One strategy that people use to develop their online presence is to build a following on as many platforms as possible. This “be everywhere, grow like a vine” strategy means spreading your presence to different places and linking to your content throughout your social media pages. They’re constantly searching for what can help you grow on social media.
I love the concept of adding Pinterest to your online strategy, but unfortunately, there’s a lot of reasons that you can’t actually link Pinterest to your social media. Let’s look at some examples of how and why Pinterest won’t help you grow on social media, and then talk about how workarounds can help integrate Pinterest with your social media strategy.
Pinterest and Facebook
Even though you can put links to your social media in your Pins, Pinterest isn’t going to show that. Those Pins won’t show up for people unless they directly go to your account and click on them. Using Pinterest to share your Facebook post or images that link to your Facebook account just won’t work.
And actually, it’s never worked. Now, in the past, it may have sort of worked with Instagram and Youtube because we used to be able to claim and connect our Instagram and Youtube accounts to Pinterest. But we cannot do that anymore. With Facebook, it was never a thing.
I don’t even try to use Pinterest to bring people to my Facebook group, because I know that it just won’t work. It’s hard enough to get people to move from one platform to another. You can do it, but it’s not a natural thing. And if you’re posting your Facebook posts on Pinterest, there’s no reason for your audience to leave Pinterest to see the post– the content is already right in front of them!
RELATED: Can Pinterest Help Your Social Channels Grow?
Pinterest and TikTok
Another conversation I was having recently involved discussing linking Pinterest to your TikTok or Instagram account. Again, it’s not going to work, because if you’re repurposing your TikTok videos for Pinterest, it doesn’t make sense to redirect people to your TikTok account to see the same material. There’s no reason for your audience to leave Pinterest.
We also don’t even know if your Pinterest audience is interested in using those other platforms. Ideally, once your website is ready, you can link your pins to that. But getting your audience to another platform that they might not even want to use is really difficult.
RELATED: How to Repurpose TikTok Content Into Idea Pins on Pinterest?
Pinterest Workarounds without Social Media
So what’s the workaround? How can you use Pinterest in a way that works for you? If your website is not ready, if you don’t have blogs to send people to, the best way is to create short-form video content for other platforms and just repurpose it for Pinterest until you have a working website to send your audience to.
If you’re already creating short-form video content for Reels, TikTok, or Youtube Shorts, it would be great to tie Pinterest into your content creation strategy so that you can create one piece of content that can be repurposed across different platforms.
Also, be aware of how your Pins are viewed. You can mix and match images and videos in your Idea Pins, and I’m actually experimenting with using both in Idea Pins right now. You can do Pins with images only; it’s totally fine to do that.
When you have video on the cover of your Pin, the engagement is often higher.
But when you have video on the cover of your Pin, the engagement is often higher. Having something moving gets people to stop their scroll. If your website isn’t ready yet, stick with Idea Pins; once you have a website that’s ready to go, you can redirect people to that website with Standard Pins.
RELATED: How To Create Quality Video Content for Multiple Platforms
Be Realistic About Your Goals
If your goal is to drive traffic to your Facebook page, you’re going to have to choose a workaround. You’re going to have to drive traffic to Facebook through your website content. The blog posts and content on your website is a great place to invite people to find you on Facebook, Instagram, or whatever social media platform you choose. But Pinterest just doesn’t work as a bridge to your social media content.
Use Linktrees
One workaround is using a Linktree or creating a list of links on a page that you can link to as the link in your bio on Pinterest. I personally like having a dedicated page on my website that works like a Linktree that I can put in my bio, that way I can invite people to follow me on Facebook, find me on Instagram, and otherwise engage in my social media. But if you don’t have a website up, Linktree can do the same thing.
Ultimately, you can use Pinterest as part of a successful social media strategy. You just need to be aware of what the platform can do and how its outgoing links work. Pinterest isn’t like other social media platforms, and it’s a big mistake to try to treat it like one!
P.S – Ready to get started on Pinterest? My FREE Pinterest Starting Guide can help you get started in 15 minutes or less! Download it here.
P.P.S – If you want a more supportive Pinterest marketing approach without hiring an expert, and having direct access to a Pinterest expert, join my exclusive Pin Power Society membership here.
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