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PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
I’ve spoken about the merits of Pinterest several times over the years, but there are still very few photographers who actually use this powerful site to benefit their business. I get it, it’s yet another platform for you to keep updated, but in reality, you need to do very little to maintain your work on Pinterest, but you have everything to gain from doing so. Here’s how.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but Pinterest is actually the reason I got my ‘big break’ all those years ago. TL;DR my images were heavily featured in a moodboard at a client meeting and at the time my specific gelled lighting style was fairly unique (hard to believe now I know). It was from that moodboard that the client reached out and larger projects ensued and snowballed from there. Sure, you could argue that times have changed since then, and although you are right, the same reasons Pinterest worked back then are the same reasons it still works today.
The issue with Instagram today
I don’t think it’s a particularly ‘hot-take’ to say that modern IG is not the same photography-centric platform it once was all those years ago. Be honest, IG is now predominantly just micro-clips for Gen-Zs gnat-like attention span and young ladies who ‘forget’ to get dressed sharing their ‘hustle’ to the middle. I get it, I’m old, sure, but think about who IG is designed for today, is it your clients? Why are you posting on there? Are you posting on there because you were already on there anyway checking out the latest pics from fellow togs and thought, “I should really post something too” or are you logging in to maintain your rigorous marketing schedule? Think about who actually likes and comments on your posts. Are they your clients?
I’m certainly not saying IG can’t work for you and yes I’m being cheeky and somewhat cynical, but I do want you to take a moment and remember why you use IG and do you use it for business or pleasure.
Good News: Keep using Instagram and Pinterest like you always have
I’m sure this article sounded like I was about to say stop using IG as it’s a waste of time, but ironically that’s the opposite of what I’m saying. The point of this article is to convince the Pinterest cynics among you to take 2 minutes to link your IG account to Pinterest …..and then go back to completely ignoring Pinterest.
Let me be very clear, I SPEND ZERO HOURS ON PINTEREST EACH MONTH
That’s right, like you, I don’t use Pinterest at all either as it does all the work for me and I do quite literally nothing. This is in stark contrast to my main social platform, my Facebook Page. There I post 5 times a week whereupon I spend (far) more time than I should writing about the images I share there. I’ve done that consistently every week for close to a decade now. Instagram is a different story as I only post there a couple of times a month at best. The reason for that is a topic for another day, but IG is not suited to communicate and engage with others. It wants the user to ‘like’ something and then very quickly move on to the next image/video via 9 ads of junk that I tell myself I don’t need. Facebook is certainly dated now, but it does allow for a discussion in the comments and even the ability to share ideas, links and other images directly within that same comments section. I personally prefer that dialogue over simply farming engagement, but that’s just me. The point I’m making here is that I’m about to show you engagement numbers for these platforms and the IG ones are almost irrelevant because of my lack of uploads.
Engagement Splits
Yeah, this is where you really thought about clicking away, right? Engagement talk is as about as exciting as kissing a porcupine's bottom, so I will keep it extremely brief I promise.
Below are the engagement/impression numbers from the last 90 days for both Facebook and Instagram.
Below are the engagement/impression numbers for Pinterest from the last 90 days
For clarity, engagement/impression definitions can vary, but for the most part, it means that when someone was shown my image, that counts as 1 engagement/impression.
Return on your Investment
As you can see, I have nearly 4 times the engagement on my Pinterest versus my Facebook Page. This alone is fantastic of course, but you have to remember that I spend many, many hours a week nurturing my Facebook Page and, I’ll say it again, I SPEND ZERO HOURS ON PINTEREST EACH MONTH
How & Why is This Happening?
There’s no secret-sauce here, I really do spend zero time on Pinterest each month and the biggest factor that sets Pinterest apart from all the other platforms is its ‘evergreen’ content. I’m sure you all know by now, but your shiny new photo has a lifespan on IG and FB of a couple of hours at best. You post a shot, if the handful of people that shot is shown to like and engage with it, that same shot will then get shown to a slightly larger new group of people and the cycle perpetuates until the image stops being popular to the groups of people it’s shown to. This typically all happens during the first couple of hours of sharing the image and you’ll see drastic diminishing returns for any time after that. And by ‘drastic’ diminishing returns, I mean that after that initial share, almost nobody will ever see that image ever again on your platform.
Pinterest is the total opposite of that. Almost nobody will see your Pinterest image at first, but that image only grows in value the longer it's on the platform. I have some images on there from when my work took off in the early 2010’s and some of those images from 10 years ago have many hundreds of thousands of impressions. I say that although it’s hard to track separate images beyond 6 months, an image of mine from April 2024 is already at 5000 impressions as an example.
Stop Seeing Your Photos as Old & New
The key here is to stop thinking of your photos as old and new. A client, customer or viewer doesn’t know if you took that photo of yours this week or 5 years ago. It’s simply not important as it’s ‘new’ to them. Pinterest capitalises on that and specifically shows the viewer images similar to what they are looking at based on the look of the photo, not the age of the photo like all other platforms do.
Convinced to Do Almost Nothing Yet?
So how can you capitalise on this now, and then simply forget about it forever?
I’ve personally done a couple of things, firstly, I allow Pinterest ‘pins’ to be pinned directly from my website and secondly, I’ve linked my Instagram to my Pinterest.
Enabling Pinterest ‘Pins’ on your Website
First off, let's look at my website and enabling Pinterest on there. This won't be as relevant to some of you as I know fewer and fewer people today have a website, but here’s what I did on my Squarespace site in case it’s relevant to you too.
First off, head to the Settings > Website > Pinterest Save Buttons
Here, just enable the Pinterest Save Buttons, how you want them to look and where they’ll appear on your site.
That’s it!
Now, all of the images not on your main portfolio can be pinned by anyone clicking on that Pinterest button and anybody clicking on that image on Pinterest will track back to your site.
I won’t get into it here today, but I know many photographers have mixed feelings about mood boards and whether they are theft or infringe on copyrights. I know for a fact that many of my images get placed on mood boards and brought to other photographers for them to ‘copy’, but it’s almost impossible to stop that happening. Sure, that will happen, but like me, maybe that client loves the shots so much that it leads to something else in the future. Again, I know everybody has their love/hate relationship with mood boards, none more than uber-famous portrait photographer, Jill Greenberg who certainly doesn’t hide her disdain for mood boards.
Image from Jill Greenberg's site and her thoughts on mood boards. You have been warned!!!!
As always, huge respect for Jill for always speaking her mind!
Linking your Instagram to Pinterest
We finally got there, here’s how to link your Instagram to Pinterest.
First off you’ll clearly need a Pinterest account - it’s free to get one.
Log into your account
Click on the down arrow in the top right next to your profile picture
From here choose ‘Settings’
In the next window, click on ‘Claimed Accounts’ on the left-hand side
New options will appear including your website and below that, ‘Instagram’
Click on the ‘Claim’ button
Allow Pinterest access to your Instagram account via the following pop-up
Lastly, choose where the IG images will go, your Profile is fine. Click Allow
Plus, if you want the last 90 days’ worth of IG shots to be uploaded, check the box below too.
That really is it. Yes, I turned a 30-second article into 10 minutes, but what’s a Jake Hicks article without a little unwarranted backstory, history and lore? You want 30 seconds? You know where you can go ;)
Once you’ve linked your accounts, you’re done and you really do ‘set-it and forget-it’. Your IG images will slowly be added to Pinterest for others to come across as you post them to your Instagram like you normally would.
Closing Comments
As I mentioned at the start, I have a special love for Pinterest as it really did get me my first big break all those years ago thanks to, you guessed it, someone including my images in their Pinterest moodboard to a client. Some photographers hate it and I certainly get that after all It’s unbelievably annoying hearing that clients have taken your images to another photographer for them to ‘copy’ for cheaper. But if it works out in your favour once in a while, it’s still better than never. Plus, it takes like 2 minutes to set up and then you can go back to screaming into the void that is Instagram!
JHP Livestreams…
I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube
