Fair Warning: The title of this blog is a trick question! 😬
Okay, phewwwww… Now that THAT’s out in the open, I can take some time to answer it – and explain why.
What’s the best time to pin on Pinterest?
Well, here’s my answer to this frequently-asked question:
I literally NEVER worry about this… Like, ever. There are two reasons for this, and I’m outlining them today in this post.
Read on to learn:
- Why I don’t give much thought 🤷🏻♀️ to times when scheduling Pinterest pins
- Why, where, and how women ACTUALLY find your pins in their Pinterest feeds
- About the tech tool that does the “time choosing” for us
(Psssst… if you prefer to watch a video to learn about this topic, you can hit play on this Livestream recording below… Or, keeping reading for the written version.)
Reason 1: Tailwind does the heavy lifting for us.
The first reason why I don’t worry about what time of day to pin is this… Tailwind (the scheduling software I use and recommend for Pinterest) actually takes care of choosing the times for us.
Tailwind is a Pinterest-approved scheduler, and therefore is connected to Pinterest via API. (Application Programming Interface… fancy engineering speak for “Tailwind can talk to Pinterest.”)
According to this Tailwind support article:
“[Tailwind sets] optimized timeslots to your Weekly Schedule based on when your audience is most engaged. Your Schedule [is] personalized by applying insights from millions of trends on Pinterest and Instagram including:
- Trends from topics you post most about.
- When your audience is most engaged.
- Pinterest Trends and Instagram Trends.”
In other words, Tailwind does the heavy lifting and chooses the times for us.
So, to the degree that timing your pins for better engagement actually matters (more on that in the next section of this blog…) Tailwind has us covered.
As an aside… When I recorded the Facebook Live and chatted with some ladies about this, I actually was reminded that this is a REALLY helpful feature in Tailwind! I do take it for granted a bit, but it’s pretty valuable. (If you’re interested in checking Tailwind out for free – you can use my affiliate link to get a free month.)
Okay, let’s move on to Reason #2 why I don’t worry about pinning times… And, btw, this second reason is really the more significant of the two!
Reason 2: Most women find your Pinterest pins in their searches and smartfeeds – and those aren’t chronological.
I don’t concern myself much with pinning times because Pinterest is a search engine, not social media. (And that’s so important to understand if you want to be successful with Pinterest marketing!)
Women (and a few good men! 😉 ) will almost always find your pins in two places on Pinterest:
a) in their searches
b) in their “smartfeeds”
Let’s look at each one, with an eye for how your pins get in there, and why “time of day” doesn’t play into it too, too much…
How Pinterest searches work*:
Our goal on Pinterest as marketers? To get our pins and content discovered by ideal clients. Let’s bring this to life with an example:
Let’s say that you wrote a blog post called: 5 Simple Ways to be Mindful When You Eat. You pinned that pin on October 12, 2020 at 2pm. (Not that the time really matters! 🤣)
Belinda (who happens to be your ideal client!) searches sometime in mid-November for “mindful eating.” Pinterest serves up your pin in her search, because the keywords you’ve used (on the pin and your account) are a match – for her current and past searches and her interests.
The same thing happens with thousands of other similar searches in November… The “impressions” number on your pins tells you how many.
And the same thing happens with multi-thousands of other similar searches throughout 2020, 2021, 2022… and perhaps beyond.
Yes, you read that right… Pinterest pins can surface in people’s searches (and smartfeeds, which we’ll get to in a moment), for months and YEARS! And, we love that about Pinterest. Pin it once, and it can get discovered over and over in relevant searches.
Okay, now let’s look at…
How Pinterest’s SmartFeed works*:
The SmartFeed is what Pinterest calls its “Home” feed. Each pinner’s SmartFeed is unique, and it’s made up of pins that Pinterest’s algorithm believes will be of interest to her.
*It’s a complex algorithm, and I’m not an engineer. (I’m guessing you aren’t either!) But a simple way to understand it is just to know that Pinterest uses factors like:
- What she’s just searched for recently
- What she’s searched for in the past
- What boards she has on her account
- What she’s saved and clicked on before
- etc.
So, let’s look at Belinda’s pinning habits again… and your content.
Let’s say you pinned a podcast episode entitled, How to Practice Self Care Idea as an Introverted Mom. And you pinned it on September 14, 2020.
Now, fast forward to October 17, 2020. Belinda searched for “self care routines” during her Pinterest session yesterday. Pinterest also knows that she searched a phrase that included the word “Introvert” last week. In fact, she has a board about being an introvert, too.
For all of these reasons, Pinterest places your pin in Belinda’s SmartFeed, and she finds it there when she logs in today. (And she clicks through to your show notes! Yay!)
Now… Here’s the big takeaway here:
Neither of these feeds (the Search feeds or SmartFeed”) are chronological.
They are served up based mostly on relevancy – not recency.
Meanwhile, over on social media…
It’s different, right? Recency does matter a good deal on social.
If you post on social at 4pm, and Belinda is checking out her feed (or a group where you both hang out) at 4:09… she may be likely to see your post. If she doesn’t jump on until the next day at 8am, though, it’s less likely that she’ll see it (unless it got a lot of engagement and got prioritized in her feed, to be fair!)
So… (Lean in, here comes the “ah-ha” moment!)… Trying to figure out when the best times to post are? That’s more of a social media strategy than a Pinterest strategy.
===> Click! 🤓 (That’s the sound of synapses firing off in your brain! You get it now, right?)
Okay…so now you know the two reasons why I’m not too concerned about pinning times!
Makes sense, right? Let’s reserve our time and energy for things that really move the needle for our Pinterest reach and clicks – and not worry about those things that don’t. (And timing is *not* going to play into your success much.)
Last thing… Speaking of how treating Pinterest like social media is a not a winning approach…
If you want to learn more about what DOES work on Pinterest – and how to approach it like a search engine… You can sign up below for my popular…
FREE Masterclass: 📌
The 5 Secrets for Growing Your Audience & Getting Clients Using Pinterest
It’s available on demand (no choosing times needed :)). Just drop your name and email here and you’ll get the access link in your inbox!
