Tips To Create Amazing Pinterest Pictures

Pinterest is a fairly new social networking site (closed beta launched on March 2010) whose main service is to share photos, videos and links. What is most intriguing about it is that it allows users to create and manage theme-based image and video collections on what they called “pinboards”.

Imagine a notice board or a pinboard, only it’s all done virtually. So instead of cutting magazines / newspapers and pinning clippings or articles on scrap books or notice boards, you can now do it on Pinterest without the mess and also share them with friends too.

Why Should I Be Bothered With Pinterest

Though not as popular as Facebook… yet, Pinterest is fast gaining attention. According to comScore, Pinterest has reached 11.7 million unique monthly US visitors on January 2012, “crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history”. 8 months ago on May 2011, it only has 418,000 unique monthly US visitors. Given that Pinterest is still on invite-only for now, says a lot about the potential it holds.

The site’s success can be attributed to the combination of lovely visual contents and the power of word of mouth marketing. Many see it as a convenient and organized way to promote their products and to search for cool things and inspiring ideas. And then share them with others and wait for a chain reaction. Oh, and it’s addictive too.

Some parties have projected that Pinterest will account for 40% of social media driven purchases just behind Facebook, in the near future. This is yet to be seen but with such numbers, wouldn’t you want to be in the picture too?

How Do I Create Amazing Pinterest Pictures

Now that you have your Pinterest account approved and you are all ready to start creating and pinning images, you are probably wondering how to create pictures that will:

(1) stand out and attract repins

(2) go viral on Pinterest

Here are some tips that can help your images get more attention and a higher number of repins.

Tip #1: Beautiful Images

Pinterest is after all about beautiful images and videos. The more beautiful it is, the higher the chances are to get repined. With the constantly advancing technology in photography equipment, capturing a beautiful picture is no longer left to the professionals. Everyone can do so with the right tools and some practice. So start taking lots of beautiful pictures.

Tip# 2: Include Clear Messages

Just by uploading pretty images are not enough. Try to add in messages too. Great if it’s witty but a short, easy to read message across the image would be sufficient. Just use any free image editing tools available and you will find that it makes a whole lot of difference. For one, it draws attention to your image. And it serves as a summary of what the image or your product is about.

And do add clear and relevant messages. Consider this image. Looks great doesn’t it? And within a couple of seconds, you would be able to tell what the Pinterest user wanted to say, just by looking at the image and reading the 7 words title. Now imagine the picture without these words. It’ll just be just another lovely picture, won’t it? Think of all the budding gardeners and repinners that would have given it a miss.

Tip #3: Images Size and Clarity

Images should be at least 80 x 80 pixels, anything smaller than that can’t be pinned. You can upload high resolution pictures but these would be adjusted once it’s pinned. You may want to know that the maximum horizontal width of your image is 554 pixels and your image would be resized if it’s more than that. There’s no limit to the length of your image though common sense would tell you not to upload too long an image so not to discourage repinning.

Tip #4: Appropriate Format

You should be aware that only images and videos (from YouTube) are pinnable at the moment. Before you add the Pin It button to your blog, do ensure that the images in your blog are of the right format and size (see above for image size and clarity). You don’t your viewers to come to your website looking for images to pin and found absolutely nothing that’s pinnable.

Tip #5: Researches

It pays to visit other pinboards of the similar themes and see what repins are popular. Look for inspiration and ideas to create better images and videos. Observe what users like and what turn them off. Not everyone sees things like you do and you would need to create something that would appeal to the masses. So research is important.

This virtual collage cum link- sharing site is experiencing explosive growth rate. Many have recognized Pinterest’s potential to drive referral traffic and have used it as a marketing platform for their products. It is probably one of the perfect platforms to be seen and to build interests, especially for small and medium size businesses which do not normally have huge budgets like bigger organizations do. But in order to create awareness and generate interest in your pinboards, you would need to create attention-grabbing images and videos. I do hope that the above tips would help you in this. Do share your experiences.

Jasmine is a professional web consultant who likes beautiful web designs. She blogs at 100Webhosting.com – a web hosting review and comparison website. Her favorite and highly recommended web host is Bluehost. Do check out her website for great web hosting deals.