So you’ve got your Pinterest account all set up, right?

Created an account, converted it to a business one, enabled rich pins and the 7 other tips I shared earlier?

If you missed it, go read that post first: Pinterest for Beginners: 10 tips you need

Great! Now let’s get started with the last point in my previous post: How to join Pinterest group boards.

But, wait! Why do you need Pinterest group boards?

Isn’t an account enough to drive tons of traffic to your blog? Ah, my friend. Come on over, take a seat. Put your feet up and get comfortable. This could take a while.

UPDATED FEBRUARY 2019:

Around June of 2018, Pinterest conducted a Creator’s Conference where they mentioned that they would be downgrading group boards.

Many people panicked because group boards were actually driving traffic to their site! Now what?!

The key thing to remember is that as long as you join the RIGHT group boards and pin judiciously, you’re still going to gain way more benefit from group boards than you’d expect.

I explain more about that later in the post.

We already talked about how Pinterest is more a search engine than a social network.

While that is true, there is a social aspect of the platform that we cannot overlook: Group Boards.

[easy-tweet tweet=”How to find and use the right #Pinterest Group Boards to grow your blog traffic. #Bloggers” user=”shyvish”]

{Pin this post for later}

Your personal boards are ones where you can choose to pin your own content: pins from your website and pins that you find interesting.

For instance, my key personal boards are the ones I use for my blog posts and my personal interests: parenting, blogging and social media tips, productivity, fitness and more.

I have 44 personal boards, 4 group boards that I run and around 40 group boards where I am a collaborator.

What are Pinterest Group Boards?

As the name suggests, these are collaborative boards. Group boards are where people come together to share their pins leading back to their own blogs.

Other users will re-share your pins to their respective boards. How will you identify a group board, you ask? Simple.

Group boards will have a circle with 3 or more faces on the bottom left of the board. Check image below:

Why Group Boards?

Let’s say you have 100 followers on Pinterest. Unlike Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, your follower count is not nearly as important on Pinterest.

For instance, I have around 4000 followers on Pinterest. By itself, that number is quite small in terms of an audience.

But since I am a part of over 40 group boards, the potential for my pins to be seen grows exponentially.

If I pin to a board which has 10,000 followers, think of the reach that affords my content. Everyone who pins to a group board and their followers become, potentially, my audience!

This is why people say that it’s not how many followers you have but how many group boards you belong to, that makes all the difference to blog traffic.

How to find Group Boards to join on Pinterest

Now comes the hard work. I began actively scouting for group boards in mid-September.

These are the various things I did (and continue to do), to grow my group board count. Identify your niche and find group boards accordingly.

• Search on Pingroupie.com: While many people admit that Pingroupie doesn’t update their database often enough, I have found a few very good boards thanks to this site. It sorts boards by category, number of pins, number of collaborators and number of followers. I’d advise you to look at the follower count and pick boards accordingly.
• Join Facebook groups for Pinterest: This has been one of the better ways to find boards to join.

  I spent most of October joining a number of Pinterest groups on Facebook. They have group board invitations by niche and calls for collaboration.

• Read tons of blogs: Okay, a ‘ton’ may be an exaggeration, but I did read at least 10 blogs a day on Pinterest group boards.

  Then, I actively followed their accounts and sent out mails asking to be added to their group boards.

• Studied my Pinterest Analytics: I spent one day a week (okay, maybe 3 days a week!) studying my analytics and figuring out which boards were driving traffic to my website.

  I then sent a message to the board owners asking if I could join them.

[easy-tweet tweet=”4 Ways for #bloggers to find Pinterest group boards to join.” user=”shyvish”]

How to join a group board

Earlier, group boards clearly had a description that mentioned what needs to be done. Usually, it’s good practice to follow the board owner.

You’ll find they are labelled as ‘owner’ in the Pinterest app or are the left-most person in the list of accounts when seen on desktop.

*Hint: If you are on desktop, see the URL. It will have the name of the user displayed before the name of the board.

For instance: https://in.pinterest.com/shyvish/positive-parenting-tips-and-parenting-advice/

Board owners will ask that they be e-mailed or sent a message via direct message on Pinterest, with a request.

I usually have a template e-mail drafted and when I see a board I like, I send it to the person, addressing them by name. That’s always a nice touch, by the way.

I include my name, my Pinterest profile link and a link to the board I’d like to join. Most board owners respond within 2 or 3 days.

Others may not respond for a while. Wait a while and then re-send the e-mail.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Only ask to join group boards in your niche. Stop joining the catch-all boards or the ‘Pin Anything’ boards since those are the group boards that are losing traction on Pinterest.

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Join my Group Boards

My  group boards are primarily in my niche: Social Media and Blogging Tips/ Blog Promotion. Remember, my group boards are extremely niche-specific, so I do not add anyone who requests to join.

Click here to request to join them: Join my boards

The Crucial Question: How often should you pin to group boards?

I know what you’re thinking. How often should you pin to drive quality traffic back to your blog?

Honestly, this varies from one person to the next. But I find that three things are important:

• Consistency
• Finding the right ratio of your pins vs others’ pins
• Pinning to the right boards

I pin every day. I usually set aside half hour a day to pin content. On a given day, I pin between 35 to 50 pins.

To keep things balanced, I aim for a 60:40 or 70:30 ratio of my pins to others’ pins.

Finally, pinning to the correct niche boards is extremely important. Parenting posts do well on parenting niche boards while blogging and social media strategy do well on other boards.

Find the right balance and see what works for you.

Wait, there’s more!

In my follow-up post to this one I talk about the following:

• How many pins I add per week to my boards and group boards
• How I use Tailwind and group boards to boost my daily and monthly page views (see images below)
• How I study my Pinterest analytics
• How I spend only 45 minutes a day on Pinterest to make this work

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*Featured & Pinnable images courtesy: Shutterstock