A young woman with long dark hair sits at a desk and looks at a large computer monitor with a slight smile. She has one hand on a wireless mouse and the other held to her chin.
Pinterest users create and cultivate pinboards to visualize projects, crafts, recipes, and events. The site is a great place to advertise products and connect with customers. — Getty Images/ake1150sb

Pinterest users engage by clicking or saving your pin, following pin links to third-party sites (including your website), and swiping backward or forward on Idea Pins. Search engine optimization (SEO), standout images, and catchy headlines boost engagement. But you can take your social media marketing to new heights by using Pinterest tools. These apps and widgets help you connect with others to increase interactions, automatically repin your most interesting content, and turn your website into a Pinterest engagement tool.

Leverage Pinterest analytics for engagement insights

The best way to increase engagement on Pinterest is to find what's working (and what isn't) and adjust your content strategy to reflect what you've learned. Pinterest Analytics offers a real-time look at your performance. It includes an overview of all engagements and narrows it down with metrics for pin clicks, video views, save rates, and more. Pay attention to your analytics to ensure you're engaging your target market and use the insights to optimize your content.

[Read more: Pinterest Pivots to Meet Marketers’ Heightened Demand for Shopper Insights]

Use Pinterest tools on your business website

Many small businesses use Pinterest to drive traffic to their website. However, your site can also fuel Pinterest engagement. The social media platform provides five widgets and buttons, and you can add them to your website by pasting a snippet of code provided by Pinterest. In addition, the Pinterest widget builder lets you customize your buttons.

Add these widgets to encourage Pinterest shares and follows:

  • Save button: Let website visitors save your content to their Pinterest boards with one click.
  • Follow button: Increase Pinterest followers by adding this button to your site.
  • Pin widget: Put a high-performing pin on your website.
  • Board widget: Display an entire board, up to 50 pins, on your site.
  • Profile widget: Show website visitors your most recent pins.

Optimize Pinterest engagement with Tailwind

Tailwind helps you create and schedule posts, automate email marketing, and increase engagement through Tailwind communities. The free forever plan provides access to five communities — collaborative spaces where everyone works together to share each other's content. It also offers the Tailwind SmartLoop feature, allowing you to repin seasonal or top-performing content automatically.

The best way to increase engagement on Pinterest is to find what's working (and what isn't) and adjust your content strategy to reflect what you've learned.

Find popular pins and keywords with PinGroupie

Market your business on Pinterest by finding top-performing keywords and boards. PinGroupie is a free platform that you can use to expand your reach and find boards, pins, Pinterest influencers, and keywords with high engagement. Click through the category tabs and choose how to order your results, such as by average pin saves or follower growth for boards and influencers. Once you find popular content to share, use Tailwind to schedule posts at the right time.

[Read more: Pinterest Is Betting Big That the Future of Online Shopping Will Be Pictures — Not Words]

Explore website plug-ins for social media sharing

If you have a WordPress or e-commerce website, consider adding a plug-in to make it easier to share pins. While Pinterest offers similar tools, you may prefer a third-party widget because they support social sharing across several networks, including Facebook and Instagram. Sumo is a well-known company that supplies tools to automate growth, such as email marketing, social sharing, and e-commerce features. It's free to connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store, send 10,000 emails per month, and view analytics.

Create Pinterest Idea pins to increase interaction

Pinterest Idea pins, formerly Story pins, are a great way to grow sales through customer engagement. You can walk followers through a tutorial or showcase a product collection. Idea pins support up to 20 photos and videos and 10 tag topics. Plus, you can mention people, tag products, add music, and use stickers.

According to Simple Pin Media, "In the past month, we've seen nine times the average comment rate on Idea pins compared to standard pins." Moreover, Idea pins are permanent, and you can save them to any board. Simple Pin Media also said that Pinterest prioritizes them "in Search, the Today tab, and at the top of Creator profiles."

[Read more: Pinterest Adds Tools to Help Small Businesses Get Discovered by Customers]

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