Vincent NG
This is a big question and people want to know. What are the best times to pin on Pinterest?
Let’s be honest, there’s no easy or simple solution to this. Pinning times are just as customized as your own business.
I’m going to tell you straight up. Knowing when to pin will require work, and it requires a scientific approach. This means that you will need to test out the times that may work best for you and the times that don’t. The easiest way to find out when your pins are getting repinned the post is by using an analytics program, like Tailwind.
Where to Start to Find the Best Times to Pin?
It’s extremely vital to to think like your customer, or else you could be using the wrong Pinterst strategy for your business.
When are they most likely going to be on their phone or tablet looking on Pinterest for the resources you’re providing? For example if you’re planning a wedding planner ask your previous clients when they’re on Pinterest the most. My hunch is that they’re going to say the weekends.
You can also send out a survey using SurveyMonkey or if you can use Google Docs to create surveys.
If your business already has a large e-mailing list consider using the survey to ask them informal questions such as:
- Are you currently using Pinterest?
- What do you use Pinterest most for?
- When do you find yourself using Pinterest?
- What type of device do you use Pinterest on?
- What city do you live in?
- Are there certain days you use Pinterest more than others?
And any other questions you feel that would be valuable. And to get people to answer your questions, offer an incentive to complete the survey such as offering a free Amazon gift certificate, or to offer a gift certificate to your business.
Where your audience is, is extremely vital. This is because the majority of users of Pinterest reside in the U.S.A and Canada, so being aware of where your followers live can play a role in your testing. For example if you noticed that you get a lot of pinning activity during waking hours of North Americans, then it may be time to move on to testing out when it’s a good time to pin to attract a U.K. audience.
Google analytics can help you gain insight on where people are coming from to visit your site. So this will offer some additional insight to see if your pinning strategy to reach a global audience is working or not. You can read more about that at the Luna Metrics blog.
Spread Out Your Pinterest Content Over Time
Analytic programs like Tailwind can tell you which pins, as well as what times have generally worked best. When using these types of program you want to pin across different times equally.
You can easily skew results with such programs if you pin the majority of pins at 1pm and don’t pin again for 8 hours. The data will naturally show that these two times are the best to pin, when in reality you need to spread out when you pin over that period to test out what times may work best.
Be Aware of Different Content that’s Active
It’s also important that you don’t mix up your activity with what’s on strategy. The first pillar of my Pintalysis Marketing Blueprint is to always know what your business goals are and what you’re trying to measure.
If you find that you have a flurry of activity, but it’s all happening at 4pm for fashion, it’s important to make a note that that is the best time to pin for that subject matter. But you may find that pinning recipes at that time doesn’t work so much, so try to pin recipes at a different time.
If you find that too much activity is going on for pins that are not related to your business goals, then it’s time to focus more on pinning pins that are related to your business goals.
Having more activity for pins that don’t help raise the profile of your business or blog are not going to help you build the right audience on Pinterest.
When Are The Best Times to Pin According to Studies?
According to Ahalogy analytics, the best time to pin food related pins are between 10am to 7pm and have them spread out throughout that time. They also stated that fashion does better “later in the evening.”
To hear more about those times you can visit the Oh So Pinteresting podcast and jump to around 22 minutes to hear Susan Wenner Jackson, VP of Content Partnerships of Ahalogy discuss more about it.
Now according to a report by Digitas and Pinterst analytics company Curalate, here are some of the best times to pin for specific categories. For fashion and retail they found that 3PM ET was good. For people who love to share automotive pins, you may want to pin on 12PM ET on Fridays, and then there are electronics, which tend to do best 10PM ET on Mondays.
Curalate collected and analyzed nearly 10 million pins, repins, comments, likes, and keywords from over 120 brands across the auto, electronics, and fashion/retail industries. The analysis took place between March 15 to April 15, 2013. Top images for a given industry were determined by the sum of pins and repins for each photo.
You can read more details at Marketing Profs.
According to an article by Search Engine Journal, activity on Pinterest tends to peak at 9pm and good times to pin are Saturday morning.
Pinerly, which changed to Reachli, and now known as 10Alike came out with an infographic back in 2012 that showed that the best times to pin during the day are between 2-4pm EST, and for 8pm to 1am EST.
And there’s also additional data that suggests that the best days to pin other than Saturday are Wednesday and Thursday.
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If you’re interested in taking your Pinterest marketing strategy to the next level, my wonderful e-book Pinterest to Profits with Pintalysis is currently on sale for 50% off. Pre order the book before March 31st to get my special rate.
