Why We’re Beginning to LOVE Pinterest
Give your ears some momentum! Listen now: (00:14:21)
Pinterest is a search engine platform people go to when they’re looking for solutions–and that includes your books! In this Writing Momentum podcast episode, Chris and Gena talk about the draw of Pinterest and why it may be a good support for your writing career.
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EPISODE 15 transcription:
[00:00:13].820] - Chris Hey, how you doing? And welcome to Writing Momentum. We're so glad you're all here. [00:00:17].790] - Gena Yeah, welcome. We're talking about something really special today that I'm excited to talk about because it's something we've really been learning about even more in the last year. And that is Pinterest. [00:00:30].080] - Chris Pinterest. Whoever thought we'd be excited to talk about Pinterest? But we are. [00:00:35].310] - Gena It is. I think a lot of people think of Pinterest as kind of just a fun little thing. They don't see it as a tool for well, I think some businesses see it as a tool, but I think for writers, it can be an overlooked tool that we can use. [00:00:53].620] - Chris That's right. I think often what happens is we look at Pinterest and we see it like just another social network. You've got Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest. That's usually how we talk about it. But the truth is what we've discovered is that Pinterest is not really a social network, not at its heart. At its heart, Pinterest is a search engine. In fact, it's the third largest search engine in the world, right behind Google and YouTube, which is owned by Google. So it's number three, which means there's a lot of potential to growth with it. [00:01:30].200] - Gena There is. And I think the other special thing to note about Pinterest is why people use it. One it's very visual. It's very beautiful to look at it. I don't know. I have definitely gotten caught up in the just surfing through Pinterest and looking at all the beautiful Pins and looking at all the possibilities. But beyond that, I think Pinterest people use it in order to find answers to questions. [00:01:57].260] - Chris Yeah. And also to make purchases. In fact, that's what the research shows. And that's what Pinterest pushes when they talk to their investors in that is that people go to Pinterest for the same reason they go to Google, they go to find answers, and they go to make a purchase. Right. There's something that they're looking for and they're hoping they find it on Pinterest. And because Pinterest is so visual, a lot of times they'll find it because now if you haven't used Pinterest, it's kind of like using Google. It's got a search bar on it and that. But when you hit search on something, it doesn't just bring up a listing like Google does. It brings up a whole bunch of what they call Pins, which are basically small images of the different items that it found as a result of that search. And then you can visually look through it and click on what you want. And so that's what can make it successful. [00:02:48].710] - Gena Absolutely. So, Chris, we have been on a journey to find out more about Pinterest. And I was wanting you to talk to our listeners about that. What have you been learning? What have we been learning and how have we applied it to our Pinterest page? [00:03:06].640] - Chris Yeah. If you're trying to get people to find you on the Internet. Right. You can't just build a website. You have to have something out there that's compelling, that draws people to it. Or it's usually what we call search engine optimization. Right. Or SEO. It's having the right keywords on your page so that Google indexes them so that people find you. Well, that's how Google works. It goes out and automatically indexes everything out there on the Internet. Pinterest is a little bit different. Pinterest doesn't automatically index the Internet like that. Instead, what it does is it relies upon its users to create the important Pins or the important links that other people should find. So if no one has linked to something, it may not be found on Pinterest. But then that means for those of us who are authors, there's huge potential, because if we'll go out and link our material, then people have a higher chance of finding it on Pinterest right away because there's not near as much competition as there is on Google. Does that make sense? [00:04:12].490] - Gena I think so. And I think we need to break this down, though a little bit, because I know when I use Pinterest, I often am looking for home improvement. I'm looking for ideas for home improvement projects. I'm looking for ideas for home improvement solutions. I'm looking for fashion advice, those kinds of things or inspiration of some sort. So how would you use Pinterest for the writer and break it down for us? With nonfiction and with fiction, what would that look like? [00:04:45].180] - Chris Okay, so you're right. A lot of us go to Pinterest. If I want to find a good writing desk, I might go to Pinterest because I can look at all the writing desks and get inspiration and that kind of thing. Right. But for writers, remember, people are going there to find answers. So let's say you have a book on leadership. Right. And what you can do is have a picture of that book and put it on there with your good title. And if people are searching for things about leadership, they may find that picture of your book. Or if you've written a Western and you've got a picture your of book on there, you could have that on there. So that's both fiction and nonfiction. But what I really like to use it for is to drive people to our website, because if you've got a website, you probably have a blog. Right. We all know that we have to drive people to the website, get us indexed by Google by having a blog. Well, what you can do with Pinterest is you can have every blog that you write, you can create a Pin for. Put that Pin on Pinterest. [00:05:51].320] - Chris And then as people are searching for the different topics that you're writing about, they will find links back to your blog. And when they're taken to your website, that's where they'll find out about all your books. And so we do that with every blog that we write, with every podcast we create, we create a series of actually seven pins. And the reason we do seven is because we like to have five static, one animated or like a video Pin, and one idea Pin, which is a series of images all linking back to that same blog or that same podcast. And then what we do is we schedule those over time so we don't dump all seven out there on the same day. We schedule them overtime so that hopefully people will find those blogs over time. And we've been working with a virtual assistant and has been helping us create all these. And she's just been awesome. But you can do this kind of thing through Canva. If you've heard of Canva, it's for creating social media images, where you can create images for Pinterest, really great on there, too. And it's super easy. Or you can use Tailwind, which allows you to do the same thing. [00:06:57].990] - Chris Those are two very popular services. But here's the great thing about Canva and Tailwind. After you create the pins, you can schedule them onto Pinterest right then and there. You don't even have to go to Pinterest. You can do it through the Canva and Tailwind apps. You can even through other services. So if you want to create a Pin, you can then put it on Pinterest and then also put it on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and whatever else you want right from those services, which is pretty cool. [00:07:27].600] - Gena Well, and I think one of the things that we quickly learned is that the idea of keeping up with every blog post and creating these seven different types of pins, whether they were static or whether they were animated or whether it was the idea Pin that even though they were simple, it became a little bit overwhelming. We had other things to do. So we had to figure out a way to do that quickly and easily and efficiently and still do it with excellence. And so one of the ways that we did that was to hire through Fiverr someone to create templates for us. So this designer created probably about 25 templates. And there were several many that were static, several that were animated, and also the idea Pin. We were actually able to use some of the static to create the idea Pin, but we did that so that then when we do have a new blog post, we're not starting from scratch every time. We already have these templates there that already have our fonts in them. It already has our logo placed in it. It already has our colors that we're using. And so it really has created kind of a drag and drop kind of creation process. [00:08:52].430] - Chris Yeah. You just put in a new photo or a new video for the background. You change the title, and it's pretty much ready to go. It makes it very easy. [00:09:01].330] - Gena Very simple. And the first time you do it, there's obviously a learning curve. But over time, you can start creating them very, very quickly. So that's how we did it. And I think, like you said, Chris, we could then take those and repurpose them for Facebook or Instagram. And it worked really well. So that we are constantly producing content. [00:09:25].460] - Chris Yeah, that's right. In fact, if you want to use us as a case study, I recommend you go to Pinterest Writing Momentum. When you do, you will see the pins that we used to have on Pinterest. They're still there. They're older pins. And then you'll see the brand new ones that we've created ourselves and had created with our VA. And you'll see that there's a dramatic difference between the two. The new ones are so much better now that we're using templates and we've gotten some help. And they all are very compelling. Right. And they make you want to click through and go to our website, which then leads you to the free lead magnet that we have, shows you our books, shows you our trainings and all that sort of thing. [00:10:09].720] - Gena Well, and I do want to point out, too, that when we're using these templates that are using our colors, they're using our fonts, they're using our logo. That is tying into what we already have going on on our website. It also ties into all our other social media sites and content that we're producing. And so that helps create our brand. It feeds into our brand with the idea that when people come to us or when they're looking for something, they'll see those pins. And eventually people will begin to identify them immediately as part of the Writing Momentum. That is a Writing Momentum asset. So that is what I think is the goal. No matter what kind of social media content we're producing, no matter what kind of web content we're producing or blog content, whatever it all ends up looking, having a cohesive look, feel, sound so that people will your fans will eventually identify it immediately as your content. [00:11:15].020] - Chris Yeah, exactly. Here's what we recommend. We want you to have momentum in what you're doing. And I know all this can sound a little overwhelming, but here's where to start. Go ahead and go to Pinterest.com and create your Pinterest account. If you don't have one already, go ahead and fill in all the blanks that they give you. I recommend you create a business account on there. It doesn't cost anything, but that allows you to have access to a few more analytics and grow in some business ways in the future. And then go ahead and send us the link to your Pinterest account. We would like to connect with you on Pinterest and follow you and support you. You can do that by going writingmomentum.com and click on the contact page to send us that. Or just email us at accelerate@writingmomentum.com and we will be right there with you and we'd love to see what you come up with. [00:12:05].860] - Gena Absolutely. Well, Chris, before we sign off today, could you just recap for us exactly what we covered in this podcast? [00:12:12].870] - Chris Yeah. Okay. So where we started is that Pinterest? Remember, it's not a social network, it's a search engine. First and foremost, people use it to find answers and make purchases. And then we recommend that you use products like Canva and Tailwind to create multiple pins for every blog, every book, every course you have on your webpage and link all of those pins that you create back to your webpage and you can schedule them right there if you want to schedule them out. They can also be repurposed for other channels if you want to do that. And then of course, like any platform, you want to use keywords and links and relevant, good content as you go through. But for your assignment for the week, go create your Pinterest account today. [00:12:57].000] - Gena That's right. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope that this has been beneficial to you and that we are hoping that your writing always has momentum. Please rate reviews, subscribe, and share this Podcast. We'd love to help other writers as they work towards their goals of getting their message and their books and their writing out to the world. [00:13:23].240] - Chris That's right, you guys are awesome. We'll talk to you next week. Bye.
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