The Ultimate Guide To Rocking Instagram Using Pinterest
Instagram can be a fun but frustrating platform with accounts and posts that do better than others with no obvious explanation. The constant changes to it’s algorithm are almost impossible to keep up with but friend don’t throw in the towel just yet. If you are looking to increase your Instagram engagement and grow your account, you may want to think outside the box and consider making Pinterest part of your Instagram strategy.
When it comes to visual content and ecommerce, Pinterest and Instagram actually work best when used together because Pinterest is an evergreen platform you can leverage to increase referral traffic due to its link-friendly nature and Instagram is the master of engaging lifestyle visuals which can help potential new followers find you and inspire them to want more of your content.
Because Pinterest is a search engine, it can also significantly extend the life of your Instagram content. How? Unlike Instagram, Pinterest is not designed to show only the most recently published or trending content which means that post you worked so hard on to style and create a value packed caption for 6 months ago can still drive significant referral traffic.
To leverage Pinterest you have to think of it differently. It’s a platform more like Google, a search engine full of beautiful, themed content you can find with search words, rather than a social network. When you add content to Pinterest it is searchable, can be found and pinned over and over unlike Instagram where the content has a very short shelf life.
I got laser focused 2 years ago to use Pinterest to help grow my blog because I was frustrated with the limiting organic reach of Facebook. I greatly underestimated the power of Pinterest and once I learned how to use it, it has no doubt been a game changer for me. It currently drives over 79% of my blog traffic and I am now using those same strategies to help build my Instagram account for I am experiencing the same frustrations with the limiting organic reach of Instagram.
I don’t spend near the amount of time here as I would like to but when I do I know exactly what to do in order to get results and my account consistently averages 450K-500K views per month which just goes to show the power of this platform.
Ready to learn how to grow your Instagram using Pinterest? Let’s dive right in!
Grow Your Instagram Step #1: Switch Over To A Business Account
You want to switch your personal account over to a business account if you haven’t already done so. if you aren’t sure exactly how to do that here is a great tutorial straight from the Pinterest Help Desk.
Once you have this step completed, you can claim your website and your other social media accounts so Pinterest will recognize your blog and the posts that you pin. To do this you simply go to settings and follow the instructions to claim your website and social media accounts.
To claim your website, it will require adding an html code to your website so Pinterest can verify it. I am running on the Squarespace platform and this coding went into the Header Injection Coding section of my website. This blog post is not designed to teach this step as there are multiple website platforms but here’s a tip: Google “How to claim my website with Pinterest using _________” and insert the name of your platform. So if you are running on Wordpress for example you would Google “How to claim my website with Pinterest using Wordpress” and you will be able to find a blog post or video tutorial on YouTube that will walk you through this step.
Grow Your Instagram Step #2: Complete Your Profile
With your Pinterest account “upgraded” to a business account, it’s time to take a more professional approach than you may have with your personal account. Ideally, you want to create a cohesiveness to your social media accounts, using the same profile picture for Pinterest and Instagram as well as your bio. Consistency is key for branding. When potential followers from Pinterest want to look for you on Instagram you will be easily recognizable.
Grow Your Instagram Step #3: Clean Up Your Pinterest Account
With the intention to use your Pinterest account to help grow your Instagram, you have to approach your Pinterest strategy differently than just using Pinterest to pin fun wish list content that is of interest only to you. You have to now think of the kind of content that will attract your ideal follower.
Go through your boards with this strategy in mind. Ensure each board has a title with 2-3 key words max, description and category.
Here is a bonus tip: You can use Google to help you find relevant key words for the descriptions of your Pinterest boards. For this board I Googled “vintage farmhouse” and by scanning the first page of Google I found other keywords to create the description.
To help bring some more organization to your account, you can hide boards and make them private that contain content that you want to keep but doesn’t necessarily relate to the type of account you want to create. Remember you are wanting to use Pinterest to attract more like mind followers to help build your Instagram account.
Here are some examples:
• If you have a home decor Instagram account you will want to create boards in that niche.
• If you have a health and wellness Instagram account you will want to create boards in that niche.
• If you have a travel Instagram account you will want to create boards in that niche.
The more “on message” your Pinterest account is with the type of content that is on your Instagram account the more likely you are to attract people who will not only find you on Instagram but who will also want to follow you.
Grow Your Instagram Step #4: Create New Pinterest Boards
Once you clean up your account and existing Pinterest boards you can start creating new boards and pinning relevant content including your own.
Be sure to create a board specifically for pinning your own content. If you are a blogger you will want to create a board only for your blog posts. You can repin that content to other relevant boards. Use this strategy for photos as well.
If you have a home decor account, create a board titled “InstagramUsername Home” Use your Instagram user name for the board title where you can upload and repurpose your instagram pictures. Be sure to provide a description for the board and a board category.
If you are faith based health coach who’s username is, FaithfullyFit on Instagram for example, create boards specific to your content like “Faithfully Fit Blog”, “Faithfully Fit Recipes” (you can repin these recipes to other boards like Healthy Breakfast etc where there is a mixture of your content and other content that you pin), Faithfully Fit Exercises” (you can repin this content to other boards like Core Exercises, etc where there is a mixture of your content and other content that you pin). These boards will keep your content in one location so your followers can easily see all the amazing content you create and it’s not getting lost or buried.
Here is an example from my Beautifully Rooted Home board where I upload photos I share to Instagram and repinned to my Boho Neutral Decor and Boho Wall Basket boards.
I also do the same with my blog posts. I have a board where only my blog posts are pinned to first. From there I repin to other boards of relevance.
Once you have your primary boards created be sure to set them as your featured boards so they are scrolling at the top of your Pinterest account. Go to your account settings and you will see the section to edit your featured boards
You can set up to 5 featured boards. Once this is done you will see them scrolling at the top of your Pinterest account. This helps to more easily display your content so it doesn’t get lost in in the mix of your other boards.
Grow Your Instagram Step #5: Repurpose Your Instagram Content
Now that you have your Pinterest account updated, organized and a new strategy in place, you are ready to start repurposing your Instagram content!
If your ultimate goal with Pinterest is to grow your Instagram account be sure to post to Instagram first and then upload to Pinterest pinning it to your primary board and then repinning to other relevant boards on Pinterest.
One of the biggest keys to success on Pinterest is quality over quantity. Post your best and most “on theme” Instagram content to Pinterest. Recipes, infographics, and visuals with text overlays tend to perform really well on Pinterest so be sure to not only pin your high quality photos to Pinterest but take the time to create a graphic with a text overlay using an app like WordSwag or Canva to showcase your posts that give a lot of value.
I went into a lot of detail in this instagram post of how to create a boho basket wall on a budget so not only do I have this photo pinned to by Beautifully Rooted Home board, I also created an optimized graphic (Pinterest likes photos that are vertically rectangle) with text and linked it directly to my Instagram post.
Now this image can grab the attention of someone on Pinterest and tells them that if they click on the image they can learn exactly how to create their own boho basket wall on a budget. I ensured that I gave the pin descriptive key words.
You can pin your Instagram content to Pinterest using your desktop or by toggling back and forth from your Instagram and Pinterest apps. I tend to work more from my phone than my desktop so that is what works for me. Definitely do what works for you.
So to recap: I upload my images that are posted to Instagram to Pinterest, add a description for each photo, website link and pin to my primary board. From there I what I call “sub pin” to other relevant boards. In other words, I don’t upload the photo to other boards, I repin the original photo to relevant boards so I can build the engagement for that piece of content.
I will often use my instagram url www.instagram.com/beautifullyrooted_ as the website link for my Pinterest pins rather than the url for the instagram post. My primary reason for doing this is if a photo is for some reason deleted from my Instagram I don’t want to have to worry about that url link being broken on Pinterest.
What NOT To Do
I am not a fan of pinning content directly from Instagram, as in copying the url link for your post and allowing Pinterest to pull in the image and info and here’s why: when you copy the link from your Instagram it’s going to pull in all the text you wrote for your Instagram post where you may be talking about the weather, what your kids ate last night or other random info that is not helping to index your photo for Pinterest that is more of a search engine with relevant key words.
Take the time to upload your photo to Pinterest and focus on words that directly relate to the photo. For example, if you upload a photo of you holding a Rae Dunn GULP coffee mug and you have a spring decorated tiered tray in the background:
Upload your photo to Pinterest
Add a description to say “Rae Dunn Gulp Mug with spring style tiered tray”
Add the url of either your primary IG account or the direct link to that post
Pin it to your primary Home board
Repin it to relevant boards like Spring Decor, Rae Dunn Love, Tiered Tray Decor, etc.
***It’s important to note that if you are ever thinking about changing your Instagram username you will need to go back and edit the url links on your Pinterest photos for once you change your IG username your url will change and therefore break the links of your pins. If you are thinking about changing your IG username for some reason do it now before you start adding a lot of content to Pinterest that you will have to go back and edit and creating more work for yourself.
Grow Your Instagram Step #6: Pinterest Etiquette
It’s an unfortunate reality that people may use your content without your permission. if this is a concern or worry you may want to watermark your photos.
My sweet friend Beth of HomeStoriesAtoZ creates a large amount of Instagram and Pinterest content and often watermarks or brands her photos. If this is a concern you can certainly do the same.
This may be obvious but it’s important to address that it’s never okay to use someone else’s photo, upload it to Pinterest and use it to drive traffic to your account. Don’t be that person. Only your originally created content should be used.
Grow Your Instagram Step #7: Consistency
With any platform, to see results you have to be consistent. ideally you want to spend a few minutes each day to upload your original content and repinning relevant content to build the boards you create. Ensure you are staying consistent with a strategy for the boards you are creating and content you are pinning. Use the seasons to help inspire you. If spring is coming up, think about relevant content you can pin.
• If you have a home decor account, pin spring decorating tips, colors that are trending. Create boards around spring and spring holiday related topics.
• If you have a fitness type account, think about the type of content you can create like workouts you can do outdoors, recipes you can create with in-season produce.
• If you have a travel blog and summer is coming up think about the content you can create for families looking for summer vacay ideas.
• If you have a fashion type account and winter is coming up, create boards for winter fashion, holiday outfit ideas.
Keep in mind that people are on Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration based on the time of year, holidays, etc. If you focus on this strategy you will greatly see your Pinterest and Instagram traffic increase.
I know I have spent this blog post making a case for how powerful Pinterest can be but now let me quickly show you the power of Pinterest.
I love to create quote graphics and they are linked directly to my website. They have been a huge website traffic source for me. This one quote in the last 30 days has been shown organically in the Pinterest feed 12K+ times, been saved (pinned to boards) 61 times and I have received 13 click throughs to my website.
This is a quote graphic I uploaded one time and it continues to work for me on a daily basis. When was the last time you uploaded a photo to Instagram and 12K people saw in the newsfeed? Pinterest is organically showing this graphic over and over in the feed based on people who are searching for faith based quotes.
Use this strategy when you create content for Pinterest. Focus on key words for pin descriptions and you will start to see amazing results.
I hope you not only found the tips in this guide helpful for using Pinterest to grow your Instagram account but more importantly has empowered you not to be at the mercy of the ever-changing Instagram algorithm. Remember to choose progress over perfection and do what brings you joy in life, business and styling your home.
Welcome Beautiful Creative! I'm April, a mom of two boys • Storyteller • Coffee Addict • Warrior For Christ • Texas Country Girl • Creative Expressive • Squarespace Web Designer • I pray you find inspiration here to embrace your worth in Christ • I am honored to have you here ❥
