Perfect Pinterest Profile Check-List [Infographic]

Here at PinLeague, we see a LOT of different Pinterest profiles each day. Some are just out-of-this-world (like this one). Others are… well, not so much. If you’re a brand using Pinterest, neglecting to put your best foot forward is more than just leaving huge opportunities on the table, it can be downright damaging to your image and hold back your efforts elsewhere. Put aside your worries my fellow pinners – I have good news: if you happen to land outside of the “out-of-this-world” category, making a few simple adjustments can help you get pretty close, and improve your results on the site (and with our services) tremendously. My name is Jessica, I’m an account coordinator here at PinLeague and I’m going to take you through each section of the Pinterest profile to highlight the do’s and don’ts, and best practices we’ve seen.

First thing’s first–Pinterest is about VISUAL CONTENT.

Hopefully, what I just said is something you already know but, if not, please repeat it to yourself a few times to make sure it sticks… OK, just kidding, you don’t really have to repeat it but do whatever you must to make sure that if you remember nothing else from this post, you remember this one thing. With that being said, let’s get started.

Your Profile Picture

Your Pinterest profile picture is an important part of your Pinterest presence. It appears wherever you go on the site. Your Account page, pins, repins and comments all carry your image. It represents YOU to the Pinterest universe. Here are some things to check when choosing a picture for your profile.

1. Is it “over-branded?” Yes, you want the users to know what brand their following but is using your logo as your profile picture the best way to do that? Probably not. If you’re a big enough brand that someone would recognize your logo, they would also recognize your products, wouldn’t they? How about using one of those for your picture instead? It’s definitely more likely to catch a user’s eye. If you’re a small brand or a personal profile and you’re just working on getting your brand recognition up, I suggest choosing someone to be the “face” of your Pinterest profile. People respond better to seeing human faces associated with account on social networks. Only use a logo if you feel you absolutely must.
2. Does it emphasize the emotion you want your audience to associate with your brand? A fashion house may use a model who screams exclusivity. At PinLeague, we want our customers to feel empowered- even superhuman. So, the PinLeague Pinterest profile features a superhero cartoon created by our co-founder, Alex.
3. Is it the right size? Your Pinterest profile picture dimensions are 160×160 pixels. Your image should be square and at least that size. If not, your profile picture may be distorted or blurry. Large images may fail to upload, so resize large pictures before you upload them. Rectangular images are centered, resized, and cropped automatically so the resulting profile picture might not be ideal.

Profile Description

The next thing that users see is your profile description. This is a simple one. Just make sure it tells them who you are and, more importantly, what you’re pinning about. Users just want a general idea of what they should expect to see on your profile and on their feed, if they choose to follow you.

Links

If your brand has a website to link to, please do so on you account. Even better, if your site has a blog with lots of pinworthy content, link directly to it. If a user reaches your website through your link, they’re likely to be looking for something to pin. Also, Pinterest allows you to link to both your Facebook and Twitter accounts on your profile. Obviously, you’d love it if users just went straight to your site, but if they want to do more research and interact with you on other platforms, why not give them the option? If you have other social media accounts, link to them. It can only help.

Content

OK, guys and gals, this is the big one. Once again, Pinterest is based on VISUAL CONTENT. So, when it comes to your profile’s content, here are a few easy things you can do to make sure your account reaches it’s full potential.

1. Do you have enough content? We suggest that a profile have at least 10 boards with a minimum of 10 pins each. Of course, if you have more than that, that’s great but any less and I’d suggest putting a little time into pinning more content or giving us a shout for details about our Jump-Start plan. Also, if you have more than 10 boards but not all of them have 10 pins, you still might need to work on beefing up those boards a little bit. Built-out profiles encourage deeper engagement. Simply put, users will spend more time on your profile if there’s more content for them to look at.
2. Is it pretty? Besides your profile picture, board cover photos are the first images that users associate with your account. They should be high-quality and eye-catching. You want people to be intrigued enough by your cover photo to click into the board and see what other kinds of cool content it contains. (Changing cover photos is also an easy way to make your content appear fresh even if you haven’t added anything new to the board.)
3. Are your board names short and relevant? Make sure that your boards are named properly to suggest what content they contain. Yes, you can be witty, but don’t go so far that the users have to think too hard to figure out what the board could possibly consist of. Also, make sure that whatever you choose for the name is short enough that you see the whole name when you are looking at your profile. Make it easy for people to figure out what content you provide.
4. Is it too promotional? Followers of your account don’t want to think their being advertised to. They want a relationship with your brand. Not another commercial. You should be pinning content to your boards that is not just from your site. Pin content from sites that you know your target audience is interested in. Repinning relevant content from your followers is a great way to diversify your boards and has the plus of engaging your fans on the site.
5. What about your pins? Pins should always link to the original site the content came from. Please don’t link to Google images. To users, that just looks lazy. There’s nothing worse than clicking on a pin of something you are really interested in just to find that it leads no where. You didn’t help your follower; you wasted their time. Also, on every pin, make sure there is a good description! Even if you repin something that already has a description, change it to fit your purposes. Pinterest’s search engine is really simple; use common language to describe the pins so their more likely to be found.

Advanced Tips

I have just a couple more things to share with you. These aren’t things you HAVE to do to have a good profile but they will help you optimize your profile once you have mastered the basics.

First–an easy one: if you want a specific board to get more attention than the other ones on your profile, place it in the middle position of the top row of your boards. Users’ eyes are automatically drawn to that board first. (You can easily rotate which board goes into this position based on what aspect of your brand you want to focus on at any particular time.)

Second–one that might be a little harder to wrap your head around: how about changing your profile’s name? This may sound crazy at first but once you think about what I just told you, it might make more sense. Pinterest users don’t want to be advertised to and they want to feel like they have a relationship with your brand (and that they’re part of a community). Also, Pinterest’s search engine is very simple. Taking that into account, making your profile’s name something generic related to your brand, like “Bride Boards” for example, makes users feel like they are joining a community by following you rather than being advertised to by your brand AND with a common name, you are much more likely to come up in searches when your target audience is looking for content.

OK, y’all– that’s it. If you follow these tips, you can drastically improve your results and the general Pinterest public will think you are a pro, even if you know better. Trust me. I’ve seen accounts who’s pinners had no idea what they were doing and, before they started with us, you could tell. However, after implementing the tips above, their growth and engagement on Pinterest have sky-rocketed.

Good luck and happy pinning!