(*Updated March 2020 per Tailwind and Pinterest’s new best practice guidelines.) Have you recently joined the wonderful world of blogging? Maybe you have a business and have been hearing more about how Pinterest can help you grow? Pinterest is a wonderful search tool that can help almost any business or blog grow. If you are serious about it, then you should also check out Tailwind. This guide will cover Tailwind for beginners and why you need to get started with it ASAP.
(This post contains affiliate links and I was compensated to write this but firmly stand behind everything written. Everything here is my own opinion. Clicking on affiliate links does not cost you anything extra but if you purchase something, I might earn a little).
Why you NEED Tailwind
When I first started my blog I had no idea what I was doing. I was not super tech-savvy but I was passionate about my niche. I took the “figure it out as I go” approach to blogging. After a lot of reading and trying to see what other people were doing, I realized that Pinterest was something I needed to start getting involved with. I had hardly used Pinterest before starting my blog but that’s where everyone said traffic would come from the most, so I dove in. As I learned more I started hearing about Tailwind and used someone’s link for a free 100 scheduled pins to try it out. I learned a lot about Tailwind and grew my blog traffic by 200% in less than 4 months. (This is my personal results but Tailwind publishes the typical results of Tailwind users here). This Tailwind for beginners guide will help you learn quickly what it took me months to figure out.
If you are looking to grow your business and/or blog then you should start using Pinterest right away. Tailwind also does scheduling for Instagram if you are looking for more engagement there too, but it is a separate subscription. Pinterest is HEAVILY preferring fresh pins (newly created) over resued ones so Tailwind will also help you keep yourself organized.
What is Tailwind
Tailwind is a scheduling tool that makes it possible for you to get traffic through Pinterest without spending hours pinning on Pinterest. There are many different aspects to it and they are constantly making upgrades to it. The main features are Tailwind Communities, the scheduling tool and analytics. There are other features also but those are the higher priority ones.
Tailwind Communities for beginners
Your membership allows you to be a part of up to 5 Tailwind Communities plus any that you start on your own. Within a community, you can post your pins and share others’ pins. This is similar to a Pinterest group board but often gets you more visibility. I recommend joining communities that best fit with your niche or what you will be posting about. It is also better to join communities that have strong engagement and aren’t too big or too small. You want communities that will help your content be seen and also will have content you will want to share.
For example, since my blog is parenting focused, I have joined communities that are mom, baby or child-focused. I also started my own community called Advice for Moms and it has grown quite a bit over the last year. If you also have a parenting blog and would like to join my Tailwind Community click this link.
Within the community, make sure to click the “Hide already scheduled pins” button so you don’t keep repinning the same content.
Tailwind Scheduler for Beginners
The scheduling tool is wonderful! You can choose how many pins, when and where they get pinned. Before you start scheduling, take some time to get your Pinterest set up first. Here are 5 Pinterest Tips to Grow your Traffic. This blog post will help you get your Pinterest account ready and give you some easy tips for scheduling pins with Tailwind. Once you have your Pinterest boards set up, then go to Tailwind and set up your Board Lists under publishing. These board lists make scheduling so much faster.
Create many board lists with combinations of Pinterest boards based on the topic. When you are scheduling a pin to be pinned it often can go on a few different boards. Your board lists should have no more than 10 Pinterest boards per category (Per Tailwinds’ recommendations). For example: If I have a pin about breastfeeding, I could pin it to my breastfeeding board, someone else’s breastfeeding group board, a new mom board and a mom advice board. By grouping these you can just choose a board list when scheduling pins instead of going through and individually choosing boards each time.
Tailwind recommends pinning about 15-25 pins per day. Their new SmartGuide will actually help you keep an eye on this number. I see some people do 100+ but that can be overkill and most people are not creating that much content to make it worth it. From my research, I don’t recommend using the SmartLoop feature. Pinterest prefers fresh pins instead of reused ones.
Tailwind Analytics
If you are putting effort into using Pinterest and Tailwind then make sure to also spend time in the analytics. Find out what is doing well and what is not. Are the communities you are in helping you or wasting your time? The areas you can explore in Tailwind Analytics are Profile Performance, Board Insights, Pin Inspector, Website Insights, Top Pins, Organic Activity and Referral Traffic. Doesn’t that sound exciting?? All that data to explore!
Getting Started with Tailwind
Tailwind for beginners can start with a free trial. This is how most people get started so they can get a feel for it. Here is my link if you would like to try it for free for your first 100 scheduled pins. Below is the pricing as of February 2020, and the different options so you can see what makes the most sense for you. The annual membership is definitely the best deal if you are ready to jump in and start seeing your traffic increase.
Tailwind Tips
When you are scheduling your pins, choose the interval option and optimal time. Pinterest also recommends not scheduling pins to more than one board per day, so separate them by at least 2 days and you can choose when to start pinning them. Pinterest is really favoring fresh pins so make sure to not keep reusing the same pins. Make a new pin, schedule it to up to 10 boards and then make a different pin. Spread out your content as well. I try to give my posts about a 1-2 month break in between my new pins for each post.
I hope this guide for Tailwind for Beginners has helped you jumpstart your traffic increase with Tailwind and Pinterest. Happy pinning and get ready to start seeing your traffic increase when you start making better use of your time by using Tailwind.
Here is a video I created about how to use board lists on Tailwind. They are a huge time saver.
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