Why You Need to Use Pinterest Group Boards and How to Do It

You need to join group Pinterest boards!

If there was one thing that really, really helped me go from hundreds of pageviews a day to well over a thousand each day, it was Pinterest.

But, there were several things I did not know about Pinterest when I decided to go “Pro” with my blog back in August 2013, as I only had a personal account set up at the time.

I quickly learned that one of the simplest and smartest ways you can go big on Pinterest and gain a ton of traffic to your great blog content is by joining and pinning to group boards.

Group Boards on Pinterest

I honestly didn’t even know what group boards were until about November of 2013. And then through some blog groups started to hear more and more about them, but I personally didn’t follow any (that I was aware of) and didn’t know what the big deal was about them.

But, I was told by much bigger bloggers than I that I needed to join group Pinterest boards, and large group Pinterest boards.

They were absolutely right!

Nothing has grown my following and traffic more than group boards on Pinterest. Pinterest is hands down my biggest traffic driver and will likely always be my #1 traffic referrer. The key to gaining lots and lots of traffic from Pinterest lies in group boards, your pinning frequency, and the quality of your images and post.

But what is a Group Pinterest Board?

A group Pinterest board is someone’s personal Pinterest board that they choose to allow other people, called contributors, pin to as well. It can be as simple as allowing your BFF to pin stuff to one of your boards, and as complicated as having hundreds of people pinning to a board.

How do I know if a Pinterest board is a group board?

You can tell a Pinterest board is a group board because at the top right of a board, next to the title, there is little grouping of three shadow people (when looking at the board widget on someone’s profile or in search results). That signifies it is a group board.

If you visit a board page and see multiple accounts listed at the top left of the board, it is a group board.

Should I Create a Group Pinterest Board?

Probably not, unless you are a big blogger with a large following on Pinterest (i.e. several thousand followers): otherwise, I wouldn’t worry too much about creating your own group boards just yet. I have three group boards: Cleaning, Instilling Values in Children, and another for a co-hosted link party).

Here is why I haven’t created more:

1. I don’t have a huge following. A new board of mine only has about 1300 followers (when I originally wrote this post). It important to note that your profile will have a large count number on it than a new board you create. This is because some people only follow one or a few of my boards and not all of your boards. Only those who follow all of your boards will be following any new boards you create.
2. Creating group boards doesn’t equal growing a large new following because only people who follow all of your boards or that particular board will see the content anyway. This means if a big blogger with tens of thousands of followers joins your group board, that board will still only have the amount of followers you, the owner of the board, have, so roughly 1300 for one of my boards.
3. People don’t generally want to join small group boards. It’s kind of a waste of their time to join and pin to because small boards don’t usually see a lot of clicks and repins.
4. It can be a pain to monitor group boards. It’s fun to dream big and want to create group boards, especially for your niche, but with group boards often comes spam, especially if you allow people you don’t know on your board. Some may pin appropriate (to the board) content that you then have to delete. They may also be pinning the same content again and again. A good group board is monitored by the owner and cleaned up as necessary. I don’t want to spend a ton of time doing that!

If you want to create a group board, I suggest getting some of your blogging buddies involved, and find out who has the biggest following, and have them start the board.

What kind of group boards should I join?

There are literally thousands of group boards on Pinterest. And some cover very specific niches (like the color blue) and others very broad topics (The Best of Pinterest). Some are accepting new contributors and others are not.

The type of boards you should join greatly depends on what you write about. While you can certainly join any and every group board your heart desires (as long as the owner of the board or another contributor adds you), this is really about promoting your own content.

For example, I wouldn’t join a fashion group Pinterest board because I don’t write about fashion nor do I really care about fashion, and it’s not what my ideal reader is interested in. But, I would join a dozen or so kid-related group Pinterest boards because I write about family and parenting and occasionally kids activities too.

Even though I said I don’t make group boards because I have a “small” following, that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t join boards that have less than a 1000 followers. Because, some small boards still see a ton of repins or could be one of the few in your niche.

The more boards you join the wider the audience that will have the opportunity to see your posts and pins. But, be aware you may not get much back (in terms of PVs or repins) from pinning to a group board that only has 300 followers.

Group Pinterest Board Rules

Some group boards are very specific as to what you can pin to their board and how often. Please respect the owner’s wishes or you may get kicked off the board or reported for spam.

Some board owners only want you to pin your original content from your blog to their group board, and only once a day, once a week, or once a month. Others let you pin from anyone’s site or blog and often as you’d like, or up to X times a day.

Whatever they are, don’t be a rude contributor: play by the house rules.

A big part of that is only pinning applicable content to appropriate boards, even though it may be tempting to post your killer food recipe to a very large group board on parenting because pins do really well on that board. Don’t do it though. Don’t pin unrelated content just because you want it to repinned. That will be considered spam.

How do I find a Group Pinterest Board?

This can be done in several different ways. One way is to check out some big bloggers in your niche(s) and scroll through their boards and see what group boards they contribute to and ask to join those boards (I’ll tell you how next). Remember group boards will have three shadow people at the top right.

However, that can be very time consuming and difficult! Here are some places to go to find group boards to join:

• Pinterest Collaborative Boards –  Facebook Group (My #1 Source)
• The Pin Junkie Group Listing by Category
• PinGroupie.com
• Board Deck HQ
• Group Boards on Pinterest
• Other Facebook/Google+ Blog Groups you belong to
• Ask your friends to invite you to group boards they have joined

How do I Join a Group Pinterest Board?

When you see a board that you would like to join, click on the board. When you open a board and see all the pins, most group boards accepting new contributors will have information at the top in the description area as to how to join and any rules for the board.

Then do these steps –

1. Follow the board.
2. Email the board owner if they provide their email in the description.
3. Tell them in the email what board(s) you would like to join.
4. Provide them with your Pinterest email address (that’s how they’ll add you).
5. Wait to be added.
6. If they don’t provide their email address, comment on a pin by the board owner (remove the board name from the url address) and tell them the above information.
7. Use please and thank you.
8. Wait to be added.
9. Accept the invite.
10. Start pinning!

How Many Group Boards Should I Join?

As many as you’d like! I know some bloggers belong to hundreds of group boards! If you are like me and write about a variety of topics, it is very helpful to contribute an assortment of group boards. If you realize later on that a board isn’t bringing you traffic or you never pin to it, you can always leave the board by clicking “Edit Board” and then the “Leave” next to your name.

How Should I Organize my Group Pinterest Boards?

Now that you are joining lots of group boards, your profile can get a little crazy if you let it. My suggestion is to only place group boards you own in the first few rows of your profile page. While it is tempting to put those seasonal group boards you belong to front and center, anyone who follows those boards aren’t going to become your follower, but a follower of the creator of that group board.

While I am all for helping out my fellow pinners, your profile page should be optimized for your benefit first. Put all of your own boards first, and then your group boards, however you want to arrange them. I try to have any in-season holiday boards first, and then roughly group them into categories (homeschooling/learning, parenting, DIY, kids, health/fitness, multiples/twins, holidays, etc). Play around with it, and try to have them make sense to you and any potential followers.

Pinning to Group Boards

Now whenever you pin your fabulous blog posts to Pinterest, make sure you are not only pinning to your blog or website’s specific Pinterest board (you have one of those right?) and any related boards you own, but that you are also pinning to your new group boards!

Hundreds and thousands of new eyes will get to read, like, share, and repin your awesome content. Soon you just may see that Pinterest traffic soar, especially with a great Pinning strategy. My very favorite way to schedule pins to Pinterest is by using BoardBooster (see my post on how I use it here).

Enjoy those higher pageviews, friends!

This post originally appeared on the International Bloggers Association blog.