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Do you market on Pinterest?
For years I avoided it, because I just assumed it was a time waster full of artificial pictures designed to make me feel guilty about the messiness of my real life. While that can still be the case, I’ve begun to see Pinterest as something else.
It’s a powerful tool for bloggers. More than a social media network, Pinterest is a visual search engine. Used correctly, it can drive traffic to your business.
It’s also the perfect way to get your older kids involved in what you do. There are plenty of kid-friendly tasks in the Pinterest marketing plan.
My teen is slowly becoming my Pinterest VA. I love turning over more tasks to her, and seeing her gain skills she can use in the future.
Since she plans on being a graphic designer, Pinterest marketing is a great fit for her skill set.
If you’re looking for ways to integrate your older kids into your business, here are five ideas for you.
1. Manually Pin for You
While you can use schedulers to do all your pinning, Pinterest likes it better when you do at least a little manual pinning. It’s the perfect job for teenagers!
But, don’t just turn your teen loose to pin. Make sure you’ve shown them the focus of your business, and helped them identify pins that’d be a good fit for each of your boards.
It’s the perfect time to try the “I do” “We do” “You do” method of instruction. Sit down together and show your teen what you’re doing. Point out keywords you use in your searches, and pins that fit with your boards.
Show you teen how you do the pinning.
Then work on it together. Maybe have your teen pick a search term, and point out some possible pins. Talk about each and decide which board would be best.
Supervise the selection of boards.
Then, have your teen do some independently. Sit nearby so you can answer any questions.
Once your teen has a handle on this stage, they can spend a little time manually pinning for you each day, or a couple times a week.
2. Design Your Pins
My daughter loves this task! She uses a combination of Canva and PicMonkey to design pins. She picks out free stock photos, or uses some my husband has taken.
She knows what I’m looking for in my brand, and has helped design a style guide for me.
I love seeing what she creates!
3. Add Keywords
Hashtags on Pinterest are now a thing! Adding keywords and hashatags to your pins is a great task for a teen.
You can work together to brainstorm a list of strong keywords. Then, let your teen have a little leeway in assigning them. Of course you’ll want to occasionally check in and make sure you’re agreeing with the keyword selection!
4. Load Your Schedulers
I’ve been using BoardBooster (aff. link) for several months now. It’s been useful in increasing my Pinterest presence.
On BoardBooster, you create “secret boards” corresponding with the boards you want to schedule. Then, you load up the secret boards with pins. BoardBooster moves pins from the secret boards to the visible boards automatically, based on schedules you create.
Once a week I go in and load BoardBooster. But, I’m realizing it’s a great job for my teen! It’ll help her get more familiar with my brand and the type of content my readers are interested in. It’s also a good way for her to check out a bunch of pin styles and get ideas for the pins she creates.
I’m going to have her use pins from the group boards I’m in as a starting point, because sharing the love is important!
5. Find Group Boards for You to Join
Making connections with others is a fun part of Pinterest. As mentioned above, group boards are a great way to more exposure on your pins.
Your teen can search for group boards in your niche and provide you a list of instructions for joining each. They can also create a spreadsheet for you to help you keep track of rules in each group board you’re in.
Benefits of Having Your Teen Learn to Use Pinterest
Taking tasks off your to-do list isn’t the only benefit of utilizing your teen for social media help. They’re also gaining valuable skills. Here are five:
- Learning how to market a blog/brand
- Gaining an understanding of how to read analytics and make changes based on data
- Practicing a marketable skill (they can open their own Pinterest VA business!)
- Putting their design interest and talents to work
- Learning how to collaborate for a common goal
It’s also a great way for them to earn a little spending money. Because if you’re getting your teen to do a lot of work so you don’t have to hire someone else, you should totally pay them a little.
It doesn’t have to be a lot of money to help your teen see the possibilities. For instance, I currently pay my daughter $1 for each pin she creates. My thinking is if she can create 10 pins an hour, that’s a $10/hour rate, and not too shabby for a teen!
She’s also learning that it’s possible to build her own job doing something she loves. And learning her work is worth being paid for!
Do You Have Your Teen Help with Pinterest?
I’d love to hear how you have your teen help you with Pinterest, or other social media channels.
If you’re interested in working through the Pinterest VA course, it becomes available later this week. Click here to jump on the wait list!
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Lisa Tanner is a former teacher turned homeschooling mom with 11 kids. She's also a successful freelance writer. Lisa enjoys helping other busy moms find time to start and grow a side hustle of their own.
