select them all at once.
8. If you want to add music or additional elements, now is the time. You can add music to the first slide and then it carries through to the others or you can add different music to different slides. It all depends on what your idea pin is about and the feeling and experience you are going for.
9. Click Next and enter the idea pin information. If you have an animated cover, make sure you click “edit cover” to select the best view.
10. Enter a keyworded pin title, and pin details (You have all the space in the world to enter even more details about the pin, the topic, and your business, and to provide more keywords. I highly recommend you type it out like you are talking to your friend. Don’t be salesy, be of service. I also recommend adding several call to actions like Follow Me and Link in the comments. Check out #14 for bonus info on the comments section.
11. Pick the most relevant board for the idea pin to publish to and pick up to 10 tags that your pin topic fits into. You might have to think a bit out of the box. These tags tend to be pretty broad.
12. Under Advanced settings make sure you toggle to allow comments.
13. Click Publish
14. BONUS: Be the first to comment on your Idea pin by adding an applicable link. You can even tell your audience to check the comments by putting a CTA on the pin like Check the comments or Link in comments
It’s pretty straightforward:
1. Open the Pinterest app and click the “+”
2. Click Idea Pin
3. It opens to your camera automatically. Simply start recording. Keep the recording under 60 seconds per slide.
4. Add text to the video. Make sure they are keyworded to grab the person’s attention. You can customize the text with different fonts, colors, and even highlight the text. You can adjust the time it’s onscreen and even add different text to appear on the screen at different times.
5. Once you have finished editing the slides, repeat steps 9-14 from above.
What are some tips for creating successful idea pins?
1. Make sure your pins are interesting and relevant to your audience.
2. Use high-quality images that represent your brand well.
3. Write catchy headlines that will entice people to click through to your blog post.
4. Create pins that are evergreen so they continue to generate traffic long after they’re published.
5. Use keywords in your pins so they show up in search engine results pages.
6. Use video. Share your energy, allow your audience to feel your flow and resonate with you.
7. Use the Pinterest app to publish your pins.
8. Create idea pins that are save-worthy, meaning give them something they think they might forget and they just have to save.
9. Be of service. Tips are a wonderful thing for idea pins. Don’t always be selling your product. Share your knowledge so they can’t wait to see what else you have to offer and will be searching for ways to work with you.
