Knowing how to choose the best board names on Pinterest in 2022 is an essential part of being found on the SEO-based platform, alongside creating the best pins and best strategies. In this article, we’ll be covering everything you need to know about naming Pinterest boards so you get more re-pins and traffic.
HOW DO I START A BOARD ON PINTEREST?
You start or create a board on Pinterest in three easy steps. These are:
1. Making sure you’re logged into Pinterest, click on your profile photo on the top right-hand side. This will display your boards. 2. Click the + button on the right-hand side and select ‘create board’ from the dropdown menu. 3. Name the board, choose if you want to make it secret and press the red ‘create’ button. You’re done!
WHAT SHOULD I NAME MY PINTEREST BOARDS IN 2022?
Your board names on Pinterest should use words that people are already searching for inside the app, so that your board has the best chance of being found. You can find out the best terms – often called keywords – by searching yourself and seeing what Pinterest suggests for you.
As an example, if I put ‘yoga tips’ into Pinterest, there are suggested terms just below including ‘for beginners’, ‘for beginners 30 day’ and ‘for beginners flexibility’. I can also see a range of pins below these suggestions. In the drop-down menu on the right-hand side of the search bar, you can also set it to ‘boards’ and see what boards are called ‘Yoga tips’. There are a LOT of results!
So while you CAN name your board ‘Yoga tips’, it’s going to be difficult to set it apart from all the other boards with the same name. If you niche down more in the name, perhaps with ‘Yoga tips for beginners’ as Pinterest suggested, that would help beginners find your board.
To target more advanced yogis, you might type ‘Advanced yoga’ into the search bar, which will suggest terms like ‘advanced yoga flow’ or ‘advanced yoga poses names’. If your board names on Pinterest are these more niche terms, they’re more likely to be found and your pins are more likely to be re-pinned and clicked on.
HOW LONG TO MAKE A PINTEREST BOARD NAME
A Pinterest board name can be up to 50 characters long. You want the most important words at the front, because those are the ones that will show on your profile or in a search for boards.
Here’s what that looks like:
HOW MANY PINTEREST BOARDS CAN YOU HAVE?
You can have up to 500 Pinterest boards including secret boards and group boards you didn’t create. Secret boards are those that only you and other Pinterest users you invite can see (Pinterest calls these other people ‘collaborators’). Group boards are public boards that have more than one person able to add pins.
HOW TO WRITE GREAT PINTEREST BOARD DESCRIPTIONS
You have 500 characters for your Pinterest board descriptions. That gives you room to describe clearly what your board is about, using keywords near the beginning of the description. These can be a mix of popular, broad keywords and long-tail phrases. Long-tail phrases often start with ‘how to …’ or ‘how can I …’.
Mention if the board serves a particular niche, such as Etsy sellers or what transformation they can expect eg ‘learn how to take your own product photos’. Use keywords you found when searching Pinterest for your board names. Although writing a board name in capitals can make it appear bolder, it’s also more difficult to read, so using upper and lower case text is best.
HOW TO EDIT A PINTEREST BOARD
Edit a Pinterest board by: 1. Clicking on your board to open it and selecting the three dots for board options. It will show you an option to ‘Edit board’. 2. Here, you can change the board name, board cover, description, collaborators, make it secret, show pins inspired by the board in your home feed or delete the board. 3. Click the red ‘Done’ button to save your changes.
HOW TO CREATE PINTEREST BOARD COVERS
You can manually assign one of your pins as the board cover or Pinterest will choose a pin itself. This means you can make a board cover graphic and pin it to the board. Give it the board URL as its link.
Once you’ve saved the pin to your board, edit the board and choose ‘CHANGE COVER’. Choose the pin you have just saved as the cover. The pin you have chosen as a cover will usually appear as a square
The jury’s out as to whether this has an impact on gaining followers or repins, but speaking for myself, if someone has gone to the trouble of creating board covers, I’m more likely to think they’ve curated pins with some extra thought as well and am more likely to look at their content and follow them.
HOW TO ORGANISE PINTEREST BOARDS
Arrange your boards on your profile in a way that works for you. Pinterest offers automatic arrangements based on the alphabet or showing boards in order of boards where you saved your last pins. A third way is manual – you drag and drop your boards in exactly the order you prefer.
You can set which of the three options you want by looking at your boards and finding the ‘settings’ icon with two circles on two lines. Click on this to select your option.
I recommend you choose the drag and drop option, putting the most important boards for your ideal clients first. Click on a board and drag it to a white space between other boards. The first board will automatically contain all your pins or all saved products. You cannot move this board.
HOW MANY SECTIONS CAN A PINTEREST BOARD HAVE?
Pinterest boards appear to have unlimited sections. You can have at least 20 sections in a Pinterest board, which should be more than enough for one board.
HOW TO DELETE A PINTEREST BOARD
You can delete a Pinterest board in three easy steps. These are
1. Making sure you’re logged into Pinterest, click on your profile photo on the top right-hand side. This will display your boards. 2. Move your cursor over the board you want to delete. An option to edit with a pencil icon will appear. 3. Scroll down the board editing options and click on ‘Delete board’. Click the red ‘Delete forever’ pop-up button that appears.
WANT TO UPGRADE YOUR PINTEREST ACCOUNT?
To upgrade your Pinterest account easily and quickly, I’ve created this set of Pinterest pin templates you can download and be using in minutes inside online design tool Canva. The set of 31 minimal pin designs opens in one click inside your Canva account. All the fonts and design elements contained in the pin templates are free, so you don’t need the pro version. Just add your brand colours, drop in your own photos and swap the fonts/text and you’re done!
You always want your Instagram feed to show clearly what you or your business is about. One of the best ways you can do that is by regularly curating your feed using the archive Instagram post feature: here’s a step-by-step guide to archiving posts.
HOW TO ARCHIVE INSTAGRAM POSTS
The first step is to learn how to archive Instagram posts. To archive a post, click the three dots on the top right of the post and click the second option – to archive. Your post will disappear from your Instagram grid but the post and its insights are kept in the archive, where only you can see them.
HOW TO FIND ARCHIVED INSTAGRAM POSTS
You can find archived Instagram posts by going to your Instagram profile and clicking on the three lines at the top right of your account and clicking on Archive. It has a drop-down menu for you to access either posts or Stories. Click on the post option to see all your archived posts.
To move an archived post back to your grid, select the relevant archived post and select the option to ‘Show on profile’. It will automatically move back to your grid, showing in date order and containing all of its likes and comments.
INSTAGRAM ARCHIVE FEATURE INTRODUCTION
Instagram introduced its archive feature in mid-2017 after testing it several months earlier. At the time, many Instagrammers were removing posts that didn’t get the number of comments or likes they wanted, sometimes leading to moments of regret
Posts that are archived are only able to be seen by the account owner. They’re especially useful when you want to create Story highlights on a particular theme – just go into your Story archive and add the relevant Stories which expire after 24 hours.
HOW TO CURATE YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED
Now that you know how to move Instagram posts into the archive and back again, have a good look at your grid. What does it say about you or your business? If someone glanced at the photos without reading the captions, would that give a clear picture of what you have to offer and your style – especially for creative businesses?
Try removing any posts that detract from the main message or style of your grid to leave behind a well curated feed that tells visitors in a few seconds what’s on offer. If your feed has a pattern, it may take a couple of rounds of changes to curate your feed so that it maintains an aesthetic look while showing only the very best of your work. This can work especially well if you’ve updated your brand or feed colours and want to phase in the new palette.
You could even try archiving some of the colours or content in your grid to test the look. If you don’t like it, just un-archive the posts In fact, any time you want to curate or freshen your Instagram feed, you can use the archiving feature, knowing you can always return a post if you change your mind.
Ever seen #TBT on a social media post and wondered what it meant? Here’s a quick explanation of what TBT means and how to use it on your own social media platforms.
WHAT DOES TBT MEAN?
TBT stands for throwback Thursday. It’s used when we want to share old photos or videos of ourselves and sometimes our businesses, to show what we were like many years ago. It’s a fun way for our followers to learn more about us and can apply to almost anything that has happened in the past.
WHICH PLATFORMS IS TBT USED ON?
TBT is most commonly used on Instagram and Twitter. As of June 2020, there are more than 500,000 photos with this hashtag on Instagram. If you’re looking for hashtag alternatives to TBT, # throwbackthursday has more than 50 million photos on Instagram and # throwbackthursdays is heading for more than 1.6 million. You could even use simply #throwback which has more than 110 million photos on Instagram.
HOW TO USE TBT ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
Firstly, use the TBT tag on a Thursday. Although if you get your days muddled and still want to use your post, you could go with #flashbackfriday Use it as a signpost to your followers that you’re sharing nostalgic content.
One of the most useful ways of using TBT is for storytelling. People connect with and remember stories, and given that you have new people finding out about your business all the time, it can be useful to share the origin story of your business or services regularly.
Typically, you would share a photo or video, alongside a commentary explaining what’s going on in the photo and how different things are today. Music from YouTube or Spotify are other great links to share. You can share how far you or your business have come, comparing old branding such as logos or colours, premises or products with what’s on offer today and perhaps even pivotal moments along the way. TBT posts are often comedic or have a humorous slant, with vintage hairstyles or clothing that reflects an era such as big ’80s hair or ’70s flares. Nostalgia can trigger strong emotional responses too, making it especially memorable and shareable. Using this hashtag is similar to Facebook’s ‘Memories’ that appear on the anniversaries of their posting.
You can make a white background for Instagram in your flatlays and overhead photos in a few simple steps using just your phone camera and free apps available on iPhone and android. Scroll down for instructions and the best free apps to use in 2022.
YOUR PHONE
To make a background white for Instagram, the most important thing to know that your phone camera has automatic settings for exposure. It chooses how light or dark to make your photo. This works well most of the time, but when your photo has a large light or white area, it will try to make it darker i.e. grey (if you want to know why, this article explains it well). So you can blame science for your grey photos – it’s not your fault.
The good news is you can override your phone camera’s auto settings. You do this by touching the screen while taking your photo. A yellow box with a sun on the side should appear. Simply slide your finger along the sun side of the square to increase light in your photo – and no more grey!
USING LIGHT FOR BETTER WHITE BACKGROUNDS
Your light source is important in getting clean white backgrounds. Where possible, use natural, indirect light from a window or glass door. This may mean timing your photos for when the sun is out and taking over a piece of floor or kitchen table in a good location. If there is too much light or it is too direct, sheer curtains can work wonders to diffuse and lessen the light. To remove shadows, you can reflect light into the shadows using white cardboard, aluminium foil from the kitchen or a shop-bought reflector. Just move the board or reflector around so that it bounces light from the window into the shadow. This usually means putting the reflector opposite the window or door letting in light and tipping it down slightly. Just try moving your reflector or board around while you watch the shadows to see when it’s working.
BALANCING LIGHT TEMPERATURE FOR A BRIGHT BACKGROUND
Light will look different colours in our photos depending on its temperature. Photos taken by candlelight for instance, will look yellower than ones taken with a flash. It’s one of the main reasons why you might want to take your photos during the day with natural light from a window or a door – your photos will have ‘white’ whites.
But if you haven’t been able to take your photos in those perfect conditions – and all of us have been there – some apps will help you correct that. Snapseed (free for iPhone and android) is my favourite app to do this in its tune image/warmth adjustments.
RETOUCHING YOUR WHITE BACKGROUND
The final step in how to make a background white is retouching and sharpening. The Retouch app (TouchRetouch – free for iPhone and android) is perfect to remove any dirt or smudges from your background. The app is called TouchRetouch in the app stores and has a green swirly logo on a black background. It removes smudges or dirty marks on your background in an instant.
You can whiten your background more using Snapseed in a couple of ways. The first is to go to Tools and Tune image (top left). Swipe your finger up the screen and a menu will appear: choose highlights. This is going to edit the brightest part of your photo, which is likely to be your white background. Slide your finger to the right to lighten.
The second way you can lighten your background is also in Snapseed. Go to tools and click on the Selective tool, which looks like a circle with a dot in the centre. This makes adjustments in a selected area for brightness, contrast, saturation and structure. It defaults to brightness, so use the slider at the top of your screen to slide further to the right to brighten your photo.
Once you have one area as white as you want, you can create another area to adjust by clicking on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen or tapping your finger on the original dot (which is probably showing up as a B after your brightness adjustments). A pop-up menu will allow you to copy this adjustment and paste in another area of the screen. Continue adding adjustment areas until your background is just the way you want and click on the tick on the bottom right.
When you’ve finished your adjustments, the last touch is to add a small amount of sharpening in Snapseed. In Tools, select the Details tool, which has a triangle icon. Slide your finger up the screen to see the menu and choose Sharpening. Slide your finger across the screen to the right to sharpen a little. This will give your photo an extra ‘pop’.
So there you have it – how to make a background white for Instagram using only your phone. I hope this makes your Instagram photos easier for you.
Knowing how to put an Instagram post on your Story is one of the ways of getting more visibility – either on your own posts or connecting with other accounts – so it’s an essential skill for any Instagram business account owner.
Sharing an Instagram post on Stories is a super simple three-step process – but did you know that you can add all kinds of design features to your Story so that you’re on brand and attract more attention in the Stories feed? Let’s start with the process and then you can learn the extra design hacks to up-level your Stories in a few clicks.
ADD AN INSTAGRAM POST TO YOUR STORY IN THREE EASY STEPS
1. Find the post you want to share. Click the airplane icon just below the post on the left, next to the comment and like buttons.
2. Select the ‘Add post to your story’ option which will appear.
3. Hit ‘Your stories’ button on the bottom left of the screen. You’re done!
FIVE WAYS TO ADD DESIGN TO YOUR STORY INSIDE INSTAGRAM
1.Change the colour of the background.
To do this, tap on the ‘scribble’ icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen next to the text icon. This will bring up a row of colours across the bottom of the screen (swipe left for two more rows of colour including black, white and greys). Select a colour and hold your finger on a black piece of background for three seconds to make it change colour.
If you want a background colour that is not one of those in the row, place your finger on the colour palette and hold, to have a rainbow palette pop up. Choose an appropriate colour and your text will change.
2. Add text to your Instagram story.
Use the text tool on the top right of the screen and type your text, choosing the colour from the palette just like you did for the background. There are five different fonts and you can resize using the slider on the left hand side or pinch the text in or out with two fingers when you’re finished.
3. Hide hashtags in Instagram Stories
Create your hashtags with the text tool and match the colour to a sample of the background. Boom – they fade into the background! Don’t forget, you can turn them sideways and make them smaller to fit your layout.
4. Adding stickers to Instagram Stories
You can add stickers from Instagram’s own library via the sticker tool on the top right next to the pen tool. You can add stickers for the location, mention an account, a hashtag or a gif.
Gifs can transform your Stories. Just click on the GIF option to see trending gifs or use the search bar to find appropriate stickers. You can resize by using two fingers to pinch in or out and put behind or in front of the story you are sharing. The one you touch last will be on top.
You can add gifs that are purely decorative, such as stars, hearts or rainbows or those that direct the viewer to take action: arrows, ‘tap here’ or ‘sound on’.
5. Add your own photos or graphics
You can do this by going to your camera roll, choosing a photo and hitting copy. Return to Instagram and that photo will pop up on the bottom left hand side with an option to ‘Add sticker’. Click on that to add to your Story.
In this example, I added a single rectangle of colour and put it behind the text and post, to help both stand out.
That’s your simple and quick guide showing how to put an Instagram post on your Story, along with some design hacks that all can be done inside Instagram itself, without any apps.
If you want to up-level your Stories even further, you might want to visit the social media template section of the Living Abstracts shop.
HOW TO FIND ARCHIVED INSTAGRAM POSTS
