How To Get More Followers On Pinterest 2016

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Wondering how to get followers on Pinterest?

If you're starting out, even 1,000 followers might seem like an impossible dream.

Not so, if you take it step-by-step!

And you can use these tips to continue growing to a Pinterest powerhouse like mine, with 60,000+ followers.

Let's get your account off and running!

Why Grow Pinterest Followers?

Pinterest is one of the highest converting social sites on the web, especially for e-commerce related products.

Even for my business-to-business site, it's my top social referrer of traffic.

Pinterest accounts for 25% of retail referral traffic.
Pinterest generates 4 times more revenue per click than Twitter.
And generates 27% more revenue per click than Facebook.
47% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on info from Pinterest.

Another awesome fact about Pinterest for business: the number of people who see your Pins is greater than your number of followers.

Since Pinterest is a search engine, your follower number isn't critical.

But let's be real – do you want people checking out your Pinterest account to find you only have a handful of followers?

Having more Pinterest followers:

Increases your credibility.
Instills confidence in potential followers.
Earns you more for sponsored blog posts.

So let's grow your Pinterest followers!

Can You Buy Pinterest Followers?

I'm sure there are questionable resources that sell Pinterest followers.

Whether they're real people or not, I can't say.

I can say that for the reason listed under point 1 below, you should never pay for Pinterest followers.

Attract the people who will love, repin, and click on your Pins by following the steps below.

How to Get More Pinterest Followers

1 | Know your target audience

Before you start these steps to success, you must know your business' target audience.

If you don't know who you're trying to reach, your efforts to grow followers may cause more harm than good.

Why?

Pinterest shows your Pins to your followers first.

Your followers' reaction to your Pin determines how much the Pinterest algorithm will continue to push your Pin out to other users.

If your followers aren't into your content, they won't engage.

Pinterest will decide your Pin is a dud, and it will die a quick yet painful death.

For your business to be a success anywhere, you must know your customers:

Their needs.
Their questions.
Their problems.
And the words they use to find answers and solutions.

The words they use to fulfill their needs or solve their problems are your keywords.

If you've already nailed this, you're in great shape to begin!

2 | Fill out your Pinterest profile completely

To entice Pinners to follow, make sure your profile is crystal clear on what you offer.

Add your branded profile picture so Pinners recognize you.
Use your name or business name plus niche keywords in your Display name.
Choose a username that's the same as your other social accounts, if possible.
Write a profile description that states what your account offers. Be sure to include keywords here too!

3 | Verify your site and add Rich Pins

To boost trust, be sure to claim your website on Pinterest. You'll also gain access to website analytics and the ability to enable Rich Pins.

Your profile picture will show up next to any Pins that come from your site, and a small globe icon will appear next to your website URL on your profile.

To claim your website, you'll need to add a meta tag or upload an HTML file to your website's HTML code.

If you haven't done this important step yet, learn how on Pinterest help.

Once you've claimed your site, you can add Rich Pins to increase visibility.

Rich Pins are must, as they often include a prompt for Pinners to follow your account!

4 | Create outstanding Pins

Now your profile is optimized but – most Pinners will find you by coming across your Pin in their feed or search results!

Be sure your Pins look great and stand out in the sea of content.

A tall image shape has the most impact on this mobile-friendly platform. Learn all about the best Pinterest Pin sizes.

Once you understand the proper size, you need the design principles! Learn how to make the best Pinterest Pins.

Images that stand out on Pinterest are tall, simple, and in strong colors.

5 | Use Idea Pins

Formerly called Story Pins, these Pins prompt Pinners to follow you.

Plus they're shown more prominently that normal Pins!

Learn more aboutPinterest Idea Pins and how to make them.

6 | Include keywords on your Pinterest boards and descriptions

You've got a keyworded profile and beautiful Pins. Now to get found on Pinterest!

When Pinners search, the default recommendation is Pins (see image below).

It's definitely important to use keywords on your profile and Pinterest boards. But even moreso on your Pins!

You can include up to 500 characters in your Pin description. Write 2 or 3 conversational sentences that include the keywords your audience would search for.

As of 2020, you must add a Pin title of up to 100 characters. If you have Rich Pins enabled, they'll pull your blog post title (which you can choose to edit and override).

You can also include a few Pinterest hashtags.

Don't forget a clear call-to-action telling Pinners what to do next, such as "Visit the blog for all the details" or "Buy now."

And then be sure to Save your Pin to your most relevant, well-keyworded Pinterest board, so Pinterest gets even more clarity on your content and who to show it to.

Pinterest search for Pins — Pinterest search will default to Pins, so be sure yours are keyworded well.

Help Pinners find your content with careful keywording. Join my FREE e-course for all this info, and more!

Get ONE simple action step each day. Join now!

• • • CLICK to get your FREE Pinterest Basics e-course! • • •

7 | Ask readers to follow you on Pinterest

Tap into your current audience to start building your Pinterest followers!

Alert your email subscribers of your Pinterest profile and ask them to follow you.

Include a Pinterest follow button on your website or blog. You can even use a popup like MiloTree.

Share your Pinterest profile (or a "Pin of the Day") on other social media networks.

On your blog posts, ask readers to Save your Pin image to Pinterest.

When you send out your blog newsletter, ask readers to "Pin it for later" with a link to your Pin on Pinterest.

The more repins your Pin gets, the more it will circulate on Pinterest – and the more followers will find your profile!

8 | Follow others

Pinterest isn't a "follow for follow" platform, but this is worth a try.

Follow your competitors' followers. Not only might they follow back, but you can see the type of content they like as well.

Be aware that Pinterest may show not only their content in your home feed, but also similar content. So don't do this if you want to keep your feed "clean" with only content strictly related to your business.

But if you want to try it, here's how.

Go to any account's profile and click the followers number to see their followers.

You can quickly go down the popup list and hit the red Follow button for any who look like they could be your ideal customer. Avoid spammy looking accounts!

hit the red Follow button to follow these pinners.

You can also follow people who are pinning from your website.

To find them, go to your Analytics Overview and scroll down to Source. Choose Other Pins.

In the Top Pins section, click View to be taken to that Pin.

how to find who is saving your pinterest pins in analytics.

You can see who saved it and follow that account right on the Pin.

9 | Pin consistently

You're off to a great start growing your Pinterest account. Keep it up!

Pinterest repeatedly tells us it's critical that you maintain a constant presence on Pinterest.

Fortunately, that doesn't mean you need to live on Pinterest. Quite the contrary!

You can easily Pin consistently by using an approved scheduler like Tailwind.

How often should you Pin to Pinterest?

You don't need to Pin a lot to see results!

Check out my weekly reports below. I'm only pinning 5 or 6 times a day and gaining 100s of new followers per week, just by staying active on Pinterest through Tailwind.

Try out Tailwind for yourself, and enjoy the results!

• • • Click here to try Tailwind for Pinterest FREE • • •

Disclosure: I may earn a commission, at no cost to you, if you upgrade to a paid plan after clicking my link. Your results will vary.

Check out how pinning consistently with Tailwind grows my Pinterest followers!

10 | Engage with Pins and Pinners

While I personally stay very hands-off with Pinterest, you can jumpstart your results by popping in now and then.

Engage with Pinterest users by saving and commenting on their Pins.

Be sure to reply to any comments on your own Pins as well.

11 | Try group boards

Bonus tip: while not as effective as they once were, group boards might gain you some followers.

Ask to contribute to Pinterest group boards that have a lot of repins and followers.

You can also start your own group board and invite a small number of colleagues to collaborate.

Conclusion

We've covered 11 ways you can get more followers on Pinterest.

I personally use the lazy girl's way, and it brings me 100's of followers per week!

Tailwind makes my Pinning easier, faster, and more consistent than I could do on my own. With the added bonus of growing my followers effortlessly!

I buy the annual plan, which works out to only $10 per month. I find it well worth the time savings.

Try it out for free, and see if you love it too.

• • • Click here to try Tailwind for Pinterest FREE • • •

Disclosure: I may earn a commission, at no cost to you, if you upgrade to a paid plan after clicking my link

This post was originally published in October 2015, and last updated in July 2021. The infographic below shows the older term "Pin It" which has been replaced with the word "Save."

I think you'll love using Pinterest for business and visually attracting followers.

If you find this helpful, share with a friend who'd love to know how to get followers on Pinterest!

Get more Pinterest followers infographic from Quick Sprout