Given the buzz surrounding last month’s blog post about the benefits and drawbacks of purchasing Twitter followers, we’re setting our sights on another popular platform – Pinterest.

Since its meteoric rise in 2011, Pinterest has become the internet’s go-to platform for sharing images. It has evolved into a hub for recipe enthusiasts, DIY aficionados, designers, and more. Some of the most popular Pinterest users see their content shared thousands of times each day, and a large follower count serves as a signal for other users deciding who to follow.

Similar to Twitter, the number of Pinterest followers a user has is another online metric of influence. Just like on Twitter, an army of inactive followers won’t do you much good, because on Pinterest, the real value comes from repins, comments, and liking.

Nevertheless, in a world where the number of followers and fans carries undue weight (says the person with fewer than 100 Pinterest followers), most savvy social media mavens strive to amass as many followers on Pinterest as possible.

Fortunately, we have a plethora of clever alternatives to buying Pinterest followers. These techniques will get you real followers who will stay active, interact with your content, direct traffic to your website, and maybe even do your laundry! Okay, that last one might be a bit of a stretch, but the rest are guaranteed.

Top 12 Alternatives to Buying Pinterest Followers

1. Promote Your Pinterest Account on Other Social Networks

Link your Pinterest account to your Twitter and Facebook profiles. You can configure your settings so that newly pinned items appear on your other networks. While this should be used judiciously, as frequent pinning could inundate your friends on Twitter and Facebook (Farmville-style), it’s an effective way to attract followers from your existing social media presence.

2. Integrate the “Pin It” Button Throughout Your Content

Simplify the process for visitors to share your content and follow you by incorporating adding the Pin It button into your content and displaying the Follow Button. For the more adventurous, consider integrating Pinterest’s handy widgets.

3. Turn Competitors into Contributors

Contributor boards don’t get much attention, but they are a fantastic Pinterest feature that helps you expand your reach and pin collaboratively. Contributor boards allow you and others you invite to add pins to a shared board, fostering a harmonious community of collective pinning.

Invite your followers to become contributors to specific boards. When they accept, the board will automatically show up on their Pinterest pages, increasing your visibility. Even better, if users decide to follow all the boards of one of your contributors, your contributor board is followed as well!

You can add contributors in the “edit” options associated with any existing Pinterest board you’ve created.

Consider inviting customers, colleagues, and even competitors to contribute to a few of your boards. The goal is to add contributors who share a similar target audience. Adding competitors allows you to tap into their network – a clever tactic!

4. Craft Unique and Engaging Boards

There are probably thousands, if not millions, of “Food” boards on Pinterest. But how many “Manna From Heaven” or “Drool-Worthy Dumplings” boards exist? Likely not as many. Attract Pinterest followers by creating captivating board titles that grab attention. Don’t get too eccentric, though; ensure users can still grasp the essence of your board.

Consider your target audience as well – create more specialized boards within your industry. For instance, it makes sense for a bakery to have separate boards for scones, lattes, cupcakes, and muffins, but those would seem out of place for a tech company. This doesn’t mean you should avoid topics outside your expertise altogether, especially those popular on Pinterest like food.

Mashable does an excellent job with their “Nerdy Desserts” board, creating a dessert board that aligns with their expertise and appeals to their tech-savvy audience.

Don’t hesitate to go overboard – the most successful Pinterest accounts have over 200 different boards!

5. Pin Frequently and Strategically

Staying active is crucial on any social media platform. Pinning often on Pinterest is important, but avoid pinning everything at once – no one enjoys having their home feed bombarded with a single user’s overzealous activity.

Instead, distribute your pins throughout the day, aiming for somewhere between 3 and 15 pins daily. Make it easier by scheduling pins using a tool like Pingraphy..

More activity means you appear on more Pinterest users’ feeds, naturally increasing your follower count.

6. Pin Unique and High-Quality Content

Users won’t be eager to follow you if they see you pinning the same old content everyone else is. Fresh, high-quality pins will attract the most attention.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t repin other content – you should. However, balance your repins with your own original content. If you’re pinning photos, ensure they are high-resolution and visually appealing – blurry, low-quality images are unappealing.

Aim for rich, colorful content. Curlate has done a study indicate that colorful images with minimal white space perform best, with colors like red, orange, and brown receiving twice as many repins as images dominated by blue.

Consider Pinterest’s layout when pinning content. Tall, elongated images look best, making Pinterest an ideal platform for sharing and promoting infographics.

Quality content gets noticed – your pins should address needs, answer questions, and inspire.

7. Comment, Like, and Engage

While Pinterest’s commenting feature has been around for a while, it’s underutilized, making it an ideal way to stand out. Users who see you commenting and interacting with their boards are more likely to follow you.

While “liking” content doesn’t generate the same level of attention and conversation as commenting, it’s still good practice.

Who wouldn’t love those adorable, slobbery creatures?

8. Write Compelling Captions and Use #Hashtags Effectively

Countless Pinterest captions simply say “love it” or “have to try this.” This is ineffective if you want to grow your following. Instead, use concise but descriptive captions that make your pins easily searchable. Consider adding relevant #hashtags, but don’t go overboard – excessive hashtags and links in the description can appear spammy.

9. Be Creative and Try Something New

Attract Pinterest followers by experimenting with design and layout. Peugeot Panama garnered attention on social media with a contest where users had to find and pin missing car tiles.

Peugeot Panama leveraged Pinterest’s unique layout to create a novel experience. Explore implementing your own innovative designs.

Middle Sister Wines also boasts exceptionally creative Pinterest layouts, with each wine brand represented by a character.

You can only imagine what they’re like at Happy Hour.

While this design is creative, it’s not overly complicated to implement. Could your business do something similar?

10. Follow Others

Give and you shall receive – following others is an excellent way to gain followers, as many users reciprocate.

Not sure who to follow? Click your name on Pinterest, and you’ll see a “Find Friends” option. Pinterest will then display your Facebook and Twitter friends who are also on Pinterest!

When you pin something, you’ll see the pinner and the board you’re repinning from. If the board seems interesting, follow it, or even all of that user’s boards if you genuinely like their style.

Following popular Pinterest accounts is also a good idea to observe what successful users are pinning and consider how to emulate their strategies.

11. Create “Cover Images” For Your Content

This is a valuable tip for encouraging Pinterest users to click the referral links associated with your pins. Despite Pinterest being image-centric, it’s becoming increasingly common to see quotes, text, and cover images.

What is a cover image? It’s an eye-catching graphic that entices viewers to explore content on your website.

Cover images work exceptionally well for sharing content like:

• Tutorials
• White Papers
• E-Books
• Lists
• Popular Blog Posts Using cover images positions you as a reliable source of high-quality content, ultimately boosting your Pinterest following.

12. Aim for Featured Board Status

Getting one of your boards featured in Pinterest’s “suggested boards to follow” section or on popular pin aggregators like Repinly is a goldmine for gaining followers. This kind of exposure is invaluable and can’t be bought. Your best bet is to optimize your boards to increase their chances of being featured. To do so, ensure your boards have a specific focus, are well-populated with numerous pins, and receive ample traffic.

For more Pinterest tips, tricks, and strategies, explore our comprehensive Pinterest Marketing Guide.

Should My Business Be on Pinterest?

As an image-centric platform, Pinterest is more effective for some companies than others. Product, media, and e-commerce industries thrive on Pinterest, while software or finance companies might find it more challenging to utilize effectively.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use Pinterest if your company doesn’t rely heavily on visuals. By all means, give it a try, but don’t be discouraged if you don’t see the same level of engagement as designers or fashion brands.

A Reminder: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Pinterest Followers

While the methods outlined above require more effort than buying followers, they will help you build a lasting network of real users.

Purchasing Pinterest followers is unwise for numerous reasons. Simply browsing the websites offering these services reveals their lack of credibility.

Here’s some insightful advice from a top search result for “buy Pinterest followers”: “Pinterest Followers helps to increase the social signal to any of the activity in Pinterest. As simply if you have more number of followers in your Pinterest account it help to spread like viral to any of your activity in your profile.” Hmm. Makes perfect sense…

Would you trust a website like this? Do you want them managing your social media accounts?

The guy was a moving, talking video. Pretty much the most annoying thing you can do on the web.

Even sellers who claim to offer “genuine” followers are untrustworthy. These Pinterest followers often come from fake accounts that are minimally maintained, meaning someone occasionally logs in and pins a few things to avoid raising suspicion. Some are quite convincing, with profile pictures and comments. While these fake followers might slip past Pinterest’s spam filters, don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re acquiring users who will genuinely interact with your content.

Pinterest’s true value for marketers lies in generating referral traffic. In fact, Pinterest alone drives more referral traffic than Google +, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined and even surpasses Twitter in traffic generation.

Pinterest is a traffic-driving powerhouse, and buying followers means missing out on that valuable referral traffic. So, invest the time and effort to cultivate a genuine Pinterest presence – it will be worth it!