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Are you considering looking into how to find and join Pinterest group boards? Did you know they can often be massively time-consuming to track down?
Whilst some may argue that joining Pinterest group boards are a waste of time due to recent changes. And that good Pinterest SEO, including in your Pinterest description is far more crucial.
Pinterest group boards are still important for new users to grow their reach and start seeing traffic to their blog.
But the last thing you want to do is spend time looking for Pinterest group boards. Using ineffective and out dated methods. After all, Pinterest rapidly changes, and what worked a few months ago might no longer apply to today.
So, let’s talk about the current methods you can use to find and join Pinterest group boards. As well, as the pros and cons of each method. I’m even going to talk about one powerful and new extra method. That has the potential to seriously cut down the time and effort required to find quality Pinterest group boards.
But before we jump straight into the methods though. Let’s go over the basics of Pinterest group boards first. Including, what they are, how to create your own and whether they are even still relevant.
Contents
- 1 | What Is A Group Board On Pinterest?
- 2 | How To Create A Group Board On Pinterest?
- 3 | What Are The Benefits Of Pinterest Group Boards?
- 4 | How Do I Tell If A Pinterest Group Board Will Be Benifical For Me?
- 5 | What Alternatives Are There To Pinterest Group Boards?
- 6 | How Do I Find A Group Board On Pinterest?
- 7 | Quick Hack To Speed Up Applying To Pinterest Group Boards By Email
- 8 | Recap Of How To Find & Join Pinterest Group Boards
What Is A Group Board On Pinterest?
On
Pinterest group boards are exactly the same as regular boards. Other than the fact that they have multiple contributors adding pins, all to that one board.
How To Create A Group Board On Pinterest
If you want to create your own group board. Then create a new board like you would any regular Pinterest board.
Once you have a Pinterest board you want to make into a group board. Click on the pen icon for that board.
This board can then be turned into a group board. Simply by adding other usernames or email addresses to the Contributor box and clicking Invite. These collaborators can then add their pins to the board, after accepting your invite.
How To Add A Request To Join To Pinterest Group Boards
Did you know, you can also add a Request to j
It’s surprising how hidden this feature actually is! But it will work on both your normal Pinterest boards and group boards. Any board with this button is automatically converted to a group board. Without the need to do the steps I mentioned above.
Right, so where should you start?
Firstly, go to your Boards list on your profile.
Next, find and click into the Pinterest board you want to add a Request to join button. (Do not click the pencil icon, just open the board
At the top of the Pinterest board, in the right corner. There should be an Invite button next to your avatar icon.
Click on this Invite button. And the following screen should appear:
Towards the top left is a Collaboration setting. To enable the Request to join button on your Pinterest group boards this needs to be toggled on.
Once this is toggled on and you click on Done to save
And that’s it! Your Pinterest group boards will be able to accept requests through this button.
I don’t know about you. But this simplified Request to join button seems like a win-win for both group board owners and those looking to join groups.
Note: You will not be able to see this button on your Pinterest group boards unless you are logged in with a different account.
What Are The Benefits Of Pinterest Group Boards?
Whilst many bloggers claim to have seen a decline in the results they get from group boards. There are just many bloggers who continue to see beneficial results from them. Group boards are particularly still beneficial for new Pinterest accounts that don’t have an established audience yet.
The key aspect here, is to join quality group boards. Rather than just anything you can get access to. Not only do you want to join quality group boards but you also want to join niche,
How Do I Tell If A Pinterest Group Board Will Be Benifical To Me?
There are plenty of suggestions as to what counts as a quality group board and how to evaluate them. From the range of contributors, to the number of followers or even what niche the group board owner belongs to.
However, the only 100% way to tell if a board is beneficial to you. Is to join it, regularly add your own pins to it. As well as repin from the group board to your own personal boards.
Continue to do this for at least 2-4 weeks. Whilst monitoring how many repins from this new Pinterest board you are getting. You can do this by checking through the daily notifications on Pinterest.
Keep a running tally and review it after the set amount of time you decide. It’s really that simple!
Everyone’s Pinterest account is different and pins will perform differently too. So this is the easiest and simplest way to tell. Without burying yourself in tons of confusing analytics. Which to be honest might not even give you an answer.
What Alternatives Are There To Pinterest Group Boards?
If you really don’t want to deal with group boards then there’s only one close alternative to them called Tailwind Tribes.
Some bloggers have seen some amazing results just from using Tailwind Tribes. So they can definitely be a powerful tool, which don’t have the disadvantages of Pinterest group boards.
Oh and did I mention? They are much easier to find and join!
Whilst you can consider them an alternative. They can be used in addition to group boards too. And as such you shouldn’t limit your options, especially when just starting out.
Everyone can get access to the free plan of Tailwind Tribes. Which lets you join 5 Tribes and contribute 30 pins per month. At no cost to yourself. A nifty little boost if you ask me!
Also, if you sign up through this link you can get a bonus credit of $15 towards Tailwind. Which can get you an entire month of their paid plan for free. On top of their free trial.
But if you are not familiar with Tailwind. Then you should check out this Tailwind review first. As it will show you whether it can really save you time and whether it is worth the cost.
How Do I Find A Group Board On Pinterest?
So, here’s the main reason you are probably reading this post! Below you’ll find 5 methods on how to find group boards. Plus one bonus new method that you’ve probably not heard of elsewhere.
And as an added bonus, at the end of the post, I’ll even show you a neat trick to help speed up sending off those Pinterest group board invites. So keep reading to learn all about it!
Pinterest Search Bar
Did you know? You can use the Pinterest search bar to look for Pinterest group boards, by entering keywords relevant to your niche.
If you didn’t know. Then here’s how to search Pinterest for group boards.
Type in your keywords such as blogging into the Pinterest search bar. Then press the enter key on either your desktop keyboard or mobile keyword.
The right-hand side of the search bar will have changed. Click the new drop-down that appears here and select Boards. This will filter your search to only list boards that relate to your search phrase.
Unfortunately, this method will list both regular Pinterest boards as well as Pinterest group boards. To distinguish between the two. You will have to click into each Pinterest board to see if it is a group or regular one.
Look for Pinterest boards that have the most pins. As these are significantly more likely to be a Pinterest group board.
Once you’ve clicked into the Pinterest board. Check to see if there are multiple contributors, which shows just below the Pinterest Follow button. If there are, then congratulations you just found a Pinterest group board!
When you do find a group board, always check the description to see whether it is accepting contributors. If it isn’t then it’s best to skip it, as often the time spent trying to contact the owner will just be wasted. I’ve wasted plenty of time doing this, so don’t make the same mistake I did.
The Pinterest Search Bar Method Is Slow
But, here’s the thing. Whilst this method may give you all the possible Pinterest group boards for your keywords. This process is extremely time-consuming as you have to sift through all the regular Pinterest boards and group boards.
Even when you eventually find a Pinterest group board, there is little information to tell you the quality of the board. Or whether the author is active and will respond to your join request.
Popular Pinterest Profiles
With a new Pinterest account. You ideally should follow others in your target niche that are more established than you. These popular Pinterest profiles likely already have a host of regular Pinterest boards and group boards for you to gain inspiration from.
Find a few popular Pinterest accounts in your niche. And then check out what Pinterest group boards they are part of. You can easily recognise the Pinterest group boards on their profile by those with a circular icon, in the bottom left corner. That is divided into multiple profile avatar images.
Click through any of these that may be of interest to you and check out the board descriptions to see if they are accepting contributors. And hopefully any additional details you need to join.
Keep a list of any that catch your eye to apply to them later. Which I’ll cover using a neat time-saving trick later.
This method is also time-consuming, but is more efficient than searching through all the regular Pinterest boards and Pinterest group boards using the Pinterest search bar.
Most importantly, the chances are that many of these boards that popular pinners are using have been well-established for a while. But the effect of this can be two-fold.
By being well-established and used by popular pinners in your niche. There is a high chance these are quality, niche specific, and active group boards. Ones that you’re new account would definitely benefit from!
The flip side to this is that many of these groups already will likely have many contributors and are likely to no longer be accepting new members. Which can potentially waste some of your time.
Facebook Groups
Another method you could try is Facebook groups. Often there can be some exclusive invites and hidden gems here.
Whilst you might find Pinterest group boards invitations in any Facebook group related to your niche. It is far more effective to look for them in Facebook groups made specifically for finding and sharing Pinterest group boards.
Like these:
- Pinterest Group Boards
- Pinterest Group Boards
- Pinterest Group Boards | Pinterest Repins | Pinterest Followers | Traffic
- Pinterest Group Boards by Lynne
- Pinterest Group Board | Pinterest Repin & Follower | Pinterest Traffic Hack
If you need more Facebook groups. Then simply type in Pinterest group boards into the Facebook search bar. As the list above barely scratches the surface.
Because of this, the method depends on your luck, niche topic, amount of time spent and which Facebook groups you join. Basically, this means it can vary on how time-consuming it is.
Facebook groups are notorious for taking up a lot of time. Whether you manage the group or are just an active member. But the main benefit of this method is that you can find some group boards you may have missed elsewhere.
And not to forget that these Pinterest group boards are actively seeking new members. Meaning the time and effort you spend to find them and send a request to join. Is far more likely to get you an actual invite out of it.
Google Search
Next up, if Facebook groups aren’t your thing. Then you could try the good old Google method. That’s right! Just try searching for your niche keyword with the keywords Pinterest group boards.
Why? Because often people create blog posts that
Here’s an example of some lists you can get by typing in Pinterest blogging group boards.
With this method, you can get curated Pinterest group boards, specific to a certain niche. Or several different categories depending on the blog post. This can result in some high-quality boards you’ve not come across before.
But these groups can also fill up fast depending on the popularity of the post. As well as the information can quickly become
The best thing about this method though. Is that it takes out the need for you to search and find these boards. All that time-consuming searching is done for you. So, if you find a recent list of Pinterest group boards for your niche then it can help you join some new boards faster than most other methods listed here.
PinGroupie
PinGroupie is a tried and tested method that is quite popular among many bloggers. And is often recommended as the one-stop shop for finding many new group boards.
Something the Pinterest search bar should have been able to do ages ago. Yet never did and probably never will.
Finding group boards is quick and simple. With options to search using keywords in the board title and description. Plus filters based on board category. And the ability to sort by Pinterest followers, pins, average repins or collaborators.
These powerful search options make it quick and easy to find many boards that meet your requirements.
However, there’s one major catch.
Whilst one would expect to find lots of results. PinGroupie is rumoured to no longer be updated. Although, some boards look like they have been crawled only a week ago.
But, consider this. There are hundreds of boards related to blogging. If I search for blog the search only brings up 7 results. That’s right, 7!
If I try blogging then I end up with a grand total of 2 Pinterest group boards. This to me suggests you could be missing out on a massive amount of Pinterest group boards if you use this method.
And because I was paranoid that these results may have just been a glitch for me. I went back a week later and the search results where still the same.
Oh, and if you want to submit your Pinterest group board. It needs to meet the minimum requirements of 2 collaborators, 10 pins, 500 followers and be older than 2 months.
Which means you’ll be missing out on even more smaller Pinterest group boards. That can often be more engaged than massive ones.
The New PinGroupie Alternative PinSprout
PinGroupie used to be an amazing tool for finding Pinterest group boards. But today it seems a little lacklustre, with a large proportion of Pinterest boards missing.
But there is a PinGroupie alternative that I recently discovered called PinSprout.
If you go their Group Boards > Find Group Boards from the top menu. You’ll quickly find yourself at their search screen.
If you, for example, typed in
So, hopefully, you can understand why I feel like PinGroupie isn’t really being updated any more. Making it a huge waste of your precious time!
Whilst the search options are a bit more simple in comparison to PinGroupie. You still have powerful options to to sort by category, contributors, followers and repins.
PinSprout Has Even More Powerful Analytics Compared to PinGroupie
In fact, PinSprout is far more powerful in terms of analytical information. Because if you click into the details of each Pinterest board. You can see even more stats, like how many pins where added to the board in the last week. Plus how many repins from the board where also created in the same time period.
This provides you with an amazing insight as to how healthy these Pinterest group boards are. Before you even bother to spend time applying to them. Though a 30-day analysis would be arguably more accurate.
You can even get an idea of how many out of the total contributors are actually active. And how many pins on average are added to the board each day. Each of these are useful metrics you can use, to make sure you aren’t on boards that move too fast for anyone to really see your pins consistently.
On the other hand, a slower moving board is harder to distinguish just by these metrics. As a new contributor, your activity if done correctly could boost the overall quality of a slower board.
The New PinSprout Metrics Make It Easier To Prioritize Joining Pinterest Group Boards Compared To PinGroupie
The metrics are a great way to prioritize which boards you want to aim to join first. But just because the metrics don’t look as good at you want them. Doesn’t mean they are not worth trying out.
After all, even though you can see the number of repins over the past week. These can fluctuate a lot in my experience. Perhaps the pins that week just weren’t very enticing. Or maybe it was a quiet week with many pinners being on holidays like for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
You also can’t tell, which pins were repinned. At small repin numbers a single pin could be the cause. Which might be enough for that Pinterest group board to be worthwhile for that particular Pinterest user to pin to.
Either way, it’s always worth taking these Pinterest group boards metrics with a pinch of salt. If the quality of pins on the board
After all, we all have different pin designs, use different keywords, pin at different times and have different ideal audiences. So the only way to know if certain Pinterest Group Boards work for you is to trial the board yourself.
How Best To Use PinSprout Analytics to Find The Perfect Pinterest Group Boards
Join, contribute your pins to the board and make sure you are sharing content from the board to your own personal boards. It will only make your pins more likely to succeed on this new board. By not resharing content from the group board you are only hurting your own viral pin chances! Remember this!
Keep track of how many pins you add to the board within a certain time frame. A month of 1 pin per day to the group board and meeting the repin rules of the board is an excellent baseline.
Check your notifications daily and keep a brief tally of how many repins you get from the new Pinterest group board. Ideally, if you also regularly keep track of your other Pinterest group boards. Then you’ll have an accurate idea of how well the new board performs compared to your old boards.
Use this information to weed out lower performers and consider leaving them. Or you can even Archive Pinterest group boards. To safely remove them from your profile. Don’t worry though, you won’t accidentally delete the board for everyone else.
This way, if you find your stats drop significantly after leaving a particular Pinterest group board. Then you have some peace of mind that you can potentially un-archive the board and start contributing again. Providing the owner hasn’t removed you for inactivity. In which case you’ll need to reapply to the group board.
The Benefits of Using PinSprout Over PinGroupie & Other Methods
Overall, PinSprout’s Beta website has tons of information about the metrics of individual boards. It is more updated than PinGroupie and finding more boards is much quicker.
But all this information can come at the cost of decision overwhelm. There is so much information that trying to figure out which boards are the best. Can result in you not getting around to actually applying to those Pinterest group boards.
So, try to keep things simple. Aim for boards that are very niche specific. And consider those that don’t have too many or too few contributors. Those with more followers are ideal but smaller boards can also be beneficial.
The fact that you’ll find tons of options to apply, also means you could spend a significant amount of time just applying to Pinterest Group Boards. This is why it is important to prioritize which Pinterest boards to join first.
Don’t be fooled by the Request to join board button, as it just sends you to the group board on Pinterest. This button does nothing to make it easier to join group boards. Sadly, you’ll still have to jump through the various hoops just to join any of them.
PinSprout 7 Day Analysis Can Be Slightly Misleading
Since some of the metrics are based on a 7 day analysis rather than 30 days, this can sometimes skew the results a fair bit. I’ve seen a couple of boards on PinSprout with a super high Repin Reality of 2.0.
But these boards just got lucky with getting a lot of traction that particular week. Whilst the overall quality of the board for the remainder of the month was terrible! No one wants an inconsistent repin rate. So keep this in mind!
I’ve also noticed that not all group boards actually appear on it. Even though it shows a massive amount compared to PinGroupie. So all the other methods mentioned in this post, can still be invaluable to find those more elusive Pinterest group boards.
Over time though, I’d expect to see all boards in PinSprout depending on whether it requires user submission or not. But hey, who doesn’t want their group board list in an easy to search directory so people can actually find it and request to join. After all, that’s the whole point of a group board isn’t it?
Quick Hack To Help Speed Up Applying To Pinterest Group Boards By Email
OK, so using the above methods you might end up with a long list of Pinterest boards to join. But applying to all these could potentially take forever.
But here’s a neat little trick. Ever heard of Mail Merge? If you’ve ever used Word in an office environment to personalize letters then you might have come across it.
Even if you haven’t heard of it before. All you need to know is that a Mail Merge can help remove the manual process of replacing certain words in a document. Or in this case an email.
If you’ve ever sent several Pinterest group board requests by email. Then think of all the time you spent changing the email address, Pinterest board names and the board owner’s name. For each and every single Pinterest group board request you sent.
Mail Merge can help you skip some of this process and save you time. Sounds interesting, right?
So what do you need? Not much at all! All you will need is this:
How To Set Up Your Google Sheet For Sending Pinterest Group Board Requests
The first thing you want to
You’ll want columns for the board owners name, the name of the board you want to join and the email address you want to send to. Fill in these columns with the Pinterest board details as you find them when using one of the methods above.
Your sheet will look something like this:
Install The Yet Another Mail Merge Add-on
Go to the Chrome Store download page for the add-on Yet Another Mail Merge. And click on the Free button.
A blank Google sheets will open and after a few moments you’ll be asked to give the add-on permission to run. When this happens click Continue.
If you have multiple Gmail accounts then you might be asked to confirm which account the add-on will use.
A list of features Yet Another Mail Merge needs access to will be displayed. Click Allow if you are happy to give it access.
After a brief amount of
How To Set Up The Pinterest Group Boards Draft Email Template
In Gmail, compose a new email. Layout your email something like the blow, which has worked for me previously:
It is important to note that the text between the << >> matches exactly to the column headers in the Google sheet I showed you earlier. So make sure to use the headers you have in your Google sheet if you wrote them differently to mine.
You’ll also want to update the Pinterest Email, Pinterest Profile and Blog URLs to match your own.
Final Settings For Sending Pinterest Group Board Email Requests
Open the Google Sheet you created earlier. Once opened, from the top toolbar click on Add-ons > Yet Another Mail Merge > Start Mail Merge.
Note: That you can only send 50 emails max per day.
Click Continue on the pop-up box.
Another screen will appear. Make sure that the emails will be sent using the correct column.
Set your Sender Name. Then select the Email Template from the
Make sure you set the From email address to the one that is associated with your Pinterest account. (You can check what this is under your Pinterest profile settings.)
In order to set this click on Alias, filters, personalized attachments… And set the Send from field to the email address you want to use. Click Back once done.
You will then want to click Receive a test email. This will send a test email to your inbox using the first line of details in your Google Sheet.
Double check everything looks correct! If everything is set up the way you want it. Then you can go back to your Google sheet and click Send 5 emails button or however many emails you have in your sheet up to 50.
And that’s it! Once you have everything set up, it is much quicker to reuse.
Recap Of How To Find & Join Pinterest Group Boards
Overall, this new website PinSprout looks like it could shape up to be an amazing way to look for new group boards in one centralized place. Hopefully all of the boards will soon populate on it so there is
It makes searching and finding group boards super easy. And with a few more search filters it could be a really powerful method that saves Pinterest users tons of time.
Whilst the other methods covered here are still useful. They all have the issue of being time consuming. Which is mostly because of how awkward and long winded it is just to request to join. Because certain requirements have to be met by both sides.
Now, that you have a host of methods to help you join more Pinterest group boards. It is over to you to try them out and see which works best for you. And trial and test them to see which method and which Pinterest group board metrics work best for you. I’d be interested to find out you results!
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Hi Lisa, great article, one question through. Some group boards have a request to join button. I would like to add that to my group boards but am not sure how to do it. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Susan
Hi there,
I honestly thought I had included instructions on how to do this in the blog post but it seems I missed it out somehow. So thanks for pointing that out!
To add a Request to join button to your Pinterest group boards. You need to go to the Boards page on your profile, click into the board you want to add the button to view your pins.
Then once on this screen there should be an Invite button, next to your profile icon at the top right. Click this and you should be able to spot a section for Collaboration settings with a toggle button underneath. If you toggle on this button and then click Done to save the settings. Then the Request to join button should start showing on your board.
Note: You won’t be able to see the button, unless you view your group board using a different login.
I hope this helps, but if anything is unclear I have also updated the blog post with a new section to cover this. It includes some screenshots which I find often makes understanding the steps much easier.
You can find the new section, roughly around here:
https://www.individualobligation.com/how-to-find-pinterest-group-boards/#toc2_1