What are Pinterest group boards?
A Pinterest Group Board is a collaborative board where multiple pinners can add content.
They were initially designed so people could collaborate and pin content for events, parties, or holiday suggestions.
You can recognise a group board by the profile icon which has three sections to. That indicates there are multiple pinners.
When you click into the board, you will then see how many Pinners there are and how many followers.
How do group boards work on Pinterest
Prior to 2019, it used to be that you could just pin into a group board and then suddenly get lots of people flooding to your website.
Whenever you posted a pin into that group, you would potentially get traffic from the board’s followers and the board’s collaborators.
Group boards, however, quickly became a dumping ground for spammy content. People were creating a pin and pinning it to lots and lots of group boards.
However, on September 19, 2019, the Pinterest algorithm changed reducing the ability of mega boards and gazillions of followers.
Pinterest has started limiting the distribution of Pins in Group Boards to the members of that Board only – encouraging true collaboration.”
But as well as these limitations, they also added lots of new Pinterest group board features too, to help with collaboration.
What does this all mean for group boards?
Group boards can still be useful, but it means you need to use them wisely and check your analytics.
Pinterest Smart Feed now prioritises content that gets good engagement. So if you are pinning content into a group board, but not seeing any engagement, then
If your group is posting quality content and has good engagement,. then a group board can still be a great way to raise your profile and find a new audience for your content.
While you may not see the same massive influx in traffic, you can still benefit from like-minded members sharing your pins and visiting your website.
How should I use a group Board?
Don’t overdo your pinning
Pinning multiple times into a group board will just see you end up in Pinterest jail.
Note: Tailwind’s Best Practices recommends not pinning over 50 a day and staying within the 15-25 range. Any more than that and you could affect your performance.
For group boards, try to pin fresh content and pin in intervals.
A scheduler like Tailwind can automate this for you.
Also aim to post quality content into quality boards that fit your niche profile.
Be a team player
If you are part of a board, engage with content from others and pin their content to your boards.
Contribute to niche boards
Try and find niche board topics that are related to your product and service. If you are pinning to a very wide and generic board, then it will be difficult for Pinterest to determine who your pin is for.
Don’t join masses of group boards
Be selective and pick ones that directly fit your niche. Or if your niche is underserved, start one yourself.
Check your competitors
Do they belong to any group boards?
How do I assess the quality of a group board?
Check the size
You want to check how many pins are on the group board and how many followers. Louise Myers recommends not joining boards with over 100 contributors. It makes sense, as that size of a group board will be hard to maintain and ensure the quality is high.
Check the quality
Also, sense check the quality of the content. Are pins leading you to spammy or low-quality content?
Check the virility score
If you are using Tailwind, then try posting into a few groups and then checking Tailwind Board Insights engagement analytics in your Insights for your Group Boards.
How do I find a group board on Pinterest
Search boards with multiple users
Type in your keyword, and then change the drop-down filter to “Boards”. You can then look for boards that have multiple profile images attached.
This is a bit time consuming, but it’s one way to find them.
Use PinGroupie
PinGroupie* is a website that searches for group boards and tells you the number of followers and collaborators and provides a link to the board on Pinterest.
However, with EVERYONE having access to this website, you can imagine that it will be very quickly overused. So its definitely worth putting in the leg work yourself.
Check on Facebook
Often people post details about their Pinterest group boards on to Facebook.
Be a great contributor and you may get an invite
You might also get invites from other Pinners to join as a collaborator.
How to Join Pinterest Group Boards?
Once you’ve found one that fits your niche, you may see a “Join” button.
Otherwise, there will usually be a set of rules and joining requirements in the board profile. It’s hit and miss whether you get in, as some boards may no longer be accepting contributors, or are just not monitored anymore.
However, once you are a member, you can pin into that group board as you would a normal board.
What’s the alternative to using Group Boards?
Tailwind Communities is another way of sharing content and interacting with a group of pinners. You’ll need to be on their platform to use it, however.
Tailwind is also an official partner of Pinterest, so you can be sure that they are staying within the Pinterest parameters.
Are group boards worth it?
In my experience supporting businesses, when I have pinned into niche group boards they have seen an uplift in traffic.
But, I always check the analytics. Are they performing, are your pins being re-pinned and clicked on? If not, then is it worth being part of that group?
The algorithm will continue to change and Pinterest will continue to encourage people to use the platform for real collaboration, so if you are showing your value as a contributor and adding quality content for your potential customers then it could work for you.
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