[FREE PRINTABLE] 16 Point Pinterest Profile Checklist

Does your Pinterest profile need a tune up? Go through this 16 point checklist to make sure your Pinterest profile is in tip-top shape.

Get Started

1. Understand what’s already working for you.

• By looking into what content is already resonating with your audience, developing a Pinterest strategy your fans will love is a breeze. You can either sign up for a Tailwind analytics dashboard and check out the “Trending Pins” page to see the top recently pinned images from your website, or you can type in “pinterest.com/source/[yourwebsiteaddress.com]” and see the source images from Pinterest.

2. 5+5+2=10.

• The arithmetic is spotty, but for your Pinterest page this formula is spot on. When creating boards, make 5 boards based on things your audience loves, 5 boards based on things your audience has a hard time finding, and 2 boards based on your company.  After creating the boards, make sure they have at least 10 pins each.

3. Be thoughtful with your board names.

• As we Learned from Jack Potaczala, board names play a pretty big part in the way Pinterest displays search results. Because of this, it’s best to do a little research of your own. Think about what your ideal customer would be typing into Pinterest’s search bar and make sure your board names contain those keywords.

4. Size and emotion matter in Pinterest profile pictures and cover photos.

• What should your fans feel when they think about your brand? Empowered? Pretty? Relaxed? Whatever that adjective might be, make sure your profile picture and cover photos evoke the right one. And remember, you only have 165 x 165 pixels for a profile picture and 217 x 147 pixels for your cover photos, so make every one count!

5. Creep on the competition

• It might be hard to believe, but sometimes your competition does incredible things on Pinterest. And, of course, sometimes they completely flop. Regardless of the success level, you can use your competition’s Pinterest page as an opportunity to learn.  If you check your Tailwind competitor dashboard and see that a competitor has lost a massive number of followers in the past week, go see what they’ve changed. It’s always best to learn from competitors mistakes.

6. Create a rich profile description.

• You have 200 characters in the about me section, so use them wisely.  Check out your Google Analytics to see what keywords drive people to your site and use those keywords and phrases. Just make sure to keep it easy to read and not overly “keyword-y”.

Get Growing

7. Use your other social media accounts to boost your Pinterest following.

• Cross promotion is an underused utility in social media marketing. By using your other, more robust, platforms as a way to market your Pinterest page, you are targeting those fans that are already interested in what you have to say.

8. Promote your Pinterest account through contests.

• There’s a reason why Pinterest contests are so popular – they work! However, you have to be careful with the way you run your contests. To combat spam, Pinterest put limitations on how brands can run contests so users news feeds won’t be filled with thousands of promotional pins. To learn more on how to properly run contests on Pinterest, just check out our post on the new guidelines.

9. Find the right community boards to join.

• Community boards are an amazing way to quickly send your content out to lots of Pinterest users. However, the power of a community board lies in becoming a part of the right community board. To find the best fit for you, choose a few keywords associated with your brand, do a Pinterest search, and look for the boards with the people icon next to it. Check out the content of the boards and choose the right one for you. Start repinning and commenting to make yourself known as a potentially great addition, then leave a comment asking to join! As long as you’re not overly self-promotional, most Pinterest users will welcome you with open arms.

10. Engage your influencers and thank your top brand pinners.

• Having one active pinner with 250,000 followers is worth immensely more than having 250,000 zombie followers. Once you’d found your influential followers, reach out to them and build a relationship with them. Having an influential pinner on your side can really pay off. However, while influencers are wonderful, you can’t forget the little guys that have your back. Thank your top brand pinners with something as easy as a comment, or as great as a coupon for a free treat! Either way, they’ll remember your kind gesture and continue to stick up for you.

11. Find out what words users associate with your brand.

• Knowing what users are saying about your brand can help you determine what feelings they associate with your brand as well as what things they would like to see more of. By checking out your description word-cloud, you can tell at-a-glance what your fans are saying about you.

12. Make sure your page is SEO ready.

• Believe it or not, your Pinterest page can actually impact your website’s SEO. Everything from the name of your account, to the alt text on your images can affect your search results. Get a full overview on how to optimize your Pinterest page here.

13. REPIN!!!

• For the love of all things Pinterest, REPIN! Users DON’T only want to see your products – they want to see other things they’re interested in. Remember those 10 boards you made and those keywords you found? Do a Pinterest search for similar words and follow related boards for great content to repin. It’s also extremely important to repin your followers pins to show them that you are paying attention and you are interested in what they have to say.

14. Take advantage of your most repinned days and times.

• Although Pinterest virality can be a slow burn, there’s certainly something to be said for finding the days and times your audience is most likely to repin. By pinning during your peak days and times, you’ll be more likely to catch your fans when they’re active.

15. Take advantage of Rich Pins.

• Pinterest now offers rich pins for products, articles, recipes and movies to any brand on Pinterest. Rich pins allow you to display much more information on the pin than regular pins do, so users will be more likely to click through to your site. After you’ve added the necessary meta tags to your site, you will have to validate the pins then apply to have them appear on Pinterest.

16. Greatness Takes Time.

• It’s ok if your Pinterest profile doesn’t have a million followers because, like in life, greatness can take time. Just keep engaging with your users, putting out great content, and being a good member of the pin-community. Your efforts will pay off.