How to Use Group Boards on Pinterest to Get More Website Traffic
If you are looking to grow your Pinterest account and get more engagement you are going to want to be involved in Group boards. Some people love group boards and other people don’t want to use them. I fall in the middle. I’ve seen some benefit to using them and I have used them to some success. Though I do think you can still be quite successful without using them. I will keep using them and trying new techniques to get the most success with them. So here is how to use group boards and what I've found to work.
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So first what are group boards
So let me explain exactly what a group board is first. There might be some of you who don’t know what they are so before I get into how to use them let me explain what they are.
Group boards are boards that more than one person can pin to. You can have two people pinning or as many as hundreds. I’m not sure what the max number of members in a group board can be. One person “owns” the board and invites other people to join it. The person who starts the board is known as the board creator.
What you pin to the group boards gets seen by all the followers of that board not just your followers. So if you only have 500 followers but pin to a group board with 15,000 followers that’s a lot more people who could potentially be seeing your pin.
So that’s where group boards can really be great. If you use them well and are in the right group boards you can get your pins seen by a lot more people than you currently have following you. This can help lead to more repins, more followers and more blog traffic. All of which are awesome.
What to look for in group boards?
You want to find relevant group boards, though. There are lots of group boards out there but you don’t want to just be in any random boards. To succeed with group boards you want to find the group boards that apply to your blog’s niche.
You can find group boards quite a few different ways. I’m going to share the ways I know how to though I’m sure there are many more ways to find them. I often find group boards in the Facebook groups I’m a part of. Lots of times people will post their group boards and ask that you comment with your email if you’d like to join.
I have also found a lot of boards by clicking on pins on Pinterest. Seeing where they were pinned from and it takes me to a group board. I have found a few different group boards that way. You can also search your topic on Pinterest. I searched for the term social media tips. Then when the results came up I clicked on Boards. This takes me to boards named social media tips. From there I can look for group boards. Group boards have the little circle with multiple pictures in the corner. Here is what it looks like.
Once you find the board open it and usually in the top description it will explain how you can join the board. Typically this will be either emailing the board creator or leaving a comment on a pin asking to join. Not all group boards accept new pinners. They will usually share that they are not accepting new people in the board description.
So which group boards should you join?
Select the best group boards to join. You don’t want to be in a ton. I think being in 5 to 10 group boards is a good amount. When you are trying to choose which 5 to 10 group boards you should try and join you want to look at how active they are.
If you are trying to find some new boards to join. I suggest looking at how popular the pins in the board are. This was easier before pin totals were cumulative. I still find if people are pinning pins that do really well to a board than that is a board that performs well.
Also, check out who has pinned recent pins. If the last 40 or 50 pins are all by the same one or two people then that is probably not a very active group board. Unless it is just very new.
Do you have to join group boards?
As I've gotten more active in group boards and grown my following I’ve noticed that I get invited to group boards more often. You will see invitations to boards in your notifications. You then have the option to ignore or accept the invitation.
Since you don’t want to be in dozens of group boards you should go check out that group board before making the decision to accept the invite or not. Does this board have anything to do with what you blog about? Sometimes I will be randomly invited to boards that are irrelevant to my topic. So check that out first. Then look at the amount of repins to see how active the board is.
If the group board is something you have written blog posts about that you could pin and it’s an active board. Then you’re in luck, this is a good board to accept and join. You don’t have to accept every board invitation you receive.
Group boards are great you just want to make sure you are spending your time in boards that are relevant to your topic and get good interaction. Just make sure to follow the board rules of the boards you join and are interactive. Like most social media platforms I have found the more energy you put in the more you get out of it. So the more I am active in a group board the more interaction my pins seem to receive.
