10 Tips for Creating Idea Pins for the Creator Rewards Program

[terezatoledo]

Hello PBC friends!

Are you feeling lost when it comes to creating Idea Pins for the Pinterest Creator Rewards Program?

I’ve been there. My name is Tereza Toledo, a Pinterest Pioneer and expert. I’ve been following the rewards program, creating content, submitting to the program and have been successful with getting pins approved.

I would love to help you become more confident when creating Ideas Pins. What I’m going to share with you are 10 things that I’ve observed and helped me create Idea Pins that got approved successfully.

Can I share them with you? If you said yes, keep reading!

1. Read through the terms of service, best pin practices, and each and every goal before you start to create your Idea Pins for this program. If you are creating Idea Pins for your audience, without being concerned with submitting them, you can still follow these tips, but you may have more flexibility. In order for your submitted Idea Pin to be approved, you must follow these guidelines.
2. Keep an open mind. Even though there are guidelines in place, the program is still in development and Pinterest reserves the right to change things as needed.
3. Create original content. If you have already created Idea Pins with certain images or videos, new idea pins with the same assets won’t be considered original. If you are recreating an idea that you shared before, make sure that it looks new and fresh. The best option is to always use new images and videos. If you really want to reuse content already created, think about ways of revamping them, making those assets look new.
4. Use images, videos and music that you have the rights to use and distribute. Even though some creators have purchased rights to certain digital assets, or are using assets that are public domain, it may be hard for Pinterest to know this and approve your pin right away. To bypass this, focus on creating Idea Pins with videos and images that you've created. Feel free to use your own voice and use music from the Pinterest app library.
5. Go the extra mile. When creating Idea Pins for this program, put in a little more effort. Give value, inspire, share an idea. Create Idea Pins with the best visual and sound quality you can. Pay attention to the text overlay, make it look good. I don’t mean that you need to edit professionally, but just spend a few extra minutes when creating. If the output you've created is something that you wouldn’t stop the scroll and watch, you should put more effort into it. Fuzzy videos, cropped text overlay and other things can decrease your engagement.
6. Break it down into more pages or slides. Some goals already mention that single page Idea Pins don’t qualify. Instead of just making a teaser or cramming your idea into one page/slide, break it down into more slides. Each Idea Pin gets up to 20 pages of 60 seconds each. You don’t have to use really short-form video here. Use as many pages as you need to tell your story or share your ideas. Find a balance between too short and too long.
7. Ideally create content specifically for the program. Try creating on Pinterest first and then repurposing to other platforms. Just because your videos perform well on other platforms, it doesn't mean they will do just as well on Pinterest. If you are repurposing content that you previously published on other platforms, make sure to remove the watermark and not use the music that came with it. Make your videos and images look fresh and not repurposed. Actually, this is a best practice to follow at all times. Publishing content that has other platforms watermarks looks unpolished.
8. Try to create a cover page using a video that shows the final result of your idea. Use text overlay to tell Pinners what the pin is about and why they should stop and watch. Feel free to add stickers or emojis for extra fun. Using keywords while creating the text overlay will help more people discover your pin, which is powerful, especially when submitting pins for saves!
9. Don’t skip the pin title, notes (ingredients/supplies), choosing a board to pin and tags. This will help Pinterest show your pin to more pinners and will also give more value to your audience. Use a CTA (call-to-action) in your text or final slide. Tell pinners what you'd like them to do, such as "follow me for more", "save this for later" or "share your take".
10. Have fun while doing it. Don't just create content thinking about the payout only, even if that’s your final goal. Getting paid for your content is fabulous, but having fun while doing it is what will keep you going!

I hope this is helpful and would love to hear your own tips! 

If you are struggling with coming up with content ideas, let me know and I'll drop another article!

[terezatoledo]

Hi @DreamLeggings !

You are most welcome!
I've seen this issue. Actually sometimes the video starts blurry and then self corrects after a few seconds.
I haven't given it much thought, but will definitely ask around. 
@michaelbliss , do you have any thoughts?

[michaelbliss]

Thanks for the tag @terezatoledo !  I've seen this, too. Sometimes it self corrects and other times it stays blurry.

@DreamLeggings  If this is happening on other platforms, I would say it's definitely iOS. It's most likely the way Pinterest re-encodes/compresses the video. Pinterest uses what is called adaptive bitrate, which is a fancy term for compressing and streaming the best quality with less bandwidth.

I would say move the video to your desktop computer and re-encode it. I've been using Handbrake for years. It's free, easy to use, and open source, but you can find other software. It only takes a couple of minutes and it's a good work around until iOS becomes more friendly with compatibility.

[taylorrednose]

I've been getting some great traction with my idea pins recently but no one ever follows me OR saves the pins. What are you all's tips regarding these two pivotal items that will help me get to the 'creator reward' level?

[michaelbliss]

Hey @taylorrednose, welcome to the PBC! I'm tagging @terezatoledo for visibility  ^^^

[thecookiecouture]

@terezatoledo thank you very much for your response! All the information is very helpful, and I thought of you on the webinar when they talked about the hashtags.  By any chance do you know if we can submit an idea for a challenge and also tag products from affiliate programs? Not sure if I am the only one that just find out that Amazon affiliates links work on Idea pins, I am happy about it! Thanks for watching the Jicama pin, it is so fresh specially in the summer! 

Thanks again!! 

[terezatoledo]

Hi @taylorrednose ,

Try this exercise. Pretend you don't know your account and brand and you see your idea pins. Would you want to follow or save them?

Then check your profile, are people who don't know you able to tell what's your account about and have a reason to follow you in the first seconds of seeing it? Do you have a banner? How's your profile name and description? Do they tell a story together?

Having a profile optimized with keywords and that gets your message across will help you get seen faster and gain followers.

For the idea pins, I'm a big fan of adding a gentle call to action (CTA), such as "follow me for more" or "save this idea for later". 

I hope this helps.

[terezatoledo]

Thanks @michaelbliss !

[jenniferppriest]

Absolutely excellent tips! You are awesome, Tereza 🙂

[DreamLeggings]

 Thanks so much @terezatoledo 😁

Hi there @michaelbliss thank you for getting back to me about this! I’m so happy I’ve found this forum, what a great place for helpful tips & info, not to mention the nicest people helping! 🥰

I will definitely try out Handshake and see how that works out. Thanks again!! 

Jen Kidd - owner DreamLeggings.com 

[shesprettyposh]

I completed agree with all of this!  

Thank you @DreamLeggings  for asking the question and thank you @michaelbliss  for sharing handshake!  I hope with this tool I can now create quality videos!