Originally group boards were created on Pinterest to help multiple people share content on the same board. This became a great opportunity for bloggers and marketers to get their content in front of a new audience. Over the years they’ve changed into something Pinterest didn’t intend them to be. Therefore, group boards have declined in their power to drive traffic. As a result, you want to be very careful about the group boards you’re associated with.
So prior to the change there was a hype to join every group board invited to and make your own inviting whomever and whatever content. However, this is not a great strategy for your brand and I’m here to help you navigate which to stay and which to leave.
Ideally, you want to have majority of your boards personal. The main reason to belong or own a group board is to collaborate with a small group of people who create like-minded content or to network with businesses you already have a connection with.
Step 1: Check the Name
Firstly, look up the name of the board. Is it relative to your brand and niche? If not then pass. Yes, it’s that simple and most likely will help eliminate a lot from the start. You do not want to belong to a board that is unrelated or catch-all as it will mess with identifying your brand in front of the right audience. Plus, a free for all group board is notorious for SPAM, which is something you do not want to get your profile flagged on the Pinterest platform. it can be overwhelming and scary to leave a board, especially if it has thousands of followers, but it surprisingly may be hurting your potential.
Step 2: How Many Contributors?
It can be overwhelming and scary to leave a board, especially if it has thousands of contributors, but it surprisingly may be hurting your potential. You actually want to avoid any group with over 100 contributors as it runs the risk of spam or irrelevant content. Many contributors also won’t respect group boards or follow the rules and it can get pretty scary in there, so it’s important to know where your content is showing up. You want to have control who your content is being associated with. In this scenario, less is more.
Step 3: What Content is Being Shared?
Take a look at the other pins contributed on the board. Again, is it in line with your niche? Are they topics that you want your brand to associate with? Is it in a relative neighborhoods of your own brand? These are all important question to consider. Then ask yourself is it quality content or just quantity? Your brand likely is offering intentional and high quality content and you want to reward yourself for that, so make sure this board is hosting similar.
Step 4: How many Followers?
Next, check out how many followers does the board have? If it’s minimal then it’s probably not worthwhile. You can also investigate the owners profile and see his/her following. If they have a descent or excelling follow number like tens of thousands and it fits the criteria above, then it’s probably a solid board to be apart of. The more follower the board has, the more circulation and audience reach it provides.
Step 4: Is the Group Board Active?
Now take a peek a when latest pins were being contributed. Is it recent? That’s a good sign. You can also check who is actually contributing, is it only 1 or 2 out of many? That’s another sign that the board isn’t very active. You don’t want to be the only one dropping pins, that doesn’t look good. Look for daily varied contributors.
Step 5: Check the Stats
If this has been a group board you’ve been a part of for any length of time, then it’s important to evaluate the performance on Tailwind. You can easily do this by going to Insights button on the left-hand side. Click Board Insights and search for desired board. Sort through all the stats to make sure it’s a solid board and performance has at least been decent.
Summary
Here are the top 5 key principles to analyze a group board and decide if it’s a good fit for your brand. Use these gates to help you navigate and have a healthy, productive profile to keep your brand thriving. It’s beneficial to do a board clean-up once a year at least for maintenance.
It’s not horrible to have a small number of group boards. It’s better to focus on what you do have control over, keywords and content. So focus your attention on what will benefit your brand the most. Learn more about how to create your own group board here. Have a collective goal on why you have it and its purpose if you create your own group board also.
You don’t need group boards to be successful on Pinterest. You need well targeted boards with great optimized titles and board descriptions!
Drop any questions you may have down below! I’d love to help.
Happy Pinning,
Suzie Nava