How to Create Group Boards and Why You NEED Them

Joining other people’s group boards on Pinterest is very important. But I think it’s almost MORE important to have group boards of your own. Why? Well, for one thing, you can be kicked off other people’s boards, but on your own boards, you can pin whatever you like as often as you want. Also, it gives you a LOT more visibility and gives people a reason to want to Follow you on Pinterest.

If you haven’t guessed it, I am a big geek when it comes to Pinterest. I work as a Pinterest consultant and VA to a number of bloggers and other businesses. I’ve even written an Ebook where I share all my best Pinterest strategies. Following is a brief excerpt from my Ebook. You can click here to see how to get your own copy.

Why group boards need to be an important part of your Pinterest Strategy.

I discovered recently that having your own group boards is massively beneficial! I started noticing an important trend – MOST of my new Followers are coming to me as a result of my Group Boards. I’d never noticed that before.

You see, I have about nine of my own Group Boards – one for each of the main topics I write about. Parenting, organizing, money, technology, travel, and one for general blog posts. The other three are bait boards that are also Group boards – recipes, Disney, and DIY/crafts. These nine boards account for probably 80% of my new Followers. I get a steady stream of about 20 per day or 150 new Followers per week. I think it’s mostly due to my Group boards.

How to Manage Your Group Boards

Of course, it is a bit of work to manage group boards. I have to set and enforce rules for each board and I get daily requests for new people to join them. But it’s not too bad, I put them all in a folder. Then about every two weeks, I review each request. I decide who I want to invite and who I DON’T (anyone who looks spammy or has bad looking pins or nothing useful to contribute to the category). Then I go in and add 15 or 20 people at a time. I do wish Pinterest made that process a little bit easier, but it is what it is.

VALUABLE TIP. I find it easier to just add everyone to all my boards rather than remember that this one wants recipes and this one wants organizing, etc. But the interesting thing is that most of the people I invite accept every board I send them! That gives my Group boards much better visibility.

This means that I have nine boards sitting on their account being shown to all of their Followers, even if they may only end up pinning to one board. That’s pretty awesome, especially since I did it more or less because I was just lazy. Plus it makes my boards look really popular and active to Pinterest, which I’m sure gives me more “juice” as a user. I think that’s a pretty awesome payoff.

How to Create a Group Board

To create a group board, all you have to do is invite at least one other person. Once they accept – voila! You are a Group Board Owner! Here’s how I find people to invite to my boards – if it’s a food board, I search on names containing cook, chef, eat, food, cuisine, etc. Eeeasy peesey!

DO monitor your group boards for spammers and people who pin naughty pictures and other bad stuff – usually stuff for sale. I’ve had a few and there’s a button – you just click it to remove them AND all their pins from your boards. But I do police my boards at least once a week or so. 99% of the time, people are following the rules and pinning good stuff to my boards and those that aren’t – off they go!

Hope that helps you to get going with your own group boards. I think you’ll be glad you did. If you are interested in joining my group boards, here is my new form to request to be added to my group boards.