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When you pin an image on Pinterest your goal is probably to share it with the world. The more people who see and repin your image the better!
But while discovering new pins is fairly simple, the other part of Pinterest, having your pins discovered by others, can be a bit more challenging. Pinterest is like a visual Twitter, you have the opportunity to share your message widely. But like Twitter, getting followers on Pinterest can be a chore.
Get a head start in sharing your pins with others by using Group Pinterest Boards. When you join a Group Board you have instant access to the stream of every member and follower of that board. Group Boards can have thousands of members and followers, immediately increasing your audience.
[note] Also see, 4 Easy Tools for Finding Group Boards on Pinterest! for helpful information on how to find Group Boards to follow and join! [/note]
What Are Group Pinterest Boards
Group Pinterest Boards are just what they sound like: boards where multiple people can pin. When you pin to a Group Board everyone who’s a member or follower of that board will have the opportunity of seeing your pin in their Pinterest stream. If you join a group with 20,000 members and followers, then that’s 20,000 people who could see your pin on that board. Instead of your pins being seen by only your followers, your pin will be exposed to all the members and followers of the Group Board.
What You Need to Know About Group Boards
You can follow any public Group Board but you won’t be able to pin to it unless you’re a member of the board. There are two ways of being able to pin a Group Board: joining a Group Board or starting one yourself.
If you’re just becoming familiar with Group Boards, you may want to join a few first before starting one to understand how Group Boards work. Starting one yourself involves a time commitment that includes inviting members and monitoring the board for spam.
Joining Group Boards
To join a Group Board you must be invited to it by either the creator of the board or a member of it. Some Group Boards explain in the board description how you can request an invitation.
You will get an email notification when you are invited to join a Group Board.
To accept an invitation to a Group Board, click on the notifications button in the upper right corner of Pinterest. You will see a notice of any invitations you have received. Click Accept to be added to the Group Board.
Leaving a Group Board
You can leave a Group Board at any time. Go to the board on your home page, click on Edit Board. A list of group members will appear, including your name. Click on the Leave button next to your name.
Inviting Others to Group Boards
You don’t have to be the creator of a Group Board to invite someone to join. Any member can send out an invitation. After you’ve joined a Group Board you can invite anyone you follow on Pinterest to join the board.
Using Group Boards
When you look at your boards, you can see which are group boards by seeing the people icon:
This icon will appear to the right in the boards on your Pinterest home page and in the list of boards to which you can pin. When you’re pinning to a board, it’s very handy to see which of your boards are group boards so you can be sure to get the maximum exposure for your pin.
Be sure to play fair. Only pin images to the board that fit within the theme of the board. Anything else would be considered spammy.
Remember the 80/20 Rule of Social Media: pin others’ images 80% of the time and your images 20% of the time. If you’re using a Group Board solely to promote yourself, then you risk getting removed as a member.
Things to Remember About Group Boards
Group boards are not permanent. The creator of the board can delete it at any time, making all of your pins disappear. I’ve been a member of several group boards that have disappeared over time and still miss them. You find out a Group Board has been deleted when you try to find the board or pin to it, only to discover that it’s no longer there.
Spam can be an issue with Group Boards. Because Group Boards have the potential to be seen by a large audience, they can fall prey to spammers who put inappropriate pins on the boards. Because Group Board creators are the only people who can delete pins, they must monitor their boards to make sure that members are behaving properly. (See above)
Starting Your Own Group Board
Starting your own Group Board is easy, you can turn one of your existing boards into a Group Board or start a new one.
1. Once the board has been created, click on Edit Board.
2. A new window will appear with editing options. At the bottom is a field for Who Can Add Pins?
3. Type in the name of anyone you follow on Pinterest.
4. They will be sent an invitation to join your Pinterest board.
5. Once one person has joined your board it becomes a Group Board.
As a creator of a Group Board only you can delete pins from the board and remove members.
You can learn more about Group Boards from the Pinterest Help page.
Secret Group Pinterest Boards
Group Pinterest Boards can be secret boards, meaning that only the members of the board can see what is pinned to the board. Be careful though, don’t rely 100% on the secrecy of the board.
The creator of a secret Pinterest board can make the board public at any time. Any member of the secret group board can invite others to join the board.
See, How to Create a Secret Pinterest Board in 3 Easy Steps for more information about secret Pinterest Boards.
When to Pin for Maximum Exposure
Whether you’re pinning to a Group Board or your own board you can increase the likelihood that your pin will be seen by timing your pinning.
The Pinterest blog last week revealed the most popular days for pinning:
Monday: fitness pins are hot
Tuesday: technology pins are popular
Wednesday: inspirational quotes can get you through hump day
Thursday: plan what you’ll be wearing this weekend with fashion pins
Friday: celebrate the end of the work week with humor pins
Saturday: dream about your next getaway with travel pins
Sunday: get inspired for your next meal or project with food and craft idea pins
Your Thoughts
Have you ever joined a Group Board on Pinterest? Have you ever started a Group Board? Have you found them to be effective ways to get your pins noticed? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Thanks a lot for the tutorial Carolyn. I have been trying to improve my pinterest reach and I didn’t know about groups at all.
And also thanks for the daily chart. Now I know I should share more on Tuesdays! 🙂
Hi Mahaveer, Yes, you may find you get a lot of good traffic to your blog from Pinterest if you pin to Group Boards. I just pinned your Google Doodle article to a tech Group Board so I hope you get a lot of readers from that pin. Sorry that I didn’t wait until Tuesday though!
Hi Carolyn,
What an informative post about group boards on Pinterest 🙂
Yes, I keep getting lots of invitations but honestly speaking, rarely find time to pin things there, even though I do spend nearly half an hour daily just returning favors of those who pin mine – how can I forget doing that. But they are surely wonderful and I did accept a few of course long back, not lately.
I didn’t know they had particular days for particular kind of posts that are most pinned – so that was something interesting, though I just pin as and when I get time, mainly during my early morning hours.
I read your post about the secret board too, as you’d written sometime back about it – though never got down to creating one. All on my pending to-do list…ah…need a blogging break to make a board, which is on my mind for long now.
Thanks for sharing this information with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, I suggest you accept the invitations of Group Boards you may be interested in, even if you’re not ready to pin to them yet. If they are on topics you pin about then you might see a huge jump in your traffic when you’re ready to pin to them.
When I pin to an active Group Board I often get dozens of repins immediately. That rarely happens when I pin to one of my own boards. Of course the pin has to be a relevant pin with a strong image, but the Group Boards will give my pins a much larger audience.
I didn’t know about the timing of pins either. I’m not sure I’ve pinned many tech pins on Tuesdays but I will have to give that a try!
Pinterest doesn’t have to take a long time, Harleena. One pin to a Group Board can give you a bigger audience than pinning multiple pins to your own boards.
That’s a wise decision I think, though most of those boards are about images and quotes. The boards I usually pin on and share my posts, do drive me much more traffic than my own boards, just as you rightly mentioned.
However, I feel one should return the favor and pin back to those who pin ours, so just a little overwhelming feeling to join any more. That’s the only thing that takes time – the number of kind of ‘thank you’s’ you do this ways 🙂
Good point. Pinning is pretty easy and quick, perhaps more so than Facebook and Twitter. Plus, if your pin is shared widely then you’re being very helpful both to the people who view the pin and to the person whose content you’re sharing.
You do a great job of sharing and thanking on social media, Harleena. I can imagine that does take up quite a bit of your time!
This sounds very intriguing. Can’t wait for your next post describing how to find Group Pinterst Boards. I think I want to try a few.
Hi Carol, I’m so glad you’re ready to try out some Group Pinterest Boards. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for my upcoming article on how to find Group Boards!
HI Carolyn,
First of thanks for sharing this awesome information to everyone, Am searched many sites for pinterest groups and its marketing but i did not get useful information, after reading your article, i knew all about pinterest, its easy to understand of screen shots once again thanks..Please share also how can i increase my website traffic through stumbleupon?
Hi John, Great question about StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon sends me more traffic than any source other than Google, and some days it sends me more than Google.
The key to StumbleUpon is probably a 95/5 rule. If you only share your content on StumbleUpon they won’t send you any. But if you share a lot of content on StumbleUpon by adding quality articles and are actively stumbling on their site, voting and sharing, you have a much better chance of getting traffic from StumbleUpon.
Hello,
Great post on pinterest boards. Have been using pinterest since a while for promoting stuff and I guess I’m satisfied with the outcome form it. I’ll surely implement your tips on my boards.
Thanks
Hi Samir, I’m glad you enjoyed this article. Yes, Pinterest can be an effective site for promotion, but don’t forget the 80/20 rule of social media. By sharing others’ pins you can make even more effective use of social media. :-bd
Hi Carolyn,
This idea might just suit what I’m doing now trying to promote the Black Country. I’ll take a look and see if I can start a group board! You’ll like my pictures today. I have them on my site and WordPress and on local newspaper sites. They will be published in the regional newspaper too, I just talked to an editor on the phone! 🙂 I knew this smart phone would come in handy one day!
Hi Mike, Yes, Pinterest could be an ideal site for people to discover your photography. Starting a group board is a great idea! :-bd
Hi Carolyn,
Valuable post which tells you the solid reason to start a group or join the group. One thing is sure if you won’t invest your time on Pinterest then you won’t be able to join any engaging group. Waiting for your post about “to find useful groups”.
Hi Pankaj, Good point. Group Board creators can be selective on whom they will invite to their boards. Often they want members who are active on Pinterest and who mostly share others’ images instead of exclusively promoting their own.
I hope you have a chance to check out my article on how to find Group Pinterest Boards!
I am glad to know the exact days when certain niches are hot on pinterest. Thanks a lot Carolyn for sharing such wonderful info.
You are right the creator of Pinterest board can delete it any time. Though good social media marketers first bring it into the notice of all the participants of Board before deleting it but it is an ethical issue. One can delete it without informing though it does not put good impression on other. The safe way is to share you quality pins on your own board and just supporting pin should be shared on other boards just to attract traffic on your own boards.
Once again thanks a lot for sharing this awesome post.
Hi Mi, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, it is jarring to learn that a Group Board has been deleted. I can see how creators might get frustrated at spammy pins and want to avoid having to monitor their Group Board constantly.
Good idea to pin to both your own individual board and a Group Board to avoid your pins getting lost into a void.
Hi Carolyn,
This is a complete and nice tutorial. :-bd
After reading this, I was thinking to try to join the group at Pinterest as well. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this informative article, Carolyn.
Nice share, indeed!
Nanda
Hi Nanda, That’s great! I hope you have a wonderful time on Pinterest. 🙂
j’aime beaucoup cet article .
ce sont des vrais conseils que chaque personne doit le connaitre.J’ai essayée d’améliorer mon pinterest
Merci pour le partage.
Bonjour Olga, Bienvenue à The Wonder of Tech! Je suis heureux que vous avez apprécié cet article. Je vous souhaite la meilleure des chances avec Pinterest.
Thank you very much.
I have been on pinterest for quite some time now but i never used the group board feature. Actually i didn’t know about it. 🙂
Hi Frank, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, many people have been enjoying Pinterest without knowing about Group Boards. But they can enjoy Pinterest a lot more when they find Group Boards to join and follow.
I hope you find some helpful Group Pinterest boards, Frank!
Ok, the more I study Pinterest the more I am excited! So exactly, how many visitors could it be possible to have from Pinterest. Because at the moment the only effective viral way I know is using StumbleUpon where it’s very easy to get viral.
Hi Jake, Yes, StumbleUpon is the largest source of traffic to The Wonder of Tech, after Google. But Pinterest comes right after StumbleUpon. Knowing how to use Pinterest effectively can help bloggers.
Group Boards can help anyone get their pins discovered on Pinterest by exposing them to a broader audience.
Hey Carolyn,
This post is so useful to me. I have recently been playing with Canva and want to start getting more involved in Pinterest. I know the power of Pinterest since I see Pins from as long as seven months ago. Talk about set it and forget it 🙂
Most info on the web basically disappears after about 2 days since so much is being shared. I will bookmark this for reference. Thanks for this post and I am searching for you now on Pinterest!
Awesome post Carolyn! Take care…
Hi Steven, You’re absolutely right about Pinterest. The traffic I get from Pinterest is incredible but I would be on that site even if it didn’t send me any traffic. My most popular pins have nothing to do with tech but I enjoy sharing information that helps people no matter what the topic.
I have played around with Canva but I keep going back to PicMonkey as that seems more intuitive to me. But I do get inspiration from Canva.
Thanks so much for connecting on Pinterest, Steven, and for your wonderful comment here.