12 Ways to Get More Pinterest Followers

#1: Add the Pinterest Follow Button

The Pinterest follow button diverts website visitors to your Pinterest page, thereby attracting followers. This can be effective if you have a high-traffic website.

Install the button in several prominent places on your website and blog—the header, footer, sidebar, etc. Make it easy for people to find your brand page and convert them into followers.

To create your button, use the widget builder page on Pinterest or create a custom button that matches your branding.

The Pinterest buttons can help convert website visitors into followers.

MindBodyGreen placed Pinterest buttons on the header and the sidebar of their website to divert website traffic to their Pinterest page and attract some of their thousands of followers.

This should also help them attract followers who like reading their content, as they’ll be directed from the blog.

#2: Add the Profile Widget

Similar to the Follow button, the profile widget also leads your website visitors to your Pinterest page. But you may find the profile widget more effective than the Follow button because it’s bigger and can display up to 30 of your latest pins.

The profile widget can also help you attract followers from your website.

To attract followers, the larger-sized profile widget can be more effective than the tiny Follow button.

Again, you can create your profile widget by using the widget builder or you cancreate a custom one as seen on Marie Mosley’s Pinterest page, Code it Pretty.

On the left sidebar of the blog, you can see a profile widget which displays Code it Pretty’s latest pins. This should not only drive potential followers to your Pinterest page, but also to the pins displayed, as they’re clickable (and enlarge when you scroll over them).

#3: Share a Lot

When you share often, more people will see your pins and those pins lead people back to your page by displaying your details below the pin.

People can easily find the person or company who pinned the image, as their details are displayed below the pin.

Another way to help you obtain followers is to pin a lot of images.

Sometimes after you pin an image, you see the option to follow a board on which the same pin has been added. You usually get the message “Also pinned to…”.

After you pin an image, Pinterest suggests boards where people have pinned the same image to help you easily find people to follow.

This is Pinterest trying to help you find people with similar tastes.

When you find and pin a lot of images people enjoy, Pinterest will recommend you more often to people who pin the same image. This will help you attract a lot more followers.

Sharing a lot of pins should improve your Pinterest presence, which can play a key role in attracting followers.

By sharing quality content and images, Daniela of 007 Marketing has amassed thousands of followers for her Pinterest page. If you visit the pins section of the brand page, you’ll notice she shares a lot of helpful pins—and best of all she sticks to the topic of marketing, which should help attract her target audience.

#4: Comment on Popular Pins

The Popular section on Pinterest consists of pins that have been repinned, liked and commented on several times. Take advantage of this and get people to check out your own page by commenting on these pins.

Have a good look at the pin—study the image and the description and write a meaningful comment. You want to write more than a two-word comment like ‘‘Great Pin’’ or ‘‘Nice Find!’’

You want to show people you know and care about this subject. This can be achieved by leaving a thoughtful comment. This will make people want to check out your page and follow you.

Note: Too much commenting is considered spam by Pinterest and can lead to your account being suspended. So limit your comments to two or three times a day.

A meaningful comment on a popular pin can also help attract followers.

In the above pin, which I found in the popular section of Pinterest, Pam Tufts left a very thoughtful comment. This shows she read the description and has some knowledge of the subject. This should get people who are interested in learning more to check out her profile and follow her.

#5: Mention Others

When appropriate, mention others in the description of a pin or the comments section.

Mentioning other Pinterest users can be a great way to attract their attention and get them to follow you.

When you mention someone on Pinterest, consider complimenting them, too. This will further draw you to that person’s notice and encourage them to follow you.

#6: Connect Your Social Networks

Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts with your Pinterest account to attract your Facebook and Twitter friends and followers to your Pinterest account.

You can easily tweet your pins so your Twitter followers can see them anddisplay your latest Pinterest activity in your Facebook friends’ and followers’ feeds.

Choose the different types of activity you’d like people to see, and with a simple click they can visit your pins, check them out and follow you on Pinterest.

To help attract followers, you can also add a link to your Pinterest account in your other social media account bios.

Connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts to your Pinterest account can help attract followers from those networks.

Krishna De has connected both her Twitter and Facebook accounts to her Pinterest account. As you can see in the above screenshot, this displays both accounts on her page and can help all three social networks gain followers.

#7: Find Friends From Other Social Networks

Another advantage of connecting your other social networks is you can find friends and connect with them.

Connect your accounts and click on your business name in the top right corner of the screen. In the dropdown menu that appears, click on Find Friends. You can thenchoose the social networks you’ve connected to find friends and followers and follow them on Pinterest.

Connect your social media accounts to your Pinterest accounts and find friends and followers you already know.

As you follow people you already have relationships with, they’ll be very likely to follow you back.

#8: Promote Your Individual Boards

Instead of following an entire profile, people prefer following boards on subjects they’re interested in. Work on getting followers for your most popular boards instead of the entire account.

Go through your brand page and look for your most popular boards and promote them to gain more followers.

Here’s a quick guide on how to get more Pinterest followers:

1. Place your popular boards in the top row so people can see them as soon as they visit your brand page.

Place your most popular boards in the top row of your Pinterest page to get more people to notice them.

Swarovski uses the top row of their Pinterest page to display their most popular board, Wedded Bliss, which now has more than 1.5 million followers.

2. Use the board widget to display 30 of the latest pins from the selected board and lead viewers to the board by clicking on it. You can build a board widget by visiting the widget builder page.

The board widget can help convert website visitors into board followers.

3. Invite board contributors to pin to your boards to help attract followers. This can aid you in two ways—1) the contributors will share lots of pins, which will increase your board’s exposure and 2) the board will be displayed on their profile too; thereby converting some of their profile visitors to followers of your boards.

Group boards can get you a regular supply of both followers and pins.

The above is an example of Better Homes and Gardens’ Blogger Recipes We Love, a popular board that has a lot of board contributors.

#9: Contribute to Others’ Boards

A quick way to attract followers is to contribute to popular group boards that already have a lot of followers. When you contribute quality pins to these boards, their followers become your followers, too—if they like your pins.

Look for popular group boards and spend some time forming a relationship with the board owner or other contributors, then ask them to invite you to the board.

Contributing to popular boards can also attract followers.

An example is Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth who contributes to the board #LetsCelebrate Pin Party which has close to a quarter of a million followers. Exposing her pins to all of these followers should help convert some of them into her own.

#10: Follow Others

Look for people with similar interests, follow them and a fraction of them will follow you back. Continue to follow the ones who follow you back and unfollow the ones who don’t. Repeat the process.

Here’s how you follow others:

• In the Pinterest search bar, type in a keyword related to your field. This will give you a list of pinners, boards and pins that contain your keyword.
  

  Follow other pinners or boards.

• Then choose what you plan to follow—other pinners or boards.
• After you make your choice, in the list that appears, begin following people/boards who share pins similar to what you share.
• Follow about 100-300 people a day and then wait a few days. Then check to see who has followed you and continue following the ones who have followed you back and unfollow the ones who haven’t.

If you follow this procedure, you’ll be able to gradually build up a lot of followers. To make sure you only get followers who’ll be likely to interact with your pins—only follow people who have similar interests.

#11: Run Contests

There are two ways to gain followers when you run a Pinterest contest. You can either base entry in the contest upon following you or you can use a tool like Rafflecopter to give away a few extra entries for those who follow you.

To gain followers, make following your account an obligatory part of your contest.

An example is the Pin Win Spin! Pinterest contest by Angie’s List, where one of the requirements for taking part in the contest is to follow Angie’s List.

#12: Keep Your Followers Happy

It’s not just about getting followers, it’s also about keeping them happy. Make the extra effort to keep your followers satisfied so they’ll continue following you instead of leaving you.

Here are a couple of ways to keep followers happy:

• Don’t share everything at once: Instead of clouding your followers’ feeds with your pins all at once, time your pins to go out at regular intervals. You can easily do this by using a scheduling tool like Curalate.
• Stick to one topic per board: One way to lose your board followers quickly is to share irrelevant pins to your boards. It’s okay to share lots of different topics on different boards, but make sure you stick to one topic per board to keep your followers happy and get them craving more.

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How to Use Pinterest to Build Trust and Loyalty

#1: Tell Your Company’s Story

Every company has a personality and a story to tell. When you reveal your unique story, you help establish credibility and foster a personal connection with your Pinterest followers.

A good place to start is to look into your company’s history.

General Electric has done a great job of this on its “The Archives” Pinterest board. Here, GE pins images of past ad campaigns and products.

Products form GE's past show you the company's longevity and their products' evolution.

If you share your company’s story with your audience, you:

• Show that your business has a history and isn’t brand-new on the scene, and thereby improve your credibility
• Illustrate that your products and services are not stuck in the past and that you change with the times
• Imply a sense of company growth and stability as you show your evolution, and the addition of new products can imply company growth and stability

While most businesses don’t have the long history that GE does, there are other things that can be pinned from the past:

• Company logo revisions
• Storefront or website evolutions
• Product or packaging changes
• Pictures of the CEO or owner in his or her younger years

However, the story doesn’t have to be limited to the past. Taco Bell Careers pins current images of employees working in the corporate offices and in stores on their Pinterest “The Taco Bell Community” board. Doing this will give a behind-the-scenes look and help to portray the company as fun and friendly.

Featured on this board are images of a jalapeno-eating contest, company award ceremonies and other fun events.

Even if your business isn’t as large as Taco Bell, you can pin images of:

• Office parties
• Staff meetings
• Candid behind-the-scenes photos
• Photos of pets (even the White House has done this on their Pinterest boards)

Another way to tell your story is to share the causes that matter to you. Many people appreciate doing business with and can relate to a company that gives back to the community.

Mr. Rooter has a Pinterest board to showcase the non-profit foundations they partner with and support. They also highlight what their franchisees are doing on a local level to show that the giving goes beyond the corporate office.

These pins display the many ways Mr. Rooter gives back to the community.

While sharing your story, it’s important to remember that your company is more than just a logo. Many businesses on Pinterest use recognizable logos for their profile images, but to build a personal connection, pin a photo or video of yourself.

For example, Bed Bath & Beyond created a board dedicated to their social media community managers.

The only pin on this board is a video of the community managers introducing themselves and explaining what followers can expect to find on the Bed Bath & Beyond Pinterest account.

Followers now have a sense of who the people are behind the Pinterest account. Instead of users leaving comments for a large company, they can now communicate with the actual people who represent the company. This simple video makes a large company feel very approachable.

Pinterest followers leave questions and comments for the community managers under the pin.

#2: Recognize Loyal Customers

Long ago, before video game consoles became as common as toasters, kids would have to venture out to arcades to play video games. One thing all of the gaming machines had in common was a screen that would show the initials of the top-ranking players.

Having your initials listed as a top-ranking player meant that you were pretty darn cool. It took time, skill and money to achieve that status and the initials were the video game makers’ way of rewarding you.

As a marketer, you can now use Pinterest to recognize and honor your clients or customers.

For example, UGallery is an online art gallery that features upcoming artists. Each Monday, it features a guest pinner to pin to the UGALLERY: Be Art Guest board.

UGallery includes the weekly guest pinner's name and website URL in the description of the board.

The guest pinner is featured on the UGallery blog and on the Pinterest board along with their pins. The guest pinners bestowed with this honor are likely to become loyal customers of UGallery and share the good news with their friends.

#3: Make Your Boards a Resource

Lowe’s, an international home improvement retailer, is a good example of a company that uses its Pinterest account to provide value.

Lowe's Pinterest account provides value to followers beyond links to products.

The boards Lowe’s has created not only feature products and projects from their website, they also have many pins that link to other websites and blogs for inspiration and instruction. When Lowe’s customers are looking for help with their next project, they can visit the Pinterest account to seek guidance.

#4: Verify Pins Before You Share Them

Repinning is encouraged on Pinterest. When repinning something that you think wouldprovide value to your Pinterest followers, click on the pin to verify that it leads back to the original source.

Remember, the links attached to pins can be changed or broken. Before repinning to your account, verify the origin of the pin by clicking on it and only repin if it goes to the original source of the image. Pinning images with bad or broken links provides little to no value.

Pinterest is a great social media platform to help build connections, trust and loyalty in a very visual way. Use these tips to leverage this social media platform to build the trust and loyalty of your audience.

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