Do you want the perfect photo for Pinterest? How do you choose the ideal photo that gives you a chance of going viral – or at least helps attract people to your pin in their feed? Here are five tips to guide you to great pin photos!
THE GOAL OF THE PERFECT PHOTO FOR PINTEREST
Let’s start by looking at the goal of our pin. It needs to stop people in their tracks. It has to be strong enough to stop people scrolling Pinterest on auto-pilot while they’re watching Real Housewives.
In this case, we’re also talking about a pin that is made up entirely of a photo or a photo with some text on top, rather than a text only pin or one where there is a block of text and a photo alongside.
Let’s look at the qualities of a pin that stops users in their tracks – the one job of pin photos.
VERTICAL PINS ONLY
Your pin needs to be vertical and in a 2:3 ratio. Pinterest has told us directly this is what it wants. If you’re a photographer, you’re quite possibly reading this and screaming that your photos tell a story and that happens from left to right and all your best photos are horizontal.
You’re right. So many of the best wedding and lifestyle photos ARE horizontal. Possibly the toughest thing about Pinterest for photographers is that the ideal pin is vertical.
Vertical pins take up the most amount of real estate on the Pinterest – whether on the mobile app, tablet or desktop. This means vertical pins have the greatest chance of making an impact and getting people to stop and click on your pin.
Pinterest does not ban horizontal photos or pins, but they just are not as clear nor as likely to stop people in their tracks. And frankly, if you’re going to go to the trouble of creating specific pins for Pinterest, surely you want them to be as effective as possible?
A SINGLE PHOTO
You want your pin photo to be a single image for the most impact. Avoid collages, no matter how well done. A single image has the most impact and the most chance of stopping the scroll.
A SINGLE MESSAGE
You have less than a second to get your message across and your best chance of doing this is in a single image where the message is clear immediately. This is not the time for your award-winning documentary photo with multiple layers of storytelling. The potential client can see that when they visit your website AFTER they found your vertical photo with a simple message or emotion.
CONTRAST
Photos with the greatest contrast create most click-throughs. This means choosing your photos with the most contrast and you could even add a little more in post production just for your Pinterest pin.
You can turn your photos upside down to see what has the most impact if you’re unsure.
TEST
You can have all the advice in the world on the perfect photo for Pinterest, but ultimately you need to test what works for you. Try out multiple pins of the same photo in black and white against colour, try centering a couple in their portrait and with negative space or single portraits versus couple portraits versus groups.
Then check in your Google analytics which pins are working best for you. I’d love to know what you find out and wish you every success.