Not so long ago I did a video for
you guys about hashtags
and how to use them to grow your
handmade shop. And in that video I
specifically said you shouldn't bother
with hashtags on Pinterest. The thing is, that has changed.
And that's what we're going to talk about today.
Hashtags on Pinterest have never really been a thing.
In fact Pinterest themselves used
to say that using them on the platform
could limit your reach.
In other words,
they didn't like it.
So it was okay to use a hashtag
for something like a brand e d
giveaway but using hashtags
systematically on every single one
of your pins was definitely a
big no-no.
Now recently Pinterest announced
that hashtags were making a big comeback
on the platform.
So everyone was kind of like: what's
going on?
How to use hashtags
on Pinterest when it didn't
used to be a thing?
So what does this mean
and how should we use hashtags on
Pinterest?
OK let's go back to
the start and look up what Pinterest themselves
announced about how we
should use hashtags on the platform.
"How to hashtag?
Hashtags on Pinterest work pretty much
just like they do everywhere else.
The key is to select the right
hashtag for your pin." Not
super helpful.
Moving on.
with hashtags on Pinterest now it's
easier than ever for people to
find the freshest pins for the
businesses and topics they're into.
"Starting today,
when you include hashtags in description
of a new pin, visitors can visit the
feed of all the pins that
share that hashtag,
whether those pins are promoted
or not, the freshest pins
will always appear right
up top." Now
we're talking.
Okay, there are a few keywords here
to help us understand what hashtags
are back on Pinterest.
The freshest pins will always
appear right
up top. Boom!
That is the information we needed.
This is key because it means
that searching for a keyword
on Pinterest and searching for a
hashtag on Pinterest are two
completely different things.
So let's take a look at Pinterest directly so
I can show you a couple examples.
Here we are inside of Pinterest
and we're going to look at two different
things. The first one is
a search for the hashtag
#motherday. So you can see here in a search
bar I've typed in #motherday
and I'm just scrolling
and looking at what Pinterest is showing
me for that term.
Now if we compare that
to this window,
where I've done search
for the keyword mother
day, so without the hashtag,
we can notice that it looks very
different. In fact the only picture
in common is this fingerprint
butterfly mug
that also appeared when I searched for
the hashtag. But other than that,
all these images are different
and they do not look like any
of these images.
So what is going on
here? Well, this is what Pinterest
means when they say hashtag will
always show the freshest - they call it
the freshest - it's also the most recent
pictures that have been tagged
with this hashtag.
So if you take a closer look at what
it says under each picture you'll see
that this first one here has been
posted an hour ago.
This one the fingerprint butterfly mug -
two hours ago;
this one - five hours,
six hours
and etc..
So these are all the pictures
where people have used the #motherday
that have been posted the most recently.
Now if you go back to this other
window and I've done just a regular
search without the hashtag,
Pinterest doesn't even bother telling you
when the picture was posted.
Some of them may have been posted
five years ago for all we know,
but have been liked
and pinned and repinned so much that
Pinterest thinks it's relevant.
So it's actually showing you those pictures
not because they're recent
but because they think that you're going
to like it and that this is what you're looking
for when you type Mother's Day on
Pinterest. So this is a very,
very important distinction.
The reason this is such an important
distinction is because before
the hashtags were introduced on the platform
this wasn't an option at all
on Pinterest to look for something that was posted
recently. That was kind of the beauty
of Pinterest as well is that if you go
and post a pin on Pinterest now,
if you do well at optimising it
and people repinning,
in five years from now when someone is
going to search for that keyword that you've used
in your description it's still going
to show up. So that's why people keep
on saying why
Pinterest is more a search engine
than an actual social media tool.
And that is still true when
you look for a keyword,
but
with the introduction of hashtags
you can now also look at pictures that
are more recent
and more timely.
Now what does this mean for you?
Should you start putting hashtag on every
single one of your pins
and how many hashtags should you use?
Pinterest lets you use up to 20
hashtags per new pin.
That's a lot. That does not mean that you
have to use all of them.
Here's the thing. There's two types
of pins you need to consider.
The first one is seasonal
pins. Now as we've just
seen hashtags are useful
mostly for timely pins.
So if you're pinning something that's quite seasonal,
like let's say,
a new product
or a bundle of products
or a blog post that's just for
Mother's Day or just for Father's Day
or just for Halloween,
then yes, I definitely want
you to add at least two
or three hashtags in your
pin description that are timely
and related to that event,
like #FathersDayGift
for example.
And then I would also
like you to add some more
general hashtags that describe
the product that you're selling.
Now the second type of pin is what I
like to call evergreen
pins. These are all the
other pins, their images are
always going to be relevant,
no matter what time of the year we're in,
so for example
an image of your best
seller item, like your
best seller ever.
This pin is always going to
be relevant and you always want it to show
up in the search so hashtags are
not going to be quite as useful for
that and keywords would work better
but I still recommend you use
hashtags to try
and benefit from the immediate engagement
that hashtags now offer on
Pinterest. My advice in this case
is to try and add 4-5
hashtags to each single
one of your pins that describe
what the product is
and what you think people
are going to be searching for on Pinterest.
Really think about your ideal customer.
What would they look for,
what would they look and search for when they
browse Pinterest? What are they typing
in the search bar?
This is a type a hashtag that you want to
add to your evergreen pins.
That's it for today guys!
I hope this was helpful
and as always I'd love to
take the conversation down in the comments
below. So let me know: are you
using hashtags on Pinterest
already,
and if so have you found that it helped
your engagement a little bit?
If you're not using hashtags let
me know how you plan on using
them from now on.
I ' m so happy to answer any questions
you may have so make sure to comment just
below the video. If you've found this useful
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Bye bye!