On today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking about how photographers and other service providers can leverage Pinterest group boards in their business. 

If you are not a photographer, you will still get some great tips from the episode, so stay tuned. There will also be some tips for those of you in the design space, and even contractors, as to how you can use this method to connect with your clients. 

Make sure you visit the Simple Pin resources page and check out the Pinterest planner and our image guide. You can also sign up for our Start or Grow series. You can also check out The Simple Pin Collective. 

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A Quick History on Group Boards

Pinterest group boards were created to allow people to collaborate on a project. Pinterest created them so that users could plan a birthday party, vacation, or wedding with someone else. 

They quickly turned into a marketing tool that content creators used in order to get more eyeballs on their content. Here’s how it works:

If I have a group board with 1 million followers and others pin their content to that group board, there is a higher chance of more people viewing their pins. As you can imagine, this method for gaining exposure got exploited quickly. 

But after the introduction of the Pinterest smart feed  in 2014, group board effectiveness started to die down. 

In June of 2018, at Pinterest’s In the Making Conference for Creators, Pinterest told us that group boards weren’t being used in the way they had intended. They were trying to come up with some options for how to use group boards in the right way. 

Let’s explore some appropriate uses for Pinterest group boards for businesses that provide a service that has a strong visual component. The example I’ll use today is to demonstrate how photographers can use group boards to effectively communicate with clients.

4 Steps for Using Pinterest Group Boards As a Service Provider

Group boards can be a strong asset for service providers, but you have to be strategic in how you’re using Pinterest group boards with your client. 

* Make sure your profile is very clearly branded. You want people to automatically know what it is you do. We have an entire post about creating a business account from scratch. If you don’t have a business account, you need to create one and make sure it’s branded. 

* Create a board specific to your client. These boards can either be private (secret) boards or public boards that you can archive once you’re finished using it. If you envision this board being an asset to you (personally) later on, make sure the board is keyword-optimized. 


* Add your client to the group board as a contributor. Send them the link and provide specific instructions on what they need to do with the board (they might not use Pinterest and not know what to do ...