If you’re thinking Pinterest is where people collect wedding ideas and aspirational kitchen designs, you’re about five years behind. Pinterest has become far more useful for professional writers: a search engine that encourages people to leave the platform and visit your website.
Your links matter. Unlike every other social media hellscape that traps users inside their walled gardens, Pinterest encourages people to click through to your content. For writers who’ve built a body of work and want people to find it, this is strategic gold.
Think about how LinkedIn, for example, strips out links that go offsite. How will that help you grow?
Why bother with Pinterest when you’re already stretched thin?
I wondered the same thing. You’re managing your newsletter, your blog, maybe a Substack publication, possibly some client work. The last thing you need is another platform demanding fresh content and daily engagement. Ugh!
Pinterest doesn’t work like that.
Pinterest functions as a search engine for visual content. People go there now to actively search for solutions to specific problems. Your article about Mediterranean diet meal prep or navigating divorce after 50 or training a rescue dog? Someone is searching for that right now, wanting to find links to resources. And unlike a social media post that dies in 24 hours, a well-designed pin can drive traffic to your work for months or even years.
The content longevity alone makes it worth considering. You’ve probably written dozens of articles that solve real problems. Those pieces are sitting there, capable of attracting readers, but they’re buried in archives or dependent on Google’s increasingly temperamental algorithm. Pinterest gives them another channel to be discovered.
You don’t have to post every day to get noticed.
The search engine advantage
Pinterest users aren’t casually scrolling while waiting in line at the grocery store. They’re actively hunting for answers. When someone searches “how to plan a cross-country road trip” or “best perennials for shade gardens” or “negotiating salary in tech interviews,” they’re in problem-solving mode. They want and need what you’ve already written.
This is fundamentally different from other social time-sucks where people passively consume bootless content. Pinterest users are primed to take action. They’re looking for tools, templates, strategies, solutions they can implement right now.
Your job is to create visual entry points that lead them to your existing content. No new articles required. No dancing on video. Just strategic pins that showcase what you’ve already created.
Getting realistic about what this takes
There’s some effort required. You’ll need to create pins, which means dealing with design tools like Canva. You’ll need to write compelling descriptions with keywords that match what people actually search for. And you’ll need to understand Pinterest’s current algorithm, which rewards consistency and fresh pins. Now, I’m going to tell my paid subscribers specifically how to write pins and leverage Pinterest to increase traffic for real.
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