I heard an interesting interview on a podcast recently with a bestselling hybrid author. She was talking about how in order for a book (any book) to gain traction it needs to have multiple touch points.
The key to not just building momentum, but also keeping it, is diversifying where we show up. Every platform we choose to be on has its own unique purpose. IG is great for things like brand awareness and growing your community. A newsletter is great for establishing trust and providing value. And Pinterest is great for driving traffic and increasing visibility—it also gets the rep of being yet another social media platform, so it’s extremely underutilized.
I know for me personally it’s been so tough navigating the social media algorithm, always feeling like I’m toeing that line of influencer (which I am not trying to be!), and creating engaging content that reaches new followers while still nurturing my current community.
Social media definitely has its purpose, but Instagram always seems to be going through big changes and my views, reach, engagement—everything—is constantly fluctuating. It’s made me realize how important it is to have a marketing strategy that goes beyond Reels and TikToks.
Believe it or not there are actually other ways to reach a large audience without sacrificing more time and energy (can I get a hip, hip, hooray!).
One of those ways is Pinterest.
I know what you’re thinking—another social app? Has she lost her dang mind!? Well, that brings me to the first myth I’m going to bust here: Pinterest is not a social media platform.
Yep. I said what I said! Today I’m going to break down some common misconceptions about the platform so you can gain more subscribers, find more readers, sell more books, and get a holistic understanding of why you should be on it!
So, without further ado, let’s talk Pinterest for authors.
Myth 1: Pinterest is a social media platform
Nope, Pinterest is a search engine—and people use search engines to find things they want and need. To do this, they type in keywords, topics, and open-ended questions.
What did you type in the search bar the last time you went on Pinterest? For me, it was fairytale aesthetic and dark fantasy recs. As the searcher, the goal would be to get results that inspire me or provide a solution. But the business opportunity, on the other end, would be to provide content that answers those questions.
Think about all your potential readers and what they could be searching for. Series to read after ACOTAR? Enemies-to-lovers recs? Your book could be the answer.
Myth 2: Follower count matters
NOPE, and isn’t that a big relief? The goal of Pinterest is not to gain followers and likes, it’s to post content that increases your discoverability. Think about how many times you’ve pinned something. Did you check to see who the original Pinner was? Or were you focused on the content?
96% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded (source: Pinterest), which means although people go to the platform with a specific goal in mind (i.e. finding new fantasy recs) they are open to who provides them the solution—it’s not about who has the most followers or the most influence.
Myth 3: Pinterest is for recipes and lifestyle
I mean, yes, you can still have your recipe and travel boards, but you can also showcase your business, your story, your author services and generate more followers, leads, subscribers, downloads, etc. In just one month, I grew my Pinterest views from 0→24,000 and my pins are all focused on my books, my blog, my recs, my indie publishing journey—my offers.
That should tell you right there people on Pinterest aren’t just looking for what they should cook for dinner. They’re ready to buy and they go there to plan and purchase. The platform aims to connect them with those things that inspire them—to connect them TO YOU.
Myth 4: I will need to nurture and engage my audience
Building a community is essential, but that’s what Instagram is for. Pinterest is truly a platform where you can post and walk away.
Myth 5: Pinterest requires lengthy, creative captions
No! Can I get a hallelujah ?? In fact, I’d argue the goal is to be as generic as possible. Remember: search engine. Search engines work best with simple keywords and phrases. The less fluff, the better.
For titles, steer away from quotes, character names, and super specific details, and think about your book’s genre, how someone might categorize it, popular tropes, and overarching concepts.
For descriptions (aka captions), I’d recommend avoiding synopsis-like paragraphs and instead crafting long-tailed keyword sentences that maybe aren’t the most beautiful or descriptive but pack the most punch in terms of searchability.
Myth 6: I’ll spend all this time creating content just for it to flop
Get this: the average lifespan of an IG post is 24-72 hours. The average lifespan of a pin is 4 months. Pinterest offers your content something social media platforms do not: longevity.
Think about all the content you already create: Reels, TikToks, feed posts, blog posts, newsletters, etc. All of that can be repurposed for Pinterest. And the best part is you’re not penalized if it doesn’t perform “well.” You just keep trying and testing things out.
Myth 7: Pinterest’s goal is to keep users on its platform
One of the biggest differences between a social media app and a search engine is a search engine wants to connect people with what they’re looking for—it wouldn’t do them any good to have people staying on there and not clicking anything.
Pinterest has the goal of generating the right content for people to click through and go make the recipe, go read the book, go make their dreams come true.
Myth 8: No immediate results = FAIL
Algorithms exist, even on Pinterest, but that doesn’t mean if we don’t feed it the right thing at the right time it will never show our pins to its 498 million users. Unlike social media, low-performing posts don’t just go to a content graveyard. There’s always a chance for a pin you made 3, 6, 9 months ago to be seen and even go viral.
The best way for the Pinterest algorithm to take notice of you is to create new content. This might sound like a headache, but hear me out: to Pinterest, fresh content = a new graphic. That’s it. The text, link, CTA, offer, book, etc. can all remain the same.
If you’re like, ok Tory, creating new graphics every day is NOT IT, I’ll go over ways you can streamline this in my next blog post, including how to repurpose pictures and content I know you already have. I’ll also share some tips, tricks, and a snapshot of my personal strategy that got me close to 40k views in 1 month (as of today, I just crossed the 100k view threshold, making it my biggest month on Pinterest to date! 🥹).
I hope you enjoyed the start of my Pinterest for authors series! In the meantime, you can check out my page to see how it works for me IRL. Maybe it’ll spark some inspo on how you can use the platform to start marketing your books and services!
Pinterest for authors. It’s a thing!
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