34. How Being a Pinterest User Makes You a Better Pinterest Creator

Stephanie 0:00

When was the last time you actually logged into Pinterest as a user? Believe it or not, taking time to actually use the platform can help you see more results for your business. Let's chat about it.

Stephanie 0:15

Hey there, teacher business owner, it's time to give your bank account a break and pause that ad campaign. I'm your host, Stephanie Royer, and I'm going to show you how to pay less for traffic.

Stephanie 0:26

Welcome back to the podcast. This week, we're continuing our discussion of how you can fall back in love with Pinterest again. In last week's episode, we talked about freshening up your templates so making pins doesn't feel like such drudgery. In today's episode, we're going to focus on another thing that you can do to make Pinterest feel like less of a chore, and that is logging into Pinterest as a user.

Stephanie 0:53

Now you might roll your eyes when you hear that and think, here we go with the fluff. Get back to your roots. Remember your why. But really, there are practical reasons for this suggestion. Being a Pinterest user can make you a more effective Pinterest creator.

Stephanie 1:14

Before we talk about the first way that using Pinterest can help you be a more effective creator, we need to take a quick journey back to my time in the classroom. If you remember from episode one of the podcast, I was a special education teacher in the elementary setting. And if you've ever taught special education before, you know that it is a very paperwork heavy job. And most of the time I could balance it, I was able to do my paperwork during my prep time, and then still have plenty of time to teach small groups. But there were seasons when all of my lessons had to be designed by me, but then carried out by other staff members, solely because I had to stay at my desk and complete paperwork.

Stephanie 2:01

It was during these seasons that I really started to feel the burnout of my job. I wasn't able to see any of these plans in action. I didn't get to see concepts click for students in response to the instruction they were receiving. Now, yes, I could tell myself that my work at my desk was a very important part of making sure that students received an appropriate education. But over time, even though I was reassuring myself, I just started to feel less and less like a teacher, and that ended up being one of the contributing factors of why I stepped away from the classroom. But why am I sharing this now, I guess it just came to my mind when I was thinking about those of us who use Pinterest as creators, as business owners, and we never log into Pinterest and use it as an actual Pinterest user. And over time, you can start to like, forget where your content fits in this bigger puzzle that is Pinterest. And I think it's easy for burnout to creep in when all we're doing is making pins that go into this void, and we never actually stop to look at the current Pinterest climate and to participate and to see that as an actual user, I am still scrolling Pinterest and saving things and clicking on things, and it's just reassuring to know that there are other people out there doing the same thing. That Pinterest is not dead. It still works, and it's just a good reminder, and so it's just a great way to prevent that burnout from creeping in.

Stephanie 3:41

Logging into Pinterest as a user can also help you spot glitches and algorithm changes that could impact your stats, because when you see a drop in your analytics and there's absolutely no rhyme or reason as to why it happened, it can be really disheartening. In fact, many people stop pinning for their businesses because all of a sudden their stats have dropped, and they feel like there's no reason why, and they'll never gain traction, so they just give up. But when you log into Pinterest as a user, you can spot changes to the platform that could explain some of these sudden issues that you're seeing in your analytics. As a very recent example, I was logged into Pinterest on my personal account, I was looking for a recipe that I knew I had saved, and when I opened the pin and tried to click on it to visit the website, it wouldn't let me. All it did was treat it like a shoppable pin, as if I was trying to see related products for things that were in the pin graphic, and it would not, under any circumstance, let me visit the website. And so I had to find a workaround of copying the link. Anyway, I was able to figure it out, but I had a feeling this was going to really negatively impact outbound clicks, and I was right. Because during this time, I saw all of my clients experience a large dip in their outbound clicks. And if I hadn't seen this glitch, I would have been feeling pretty bad about myself as a Pinterest manager and pretty upset at Pinterest as a whole. Instead, I was able to just continue to make pins for clients, knowing that the glitch would eventually be fixed.

Stephanie 5:25

Logging into Pinterest can also help you notice algorithm shifts that can make your keyword research and pin design more effective. Just as an example, I recently noticed that a particular keyword's search results had clearly experienced an algorithm shift, because it had always been mostly blog posts in the search results for that keyword, and then it felt like overnight, it shifted to all TPT products. And so you'd better believe that I made a TPT directed pin for that keyword as soon as I could, and I would have not been able to do that had I not been logging into Pinterest and just using it naturally.

Stephanie 6:08

And finally, logging into Pinterest as a user can help you see what's currently working on the platform. You'll be able to be a more effective Pinterest creator, because you can then make more of what's working right now. As you scroll your home feed, you can see the types of seasonal content that Pinterest is pushing out. And just as a side note, real time pinning is totally a thing. It's not too late to create pins for a seasonal topic if you wait until that topic starts circulating. Now, obviously earlier can be better, but it really isn't the only way for your new pins to gain traction. So go ahead and use your home feed to help you inform the types of pins that you're going to create. When you log into Pinterest as a user, you can also learn from your competitors what keywords and pin designs seem to be working well for them in search results. There really is a lot you can learn from actually logging into the platform and not just scheduling and ghosting.

Stephanie 7:11

I realize that Pinterest has changed a lot as a platform, and it is not the same user experience as it was back in the glory days, but logging into Pinterest as a user can still inform your pin creation and help you make the most of your efforts. You might even feel some of those feelings of burnout slip away and make room for a little bit of love for Pinterest. I would love to hear how you're feeling about pinning these days. My Instagram DMs are always open. If you'd like to talk shop. You can find me at Stephanie Royer Solutions - there's no periods or spaces - and you can also find the link in the show notes.

Stephanie 7:52

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I'd love it if you could share it with a teacher biz bestie. You have created high quality resources. Now let's help teachers find them. I'll see you next time.