How to Repin on Pinterest Strategically

Do you have a strategy for repinning on Pinterest? No? You could be missing some key opportunities. It has been reported that up to 80% of the pins you see on Pinterest are repins. Given all of the beautiful images and useful information that can be found on Pinterest its easy to see why the percentage is so high.

For business owners, Pinterest recommends “Instead of just showing off your products, show what inspires them. Create boards for the ideas, places, people and moods behind your brand.” This can be accomplished through repinning and repinning can also have added business benefits.  In this post we’ll show you how to Repin on Pinterest – strategically.

Why you should Repin on Pinterest

• By repinning content that your follwers will find interesting or useful you can build your account to become a resourse of information for you niche.
• Each pin that you repin to your account brings your account to the attention of the person you repinned from from in the form of a notification and/or an email. This builds awareness of your Pinterest account and your business.
• The account you repinned from could return the favor by repinning your pins and exposing your content to their followers. This could lead to more repins and more traffic to your site.

The strategy behind Repinning

Having a strategy for your repinning isn’t complicated to do. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before repinning:

• Will my followers find this pin valuable?
• Are my followers likely to repin this?
• Who am I repinning from? Could they have an interest in my business and be a potential follower?
• When pinning from an account with a large following how many times has it been repinned?

Let’s take a look at each one of these questions and why they’re important.

-Will my followers find this pin valuable?

It’ sooooo easy to get wrapped up in the images on Pinterest but remember when pinning for your business account, you’re there for a business purpose, not for fun. Focus on finding pins and information that your followers would find valuable. Does it solve a problem for them? Does it give them information that they can use in relation to your niche that could encourage them to buy your product or service? Does it entertain or inspire them?

Along these lines, PLEASE be sure to check the link of the pin and make sure it links to the original source. Repinning a great image to your account that leads to a site that isn’t the original source is like bringing a beautifully wrapped present to a friend and when they open the box, it’s empty. What a disappointment!

-Are my followers likely to repin this?

Critique the image you’re pinning. Is it an image that grabs attention and communicates the message well? Will your followers be likely to repin it to their boards? If it isn’t a great image but you know that your followers would find the information valuable, try to find another image in the article to pin or search for a pin with the same information from a different source.

When someone repins your repin, your account name and profile image gets taken with that repin and could help bring awareness to your account and your business.

In the example below, Judi Bonilla repinned one of my repins. Notice at the bottom how my account profile image and account name are shown.

-Who am I repinning from? Could they have an interest in my business and be a potential follower?

Sometimes we come across a pin that would be perfect for our accounts, it has a great image, it links to the original source and our followers would find it valuable. Should you pin it to your account right away? Maybe, but I encourage you to take a closer look first.

EXAMPLE: You own an online tween clothing boutique and you come across a hilarious pin about  kids outgrowing their clothes.

• When you look at who pinned it you notice that it was pinned by someone who uses a family portrait as their profile image and it is a picture of a couple with a toddler.
• Further investigation of their boards reveals that the pinner has several dedicated to babies and toddlers.

Chances are that this person has little interest in tween clothing and it would be better for you to repin from someone who could benefit form your business. Sometimes it’s not possible to find the perfect person to repin from and that’s ok, go ahead and repin if it’s a good fit for your business Pinterest account. I don’t recommend  spending too much time looking for the perfect pinner but it’s something to keep in mind.

-When pinning from an account with a large following how many times has it been repinned?

Sometimes we come across those accounts on Pinterest that have tens of thousands of followers, they and their followers are our ideal customer or client. Repinning from their account can be a great way to bring your account to their attention but you should be strategic in what you repin.

If you come across a pin from one of these ideal accounts take a look at how many times it has been repinned vs other pins. To do this, simply go to the board that the image was pinned to and look at the repin and like numbers of that pin compared to the others on the board. If it’s close in numbers to the others the go ahead and repin, if not then it might be better to choose another pin from that board.

The pins with the higher number of repins and likes resonated more with the pinner’s large audience. It’s likely that they would resonate more with your followers too. Consider the number of repins and likes as a kind of popularity vote.

Of course, there can be factors that effect a pin’s popularity such as the quality of the image, the time of day it was pinned or the day of the week it was pinned so just use this as a general guide. In the image below, I would be more likely to choose to repin the one with the higher repin and like number over the other.

So that’s how you Repin to Pinterest.  As with many business strategies, these aren’t an exact science some may work better than others at helping you reach your goals. However, you’re likely to achieve better results with some strategy than none at all. Are there other strategies that you would recommend? Please share them in the comments below.

PS – Looking for individual Pin recounts? Here’s how to find them!