A Full Walkthrough on How to Use Tailwind
A Full Walkthrough on How to Use Tailwind
If you are a new blogger I am sure you have heard over and over again how important Pinterest is. You may have also heard how many bloggers use Tailwind to help them automatically pin their pins on Pinterest. This blog post is a full walkthrough of how to use Tailwind so you can decide for yourself!
First, let’s back up for one second and talk about Pinterest. If you have not heard that Pinterest is the best way to get traffic to your new blog then I am here to tell you it is.
Here is how I was able to get traffic to my new blog from Pinterest.
If you are like most then you probably thought Pinterest was just for looking up your next DIY project or recipes. Each of those images (pins) on Pinterest was actually created by bloggers and website owners.
Bloggers write blog posts and then create pin images (like I did above for this blog post) and then they pin that image to Pinterest linking it back to their blog post.
It is like free advertisement space for your blog. The more you advertise the more traffic you can drive to your blog.
It takes a little bit to wrap your head around the business angle of Pinterest if you are only used to the consumer side. Don’t worry I have plenty of resources to help you with all of that though.
Resources to Get Started
In this post, I am including several resources to help guide you through using Tailwind. Instead of writing a 3,000+ word blog post I broke it up so you can choose the area of Tailwind you need help with! Let’s start with these resources below.
Pinterest Primer
The Pinterest Primer course is a free course by McKinzie Bean. She walks you through how to set up your Pinterest Business account for success. There is more to it than just signing up to Pinterest, so check out her free course to get started off on the right foot!
Pin to Profits
Then if you are ready to up your game you can move on to her paid course that goes more in-depth on using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog.
Free Pinterest Image Course
A major part of succeeding on Pinterest is creating beautiful Pinterest images that entice people to share and click through. I created a free course to help you create beautiful Pinterest images!
Why Tailwind
If Pinterest is free why would someone want to pay for a service like Tailwind?
Well, like I said, the more that you advertise or pin the more traffic you can drive back to your blog. So, unless you are willing to be on Pinterest constantly pinning and repinning all day, a scheduler quickly becomes a necessity.
It is very difficult to manually pin all of your pins. You most certainly can at the beginning but it becomes overwhelming fast. However, that said, if you are leaning more towards manually pinning then this is an awesome ebook to help you with that!
If you are wondering about comparing Tailwind with other schedulers out there to get the best deal then let me help you real quick with that. There are currently no others that are partnered with Pinterest. Tailwind is the only authorized user that works with Pinterest.
There was another called Boardbooster and Pinterest recently made it clear they didn’t authorize them and Boardbooster was forced to shut down.
I’m sure that was a sad day for those that used Boardbooster but a very happy day for Tailwind when all of those users switched to join them.
I was already using Tailwind and right after I started using it I gained over 600 page views in one day on my small blog!
I ended up getting over 7,000 page views in 30 days after I started using Tailwind so I am definitely a believer in using it!
Set Up Tailwind
If you are interested in giving Tailwind a try then you can grab your first month free right here. After you set that up let’s walk through setting up and using Tailwind.
Tailwind is great about supporting its users. There is also a demo video walking you through how to use their features. Like this video.
Plus all of the other videos they have on their site and YouTube Channel. They are also very good about getting back to you right away in the chat box inside your Tailwind account.
Now that you have an idea of how to use Tailwind let’s talk about some of the features.
Tailwind Tribes
Tailwind Tribes is just like it sounds. It is a tribe of users that are grouped together. Inside each tribe, that you can join for free, there is a page full of pins fellow Tribe members have shared.
The purpose of Tailwind Tribes is to narrow down users into groups that are within the same niche. This gives you access to a bunch of pins to repin that are within your niche.
You want to make sure you are pinning other bloggers pins as well as your own. This is a quick way to find pins to repin. This is also a great way to get your pins repinned too.
Within the Tribe, there is a place where you can chat with other members and it shows you the analytics of how your pins are doing within each Tribe.
Tailwind lets you join 5 Tribes for free and if you want to join more you can upgrade.
You are welcome to join my new Tailwind Tribe – First Time Blogger to get started!
Tailwind Smart Loop
The newest feature Tailwind just rolled out is the Smart Loop.
Tailwind gives you 250 loops for free and again if you want to add more then you can upgrade your plan. The Smart Loop feature is designed to loop your pins for you so you don’t have to keep repinning them.
This may sound confusing at first and you may be thinking isn’t that what Tailwind is already doing?
Smart Loop is for your evergreen pins and for your seasonal pins.
There are two different types of loops you can create. If you have pins that are doing great and you want to continue to drip those throughout all of your boards and groups boards you can set up a loop for those.
Or if you have seasonal posts that you want to start pinning a certain time of the year automatically then you can set those up also.
Let’s say you are a food blogger and you want to start your Halloween recipes to start pinning in the summer (yes in the summer at least) then instead of trying to remember on your own, you can set it up to loop for you.
Same for DIY Christmas projects for craft bloggers and so on!
Tailwind Strategy
Each blogger has their own Tailwind strategy so you can start with the basic and tweak it as you go and see what is working and what isn’t working.
Here is the basic run down that I keep reading from other bloggers. So I have personally done this and I have personally read many blog posts and taken courses that outline a very similar strategy.
This is after you have your Pinterest business account all set up and all your boards are full.
- Pin 20-50 times a day
- Use the 80/20 rule – 80% your pins and 20% other bloggers pins
- Pin your pins to your own boards and to group boards
- Pin other bloggers pins to just your boards. (The group boards are for advertising your pins)
Tailwind Extension
Tailwind has a browser extension (<–scroll to the very bottom of that page) that you can add to make filling your Tailwind queue much easier. After you install the extension just go to your Pinterest account and once on the main feed click the Tailwind extension (feather icon) on your browser toolbar.
All of the visual pins will now be available to click on to add to your queue. After you click on the ones that you want to add click “go schedule” where you can then select which boards you would like each pin to go to.
This extension can also be used while on a blog or site that you wish to pin something from as well.
Here is a video walking you through how to use the Tailwind extension.
Where to Find Pins
- Pinterest Group Boards
- Home Feed
- Search For Pins in Your Niche
- “Following” Tab in Pinterest
- Tailwind Tribes
- Visit Profiles of Bloggers in Your Niche
Do’s and Dont’s of Pinterest and Tailwind
Do
- Share other bloggers pins
- Use keywords everywhere you can
- Creative beautiful pin images
- Create multiple pins per blog post (just hide them – learn how here)
- Connect and chat with Tribe members and comment on pins
- Check your analytics to see what is and isn’t working. There is analytics for Pinterest, Tailwind and Tailwind Tribes.
- Have fun! It is actually fun to do!
Don’t
- Spam. Read the Pinterest rules or you can get banned.
- Steal other people’s pins
- Copy other blogger’s pins (use can use designs as inspiration but don’t copy that’s not cool)
- Pin a bunch one day and then go days without pinning. Stay consistent daily!
- Break group board or Tailwind Tribe rules. They will kick you out.
More Resources
Now that you have a walkthrough of how to use Tailwind, here are some more resources for you!
- How to make your first affiliate sale in 24 hours (using Pinterest)
- Pins to Profit Promoted Pins
- Semi-Looping Strategy
Get Pinning
Well, there you have it! Using Pinterest and Tailwind for the first time can feel intimidating but don’t worry it soon becomes second nature! And it makes it all worth it when you see that traffic come pouring in! Good luck to you, now go get pinning!
Vanessa
