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Feeling discouraged, trying to gain new followers? This is for you!

michaelbliss
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

When I began creating content in late 2013 and early 2014, it seemed it took forever to gain 50 followers, then a hundred followers and after the first year, maybe 400 or so.

I remember spending hours searching online for the easiest and quickest way to gain more followers.

As of today (2-26-22) I have about 475,000 followers and a much larger, healthy, community. Only a small percentage of my community actually follows me, and the vast majority of my followers aren’t actually followers at all, but they visit, and consistently engage with, my Pinterest profile every single day.

I’ll like to share with you what steps I took along the way to grow my following, and more importantly, an engaged community.

Hopefully in the next couple of minutes, you can find tangible methods which can be applied to pretty much any business, service or blog you might have to grow a large, healthy and engaged audience, that are eager to see your content.

In the beginning, I was feeling discouraged of how slow my follows would come (and quickly go) and whatever I found online to grow new followers seemed superficial to me; I wanted a following that would engage with my content, rather than a number next to my name.

I wrote a ‘mission statement’ or ‘purpose’ or whatever term I used, and I made it simple:

“If I can create a positive experience, a positive place, and touch only one life in a positive manner, I will be successful”

Today, Pinterest is defined as ‘being inspired and inspiring others’ which is absolutely true. It’s as simple as that.

When I see ‘hey, I’m trying to get to 1000 followers’ or 5000 followers, or whatever the magic number is, I ask myself why?

Let’s say that if tomorrow morning, you woke up with 10,000 followers, 50,000, 100,000 or half a million, what would be different? What would change?

Would you post more often, would you post less? Would you use more video in your Idea Pins, what about music? Would you have one slide, 5 slides, 10 slides on your Idea Pins?

What about static pins? Don’t ever discount the reach of static pins!

What about engaging with your community, comments, messages, emails? Would you be put off by negative comments and feedback, and you WILL have tons of negativity as your community grows.

How would you spend your free time? Practicing and learning new ways to create engaging content that your community, audience, customer base, whatever you call it, would love to see? What about new software or even trying out an online service?

Whatever your answer is, then start doing that now. Today. Right now. Your content should appeal to 10 people or 10 million. Start acting as if you have a million followers because you may have even more in the years to come.

I asked myself these questions (with the exception of Idea Pins back then, but I do include them now), printed them out, and put them in my office, my bathroom mirror, in my car, right next to what I feel is my purpose being on Pinterest in the first place.

“If I can create a positive experience, a positive place, and touch only one life in a positive manner, I will be successful”.

When I took my focus off the number of followers I had, wish I had and what I didn’t have, and placed it on the quality of my content, I noticed a steady stream of new followers that came for my content and are still following me today.

I began to reach out to my community, no matter how small it was, and asked them what they would love to see more of, and less of, my following increased. My focus was on engagement.

“If I can create a positive experience, a positive place, and touch only one life in a positive manner, I will be successful”.

When I noticed my numbers were completely tanking off and on over the years for who knows why, and I began feeling discouraged, I returned to my goal of making one person’s life change in a positive way. That’s all I can do and it’s what I do best. I do my very best each day to create the most engaging content I can.

And so can you!

I see amazing, inspiring content from many of you here, on the PBC. I love seeing the dyi’s, the beautiful pictures you take, the before and afters, the behind the scenes of how you create your products, how you eagerly offer your expertise to help grow a business, how you are helping others ease into a healthier lifestyle, how you laugh putting on makeup, mix and match clothes, showing videos of your pets doing crazy things, how you are making interior design look way too easy, asmr type videos that help me sleep better, and even how to order the hidden, off menu items, at Starbucks (yes, you know who you are).

I see Idea Pins from many of you that open up to your struggles in life for the purpose of making sure someone else isn’t feeling alone with theirs. We all need to have this every now and then.

Pinterest isn’t social media, it really is all about inspiration.

Pinterest isn’t about numbers, it’s about inspiration.

Pinterest exists with the hope you leave feeling inspired and hopefully will inspire someone else in return.

You can do this in your business I saw, the service you offer, your blog I’ve read that has beautiful ways to improve life.

My experience will prove to you that if your focus stays on creating content that will engage a possible client, customer or reader, you will be successful, the right people will find you and be a follower for years to come.

If you stay true to yourself, and place the focus on how your business can enrich just one person today, my experience will prove to you that success will come quickly. Your following will grow and you will enjoy having a loving, engaged community that absolutely loves what you offer.

When you bring out the best of you, the best of your business, your service and blogs, and share it with us, the only possible outcome is success and a large, engaged community.

“If I can create a positive experience, a positive place, and touch only one life in a positive manner, I will be successful”.

40 Kudos
36 Replies
miggondotcom
Posts regularly

Thank you for sharing such an amazing infos to the community. I have been using Pinterest for the last 10 years and happy to say that I got 3.6 Million Pinterest followers. But, whenever i share something get below 2k impressions on my normal pins and below 3k on my idea pins thats really demotivating me slowly slowly. 

0 Kudos
Harmony2c
Just visiting

Hi @michaelbliss, I appreciate your openness and you are not alone. Nearly 1 in 5 people will meet the criteria for a mental health condition like depression or anxiety in any given year. Only half of the people will actually get treatment or support for their condition. I encourage people to take screening tools like this: https://psychcentral.com/quizzes/depression-quiz#2

This is a way to recognize the symptoms of depression and to know that depression is a treatable condition. I wish you the best with your recovery process!

2 Kudos
Harmony2c
Just visiting

Thanks @bodymindmood! I like that you have a similar focus with your Pinterest page.

1 Kudo
mycancerchic
Problem-solver

Lisa you are so kind! @bodymindmood 

1 Kudo
ideachicretail
Loves to help

@michaelbliss you are successful, and amazing. Thank you for the thought provoking questions and mindset. 

2 Kudos
michaelbliss
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Thank you @ideachicretail! I love your 'sounds of hazel' Idea Pin!

1 Kudo
tkstudios_
Just visiting

This was really inspiring and had me thinking about why I started Pinterest in the first place! It is not like other social media platforms and that is why I use it more frequently - for inspiration! So taking in all the advice you gave I will focus on aspiring people & engaging in useful content rather than counting followers. 

2 Kudos
michaelbliss
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Hi @tkstudios_! It's all about inspiration and being inspired, the rest will fall into place. I do like your beginners guide to buying house plants!

0 Kudos
lucrandocomigo
New member

Obrigada, seu texto me inspirou a ser melhor! De verdade!!! 

1 Kudo
michaelbliss
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@lucrandocomigoI'm happy you found this helpful!

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