Pinterest. Pinterest. Pinterest. The visual social network has exploded and captured the attention of just about everyone it seems. The network has attracted a large number of personal users, primarily female, but it’s also attracted the eyes of many brands, big to small. While it’s easy to see how the images being shared and repinned can be influential, the question is “when do I post?”
Many a dedicated community manager has discovered that social media is impossible to completely control. With time, research, and a good deal of trial and error, you can discover insights about your industry, your brand, and your chosen social networks that will inform actions you can take to grow your community and increase engagement. The ebb and flow of a community is fluid but a community manager that dedicates time to truly cultivating a strong community with regular engagement can identify times when there are spikes in responses, comments, “Likes,” follows, shares, etc. Every brand’s mileage will vary from network to network. The infographic below is just a sampling of three major industries, but it does provide some insight that we find valuable. If you’re in any of these three industries, it’s good to see what the top pins are in the community as well as the unbranded keywords people are using to search for images. Please note, these are just averages, so even if you’re in these industries, your community might be different.
Useful Pinterest Tools
If you’re looking for some useful tools for Pinterest, here are a few that we highly recommend:
1. Pingraphy: Schedule pins for the times your community is most active. We definitely don’t advocate this as something you use every day, but it’s very helpful if there are times you know you can’t actively post on the account.
2. Infogr.am: Infographics are popular for a variety of reasons, but a visual breakdown of data on a visual network like Pinterest only strengthens its already powerful performance.
3. PicMonkey: Not a Photoshop wizard? PicMonkey is a great tool that allows you to upload photos, add text, and then save for pinning on your account.