6 Tricks To Create More Pinnable Images
So you’re a master crafter who wants to share your how-to’s with the world. Or maybe you’re even a baking pro who just wants to showcase your tasty recipes that just might rival celeb chefs on TV.
Either way, Pinterest is a great way to connect newbies—and loyal followers—to your stories, blogs, or straight up fab ideas. And let’s be honest, the key to getting buzz from the social app relies more on your images than your content. We’ve already discussed the value of choosing your Pinterest profile pic, but there’s a whole lot of other things to keep in mind when creating all those gorgeous images you want the world to see.
So how do you make your pics more Pinteresting? Follow these pointers to learn how:
Tip 1: Use High Quality Images
As with most visual-based tools, you need to make sure the photo you’re using is high in resolution. It should be clear instead of grainy, well-lit instead of difficult to figure out, and sized right instead of stretched out. Checking these boxes will make your photo more interesting as well as leaving people more intrigued.
Tip 2: Pay Attention to Size
The ideal image dimension for Pinterest is 736 pixels wide. And since you’re competing against a wall of other pinners, make sure your image is vertical. Vertical pics take up more space on a Pinterest board, making them pop against small horizontal blocks. Just make sure it’s not too vertical of an image so your followers don’t have to scroll endlessly to be able to soak it all in.
Tip 3: Focus On Colors
Strange as it might seem, your picture's color choice might make or break how many repins you get. According to Curalate, images with multiple dominant colors have 3.25 times more repins per image than those with a single dominant hue. Additionally, images that are red, orange and brown receive roughly twice as many repins as those that are blue, while images that contain less than 30 percent background (aka “whitespace”) are repinned the most.
To make your image the best it can be you can simply adjust the saturation. The folks at Curalate also learned that images with 50 percent saturation have four times more repins than those that are 100 percent saturated, and 10 times more repins than images that are totally desaturated.
You can also use filters like Chromatic to make certain hues in your picture pop, or the Warmer filters to bring out those repin-worthy red, orange and brown tones.
Tip 4: Send a Clear Message With Copy
We love these types of images because you immediately know what the post is about before clicking. Up the visual interest and add more emphasis to your keywords by playing around with different fonts. Just be sure there isn’t a ton of copy on there and that the words are easy to read.
Tip 5: Add Contrast With Graphics
There’s no rule saying you need the perfect photograph to make a pinnable pic, so get creative and dream up an engaging graphic that will do the job. Use geometric shapes to add contrast to an image or continue to toy with playful fonts to make them stand out even more on the screen.
Tip 6: Make Your Pin Searchable
You want your pin to appear in as many people’s searches as possible—and some of it has nothing to do with your image. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Your name. Watermark all of your pinned pics by putting your URL or name on the image. This will help boost your brand awareness, meaning that the more people see it, the more people will be able to recognize you.
Image name. Save your image wisely. Whether you’re saving it on your desktop, or loading it into a content management system, name the file with important keywords. Pinterest can’t read text on photos, so it uses the next best thing to categorize what the pin is: the image’s name.
Be descriptive. Take advantage of the description area. Mention the most compelling and distinct parts of the pin and keep an eye on character count. Descriptions with around 200 characters are believed to be the most repinnable.
Trying to figure out what words to include? Think of actionable ones. A recent study from Reachli.com found that descriptions that contain a call to action see an 80 percent increase in engagement.
You can find a few more tips for optimizing your pins here.
