With the incredibly popularity of Pinterest, bloggers need to put a laser focus on the images they use prior to publishing a new blog post. On Pinterest, the user discovers new content (articles, blogs, books, music, videos and things to buy) by stumbling through intriguing pictures that other users post. So if you don't have a compelling image, your new blog post will make a boring Pin. And a boring Pin is a lost opportunity to find new readers or fans.
The biggest mistake I see every new blogger make is not including an image in every post. A photo enhances your content, brings attention to your article and serves as a visual summary of the topic being discussed. With an optimized image strategy for each post you write, you're giving everyone a clear indicator of what to expect before they make the commitment to read it.
Regardless of how great the content of your blog post may be, if there's no image I can't Pin it. Who cares, you might say? Well just remember, it wasn't long ago when people once dismissed Facebook and Twitter as well.
Case in point, see the image below.
This is the error box that popped up when I tried to Pin an article I was reading on Wikipedia. I wanted to share the awesome article I was reading with my followers on Pinterest. But it wouldn't let me since there wasn't a photo on the page. So despite the brilliant content I was consuming, I couldn't share it with my followers.
Could the same thing happen with your website?
Or conversely, perhaps the image that does get Pinned has no correlation to the content of your blog post. Either way, without a great image, your post may be missing out on an opportunity to connect with a new group of people.
Fans are made one at a time.
Make your content pinnable.
By having an image strategy with each and every blog post you publish, you make yourself available to potential new fans discovering you on Pinterest.
So prior to publishing...make sure you can say,
I'd Pin that.
