A good pinterest pin, in my opinion, is one that gains hundreds of repins and click throughs to your website, resulting in conversions, increasing your brand awareness, gaining you new followers and improving your bottom line. However, it can be easier said that done to achieve creating a pin that goes viral.

According to Heidi Cohen’s post on pinterest today, Pinterest has now had over 25 million unique visitors. 7 out of 10 shoppers use Pinterest for their shopping inspiration, two-thirds of shoppers use Pinterest to stay advised of trends and two-fifths use pinterest to search for special offers.

Knowing that the products found on Pinterest can usually be traced to their source with a single click (the website they are pinned from) means shopping online is must less frustrating if you spot something you like. It’s therefore not surprising to learn that Pinterest users are more inclined to buy than other social as they may be using Pinterest to source items.

With that in mind, how can you maximise your chances of being repinned and ensuring as many people as possible see your pins and click through to your website?

1. Good quality photography is a must.

8 Most Popular Pins on Repinly

2.  Particular themes, cuteness and tips also do well on pinterest.

Judging by the popular pins on Repinly, food/drink, cute animal pictures, amusing quotes and hair/beauty steadily feature in the top pins (those receiving the most repins, likes and comments).  If the ‘food’ pin is clearly a link to a recipe or includes some tips, it will be more successful. Looking at the 8 most popular pins today, I was a little bemused as to why a picture of rather squashed looking strawberries was coming in at number 2 until I clicked on it and discovered it includes instructions for a healthy snack – dry strawberries in the oven for 3 hours and they will taste like candy!

3. Long, Tall & Skinny Photos

Because Pinterest divides its photo display into vertical columns of equal width, all photos are displayed to the same width but a pinner can achieve great exposure for a photograph by creating a long portrait photo rather than a wide landscape photo.

This  poster  for the upcoming Hobbit film is described as an ‘extra long’ poster as are other promotional posters that I spotted earlier. It is interesting that the effect of Pinterest is being recognised and used in their design.

Infographics usually take the form of long images as they take up more room on the pinterest page and are more noticeable as a result. Some of them are becoming ridiculously long though and one has to scroll for ages to read all the information so I do think it can sometimes be a case of ‘less is more’!

4. Instructographics

What Makes a Good Pinterest Pin?

Instructographics are pins which are visual and yet either provide instructions on the pin itself or make it clear that if the pin is clicked, the reader will arrive at the web page that provides the full instructions.

People love tutorials or pins that assure them of finding the answer to their question. Crafts are becoming much more popular but as many of us have forgotten the crocheting and knitting skills we learnt decades ago in school, instructographics are providing us with much needed tips and knowledge especially as we head into winter and crafting in front fo the fire.

This pin is an excellent example of an instructographic.  The collage of photographs show progression as one moves from 2 separate crocheted granny squares to two that are sewn together without the seam being seen.

The collage is arranged in a ‘long, tall, skinny’ photo thereby taking up maximum room on the pinterest page and the text ‘How to invisibly seam granny squares’ is clearly visible.  The text is even written in a font that looks like stitching.

One can either follow the visuals to work out how to do it or click the link to see the image in a larger size complete with written instructions.

See our instructions for creating a long, tall and skinny photo with text.

5.  Be Food/Drink related

Food and drink pins form the most popular category according to the statistics available on Repinly. Of the 16 most popular pins of all time, 8 of them are food/drink related with the most popular food pin receiving 97,000 repins!!

6. Be Seasonal

Good quality photographs in good time for the next seasonal phase should do well. At this time of year, photos with a Christmassy theme that evoke nostalgia and feeling of cosiness or share good ideas and tips for a great Christmas should do well.  You can see by the number of repins how well each of these are doing.

The same goes for Easter, Thanksgiving, St Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, Summer Days, Summer Ideas for Kids, Valentine’s Day, Hallow’een …………

Have you any other ideas for what makes a great Pinterest Pin?  Have you had a pin that went viral and delivered great results for your business?

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