Should You Use Idea Pins (formerly Story Pins)?

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It all started in summer of 2020. Pinterest added a new type of pin called Story Pins.

Then, in May 2021, the pins were rebranded/renamed Idea Pins.

These pins often get good distribution quickly, but since you are not allowed to add links to them, many bloggers have boycotted them. Food bloggers have been particularly annoyed with the constant user comments looking for a link to the full recipe.

Whether or not YOU should use them depends on YOUR goals. If your goals are to get more awareness, impressions or monthly views on your account, you may want to use them to help you reach those goals.

(Albeit, I do have to mention that many big bloggers I follow who have used tons of Idea Pins have declining monthly views, like from 10+ million to under 1 million, so I still wouldn’t go crazy with them even if clicks are not your goal. You can easily increase your impressions using the methods taught in Scheduling Shortcuts as an alternative to Idea Pins.)

So… Should YOU Create Idea Pins?

Well, that depends. Do you get brand deals based on monthly impressions? If so, then yes, you should.

Do you rely on getting traffic to your site to earn ad income or sell products? If so, then no, you shouldn’t.

My Official Recommendation for Clients who want CLICKS to their website:

At this time, I recommend no more than 2 Idea Pins on public boards on your account. Why just 2?

Well, I CAN confidently say that 2 Idea Pins will not hurt your account. I have several clients whose numbers are growing, and they currently have 2 Idea Pins on public boards.

With that said, I do believe that having more than 2 can hurt distribution of your static pins. This is based on my own experience with client accounts and countless students telling me that overusing Idea Pins ruined the reach on their regular pins.

This is because the Pinterest algorithm is heavily favoring Idea Pin distribution, particularly in the Home Feed.

What to Do if you Have a Ton of Idea Pins

If you have lots of Idea Pins on your account and you want to pair down to 2, choose the most popular Idea Pins and leave those alone. For the remaining pins, move them to a secret board or delete them. The choice is yours.

Moving forward, focus on pinning static pins only for a few weeks before reassessing your account.

If you’d like to make a new Idea Pin at some point, move one to a secret board before you publish the new Pin.

What’s Next?!

If your account numbers are dropping, it’s time to examine your current strategy and see what changes need to be made. Along with adjusting to new types of pins, there are several other changes you’ll want to learn about including:

  • Why you need to minimize repinning in 2021
  • How to identify a repin
  • How to pin third-party content without adding more repins to your account
  • Hashtags (and why you should stop using them ASAP!)
  • Product tagging – how it works and what to do if your pins get tagged

Our most popular download (our FREE Pinterest Strategy Guide) covers all of this and much more. This guide gets updated ALL the time, plus you’ll get a steep discount on my signature course, Scheduling Shortcuts, when you sign up using the button below.

Sign up for the FREE guide by hitting the button below.

Ready to Get Ahead of all the Algorithm Changes on Pinterest in 2022?

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Happy pinning,

Amy

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