BONUS: You’re Probably Ignoring This Platform (and It’s Costing You!)

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2:01Pinterest is not social media. And this is where the biggest disconnect is. People often group Pinterest in the group of the TikToks and the Instagrams. It's not a this or that. It is a totally separate camp. Pinterest is a search engine. It is like a modern day pretty Google. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven-figure online business that feels even better than it looks, all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family. Here, we value time as our currency.

2:41We mix the woo and the work, and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered.

3:18This is the Gold Digger Podcast. You ever have one of those conversations where someone just like grills you, but in the best way possible? Well, that's exactly what happened when I sat down with my friend Brock Johnson. He came in hot with questions about Pinterest, rapid fire style, and suddenly I was in the hot seat like a Pinterest professor. Brock is a total genius when it comes to Instagram, But inside of this conversation, the roles were flipped. He was a student and I was a teacher, and we had so much fun geeking out over how Pinterest can help your content live longer, work harder, and drive results long after you hit publish.

3:54We originally recorded this episode for his podcast, Build Your Tribe, but then I started seeing the YouTube comments rolling in. Things like, this is such a masterclass. Thank you so much for this episode. And this reignited the Pinterest fire. I'm jumping back in and Instagram is burning me out. This is exactly what I needed. Reading those comments made me stop and think, okay, my people need to hear this too. So here we are sharing it with you today as a bonus crossover episode. And a quick little heads up, this isn't the last you'll hear from Brock. He's coming over to my podcast soon too.

4:26And trust me, it is so good. So if you are someone who is burned out on Instagram, tired of chasing trends, or just curious how to get more mileage out of your content, this episode is your Pinterest crash course. And if you're ready to learn more about Pinterest like right now and you missed my live masterclass, don't worry. We've got it on demand just for you. Head to teachmetopin.com. That's teachmetopin.com. All right, let's dive on in and hit play on this bonus conversation with Brock Johnson. Hello, Jenna. Welcome to today's episode. Hey, thanks so much for having me. I am so excited for this conversation because, you know, admittedly, oftentimes in these convos, you have to kind of pretend as the interviewer that you don't know what you're talking about.

5:12Yeah. But I know very little of what I'm talking about today. Today, we're going to be talking all about Pinterest, which is something that you've been jamming out on recently. And, you know, we'll get into all of the missteps and mistakes that I'm definitely making. So let's just get right into it. why should I or why should any small business owner listening today care about Pinterest? Because Jenna, they're probably like, oh my gosh, I have so much going on with Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and YouTube. And now you want me to add Pinterest? So why should I care? Okay. So first things first, Pinterest will never take away from the work that you're already doing.

5:49What it's going to do is elongate the lifespan of that work that you are creating. And it's going to turn like minutes and moments into months. And so how I like to see it is this is not about adding more to your plate. It's about digging for gold in the gold mine that you are likely sitting on and also just helping your work work for you. And so before anyone panics and they're like, not another strategy, not another platform, I can't do it. All I'm asking you to do is reallocate one hour of your life each week to this strategy, and it's going to turn all of your work into something that's working for you.

6:31Gotcha. Okay, I can get with that. There's actually this graphic that I posted a few times on Instagram talking about the average lifespan, so to speak, of a post. And there's two things that always people freak out over when they see that post. Number one, the lifespan of a TikTok is like, they call it immediate decay. Basically, immediately once you post it. Dead on the vine. Exactly. But then Pinterest is also on that graphic and it's like the longest, biggest bar on the graphic and people are like, oh my gosh, I need to get on Pinterest. So what you're saying, I'm already like, oh yeah, duh.

7:03I've even talked about that before, but I haven't taken it seriously. So who should be posting on Pinterest? Who should be putting their business on Pinterest? And is there anyone who like, maybe Pinterest shouldn't be for them? Okay. This is so good. Before we dive into that, I'm going to tell you something about the lifespan of a pin. So when we think about social, a lot of our posts will be dead within 48 hours tops, right? That's pretty generous in my opinion. The average lifespan of one pin, one singular pin on Pinterest is over 13 months. And that is the half-life. So 13 months. So one year from now, plus your work could still be working for you.

7:45So I just want to paint that picture. So who should be on Pinterest? So anyone that is creating content, and I mean, literally anyone, it doesn't matter what genre you're in. Now, when I say content, I'm talking about the stuff that Brock talks about all the time, whether you are a podcaster, a YouTuber, an Instagram creator, a writer, a blogger, like you, what I love about you is you'll advocate like Instagram has a way for every type of creator to be creating on it. So I would say that your audience is a dream for Pinterest because they are likely creating content. Now, who it's not for is people that don't have a clear path.

8:22So you might be creating content, but you might not have actually figured out, well, what is the end result of this content, right? We know general content creators who love like the dopamine hit of likes and comments, but maybe they don't have a through line of like, where does this lead to and what is valuable in my ecosystem? Whether it's a subscriber, an email subscriber, a sale, a call, whatever that looks like. And so if you don't actually have something that can kind of lead traffic into treasure, as I like to call it, Pinterest probably isn't the best platform for you. And the only other thing I would say is if you don't want to have your business a year from now or five years from now, Pinterest is also not the platform for you.

9:04Gotcha. Okay. So then where do we even get started with Pinterest? Because I'm going to guess that most people hear are two things. They're number one, they have a Pinterest account. They've been pinning things for the baby shower, the wedding, the birthday party, whatever. But they've never actually used it for business. So what are the steps to get started? Okay, so this was me. So if this is you, welcome. You're in good company. Let me tell you a quick story about how I figured this out because it wasn't even me. So years ago, I was white knuckling my business. I was a wedding photographer in Wisconsin.

9:38and I finally released the white knuckle grip on my business and said, I need help, right? Those three words that are so hard for all of us to utter. And I hired my first virtual assistant. And I will never forget the first time we sat down, we sat across from each other in this small little Wisconsin cafe. And she goes, how's Pinterest working for you? And I looked her dead in the eye and I was like, okay, so let me tell you about my clothing board. Oh, it is so on point. It's so Parisian chic. And let me tell you about this house that I'm going to build someday. It apparently has 20 bathrooms.

10:10And we were kind of laughing. And she's like, no, no, no. How is it working for you, for your business? And I was like, what are you talking about? And I had no idea that the pins that are on the platform are brought on by Pinterest users. I feel like people go on and browse it and they just think somehow these graphics are there, but people don't connect the dots that like you can import a pin onto Pinterest today. You can bring anything onto the platform. So the biggest misconception that people look at is one that is just for like vision boards, right? It's a visual search engine. And so we love using it to plan out vacations and our homes and our outfits and all the different things.

10:50But what we're missing is that we can actually become contributors to Pinterest. The way that pins get on there is from people bringing them onto the platform. And so if you are someone who is casually pinning, which I love, I love Pinterest. I've never felt bad about myself after being on Pinterest, right, Brock? Like I can go on to doom scroll on Instagram. I feel like garbage, like, oh, I'm not pretty enough and I'm not doing enough. Pinterest, I'm like, wow, the sky's the limit. You feel inspired. Yes, you do feel inspired. But if you are someone who is just passively pinning, what I want for you to start paying attention to is looking at these pins through the lens of somebody put this on here, right?

11:29The creator did or somebody that was inspired by the content. Pinterest is not social media. And this is where the biggest disconnect is. People often group Pinterest in the group of the TikToks and the Instagrams. It's not a this or that. It is a totally separate camp. Pinterest is a search engine. It is like a modern day pretty Google. When you go into Pinterest, you're typing in how to start a business or how to launch a podcast or how to find a red dress with ruffly sleeves, right? We're using it in the way of a search engine, but oftentimes our brain is disconnecting it and telling us it's social media.

12:05And so if you're getting started, first pay attention just to your user experience and acknowledging that somebody brought these things on and then notice what you're typing in to the search bar and how you're leveraging it as a search engine. One thing that I love that you do so well, Brock, is you often break down what Instagram strategy is. So like when they launch a new feature, you're telling them like, OK, this is why they're doing it. And this is their hope of it. When we look at Pinterest, what their goal is, is to actually connect you with the end result you're seeking. They want to be the connector.

12:39They want you to click the link and actually go to the destination. They want you to get the answers and the solutions. A search engine's goal is very different than social media. Social media wants to keep you on the app, keep you scrolling, whereas a search engine wants to be the bridge that connects you to the solution or the answer that you're looking for. And so it totally changes the strategy. And so a lot of people, too, they'll take what's working on social media and they'll bring it on to the search engine and they'll be like, well, this doesn't work, but they're not actually looking at it through the right lens.

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14:56For a limited time, get 20 % off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bowlandbranch.com slash gold digger. That's BollandBranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D, branch.com slash gold digger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. Gotcha. Okay. So let's talk about then how do you look through that right lens? Because you said a few times bringing these pins to Pinterest, whether it's you as the creator or someone else bringing these pins to Pinterest. So like, what does that look like? What does that mean? How do we actually put that into practice? Okay. So what is incredible about Pinterest is that any user can upload a pin.

15:36And when they upload a pin, which is simply in most cases, just a graphic, when they upload the pin, you get to designate where you are sending someone to. So you literally get to drop in any URL that you want. So this could be a landing page to grow your email list. It could be your YouTube channel. It could be your podcast. It could be your Instagram. It could be your blog, your website, your sales page. You can literally designate any space that you have on the internet, which is pretty rare that you can point somebody in any direction. So the other thing about Pinterest is that it prioritizes what they consider fresh content.

16:15Now, fresh content doesn't mean that Brock needs to publish a new video every single day. Fresh content just means that it needs to be a variation of something you've posted before. So for this episode of your podcast, Brock, we could create 10, 15, 20, 30 different pins that all point back to this singular piece of content as long as the graphics, the headlines, or the visuals are unique. Now, what this means in layman's term is if you have a good set of templates in Canva and you have a slight bit of creativity in terms of how you name things or how you promote something, you can create an unlimited amount of pins that can point to one piece of content.

17:00This is why it's not about adding more to your already full plate or creating more content. It's about putting a spin on your content. And let me ask you this real quick, Brock. What would be easier for you to do? Go into Canva, leverage a template and create 10 different graphics or create a brand new podcast episode, the show notes, the social clips, and all the things that accompany it before you move on to the next. Which one's easier? Yeah, obviously 100 % option A. Yes. And so what's amazing is, is that I bet your listeners right now are sitting on tens or hundreds or even thousands of pieces of content that could have pins pointing to it.

17:41It could be stuff that you made a year ago, two years ago, that you could turn into pins to land on the Pinterest platform and reach their viewers. So I feel like it should give you an exhale of like, this is really not about doing more. It's about making your work work harder with just a tiny bit of strategy and effort. Gotcha. Okay. So like I'm conceptualizing this, thinking about it. Yeah. It's a search engine. So it's not Instagram where I'm scrolling through Reels. It's more like Google. But when I search something on Google, nowadays I get like a big AI response that's never helpful. And then I get like a bunch of links and URLs and the first seven of them are sponsored.

18:21And then there's a bunch of not pretty, right? It's just text. It's links and headlines. So essentially, is this just for oversimplification purposes? These pins on Pinterest are the same thing as these links on Google, right? These headlines. The only difference is on Pinterest, they're visually appealing. Maybe they have a graphic or a video, and then they're still going to ultimately direct me to wherever that final destination is. Exactly right. And what's awesome is that every single word on Pinterest, because it's a search engine, is searchable. So if you take some of the SEO or search engine optimization strategies that you are likely using in other places in your business, that's all you need is just a tiny bit of keyword strategy.

19:04So it could be keywords in the graphic itself. It could be keywords in the pin title. It could be keywords in the description. All you're doing is helping Pinterest connect people that are looking for your work with your work. Gotcha. Instagram is a beast. There is no lie that every single week the algorithm changes. There's a million new features. There's so much to keep track of. So much you have to worry about. And all you're trying to do is scroll your business, trying to get more customers and make more sales on Instagram. That is why we created the Instaclub Hub to help you learn exactly what you need to know to stay up to date with the changes that are actually relevant to you as a business owner and to help you grow your following and customer base on Instagram.

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20:29So when I'm clicking on the little icons up at the top, I click on Pinterest. So if it's a reel that's being posted on Instagram, the same video is being posted on Pinterest, but I'm not adding a link to send it anywhere. So is that incorrect? Would it be better if I was instead having that link back to my Instagram or what's going wrong with my strategy there? Because I've seen literally zero change or results from doing what I'm currently doing. Right. So yeah. Okay. So you can keep doing that, but I'm going to add just a teeny bit of strategy for you. So we are big fans of set it and forget it, which is like my life.

21:07That is what I want. I want a crockpot meal and I want strategies that I can set and forget. So if the easiest way to get your content onto Pinterest is to keep that feature selected so that you know it's getting onto the platform, that's fantastic. You can keep that on. What I would recommend then is setting a timer or a reminder for 20 minutes at the end of your week to go on to your newly uploaded pins and to add a little bit of strategy. So that's where you could add in the backlink and you could add in a more SEO optimized title and description for your pin. Because oftentimes when you're using different things like Planoly or Tailwind or whatever you're using to auto schedule, it's not optimized for Pinterest in terms of searchability.

21:49And so if it's easier to just have it auto post and then you go in and tweak, there's no harm in doing that. And you're not like tanking your ability to get results. There's nothing there. Because again, this is the long game, but you'll add in that strategy. And so what you can do is you can decide, okay, where do I want to send this to? What is the best way to send it somewhere where it's traffic, but I can turn that into something. I'm the biggest fan of sending it to places you own on the internet, whether it's a website or a blog versus sending it to other platforms where you don't necessarily get to capture any sort of data or any of their information.

22:25But what I would just say is then just go in on a Friday, look at the pins that automatically uploaded, jump in. You can even use ChatGPT and say, write me a title for this Instagram caption that's SEO optimized and great for Pinterest. Drop those things in and designate where you want it to go. And that's how that content will work for you longer than when you just hit publish. Does that make sense? Yeah, that totally makes sense. And that's very doable. I want to come back to a question around like graphics versus videos versus reels. Before I do that, this is probably going to be a quicker question.

23:00Are there any sort of account settings or profile things that we need to be aware of on Instagram? In Instagram fashion, they always overcomplicate it with like, you could be business, professional, creator, personal, private, whatever. Is there anything like that that we should be aware of or make sure that we set up correctly on Pinterest? Yes. So that's a fabulous question, Brock. So you want to make sure you're a business account. So without being a business account, you don't have access to analytics. And you also can't make your profile super optimized. So with a business account, you could have like Brock Johnson, Instagram strategy expert as your title.

23:38And you teach this too with kind of like optimizing your bio. It's actually very similar to the strategies you teach in Instagram, in Pinterest. It's just, again, every word that you're putting in there is searchable. And so you want to make sure the words and phrases that you're using, both in your title and in your bio, are very clear. So very similar to what you teach there. You also just want to have a business account because that will give you access to the analytics. It'll also unlock a few features like linking to your website and different things like that as well. It's a super easy process.

24:08Once you do it once, you don't ever have to do it again. And so it just takes a few minutes, but that will switch your account from personal to business, which will then allow you to kind of think a little bit more strategically and have more strategy in place. Gotcha. Okay. Totally makes sense. Back to my question about graphics versus videos. Yeah. You mentioned earlier having like Canva templates. You mentioned, you said the word graphics a few times. Do graphics or, you know, quote unquote, still images perform better? Is that more of the norm and the expectation on Pinterest than these seven second reels that are being posted on Instagram?