Each month I do a random draw on my email list and pick a #PinterestForAuthors monthly giveaway winner. The winner gets free Pinterest support and consulting for a month, and the Pinterest Winner for August was Aviva Scott.
Aviva is a self-anointed New York Bitch who loves to write about all the crap relationships, let-downs, and unbelievable experiences she’s had. On her about page she mentions that:
I’m working tirelessly on finishing the High Heels Series, eating copious amounts of dark chocolate cupcakes, while procrastinating on Facebook and Twitter.
Her High Heels series is obviously keeping her very busy, or she really is procrastinating on Facebook and Twitter, because even though I reached out to her multiple times letting her know that she’d won a free month of social media support for her Pinterest account… she didn’t take me up on my offer!
But, not one to be deterred – I assessed Aviva’s Pinterest account anyway.
For any goal you set you need to know what you’re trying to achieve.
Although I didn’t have any insight into her specific goals, I decided use “Increase awareness of the High Heels Series on Pinterest” as the goal for my Pinterest Account Assessment, and I was able to identify opportunities for improving Aviva’s presence on Pinterest.
Pinterest for Authors Checklist
Here’s the check list I used to review Aviva’s Pinterest Account, and the summary of opportunities based on how she’s currently using this social network to build her brand.
Pinterest Profile:
Does your Pinterest Profile support your brand?
- People make judgement calls based on your description and image. They do it in a flash, and some of it is even done sub-consciously.
- Look at your profile description and see what it says about you.
Here’s what Aviva’s profile says to me:
- She’s a no-nonsense, straight-talker .. but she also has softer side – as a nurturing mother.
Showing different sides of your personality on Pinterest is a great way to engage a larger audience. People aren’t one-dimensional, and in order to connect with your audience there needs to be something they can connect with. Aviva’s profile description has given you Shoe Addict and Mother to connect with.
At initial glance, the “Story Teller” descriptor looks like it could be part of her mothering duties, but I think Aviva is using it as a way to identify herself as an author and writer because she has used her book series logo at her profile image.
This is one area of Aviva’s profile that I think could be improved to strengthen her branding, and based on the goal of “using Pinterest to increase awareness of her High Heel book series” these are the recommendations I’d suggest:
- Replace the Book Series Logo with an actual image, to make it easier for other Pinterest users to connect with you as a person rather than a faceless brand.
- Revise “Story Teller”, to make it immediately evident that this is a key element of your profile and Pinterest presence. Here’s are a couple of suggestions:
- “Story Teller and author of the High Heels Series”
- “Story Teller. High Heels Series Authors”
- “High Heels Series Author. Writer. Story Teller.”
Another element I’d suggest adding to the Profile is Aviva’s location. Based on her website, it seems like being a New Yorker is an important part of her persona, so I’d recommend added that to her profile.
In the Pinterest Profile Settings I include my location and it shows up in my profile.
Pinterest Boards:
Do you “above the fold” boards focus on your brand priorities?
- You can rearrange your boards so that you Top 5 most important boards are on the top row, and are visible when people are viewing your profile.
- People look at these boards to determine if they want to scroll down the page to see more. If you don’t grab their attention with these 5 boards, they’ll click onto another Pinterest profile.
- Look at your Top Row of Pinterest Boards and see if they support the brand you’re trying to establish.
Aviva’s Top 5 Boards:
Again, focusing on “using Pinterest to increase awareness of her High Heel book series“, let’s look at how Aviva’s Top 5 Boards supports her brand.
Books Pinterest Board
- Pinterest Board Key Images are constrained by predefined proportions, but that doesn’t mean you have no control over what your key image looks like. So I’d recommend revising the image so that the title and shoes are both visible.
- There’s no board description on the “Books” board, and this location is a good opportunity to add some key search terms to help Pinners to find your boards.
- Remember — the majority of Pinterest users don’t add new content, they pin other peoples content. Your goal should be to attract Pinners to your board content and entice them to pin your content, but they won’t find you if you don’t include the keywords you want to be found for.
- What is this Books board about? It’s not clear. But if Aviva added a description of why this is her #1 board .. it would be easier for Pinners to assess whether it was relevant to them.
- Do all the books have a similar theme? Are they in the same genre?
- As the intent is to build a brand around the High Heels series, I’d make sure to pin related books on this board, and then add a description to make it clear what the intent of the board is.
- Bear in mind it’s not your intent, it’s your audiences. So as a Pinner, you should look at your boards and see what the benefit is to other Pinners.
- What will they find on this board? Make it easy for them to know this.
Shoe Whore Pinterest Board
Again, there’s no description on this board, and the same input about making your board as discoverable as possible is also relevant to this board.
But here’s some additional input specific to this board.
- Are all shoes created equal? Absolutely not. Think about when you’re searching for a pair of shoes in a search engine …. you don’t just type “shoe” .. because you’ll be inundated with a whole lot of shoes you’re not even interested in. People search for specifics, e.g. 5″ high stiletto, Stripper shoes, cream wedge sandals etc.
- While it’s useful and on-brand to call this board “Shoe Whore” the description should include additional keywords so that when other Pinners are searching for specific shoes, you boards and pins will show up in the results.
- What the tie or inspiration between being a Shoe Whore and writing a High Heels series of books? I know I’m interested to know the connection,
- This Shoe Whore board includes a specific type of shoe, so the board description can make that clearer why this board includes high heels, so that it’s easier to discover.
- Aviva could also include cover images of her books within this board because the shoe images all support her brand.
Other 3 Pinterest Boards
The other boards on the top row are very much along the life-style theme, and as long as these support the brand positioning of the High Heels series, these are a good choice.
But if Aviva has more than one book on the market, I’d consider added a “High Heels Series” Board, with everything related to these books. From book covers to press coverage, related blog posts and promo offers. I would be the one-stop shop for everything related to the Book Series, and the description and title should make it evident that this is the purpose of the board. It’s alright to be promotional, as long as it’s transparent that that’s the main intent of the board.
Why is it time for Aviva to take notice of my Pinterest Recommendations?
Search “High Heels Series” in Pinterest and see how visible Aviva and her book series is.
It’s not!
All Pins:
- I scrolled through pages and pages of pins to see if there were any of Aviva’s book series pins, to no avail. I did find another author, Gemma Halliday, who writes a High Heels series:
- The thing to note about these pins is that they’ve been Pinned by other Pinners to a Wish List and Worth Reading board.
- Aviva’s goal should be to increase the awareness of her books to encourage other users to pin her content on their boards.
- Once Aviva has made the recommended adjustments to her Pinterest profile, she should start following any Pinner who has already pinned a Gemma Halliday book. Popularity by association.
Boards:
- Competition for the search term using High Heels Series + the Board Filter is low. There are only 23 boards that show up in the results that have High Heels in the Board Description.
- I scrolled through this content are there are a lot of related authors that feature high heels. This is Aviva’s competition, and there’s not much of it. So by really optimising her board descriptions, she can raise her brands profile and visibility to her High Heels series of books.
Message to Aviva
Aviva I’m sorry that we didn’t have the opportunity of working together to build your author profile on Pinterest, but when you’ve stopped procrastinating on Facebook and Twitter .. show your Pinterest account some love too by implementing these recommended Pinterest Profile and Top 5 Board updates.