2017 Pinterest Changes: What We Know & What to Do

*FYI - this post may contain affiliate links, which means we earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase from them. Also, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Check out our Privacy Policy and Disclosure. for more info.

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 β€œI’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. Β 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 β€œweird 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 β€œengagements” 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.

How to See Re-Pin Counts on Pinterest in 2017

To see your re-pin counts, add /activity/saved to the URL of your pins, like this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/47217496078206032/activity/saved/

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*

 

Β Pinterest Front Page Theories

When Pinterest got rid of re-pins the first time and transitioned us all to β€œengagement” 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.Β 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 likeΒ 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 β€œpretty” 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 β€œvisual 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.

What to Do

More than ever before, your visuals on Pinterest MATTER.Β If graphic design isn’t your strength, it’s time to outsource. Your pins need to stand out – which is hard to do when everyone is working off of the same Canva templates. Now is the time to either download Photoshop or another design program and custom-create a template, or hire someone who can do it for you.

Feel free to reach out to us for our custom template design rates, or download our freebie template PSD files in our resource libraries using the sign-up below.

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 πŸ˜‰

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 β€œread 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 β€œsmart” 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 β€œtrending” hashtag list. There’s no way to figure out which hashtags to use, or which ones β€œwork,” because none of them work … yet. Β 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.

What to Do

For now, go ahead and use some basic hashtags that fit your content & niche on your new pins. In the future, they may become important, but for now, let’s wait and see. Don’t stress about going back to update your old content with hashtags.

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 β€œExposure” 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 β€œgurus” 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.

Pinterest Exposure Monthly Views
Here’s what my monthly views on Pinterest looked like a few months ago. Now? It’s at 750k … and falling.

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.

Here's a comparison of my traffic from Pinterest in October versus July, which was a fantastic month for me. You can see that even though my exposure on Pinterest fell significantly, my traffic ... didn't. In fact, it grew by nearly 5%.
Here’s a comparison of my traffic from Pinterest in October versus July, which was a fantastic month for me. You can see that even though my exposure on Pinterest fell significantly, my traffic … didn’t. In fact, it grew by nearly 5%.

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:

So, here's my traffic from March through October. My exposure has been falling since around August. But my traffic? Well, it looks just fine. So, here's my traffic from March through October. My exposure has been falling since around August. But my traffic? Well, it looks just fine.
So, here’s my traffic from March through October. My exposure has been falling since around August. But my traffic? Well, it looks just fine.

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 peakedΒ  at over 1 mil and then dropped, by 300k and my followers grewΒ  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.

What to Do

Do a deep dive into your Google Analytics to see if your traffic as been falling alongside your exposure/monthly views on Pinterest. If you see that both your exposure AND your traffic is falling? You need to change your pin design. It’s not working for you anymore.

But for some of you, digging into your Google analytics might help you breathe a sigh of relief: you’re going to be just fine. Keep doing what you’re doing, and don’t sweat the vanity metrics.

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 β€œbetter,” 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 β€œAdd 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.

What to Do

If Tribes are a huge part of your strategy currently, it’s probably worth it to pay for them before the price doubles.

For the rest of us? Well, I’m extremely interested in the new Tribes feature that Boardbooster has rolled out. I’ll be testing that over the next few months, and I’d love for you to join me.

 

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.

Do you have a theory you’d like me to investigate? Drop us a comment below!

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.Β (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 PinterestΒ 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!

I’ll admit, I never used Boardbooster to its full capacity until a few months. I always enjoyed the looping feature but just didn’t have the time to delve into the intricacies of campaigns. After seeing a sharp rise in my Pinterest traffic this past spring through manual pinning, I decided to introduce campaigns into my daily Pinterest schedule. For the sake of transparency, below were my exact Pinterest schedules for the past 6ish months:
My Pinterest scheduleΒ pre-AugustΒ included:
  • Manual pinning 3-5 times a week through repin threads
  • Boardbooster looping function once an hour (a mixture of my own pins and others’ pins)
My Pinterest schedule forΒ August, September, and beginning of October:
  • Manual pinning 3-5 times a week through repin threads
  • Boardbooster looping function once an hour (a mixture of my own pins and others’ pins)
  • Boardbooster campaigns once an hour (only my pins)
MyΒ currentΒ Pinterest schedule:
  • Manual pinning only 3 times a week through repin threads
  • Boardbooster looping function once an hour (a mixture of my own pins and others’ pins)

My Pinterest numbers held steady in July and then drastically began to fall in August and September. Here are my sessions for the months of July, August, September, and October.

  • July: 3000 sessions/month
  • August: 2300 sessions/month
  • September: 1500 sessions/month
  • October: 2100 sessions/month
Luckily, I still get close to 70% of my traffic from organic searches. However, I couldn’t account for why my numbers kept decreasing from Pinterest even though I was doing the exact same thing. Logically speaking, my numbers should have continued increasing after implementing campaigns into my schedule in August. At first, I attributed the decline to the summer months – summer months are notoriously bad for the traffic. However, through the entire month of September, none of these numbers bounced back (even though my organic searches – which had taken a bit of a dip in August – completely returned to normal levels).Β 
After reading multiple articles and theories, I decided to shut off all of Boardbooster’s campaigns the second week of October and just focus on manual pinning with Boardbooster’s looping function. Within a week, my numbers started increasing and I’m well on my way back to 3000 sessions/month (hopefully more!).
So what exactly is happening with Pinterest?! Hard to say, especially because there are so many different variables. However, I’m positive that Boardbooster was having a negative effect on my account. Pinterest is getting smarter about automation services, especially Boardbooster. For clients using Tailwind, I haven’t seen much of an impact because Tailwind is an approved automation service working with Pinterest.”

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 didΒ  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:

When I tested turning off Boardbooster pinning, my traffic tanked.
When I tested turning off Boardbooster pinning, my traffic tanked.

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

Verdict:Β 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?


The 2017 Pinterest Changes threw us all off. No more re-pins? Hashtags? Tailwind tribes that cost money? What the heck?! We'll help you figure it out. #SocialMedia #Business #Pinterest

25 thoughts on “2017 Pinterest Changes: What We Know & What to Do”

  1. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe I just never ‘got’ Tailwind. But my views started dropping when I finally joined Tailwind and have only started to recover once I disabled my Tailwind account entirely. Personally, I found it too difficult to get connected to Tailwind tribes, I didn’t see the pins I added to tribes getting shared by others much for the time I was putting into engaging there, and now that there’s money involved… well, I just gotta say bye Felicia. While having to share every pin in a repin thread regardless of its quality does irk me, I think it’s a fairer exchange of my time and energy for exposure and traffic. And I find group boards a way easier method to reciprocate on than Tailwind tribes. This week especially I could see traffic coming directly from my repin thread and group board promotions.

    Reply
    • Thats great feedback! After coaching Pinterest clients for 6 months, I can definitely say that what works for Pinterest for one person doesn’t necessarily work for everyone else. It all depends on your niche, your audience, your strengths, how much time you’re able to commit to Pinterest, etc. The good news is, once you dial in a strategy that works for you, it works for the long haul and you can sit back and relax while the traffic flows in – so it’s REALLY worth all of that trial and error. I will say though, I am a much bigger fan of Board booster than Tailwind.

      Reply
    • That’s a great question, Sarah! “Total Engagements” includes anytime someone clicks on your pin, clicks through to your site from your pin, or re-pins it onto their board. If you click on those little bars, it’ll show you exactly how many of each have happened. One important thing to understand is that those numbers refer only to THAT SPECIFIC PIN, on THAT SPECIFIC BOARD. Re-pins used to be a universal number, but engagements reflect only that 1 pin. So you might see much lower numbers than you’d expect, particularly if you know a pin was really popular before re-pin counts disappeared.

      Reply
      • Thank you so much – that’s a great explanation. I have another question for you! Do you know if it’s better to keep pinning a pin from one of my boards to different boards OR to pin it new from my blog post to different boards? Like if I join a new group board, should I add a pin from my β€œbest of” board OR should I pin it directly from my blog post? Does that make sense?

        Reply
  2. Thank you for this! I was soo frustrated when I couldn’t see my repin count haha. Also, have you seen the new “sections” part of boards? I don’t know if it was there before and I just missed it? Or if it’s totally new. Either way, I’m confused.

    Reply
    • I haven’t seen it yet!! It’s still getting tested/rolled out in batches. Excited to see that – much less excited to see the new “shop this pin” feature I’ve also been hearing about πŸ™

      Reply
  3. Thanks Lia – I found exactly the same thing with Boardbooster as you. It’s staying well and truly on for now! What an interesting piece – you guys are totally awesome.

    Reply
    • Isn’t it weird how different strategies work for different folks? Makes my job much harder πŸ˜› FYI, my traffic has been rising regularly all month and it’s almost back to pre-slump levels, SO that’s another vote for Boardbooster!

      Reply
  4. I’m excited to have found your Slaying Social site and looking forward to you girls keeping me up to date on Pinterest (and other social media)! After finally reading your Pinterest Profile Makeover post on Practical Wanderlust (after it’s been on my to read list like forever), I immediately starting investing some extra time in my Pinterest profile and reading your guides on this website too.
    I changed our bio, merged a couple of my boards together and started making board covers. I do have a couple of questions though. I’m using Tailwind, not Boardbooster, but is there a guideline on how many pins to pin per day? I’m at about 25-30 pins per day and scared of changing it up.
    I mostly pin from Tailwind Tribes, Group Boards and a certain number of travel blogs I follow. I used to participate in repin threads at least once a week as well, but quit because I had to pin so many “ugly” pins and had to add new boards for pins outside my niche. I’m wondering now if I should start again, but how do you combine these with keeping up the quality of your pins? I used to schedule them on Tailwind too, but you say it’s better to manually pin them immediately?

    Reply
    • There is no agreed guideline to the “right” number of posts per day. For me, it makes sense to post a LOT per day – between Boardbooster, Tailwind, and Manual Pinning, I easily post around 50-100 times per day. That’s what makes sense for my account because it’s very large, but may not be necessary for a smaller account.

      I manually pin my re-pin thread pins, mostly because it benefits the folks in the thread more that way and also because it somehow takes me less time that way πŸ˜› I do make an effort to find “pretty” pins to bury any ugly ones that I have to pin, so that there’s still a nice balance of like 5 pretty pins vs 1 ugly one. It does make the whole process take longer, but it’s worth it.

      Reply
  5. I hate that they took all my personal descriptions away. It has ruined Pinterest for me forever. I spent hours and hours noting each photo and who or what it was.

    Reply
    • Ohhhh that is SO frustrating! The good news is that you may not be able to see those descriptions anymore as you scroll, but they should still be there on each picture if you click to enlarge them.

      Reply
    • I actually found the 3 I’m in just by searching! They’re sort of all a variation of the words travel blogging and Pinterest πŸ™‚ There’s Pinterest for Travel Blogging, Ultimate Pinterest Group for Travel Bloggers, and Travel Bloggers Guide to Pinterest. I like all of those groups. See ya in there!

      Reply
  6. Hi. My name is Susan Martynuska, and could someone please tell me what happened to the picture descriptions under the pictures? I don’t blog or do anything but use the tutorials or different photos for reference or just enjoyment. This is really very frustrTING TO ME, AS I am a fused glass artist and textile artist and used Pinterest, but it really seems to have become
    much more commercializedd

    Reply
    • Hi Susan! Sadly, yes, the picture descriptions have vanished. I’m irritated with it too, but they don’t seem to be coming back πŸ™ Maybe if enough of us complain to Pinterest, they will bring them back!

      Reply
      • Thanks Lia Garcia, I’ve been confused about the disappearance of picture desciptions too. Since I use Pinterest like Susan does: as a reference guide and documentation and for leisure. I preferred to add subject information, not personal comments.
        You mention the possiblity to complain to Pinterest. I’m going to do that. And hope that a lot of us will do so too.

        Reply

Leave a Comment