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IF you have been familiar with Pinterest…

Then you already know that Pinterest has recently said that they are focusing less on group boards and more on personal niche boards.

But I am going to tell you that Pinterest group boards are STILL a great strategy!

And getting accepted to high-quality group boards should STILL BE a very important part of your Pinterest strategy.

That’s because the high-quality group boards that you participate within, can still give you the reach that your Pinterest profile needs. 

Not only that, but Pinterest group boards will also support the pins that you create that you put so much effort into.

So if you are interested in growing your Pinterest profile through the use of Pinterest group boards?

Here are 10 different ways to get grow your Pinterest account with Pinterest group boards today!

{this post may contain affiliate links, see disclosure for details}

10 Group Board Pinterest tips for new bloggers

Before we begin, there are a few things that you should know… 

1) You need to be aware of the good practice standards that Pinterest is looking for! I honestly think that’s really all it is. And if you can fit those pinning-friendly rules into your Pinterest marketing strategy, you’ll be all good.

2) The more boards you can get your pins on the better! There are a lot of people who pin to only their own boards and that was okay for a little while, but I honestly think, as of late (June 2021) Pinterest is bringing back group boards again. 

Pinterest 101 for Group Boards

First you need to know a little basic Pinterest 101 knowledge for group boards, how to create a group board and how to be invited to one, then we will dive into the tips that strategize a bit further to help you gain more reach for your pins. 

How to Allow requests to Join your Group Board:

• • Log into your Pinterest account, then click your profile picture in the top-right corner of your screen to open your profile
  • Click a board to open it
  • Click the plus-circle icon below the board name
  • Click the directional chevron right icon next to Collaborators can…
  • Click the box next to Board requests
  • Click Done

This will add a “Join” button to your board. You’ll receive an email and a push notification when someone requests to join. You can accept or decline this request from your inbox.

How to Request to Join Someone else’s Group Board

There are few ways to join preexisting group boards. You can simply: 

• • Log into your Pinterest account
  • Click the board you’d like to join to open it
  • Click Join at the top of your screen, below the board name

Now, if you find a group board that has multiple collaborators and there isn’t a “join” button present, then that signifies that you will have to reach out manually to the group board owner. 

How to reach out manually to the group board owner. 

There are many ways you can find out who the group board owner is and then contact them!

Here are three ways you can contact a group board owner:

• • You can contact them through Pinterest direct messaging
  • You can contact them through their contact page on their website
  • You can contact them by commenting on a pin of theirs

Before you reach out, the best practicing rule that most professional bloggers follow, myself included, is writing in the description of the group board, how to join and how to contact. 

Some group board owners write easy-to-follow directions to join their group boards located in the group boards description area and some don’t mention a thing.

Also, it’s best to point out that some group board owners may not even reply when you reach out to them, and some will. 

Either way, these are pretty standard ways when it comes to Pinterest group boards for reaching out to its owner. I think it’s pretty simple and straightforward to figure out. 

Now, let’s check out the 10 ways to improve your Pinterest marketing strategy using and pinning to the right group boards. If you need help with Pinterest, then you need to check these out.

(Make sure that you stick around for the bonus tip at the end… I’ll show you how to find really good group boards to join, the best of the best!)

1. Periodically review your existing GB’s.

Now, this tip is for bloggers that are already ACTIVE with group boards.

If you have group boards you’ve joined and are actively pinning to your group boards and scratching your head wondering if, in fact, these boards are really helping your pins reach their best potential, in terms of impressions and clicks? Then you have to review the group boards you’ve joined.

How do you review your boards? Well to do this, you have to have a handy tool called Tailwind. Tailwind’s analytics alone is just something that you need if you are super serious about competing against the other bloggers in your niche who already have Tailwind in their blogging arsenal.

In there you will see the engagement rates, activity, and so many more things that will tell you if the group board you are pinning to is the right fit. 

Also, you need to periodically review your group boards (I’d say once a month!) so you can see if they are performing well.

If you have Tailwind, the board analytics tool is very helpful for this!

2. Don’t waste your time with bad group boards.

When it comes to Pinterest and all the different ways to get traffic back to your blog, there definitely are GOOD group boards that will help the engagement of your pins and there are definitely BAD group boards that are full of spam and can hurt your account.

The bad group boards are the boards that have virtually no rules and allow almost every niche out there to contribute to them. 

They also have very unattractive pins, the members are over pinning to them and they most usually are linked to spammy accounts. 

To make sure you are only contributing to the honest and trustworthy group boards, you will want to make sure you join:

• • Niche-specific boards
  • Boards owned by quality pinners
  • Boards that have a good number of followers on them

Honestly, if you look past the thousands of followers on the big spammy boards and seek outboards that are a little bit smaller, with those three criteria in mind, you’ll be setting yourself, your blog traffic, and your Pinterest account up in good standards.

By doing so, you can grow your Pinterest account the right way!

3. Choose boards where the owners moderate pin usage.

Now, this is one of the biggies when it comes to joining the right group boards. And I’ll try my best to explain why!

When it comes to choosing the right group boards, choosing boards where the owners moderate the pin usage is really what you want to look out for when deciding to take the time to send a request to be invited.

The sole reason for this is to prevent spam!

Spam accounts are out there too, and that means they are requesting to join group boards as well. And if a group board owner is being selective with who they bring on to contribute to their board, the higher the chance that particular group board will remain in good standards with Pinterest. 

I’ve also been a part of spammy group boards once and my account was flagged for spam because of it and I had to delete the group board to get it off of my account.  

4. Choose boards where the owners moderate pin design.

Another way to see if the group board is in good standings is to look at the quality of the pin designs being pinned to it. 

If group board owners are reviewing what kind of content gets added to their group boards and how many times that content gets added on a weekly basis, then you’ve got yourself a really great board to join.

Also, whether you are using small square pins or really bad photos, that all adds up to being a good group board member too. 

And if your pins are not attractive then chances are you won’t be added to a high-level group board that you requested to join.

Good group board owners simply want to have attractive, niche-related pins so their board climbs high within the Pinterest feed. 

And if you are getting rejected from these group boards it may mean that you need more experience with your pins designs.

Remember, Pinterest is a VISUAL platform. It will always be visual first, especially if you are looking to get more traffic and reach for your pins!

This brings me to the next point…

5. Have a good Pinterest profile with strong keywords.

If you have a good Pinterest profile with strong keywords, especially in your profile description, this will take your Pinterest profile to the next level.

In fact, doing this one thing alone will help the group board owners you are applying to, make the decision process just that much easier whether to add you as a contributor or not.

That means, when those group board owners are first viewing your account (which they always do), they want to see how you are speaking to Pinterest through your Pinterest profile and through your Pinterest pins.

They might even pop over into your website and do a little bit more snooping around. 

Plus, think of it this way, if all the contributors within the group board are speaking the same language to Pinterest, using strong niche-specific keywords, then that helps the board substantially get higher in the feeds. It’s a win-win!

You’ll also get bonus points if you have board covers for your personal boards but they are not necessary at all! Group board covers are just an added flair that you can add to your Pinterest profile to make it look clean and detailed.  They don’t make any difference for your Pinterest reach and profile metrics. 

6. Keep your boards orderly.

Group boards can get really messy once you start joining a whole bunch, so making sure that you implement the use of the drag and drop feature in your Pinterest account, so you can order your boards instead of showcasing the last pinned to. This will really make your profile stand out from the crowd.

And this will also ensure that the boards you own stay at the top of your Pinterest profile and not buried underneath your group boards if you strategically dragged and dropped them there to be seen. 

7. Use correct sizing for your pins.

To get the most out of Pinterest, spend the extra time to create attractive pins that are correctly sized.

Both Picmonkey and Canva are the two leading competitors for pin creation, that most bloggers use, and they are such a great resource to start with for creating good-looking pins so you can eventually start making money on Pinterest.

Another good thing to know is square pins are out and vertical pins are in!

You’ll notice that most group boards will not accept anything BUT vertical pins these days, and it’s best that you follow this standard format for your pins.

You can also check to see what’s trending on Pinterest, in terms of pin designs and formats, to see if anything has changed and what you can do to change accordingly.  

Play around with pin sizes to experiment. And play around with file formats. Pinterest is always changing! But always stick with a verticle ratio of 1 to 2 or 1 to 3 for your pin size.

Here are some pin sizes that reference these sizes:

• • • 564 x 846 (standard good pin size)
    • 564 x 1074
    • 564 x 1348
    • 564 x 972
    • 600 x 1260 (long pin!)
    • 436 x 1578 (This pin is really Long, so make sure your title is located in the middle of the pin, as Pinterest cuts off the bottom and the top of the pin in the feed!)

Now, these sizes are all in pixels, by width and length and hint, 564 px width seems to be the most popular amongst the popular pinners.

But as I said before, Pinterest is always changing! They change file formats, they change ratios and sizing all the time. If you keep playing with your sizes and see what gets you good traffic, you should start to see a theme. 

Also, make sure that you are using pin designing tools like Picmonkey and Canva, to turn your pins into professional templates that you can use over and over. 

It’ll be a bit of a time investment creating those pin templates from scratch but it’s SO worth it if you figure out your own style and go from there!

And one more thing about pin designing! Take pride in your own personal progress as a blogger when you develop your own designing skills through practice, you’ll be a skilled pin designer as time goes by. Promise! 🙂

8. Follow all the rules.

When participating with group boards on Pinterest, always make sure to follow all of the rules for the group boards that you’ve joined because you want to be very careful to follow all board rules so you don’t get kicked off.

I once had a blogger that spammed my group board with hundreds of pins in a matter of weeks and it was such a drag to delete all of her pins.

Not only that but I had no choice but to delete her from the group board and then she got mad and starting stealing my pin designs shortly after.

It was a mess and I’ll never let that happen again!

So always look at the rules that are showcased in the group board description area and make sure that you play by them.

Here are some standard group board rules:

1. 1. Follow the group board owner – Definitely follow the group board owner before you make the request to be added as a contributor. All group board owners know how to see if you’ve followed them very easily. 
   2. Pin relevant niche-related content.
   3. Repin other contributors’ pins for every pin that you add.
   4. Don’t post the same URL multiple times. This is considered spammy and you will for sure get deleted from the board.

Another added note, if the group board owners ask that you contact them through their site, DON’T send them a direct message through Pinterest first to get around contacting them through their website. 

It’s really annoying and the people who do that for my particular group boards were getting kind reply’s “to contact me through my website”, but I think I am going to just stop that altogether.

It takes too much time to write back to every single person and if an owner is asking you to go through to their website to request to join, it’s best to just follow suit and just follow the rules. 🙂

9. Keep a consistent schedule.

When you are pinning to your group boards, make sure that you look to see if the board is active and that the other contributors are pinning to it on a daily basis.

You don’t want to join a board, that has a) been abandoned after you’ve joined or b) been abounded by its contributors.

You can easily figure this out by pinning to it with a consistent schedule. Your schedule will tell you if the group board is a good board or not a good group board after a few short weeks or even days!

Once you pin to it through either Tailwind or manually pining, after a week you should see your pins mixed well with other contributors.

The reason I put this in as a point is, I have personally joined group boards where my pins were the only ones being pinned to them.

And this is a good indicator that the board has been abandoned AFTER you’ve joined. 

10. Find top-ranked group boards on Pinterest!

Now, how do you find the top-ranked group boards on Pinterest? Well, there’s a little sneaky way that has helped me grow my Pinterest account. 

All you have to do is simply type in any given keyword into the Pinterest search bar area. So let’s say you are either a blogger that blogs about cooking, social media tips, life hacks, or lifestyle. 

In the search area, if you type in “cooking” the top 10 pins that show up in the search feed will ALL represent the top pinners that are associated with that niche.

Those pins and those pinners are a great insight for you because if you click on one of those top pinners’ profiles and take a look to see what group boards they’re using, you’ll see a gold mind of group boards that you should probably join. 

Those are the ones you want to apply because they will likely fit the same niche that you write about and those group boards will likely have been successful for that top pinner.

If you would like to be added to my group boards, get in touch with me!

Here are the top 3 reasons (that I believe) why my group boards are consistently among my top-performing boards:

1. They all have under 100 contributors. I’m guessing less is now more for Pinterest when it comes to group boards. To be honest I may do the cutoff when they reach 100 contributors so apply ASAP if you want to join. You can view my group boards on my Pinterest profile here!

2. They all are niche-specific. I only accept niche-specific pinners and I am not afraid to delete someone if their content isn’t up to par.

3. They are ACTIVE.  I am a very active user of my own group boards, just as I am with my other group boards. I repin from them (which is super important!) because I want you to succeed. So I may repin one of your pins to one of my personal boards if you join!

My Top 5 Best Performing Boards Are:

1. All Blogging group board
2. Money & side hustle tips
3. All things home!

If you would like to apply to any of these boards, please send me a request through my contact form!

These are great results since I have well over 250 boards!

There you have it!

Do any of these Pinterest group board strategies give you any clarity?!

I personally love the “how to apply for the best of the best group boards” because I am still finding great group boards this way!

My focus as a blogger is all about my Pinterest account right now and I love it!

To learn more about Pinterest and see more of my articles related to Pinterest marketing (because there are SO many) you can my Pinterest articles here!

Now if you are a new blogger or are deciding to start a blog OR are new to Pinterest, know that the more you work at your pinning strategy (every single day) the better your profile will become in the eyes of Pinterest and your readers.

Now before we end it here, and like I said earlier, if you are a blogger or are considering blogging as a creative outlet, I strongly urge you to focus on Pinterest first before you go embark on other social media platforms.

Starting a blog takes a lot of time and commitment and Pinterest is the golden tool, along with Tailwind that will help you get more blog traffic back to your blog.

I also explain in more detail why and how I started my blog here if you would like to know why and how I started this blog!

Before you go, below are some of my favorite tools that help me every SINGLE day with growing my blog other than Pinterest.

I hope you enjoy them!

My Favorite Blogging Tools:

Bluehost – My current hosting company. They are reliable, fast, and more importantly affordable. Check out my SUPER easy step-by-step guide: How to Start a WordPress Blog in under 20 mins here!

ThemeForest – Blog themes are super important to retaining and keeping your traffic on your blog. ThemeForest has TONS of beautiful blog themes. You can go and view some samples here!

Tailwind – This is a blogger’s best friend and their MOST favorite scheduling tool for sharing content on Pinterest because Tailwind saves SO much time and increases your traffic and followers. WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!

Share a Sale – This is a great place to find TONS of affiliate programs so you can start earning money on your blog with affiliate sales!

ConvertKit– This is a VERY popular email newsletter provider. Many bloggers love using Convert Kit to grow their email list! It’s totally worth the monthly fee because it’s super easy to create email courses AND give away freebies in just a few quick simple steps.

Don’t believe me that Convert Kit is that easy to use? Check out this free Convert Kit guide below!

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Now I want to hear from you!

Which Group Board Tip will you implement? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below!

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