How to find and join Group Boards on Pinterest

What are Pinterest Group Boards

Pinterest Group Boards are very similar to regular boards. The main difference is a group board has more than one collaborator.

Some group boards are very open to new contributors, and will have hundreds of members contributing pins. Other group boards may be more strict on who can contribute and may consist of only a handful of contributors. The decision on who can contribute to a group board is left to the owner of the board.

Some group boards will have very few requirements of members. Others will want you to limit pins to a particular topic/niche. Some may require you to repin content from the board to keep the board active.

If you use Tailwind, you may notice that Group Boards are kind of similar to Tailwind Tribes in that regard. The big difference is it is often harder to join high quality group boards, and they can be more difficult to find.

How to find Group Boards

The easiest way to find group boards are to look at the group boards other people in your niche are already part of. Especially bloggers who have been on Pinterest for a while and have a great reach. Look at the boards on their profile, and find the ones that are group boards. The group boards will have a circle with the logos of 3 people in the bottom left corner of the board image.

Click on a group board that looks related to your niche.

To decide if you should try to join that board:

• Is the board related to your niche?
• Does the board accept new contributors and have instructions on how to join?
• How many followers does the board have?
• How many members contribute to the board?
• Are the pins on the board of high quality?
• Are the pins on the board getting a lot of reshares?

You should click on a few random recent pins on the board and look at how many times it has been repinned. This isn’t entirely accurate as the number you see is for the overall stats for the pin rather than that specific pin, but it’s a guide at least of the popularity of the pin.

Another method to find Group Boards to join is through Facebook. There are a number of Facebook groups where members chat about group boards they have that are open for collaboration. Again, this can be hit and miss on finding high quality boards.

If you are an active blogger and have more than 25 posts already, and is active on Pinterest, then a good group to join is PinterestGroups.

HELPFUL TIP:

You should aim to join a minimum of 3 group boards targeted in your niche so that you have a good wider audience to get your pins in front of. Of course 3 is just a start, and you should join as many high quality group boards related to your niche as you can. Over time you will find certain group boards perform a lot better than others, and you can prune your list of group boards as you go.

How to request to join a Group Board

Once you have found a board that looks interesting, follow the instructions (usually found in the group board description) on how to join.

Usually it involves sending an email to the owner, or sending a Pinterest message to them. You will often need to follow the board and the owner also (following the owner allows them to find you in the list when adding you to the board).

In your message to the owner, make sure to send a friendly note indicating who you are, your blog url, what you blog about, and why you would be valuable to the board.

Here is a message template to help get you started:

Hey there!

My name is [NAME]! I really love your Pinterest account. I came across your board [BOARD URL] and I was hoping to collaborate with you!

I just started my website recently at [YOUR URL] where I focus on [YOUR NICHE]. 

[DESCRIBE WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU DO]

I think pinning on your board will really help the traffic grow on my website and help me build up my brand, as well as provide your board with some very high quality pins.


My Pinterest profile can be found at : [YOUR PINTEREST PROFILE URL]
The email associated with my account is this one: [YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS LINKED WITH PINTEREST]

I would really love an opportunity to collaborate with you on this board.

Thanks for the consideration! One group board can really make a difference for a new blogger like myself =)


Pinterest user name: [PINTEREST USER NAME] ([PINTEREST PROFILE URL])
blog name: [BLOG NAME]
blog url: [BLOG URL]
requested board: [REQUESTED BOARD URL]

Cheers

[YOUR NAME],
[YOUR BLOG NAME]

Once you have applied, sit back and wait. It can be some time before the owner gets back to you (if at all).

It’s a good idea to request access to many group boards (i recommend a couple each day). But don’t do more than that as you may come across as a spammer by Pinterest and have your account banned. Spread out your requests.

Once you have been accepted to a group board, you may decide to unfollow the owners account and just follow certain boards on their account - if they have a bunch of boards unrelated to your niche. If you decide to do that, wait a few days after joining the board. And don’t unfollow people all at once to avoid being caught up as a spammer. I know a few people of have had their accounts suspended, usually soon after they joined a board then immediately unfollowed the owner.

Pinterest also recently released an update to Group Boards to allow requesters to join by clicking a REQUEST TO JOIN button at the top right on the board. This makes it much easier to join boards. Not all group boards have that button as it requires the Group Board owner to enable the option.

Pinning to a Group Board

Once you have joined a Group Board, smile! May many more group boards come your way.

Pinning to a group board is the same as pinning to your own boards. Just make sure you follow their rules. Usually things like

• Only Vertical Pins
• Related to the niche
• Don’t spam the board (limited pins per day)
• No affiliate links, only links to blog posts
• Repin content from the board

You can manually pin to these boards, or use a scheduler like Tailwind.

How to evaluate a Group Board

I suggest evaluate any group board you join over a 4 week period (similar to evaluating a Tailwind Tribe).

See how your pins are doing on the group board.

• Are your pins on the board getting repinned?
• Using Tailwind, what is the virality and engagement scores for the board?

If the group board has a virality score < 1, and you aren’t getting many repins, then the board is probably not doing well. Especially if your own boards have > 1 virality.

Virality = Number of Repins per Pin

If the Virality is > 1, then the board gets on average one repin for every pin in the board. Don’t worry too much about the Engagement scores on group boards as often there are a lot of followers and pins often get lost in the mix. Remember, the goal of group boards is to distribute your pins to a wider audience that aren’t your own followers, so as long as you get repins for your pins, you are accomplishing that goal.

When to leave a Group Board

Give the group board a chance with your pins. After 4 weeks, measure the virality of the pins on the board (using Tailwind) using the evaluation method above.

If your scores are less than 1, then it’s probably time to leave the board.

The reason you don’t want to keep using the board is that it will affect your overall engagement scores, limiting your reach on Pinterest.

Pins you submit to the group board aren’t receiving repins, thus lowering your scores for pins you contribute. This tells Pinterest that those pins aren’t as interesting and will reduce the audience they are displayed to, impacting your overall reach.

Some experiments have shown that leaving a group board has led to an increased reach on those user’s Pinterest accounts. I have not yet run my own tests on this, so currently this is just speculation.

Using Group Boards to Test Virality

One strategy that some successful Pinners have employed is to use Group Boards as a testing ground for pins.

Only pins that receive high engagement are pinned to their own boards.

Using Tailwind scheduler, other peoples pins are submitted only to group boards. Those pins are then monitored to see what kind of virality they receive. If they are getting repins, then those pins get repinned to your boards.

The advantage of this approach is your boards only consist of high quality engaging pins, thus theoretically improving your reach. You avoid putting low quality pins on your own boards and bombarding your audience with less appealing information.

The downside of this approach is it may take longer for you to build up content on your boards, and it may also reduce the quality of the group boards which may become more of a dumping ground for pins.