Pinterest Part 2: Are you a lettuce farmer or an apple grower?

I recently began reading “The Impact Equation” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith and found it interesting that within the first page of the book, they refer to farming. They use the growth of a head of

lettuce versus an apple tree as an example for social media. Its an accurate description of what we should be doing to succeed in social media. A lettuce head begins as seeds which ripen over a short period of time and are then cut to be used right away. Whereas, if you tend to an apple tree over a long period of time you will continue to reap the benefits year after year.

The same concept can be specifically applied to the use of Pinterest. Its a sensational tool that if began on the right foundation & tended over time will reap wholesome, sweet results. Those results are born in the shape of influence. Now that you’ve been pinning like a mad person, you might wonder if people are paying attention to your pins. Lucky for you there are a number of options for measuring your influence on Pinterest:

• Curlate (provides insight into viral trends)
• Pinerly (measures clicks and reach)
• Repinly (shows you trending pins)
• Pinfluencer (free 21-day trial available-provides assistance with managing contests)
• PinReach (previously called PinClout, provides profiles that might be of pinterest to you and at this time is free and my personal favorite)

With insight into what types of content are most popular, you can determine which boards are in need of growth & focus. This varies depending on your social media goals. Like you, one of my pillar goals is to educate people about farming and ranching. However, what I’ve found through PinReach is that my ‘learn about your food and farming’ board needs some work.

How can we grow our weakest boards? There are several theories behind board growth. Almost first and foremost you should consider installing a Pinterest ‘follow me’ button or a plug-in on your blog, providing an easy way for others to pin from your blog. Another way which holds merit is by building those pins yourself. For example, I can populate my ‘learn about your food and farming’ board with farm stories and blog posts which contain visually, appealing photos. If appropriate, these posts can also be cross-pinned onto some of the more popular boards, creating a draw to the weaker board. Of course, we also need tend to all of our boards so that they continue to grow and branch to as many followers as possible. As those branches flourish they become intertwined netting additional supporters.

When it comes to Pinterest you need to ask the question, ‘Am I a lettuce farmer or an apple grower?’

~Jenny Schweigert