How To Go Viral On Pinterest

In this post you will learn Pinterest marketing tips on how to go viral on Pinterest, beat the Pinterest algorithm and grow your traffic and clicks from Pinterest completely organically!

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Now, the first tip that I wanna share with you is the most obvious tip and it still comes a surprise to me, how so many people don’t even know about it. And that is to simply create a viral blog posts.

HOW TO GO VIRAL ON PINTEREST

TIP 1: CREATE VIRAL BLOG POSTS

Now, what do I mean, or when I say viral blog posts now viral blog posts usually contain two things. One the content matter, or the topic that you’re gonna be talking about. And two, the format that you’re gonna be talking about as well.

Now, usually the topic or the content that you wanna create the viral blog post in can be done with a little bit of research, spending time, looking up at other accounts, as well as the keywords that are trending in your niche, whether that is on Google or on Pinterest.

But when it comes to the content format, there are specifically three types of format that perform really, really well on Pinterest, and that you need to leverage right away. If you want to get viral traffic from Pinterest, the first format, which I’m sure you all know is the list based post.

Now this is a post which you probably have come across such as 10 ways to get organized five kitchen hacks you didn’t know about and so on and so forth. This is a format that performs really well on Pinterest. And if you wanna go viral, you have to be noting this down.

The second format that also is very popular on Pinterest is the howto type of blog post, which specifically talks about tutorials or step by step action guides into doing a certain thing. So how to build your first vegetable garden or how to build a DIY kitchen.

The third type of common format that also does really well on Pinterest is infographics. And that is simply an image where you fill in a lot of text related to a certain topic.

So for example, you can create an infographic on 15 social media tips or 15 social media prompts for marketers, or you can create an infographic about the must have caps, you wardrobe essentials, or must have minimalist wardrobe essentials.

And so on the idea here is that when you use one of these three content formats, your content is more likely to pick up. And this isn’t just me talking. It’s my experience of creating thousands of pins in the last couple of years.

And having my students also have success with similar content formats that brings us to the next step. And that is to create vertical pins.

TIP 2: CREATE VERTICAL PINS

how to go viral on pinterest vertical pin

Now, vertical pins simply mean that you need to be creating pins in a two to three aspect ratio.

And even though I’ve said this so many times on this channel, I’m still surprised by how many people don’t pay attention to this particular tip. If you want to be creating viral pins and Pinterest, you have to make sure that you’re playing by the rules.

And one of the biggest rules that Pinterest has is that your pins need to be in a two to three aspect ratio. This means that the width of the pin should be two third off the length of the pin.

Now some of my favorite sizes to experiment with include thousand by 1500 PX, you can also experiment with 1200 by 1800 PX and basically any two to three ratio that does the well on your niche.

Now keep in mind what does well for your niche is not always gonna be the same. That does well in someone else’s niche. So pick any two formats that you wanna pick for your pin sizes, where that is a thousand by 1500 and 1200 by 1800 or something else.

And make sure you start experimenting and AB testing your pins to figure out which of your pins are getting more clicks and more engagement, and hence are more likely to go viral.

The next step that I wanna share with you, which is again, super obvious, but something that’s so many people ignore, and that is to be creating a killer text overlay.

TIP 3: CREATE TEXT OVERLAYS

Now, why should a person click on your pin or versus clicking on someone else’s pin? The very first thing that you need to do is to stop just using image pins and just uploading the photos that you have from your website directly into Pinterest and hoping for magic to happen.

You’ve gotta start using pins with some format of text in it, and specifically adding the titles and the headlines that are going to be attractive. Now, when it comes to creating headlines, there’s so many tools out there on the internet that you can use to start generating headlines, which are effective, which are emotional and which actually drive clicks.

But when you are creating pins, you wanna be making sure that not only are you using the right images, the right size and the right blog post, but you’re also adding the right text to your pin to finish off that appeal of that pin, especially when people are gonna be coming across it on the web.

Now, keep in mind pins that go viral are pins that have a high level of engagement, which is calculated by the Pinterest algorithm through the amount of saves people make on your pins, the amount of likes comments and shares and forwards and all of that stuff that happens on your pin.

When your pin just falls flat, for example, you upload an image and nobody clicks on it, or nobody even zooms in to see what that image is all about. You automatically lose the interest of the algorithm and the Pinterest algorithm is not going to then push that pin out further to more people, which means your pin is not gonna get viral.

So not only should you be spending time figuring out what is the topic and the size of the pin that you’re creating, but also please do spend time in making sure that you add the right text to your pin.

The next step that I have for you is to contrast your text with image.

TIP 4: USE CONTRASTING TEXT

Now, what I mean by this is that Pinterest is a visual search engine and people have a fraction of a millisecond to really select your pin over someone else’s. And if your pin is not legible, it is not easily understandable by the person who is on Pinterest.

What the heck has that been even about? They are not going to be clicking to your pin and when they don’t click through to your pin, you don’t get engagement. When you don’t get engagement, you don’t go viral. So you wanna make sure that you are adding, contrasting text with the background.

So if your background is white, you wanna use a text which is a darker color, such as black, or maybe deep reds or deep blues. And when you’re using a lightish background, you wanna be contrasting that with a bold color text, and vice versa.

Now, one of the ways that you can do this specifically in Canva, which is a free tool, and I have a detailed video about this on my channel. So feel free to check that out after this video is by simply using an element called grid.

Now, all you have to do is add a grid to the background section of your font. And what that does is that essentially gives you a background sort of slab to put behind your text, which basically increases the contrast between your text and your image.

Once you add this grid, you can pick any color that contrasts with it so that your text is gonna be clearly and easily readable by anyone who comes across in Pinterest, whether it is on a small mobile device or on a desktop computer.

All right, the next step is in line with the last tip.

And that is to use an OMG headline.

TIP 5: USE AN OMG HEADLINE

Now there’s so many tools that you can use to create headlines, which actually get clicks and conversions instead of just creating boring headlines that nobody wants to read.

So instead of saying, start a blog today, you can create a headline instead, which says how to start a blog that makes a thousand dollars a month or more when you’re thinking about your headlines or your titles for your pins, definitely come up with two to three options and then think to yourself, which are you most likely going to click? If you don’t have a good judgment of this, you can also ask your friends or family to help you weigh in on which title or which option stands out more.

And trust me, once you start creating headlines that are actually attention grabbing, and that get the clicks that you want, you are gonna be getting viral pins so much easier than all the time that you spent in wondering why that wasn’t happening for you.

All right. The next thing that I have for you is to create an epic SEO description now by SEO description.

TIP 6: USE EPIC SEO DESCRIPTIONS

I mean, creating a pin description that is actually optimized to show up on search. So what would someone type in when they’re looking for your pin specifically is how you get your pin to rank on Pinterest.

Now, obviously there’s tons of other things that go into SEO as well, but when it comes to creating viral pins, if nobody can discover your pin on the feed, which is the search feed off Pinterest, then nobody’s gonna be able to click through to it or even send you any traffic.

So when you’re creating your descriptions, always keep in mind. It has to be a natural description that a regular user will be typing in.

And what are the different words or objectives or explainer sentences that they’re gonna use to actually find your content or your pin, make sure to create this description, which is unique and specific to that pin and make sure to add that in each time you upload your pin.

The next step that I have for you is to add searchable hashtags.

TIP 7: ADD SEARCHABLE HASHTAGS

Now, when we are talking about hashtags, we are talking about ways that the algorithm can understand what fresh content is coming up. I have a full video on hashtags on this channel. So feel free to check that out after you’re done watching this video, but make sure that each time you create and upload a new pin, you are adding five to seven irrelevant hashtags to that particular pin so that you are allowing the Pinterest algorithm to index your content and understand what this content is all about.

Specifically, when we talk about trending or seasonal content, such as, for example, if you’re creating content around Thanksgiving or labor’s day and so on and so forth, wanna make sure that you’re adding in those hashtags to be found and discovered on Pinterest.

Now, keep in mind that if you are not doing any of the other things that I’m telling you in this post, when it comes to going viral, and you simply just hope that if you add in a bunch of hashtags, things are gonna pick up.

It’s not gonna be that easy. So this is not a one size fits all strategy. Even when it comes to hashtags, you have to be creating pins, which are more likely to go viral and pins that are poised to go viral instead of just putting in random keywords and hashtags and hoping for magic to happen.

The next step that I have for you. And again, a very, very important tip that most people ignore. And that is to use attractive images in your pins.

TIP 8: USE HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES

Now, I don’t need to remind you that Pinterest is a visual platform. And if you start using pictures, which are gloomy, which are blurry and which just don’t inspire or engage with your audience, then you are not going to succeed on Pinterest. Unfortunately, that’s how it is because Pinterest is a visual search engine.

People are not just looking for blocks of text on Pinterest, like they are on Google, but they’re actually looking for images that relate to what they’re searching for.

And since every user on Pinterest is used to searching visually, they want to make sure that the pictures that are most appealing to them are the ones that they click through. This means that for your viral content, you wanna be making sure that you are creating either your own photographs, which are high quality with your camera or your phone, or your picking up high quality photos from stock websites, such as Unsplash Pixar can.

And more, if you are someone who’s on a budget, you don’t need to get a stock photo subscription. You can simply use the free sites that I just mentioned or simply get a can subscription. And you’ll be able to have access to tons of free photos, which are high quality and niche specific. The next that I have for you to learn how to go viral on Pinterest, which is by far one of the most important tips when it comes to going viral on Pinterest.

And that is to start pinning like a boss.

TIP 9: PIN LIKE A BOSS

This means that no matter how amazing your pin is and how much SEO research you’re doing to it and how amazing it looks from the outside, it is not going to show up on people’s feet. And it is not going to get engagement.

If you are not following two main things, which you need to be successful on Pinterest, number one, you need to be pinning with relevancy by relevancy. I mean that the pin that you are uploading should be going to the right board or to the right community. If you are pinning with tailwind and you have to make sure that you’re doing it at the right time for the right people.

So you don’t want to be pinning random content to random boards, and you don’t want to be pining content at a time when your audience is simply not active.

Pinterest analytics gives you so much insight into figuring out where your audience is based. In addition to this, do not just throw your pins to any random boards out there, but make sure that you’re actually saving them.

And re-pinning them to boards, which are most relevant for that particular content or category. The next thing that is also very, very important for going viral. Pinterest is consistency. Now there might be people out there who will tell you that you can go viral Pinterest overnight.

I am just not one of them because I don’t believe in this concept. And I don’t really think there is such a thing as overnight success. You are much more likely to be successful in Pinterest. If you have a long term strategy and you are consistently showing up on Pinterest, instead of just popping in there once every few months, when you feel like it and expecting to go viral overnight.

So make sure that you’re not only pinning with intention, that you’re pinning relevant content to your relevant profiles and boards, but that you are also showing up in a consistent manner and that you are reevaluating, which of your content is performing the best and creating more content similar to that particular content. Now there’s so many more tips to share with you when it comes to growing your brand and business and Pinterest. Wanna learn more? Check out my free Pinterest masterclass.