I’ve mentioned before how much I love Pinterest and how good it can be as a free marketing tool to promote your blog. One carefully crafted pin can lead to hundreds or even thousands of visits to your website. Tailwind is a tool that can play a big part in growing both your social media reach and driving organic traffic to your blog/website.
Unlike Twitter, Pinterest content is timeless, and popular pins can remain a viable source of traffic for years.
Becoming a ‘power pinner” is hard work and spending your entire day on Pinterest is not something most of us have time for. So, a while back I started using a free pin scheduling app called Tailwind and the results have been phenomenal.
Tailwind has a free plan, so you have nothing to lose, create a free account and try it out.
There are premium plans and features available, but I was able to use the free plan for a while before I felt the need to upgrade. Try it out for free, to begin with, and decide after if it’s a service worth paying for.
Related: How to Get Organic Traffic From Search Engines. 10 SEO tips to Optimize Blog Content.
Quick Pinterest Breakdown
For those who don’t know, Pinterest is a social network that allows you to visually share, and explore interests by posting pins. Posting content on Pinterest is commonly referred to as pinning (like how posting on twitter is known as tweeting), and on top of being a fun little time killer, it’s an amazing free marketing platform.
These “visual” posts allow users to create eye-catching pins that can drive interested people to their blog. It’s the perfect grassroots marketing campaign, and with over 260 million active users, both new and established blogs need to be taking advantage of this wonderful social network.
What is Tailwind
Tailwind is an automated pinning app you can use to schedule posts to Pinterest with one click. Tailwind selects the best time of day (a time when your pins will be most visible) to publish your pins and automatically uploads them to Pinterest for you.
Their platform integrates with Instagram as well.
You can sit down and schedule all your pins for the week in an under an hour, not only is it a time-saver, it will boost your traffic and skyrocket your following. Pretty cool, right?
Try Tailwind for a month and I bet you’ll notice an uptick on your pin re-shares and Pinterest follower count.
Skyrocket Your Website Traffic
In my first month with Tailwind, I managed to increase my potential blog traffic by almost 34,000 visitors a day. That’s a lot of traffic up for grabs, so why not create some eye-catching pins and use Tailwind to get in on that.
Boost Repin Growth Using Tailwind and Automated Pinning
Below you can see my repin analytics. Before using tailwind I was averaging 5 – 10 repins a day. After using Tailwind, the amount of repins and reshares on my profile exploded to 50 – 130 a day. I’m no mathematician, but that seems like a lot :P.
What Kind of Results Can I Expect with Tailwind? Let’s Get Real
Alright, so now that you’ve seen the kind of growth I’ve experienced with Tailwind, let’s look at some typical results people have using Tailwind. These results were calculated over 6 months.
On average, Tailwind members experience 3.7x more followers over non-members. Pinterest accounts with less than 100 followers when they sign up with Tailwind grow 6 times faster. Tailwind excels when it comes to Pinterest profiles with low follower counts.
To put that in perspective, it might take 6 months to reach 1,000 followers, but if you use Tailwind, you have a good shot at hitting that mark inside a month.
Users with less than 10,000 followers grow their audience twice as fast, on average.
Boosting repins is where Tailwind shines. A repin is when someone saves your post to their board, and every time this happens, your pin reaches a wider audience. Tailwind subscribers with less than 100 followers were able to generate 10x more repins. That’s pretty cool.
When your entire Pinterest experience is automated, of course, you’ll be publishing pins at a higher rate. It takes the “work” out of social media promotion. On average, Tailwind members post 4.2x more pins. This can go a long way towards boosting your follower count which will drive more visitors to your blog.
How To Automate Your Pins with Tailwind
1. Sign up for a free account here
2. Sync Tailwind with your Pinterest account. Once your account is synced Tailwind will analyze your profile and pins to determine the most efficient time of day to publish posts.
This is such a valuable feature and takes out the guesswork associated with pinning. Tailwind goes much deeper than just scheduling pins during peak traffic times. They analyze your followers interests to determine the best times to schedule pins for your profile specifically.
You have to option to select custom times, so don’t worry, if there is a certain time of day you’d like to schedule your pin for, you can easily do that. My shares and follower count more than doubled after a few days of using Tailwind. It is a tool that every blogger should have in their arsenal.
Ways to Schedule a Pin with Tailwind
1. Use the Draft Feature
You can upload unfinished pins or pins that are ready to go using the drafts tab in the publisher.
2. Publish a Pin Directly from Your Website
Don’t forget to add the Tailwind Chrome browser extension. It’s not necessary, but it’s a nice quality of life application and allows you to easily schedule pins directly from your Chrome browser.
If you’re not already, make sure to create an image that can be easily shared on Pinterest for each blog post. Simply hover over the image you’d like to post and click schedule.
Collaborate and Grow with Tailwind Tribes
This is one of my favorite features on Tailwind and one of the reasons I decided to purchase a premium plan. Tailwind Tribes are collaborative groups that you can join and engage with other Pinterest users.
Share your pins and find content from others to share in these groups. It’s a place for people to help each other out, and it’s one of the reasons why I have had a couple of pins go viral since joining Tailwind. It’s one of the best ways to grow your Pinterest following and skyrocket your re-shares.
Viral Pins with Tailwind
I mentioned above that since joining Tailwind I’ve been fortunate enough to have some pins go viral. I attribute this to Tailwind automating my schedule and posting my content at the most opportune times, as well as Tailwind Tribe members with a lot of followers discovering my content and pinning it to their boards.
Analytics
Tailwind gives you access to some very in-depth analytics you can use to monitor your Pinterest activity. Tracking weekly activity can help nail down what pins are working and what pins may need a bit of attention.
These analytics include follower growth, top performing pins, pin virality, engagement, and much more.
Tailwind members publish 4.2x more pins than non-members. Accounts that sustain this level of activity will have a higher chance of gaining followers. When you can schedule a week’s worth of pins in under an hour it doesn’t feel like work, and you’ll be much more likely to stick with it. Once you take the grind out of social media it becomes a lot more enjoyable.
Maximize Pin Reach with SmartLoop
If you use Pinterest regularly, SmartLoop can save you hours. To keep your older posts from fading away into obscurity, you can use SmartLoop to keep your pins relevant and performing all year round.
SmartLoop will dig up old pins and recirculate them between your boards during high engagement times, which allows them to stay actively shared on Pinterest. This ensures that even your oldest content will stay current, and consistently drive new traffic to your blog. Now that’s handy.
How to Set Up Tailwind Smartloop
1. Create a New SmartLoop
In the left sidebar click “SmartLoop”. From the next screen click “new loop”.
2. Select Evergreen or Seasonal Content
If the blog posts you are promoting deals with content that is relevant all year long (finance, weight loss, saving money, animal training) select evergreen. If your blog post deals with subjects that are only relevant during certain times (Valentine’s day, Christmas, current pop culture events) select seasonal. If your blog contains both seasonal and evergreen content, create a separate Smartloop for each.
3. SmartLoop Details
From this screen select the boards you’d like to loop pins between. If you’re adding evergreen content select “Loop all year round”.
4. Customize Your SmartLoop Schedule
This is where you will add time slots and determine the frequency at which your pins will loop. Avoid looping through your pins too quickly, if you do, Pinterest may view this as suspicious or spammy activity and it could hinder performance. I like to set my pins to loop every 4 months. Any shorter than that and you might get put on the Pinterest naughty list.
Don’t worry; Tailwind will give you a warning if your loops are “too spammy”.
Click Finish and your all set.
5. Adding Pins to a SmartLoop
Beside each pin, there is an option to add it to a smartloop.
Boom, your all set, and each pin you add to a smartloop will ensure it stays relevant and actively shared all year round. Not only is it a major time-saver, but it makes your content timeless, and consistently drives traffic to your blog posts.
Related: 22 Ways You Can Grow Your Pinterest Following
Pin Inspector Tool
Use the pin inspector to see a detailed breakdown of each individual pin. Learn which pins are doing well and view comments repins and likes. Use this tool to find patterns with well-performing pins and apply that winning formula to future pins.
You can easily reschedule pins or add them to a smartloop from the pin inspector screen
Final Thought – My Secret Blogging Weapon
Tailwind is a nifty application that every blogger should have in their toolkit. They offer a free plan, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out. If you feel that you need more features you can upgrade at any time.
Tailwind exploded my Pinterest following and while I still have a long way to go until I reach power pinner status, I’m well on my way.