2017 Pinterest Changes: What We Know & What to Do

There have been a LOT of Pinterest changes lately. Like, a LOT. It seems like every time I log in, there’s some new, horrifying change that has me like:

 
Repins have vanished, along with descriptions and most of the Rich Pin details we’re used to seeing. Tailwind Tribes are pay-to-play. Random hashtags have suddenly appeared. Exposure is dropping like a hot potato. Even the freaking Mass Move tool changed (ugh, gotta update my tutorial).

What’s next, Pinterest?! Are you going to take away images, too?! IS NOTHING SACRED?!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been scrambling to keep up and stay on top of the new Pinterest. You might also be feeling desperate to figure out what still works when it comes to driving traffic to your blog, brand, or business. And you may just find yourself staying up after midnight, wrapped up in a blanket fort with your 15th cup of coffee, staring into the deepest, darkest depths of Pinterest and muttering things under your breath like “I’m going to figure you out, algorithm, if it KILLS ME.” Oh, just me?

Needless to say, I am a little on edge, and you’re probably feeling it too. Pinterest drives a HUGE chunk of my traffic, and a bunch of changes are NOT what I want to be dealing with during the holiday season.

Oh, not to mention it’s the platform that I’ve staked my social media expertise on. So no, I’m not feeling any pressure.  Not at all. *cries*

So, I wanted to devote today’s Slayturday post to discussing the changes that are happening. What do we know? What don’t we know? Where do we go from here?! What does it all MEAN!?

Let’s all hold hands and breathe deep – we’re in this together.

Change #1: Pinterest Re-Pins Are Gone?!

One day about a month ago, I logged into Pinterest to obsessively browse my front page for recipes I don’t have the skills to cook and DIY projects I’ll never get around to doing (this is on my personal Pinterest, mind you – I’m STILL obsessed with using Pinterest, even when I’m not using it for work. It’s like, how I unwind after a long day).

Anyway, I noticed something weird: no re-pin counts.

I figured it was a glitch. The next day, re-pin counts were back, like some sort of weird now-you-see-it glitch in the Matrix. Like I’d just glimpsed the Upside Down. PS anyone else OBSESSED with Stranger Things?!

I filed it away in “weird things I’ve noticed on Pinterest that never amounted to anything,” which is a laundry list roughly 83 pages long (like, remember that week when all of our follower & following counts randomly matched for no good reason?) and moved on with my life.

Until last week, when re-pin counts disappeared for EVERYONE.

UGH. WHYYY?!?!?!

 
Most of us have been relying on re-pin counts as our primary indicator for Pinterest health and success for years. But re-pins already changed earlier this year, when we all had to get used to “engagements” instead of re-pins – and many of us got around that by throwing our pins into secret boards, where re-pin counts were still visible just like always.

Now, they’re gone. Like, GONE gone.

Well, OK, you can still technically find them.

So, what does that tell us about the new normal when it comes to Pinterest? Here are my theories. *puts on Sherlock hat and smokes a pipe*

 Pinterest Front Page Theories

When Pinterest got rid of re-pins the first time and transitioned us all to “engagement” instead, I think that was an indicator of a change. Clearly, re-pins were now sharing the stage with clicks, close-ups, and other types of engagement.

My theory is that ALL of these metrics are now being taken into account in Pinterest’s algorithm, which means it’s gotten a LOT more complicated. And stronger.

It’s growing … and it’s spreading. Like the Upside Down! OK, I’ll stop with the Stranger Things references. It’s like, really good, though.

Anyway. So if the Pinterest algorithm is now evaluating the popularity of a user through MULTIPLE metrics, that takes attention away from re-pins. Now on our pins, we’ve can still see engagement, but not Re-Pins.

But what does it all MEAN!?

Personally – and this is totally just my theory – I think that although Re-Pins are gone, I strongly believe they still matter in the Pinterest algorithm. They’re still a good indicator for the health and popularity of a pin: if lots of people are sharing it, it’s still a good quality pin.

But, I think re-pins are weighted alongside clicks, close-ups, and potentially even other engagement, such as clicking through to view a profile or a board, or time spent looking at a Pin before clicking away again. I couldn’t tell you what kind of weight is given to each type of engagement, but I strongly believe that re-pins, though they are no longer available to us regular plebs using the platform, still matter behind the scenes.

I think that primary reason for removing re-pins was actually to even the playing field. To make it harder for folks like us that are too darn smart for our own good to come in and manipulate Pinterest. To create sub-par content, manipulate it to appearing popular in Pinterest, and ride that wave all the way to success, traffic, fame, riches, etc. At least, not without paying to promote that content.

But manipulating Pinterest to drive traffic … that’s like, what we ALL do, right?!

Unfortunately, yes. But it’s not all bad news.

The Good News

What this means is that social proof on Pinterest is gone. Which also means that Pinterest is no longer a popularity contest, where one blurry cell-phone picture that some Beta user posted in 2012 (was anyone else a Beta user? *raises hand*) that links to nothing and looks like crap is still circulating at the top of everyone’s Front Page with 50k repins like it’s some of the best content on Pinterest. Just cuz it’s old.

If you’ve ever stumbled onto a random Pinterest profile that has 1mil followers and like 100 boards full of the most random stuff imaginable, you’ve witnessed first hand the power of the Beta user: they got in early, figured Pinterest out before the rest of us, and they’ve been propped up by that early success ever since, because Pinterest’s algorithm has rewarded that longevity by assuming that their popularity equals quality.

But it didn’t.

And now, it will. Theoretically.

I think that Pinterest’s decision to remove re-pins is actually good news – for some of us. What it does it makes it easier for REALLY GOOD content – like, legit good content, not artificially manipulated content that isn’t actually that good, but is old/got re-pinned a zillion times – to rise to the top organically. This change towards authenticity instead of letting us crafty entrepreneurs game the system (without paying the system we’re gaming, that is) reflects what we’ve seen recently on Facebook and Instagram, too.

One of the big Pinterest differences I’ve noticed on my front page recently, other than a LOT less words and a LOT more visuals, is that the quality of those visuals has vastly improved. It used to be that I’d have to scroll for a WHILE to find something “pretty” enough to pin to my boards. Now, I’m finding gorgeous, high quality content sitting right at the top.

And because I firmly believe that my content is also gorgeous and high quality, that makes me happy.

It’s now easier for me to manually pin stuff from my front page, because the quality is better, and I’m not worried about my content, because it looks great and it links to great content.

That said, not all of my pins are great. Some of them, like the ones I made over a year ago, are hideous. If the bulk of your traffic is coming from old, not-so-pretty pins, I’d keep an eye on them for sure and consider making newer pins that are prettier.

Which comes to my final point: to fight back against the ever-changing Pinterest algorithm without giving in to the pay-to-play system, your content needs to be ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Visual appeal is more important than ever before on Pinterest.

Because now, more than ever, Pinterest has embraced it’s “visual search engine” status wholeheartedly. It’s thrown away some of the words and SEO we’ve all come to rely on, shortening those descriptions to just a couple of hashtags. And it’s forcing all of us to make choices about what to share on Pinterest based on a visual element instead of a clever description.

Oh my gosh you guys. I literally wanted that to be a PARAGRAPH. 3 words that describe me: long-winded, wordy, and loquacious. Yes, that last one was a 9th grade vocabulary word 😉

Still with me? Ok. Whew. Let’s put on our tin foil hats and dive deeper into this craziness.

Change #2: There are Hashtags?!

Along with re-pin count (RIP), most of what we’re used to seeing on the front page of Pinterest disappeared too. No more descriptions, no more “read it!” buttons. You can still see it if you click on a pin to make it bigger, but your front page now shows only an image, and the title of whatever it links to. That’s it.

Oh, and hashtags. What?!

 
Yep, that’s right: just after the title of the pin are whatever random hashtags you decided to throw in. You can click on them and up pops all the pins that share the same hashtag, as you’d expect.

Here’s what’s unfortunate about that: the results that come up when you search for a hashtag …. Kinda suck. What you’ll get is a lot of random stuff from Instagram that got shared on Pinterest seemingly by accident, some random little horizontal pins, and a few products that really aren’t related at all.

Hashtag search results appear to be organized by time rather than something logical such as relevance. Also, there doesn’t appear to be any kind of analysis on which keywords have been used together, or what you’re likely looking for – all things that the incredibly powerful and intelligent Pinterest algorithm has already figured out.

Put simply, Pinterest hashtags are clearly not a very “smart” feature yet. And it doesn’t seem to be even remotely connected to the rest of the algorithm.

So, it’s unclear how to best use hashtags yet. There’s no “trending” hashtag list. There’s no way to figure out which hashtags to use, or which ones “work,” because none of them work … yet.  Right now, nobody’s discovering content on Pinterest with hashtags. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.

That said, Social Media networks in general like it when you play with their new toys. So for now, I’m hash-tagging all of my new pins on the off-chance that they’re getting some back-end approval from Pinterest or it will benefit me somehow in the future. But I’m not bothering to go back and hash-tag my old pins, because I’m not seeing a pay-off yet.

So when it comes to hashtags, don’t stress, but I’m keeping an eye out for new developments.

Change #3: My Pinterest Exposure is Dropping Like Crazy?!

Ugh, this is the one that’s been causing me – and everyone I’ve talked to – the most grief.

When the Pinterest “Exposure” number popped up on our front pages, we all got really excited because it was easy to see HUGE numbers – numbers that sounded much more impressive than our actual traffic from Pinterest.

I started seeing Pinterest “gurus” hawking posts on getting 30k Views on Pinterest in Just 1 Month!

… But that number doesn’t really mean much. Let me put it this way: you can’t take 30k views on Pinterest to the bank.

Pin enough stuff on Pinterest, and you’ll get 30k views. Easy. It doesn’t really mean much. Know what means someting? TRAFFIC.

30k monthly views on Pinterest means nothing at all if it’s not converting into ACTUAL CLICKS TO YOUR SITE.

So, back to that exposure number’s sudden free-fall. It’s been declining steadily over the past several months. Why? What does it mean? Should we all panic? Is this Instagram ALL OVER AGAIN!?

 
… Deep breaths. It’s actually OK.

Full disclosure: my Exposure/Monthly Views have gone from a very impressive-sounding 1.1 million (MILLION!!!!!) down to a much-less-impressive-sounding 750 thousand.

Did it hurt my ego to watch that number fall? Ugh, yes. So bad.

Did it hurt my traffic? …. Actually, no.

When I dug into my Google Analytics, here’s what I found: even as my Monthly Exposure on Pinterest was falling, my traffic was staying flat. … My pins were still doing fine.

It was everyone else’s pins that were getting less exposure.

Here, I’ll show you what I mean.

I compared October with every month from January – my highest Pinterest traffic month, with 20k sessions from Pinterest – to now. I’ve been doing the EXACT same strategy since January, which is a maintenance strategy rather than a growth strategy, aimed at saving me time while keeping my traffic from Pinterest steady.

So if falling exposure means worse traffic, I’d expect to see a drop-off in traffic from Pinterest, or a slow, steady decline. Instead, here’s what I saw:

It looks pretty OK. I’ve been getting a steady flow of about 17-20k hits from Pinterest every month since about May. Even though during that time, my exposure peaked  at over 1 mil and then dropped, by 300k and my followers grew  by about 3k.

So what does it all mean? It means tat exposure dropping isn’t a death knell, so long as your Pinterest strategy is solid and you’re still creating amazing, Pinterest optimized content.

I think this comes down to a LOT of the changes that we’re discussing here today, particularly that first one: as Pinterest becomes more and more visual, we can’t rely on the virality of those old blurry cell phone pictures from 2012 with 50k shares that just keep circulating and building our exposure for us. The days of relying on poor graphics that went viral long ago is over. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to share beautiful, highly optimized, visually enticing vertical pins – and to ensure that OUR pins are up to snuff.

This is key when it comes to not panicking over this metric. Forget about exposure. It’s a vanity metric, and does little other than prop up your ego and your ability to make flashy statements about the Pinterest growth you can achieve in a very short period of time.

What it doesn’t tell you ANYTHING AT ALL about, is traffic to your site. And that is all you need to care about.

Much like followers, exposure isn’t as important as you’d think. It doesn’t necessarily directly correlate to traffic. Sure, it can. And often does. I can guarantee you that someone with 750k views is getting more traffic than someone wit 30k.

But exposure is NOT the metric you need to be looking at when you’re deciding whether to throw yourself a pity party and break out 13 glasses of wine.

Change #4: Tailwind Tribes Cost Money?!

Tailwind is one of the 2 big Pinterest tools that assists with automation and time-saving, the other one being Board Booster. There are sort of 2 different camps when it comes to which one is “better,” but a common argument you always hear is for Tailwind Tribes – and for Tailwind being officially endorsed by Pinterest.

So the fact that Tailwind Tribes now cost money should definitely perk everyone’s ears up a bit.

Arguably, Tailwind Tribes are the most valuable aspect of Tailwind by far. Their scheduling tool is … OK, but it resets all of your pins at 0 re-pins and in the past, that was a huge deal.

Now? I’m not so sure.

On a tin-foil conspiracy note, I find it highly suspect that Pinterest removed re-pins at the same time that Tailwind effectively tripled their pricing, considering that the 2 companies work together.

Coincidence? I think not.

 
The only question in my mind is, do Tailwind pins actually get a boost in the Pinterest algorithm, and if so, how much?

But back to Tailwind Tribes costing money. As many of you know, I’ve been working on building up the Slaying Social Pinterest right alongside you, and using it as a testing ground for some techniques that I’m either not willing to try on my travel blog’s Pinterest – which I rely on to drive a huge chunk of my traffic each month – or can’t test, due to my niche.

That’s right: each niche requires different needs. A travel blog niche and a social media business niche are VERY different. And so for Slaying Social, I’ve been working on building up my Pinterest account in a completely different way than I have for my travel blog. I’m relying 100% on automation.

Yes, that’s right. I’m trying to build a Pinterest account that drives traffic WITHOUT ANY MANUAL PINNING. Insane? Maybe. Working? So far. Time saving? Oh my goodness, yes.

But a crucial part of my strategy involves using Tailwind Tribes to get my pins shared. As a travel blogger, I rely on Facebook Re-pin threads for that – I can get 100+ shares of a pin, but I also have to share 100 pins. I can’t duplicate that kind of reach easily on tribes.

But with my social media niche? Tailwind Tribes are MUCH more effective. I can get my pins shared 20+ times without any effort on my part other than clicking “Add to Tribes.” They’re insanely effective, solely because my niche is different.

The big question is: will Tribes continue being useful and relevant now that they aren’t free anymore?

That’s a big question. If less people are using tribes, then you won’t be able to duplicate those huge re-pin numbers that are so valuable. And it’s what’s making me hesitate before purchasing anything. I’m keeping a close eye on engagement over the next few weeks to see what shakes out.

Bonus: Pinterest Experiments & Case Studies

Here at Slaying Social, we’ve got a steady stream of Very Scientific Tests running behind the scenes to figure out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to social media. Right now, I’m running a few tests for Pinterest. I don’t have any data that I’m comfortable sharing YET – because in the name of scientific evidence, I’ll only recommend tactics that work for not just me, but other accounts and niches as well.

But I want to be transparent about what types of things I’m hearing, and invite you to share what you’ve been trying out too! Let’s all get sciencey together.

I’ll keep this page updated with new case studies whenever I learn something now.

Scientific Inquiry: Is Boardbooster killing my engagement?

Hypothesis: Pinterest is trying to snuff out Boardbooster. Disabling Boardbooster will improve traffic & increase exposure.

This theory came from my Virtual Assistant, Jordan. Jordan completes re-pin threads for me and many other former Pinterest Consultation Clients of mine, and she has a unique insight into what’s going on with Pinterest across a lot of different accounts. (Psst: If you’re interested in her services, shoot her an email.)

According to Jordan, both her traffic AND her exposure shot back up after she disabled Boardbooster and increased her manual pinning. Here’s Jordan’s Case Study.

Case Study: Jordan

“As a Pinterest aficionado (much like Lia!), I spend most of my time trying to figure out the best way to “hack” Pinterest in order to maximize results. Between Boardbooster and Tailwind, I’ve always promoted Boardbooster – I find the product much more user-friendly and absolutely despise how Tailwind resets pin counts to 1. To me, it seems to defeat the entire purpose of maximizing a pin’s exposure through repins!

Case Study: Lia

After talking to Jordan, I took a deep breath and paused all of my Boardbooster pinning. Then, I waited to see what would happen. To keep my account active, I bumped up my manual pinning and even did  an extra re-pin thread for good measure.

The result: My exposure kept falling, and my traffic tanked, too. Here’s what it looked like:

Ahhhh! I lost 3k sessions in one week …. and promptly turned Boardbooster back on.

Verdict: Inconclusive. I wasn’t able to replicate Jordan’s results. In fact, I got the opposite result. For now, I’m still relying on Boardbooster.

Well, now you know y theories, hypotheses, and some of the mad scientist lab testing I’ve been doing behind the scenes. So, how about you? What are your thoughts on the recent Pinterest changes we’ve seen this month, and what are you doing about them? Drop us a comment below!

Oh and hey, how about sharing this post on Pinterest?