7 ways to use Pinterest for your content inspiration
I know, right now you’re thinking... what??
But bear with me for just 500 words.
I was working on my Pinterest boards a few weeks ago and I found a lot of GREAT ideas that I could write on, based on my niche and my audiences needs.
There is only one catch. You DO need to have your brand identity down, otherwise none of this is going to work. And by branding - I don’t mean - the logo, the colors, the fonts. I mean - detailed definition of your business’s message, values and goals, as well as your ideal customer. Because once you REALLY KNOW who your customer is - on a deep intimate level - this exercise becomes easy as it gets.
Step 1: List a few keywords you’re going to start with. For me the 1st thing that came to mind was as simple as “personal brand photos”. In my search, among many pretty photos someone else took for people’s “personal brands” I found a slew of graphics that lead to blog articles. Graphics had titles on them and those titles gave me some good ideas to expand on.
Step 2: Each graphic you click on, opens the pin up. If you scroll down, you will see Pinterest suggesting you related pins. For example, I chose a pin that said “How to Organize and Plan a Styled Shoot to grow your Brand and Business”. Now I can see a LOT of graphics and MOST of them are relevant to my niche and direction. At this point, I’m able to see a clear bigger picture on what my audience may search for on Pinterest. And those things are:
stock photos for the personal brand business,
using Pinterest and Instagram for the personal brand business,
preparing for the photoshoots,
taking your photography to the next level (I can definitely create a LOT of content around that)
DIY flat lays for branding
Looking better in photos
Posing inspiration
And these are just to name a few.
Step 3: Each one of the categories above can easily expand into at least 10 different blog ideas on “how to”, “myth busting”, “common mistakes”, etc - you know the drill. So now that you have those down, you can dive in and "juice" these categories to create very specific bite sized blog topics.
Step 4: Look out for the keyword replacements Pinterest suggests at the top of your search results:
Keep in mind - these are NOT meant to replace your entire search phrase, just one of the words. Get it? You’re welcome!
Step 5: And then, Pinterest goes and adds kerosene to my search by throwing me the little “Ideas you will love” suggestion box among my pins here (and fine, I’m clicking on those too, repeating the same steps as the above, at this point my head is generating my own ideas too, so there’s a competition going on - for what I’m going to write on next):
And even “Searches to try”:
These appear as a bunch of colorful bars you see in my screenshots right amidst the search results you are scrolling through. So, even if the search results don’t look too inspiring - go ahead and check out some suggestions. Pinterest is AWESOME at fixing our searches, that’s why it rocks.
Step 6: Guess which one I clicked on? “Branding photoshoot” of course. I KNOW, my ideal client is ready to buy when they search those terms. What do I see? MORE inspiration. At this point I’m too tired of ideas and want to write my blog post! I am READY. But here’s the number 7, in case if you still feel stuck.
Step 7: Repeat all of the above while searching for keywords included in:
your audiences pain points,
their competition,
what you do for them
transformation your business is offering
your competition
etc.
As you can see, all of this is just a start. I gave you the matches, now go and light that fire!
Bonus: some of the links were broken, so when I clicked on one of them - I was taken to a list of their blog posts instead of a specific article. And that was awesome in the following way: while that blogger has very little to do with the topics I write MY content about - by simply scrolling through that extensive list, I jotted down at least 10 more blog topics that I got inspired to write about. For example, her “5 Ways You’re Throwing Away Your Pinterest Potential” became my “5 Ways You’re Throwing Away Your Personal Brand Potential”. See what I did there?
Have fun with all this! And remember one thing. If it’s been written about already - it doesn’t mean you shouldn't write about it. Nobody will write the way YOU do. You have a unique perspective and life experience and YOU will be the only one who sounds like you, jokes like you and has your own experience. So there’s no fear of plagiarism here. You are adding value, by adding your own two cents (or a whole dollar!) to the topic. At least. Most of the time, the content that’s already out there isn’t even very good quality, so you can definitely make the world a better place by writing a better article.
And don’t forget to create a Pinterest pin with link back to your article! Pinterest is one of the most powerful tools allowing your customers to find you. But I hope you knew that already.
Cheers~
Irina