Pinterest has very recently quietly launched a brand new feature called Pinterest communities. There’s no word about it on the Pinterest blog yet.
This feature was first introduced at a conference for creators “In the making conference” hosted by Pinterest.
Vanessa Kynes attended the conference and shares what she learned about Pinterest marketing and the Pinterest platform for the future in this post.
How to find and Join a Pinterest community
At the time of this writing, it is an “invite” only feature and you have to be invited by a user who has access to activate the feature on your account.
Don’t worry if you don’t see the community tab in your account yet, I’ve got you covered. Click on this invitation link to be able to gain full access
Once you receive your invitation, click on “join” to join the community.
Recommended: Are pinterest followers still important?
I made a list of 100 communities you can join. Look through the list and select the communities that interests you and become a part of them.
Related: How to use Pinterest for blogging and dramatically grow your traffic
How Pinterest communities work
If you read information about Pinterest as often as I do, chances are; you’ve probably come across the statement “Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform”.
With the introduction of Pinterest communities, I think Pinterest is currently a combination of both. “I call it a refined combination of google image search and facebook groups”
Communities are built around a common interest for example Hiking.
Just like Facebook groups, you can post to a feed, links to external websites, pins from your account or new pins, you can ask questions or share your thoughts about a particular subject. You can also like or comment on posts from others…
These features are what makes them different from group boards.
A group board works like a regular Pinterest board. The only difference is that along with the board creator, other people are also allowed to pin to the board.
There are some key differences between Facebook groups and Pinterest communities. I’m going to highlight a few in the lines that follow so that you know what to expect when joining the communities on Pinterest.
- Privacy. With Facebook groups, you can choose the privacy setting of your group e.g ‘public” closed or private while with Pinterest communities everything is public. You can see posts in Pinterest communities even if you’re not a member.
- Becoming a member. To become a member of a Facebook group, your request has to be approved by an admin or a moderator whereas, with Pinterest communities, admins don’t have control over who joins their groups.
- Badges. Members have badges in facebook groups, this makes it easy to identify new members, admins and moderators whereas in Pinterest communities, to identify an admin and a moderator, you have to click on the “Members tab”
- Invitation. Sending an invitation to other users in facebook groups is much easier than in Pinterest communities. Facebook makes it easy with an invite button while with Pinterest, you have to click the “link icon” or copy the link and then send to the people you’ll like to invite.
- Data. User activity and demographic data are available in facebook groups while in Pinterest communities, there are no data available.
Considering Pinterest Communities are brand new, they are still working to improve it. Hopefully, they add all these other features in the future.
How to create a community on Pinterest
Creating a community on Pinterest is very easy. Once on the communities tab.
Click on “create a community”
Before you can create your community, you need to prepare an image, a name, and a description. The create button only becomes clickable when you have a name, description, and cover photo.
Communities is still in beta testing so there’s not tons of information available now about group header image size but I’m happy to give a pointer.
- height: 255px;
- width: 1440px
Once you have uploaded a good photo, it’s time to pick a name…
Names are exclusive so once you’ve picked the name you want, nobody else can have it. Make sure your name is SEO optimized i.e pick a keyword word name, This will increase the chance of your community to be found.
In the description area, you want to tell your potential members what your group is about, make sure to add group guidelines as well. This will help members know what to expect from the group. Once you’re done, click on “create”
If for some reason after creating your community, you feel like changing the community cover image,
Click on the “edit” icon
Once that is done, you should be able to upload a new image.
Note: You can delete your group if you don’t want it any longer. You can also rename it if the new name has not already be taken or hand over admin rights to another Pinterest user.
How to get people to join your community
- Click on the people icon
- Click on the “link” icon
- Copy the shortened link and share with your followers on social media, Pinterest or email.
Alternatively, you can click on the social media icons as listed on the image above. Or click to send invitations to recommended users. You can also use the “name or email” field to send invitations.
Is there a specific number of users a community needs to be featured?
There’s not a specific number of users that a community needs to be featured. To get your community featured, it helps to have a good cover photo, a description, and a sticky post.
Pinterest also looks for communities that have discussions, where a lot of members interact with one another in a meaningful way. The Illustrations community is a good example.
Final thoughts
I am super excited about this new feature and I think Pinterest communities are the next big thing. Get on the bandwagon now and secure your name before it’s gone.
Did you create your own community? Share your thoughts about this new feature or share your communities links below? I’d love to see them and hopefully, join some.