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Cynthia Sanchez shares tips for using Pinterest to promote your podcast, create better content, and get more followers.
Cynthia hosts the Oh So Pinteresting podcast and she's an expert at Pinterest. She consults with business and anyone who wants to be successful on Pinterest.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is essentially a visual bookmarking site. But beyond text and URLs, Pinterest adds images. You can organize your “pins” into different categories (called “boards”) and add descriptions to your visual bookmarks.
Pinterest has been rapidly adopted by the “unlikely” group—midwestern women who aren't on the cutting edge of technology or social media.
There are over 70 million users using Pinterest!
How you use Pinterest to promote your podcast
Pinterest is based on interests, so it's very likely that you can find people or boards that share similar interests as your podcast.
Podcasters usually have some kind of shownotes that go with their episodes. Adding a relevant image to your post help it be shareable on Pinterest.
Image tips for Pinterest
- You may be tempted to use your podcast cover art for every pin, but it doesn't communicate the content of your episodes.
- Use a different image for each episode you post to Pinterest.
- Your unique images don't need to be complicated, but should be relevant and somehow connected with the content you share.
- Include a “Pin It” button on your images to make it easier for Pinterest users to pin your content to their own boards.
- Images for Pinterest should be tall (portrait) rather than wide (landscape). Pinterest pins all have the same width, but they can have different lengths. This is why infographics work so well on Pinterest.
- Pond5 (no credits)
- Pixabay (free)
- MorgueFile (free)
- iStockPhoto (credits)
- Adding text over your image can be helpful if the connection with your content isn't quite obvious.
- If you're allowed, brand or watermark your images. You don't have to be a Photoshop expert to watermark your images. Try free online image-editors like PicMonkey, Pixlr, or Pixabay. Check out this list of WordPress plugins that can watermark images automatically.
- Get the Pinterest “Pin It” Button WordPress plugin to specify a default image for Pinterest and make it easier for website visitors to pin your content.
Kinds of stuff to pin
View Pinterest as an extension of your community. But also remember that you shouldn't pin only your own content (this is actually against Pinterest's terms).
Create boards that appeal to the lifestyle of the person you're trying to reach. For example, I can make boards about WordPress, podcasting equipment, Audacity, podcast hosting, and podcasting techniques—all relevant to the content I create, but content that I may find elsewhere that I can share with my audience. But something like a “recipes” board wouldn't make sense for my podcast audience.
You can even post Pinterest-only content that doesn't link to anything. Upload your image to Pinterest and write your content. This can be great for short, visual content. But because these miss out on your chance for traffic, consider linking the post to relevant content you've posted on your site.
Hashtags?
You can use hashtags on Pinterest, but they're not as intelligent as on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Hashtags on Pinterest link to simple searches with that word, but not necessarily just posts with that hashtag. Consider making a unique word or combination of words. For example, #podcastingtips.
Think about Pinterest as a search engine, not a social network. Yes, it is social, but Pinterest is trying to evolve into a visual search engine. So think about the keywords relevant to your content, and try to use those keywords in your pins and even board names.
Playable audio or video on Pinterest
YouTube and Vimeo videos will be playable directly in Pinterest. SoundCloud is the only way to share audio on Pinterest.
Your own boards or group boards?
Pin to both your own boards and group boards. You can also invite others to pin to your own board, but make sure you trust them! Anyone added to a board can add anyone else.
How you can use Pinterest to help your podcasting
Use Pinterest as a resource for ideas and inspiration.
Find out what kind of stuff people are pinning that you may be able to address in your podcast. Especially look at related tweets.
Affiliate links?
You can't use most affiliate links or link shorteners on Pinterest. But you can pin to a page that has affiliate links. So instead of a direct link to the affiliate, write something short on your website and link to that.
How to build a following on Pinterest
First, if you already have a platform (like a blog or podcast) or presence on another social network, tell your followers about your Pinterest now what kind of stuff you'll be pinning.
Pin multiple times per day, but don't batch everything together. Each pin should be something different, not the same thing over and over.
Pin stuff that you find interesting and you think your followers would like, too.
Spread out your pins across your boards instead of focusing on just a single board.
Repin other content you find on Pinterest.
Concerns over using Pinterest with your business
When you pin your own content, you're giving the Pinterest community permission to repin and reshare your content.
Watch for clues that site owners are giving permission to share their content to Pinterest. If there's a potential conflict of interest, then you could skip that item and find something else.
Make sure your pins go back to their original source, not a screenshot of the website but a link to your own site.
Connect with Cynthia Sanchez
To learn more about Pinterest, get the Oh So Pinteresting podcast, or hire Cynthia to help you succeed on Pinterest, visit the Oh So Pinteresting website.
You can also follow me on Pinterest.
Need personalized podcasting help?
I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.
Ask your questions or share your feedback
- Comment on the shownotes
- Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
- Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)
Connect with me
- Subscribe to The Audacity to Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Android.
- Join the Facebook Page and watch live podcasting Q&A on Mondays at 2pm (ET)
- Subscribe on YouTube for video reviews, Q&A, and more
- Follow @theDanielJLewis
Disclosure
This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
This is excellent Daniel, and timely too. I had only begun to toy with Pinterest related to my podcast. This interview and notes are just what I needed. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to the craft.
You’re welcome! I’m glad it helps and it’s also inspired me to leverage Pinterest better.
Thanks for the great suggestions, Cynthia! What fantastic content. And thanks, Daniel, for having a couple of female podcasters on your podcast recently.
Ha ha! Have you checked out LibSyn’s official podcast, The Feed? It’s hosted by Elsie Escobar.
No, I have not, but I’ll check it out.
[…] Daniel J Lewis – The Audacity To Podcast […]
Daniel! Wonderful interview. Cynthia is great. I must admit I came here fully expecting to find her beautiful smile so I could add it to my pin board!! Hope you get a head shot from her and when you do, please ping me. Thanks for the show Daniel I got some great tips.
Thanks for the reminder! I have added Cynthia’s photo now.
Your Pinterest episode had great timing for me. I actually didn’t get a chance to listen to it last week because I was the children’s pastor at a camp — doing puppets, story time, games, and crafts. So before camp I joined Pinterest to get some craft ideas, mainly because my wife had found some great ones there for me.
So I come home and this episode was waiting for me.
What I find interesting about Pinterest is the gender expectations. I found myself telling people where I found these craft ideas with a bit of chagrin, and also found that people gave slight laughs when I’d say it. The craft lady said “I love it that you got all these on Pinterest” more than once.
But if it can truly be used like this, this could be a huge boon for not just my podcasts, but also my comic books, which are targeted at kids, and therefore parents, especially moms.
All that to say, once again, thanks for the show. It’s a huge help.
Great use, Ben! Pinterest is great for anything visual, even if it’s many explosions of bacon sword fights.
Very helpful! Thank you. Now I know why my graphics on Facebook and Pinterest don’t look so great. I’ll have to redo them for portrait orientation. New to podcasting and having a lot of fun with it.
I belong to a network of podcasters, http://ultimateradioshow.com/ (all homeschoolers) and I’m sharing your podcast with them, Daniel.
BTW, I listen to TAP on my iphone using Downcast while I take a walk, so the show notes are very helpful!