Have you wondered how writers can use Pinterest?
I contributed to APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur — How to Publish a Book, with a chapter called How to Pin your Way to Success — An Author’s Guide to Pinterest in which I discuss how and why authors can use Pinterest. I’ve used Pinterest for book promotions for the past several years, and I’d like to share what I’ve learned with you.
Writers have much to think about when building their online presence, and Pinterest can be a smart part of it. Pinterest has consistently been in the top four traffic referrers for blogs based on research done by Shareaholic. One benefit of using Pinterest is that you don't have to create new content for Pinterest, you can add your blog content, add from other web sources, or re-pin existing content on your boards.
When you’re working on the entrepreneur part (when you need to start marketing and selling) of your book or trying to get the word out about your blog, Pinterest is a great way to connect with readers. Pinterest takes less time than the other high traffic referrers, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, but can bring awareness and traffic to your writing. Your Pinterest boards can show more of your personality, and that's precisely what people want: a connection with you.
Some Pinterest basics:
1. Build a foundation for your platform by creating a good profile with your avatar.
2. Create your Pinterest account in your name and add boards for your book and website.
3. Let Pinterest showcase unique things about you. Your readers will love to learn about the person behind the writing.
Visit Peg Fitzpatrick’s profile on Pinterest.
4. Write original descriptions when you re-pin things to your board to put your stamp of creativity. This is the description for a pin by photographer and Pinterest superstar Trey Ratcliff for this pin. Trey has an impressive Pinterest following of almost five million Pinners. 
Trey adds the following to every pin:
- Description with the location of the photo
- His name with and without a hashtag
- A link to his website Stuck in Customs
- The photo also links back to his website
5. Create at least ten unique boards with your original names and themes. You want each board to have at least ten pins before you make the board public. Some suggested boards:
#1: About me (pins things you like that share your personality)
#2: Links to your social media accounts and website
#3: Your book/books
#4: Your blog/website articles
#5: Books you like
#6: Writing inspirations
#7-10: Choose four topics that you wish to create boards. Use the focus of your boards to help establish your brand and area of expertise.
6. Create quote graphics from your book or other quotes that inspire you. This is a graphic I created for APE that has done well.
Do not write to impress others. Remain true to yourself. #writing #writers
If you’re looking for some additional Pinterest resources, I’ve created a Pinterest board called APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, and All Things Pinterest to help you out.
7. Create branded images for your Pinterest graphics
From awesome pinner Rebekah Radice, “Custom images create a memorable brand experience. They connect the dots between business and consumer, making your content easily identifiable.
Not only that, but they provide a stimulant for better buying decisions. In a study by Custom Content Council, two thirds of consumers polled said they were more likely to buy from a company using custom media.
There’s also a psychological component to branded images. Psychologist Jerome Bruner has found that while people only remember 10 percent of things they hear and 20 percent of what they have read, they’ll remember 80 percent of what they see or do.
If you want to stand out online, you need to get branded!”
Create the most beautiful Pinterest images possible to bring traffic to your blog as well as build a branded and visually pleasing Pinterest presence.
How do you like to use Pinterest with your writing? What types of Pinterest pins have worked for you? I’ve love to hear your Pinterest success stories or questions in the comments below!
I haven’t used Pinterest for any writing yet, but I have been doing a couple of experiments to see what seems to raise the visibility of my boards.
The greatest lesson is trying different cover images for my boards. My biggest success was when I changed the cover image of an infographics board. Within a week I went from 110 followers to more than 400 followers (it has taken just over 10 months to amass that initial 110 followers). I’m now going into my 5th week since that change and I went over 1,000 follower for that board as of yesterday: http://pinterest.com/mherman31/infographics-data-visualization/
scottsdalepaleale Experimenting is great! I switch my covers on my boards to keep it fresh too. Do you share pins on other social channels?
@PegFitzpatrick @scottsdalepaleale I pulled back on sharing posts during the experiment. Any growth would be purely driven by the 1 change
Good stuff Peg. I just posted about how to market your home via Pinterest. We are considering expanding our branded social portfolio to include it. What are your thoughts? Thank you,
“The Social Guy”
SocialGuyBlog Definitely! Pinterest is a visual platform and having pins to boost your marketing or create content are a good idea.
Though I know they aren’t as popular, but I believe it’s a good idea to be able to post quotes from a book over different Pinterest boards. I find that a good gripping quote can drive some traffic back to the original site where the book is sold. One of the best things you can do, is to upload you own image and then have it redirected to the URL where the book is being sold. Sephora does this really well where they customize a pin that shows a product in its best form and gives it a little jazz, but then redirects them to the official product page.
vincentng1 I agree that quotes are very popular. I’ll check out Sephora’s pin but I’m holding you responsible for all makeup purchases. 🙂
Thanks for your thoughts!
I’m still new on Pinterest, but I’ve done a fair bit of research on it. Like everywhere else, my visibility seems to be restricted mostly to Mr. Magoo. Aside from my “woe is me”, if you’re looking for different idea, I’ve built a board around my novel – each pin on that board has some kind of relevance to something in one of the book’s chapters.
I reference the specific chapter under each Pin; each chapter has a title. It’s actually a lot of fun putting this board together, though not as easy as it may appear. Some of the references are very subtle, so they may be a little misleading. On the other hand, I’m also trying not to spoil the story. One benefit of all of this is that my story is kind of playful mystery, though at times very serious. I hope I’m creating that gestalt with this board, and I’ll continue to work on integrating it with my other sites, such as my blog and my home site . . . I’m also an artist, so that’s where my art is sold.
So here’s a link to that Pin board – I’d love to give some feedback on it – and hopefully it will give y’all a few ideas of your own. I do believe Pinterest has a lot of untapped potential for both writers and authors, and that’s partly based on research. Pinterest seems to need some fresh material, even though the wedding season is just beginning!
http://pinterest.com/lgrodecki/dancing-with-tulips/
Thanks for this; I’m gradually working towards making my pinterest work better for my blog and I’ll be pinning your post for my blogging road.
I stumbled on your post from a twitter RT. Have a lovely day 🙂
Oh how I LOVE Pinterest! It’s probably my favorite social media platform after Instagram. I’ve had tremendous success in increasing my traffic using group boards and creating pins using Canva.
I know this is an older post, but thanks. You have a lot of good tips. I’m a writer and I’ve been putting off Pinterest for a while. But I’m finally taking the plunge. Thanks for the tips.